DOVE: Data dissemination to a fixed number of receivers in VANET

Efficient data dissemination to a fixed number of receivers in VANET is a new issue and is challenging considering the dynamic nature of VANET. We aim to accurately control the number of receivers, achieve low dissemination delay and incur only small communication overhead. To achieve the goal, we design DOVE (Data Dissemination to A Fixed Number of Receivers in VANET) inspired by processor scheduling, which treats roads as processors to optimize the workload assignment and improves the efficiency of on-road dissemination. DOVE reaches the desired number of receivers with little inaccuracy and minimizes the dissemination delay with low communication overhead. We enhance our protocol with workload backup to deal with vehicles' quitting the network. We utilize the unique characteristics of VANET and propose heuristics accordingly to significantly reduce the dissemination delay and overhead. Simulation results show that our scheme disseminates data to all the pre-given number of receivers in a very light overhead and low delay.