Routing protocol for urban mobile networks based on geographical location

Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) are an important research area due to the potential benefits they could bring to traffic optimisation in urban environments. The communication protocols used within such networks, due to the intrinsic properties of such environments, reflect a series of characteristics which set them apart from common approaches. Routing messages, using a carry-and-forward strategy without relying on epidemic protocols, are particularly hard to achieve because cars are in motion. We present such a routing protocol which uses location data and trajectory of the cars. The protocol not only minimizes the number of messages needed to transmit the data to the destination, but it also reduces the time interval needed for the transmission of messages between vehicles using the resources available at present in such environments. The protocol is designed for highly partitioned environments, affected by the dynamics of node connections within such networks.