U2RV: UAV-assisted reactive routing protocol for VANETs

When it comes to keeping the data routing robust and effective in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), stable and durable connectivity constitutes the keystone to ensure successful point-to-point communication. Since VANETs can comprise all kinds of mobile vehicles moving and changing direction frequently, this may result in frequent link failures and network partitions. Moreover, when VANETs are deployed in a city environment, another problem arises, that is, the existing obstructions (eg, buildings, trees, and hoppers) preventing the line-of-sight between vehicles, thus degrading wireless transmissions. Therefore, it is more complicated to design a routing technique that adapts to frequent changes in the topology. In order to settle all these problems, in this work, we design a flooding scheme that automatically reacts at each topology variation while overcoming the present obstacles while exchanging data in ad hoc mode with drones that are commonly called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Also, the aim of this work is to explore well-regulated routing paths providing a long lifetime connectivity based on the amount of traffic and the expiration time of each discovered path. A set of experiments is carried out using a simulation, and the outcomes are confronted with similar protocols based on a couple of metrics. The results clearly show that the assistance of UAVs to vehicles is capable of providing high delivery ratios and low delivery delays while efficiently extending the network connectivity.