Abstract:
Vehicular communication is the key enabler of intelligent transport services (ITS).
Vehicular ad-hoc networks can be considered to be the integral component of such
communication. The state of art dedicated short range communication (DSRC), which
is a technology defined for vehicular communication, requires dedicated hardware. This
hinders the penetration of ITS, especially in developing countries. In this thesis, we
focus on analyzing the feasibility of using Wi-Fi Direct (WD), which is readily available
on many smartphones, as an alternative communication technology for VANETs.
We simulate VANETs using DSRC and WD with the help of network simulator
NS3 and traffic simulator SUMO. We validate our model first using existing results,
and perform simulations to evaluate the performance of both single and multi-hop communications.
Metrics such as throughput, end-to-end delay, packet receiving/loss ratios
for both WD and DSRC are considered.
As expected, DSRC demonstrates a better performance with regards to most
of the measured parameters. However, we observe that the performance of WD is not
drastically inferior. Delays is the most crucial performance measure in a VANET. Experiments
with different WD modifications show that the delays in WD based VANETs
can be reduced by modifying the WD protocol. As a whole, our results indicate the
potential of WD as an alternative communication technology for VANETs. Several performance
gaps are identified and suggestions are provided in order to enhance WD and
bridge those gaps.
