Int. J. Vehicle Information and Communication Systems, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2019 1 Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Prediction-based next-hop forwarding strategy in vehicular ad-hoc networks Ravindara Bhatt* and Ishani Sharma Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat, Solan 173 234, India Email: ravindara.bhatt@juit.ac.in Email: ishani.sharma23@gmail.com *Corresponding author Abstract: Vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) is an emerging technology where inter-vehicle communication occurs in a highly dynamic environment. Vehicles moving with varying speed communicate with the help of a suitable data forwarding strategy in vehicular ad-hoc networks. This paper presents next-hop selection of the candidate node for a highway scenario in vehicular ad-hoc networks. The next hop selection of candidate node is based on current position of the vehicle, predicted next-hop position of the vehicle, and transmission range of the vehicle. Further, the vehicles are heterogeneous in terms of transmission range and speed of the vehicles. We propose NHPS and NHPA prediction algorithms based on exponential smoothing and averaging methods, respectively. We then perform simulations for realistic vehicle distributions scenario in vehicular ad-hoc networks. Results show the effectiveness of our proposed approach. Keywords: vehicular ad-hoc networks; predication-based scheme; forwarding strategy; vehicle distribution. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Bhatt, R. and Sharma, I. (2019) ‘Prediction-based next-hop forwarding strategy in vehicular ad-hoc networks’, Int. J. Vehicle Information and Communication Systems, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp.1–19. Biographical notes: Ravindara Bhatt did his BE degree in Electronics and Communication from G.B. Pant Engineering College, Autonomous State Govt. Engineering College, Uttrakhand, India in 1996. He completed MTech degree in Information Technology from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi, India. He completed his PhD degree from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. Presently, he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science Engineering and Information Technology at Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat, Solan, India. His research interests include big data, communication networks, privacy and security, and developing machine learning algorithms for real-world application. Ishani Sharma completed her Master of Technology in Computer Science from Jaypee University of Information Technology, India in 2016. Her MTech dissertation topic was ‘Inter vehicle communications in VANETs’. Her current area of research is vehicular ad-hoc networks.