An Ensemble-Based Machine Learning Model for Forecasting Network Traffic in VANET

Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs), as the most significant element of the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), have the potential to enhance traffic efficiency and road safety by making the transportation system smarter and are still at the initial point of development. In this paper, we propose an ensemble-based machine learning model for network traffic prediction in VANET. We take advantage of Ensemble Learning (EL), which combines different Machine Learning (ML) models to achieve better performance and improve accuracy. We consider the most informative attributes of the VANET dataset using Boruta and LightGBM as ensemble feature selection methods. Our proposed model is based on Stacking Ensemble Learning with Booster Model (STK–EBM) designed with a stacking ensemble of heterogeneous ML models. The framework of the proposed model consists of two layers, including a base layer and a meta layer. The first layer integrates Random Forest (RF), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and XGBoost as a booster of the base learners. An optimized Logistic Regression (LR) employs as our meta learner in the second layer. We evaluate the performance of our model considering classification metrics and then compare it with the most popular traffic predictive models. Simulation results show that the STK–EBM model gives a more stable prediction than the single algorithm, as well as better overall performance in terms of prediction accuracy and execution time.