A Network Model for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks: An Introduction to Obligatory Attachment Rule

In the past few years, the study of complex networks has attracted the attention of researchers. Many real networks, ranging from technological networks such as the Internet to biological networks, have been considered as special types of complex networks. Through application of the network science, important structural properties of such networks have been analyzed and the mechanisms that form such characteristics have been introduced. In this paper, we address the structural characteristics of a technological network called Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs). Recent studies reveal that the communication graph of VANETs has some interesting characteristics including: the Gaussian degree distributions, very high clustering coefficients, and the absence of the small-world property. These findings can introduce VANETs as a new network with unique properties and it may shed light on discovering new networks with similar characteristics. In this paper, we propose the obligatory attachment rule and we show that this attachment rule can be used to address the structural characteristics of the communication graph of VANETs in highway environments. The accuracy and applicability of the proposed analytical model during different time periods have been discussed through comparison with empirical data.