Mobility Modeling, Spatial Traffic Distribution, and Probability of Connectivity for Sparse and Dense Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

The mobility pattern of users is one of the distinct features of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) compared with other types of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). This is due to the higher speed and the roadmap-restricted movement of vehicles. In this paper, we propose a new analytical mobility model for VANETs based on product-form queueing networks. In this model, we map the topology of the streets and the behavior of vehicles at both intersections and different parts of the streets onto different parameters of a BCMP open queueing network comprising M/G/infin nodes. This model represents a sparse situation for VANETs. To include the effect of dense situation on the mobility model, we modify the proposed queueing network as a new one comprising nodes with state-dependent service rates, i.e., M/G(n)/infin nodes. With respect to the product-form solution property of the proposed queueing networks, we are able to find the spatial traffic distribution for vehicles at both sparse and dense situations. Furthermore, we are able to modify the proposed queueing network to find the lower and upper bounds for the probability of connectivity. In the last part of this paper, we show the flexibility of the proposed model by several numerical examples and confirm our modeling approach by simulation.