A mobility driven joint clustering and relay selection for IEEE 802.11p/WAVE vehicular networks

This paper deals with a clustering approach for VANETs operating in highway scenarios, where a certain degree of correlation among vehicles emerges such that a group mobility pattern is expected. The proposed protocol is inherently mobility driven as the reference metric to select a Cluster Head (CH) takes into account the node connectivity within an estimated coherence time interval. Our clustering protocol handles both cluster set up and maintaining and communications among different clusters. In particular, the inter cluster communications are accomplished by means of relay node selection. The protocol design and validation have been focused on a practical scenario adopting IEEE 802.11p communication standard, highlighting good performance in terms of connection probability, overhead and complexity.