Delay tolerant data forwarding topology aware routing protocol for multi-UAVs empowered VANETs

Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) are recognized for their special properties, such as dynamically varying topology, high speed, unpredictable mobility, and recurrent link failures. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have recently been proposed in VANETs to protect the network from ground-level obstacles and provide instant communication among the vehicles. Even though many earlier studies exist on UAVs in VANETs to perform effective communication and create stable communication links between the source and the destination, enhancements are needed. To address this, the paper presents the Delay Tolerant and Data Forwarding Topology Aware Routing Protocol (DTDF-TARP) for Multi-UAV empowered VANETs. This protocol is segmented into three sections: topology-aware routing protocol, delay tolerant model, and data forwarding process. Through the topology-aware routing protocol, routing disconnections are identified and neglected, mobility prediction is performed through a delay tolerant model, and the data forwarding process conducts the final verification for the selected paths. The proposed DTDF-TARP protocol is implemented in OMNET++, where the parameters used for measurements and analysis are Energy Efficiency (EE), Packet Delivery Rate (PDR), End-To-End (E2E) delay, and Routing Overhead (RO). The outcomes of the proposed DTDF-TARP protocol are compared with earlier works, such as CLO-MFG and RDJ-EDC methods.