Analyzing handovers in vehicular communication using Network Simulator

Simulations are important to analyze different phenomena when real world experiments and tests are difficult to perform. An accurate simulation tool represents a real world scenario such that close approximation of the actual results can be obtained. In the communication and networking domain, Network Simulator (NS-2) has long been the simulator of choice for the research community. This paper examines the usability of NS-2 in simulating handovers occurring in high mobility vehicular environments. The main focus is on simulating 802.11-based vehicular communications which involves frequent handovers. This paper shows that NS-2 needs modifications in order to be able to simulate handovers in vehicular communication effectively.