Edge-assisted emergency message dissemination in 5G-enabled VANET

Smart cities incorporate smart vehicles that employ wireless communications for distinct types of applications; non-safety and safety services are subcategories of automotive applications. Whereas non-safety applications can tolerate some latency, safety applications demand very low latency. However, existing research has not adequately integrated emerging technologies into VANETs, despite the fact that the future of VANETs is closely tied to them. This study introduces a hybrid architecture that integrates 5G connectivity, edge computing, and lightweight clustering to enhance Emergency Message (EM) dissemination in VANETs. The proposed method offloads cluster formation to a Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) server, enabling faster, globally-informed decisions and reducing the computational burden on individual vehicles. Vehicles operate in a dual-connectivity model: cluster heads use 5G Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) for communication with the edge and IEEE 802.11p for intra-cluster messaging, while standalone vehicles rely on 5G Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB). Emergency messages are disseminated through pre-established paths, with MAC-layer prioritization to reduce transmission delays. A performance comparison between the proposed method and existing approaches revealed a reduction in End-to-End (E2E) delay by 4.33% when using 5G eMBB and by 22.92% when using 5G URLLC, along with a 4.09% improvement in Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR).