PMH: A Stability Based Predictive Multi-Hop Routing Protocol for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Recently vehicular networks are gaining popularity and becoming increasingly important in order to exchange information between stationary or moving vehicles. The information exchanged can range from warning messages such as accidents and traffic jams to guiding the vehicles about the most efficient path to reach their destination. Routing protocols in vehicular networks differ from other routing protocols due to the often fast movement of vehicles. The biggest challenge faced, is providing a stable packet delivery mechanism. The proposed PMH protocol aims at providing a high packet delivery ratio by selecting each next node in the path based on a parameter called the Disconnection Probability Metric (DPM). The DPM mainly represents the link breakage probability between the nodes. The node with the least DPM is selected as the next node. The PMH protocol also calculates the predicted link lifetime based on which it initiates the route selection algorithm before the weakest link actually breaks. This mechanism provides lesser control overhead to overcome link breakage. A variant of the PMH protocol has also been designed and presented. In this version of the protocol the route repair procedure has been modified. The simulation results further prove the better performance of the proposed technique.