Coalition Game-Based Clustering Strategy for Crossroads in VANETs

In this paper, we address the low efficiency of cluster-based communication for the crossroad scenario in VANETs, which is due to the overload of the cluster head resulting from a large number of transmission bandwidth requirements. We model this issue as a coalition formation game and propose a coalition-based clustering strategy that converges into a Nash-stable partition to accomplish the clustering formation process. In the proposed strategy, the coalition utility is formulated by the relative velocity, relative position and the bandwidth availability ratio of vehicles among the cluster. Employing the coalition utility, the vehicles are denoted as the nodes that make decision whether to switch to a new coalition or stay in the current coalition. Based on this, we can make full use of the bandwidth provided by cluster head under the requirement of clustering stability. Numerical simulation results show that our strategy takes on a better performance for the tradeoff between stability and efficiency of clustering communication.