Inside VANET: Hybrid Network Dimensioning and Routing Protocol Comparison

In this paper, we are interested in the properties of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET). We study the mean connection lifetimes to evaluate the feasibility to support non-safety applications. Because connection lifetimes are in the order of a few minutes, an infrastructure network is highly recommended to maintain connectivity between car clusters. Using an hybrid network, we perform comparisons of routing protocols used in the VANET. We show that reactive and geographic routing protocols are very close in terms of performance. However the reactive protocol are more accurate since it does not require neither geolocalization systems nor location services. We propose the use of hybrid networks and we give dimensioning rules to ensure connectivity of the network