Information dissemination in VANETs: deployment strategies for maximizing coverage

Abstract

We consider that a given number of Dissemination Points (DPs) have to be deployed for disseminating information to vehicles travelling in an urban area. We formulate our problem as a Maximum Coverage Problem (MCP) so as to maximize the number of vehicles that get in contact with the DPs. Since the MCP is NP-hard, we solve it though heuristic algorithms. Evaluation of the proposed solutions in a realistic urban environment shows how knowledge of vehicular mobility plays a major role in achieving an optimal coverage of mobile users, and that simple heuristics provide near-optimal results even in large-scale scenarios.