Two Ray or not Two Ray this is the price to pay

Simulation is essential to evaluate the performance of large scale vehicular networks. It is logistically challenging (and prohibitively expensive) to run tests with more than a few dozens experimental vehicles. Given the critical role of simulation in the evaluation of VANET protocols in large scale scenarios, it is important to guarantee realism of the models. This paper focuses on the accuracy of urban propagation models and their impact on vehicular protocol results. In a city-based vehicular network we compare the predominant two ray model and a recently proposed Corner model. We identify a number of factors that undermine the validity of the Two Ray model, for example, the presence of buildings causing propagation disruption and the heavy weight border effects that incorrectly compensate for the presence of hidden terminals in the networks. The paper analyzes a small scale urban vehicular scenario which unveils the issues to be considered in large scale vehicular simulations.