Load Distribution Analysis of Platooned Vehicular Networks on a Highway

Vehicular platooning refers to a group of vehicular users (VUs) traveling together along a common route segment, offering strategic benefits such as reduced fuel costs, lower emissions, and improved traffic flow. Highways offer a natural setting for platooning due to extended travel distances, yet their potential remains underexplored, particularly in terms of communication and connectivity. Given that effective platooning relies on robust vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) links, understanding connectivity dynamics on highways is essential. In this paper, we model and analyze the spatial distribution and network load characteristics of platooned and non-platooned vehicular traffic on a highway. Roadside units (RSUs) are distributed according to a homogeneous one-dimensional (1D) Poisson point process (PPP), while VUs are modeled using a 1D PPP for non-platooned traffic and a 1D Matérn cluster process (MCP) for platoons. We investigate the resulting RSU load distribution, representing the number of VUs served under varying traffic densities and platooning scenarios.