Urban VANETs and hidden terminals: Evaluation through a realistic urban grid propagation model

Despite the large number of active field-trials, network simulations still play a vital role in the development and validation of new protocols for vehicular networks. This role still motivates the improvement of simulation tools, especially in terms of realism, so to yield accurate results. One of the major gaps which still needs to be filled is urban propagation: an adequate modeling of obstructions is still missing and has come to light as a critical feature, potentially leading to arguable results. Here a new urban model (called Reliable Urban Grid - RUG) is proposed as an extension of an already validated propagation model of urban corners to more complex grid topologies. Achieved results show the higher impact of collisions by hidden terminals on standard contention-based medium access control protocols when compared to slotted solutions.