Evaluating vehicular ad hoc networks for group applications

This paper identifies a class of potential vehicular network applications that are geographically localized and restricted to groups of vehicles. Applications such as group voice or text chat, periodic location updates and rear-seat gaming require content to be published and consumed by group members. In this framework, content delivery performance is the key metric. In this paper, we study the performance of such applications using the network simulation tool, ns-2 with realistic vehicle mobility traces. In order to mirror real-life vehicle mobility, we use vehicle location traces generated by a micro-traffic simulator that implements sophisticated vehicle mobility models like car-following, lane changing and passing. The goal of the simulations is to understand the impact of using two different MAC technologies, the amount of multi-hop forwarding, the size of the vehicle groups, and network density on the content delivery within the groups. The results are promising and indicate that group applications are feasible and can achieve high content delivery when network parameters are tuned appropriately.