Performance evaluation of topology based routing protocols in a VANET highway scenario

Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network (VANET) has been derived from the well-established Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET). It facilitates wireless communication among vehicles to roadside equipment. Such kind of communication is utilized for different purposes such as safety, comfort, or even entertainment. The performance of VANET applications are highly determined by its underlying routing protocols. In this paper, the authors investigate the performance of topology based MANET routing protocols (AODV, DSDV and DSR) in a VANET highway design using NCTUNS 6.0 simulator. Different parameters are varied including speed, node density, propagation loss model, fading effects, data rate and payload. The selected routing protocols are then evaluated in terms of performance metrics throughput, packet drop and packet collision. Results shows that the performance of routing protocols depends on the application requirements in terms of throughput, delay and percentage of packet drops.