Mobility Modeling for Vehicular Communication Networks

Two metrics are proposed to characterize the impact of vehicle mobility on VANET topology: the time period between successive changes in communication link state (connection and disconnection) and the time period between successive changes in node’s one-hop neighborhood. Using the proposed lumped group mobility model, the two VANET topology metrics are probabilistically characterized for different vehicular traffic flow conditions. Furthermore, the limiting behavior of a system of two-hop vehicles and the overlap-state of their coverage ranges is modeled, and the steady-state number of common vehicle neighbors between the two vehicles is approximately derived. The proposed mobility model will facilitate mathematical analysis in VANETs. The spatiotemporal VANET topology analysis provides a useful tool for the development of mobility-aware vehicular network protocols.