A multi-metric QoS-balancing scheme for gateway selection in a clustered hybrid VANET network

In this paper, we propose a cooperative traffic transmission algorithm in a joint cellular and mobile ad hoc hybrid network architecture. The mobile ad hoc network is based on IEEE 802.11p standard. The focus of this paper is on defining an algorithm aiming to select the appropriate gateway for a given source vehicle under the scope of V2I communications. In this work, we consider the LTE Advanced infrastructure. We propose a multi-criteria and attribute scheme used to make a decision over the appropriate gateway to connect a source vehicle to the LTE Advanced infrastructure. It is a QoS-balancing gateway selection algorithm where the decision over the gateway depends on the traffic to be transmitted to the infrastructure. Other criteria are also considered such as loads, Received Signal Strengths (RSS) and Link Connectivity Durations of the cluster head and other gateway candidates. Simulation results demonstrate that our algorithm makes efficient decisions for electing the appropriate gateway that fits best the cluster and infrastructure features. An improvement of the RSS and the Link Connectivity Durations, while comparing to the commonly used gateway selection scheme, is noted.