Creating realistic vehicular network simulations

A key component for Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network (VANET) simulations is a realistic vehicular mobility model, as this ensures that the conclusions drawn from simulation experiments will carry through to the real deployments. Node mobility in a vehicular network is strongly affected by the driving behavior such as route choices. While route choice models have been extensively studied in the transportation community, the effects of preferred route and destination on vehicular network simulations have not been discussed much in the networking literature. In this chapter, the authors describe the effect of route choices on vehicular network simulation. They also discuss how different destination selection models affect two practical ITS application scenarios: traffic monitoring and event broadcasting. The chapter concludes that selecting a sufficient level of detail in the simulations, such as modeling of route choices, is critical for evaluating VANET protocol design.