Message dissemination is a key component of Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs). It enables the capability of Intelligent Transportation Systems to support safety and infotainment services for vehicles and people on travel. Dissemination in VANETs typically relies on the intelligent election of selected vehicles to act as relay nodes, a critical element that serves to avoid broadcasting storm issues. This paper presents an analytical model for evaluating the performance of a class of distributed, beacon-less, dissemination protocols in a linear VANET (e.g., a highway).

NS-2 based simulations are employed to validate the model. The results are used to gain insight into the spurious forwarding problem, which accompanies the use of timer-based VANET networking protocols. We characterize the impact of this phenomenon on the achievable level of the system’s broadcast throughput capacity rate. Resolution approaches are proposed and analyzed.