Dynamic relay selection for MAC-level retransmission in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Communication in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) is frequently disrupted by highly dynamic, noisy and interference-prone links. This paper proposes a novel algorithm, named Cross-Layer Tree Formation (CLTF), for medium access. CLTF enables the formation of the tree architecture that connects the receiver node with the cooperative relay node in Medium Access Control (MAC)-level retransmission. The proposed algorithm uses cooperative communication to increase the throughput and decrease the average delay in the network. Each relay node in the network serves a neighboring destination node. The simulation results show that CLTF incurs a significant gain in terms of throughput, which is at least 50% better under bad channel conditions.