Mobility and traffic model analysis for vehicular ad-hoc networks

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks represent a specialized application of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks. Here the mobile nodes move in lanes and their mobility can be modeled based on realistic traffic scenarios. To meet the above challenge the goal of defining the mobility model for vehicular ad hoc network along with a realistic traffic pattern is an important research area. Vehicular mobility is characterized by acceleration, deceleration, possibility of different lanes and intelligent driving patterns. Also a modeling of traffic is necessary to evaluate a vehicular ad hoc network in a highway environment. The traffic model has to take into account the driver behavior in order to take decisions of when to overtake, change lanes, accelerate and decelerate. To overcome the limitation of traditional mobility models and mimic traffic models, many traffic model based simulators like CORSIM, PARAMICS and MOVE have been proposed. In this chapter we provide taxonomy of mobility models and analyze their implications. To study the impact of mobility model on routing protocol for vehicular motion of nodes we analyze the performance of mobility models with suitable metrics and study their correlation with routing protocol. We also discuss the fundamentals of traffic engineering and provide an insight into traffic dynamics with the Intelligent Driver Model along with its lane changing behavior.