A Semi-Deterministic Channel Model for VANETs Simulations

International audienceToday's advanced simulators facilitate thorough studies on Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANETs). However the choice of the physical layer model in such simulators is a crucial issue that impacts the results. A solution to this challenge might be found with a hybridmodel. In this paper, we propose a semi-deterministic channel propagation model for VANETs called UM-CRT. It is based on CRT (Communication Ray Tracer) and SCME--UM (Spatial ChannelModel Extended--UrbanMicro) which are, respectively, a deterministic channel simulator and a statistical channelmodel. It uses a process which adjusts the statistical model using relevant parameters obtained from the deterministic simulator. To evaluate realistic VANET transmissions, we have integrated our hybrid model in fully compliant 802.11 p and 802.11 n physical layers. This framework is then used with the NS-2 network simulator. Our simulation results show that UM-CRT is adapted for VANETs simulations in urban areas as it gives a good approximation of realistic channel propagation mechanisms while improving significantly simulation time