Connectivity in vehicular ad-hoc networks

Abstract

Vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) is a special type of mobile ad hoc network that formed between vehicles on road (e.g. moving along highway). Wireless equipped in vehicles formed a network along the road and make it possible to communicate without a fix base station. Its main applications include improving the safety on the road such as Collision warning, road sign alarms and in-place traffic view. Other applications include file and medium sharing etc. However, some difficulties have to be overcome in implementing this technology due to the stochastic characteristic of the vehicles on the road. Simulation is an effective method to study the characteristic of traffic and the factors that affect VANET connectivity. In this project, TSIS-CORSIM program is used to simulate the traffic on the road. Different simulation models (with Normal distribution and Erlang distribution respectively) and some other factors such as vehicle density, wireless communication range and drivers’ behavior have been tested for reflecting their effects on inter-vehicle cluster size, which defines how many vehicles can communicate with each other.. The results of this project provide useful insights into the characteristic of connectivity of VANET, and the data should be valuable in helping the future applications in VANETs.