Smart Broadcast algorithm for inter-vehicular communications

Broadcast is a fundamental service for self- organizing wireless networks but its importance increases in the context of inter-vehicle communication (IVC) sys- tems where it can be used to propagate urgent informa- tion, as, for instance, hazards or alarms, and to develop safety automatic services. In this case, broadcast protocols have to guarantee high reliability and low propagation de- lay of the information all over the network. In this paper we define a distributed, position-aware broadcast proto- col (Smart Broadcast) for highway inter-vehicular networks, where each node, receiving a broadcast message, forwards it after a random backoff delay that depends on the node distance from the source. Then, by simulations, we evalu- ate the broadcast protocol performance and compare it with other algorithms. Finally we conclude with some theoretical observations.