Data Dissemination in VANETs Using Clustering and Probabilistic Forwarding Based on Adaptive Jumping Multi-Objective Firefly Optimization

Abstract

Data dissemination in a VANETs network requires a meticulous process to ensure a high quality of service and eliminate hazardous conditions due to congestion or a broadcast storm. Considering multi-metric approaches and their implicit conflicting nature, it is necessary to handle this through effective multi-objective optimization algorithms. An effective optimization can be handled using a meta-heuristic approach with a high level of solution interactions. For this purpose, firefly was selected, which is a type of meta-heuristic search algorithm. Several developments of the firefly optimization were added to increase its capability to find more dominating solutions, namely, objective decomposition, archive management, and controlled mutation for exploration and exploitation balance. This developed multi-objective optimization was designated as adaptive jumping multi-objective firefly algorithm (AJ-MOFA). Afterwards, AJ-MOFA was integrated with a clustering and forwarding mechanism (CFM). This mechanism includes three main components. The first is clustering, which uses arbitration based on the cluster head score; the second is a forwarding mechanism that uses probabilistic forwarding and the third is AJ-MOFA. The solution space design in CFM combined two variables: the first is the probability of forwarding and the second is the maximum number of nodes within one cluster. The metrics to be incorporated in the multi-objective optimizations are the packet delivery ratio (PDR), the end-to-end delay (E2E-delay) and the number of dropped packets. Comparing both AJ-MOFA and CFM with benchmarks using multi-objective optimization and networking metrics reveals the superiority in most evaluation measures, which makes them promising algorithms for data dissemination in VANETs. The results showed an accomplished PDR of 60% and an E2E delay of 6.6 seconds, while the number of dropped packets was almost nine for the entire running time of the experiment, comparing a similar or lower performance of the benchmarks for these metrics.