Clustering-based reliable low-latency routing scheme using ACO method for vehicular networks

In vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), communication links break frequently due to the high velocity vehicles. In this paper, based on the existing ad hoc on-demand multipath distance vector (AOMDV) routing scheme, a new clustering-based reliable low-latency multipath routing (CRLLR) scheme is proposed by employing Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) technique. Herein the link reliability is used as criteria for Cluster Head (CH) selection. In a given cluster, a vehicle will be selected as CH if it has maximum link reliability. Moreover, the ACO technique is employed to efficiently compute the optimal routes among the communicating vehicles for VANETs in terms of four QoS metrics, reliability, end-to-end latency, throughput and energy consumption. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms the AQRV and T-AOMDV in term of overall latency and reliability at the expenses of slightly higher energy consumption.