Search

The demand for electricity is increased due to the development of the industry, the electrification of transport, the rise of household demand, and the increase in demand for digitally connected devices and air conditioning systems. For that, solutions and actions should be developed for greater consumers of electricity. For instance, MG (Micro-grid) buildings are one of the main consumers of electricity, and if they are correctly constructed, controlled, and operated, a significant energy saving can be attained. As a solution, hybrid RES (renewable energy source) systems are proposed, offering the possibility for simple consumers to be producers of electricity. This hybrid system contains different renewable generators connected to energy storage systems, making it possible to locally produce a part of energy in order to minimize the consumption from the utility grid. This work gives a concise state-of-the-art overview of the main control approaches for energy management in MG systems. Principally, this study is carried out in order to define the suitable control approach for MGs for energy management in buildings. A classification of approaches is also given in order to shed more light on the need for predictive control for energy management in MGs.

The major objectives of this work are: 1) to develop new efficient optimization algorithm to solve NP-hard problems, 2) to show the potential of integrating renewable energy technologies for Laayoune region- Morocco taken as case study. In this work, new parallel hybrid Genetic Algorithm-Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (P-GA-PSO) is developed to solve both sizing and energy management problems for micro-grids. The studied micro-grid is composed of four different renewable energy technologies and energy storage system. The objectives of both optimization problems are to satisfy typical load demand, to minimize energy production cost, to maximize renewable energy integration, to avoid energy losses and overload. P-GA-PSO performances are evaluated and compared with the ordinary optimization methods based on: 1) a set of benchmark functions, 2) various scenarios used to solve the proposed micro-grid optimization problems. Obtained results demonstrated that P-GA-PSO outperforms ordinary optimization algorithms in terms of convergence time and solution quality. Moreover, the proposed micro-grid is very promising in terms of load demand satisfaction, cost and pollutant emissions reduction. Indeed, the obtained energy cost does not exceed 0.17 US$/kWh, which is close to fossil fuel energy cost, and fossil fuel replacement rate exceeds 50% during all periods.

Micro-grid systems have been recently emerged for efficient integration and management of renewable energy sources, buildings’ equipment (e.g. ventilation; lighting; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), and energy storage devices. The intermittent nature of the produced electricity from renewable energy sources constitutes, however, the main challenge for their seamless integration into buildings. Recent studies stated that storage devices, despite their actual high cost, could be used to tackle this issue by balancing between the variability of renewable energy sources production and the unpredictable building’s occupancy. However, managing the power flows in micro-grid systems is highly required in order to minimize the consumption from the electric grid while ensuring the quality and the reliability of electrical services. In this article, a micro-grid system platform is introduced for efficient integration and management of renewable energy sources and storage devices. The platform’s architecture is composed of three main components: (a) the power generation components that integrate the renewable energy sources together with the storage devices and the traditional electrical grid, (b) an advanced metering component for data gathering and analysis, and (c) control services for power flow management. The platform was developed and deployed in a real-setting scenario. Simulations and experimentations have been performed and results show the usefulness of the proposed platform for efficient management of the deployed micro-grid system.

In this work, a new hybrid cuckoo search and genetic algorithm optimization method using a novel adaptive penalty function was proposed to solve the economic dispatch (ED) problem in smart grid. Please check and confirm the edit made in article title. This method was also paralyzed in order to solve the problem within specific time suitable to solve Energy management Problems. Three improvements are achieved through this combination. First, parallelism allows further reduction of the execution time. Second, the hybridization of both cuckoo search and genetic algorithm methods allows better diversification and exploration of search space which increases the solution quality. Third, the new adaptive penalty function was developed to discard infeasible solutions and to choose near-optimal ones within a short time. The efficiency of the developed algorithm is proven theoretically and experimentally. Three scenarios are considered to prove experimentally the out-performance of the developed method: (1) the proposed method is compared with Cuckoo Search and Genetic Algorithm methods using a set of benchmark functions. (2) A comparative study is carried out by applying the method to the ED continuous problem optimization case study. (3) The method is compared with Cuckoo search to solve discrete demand side management problem, considering each consumer as an independent parameter. The performance evaluation was conducted using Matlab data parallelism library.

The accurate position of nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is considered a critical problem in the majority of the Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Recently a large number of contribution in localization have been recommended to determine the location of nodes. However, a number determinated of these techniques have been presented to precisely determine the nodes locations in the IoT. In this work, we discuss the new three localization techniques, named Centroid + 4A, ICentroid, and ICentroid + 4A respectively, based on the Centroid localization technique and a new weighted formula to estimate the target nodes’ positions. The OMNeT++ network simulator was used to figure out and the performance of the discussed solutions in comparison with the Centroid localization technique. The examined results reveal that a significant improvement in the localization precision of the discussed contributions in Wireless Sensor Networks.

The intermittent nature of renewable energy sources has attracted much interest for integrating storage devices towards the deployment of micro-grid systems. In fact, these devices could be deployed into the system by decoupling energy production from consumption mainly by storing the extra produced energy from RES during the day for eventual usage at night. However, for standalone systems, computing the optimum size of energy production systems and storage devices is required for continuous electricity supply. In this paper, a micro-grid system is modeled, sized, and experimented according to a given consumption profile using a deployed prototype at our EEBLab.

The integration of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems, especially fuel cell systems, into buildings have attracted a lot of interest these last years. It is due to their higher efficiency, cleanliness and their capability for producing both valuable thermal energy and electricity, from a single source of fuel, such as natural gas or hydrogen. Their high efficiency, which can reach 85%–90%, leads to a decrease in both greenhouse gas emissions and costs when compared to the conventional methods of generating heat and electricity separately. The aim of this work is towards efficient integration of a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell into buildings in order to supply it with both electricity and heat. Experiments on a system composed of fuel cell, converter, and hydrogen tank have been carried out and compared to the simulations conducted using Matlab/Simulink where the system’s model has been developed. Simulation and experimental results are compared in order to show the accuracy of the models that have been developed and the efficiency of the fuel cell when operating as a CHP system to supply the building with both electricity and heat. Keywords: CHP system, Fuel cell, Hydrogen, Matlab/Simulink softwares

New sources of fuel have been extensively searched in order to replace fossil products. Among these sources, hydrogen has attracted much interest due to its cleanliness, availability, and efficiency. It can be produced from numerous resources, such as water electrolysis, natural gas reforming. For instance, it is widely used by fuel cells in vehicles and buildings in order to produce both valuable electricity and thermal energy. The electrolysis of water for producing hydrogen using renewable energy sources, especially solar photovoltaic systems, is one of the appropriate solutions to produce hydrogen. This paper focuses on the performance analysis of a system consisting of a grid connected photovoltaic panels, an electrolyzer for producing hydrogen, and a proton exchange membrane fuel cell operating as a cogeneration system for supplying the building with both electricity and thermal energy. The particularity of this system is that the production of the electricity using photovoltaic panels and the production of hydrogen using electrolyzer can be performed in different sites and are connected through the traditional electricity grid. As a result, the overall efficiency of the studied system reaches 60%, which shows its effectiveness when supplying the building with both electricity and thermal energy.

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks are wireless networks, of which the installation does not require any existing infrastructure, this property has induced the philosophy of “all distributed” and distributed control. The departure and arrival of a node is autonomous and does not interfere with the continuity of services. These advantages allow the deployability of these networks in situations where the use of wired networks is expensive, difficult or even impossible. However, with these advantages, some security concerns are emerging. Indeed, with a shared communication medium and in the absence of a central entity or a fixed infrastructure, traditional security solutions are not adapted, it is now difficult to manage encryption keys, certificate distribution, and trust management between nodes. As a node does not necessarily have knowledge about others when the network is growing, trust a priori may not exist. We are interested in this paper to study security problems in Manets in general, and more particularly those related to trust management. This paper detail, the principle, the constraints, and the challenges of deploying suitable trust models, to deal with Manets constraints. An example of a light trust model for enforcing security in OLSR routing protocol used for Manets, is presented and evaluated.

Balancing production and demand of energy is the main challenge to integrate renewable energy sources (RES) in micro-grid (MG) systems. However, the variability and the uncertainty nature of the production and the consumption make the system more difficult to control. In fact, weather conditions influence on the production of renewable energy sources while occupancy influences on the power consumption. Therefore, the development of accurate short term forecasts are needed for a seamless integration of RES (e.g. photovoltaic system, wind turbine) together with the traditional electrical grid in MG systems. This paper presents a forecasting model for predicting the power production and consumption in MG systems together with the battery state of charge (SoC). A control strategy is then implemented to balance the Demand/Response by taking into account the forecasted and real-time values. Based on the data collected from a real MG system, simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of power forecasting for MG control.

Ant colony Optimization is a nature-inspired meta-heuristic optimization algorithm that gained a great interest in resolution of combinatorial and numerical optimization problems in many science and engineering domains. The aim of this work was to investigate the use of Ant Colony Optimization in cryptanalysis of Simplified Advanced Encryption Standard (S-AES), using a known plaintext attack. We have defined the essential components of our algorithm such as heuristic value, fitness function and the strategy to update pheromone trails. It is shown from the experimental results that our proposed algorithm allow us to break S-AES cryptosystem after exploring a minimum search space when compared with others techniques and requiring only two plaintext-ciphertext pairs.

Smart Grids (SG) have emerged as a remedy for the constantly increasing demand on energy. Control is and will continue to be the most crucial element in a SG. The integration of renewable energies and smart devices opened the door for many controllers to be used in order to help fulfill the objectives of SGs. These controllers are used to control and monitor the energy produced by the renewable sources, the energy consumed by the different loads and appliances, and the energy flow between the electrical grid, the storage module, and the produced energy. In this paper, we are presenting an architecture of a real-world SG featuring the NI CompactRIO controller. The SG is deployed in a university campus as a testbed. We are also describing a control algorithm based on a state machine deployed in the NI CompactRIO controller using the LabVIEW programing language.

In most of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications, it is important to associate each event’s information with its location’s information. If sensors are accurately located, the identified event (e.g., fire, accident) could be of most important in order to figure out and understand the context or situation. However, sensors localization is still an important issue in order to develop context-driven applications. This paper introduces a new scheme for sensor nodes localization in three-dimensional WSNs, denoted 3DeDV-Hop. We have implemented both algorithms the 3DeDV-Hop and 3DDV-Hop in OMNET++, and studied their performance in three dimensional wireless sensor networks. Simulation results show that the 3DeDV-Hop outperforms the basic 3DDV-Hop localization algorithm in terms of localization accuracy and the number of localized nodes.

The integration of renewable energy sources (RES) was amplified, during the past decades, in order to tackle the challenges related to energy demands and CO2 increases. Recently, many initiatives have been taken by promoting the deployment and the usage of micro-grids (MG) in buildings, as decentralized systems, for energy production. However, the variable nature of RESs and the limited size of energy storage systems require the deployment of adaptive control strategies for efficient energy balance. In this paper, a generalized predictive control (GPC) strategy is introduced for energy management (EM) in MG systems. Its main objective is to efficiently connect the electricity generators and consumers in order to predict the most suitable actions for energy flow management. In fact, based on energy production and consumption profiles as well as the availability of energy storage systems, the proposed EM will be able to select the best suitable energy source for supplying the building’s loads. It will efficiently manage the usage of energy storage and the utility grid while maximizing RESs power generation. Simulations have been conducted, using real-sitting scenarios, and results are presented to validate the proposed predictive control approach by showing its effectiveness for MG systems control.

Batteries have shown great potential for being integrated in Micro-Grid (MG) systems. However, their integration is not a trivial task and, therefore, requires extensive modeling and simulations in order to efficiently estimating their State-of-Charge (SoC) within MG systems. The work presented in this article focuses mainly on battery modeling for SoC estimation. We put more emphasize on battery system's characterization, modeling, SoC estimation and its integration into MG systems in order to study its performance. In fact, an instrumentation platform, composed of recent and low cost sensing and actuating equipment, is developed in order to identify the battery's parameters and then build the battery model. The simulation results show good agreement with the experimental results, and thus the battery model is validated in both charging and discharging processes. Then, the battery's SoC estimation in both charging and discharging processes is investigated by means of sophisticated methods, such as, Artificial Neural Network, Luenberger observer and Kalman Filter combined with Coulomb counting. The results of these methods are reported and compared to the SoC estimated using the Coulomb counting method in order to end up with the precise method. The modeled battery is afterwards integrated into an MG system, which is deployed into our EEBLab (Energy Efficient Building Laboratory) test-site, for simulation and experimental investigations. Finally, the four algorithms for SoC estimation are included into the instrumentation platform, which is connected to a Lead-acid battery already integrated into the MG system, in order to show and compare their performances and accuracy for online battery's SoC estimation.

The search for new fuels to supersede fossil fuels has been intensified these recent decades. Among these fuels, hydrogen has attracted much interest due to its advantages, mainly cleanliness and availability. It can be produced from various raw materials (e.g., water, biomass) using many resources, mainly water electrolysis and natural gas reforming. However, water electrolysis combined with renewable energy sources is the cleanest way to produce hydrogen while reducing greenhouse gases. Besides, hydrogen can be used by fuel cells for producing both electrical and thermal energy. The aim of this work was towards efficient integration of this system into energy efficient buildings. The system is comprised of a photovoltaic system, hydrogen electrolyzer, and proton exchange membrane fuel cell operating as a cogeneration system to provide the building with both electricity and thermal energy. The system&rsquo, s modeling, simulations, and experimentations were first conducted over a short-run period to assess the system&rsquo, s performance. Reported results show the models&rsquo, accuracy in analyzing the system&rsquo, s performance. We then used the developed models for long-run testing of the hybrid system. Accordingly, the system&rsquo, s electrical efficiency was almost 32%. Its overall efficiency reached 64.5% when taking into account both produced electricity and thermal energy.

Smart Grids (SG) are emerging as a very promising technology meant to cope with the stringent worldwide demand on energy and on relevant ecologic measures. At the heart of the Smart Grids lie Smart Buildings (SB). SB are the building blocks of SG. Either residential or industrial, SBs are consuming most of the produced electrical energy. However, and in the context of SG, SBs are meant to produce energy as well and contribute to stabilizing the Demand/Response (DR) variance whereby produced energy is injected back into the SG. This occurs mainly in case of energy shortage in the main SG or in case of excess in energy production. To leverage “smartness” in buildings, continuous data monitoring (e.g., energy production/consumption levels) using wireless sensors, and real-time dissemination/processing of this data, is essential. To further boost buildings’ smartness, deploying context-awareness, whereby electrical appliances can be switched On/Off depending on context (e.g., presence and ambient temperature), would bring considerable added-value. In this paper, a blueprint for deploying a real-world SB testbed is presented.

Renewable energy sources (RES) have been promoted to overcome environmental constraints as well as the scarcity of fossil energy sources. In fact, many initiatives have been deployed by integrating these sources (e.g. Photovoltaic panel, Wind, Fuel cell...) in order to increase energy efficiency (i.e., electricity production) in buildings while limiting CO 2 emissions. In parallel to this development, micro-grids have emerged as decentralized systems to allow connecting different decentralized sources in which buildings become active electricity producers in addition to the main traditional electric grid. However, a smarter demand response management system is required to efficiently balancing the energy production, storage, and the electricity consumption. In this paper, a demand/response control approach is introduced by integrating into a holistic platform different RES together with storage devices for supplying electricity to buildings equipment (e.g. ventilation system, lighting…). A prototype was developed and deployed in our EEBLab for experiments and real-testing. Preliminary experimental results are reported and show the usefulness of the proposed holistic approach.

Localization phase for sensor nodes is considered as a critical issue for Static and Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks (SWSNs & MWSNs) for Three-Dimensional (3D) in last decides. Several localization techniques have been introduced to provide position of sensor nodes, but a limited number of these algorithms have been proposed to accurately estimate the location of sensor nodes for mobile wireless sensor networks for three-dimensional. In this paper, we propose localization algorithms for mobile nodes in 3D. The algorithms based on DV-Hop and EDV-Hop techniques. The selected model is Random Way Point Mobility model. Our presented algorithms guarantees that the nodes estimate their own position with a butter localization accuracy in comparison to static scenarios. Moreover, the proposed simulation confirms that the introduced algorithms can significantly improve the localization error and localization coverage of algorithms in Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks for nodes in a Three- Dimensional.

Geographic routing protocols have been developed to increase the effectiveness and the usefulness of wireless sensor networks in many emerging applications. In these protocols, the routing decision, at each sensor node, is based only on the positions of the destination node and forwarding node's neighbors. However, these protocols are based on exact sensors position, assuming that sensors are equipped with a geographic positioning or a localization-based technique. Recently, several techniques, such DV-Hop, have been proposed for estimating sensors' positions. This paper introduces an integrated geographic routing protocol by integrating both sensors' position estimation and geographic routing techniques. We have mainly combined DV-Hop for estimating sensors position and the greedy perimeter stateless protocol for data forwarding and routing. Simulations have been carried out and results are reported to show the efficiency of the proposed hybrid geographic routing protocol in WSNs.

The intermittent nature and overwhelming variability of the produced electricity from renewable energy sources (RES) constitutes the main challenge for their seamless integration into buildings. Recent studies stated that storage devises, despite their actual high cost, could be used to tackle this issue by balancing the intermittent nature of RES production and the unpredictable building's occupancy. In fact, these storage devises could handle this issue, which is very complex without taking into consideration actual occupancy and environmental context. This paper introduces a demand/response control approach by mainly focusing on micro-grid systems, which are composed of PVs, batteries, and buildings equipment (e.g., ventilation system, lighting, BVAC). A prototype was developed and deployed in a real-setting scenario at our EEBLAB. Experimentations have been performed and results show the usefulness of the proposed control approach for micro-grid systems.

Renewable energy sources (RES) have been largely deployed as green energy producers in order to reduce power consumption while minimizing greenhouse emissions. However, the intermittent nature of RES (e.g., Solar Energy) must be addressed in order to allow their large scale integration in buildings. Standalone PV systems are generally installed in remote and rural regions since they are not connected to the electrical grid. They use mainly storage devices (e.g., batteries) to store produced/extra solar energy during the day for eventual usage at night. Recently, there have been enormous deployments of grid-connected photovoltaic systems, which use solar panels connected to the electricity grid for producing and feeding extra electricity back to the grid. They are also being able to supply electricity to the load when there is no production. In this paper, we are talking the research question aiming at selecting the suitable dimensions for energy production (PV system). We have, therefore, developed a model for each component of the PV system. A grid-connected PV system is sized, modeled and analyzed according to a dedicated consumption profile. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed dimensioning model.

The solar or the Photovoltaic (PV) systems have been developed in the past few years as renewable energy sources in order to reduce power consumption while minimizing greenhouse emissions. However, getting the maximum power output in every type of environmental and climatic circumstances is of most importance and requires efficient modeling and extensive experimental studies. In this work, we present a modeling and experimental study of photovoltaic systems. The developed model uses weather conditions in order to produce the current and the voltage that are required to compute the produced power. Simulations have been conducted to first study the effect of irradiance and temperature on the PVs production. A testbed system was deployed to perform experiments in order to study the effectiveness and the accuracy of the proposed modeling approach in real-setting scenarios.

Context-awareness is crucial for leveraging energy-efficient buildings by developing intelligent control approaches in which sensing and actuation tasks are performed according to the contextual changes. This could be done by including the users' actions and behaviours in up-to-date context taking into account the complex interlinked elements, situations, processes, and their dynamics. In this paper, we introduce a holistic platform that integrates recent sensing/actuating and Big data technologies for monitoring and data processing. The main aim is to develop context-driven control approaches whereby energy consumption, production, and storage could be controlled according to actual situations (e.g., occupancy, occupant behaviour patterns, energy production patterns, and weather data). A platform prototype was deployed in our university test site. Experiments have been conducted and preliminary results show the usefulness of this holistic platform for monitoring and data processing in energy efficient buildings.

Micro-Grid (MG) systems have been extensively studied and deployed to lower the power consumption while reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. Although, the challenge with Renewable Energy Sources (RES) is their uncertain and intermittent nature, things that led the researchers to think about integrating storage devices, especially batteries, into MG systems. The main aim is to store the excess of produced energy for further usage when not enough energy is available. Nevertheless, batteries modeling and characterization is mandatory to identify their parameters and study their performance within MG systems. Moreover, in order to continuously supply electricity to the building, it is required to figure out the optimum size of energy production systems and storage devices. This paper introduces a methodology for MG modeling and performance evaluation. Its main contribution is twofold, i) battery’s parameters identification, and ii) modeling and dimensioning method for both standalone and MG systems. An instrumentation platform, composed of recent sensing and actuating equipment, for MG energy management and battery characterization is developed. Simulation and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

Geographic protocols have been recently developed for data routing in wireless ad hoc networks. These protocols are based on the exact location of each sensor node, by assuming that sensor nodes are equipped with geographic positioning services or localization-based techniques. At each node, the routing decision is based only on the position of the destination node and the position of the forwarding node’s neighbors. Location-based techniques, such DV-Hop, have attracted a lot of interest in order to estimate nodes positions. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of DV-Hop localization technique for estimating nodes localization and integrate it within the greedy perimeter stateless routing protocol. Simulations have been conducted to show the effectiveness of using localization-based techniques when integrated into geographical routing protocols for wireless sensor networks.

Wireless nano sensors networks (WNSN) have emerged recently to allow nanonodes to communicate to each other using nano-communication mechanisms. Nanodevices are characterized by limited resources, and new communication protocols are, therefore, required. For instance, the flooding mechanism has been proposed for broadcasting in electromagnetic-based WNSNs. While the flooding scheme is very simple, the excessive number of rebroadcasts increases the utilization of the resources that affects the performance and increases the energy consumption. In this paper, we adopt the probabilistic-based broadcasting mechanism in the context of WNSNs. Simulations have been conducted using Nanosim and results show that probabilistic-based flooding mechanism reduces redundant retransmissions while maintaining good performance.

The Numeral features extraction consists of transforming the image into an attribute vector, which contains a set of discriminated characteristics for recognition, and also reducing the amount of information supplied to the system. Several characteristic extractions methods have been proposed in the literature. These characteristics can be digital or symbolic. Mainly, we distinguish two approaches, statistical and structural. In this paper, we are interested in a comparative study of these four methods: profile projection, zoning, cavities and freeman chain code. Digit recognition is carried out in this work through k nearest neighbors. We evaluated our scheme on handwritten samples of the MNIST database and we have achieved very promising results.

With rapid advances in nanotechnologies, Wireless Nanosensor Networks (WNSNs) have been emerged as a typical subclass of WSNs but at nano-scale. WNSN is a new communication fabric that allows nanonodes to connect to each other using new mechanisms such as molecular (or chemical) and electromagnetic. Unlike traditional WSNs, nanonodes are tiny with limited resources (e.g., computation, memory and energy) and therefore, are not able to communicate with the destination node using a single-hop scenario. The flooding mechanism, in which each node rebroadcasts the message once, was adopted for broadcasting in electromagnetic-based WNSNs. While the flooding mechanism is very simple, it is not efficient since most of the nanonodes are expected to rebroadcast a message at the same time, thus collisions are likely to occur. Furthermore, the excess number of rebroadcasts increases resources utilization that affects the network performance and increases energy consumption. In this paper, we investigate the flooding algorithm in the context of WNSNs and compare it with counter-based and probabilistic-based broadcasting mechanisms that are proposed for MANETs.

Localisation precision is one of the predominant challenges in static and mobile wireless sensor networks. It is a critical issue to be tackled when developing applications that rely on this type of networks. This paper presents three localisation techniques, named eDV-Hop1, eDV-Hop2, and eDV-Hop3, based on geometry principles. The performance of these techniques was evaluated using the network simulator (OMNeT++) and compared to the basic DV-Hop, iDV-Hop1, and iDV-Hop2. Results show that significant improvement is obtained in terms of energy consumption and localisation error according to several parameters, mainly the number of sensors, the number of anchor nodes, and the communication range of sensor nodes.

International audience; Substantial research efforts on Ad hoc networks have been devoted recently to Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANETs) to target Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Roadside unit (V2R) communications in order to increase driver/vehicle safety, transport efficiency and driver comfort. VANETs are special subclass of Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANETs) for inter-vehicle communication and have relatively more dynamic nature compared to MANETs due to the rapid network topology changes. The development and implementation of efficient and scalable algorithms for information dissemination in VANETs is a major issue which has taken enormous attention in the last years. In this paper, an efficient distributed information dissemination approach is proposed, inspired by Ant-colony communication principles, such as scalability and adaptability that are useful for developing a decentralized architecture in highly dynamic networks. The main objective is to provide each vehicle with relevant information about its surrounding to allow drivers to be aware of undesirable events and road conditions. A "relevance" value into emergency messages is defined as an analog to pheromone throwing in Ant colony, to take an appropriate action. Simulations are conducted using NS2 network simulator and relevant metrics are evaluated under different node speeds and densities to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Information broadcasting in MANETs is an essential building block for cooperative operations, group discussions, and common announcements (e.g., filling routing tables). The flooding is the simplest broadcasting scheme used in MANETs. In this scheme, source nodes broadcast at once packets to all neighbors. Broadcasting through flooding causes increased messages redundancy, collision, and wastage of bandwidth and energy. Several approaches have been proposed to solve these issues and could be classified into two main categories: static schemes and adaptive schemes. In this paper, we introduce an adaptive scheme for information broadcasting in MANETs. This scheme allows nodes to select an appropriate action, either to rebroadcast or to discard receiving messages. The decision is based on the amount and timestamps of received messages. Simulations have been conducted and results show that the proposed scheme reduces the number of packet transmissions, has better latency and SRB, good reachability, and low energy consumption.