An Efficient Combination of Topological and Geographical Routing for VANETs on Top of a Virtualization Layer

Intersection-based geographical routing algorithms have become predominant in the realm of vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs), with forwarding strategies that create road-based paths a way to avoid dead ends and to prevent losses due to the presence of buildings. However, there remain problems associated to the location service that must be in place to provide accurate location data of the destination nodes. In this paper, we present a new routing algorithm called VNIBR that puts forward an efficient combination of topological and geographical routing, getting rid of the location service. This algorithm is based on a virtualization layer that allows decoupling routing logic from node identities in a radically different way. We prove by means of simulations that VNIBR consistently ensures moderate overhead and good packet delivery ratios in comparison with state-of-the-art approaches to VANET routing in urban scenarios with different vehicle densities.