Analysis of the scope of cooperative bandwidth sharing among mobile routers in vehicular networks

This paper investigates the optimal cooperation scope (OCS) for cooperative bandwidth sharing (CBS) in vehicular networks. An analytical model, which comprises the network model, relay schemes, cost model, and vehicular flow model, is presented. Three relay schemes based on optimal single path relay and opportunistic relay for multi-hop CBS are proposed and studied. The OCS is solved as the maximum physical distance or hops between the bandwidth requester and bandwidth helper in the optimal solution to maximize the CBS benefit. OCSs for different environments and with different relay schemes are given in the paper. The results indicate that the OCS is sensitive to the cost weight and may also be larger when using a proper opportunistic relay-based scheme than when using the optimal single path-based one. The results also show that the vehicular density does not affect the optimal cooperation scope much but can result in different CBS benefit. The model and findings of the relations between OCS and the running environment revealed in this paper can be used as a reference for parameter choosing when designing the CBS system in vehicular networks.