Cluster-Based Routing Schema Using Harris Hawks Optimization in the Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Today, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) have received a lot of attention due to their significant impact on increasing the safety, efficiency, and convenience of transportation. One of the main applications of ITS is vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). In particular, a more flexible, reliable, real-time, and scalable routing scheme across the large urban areas is one of the most critical issues for VANETs. Past VANET routing methods have various technical issues with VANET evolutions. On the other hand, clustering improves the reliability and scalability of routing schemes in VANETs. In this paper, a cluster-based, Traffic-aware and Low-Latency Routing Schema (TaLAR) is proposed for VANETs. In the proposed scheme, the Harris hawks optimization (HHO) algorithm is used to select cluster head (CH) nodes by considering appropriate parameters such as intracluster distance, link reliability, and relative speed of vehicles. The path between source and destination CH nodes is identified by using the HHO algorithm; it chooses the appropriate route based on link reliability and intercluster distance. Also, in the interconnection area, a traffic-aware and reliable route is identified by using a digital map of the streets and the Dijkstra algorithm. The performance evaluation of the proposed scheme is analyzed in terms of packet delivery rate (PDR), average end-to-end delay, and throughput. The output of the proposed scheme is compared with the Clustering Routing Based on PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) (CRBP) and Grey Wolf Optimization Based Clustering in Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (GWOCENT) methods. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme improves PDR (22 and 19%), throughput (25 and 21%), and average end-to-end delay (23 and 18%).