Context-aware unified routing for VANETs based on virtual clustering

We propose a context-aware routing protocol for vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Two types of context information is considered in this paper specifically communication type (broadcast or unicast) and packet size. The proposed protocol constructs route based on virtual clustering which only exchanges beacon messages in one-hop neighborhood area. The packets are forwarded by the cluster heads, and the last 2-hop route is optimized by using a reinforcement learning algorithm which can attain good performance with low overhead. The advantage of the proposed protocol is shown by using computer simulations.