RMDS: Relevance-based messages dissemination scheme for 802.11p VANETs

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) leverage communication equipment and infrastructure to improve road safety. These networks, by the rapid change of their topology and their broadcasting dissemination nature, can experience mainly two major problems; (1) the broadcasting storm and (2) network disconnection. In this paper, we focus on safety-related messages and propose a new approach to avoid the broadcasting storm and under various network load. Our scheme, called RMDS, is based on two main concepts; the critical distance and the distance of relevance. It combines an asymmetric power-range adjustment and message frequency tuning aiming to reduce network load. It integrates a new approach to prioritize locally generated messages over relayed ones according to the distance from the event originator. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed scheme and its network performance under various traffic constraints.