Hybrid seagull and thermal exchange optimization algorithm‐based NLOS nodes detection technique for enhancing reliability under data dissemination in VANETs.

Summary: The reliability of data dissemination in vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) necessitates maximized cooperation between the vehicular nodes and the least degree of congestion. However, non‐line of sight (NLOS) nodes prevent the establishment and sustenance of connectivity between the vehicular nodes. In this paper, a hybrid seagull and thermal exchange optimization (TEO) algorithm‐based NLOS node detection technique is proposed for enhancing cooperative data dissemination in VANETs. It inherits three different versions of the proposed hybridized algorithm; three different approaches for localization of NLOS nodes depending upon its distance from the reference nodes are incorporated. It is considered as a reliable attempt in effective NLOS node localization as it is predominant in maintaining the balancing the degree of exploration and exploitation in the search process. In the first variant, the method of the roulette wheel is utilized for selecting one among the two optimization algorithm. In the second adoption, this hybridization algorithm combines TEO algorithm only after the iteration of SEOA algorithm. In the final adoption, the predominance of the seagull attack mode is enhanced by including the heat exchange formula of TEO algorithms for improving exploitation capability. The simulation experiments of the proposed HS‐TEO‐NLOS‐ND scheme conducted using EstiNet 8.1 exhibited its reliability in improving the emergency message delivery rate by 14.86%, a neighborhood awareness rate by 13%, and the channel utilization rate by 11.24%, compared to the benchmarked techniques under the evaluation done with different number of vehicular nodes and NLOS nodes in the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]