Scaling Laws for Distance Limited Communications in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

In this paper we propose a framework to study the asymptotical capacity of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET)s when nodes are expected to communicate only when they reside in a certain distance of each other. This is quite a favorable scenario for VANETs when they are utilized for accident avoidance and safety applications. Moreover we develop formulations to predict the behavior of VANETs with specific geometrical shapes like the single road and grid topologies. Also, the capacity scaling behavior of VANETs when a node needs to transmit to all its neighbors within a certain range, is studied. Results are obtained by combining geometrical analysis, network flow arguments, and probabilistic study of VANETs.