Vehicle-to- vehicle ad hoc communication protocol evaluation using realistic simulation framework

Vehicular communication is an emerging technology that has lot of potential to support transportation safety, traffic information and other ITS related applications. Due to its unique challenges and infrastructure requirements it is very difficult to evaluate new communication technologies in real world. A good simulation environment is required to evaluate new technologies in close to real-world situations. In this paper we proposed a new simulation framework for vehicular communication protocol evaluation and used this simulation tool to evaluate the performance of event dissemination protocol in realistic city traffic environment. Goal of the event dissemination algorithm is to achieve maximum coverage while keeping the network overhead at minimum. We presented the implementation of custom driving simulation model and propagation simulation model and used them to evaluate the event dissemination protocol with realistic vehicular mobility in urban traffic scenario. Simulation model presented in this paper provides plug-in type modules to extend the features for a particular simulation feature, whether it is for new communication protocol or new driver behavior model