Modeling and Analysis of Link Duration in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks Under Different Fading Channel Conditions.

Modeling and analysis of communication link duration in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) is crucial as it directly affects many performance metrics such as packet delivery ratio, throughput and end-to-end delay. In this paper, we investigate the properties of communication link duration in one-dimensional VANETs for different fading channel conditions. We employ a stochastic microscopic mobility model that takes into account time dependence of the inter-vehicle distance. A discrete-time finite-state Markov chain with state dependent transition probabilities is used to model the inter-vehicle distance. The presence of fading channel conditions will introduce fluctuations in the received signal power. Even when the inter-vehicle distance between a given pair of vehicles is less than their transmission range, poor channel conditions may result in link failure. A modified distance transition probability matrix is derived to describe the combined effects of relative velocity among a pair of vehicles, link failure due to outage, and inter-vehicle distance. The probability distribution of the communication link duration is derived from the modified distance transition probability matrix. The analytical results obtained from the model are validated by extensive simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]