VANET: On Mobility Scenarios and Urban Infrastructure. A Case Study

In [1] we show how vehicles can opportunistically exploit infrastructure through open access points (APs) to efficiently communicate with other vehicles. We also highlight the importance of the use of a correct mobility model, since the advantages that may derive from the use of an infrastructure may not be appreciated because of a lack of accuracy. We continue our study based on realistic vehicular mobility traces of downtown Portland, Oregon, obtained from extremely detailed large scale traffic simulations performed at the Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL). This mobility model is used to evaluate both flat and opportunistic infrastructure routing. We here build upon [1] and extend that work to: (a) assess the impact of a range of mobility models on network performance and; (b) discuss the performance trend we may expect during the day, as urban mobility patterns change. We here compare results obtained with CORSIM [2] traces and Random Waypoint (RWP) [3] to the results obtained with realistic mobility traces.