A statistical channel model for realistic simulation in VANET

Vehicular Ad-hoc NETwork (VANET) simulation is crucial for the development of new protocols and applications. Even though real-world experimentation is the de facto benchmarking solution for any of these, the first evaluations must be made through simulation, due to the ease of changing parameters and scenarios. In this work, we propose a statistical channel model for VANET simulation based on the observation of data from real-world experiments, obtained from an IEEE 802.11p / WAVE compliant testbed. We statistically characterize fading in VANET communication and propose a combination of models for Line-of-Sight (LoS) transmission. Simulations using the proposed model were compared with real-world experiment results and, furthermore, the model was validated against a set of measurements from an independent research group, fitting it with a high concordance level, thus proving to be effective and general.