Efficient map based location service for VANETs

One of the key aspects of any communication system is routing of packets. VANET is no exception and poses special challenges in routing techniques. Position based routing protocols are considered to be apt for vehicular networks (Karp, 2000) and to realize that a location service is being used. For a packet to be routed to a destination across the network, the destination´s position is to be known in advance. In this paper a new location service paradigm is being proposed to get the destination car´s position. An adaptive location update policy is being proposed to maintain up-to-date location information at the location server. The location service uses a density aware server selection policy which selects servers at high density regions of a city. A localized query answering strategy is used for replying to location queries where a server with latest location information replies for a query. The proposed solution is found to be an efficient model for providing location service and ensures a query success ratio of 90.10% at its peak and decreased localization error, at an average of 8m.