On the connection availability between relay nodes in a VANET

Vehicular Ad-hoc NETworks (VANET) are emerging as a promising way to disseminate information among vehicles. As this information can range from safety to infotainment application content, and the vehicular environment has very particular characteristics, the behavior of the network must be effectively studied in order to adapt the transmission mechanisms. This work presents a model for the connectivity patterns of chains of vehicles traveling in a highway. This information will be crucial to provide insight in the design of VANET protocols and applications, which will be dependent on the connectivity characteristics. The accuracy of the model is shown through its application to specific case studies. The obtained results show that, in highway scenarios, the connectivity availability between relay nodes can last for a significant amount of time (in the order of tens of seconds).