Literature Survey on Recent Progress in Inter-Vehicle Communication Simulations

The vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) technology based on the approved IEEE 802.11p standard and the appendant inter-vehicle communication (IVC) has the potential to dramatically change the way transportation systems work. The fundamental idea is to change the individual behavior of each vehicle by exchanging information among traffic participants to realize a cooperative and more efficient transportation system. Certainly, the evaluation of such systems is a comprehensive and challenging task in a real world test bed, therefore, simulation frameworks are a key tool to analyze IVC. Several models are needed to emulate the real behavior of a VANET in all aspects as much realistically as necessary. The intention of this survey is to provide a comprehensive overview of publications concerning IVC simulations of the year 2013 and to see how IVC simulation has changed since 2009. Based on this analysis, we will answer the following questions: What simulation techniques are applied to IVC? Which aspects of IVS have been evaluated? What has changed within five years of IVC simulations? We also take a closer look at commonly used software tools and discuss their functionality and drawbacks. Finally, we present open questions concerning IVC simulations.