A Performance Analysis of VANETs Propagation Models and Routing Protocols

Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) thrive on providing a communication channel between vehicles and infrastructures that facilitate efficient and safe Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) as well as Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications. Reliable and efficient transmission amongst vehicles and Road Side Units (RSUs) is a prime concern of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). One of the primary challenges involved in vehicular communication is designing an efficient routing mechanism for data dissemination from node to node via a reliable route. The harsh vehicular environment with varied road conditions and obstacles in the signal propagation path induces another challenge. Therefore, this paper presents a comparative analysis of existing routing protocols with propagation models to assist researchers in gaining insight into the existing propagation model and routing protocols. The study also optimizes routing and propagation models for reliable packet dissemination. This work uses a realistic scenario from Open Street Map (OSM), and simulations are performed using SUMO. The trace files generated from SUMO are used for further simulation in NS-3. The simulation results are presented and studied in detail. The results show that the Two-Ray Ground and FRIIS propagation model outperforms the compared models, and the routing protocol OLSR outperforms AODV and DSDV.