Reliability and survivability of vehicular ad hoc networks: An analytical approach

• The reliability and survivability of VANET are evaluated.
• The reliability of the vehicles and road side equipment is investigated using RBDs.
• The survivability of the network is explored using Markov reward model.
• Finally the results obtained from analytical model are verified against simulation.

Vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is a technology that facilitates communication between vehicles by creating a ‘mobile Internet’. The system aims at ensuring road safety and achieving secured commutation. For this reason, reliability and survivability of the network become matters of prime concern. Reliability and survivability of the network is immensely dependent upon the hardware and channel availability. This paper, primarily focuses on the reliability and survivability of VANET as a function of reliable hardware and channel availability. The reliability of the vehicles and the road side equipment is investigated using reliability block diagrams. The survivability of the network, with respect to reliable hardware and channel availability is explored using Markov chains and Markov reward model. Considering that the communication between the vehicles may take place directly (i.e., vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)) or through the road side equipment (i.e., vehicle-to-roadside (V2R)), the evaluation is ascertained for both V2V and V2R communications methodology, in terms of network reliability, connectivity and message lost due to unreliable hardware or channel availability. The technique of hierarchical modeling is adopted for the same. The results are also verified against simulation.