Position-Based Multipath Route Switching Protocol for Intelligent VANETs Using Wiedemann Car-Following Model

The high dynamicity in VANET topology increases the possibility of frequently broken links and degraded the type of service provided to its customers (i.e., comfort and safety services) that may lead into a catastrophe. In this paper, a Quality-of-Service (QoS)-aware position-based multipath route switching protocol for VANETs-based intelligent transportation systems is proposed. The proposed protocol adopts one of three main route switching criteria: Least Connection Delay (LDD), least number of path-switching (LPS), and the least number of path-switching with the minimum delay (LPSMD). The proposed protocol finds multiple paths between the source and the destination and predicts the future connectivity of each path using the Wiedemann Car-Following Model (Wiedemann and Reiter-99). According to the requested QoS and the route switching criterion adopted, the route switching protocol dynamically switches between the pre-defined multiple paths such that the Network Performance Metrics (NPMs) are guaranteed for the entire VANET. Using different network parameters such as vehicular node density, vehicular node speed, and the time-period for collecting vehicle information, extensive simulation results show that the proposed LDD-based route switching protocol outperforms the other route switching criteria in guaranteeing the studied NPMs (i.e., 1) Packet delivery ratio with a 3.6% enhancement over LPSMD and 8.6% enhancement over LPS; 2) Average end-to-end total packet delay with a 4.2% enhancement over LPSMD and 3.4% enhancement over LPS).