Abstract:
Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) is a branch of Ad-Hoc Networks that covers wide
area and nodes are typically moving vehicles. The power level available in the vehicles is
relatively higher than the power level available in other types of ad hoc networks. The
reliability is an important issue in VANETs that is determined by specifying a mobility model
and routing protocol. A key concern in designing reliable routing protocols is the network
size assumption. Most protocols assume prior knowledge of the network size; however, this
assumption requires a careful consideration and needs to be further investigated. Moreover,
the neighborhood relationship between nodes is not well defined and estimated. The moving
pattern for users is a critical factor in defining this relation. In this Paper, we investigate the
influence of mobility models on the network size and neighborhood relationship, and then
propose heuristic and distributed algorithm to define the nodes? neighbors and to estimate the
network size. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated using simulation.