Received: 4 December 2019 Revised: 8 February 2020 Accepted: 28 February 2020 DOI: 10.1002/ett.3951 SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE SOFCluster: Safety-oriented, fuzzy logic-based clustering scheme for vehicular ad hoc networks Mohamed Aissa 1 Badia Bouhdid 2 Adel Ben Mnaouer 3 Abdelfettah Belghith 4 Saad AlAhmadi 4 1 University of Nizwa, College of Arts and Sciences, Computer Science Section, Nizwa, Sultanate of Oman 2 Computer Science Department, ESPRIT School of Engineering, Tunis, Tunisia 3 Canadian University Dubai, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Computer Science Department, Dubai, UAE 4 King Saud University, College of Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Department,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Correspondence Mohamed Aissa, University of Nizwa, Nizwa, Sultanate of Oman. Email: m.issa@unizwa.edu.om Funding information Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University, Grant/Award Number: RGP-1439-023 Abstract Vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) nodes are characterized by their high mobil- ity and by exhibiting different mobility patterns. Therefore, VANET clustering schemes are required to account for the mobility parameters among neighbor- ing nodes to produce relatively stable clustering schemes. In this article, we propose a novel cluster-head (CH) selection scheme for VANETs. This scheme is based on a fuzzy logic-powered, k-hop distributed clustering algorithm. It deals efficiently with scalability and stability issues of VANETs and is able to achieve highly stable clustering topologies as compared with other schemes. Our proposed clustering scheme strives to maintain a safe intervehicle distance as a one prime metric for CH selection. Moreover, a major contribution of our work is the proposal of a novel strategy for constructing fuzzy logic-based clus- tering algorithms useful for VANETs. This proposed solution is useful in an Internet of things-based setting that involves controlled vehicle-to-vehicle com- munication. We first derive mathematically, a new average distance estimation formula that is used as a metric for selecting CHs, leading to safer clusters that avoid collisions with front and rear vehicles. Furthermore, the new proposed scheme creates stable clusters by reducing reclustering overhead and prolonging clusters' lifetimes. 1 INTRODUCTION Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) is considered as a subclass of mobile ad hoc networks. VANET provides safety and comfort to the road users and consequently it is one of the influencing areas for the improvement of intelligent transporta- tion system (ITS). Smart traffic monitoring allows the conversation of alerted information between vehicles infrastructure and the system applications over communication approaches and technologies. 1 Recent literature has shown that the mobile relay nodes (RNs) can professionally improve the services in public vehicles, for example, buses and trams. 2 The main purpose of mobile RNs is to offer coverage within a moving environment. The mobile RNs are positioned on the vehicle and create a communication path between the mobile UEs and the base station (BS). 2 VANET assists vehicle drivers to communicate and exchange information and to coordinate among themselves to avoid critical situations through vehicle-to-Vehicle communication, for example, avoiding road side accidents and traf- fic jams, helping in speed control, offering free passage of emergency vehicles, avoiding unseen obstacles, and so on. Beside safety applications, VANETs also provide comfort applications to the road users such as weather information, mobile e-commerce, Internet access, and other multimedia applications. As an ad hoc network, a VANET cannot rely on Trans Emerging Tel Tech. 2020;e3951. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ett © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1 of 22 https://doi.org/10.1002/ett.3951