The Dynamics of Vehicular Networks in Urban Environments

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the topological dynamics of urban VANETs using real and simulated mobility data, assessing how infrastructure deployment and network characteristics influence routing protocol performance.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of VANET topologies in urban settings and evaluates the impact of roadside infrastructure on network connectivity and routing efficiency.

Findings

VANET topology varies significantly with mobility and infrastructure deployment.

RSUs improve vehicular connectivity and routing performance.

Network shape influences protocol effectiveness in urban environments.

Abstract

Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANETs) have emerged as a platform to support intelligent inter-vehicle communication and improve traffic safety and performance. The road-constrained, high mobility of vehicles, their unbounded power source, and the emergence of roadside wireless infrastructures make VANETs a challenging research topic. A key to the development of protocols for inter-vehicle communication and services lies in the knowledge of the topological characteristics of the VANET communication graph. This paper explores the dynamics of VANETs in urban environments and investigates the impact of these findings in the design of VANET routing protocols. Using both real and realistic mobility traces, we study the networking shape of VANETs under different transmission and market penetration ranges. Given that a number of RSUs have to be deployed for disseminating information to vehicles in an urban area, we also study their impact on vehicular connectivity. Through extensive simulations we investigate the performance of VANET routing protocols by exploiting the knowledge of VANET graphs analysis.