Optimization and quality-of-service (QoS) protocols are very important for safety, emergency, and multimedia applications in vehicular ad hoc network (VANET). VANET requires real-time message propagation that is able to deliver data in a timely and accurate manner. For example, considering the case of safety applications, any delay in the message delivery may entrain risky and fatal accidents. Similarly, sending multimedia files and video streams requires a high level of QoS. This paper gives the brief review of various optimization techniques and QoS protocols in VANETs which will help in better understanding of these protocols in VANETs and pave their way to develop a new protocol to overcome the drawbacks of existing protocols. © Springer India 2015.