A metaheuristic MAC protocol for safety applications in cognitive vehicular networks

In a dynamic cognitive vehicular network (CVN) environment, ensuring reliable data delivery of safety messages (sm) is crucial. However, fast-moving vehicles and rapidly changing channel accessibility make sm broadcasting challenging. To address this issue, we propose a cooperative make-up technique, which leverages the 2-Hop Harris Hawks Optimization (HHO) algorithm to choose an optimal helper for sm retransmission in case of failed direct transmission. Our simulations using the Network Simulator version 2 with SUMO demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves cooperative communication within the tight 100 ms sm broadcast time frame and outperforms contemporary CVN protocols regarding throughput and packet delivery ratio. Our results suggest that our approach holds great promise for reliable and efficient data delivery in CVNs.