An Analysis of Data Dissemination on VANET by using
Content Delivery Network (CDN) technique
Nattiya Khaitiyakun
School of Engineering and
Technology
Asian Institute of Technology
Pathumthani, Thailand 12120
st105646@ait.asia
ABSTRACT
Data dissemination on VANET (Vehicular Ad Hoc Network)
has been receiving attention where useful information, such
as traffic information and accident warning, can be shared
among vehicles. In this paper, we propose to use CDN (Con-
tent Delivery Network) technique for disseminating infor-
mation to destination nodes via a set of replica nodes, or
CDN nodes, by repeatedly transmitting the content originat-
ing from the source node to the replica nodes. Our proposed
CDN technique is deployed on VANET running OLSR (Op-
timized Link State Routing) Protocol. The CDN nodes are
selected from MPR (Multi-Point Relay) nodes in OLSR, since
these nodes can optimally cover all subscriber nodes. In or-
der to avoid the interference problem in the broadcasting en-
vironment, the number of MPR nodes to be selected as CDN
nodes is reduced. This results in decrement of CDN nodes
in use are limited. The network under our consideration is
divided into two parts. The first part covers from the source
nodes to the CDN nodes while the second part covers from
the all CDN nodes to the destination nodes. In the first part,
the OLSR on VANET is employed while in the second part,
the broadcasting technique is applied where packets are re-
peatedly broadcast. In this work, the performance of our
proposed CDN technique is evaluated by simulation using
NS3 (Network Simulator 3).According to the simulation re-
sults, our proposed CDN on VANET improves drastically
the overall successful transmission rate as compared to the
typical OLSR on VANET. Finally, we also propose a math-
ematical performance analysis for forwarding packets from
the source to a set of destination nodes, by considering the
successful transmission rate at the destination nodes as our
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2684793.2684799 .
37
Teerapat
Sanguankotchakorn
School of Engineering and
Technology
Asian Institute of Technology
Pathumthani, Thailand 12120
teerapat@ait.ac.th
evaluation metric. The result is provided in a closed-form
expression.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
C.2.1 [Network Architecture and Design]: Wireless
communication , Distributed networks
General Terms
Algorithms, Theory
Keywords
Content Distribution Network, VANET
1. INTRODUCTION
A VANET is created for distributing the road safety
information and also rising the commercial news. Its
characteristic is similar to MANET (Mobile Ad Hoc
Network), so an infrastructure-less concept is applied
here. The most specific character is the frequently leave
and join the network of each node. Besides that, the
vehicle in VANET has high probability to communicate
with each other node via the multi-hop path because its
environment is mainly on the main street.
Data dissemination is interesting technology, which
is applied on VANET, for transmitting data. Thus, to
completely receiving the data in the frequently topology
changed environment is a challenging problem.
In this paper, we propose to apply the CDN tech-
nique for data dissemination from a single source node
to multiple destination in VANET environment. We
adopt the MPR nodes achieved from OLSR as CDN
nodes to disseminate the data. The algorithm selects
the MPR nodes which cover maximum number of re-
ceiving nodes. The MPR nodes selected by this method
is expected to reduce the interference which is a sig-
nificant problem in broadcasting environment. In our
proposed algorithm, the data is divided into a number
of packets, which is grouped into a batch of packets.
Then, the batch of packets will be repeatedly trans-
mitted within each TC (Topology Control) interval [3],
where TC interval is the duration time for updating net-
work topology by MPR nodes. We analyse our proposed
algorithm using mathematical model, and provide the
result in general closed-form solution.
We evaluate our algorithm by simulation using NS3.
The performance evaluation metric used here is success-
ful transmission rate, which is defined as the ratio be-
tween the number of useful received packets without
redundant to the total number of packets sent. We
compare our results with that of OLSR. Based on the
simulation results, it is obvious that our proposed algo-
rithm provides the better successful transmission rate
than typical OLSR.
The organization of this paper is as follows: Section
II reviews the related work. Section III describes our
methodology. Section IV shows the simulation results
and discussion. Section V is the conclusion.
2. RELATED WORK
Data dissemination technologies were divided into three
broad categories: geocast/broadcast, multicast, and uni-
cast methods [1]. Most of the approaches for data dis-
semination in VANET [1] [9] [10] mainly adopted either
one of these methods. In [7], it is shown that the broad-
casting scheme is more appropriate to apply in VANET
than the unicast scheme.
In [9], it is shown that to apply broadcasting tech-
nique for data dissemination in VANET is to focus on
problem of data retransmission. The ACK (Acknowl-
edge) messages are used via beacons to reduce redun-
dant messages.
The research of broadcast storm, a famous problem
happening frequently in urban area and extremely dense
in rush hour situation, were carried out in [10]. The data
pouring (DP) and buffering paradigm were proposed to
solve the problems of data dissemination incomplete-
ness. These techniques helped all vehicles to receive
complete data, even they just arrived.
M. Guo, M. H. Ammar and E. W. Zegura [2] pre-
sented the architecture to support video streaming ap-
plications on VANET. They used a store-carry-and-forward
scheme to distribute video contents for the receiver node
by creating a data forwarding zone. They also proposed
the forwarder selection algorithm by separating data ve-
hicle based on the knowledge of vehicle.
A new protocol focusing on the broadcasting of emer-
gency messages for safety application was proposed in
[5]. The ACK messages were use for reducing the re-
broadcasting packets.
In summary, several approaches have been proposed
to improve data dissemination on VANET [1] [9] [10].
In most of the literature [10], the algorithm to select the
forwarder nodes by generating new messages to discover
the proper nodes were proposed. The control overhead
38
in the network may be increased.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1 Data Dissemination on VANET using CDN
Technique
First of all, for the sake of the readers, the algorithm
of the proposed data dissemination on VANET using
CDN technique [4] is explained briefly here. The detail
explanation as well as the pseudo code can be found in
[4].
The proposed algorithm was developed based on OLSR
routing protocol [8] [6] , adopting the pure flooding tech-
nique via Multi-Point Relay (MPRs) for reducing re-
dundant broadcasting packets. MPR nodes are selected
based on original MPR selection heuristics; MPR nodes
of any node under consideration will be selected from
one-hop neighbor of that node which covers two-hop
neighbor nodes. That is, any one-hop neighbor node,
which is selected by the other nodes (called MPR se-
lector), is declared as the MPR node. By this selection
method, the MPR node,selected by the highest num-
ber of MPR selector, has the highest reachability to the
other nodes.
In this work, we consider the data dissemination from
a single source node to multiple destination nodes via
a number of CDN nodes. The algorithm to select the
CDN nodes is described as follows:
The MPR selection process is carried out in the same
way as MPR selection in OLSR protocol. Here,the MPR
node, selected by the destination nodes, which has the
largest coverage area will be declared as CDN node. The
broadcasting technique is applied in CDN nodes for for-
warding the received packets. The destination nodes are
categorized based on the distance from source node, into
2 types; one-hop and multi-hop away from source node.
All destination nodes can receive the packets directly
from their CDN nodes. Besides that they can receive
forwarded packets from their nearby CDN nodes.
3.2 Analysis Model
In this part, we create the analytical model to trans-
fer data in the city mobility scenario. The structure of
data transmission in our proposed algorithm is shown
in figure 1. We transmit data from a single source node
to multi destination nodes via a number of CDN nodes.
We transfer the whole data using a large number of
small-sized packets which are repeatedly transmitted.
Since, our work is developed based on OLSR routing
protocol, therefore, the set of CDN nodes will be newly
identified in every TC interval. At each TC interval,
source node selects the CDN nodes from the set of MPR
nodes. Then, it sends a number of packets to all these
CDN nodes. When source node already finishes send-
ing all packets, it will repeat transmission of the same
packets to these selected CDN nodes. Each period of
 Source node

[ ] [ ] [ ]
S

TC1 TC2 TCT

n1 n1 n1 n2 n2 n2 nT nT nT

n1

st th
1 TC interval, r transmission cycle

n1 [ , ] th th CDN nodes Destination nodes

t TC interval, r transmission cycle

[ , ]
st st
1 TC interval, 1 transmission cycle
[ , ] Figure 2: Node Behaviour when forwarding
packets to each destination node

Figure 1: A structure of data transmission in j th CDN node (j ) at the rth transmission cycle
city mobility model within the ith TC interval
[i,r]
pj Dm is the probability of successful transmis-
sending all packets is called one transmission cycle. In sion when forwarding packets from the j th CDN
order to analyse the data dissemination technique, it is node (j ) to the mth destination node (Dm ) at the
necessary to define some terms and notations as follows: rth transmission cycle within the ith TC interval
Notation : Here, it is natural that the probability of successful
B is total number of data packets transmission of any path equal the product of each link
T Ci is the ith TC interval (i = 1, 2, ... , T) in the path. Therefore, it is obvious that.
ni is number of packets sent during one transmis- [i,r]
h
[i,r]
ini h
[i,r]
inj
sion cycle within the ith TC interval (i = 1, 2, ... p(xj,m ) = pSj pj Dm (1)
, T)
where
S is source node
Ni is number of CDN nodes within the ith TC nj is a number of successful receive packets at ith
interval (1 6 Ni < Total number of nodes) CDN nodes
[i,r]
j is the j th CDN node (j = 1, 2, ... , Ni ) nj = (pSj )ni at the ith TC interval (j = 1, 2,
Dm is the mth Destination node (m = 1, 2, ... , ... , Ni )
M)
Figure 2 illustrates the node behaviour when forward-
PT is the total probability of successful transmis-
ing packets to each destination nodes. Figure 3 shows an
sion
example of the probability of successful transmission at
p[i] is the probability of successful transmission at
D1 when the number of CDN nodes equal N1 . We can
the ith TC interval
calculate the probability of successful transmission from
p[i,r] is the probability of successful transmission
source (S) to destination D1 at the 1st transmission cy-
at the rth transmission cycle (r = 1, 2, ... , R)
cle within the 1st TC interval by using the equation 1
within the ith TC interval
[i,r] that could be shown as follow.
xj,m is an event of successful transmission from
source (S) to destination node (Dm ) via CDN node
N1
(j ) at the rth transmission cycle within the ith TC [1,1]
[ [1,1]
interval pSD1 = p( xj,1 ) (2)
[i,r] j=1
p(xj,m ) is the probability of successful transmis-
sion of event xj,m
[i,r] We know that, for any event Ai (i = 1, 2, 3, ... , n)
[i,r]
pSDm is the probability of successful transmis- n n n
[ X X
sion when sending packets from source node (S) to p( Ai ) = p(Ai ) p(Ai Aj )
the mth destination node (Dm ) at the rth trans- i=1 i=1 i,j=1;i6=j
mission cycle within the ith TC interval n
(3)
[i,r]
\
pSj is the probability of successful transmission + p( Ai )
when sending packets from source node (S) to the i=1

39
 From the above example, we can calculate the total
probability of successful transmission for the 1st trans-
[ , ]
,
mission cycle within the 1st TC interval as

[ , ] [ , ] " #
M
[1,1] 1 X [1,1]
[ , ]
,
p = pSDm (7)
S [ , ] [ , ]
M m=1

where M is the number of Destination nodes.

[ , ] [ , ]

Next, we can find the total probability of successful
[ , ]
, transmission for the 1st TC interval as

" R #
[1] 1 X [1,r]
Figure 3: Probability of successful transmission p = p (8)
R r=1
at D1 when there are Ni CDN nodes (at the 1st
transmission cycle within the 1st TC interval) where R is the number of transmission cycle.

and Finally, we can calculate the overall probability of

successful transmission for sending data from source
node to all destination nodes via CDN nodes as
p(Ai Aj ) = p(Ai )p(Aj ) (4)
if Ai and Aj are independent. " T #
In our scenario, the received packets at the destina- 1 X [t]
PT = p (9)
tion nodes are independent because there are the dif- T t=1
ferent sequence number of received packets at the CDN
nodes. where T is the amount of TC interval.
Therefore, we can calculate the probability of success-
ful transmission at D1 as 4. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUS-
SION
N1 N1
[1,1]
pSD1 =
X [1,1]
p(xj,1 )
X [1,1]
p(xj,1 xk,1 )
[1,1] 4.1 Simulation Parameters
j=1 j,k=1;j6=k
(5)
N1
\ [1,1] Table 1: Simulation parameters
+ p( xj,1 )
j=1
Parameters Values

Finally, we have the probability of successful trans- Simulation Tool NS3 version
mission at the 1st transmission cycle within the 1st TC ns-allinone-3.15
interval to D1 destination node, which forward n1 pack- Routing Protocol OLSR
ets via N1 CDN nodes. Distance (km) 4
Total Number of Nodes 100
Number of Destination Nodes 80
N1 1 1
NX N1
[1,1] [1,1] [1,1] [1,1] Number of Hop between Source 1-5
X X
pSD1 = p(xj,1 ) p(xj,1 ) p(xk,1 )
j=1 j=1 k=1 and Destination Nodes
Node Mobility Model City (One-way) model

1 1 X
NX j N1
[1,1] [1,1] [1,1]
Y
p(xj,1 )p(xk,1 ) + p(xj,1 ) Packet Sizes 1000 bytes
j=1 k=1 j=1 Transmission Rates 250 packets/s
(6) Number of Repeated
where h in1 h inj Transmitting packets 250, 500, 1000
[1,1] [1,1] [1,1]
p(xj,1 ) = pSj pj D1 per 1 TC interval
[1,1]
nj = (pSj )n1 ,(j = 1, 2, ... , N1 ) Node Speed (0,5] m/s

40
4.2 Performance Evaluation Metric
In this work, we evaluate our proposed algorithm by
the successful transmission rate which can be defined as 1
follow:

Successful Transmission Ratio

0.8

ND 0.6 1000
Successf ulT ransmissionRate = (10)
NT 500
0.4
250
where OLSR
0.2
ND is the number of received packets at the desti-
0
nation node 1 2 3 4 5 >5
NT is the total number of packets transmitted Distance from Source node (hops)

4.3 Simulation Results and Discussion

Our simulation is carried out based on city mobil-
ity model(one-way), where the vehicles move slowly be-
Figure 4: Comparing packet delivery ratio when
cause of the traffic problem. In the simulation, the num-
ni = 250, 500 and 1000 packets
ber of packets (ni ) are varied from 250 to 1000 packets.
The source node repeatedly broadcasts ni packets to all
destination nodes via CDN nodes (i ).
The simulation results are illustrated with 95 % con- 6000000
fidence interval. We compare our results with typical
OLSR. In figure 4, it is obvious that the average success- 5000000
Amount of Packets Sent
ful transmission rate when using CDN nodes is higher 4000000
1000
than that of typical OLSR. The highest successful trans- 500
3000000
mission rate is achieved when ni equals 250 packets. 250
In our proposed algorithm, we adopt a repeated uni- 2000000 OLSR
cast technique. It can be anticipated that to resend 1000000
small size of packets in each small interval within TC
period increases a total received packets at the destina- 0
Number of Packets sent per 1 TC interval
tion nodes, and also give the opportunity to destination
to receive packets in the frequently leave and join en-
vironment. The Source node starts to unicast packets
when it finishes sending the whole number of packets in
the previous transmission cycle.
Figure 5: Comparing the amount of packets sent
Normally, mobile node in typical OLSR network se-
when ni = 250, 500 and 1000 packets
lects MPRs from its one-hop neighbor nodes. So, when
the destination node has more than one MPR, the source
node using typical OLSR will forward the packets to It is apparent that our proposed algorithm provide
all MPR nodes. That may cause the packets loss due higher successful transmission rate than OLSR, but with
to the interference and collision problem. However, in the expense of the consuming resource.
this work,the MPR node covering the maximum num- We also analyse the performance of the proposed al-
ber of destination nodes is selected as a CDN node. gorithm using mathematics model. The result is shown
Therefore, the interference and collision problem can be in mathematics closed-form.
reduced due to the decreasing number of MPR nodes.
Consequently, the average successful transmission rate
is improved. 5. CONCLUSION
However, since we use the repeated unicast technique, In this work, we proposed to use CDN technique to
so the volume of total transmitted packets can be antic- transfer data from a single source to multiple destina-
ipated to be larger than that of OLSR operation. The tions via a number of CDN nodes in VANET environ-
approximated values is shown in 5. When source node ment. The rebroadcast technique of small size packets
repeatedly transmits the small size of data, the redun- in each transmission interval is adopted. We evaluate
dant packets occur. These redundant packets can com- our algorithm by measuring the successful transmission
pensate the imperfect receiving data at the CDN nodes. rate.
This could improve the successful transmission rate at Our proposed CDN technique has been developed
the destination nodes. based on OLSR protocol. The CDN nodes are selected

41
from MPRs in OLSR, since these nodes can cover all
subscriber nodes optimally. By reducing the number
of forwarding nodes can decrease the interference and
packet collision problem.
According to the simulation results, it is obvious that
our proposed algorithm can improve the successful trans-
mission rate comparing to typical OLSR. For example,
the successful rate of our algorithm at 2-hop distance
is approximately 70 % while typical OLSR provides a
small (closed to zero) successful transmission rate.
In this work, we propose and also analyse the mathe-
matics model for forwarding packets from a single source
to multiple destination nodes via a number of CDN
nodes. The solution is provided in a closed form. The
numerical analysis of our proposed mathematics model
will be carried out in the future work.
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