Analysis of Average Packet Loss Rate in Multi-Hop Broadcast for VANETs

Multi-hop relay can effectively improve the average packet loss rate (PLR) of vehicular ad hoc networks within a particular zone of interest. Challenges arise from analyzing the average PLR affected by distributed relay selections, which depend on the mobility of vehicles, the wireless channel conditions, and media access control (MAC). In this letter, we propose an average PLR analysis model taking into account the above three factors. However, the closed-form expression for the average PLR is intractable mainly due to the multiple integral of the joint distance distribution integrating with the channel conditions and vehicle mobility. An explicit expression for the upper bound of the average PLR is obtained by using Taylor series expansion, Holder's inequality, and the relay probability relaxation, which can facilitate the selection of the parameters at the physical and MAC layers for a better PLR. Simulation results validate our analyses.