Computer-aided design and evaluation of mobile radio local area networks in RTI/IVHS environments

An approach to designing and evaluating protocols for a class of mobile radio networks is presented. Characteristics of these mobile radio LANs are described, derived from the background of road transport informatics/intelligent vehicle highway system (RTI/IVHS) applications. Performance measures defined as suitable for the requirements of multipoint intervehicle communication are based on the concept of the zone of relevance, an area around a vehicle where communication to relevant neighbors is required. The simulation environment MONET3 has been designed to evaluate these measures. Protocol design in MONET3 requires an exact model of propagation characteristics and a realistic model of road traffic. A measurement-based 60-GHz channel model developed for intervehicle communication is presented. MONET3 is interconnected to a dedicated traffic simulator, the Autobahn Simulator, originally designed for traffic engineering in RTI systems. A case study using the simulator is presented as an example