Cluster-Based Beaconing Process for VANET

In this paper we introduce the Cluster-Based Beacon Dissemination Process (CB-BDP) that aims to provide vehicles with a local vehicle proximity map of their vicinity. Based on this map, safety applications can be used for accident prevention by informing drivers about evolving hazardous situations. The CB-BDP is designed under the two following objectives. First, since it is used for safety applications, we want the map to be detailed and accurate as much as possible. Second, we want the map to be coordinated with nearby vehicles, thereby allowing synchronized and coordinated reactions of nearby vehicles to evolving hazardous situations. We design a cluster based aggregation-dissemination beaconing process that uses an optimized topology to distribute the vehicle proximity map. The topology is adaptive and robust in order to meet the challenging VANET conditions. An accurate and detailed map results in a heavy load of beacon messages. Our proposed scheme deals with this problem by integrating a contention-free medium access control (MAC) strategy for reliable communication.