A Comprehensive Review of Recent Developments in VANET for Traffic, Safety & Remote Monitoring Applications

Strategic integration of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and IoT (Internet of Things) into VANET infrastructure is crucial for ensuring vehicular safety, mobility management, and vehicular applications. The integration collects information on traffic and road conditions without relying on traditional internet connectivity. It also addresses applications such as early warnings in areas with limited coverage, safety and health emergency messages in highly congested zones, and air monitoring without depending on traditional TCP/IP internet connectivity. This article provides a comprehensive view of network technologies, data acquisition devices, clustering techniques, and energy-efficient routing protocols to optimize Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications in VANETs. This study also addresses how to leverage the frequency channels of the 802.11p protocol and expands the possibilities for developing numerous applications dedicated to remote ambient, traffic and safety monitoring without compromising network performance. Moreover, the recent developments of clustering algorithms and energy-efficient schemes for these VANET applications are analyzed from a novel perspective.