Highway Road Traffic Modeling for ITS Simulation

In this chapter, we focus on the representation of road traffic for the simulation of highway vehicular networks based on V2V communication technologies. We review different open-access approaches to highway road traffic modeling for network simulation. We include in our review an original fine-tuned measurement-based mobility model. We compare the diverse approaches in terms of the instantaneous vehicular network connectivity they induce in a practical case study, i.e. highway segments in the conurbation of Madrid, Spain. The results shed light on the fact that a fine-tuned measurement-based model yields a level of detail in the mobility representation that is necessary to a reliable simulation under generic network settings. We then leverage such a model to derive fundamental properties of the highway vehicular network connectivity, which are shown to hold across heterogeneous road traffic scenarios. We conclude the chapter by discussing the networking implications of our investigation.