DCEV: A distributed cluster formation for VANET based on end-to-end realtive mobility

This paper presents a distributed clustering algorithm, called DCEV, which constructs multi-hop clusters. DCEV places vehicles into non-overlapping clusters which have adaptive size based on their relative mobility. The cluster formation is based on a D-hop clustering scheme where each node selects its cluster head in at most D-hop distance. To create clusters, DCEV uses a new metric to let vehicles choose the most stable route to their desired cluster head within their D-hop neighbourhood. For this purpose, each node calculates the mean relative mobility value of each discovered route (end-to-end relative mobility). DCEV considers the route which has the least end-to-end relative mobility as the most stable route. Extensive simulations were conducted for different scenarios to validate the performance of DCEV clustering algorithm. Results show that DCEV efficiently manages to build stable clusters.