A practical routing protocol for vehicle-formed mobile ad hoc networks on the roads

An IVC (inter-vehicle communication) network is a type of mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) in which high-speed vehicles send, receive, and forward packets via other vehicles on the roads. An IVC network can provide useful applications in future intelligent transportation systems. However, due to frequent network topology changes, a routing path in an IVC network breaks easily. As such, a routing protocol proposed for general MANET (e.g., AODV) performs poorly in IVC networks. To address this problem, we designed and implemented an intelligent flooding-based routing protocol and conducted several field trials to evaluate its performance on the roads. Results obtained from field trials show that (1) our protocol outperforms AODV significantly on IVC networks, and (2) our protocol can make many useful services such as email, ftp, web, video conferencing, and video broadcasting applicable on IVC networks for vehicle users.