EPIC: an epidemic based dissemination algorithm for VANETs

In this paper we design an efficient algorithm, based on epidemic models, to dissemination messages in VANETs. The algorithm, named EPIC, is based on few hypothesis and it is very simple to be implemented. The main hypotheses are that each vehicle knows the position of its neighbours and can communicate with them only in broadcast. EPIC has been designed with the goal to reach the highest number of vehicles "infected" by the message, without overloading the network. It has been tested on different scenarios taken from VANETs simulations based on real urban environments like Manhattan and Cologne. To test the algorithm we developed a simulation environment in Python with a visual interface, able to show how the algorithm works simply by clicking on the node from which the first message is injected in the network. The visual result is a representation of the graph with the achieved wireless connectivity, the reached vehicles, those not reached, and the path followed by messages. Furthermore, a performance evaluation has been carried out to show the behaviour of EPIC, simulated in different urban environments and compared with another dissemination protocol based on simple probabilistic rules.