Media Access Technique for Cluster-Based Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

We propose a hybrid media access technique for cluster-based vehicular networks. This technique integrates the centralization approach of cluster management and the universal way of forwarding data, where the farthest vehicle forwards data in an effort to maximize the opportunity of advanced notification. This method leverages contention-free and contention-based MAC, to support the different requirements of safety and non-safety messages. Inter-cluster interference avoidance is also supported. The analysis and simulation show that using this scheme, for inter-cluster communications, provides an early notification compared to other existing clustering methods.