## 1 Introduction  
VANET is a network of intermittently connected vehicles. In VANETs, the nodes are highly mobile in nature. The extreme mobility of cars and frequent topology changes distinguish vehicular ad hoc networks from other mobile ad hoc networks. Hence, it is very challenging to disseminate the message to the nodes with high reliability. To cope with the message dissemination challenge, many routing protocols have been developed [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].  
In VANETs, location-based routing protocols [6, 7, 8, 9, 10], which are also known as position-based routing protocols and topology-based routing protocols, have been frequently used. Topology-based routing is not more effective since the routes determined by it are ineffective for transmitting data in highly dynamic environments [11]. Another crucial need for location-based routing is its scalability, which implies that the routing protocol must be designed in a way that prevents performance from being impacted by changes in vehicle density. This is only possible if the protocol can use localized information and the choice made by the cars is only based on the information available in their area [12]. For the reasons listed above, location-based routing protocols are more common than others to provide sufficient performance in line with VANET features [13, 14].  
Traditional VANETs employ a conventional network architecture where each node serves as a router, combining forwarding and routing functions into a single unit [15; 16; 17; 18; 19]. Nevertheless, this conventional approach has notable drawbacks, such as its inability to accommodate heterogeneity, scalability issues, limited programmability, and other concerns [20]. SDN [21] has emerged as a cutting-edge solution to tackle the challenges faced by traditional routers. In the SDN approach, the routing module is distinct from the router itself and is controlled by a separate control plane. Whenever routing is required, the control plane sets rules for the forwarding module. This clear separation of functions enables more flexible and effective network management. SD-VANETs are becoming more popular among researchers. The concept of SDN may be utilized to solve challenges such as heterogeneity and scalability. The control planes handle routing decisions in SDN. The control plane for the SDN implementation in VANETs could utilize a cloud-based solution. Using the rapid processing and infinite storage capabilities of the cloud, the network design may potentially be managed and maintained [22].  
This research is aimed at providing an SDN-based VANET architecture to solve the problems caused by heterogeneity and scalability. RC-LAHR, a cloud-based location-aware hybrid routing protocol, is also proposed for the architecture in question to find the suitable route and disseminate the data.  
The organization of this paper is as follows. In Section 2, the background and related work are discussed. The motivation and research contributions are described in Section 3. Section 4 describes the system model and proposed framework. In Section 5, the proposed routing protocol is discussed in detail. In Section 6, the computational complexity of the proposed routing algorithm is proven. Section 7 provides the detailed result analysis of the proposed routing algorithm. Section 8 provides the discussion of the results. The conclusion is provided in Section 9. Finally, the limitations and future work are discussed in Section 10.