Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106736 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers and Electrical Engineering journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compeleceng Street-centric routing scheme using ant colony optimization-based clustering for bus-based vehicular ad-hoc network  Zahid Khan a,∗ , Sangsha Fang b , Anis Koubaa a , Pingzhi Fan b , Fakhar Abbas b , Haleem Farman c a Robotics and Internet of Things Lab, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia b School of Information Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China c Department of Computer Science, Islamia College Peshawar, KP, Pakistan a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 30 December 2019 Revised 1 June 2020 Accepted 22 June 2020 Keywords: Bus-based VANET Ant colony optimization Clustering Multipath routing Relay selection Internet of energy a b s t r a c t Bus-based Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is an excellent solution to cope with the highly dynamic and inconsistent structure of conventional vehicular network. In this paper, an algorithm for Internet of Energy in the context of Bus-based VANET is proposed, i.e., street-centric routing scheme (SCRS) to address the problem of optimal-route and relay- bus selection. Firstly, we propose a multipath routing scheme using probability of street consistency and probability of path consistency. The multipath improves performance con- cerning packet delivery ratio and end-to-end delay. Secondly, to enhance the packet for- warding, a new relay-bus selection mechanism is introduced by ant colony optimization (ACO)-based clustering. The relay-bus aims to transmit packets to next forwarding relay. Results show that clustering in ACO algorithm improves the relay-bus selection process by decreasing the computational cost, end-to-end delay, and unnecessary beacon messages. Thus, we conclude that the employment of multipath and clustering significantly improves performance of SCRS. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The concept of information dissemination among vehicles to control accidents and improve road safety was the primary motivation towards the development of VANET [1]. VANET is a collection of intelligent vehicles that aims to get control transportation problems (e.g., traffic congestion detection, traffic safety, and traffic light scheduling, etc.) and also to reduce the accident ratio [2]. VANET is a particular form of mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs), where vehicles are equipped with a wireless communication facility (on-board unit (OBU)) to provide ad-hoc connectivity [3]. It has many different flavors, such as vehicle-to-sensor, vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-Internet, and vehicle-to-road infrastructure. Intelligent transportation sys- tems (ITSs) use VANET as a tool to monitor and control the vehicular traffic in a smart way [4]. The intelligent vehicles have high potential to facilitate many new services ranging from traditional road safety to smart city communication net-  This paper is for CAEE special section SI-ioe. Reviews processed and recommended for publication to the Editor-in-Chief by Guest Editor Dr. Murad Khan. ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: zskhan@psu.edu.sa (Z. Khan). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2020.106736 0045-7906/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.