On Building Realistic Reference Scenarios for IEEE 802.11p/LTE-Based Vehicular Network Evaluations

In recent years, a combined utilization of ad-hoc communication and cellular mobile radio systems has been considered for vehicular networking in future Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs). The development of hybrid system protocols, algorithms and architectures require comprehensive performance investigations typically carried out by means of simulations. The main contribution of this article is to introduce a top-down design methodology for building realistic simulation scenarios tailored to the requirements in vehicular communication and suitable for multiple levels of abstraction in simulations. Within this paper the focus is set on the example city of Doha, Qatar: Building upon a macroscopic layer including static environmental data and a realistic cellular network, it is shown how to embed microscopic sub-scenarios with detailed modelling of individual user mobility into the macroscopic world. Exemplary sub-scenarios are derived with respect to applications considered for ITS. As a proof of concept, in the first part of the article, the design process is demonstrated for an LTE network in conjunction with IEEE 802.11p based vehicular communication. In the second part of the article, exemplary individual simulation results at the link-level are presented for both considered radio technologies.