Towards Realistic Mobility Models for Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks

In performance studies of vehicular ad hoc networks, the underlying mobility model plays a major role. In this paper, we investigate the influence of three mobility models on the performance of ad hoc network routing protocols (AODV and GPSR). As a benchmark, we use the popular random waypoint mobility model. Our second model is based on a vehicular traffic simulator that we proposed in earlier work. Finally, as third model, we propose a novel mobility model based on vectorized street maps and speed limit information extracted from a geographic information system. With the two considered routing protocols, the random waypoint mobility model tends to lead to substantially higher performance than with our own, presumably more realistic mobility models.