Multimedia Multimetric Map-Aware Routing Protocol to Send Video-Reporting Messages Over VANETs in Smart Cities

Abstract

One of the most important goals of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) in smart cities is the efficient management of accidents, specially to prevent them. Our research lies on a promising smart service, which soon might be available in our cities. After the occurrence of an accident, a vehicle could make a light and short video of the situation and send it through the VANET till reaching an access point in the infrastructure of the city to alert the emergencies service (e.g., 911 or 112). With a video message, the level of seriousness of the accident could be better interpreted by the authorities (i.e., health care unit, police, ambulance drivers) than with a simple text message. In this way, vehicles could participate in reporting a situation in the city using the ad hoc network so it would be possible to have a quick reaction of the emergency units and even prevent further accidents. The deployment of an efficient routing protocol to manage video-reporting messages in VANETs has important benefits by enabling a fast warning of the incident, which potentially might save lives. To contribute with this goal, we propose a multimedia multimetric map-aware routing protocol to provide video-reporting messages over VANETs in smart cities. Furthermore, a realistic scenario is created by using real maps with SUMO including buildings that may interfere the signal between sender and receiver. Also, we use our REVsim tool that allows vehicles to avoid choosing vehicles behind buildings to be chosen as next forwarding nodes. Simulations show the benefits of our proposal, taking into account the mobility of the nodes and the presence of interfering buildings.