A novel vehicle clustering algorithm in intersection scenario

Clustering technology gradually becomes one of the most important technologies in vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) due to improve the stability and scalability of routing protocols. To overcome the large packet loss rate and low stability of cluster head (CH) in the existing algorithms in intersection scenario, in this paper, we propose a new cluster member (CM) data updating mechanism. It is updating dynamically according to the road section of CM and the road section of CH, instead of updating periodically. Additionally, in order to select a more valid CH, we utilize the base station (BS) to collect the information of vehicles on the road sections around it, and then use the BS to carry out a new CH election by using the relative position between vehicles and the relative distance from the vehicle to the BS. Finally, a new concept of the road section queue is proposed to improve the stability of cluster in intersection scenario. The simulation results by employing SUMO and OMENT++ show that the proposed clustering algorithm can improve the packet loss rate, overhead and cluster stability significantly in intersection scenario.