Evolution of Vehicle Network on a Highway

TL;DR

This paper models the evolution of vehicle networks on a highway using a Markov chain approach, providing explicit transition probabilities and analyzing network stability over time.

Contribution

It introduces a Markov chain model for vehicle network evolution with explicit transition probabilities based on known parameters.

Findings

Derived probabilistic distributions for network evolution parameters

Numerical simulations support the theoretical model

Analyzed network stability metrics like link duration and cluster lifetime

Abstract

One of the challenges related to the investigation of vehicular networks is associated with predicting a network state regarding both short-term and long-term network evolutionary changes. This paper analyzes a case in which vehicles are located on a straight road, and the connectivity state between two consecutive cars is determined by the Markov chain model with two states. The transition probabilities of the considered model are explicitly expressed in terms of known parameters of the network using the Wang-Moayery model. Within the presented model, the network evolution is described in terms of determinative parameters, such as average link duration, average cluster lifetime, and a clusters' existence probability between two fixed moments of time. In support of the theoretically obtained probabilistic distributions, the results of numerical simulations are provided.