Quantitative Analysis of the VANET Connectivity: Theory and Application

Nowadays, Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANETs) attract more and more attentions both from academia and industry. Although it has achieved much success in the research field, large-scale deployments of VANETs are still lacking. One barrier facing us is that both governments and companies are doubtful about the performance of VANETs in large-scale deployment in real world. The connectivity of VANETs is a factor closely related to the performance of VANETs. We give a thorough theoretical analysis of the VANET connectivity using bond percolation model and Bollobas model in different scenarios. We discover the quantitative relationship among network connectivity, vehicle density and transmission range. Given the vehicle density, we can calculate the minimum transmission range to achieve good network connectivity. Simulations conducted in a large scenario validate our analysis. Our results not only give us insights about the properties of the network topology, but also have great meanings in real world, which can guide the deployment of VANETs.