Traffic Model for Clustering Algorithms in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

Inter-vehicle communication by means of wireless Ad Hoc networking has the potential to improve traffic safety and comfort tremendously. Therefore, the application of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) in the service of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) has been highly focused in recent years. Derived from the successful outcome of a cluster-based framework in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs), we apply this network topology to VANETs. Unfortunately, previous studies lack realistic modeling of vehicle mobility and evaluation of clustering performance so they may not correlate well with performance in a real deployment. Hence, in this paper, we propose a realistic microsimulation model with the hope of contributing to clustering research in VANETs, and demonstrate how clustering algorithms work on it.