Effect of fading channel on link duration in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

The link duration property of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs), which is influenced by vehicle mobility and signal propagation environment, is studied in this paper. For our investigation, the inter-vehicle distance is partitioned into several non-overlapping segments as different transition states. After that, a modified Markov model is proposed, and the distance transition probability matrix is also derived to theoretically describe the effects of dynamically changed inter-vehicle distance under the pathloss transmission model. For the more complex fading channel model, we defined the virtual transmission range and considered the possible situations for breaking link connection, based on which an revised Markov model is also proposed to describe the joint effects of random movements and fading channel fluctuations. Finally, the numerical results obtained from simulation and our analytical model are compared to verify the accuracy of our work.