A Novel Directional Routing Protocol for VANETs in a City Traffic Environment

Ram Shringar Raw, D. K. Lobiyal

School of Computer and Systems Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi, India
rsrao08@yahoo.in, lobiyal@gmail.com


Abstract - In recent years, the issue of Vehicular Ad-Hoc
Network (VANET) has received great consideration, and more
and more VANET related researches have been brought up.
Furthermore, it would be a great challenge to forward data
efficiently in VANETs. Thus a lot of researches proposed have
focused on the development of the appropriate routing
protocols. The main purpose of this paper is to examine
geographic, directional routing protocol which considers the
positions of vehicles to enhance the packet delivery between
source and destination vehicles. This paper aims to improve
DIrectional Routing (DIR) protocol and implement our
proposed scheme Edge node DIrectional Routing (E-DIR) into
a heterogeneous scenario like city scenario. For this reason, by
using greedy forwarding method, E-DIR consider the distance
to enhance the accuracy of routing data while choosing the
next hop and improve the efficiency of routing protocol. We
have compared this protocol with DIR and evaluated the
performance in terms of minimum angle.

Keywords - VANET, Routing Protocol, Greedy Routing, DIR, E-
DIR.

I. INTRODUCTION

Recent enhancement in wireless communications and
sensor technology emerged the Vehicular Ad hoc NETwork
(VANET) as an emerging research area for the
communications industry and academician. Researchers
proposed an entirely new wireless networking concept i.e.
vehicular ad hoc network which can increase passenger
safety and reduces vehicle collisions on the road. VANET
can provide an efficient road, comfort facility to the
passengers and traffic regulations monitoring in future.
In the near future, VANETs will provide a large variety
of vehicular applications ranging from life safety
applications to entertainment and comfort based
applications [1]. VANETs have been proposed as a new
wireless networking concept that can provide both
passengers and drivers with a safe and pleasant driving
experience. Vehicles on the road in different traffic
scenarios, equipped with computing device having short and
medium range wireless communication technology [2, 3]
form VANETs, whose main goal is to exchange safety
information and other security-related messages. In
VANET, communication may possible in two ways;
vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-road side unit
(V2R) communication (see fig. 1) [4]. These
communications can be used for many VANETs
applications such as road safety, comfort, Internet access
and in the future, intelligent traffic management systems
applications. As wireless networking devices and
communications become increasingly important, the
demand for V2V and V2R communication will continue to
grow [5].


(a)

(b)
Figure 1. Vehicular communications

To facilitate communication within a network, a routing
protocol is used to find reliable and efficient routes between
nodes so that message delivered between them in timely
manner. Routing is responsible for selecting and
maintaining routes and forwarding packets along the
selected routes. Since the network topology in the VANETs
is frequently changing, finding and maintaining routes is
very challenging task in VANET.
In VANET each vehicle wishes to know its own position
as well as position of its neighbor because position is one of
the most important data for vehicles. A routing protocol
using position information in known as the position based
routing protocol. Position based routing protocols [6] need
the information about the physical location of participating
vehicles be available. This position can be obtained by
periodically transmitted control messages or beacons to the
direct neighbors. A sender can request the position of a
receiver by means of a location service. Position based
routing protocols are more suitable for VANETs since the
vehicular nodes are known to move along established paths.
Since routing tables are not used in these protocols therefore
no overhead is incurred when tracing a route.
In VANETs, route is composed of several pair of vehicles
(communication links) connected to each other from the
source vehicle to the destination vehicle. If we know the
current information of vehicles involved in the routes, we
can predict their positions in the near future to predict the
link between each pair of vehicles in the path. VANET is a
self-organizing mobile ad hoc network in which to acquire
the position information of neighboring nodes, each node
periodically exchanges a list of all neighbors it can reach in
one hop, using a HELLO control message or a beacon that
contains its ID, location, speed, and a timestamp (see fig.
2).
One of the main advantages of using position based
routing protocol is that it's characteristic of not requiring
maintenance of routes, which is very appropriate for highly
dynamic networks such as VANETs.
This paper proposes a routing protocol based on greedy
next-hop forwarding scheme [6, 7]. This routing protocol
collect relevant information from the vehicular environment
and find an efficient way to detect violations will yield
reductions of traffic accidents and enable intelligent traffic
management. This routing protocol is known as E-DIR
(Edge node DIrectional Routing) protocol. E-DIR scheme is
more suitable for city vehicular environment, where large
number of vehicular traffic accidents cause fatalities of
thousands of lives and huge material damages every year.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section II
describes the VANET deployment. In section III, city
mobility model is described. Section IV describes the
related work. The designs of E-DIR routing protocol will be
presented in section V. Section VI presents the result and
performance analysis of the proposed protocol. Finally, we
conclude this paper in section VII.













Figure 2. Major component of beacon control message
II. VANET DEPLOYMENT

VANETs are used for on-board safety systems, virtual
traffic signs, real-time congestion and traffic information,
and commercial applications which require V2V or V2R
communications. VANETs deals with vehicles equipped
with short range radios communication for exchanging the
information to increase passenger safety and comfort. It will
require vehicles or road-side units, to communicate directly
when in communication range, or in general across multiple
hops. VANET will collect and distribute safety information
to reduce the large number of accidents by warning drivers
about the danger before they actually face it. Such networks
consist of Sensors to detect environment information and
On Board Units (OBU) installed in the vehicles as well as
Road Side Units (RSU). The information collected from the
sensors on the vehicles can be displayed to the driver and
sent to the RSU. The RSU distributes this information along
with data from road sensors, weather centers, traffic control
centers, etc. to the vehicles. RSU also provides commercial
services such as parking booking, Internet access, toll
collection etc.
Information sharing between RSU and OBU may help to
avoid accidents by enabling drivers to adapt their behavior
based on relevant safety information from vehicles driving
in the opposite direction. Hence RSU-based services will
play a significant role during the introduction phase, since
they are almost unaffected by the penetration rate.
Moreover, the information created by the sensors will be
updated periodically. Upon receiving this information, the
concern authorities will also be responsible for distributing
such information to nodes in the VANET. With the
available information of the application, an appropriate
routing scheme would be designed to forward a packet from
source to destination in a timely manner.
While using vehicular communications, VANET does not
completely rely on a fixed infrastructure, but can exploit it
for improved performance and functionality when it is
available. In VANET, vehicular nodes are assumed to be
equipped with:
GPS receiver device to find vehicles own position
Onboard computing devices to perform
calculations
DSRC based communication devices to forward/
receive information
Electronic digital map
Sensors reporting crashes, whether conditions,
engine statistics
Memory to store log files
Clock to obtain an accurate timestamp

III. CITY MOBILITY MODEL

Mobility model describes the movement of node and its
position in different traffic scenario at any time. A mobility
model plays a significant role in VANET simulations.

Beacon Control Message
Vehicle

ID Speed Direction Location Current Time
Position of nodes, speed, density, and direction etc. affect
VANET performance directly. In VANET, different
mobility models have been proposed to model the behavior
of vehicular nodes for different application scenarios. In this
paper we discuss the MOVE mobility model.
















Figure 3. The architecture of MOVE mobility model

MObility model generator for VEhicular (MOVE)
networks [8] provides an environment that allows the user to
quickly locate incorrect information and manage details
overhead. MOVE mobility model provides a mobility trace
file that contains information about real vehicular traffic
scenario which can be immediately used by different
simulation tools such as ns-2, qualnet, groovenet etc.
MOVE allows users to quickly generate realistic VANET
mobility models and simulation environments without
learning about the internal details of the simulator. MOVE
can work by considering the real world map databases and
allows user to conveniently integrate realistic road maps
into the simulation.
MOVE is currently implemented in Java and runs with an
open-source micro-traffic simulator Simulation of Urban
MObility (SUMO) [9]. SUMO consists of two main
components: the Map Editor (ME) and the Vehicle
Movement Editor (VME) (see fig. 3). The ME is used to
create the road topology by using Google Earth tool. Google
Earth enables its user to view the satellite image map of any
place on earth. The other component VME allows the user
to specify the trips of vehicles and the route that each
vehicle will take for one particular trip.

IV. RELATED WORK

The routing solutions acceptable for VANET needs are
still an area of hot discussion in the research community and
academician. There are a number of unique characteristics
that differentiate VANET from other types of networks:
Highly mobile nodes
Nodes are vehicles
Dynamic and frequently changing network
topology
Very high data transfer rates
No power issues
These unique characteristics of VANET make design of
routing protocols significantly different from other ad hoc
networks design decision. The number of routing protocols
proposed for VANETs is overwhelming and out of the
scope of new project. In VANET, position based routing
protocols are more promising routing solutions than other
routing protocols. Examples of such routing protocols
includes Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing (GPSR), Most
Forward within Radius (MFR) routing, Location-Aided
Routing (LAR), DIrectional Routing (DIR) etc.
A DIrectional Routing (DIR) [10] (referred as the
Compass Routing) is based on the greedy forwarding
method in which the source node uses the position
information of the destination node to calculate its direction.
Then the message is forwarded to the nearest neighbor
having direction closest to the line drawn between source
and destination. Thus a message is forwarded to the
neighboring node minimizing the angle between itself, the
previous node, and the destination.
In DIR, next-hop neighbor node is decided through
unicast forwarding by using the position information of the
sender node, its next neighbor nodes, and the destination
node. To obtain the position information of the next
neighbor node, each node (vehicle) within the
communication range send a beacon or a Hello packet
containing their identity (ID), the current position and other
important information in the network. On the reception of a
Hello packet from the neighbor node, the receiving node
obtains the position information of its neighbor node. In the
greedy position-based routing scheme, a source node finds
the position information of its direct neighbor nodes and
selects that direct neighbor node which is nearest to the
destination node as the next-hop node.
Although DIR outperforms previous routing protocols in
terms of packet delivery ratio and end-to-end delay in
highway scenarios, but it suffers large end-to-end delays and
decreased packet delivery ratio when there are large number
of vehicles on the road in city areas with obstacles such as
building and trees.

V. EDGE NODE DIRECTIONAL ROUTING (E-DIR):
PROPOSED PROTOCOL

In this paper, we have proposed E-DIR that is more suited
to dense networks where there are comparatively enough
vehicles to provide connectivity. This protocol uses edge
node (border node) with smallest angle between selected
edge node and the line drawn between the source and
destination node to route packets geographically towards the
destination that is located furthest out of the transmission
range of the source node [11]. E-DIR protocol capable of
finding robust routes and achieves better results within city
environments.

Mobility Trace Generator





Vehicular Communication Generation
SUMO and Google Earth
Road Map Editor Vehicle Movement Editor
NS-2 Simulator

NS-2 Code Generator


Figure 4. Edge node directional routing

In fig. 4, nodes S and D are source and destination nodes.
Source node S has nine nodes in its communication range.
Among these nodes five nodes A, B, C, E, and F are edge
nodes (border nodes). As our consideration edge nodes A,
B, and C are moving towards destination node D and
therefore angles
1
,
2
and
3
of nodes A, B and C can be
calculated as follows [12]:

o
1
= cos
-1
[
u
2
+b
2
-c
2
2ub
( 1)
o
2
= cos
-1
[
c
2
+b
2
-]
2
2cb
(2)
o
3
= cos
-1
[
d
2
+b
2
-g
2
2db
(3)

According to position based greedy forwarding, the
source node finds the position information of neighbor
nodes within its transmission range and selects that neighbor
node (border node) [13], which is closest to destination node
as the next hop neighbor node.
In fig. 5, we have considered three nodes A, B and C for
packet forwarding and calculated the angles
1
,
2
, and
3

for them. Edge nodes E and F are ignored as they are not in
the direction of the destination node. Assume maximum
transmission range R of the edge nodes is 250m, therefore
distances a, c, and d of nodes A, B, and C are same as R (a =
c = d = 250m = R). Assume distance b between source and
destination is 1000m, distance e between node A and D is
875m, distance f between node B and D is 850m, and
distance g between node C and D is 950m respectively.
Now we can find the minimum angle as given in the table 1.

TABLE 1. ANGLE CALCULATION

Source
Node
Destination
Node
Selected Edge
Node
Angles
S D A 1 = 53.5764
S D B 2 = 47.1564
S D C 3 = 71.3371


Figure 5. Next hop selection method (edge node B)

As DIR method selects the node with minimum angle to
forward the packet to the destination. As shown in fig. 5 and
angle calculated in table 1, E-DIR selects the edge node B
with minimum angle
2
(as compared to edge nodes A and
C with angles
1
and
3
) as the next hop node to forward the
packet to the destination node D. Once the forwarding node
(in figure 5, edge node B) has received the packet, the same
routing process continues until the packet reaches the
intended destination. The advantage of E-DIR protocol is
the minimization of the number of hops for each packet.

VI. RESULT AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

To evaluate the performance of E-DIR protocol, we
implemented E-DIR with the network simulator and
MATLAB simulation tool. We compare E-DIR with DIR
position based routing protocol in vehicular environment.
Based on the angle calculation given in the figures below,
we analyze the proposed protocol with a transmission range
of 250m and maximum distance between source and
destination is 1000m. We consider a city traffic scenario
where vehicles are moving in every direction.
Fig. 6 describes the angle calculation among the nearest
neighbor nodes within the transmission range of the source
node. In DIR method, the distance between source node and
nearest neighbor node and distance between nearest
neighbor node and destination node may vary. In DIR, we
have calculated angle in degree for 10 nearest neighbor
nodes. Among these nodes, neighbor node with minimum
angle 13.2806 (see figure 6) has been selected as the next
hop node for forwarding packet.
Fig. 7 describes the angle calculation among the edge
(neighbor) nodes of the transmission range of the source
node. In E-DIR method, the distance between source node
and edge nodes are same as the maximum transmission
range R (= 250m) and distance between edge nodes and
destination node may vary. In E-DIR, we have calculated
angle in degree for 11 edge nodes. Among these nodes, we
considered three edge nodes A, B, and C with angles
1
(53.5764),
2
(47.1564), and
3
(71.3371). As shown in
figure 7, the edge node with minimum angle (
2
= 47.1564)
has been selected as the next hop node for forwarding
packet.


















Figure 6. Angle calculation for DIR

Fig. 8 shows the angle comparison between DIR and E-
DIR. We have calculated different angles on the same
distance in each method. As shown in figure, at distance 750
m DIR has angle 45.7864 degree and E-DIR has 0 degree. It
means that in DIR the next hop node will be selected with
minimum angle 45.7864 and in E-DIR the next hop edge
node will be selected with minimum angle 0. In both the
method, if the neighbor node is placed on the line SD (angle
is zero) between source and destination, then that neighbor
node is selected as the next hop node for packet
transmission. E-DIR gives better performance than DIR
because in E-DIR only the edge node (border node) will be
selected for packet transmission.

















Figure 7. Angle calculation for E-DIR
















Figure 8. Angle Comparison between DIR and E-DIR

Further, E-DIR has comparatively small end-to-end delay
when number of nodes becomes more. Therefore from this
figure, we can observe that E-DIR outperforms DIR in
terms of minimum angle. This improved performance of E-
DIR can easily be explained by understanding the
significance of using edge nodes in our protocol as next hop
forwarding node. As only edge node is selected, E-DIR
minimizes the number of hops between source and
destination node. Therefore, the time taken to deliver the
packet from source to destination is reduced. Further, as the
node density increases, the probability of presence of edge
node increases. This gives higher rate of successful
deliveries and reduction in number of retransmission. This
improves the performance that is evident from the figure as
the angle for E-DIR grows slowly compare to DIR.
VII. CONCLUSION

Traditional ad hoc routing methods do not perform well in
VANETs because they need to send too much control
packets, getting the channel overloaded. Position based
routing methods reduce significantly control overhead since
they use more efficient routing techniques. In this paper, we
have proposed a routing protocol that we call Edge node
Directional Routing (E-DIR) protocol based on greedy
forwarding scheme. E-DIR protocol is designed to find
paths for forwarding packets with minimum delay and gives
better performance than DIR. Therefore, we conclude that it
is effective for the position-based routing protocol to prefer
the E-DIR scheme according to the vehicle density and
vehicle distribution in city traffic scenarios.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to thank their colleagues for many
fruitful discussions and insightful comments. The authors

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
750 800 850 900
A
n
g
l
e
s
(
D
e
g
r
e
e
)
Distance between selected neighbor node and
destination node
EDIR
DIR

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
750 800 850 900 950 1000
A
n
g
l
e
s
(
D
e
g
r
e
e
)
Distance between selected edge node and
destination node

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
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700 750 800 850 900
A
n
g
l
e
s
(
D
e
g
r
e
e
)
Distance between selected neighbor node and
destination node
also wish to acknowledge the cooperation and financial
support from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and
University Grant Commission (UGC).


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