Performance Evaluation of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks for Rapid Response Traffic Information Delivery

Vehicular transportation has received rapid growth in many areas thanks to the increase in population density and massive city expansion. Such advancement however leads to the loss of time, money and human lives due to many reasons including driver distraction and serious roadway conditions. Recent trends have shown improvement of vehicular safety on account of design and manufacturing innovations such as additional airbags and pre-collision detection and warning using sensors. Nonetheless, the national averages of fatality, injuries, and property damages due to roadway vehicular crashes still remain at high levels. For the purpose of saving lives, reducing fuel costs and travel time on road, it is demanded to have a vehicular communication system that rapidly learns about the environment and promptly respond and notify drivers for decision making. Our research in this paper aims to design a system that utilizes the communications among vehicles in a Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) and roadside infrastructure-based devices. Our design and analysis indicate that such system can be applied to assist drivers in adjusting their driving for better safety and making route decisions to save time and fuel costs.