Performance Evaluation of a Cluster Based Routing Protocol for VANETs

Safety on roadways is expected to be achieved by using vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs). A VANET includes dynamically moving vehicles that communicate for a certain purpose. The routing procedure in the VANET protocol is required to deliver requested data packets to the vehicles in a short period of time. Conventionally, routing algorithms like the ad-hoc on-demand vector (AODV) routing, the greedy perimeter stateless routing (GPSR), the direct-sequenced distance-vector (DSDV) routing and the dynamic source routing (DSR) have been utilized in most of ad-hoc networks. However, it is well known that the conventional routing algorithms have problems in utilizing for the VANET. For example, the DSR cannot restore link breakages often experienced in the VANET. The DSDV routing protocol consumes a higher bandwidth for message exchanges and imposes excessive overheads. This paper verifies that the cluster based routing (CBR) protocol proposed by Yuyi et al. can overcome the known problems. According to evaluation results obtained by computer simulations implemented with the OMNeT++, the CBR routing protocol outperforms the AODV, GPSR, and DSR protocols in the sense of the packet delivery ratio and the message overheads.