The impact of the interaction between vehicular topology & traffic prioritization of broadcast protocols in VANETs

Safety and other on-demand applications will propel VANETs into reality in the near future. These applications create a compelling need to prioritize data traffic, so that safety and emergency, low-latency messages can be delivered in a timely fashion. The vehicular environment is one of the unique characteristics that sets VANETs apart from other ad hoc network. Therefore performance of protocols designed for VANETs cannot be tested similar to other networks. An often ignored aspect is the interaction of the vehicular topology with the prioritized data in the network. Certain elements of the vehicular topology, influence mobility and hence network connectivity which in turn affects its performance. This paper illustrates the impact that vehicular elements exhibit on prioritized data of broadcast protocols thus resulting in manipulation of network performance.