Evaluating the Performance of ETSI-ITS Multi-Stack Protocols for V2V Communication in VANETs: A Simulation Study

Abstract

The research evaluates various multi-stack protocols for Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs), focusing on Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication scenarios with Emergency Vehicle (EV) simulations. The study uses the ns-3 network and SUMO (Simulation of Urban MObility) traffic simulators to test these protocols in diverse scenarios, including fluctuating data rates and dense network conditions. By implementing the IEEE 802.11p protocol alongside vehicular message dissemination stacks compliant with ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) standards, the study performs simulation experiments with varying vehicle counts, ranging from 20 to 35. It employs two distinct data rate configurations while maintaining a constant transmission power of 23 dBm. The results indicate a decline in the average Packet Reception Ratio (PRR) as vehicle density increases, indicating heightened contention and interference. At the same time, there is an observed increase in average latency, contributing to increased message transmission and reception delays. The quantitative analysis demonstrates an inverse relationship between the average PRR and the total vehicle count when the SEND_CAM message is enabled. On the other hand, disabling SEND_CAM maintains a relatively consistent average PRR across scenarios. Additionally, a positive correlation between vehicle count and average latency underlines the impact of network congestion and interference on communication efficacy within VANETs. Despite suboptimal PRR values falling between 41% and 47%, latency performance remains satisfactory, with average latency durations ranging from 0.154 s to 0.187 s. Notably, the SEND_CAM parameter status shows negligible impact on protocol performance, suggesting that network density plays a more pivotal role. Finally, this study offers valuable insights into the trade-offs and challenges of multi-stack protocols in V2V communication within VANETs. Further optimization efforts are recommended to improve packet reception ratios, especially in high-vehicle-density environments, while maintaining acceptable latency levels. These findings contribute to the ongoing efforts to enhance the reliability and efficiency of communication protocols in VANETs, thus advancing the development of intelligent transportation systems. The study's quantitative protocol performance analysis under varying network conditions provides valuable guidance for optimizing V2V communication deployments in VANETs.