Fuzzy Optimization in Heterogeneous VANET Routing for Trusted Contention Window and Forwarder Selection

This study presents an advanced technique for broadcasting safety notifications within Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) using a trust-enhanced fuzzy inference mechanism, integrated at both the Medium Access Control (MAC) and network layers. The Trust-aware Contended Relay Selection Framework (TCRSF) approach optimizes the backoff duration a vehicle must observe before retransmitting data after a packet collision, as well as the intermediary node selection process, to better accommodate varying traffic conditions. The dynamic TCRSF model determines the optimal Contention Window (CW) size by considering factors such as link quality, network density, and vehicle speed. Additionally, the relay selection mechanism incorporates multiple parameters, including direction, speed variance, distance factor, and the Fast-Estimated Transmission Time (F-ETT) between the source vehicle and nearby vehicles within the broadcast range. Experimental results demonstrate that the TCRSF paradigm outperforms other methodologies, yielding improvements in network throughput, reductions in average packet latency, and enhanced reliability.