Analysis of communication link lifetime using stochastic microscopic vehicular mobility model

A vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is a promising addition to our future intelligent transportation systems, which supports various safety and infotainment applications. The high node mobility and frequent topology changes in VANETs impose new challenges on maintaining a long-lasting connection between vehicular nodes. As a result, the lifetime of communication links is a crucial measure in VANET development and operation. This paper presents a probabilistic analysis of the communication link lifetime in VANETs. Firstly, we propose a stochastic microscopic mobility model that captures time variations of inter-vehicle distances (distance headways), using a discrete-time finite-state Markov chain with state dependent transition probabilities. Secondly, the proposed stochastic model and first passage time analysis are used to derive the probability distribution of the communication link lifetime. Finally, numerical results are presented to evaluate the proposed model, which demonstrate a close agreement between analytical and simulation results.