Mobility aware link lifetime analysis for vehicular networks

Wireless communication link quality can be determined by the transmission protocol design, the interference level, the channel fading properties, and the mobility characteristics etc. As one of the most essential features for vehicular networks, high mobility brings in intermittent connectivity and relative short link lifetime. Therefore, an analytical model on link lifetime can be of great help for an efficient and effective vehicular communication protocol design. In this paper, the impact of mobility on link lifetime in the highway environment is modeled and analyzed by utilizing the discrete-time Markov chain (DTMC). Specifically, two link lifetime theoretical models, the first-order Markov model and the second-order Markov model, are studied and analyzed for effectively predicting the proprieties of a vehicular communication link. It is shown that our proposed models, especially the second-order Markov model, can provide more accuracy in performance prediction. Additionally, extensive simulations are carried out to verify our analytical results on link lifetime.