3D simulation model for IoD-to-vehicles communication in IoD-assisted VANET

Vehicle ad hoc networks (VANETs) have gradually emerged to enhance transportation information, entertainment, safety, and other services. However, such infrastructures have certain limitations, causing intermittent network disconnection. Further, in urban areas, terrain heights act as obstacles and hinder or attenuate transmitted signals. In this study, we propose a dynamic 3D internet of drones collaborative communication approach for efficient VANET-assistance (3DIoDAV) by integrating the IoD network and VANET to support terrestrial communication. We model IoD locations as an optimization problem to optimize the IoD nodes in three-dimensional terrain. Improved particle swarm optimization is used to optimally deploy IoD nodes in 3D terrain for minimizing the number of isolated vehicles. The proposed approach considers the terrain profile influence on communication. Therefore, we propose a 3D propagation model for efficient IoD-to-vehicle (IoD2V) communication in 3D space. Experiments are performed based on the received signal from ground vehicles to examine the performance of the proposed model and the 3DIoDAV approach. Simulation results show different behaviors of IoD nodes in two-dimensional (2D) and 3D scenarios. Comparison with 2D VANET-assisted and IoDAV approaches demonstrates the proposed 3DIoDAV approach’s ability to detect terrain obstacles, which guarantees the dispatching of IoD nodes into the most appropriate locations in 3D space, thereby minimizing the impact of terrain obstacles on communication.