On the information propagation process in multi-lane vehicular ad-hoc networks

This paper studies the information propagation process in a 1D mobile ad-hoc network formed by vehicles traveling on a highway. We consider that vehicles can be divided into traffic streams; vehicles in the same traffic stream have the same speed distribution, while the speed distributions of vehicles in different traffic streams are different. Analytical formulas are derived for the fundamental properties of the information propagation process as well as the information propagation speed. Using the formulas, one can straightforwardly study the impact on the information propagation speed of various parameters such as radio range, vehicular traffic density, vehicular speed distribution and the time variation of vehicular speed.