Cluster-based traffic information generalization in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks

Vehicular Ad-hocNetwork (VANET) is an emerging field of wireless networks providing different applications such as traffic information for participant vehicles and related authorities. However, deploying of such applications is mainly depending on the market penetration rate of this technology. In this paper, we propose a new 3-steps approach for estimation of traffic volume in a road segment based on actual volume of wireless-equipped vehicles. For this propose, we first collect the traffic information for different groups of vehicles using a new clustering algorithm. Then, a chaining technique between the clusters transmits this information to a roadside cloud. Finally, we employ a generalization method to extension of the total traffic volume from the collected data. Performance of the proposed approach is evaluated using extensive simulation for different traffic densities, and the stability of the clustering technique and also estimation accuracy of the proposed approach is shown in comparison with state-of the-art existing schemes. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.