Performance analysis of android-based real-time message dissemination in VANETs

Message dissemination issue in Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) has been extensively studied both by computer simulations and experimental testbeds. Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology has been standardized and used extensively as the main mechanism to support the message dissemination in VANETs. Nevertheless, other alternatives such as 3G/4G and WLAN have also been proposed to further assist with the message dissemination in VANETs. Due to the ubiquity of the smartphones, in this paper, we propose to leverage the use of smartphone to disseminate message in VANETs. An android-based system that uses WLAN ad-hoc technology is proposed. The feasibility and performance of the proposed system are investigated by simulations and the evaluation results show that given the high penetration of smartphones, the message dissemination can be done via the smartphones. Although the delay performance of the proposed system is inferior to DSRC-based system, the proposed system could still be very useful especially during the deployment stage of the DSRC technology (when the penetration rate of the technology is low).