Handling handovers in vehicular communications using an IEEE 802.11p model in NS-2

The focus of this article is to show how a caching mechanism can be applied to vehicular networks operating under the draft standard IEEE 802.11p to reduce the probe delay, and consequently, the handover delay in vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. The authors have developed and tested an IEEE 802.11p model within the simulator NS-2 to evaluate the performance of vehicular applications. The simulation framework is to the authors' best knowledge, the first framework open to the research community that deals with handovers in vehicular networks while operating under an access technology for vehicular environments. Simulation results analysis confirm the choice of IEEE 802.11p as the ideal technology for data short-range communications (DSRC) when compared to other variants of the generic IEEE 802.11 standard as well as the technique used to reduce the handover delays, which, if left untreated, would be a serious hindrance to the optimal performance of vehicular applications.