A Hybrid Simulation Framework for Modeling and Analysis of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

The development and evaluation of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET) and their applications is usually based on coupled simulation environments combining microscopic traffic models and packet level network simulations. However, it is difficult or rather impossible to build simulation scenarios where all the protocols, possible situations and various traffic conditions are properly modeled. This can be attributed to the common lack of information and fine grained control of traffic patterns, missing protocol implementations, and the performance problems of such interlinked simulators. Therefore, simplifications are usually applied on all levels of development and modeling. The novelty of this paper can be found in the effort to propose a framework integrating novel statistical information propagation and higher level communication protocol models into an overall hybrid simulator. The proposed simulation framework can be applied for protocol design and system analysis when it is difficult to build complex interlinked simulation scenarios. In our simulation framework, different models from different levels of operation are integrated. More exactly, this includes a macroscopic traffic model, an information propagation VANET model and discrete event-driven protocol models implemented in the MatLab/Simulink environment. The simulator is validated through various input parameters and scenarios. The results show good performance and interesting aspects of the hybrid simulator; thus, our framework provides a promising tool for development and evaluation of VANET protocols and applications.