Cluster-Based Content Distribution Integrating LTE and IEEE 802.11p with Fuzzy Logic and Q-Learning

There is an increasing demand for distributing a large amount of content to vehicles on the road. However, the cellular network is not sufficient due to its limited bandwidth in a dense vehicle environment. In recent years, vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have been attracting great interests for improving communications between vehicles using infrastructure-less wireless technologies. In this paper, we discuss integrating LTE (Long Term Evolution) with IEEE 802.11p for the content distribution in VANETs. We propose a two-level clustering approach where cluster head nodes in the first level try to reduce the MAC layer contentions for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, and cluster head nodes in the second level are responsible for providing a gateway functionality between V2V and LTE. A fuzzy logic-based algorithm is employed in the first-level clustering, and a Q-learning algorithm is used in the second-level clustering to tune the number of gateway nodes. We conduct extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of the proposed protocol under various network conditions. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol can achieve 23% throughput improvement in high-density scenarios compared to the existing approaches.