Cluster-Based Framework in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

The application of Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) technologies in the service of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) has brought new challenges in maintaining communication clusters of network members for long time durations. Stable clustering methods reduce the overhead of communication relay in MANETs and provide for a more efficient hierarchical network topology. During creation of VANET clusters, each vehicle chooses a head vehicle to follow. The average number of cluster head changes per vehicle measures cluster stability in these simulations during the simulation. In this paper we analyze the effect of weighting two well-known clustering methods with the vehicle-specific position and velocity clustering logic to improve cluster stability over the simulation time.