Roadside unit location for information propagation promotion on two parallel roadways with a general headway distribution

Abstract

In this study, an analytical model for roadside unit (RSU) location is proposed. The objective of the model is to promote information propagation on two parallel roadways in vehicular ad hoc networks. The information propagation is achieved through multi-hop vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. The relationship between the information travel time from one RSU to another and the distance between the two RSUs are derived. The RSU location problem is formulated as a shortest path problem and then as an integer linear programming. The proposed model is applicable for traffic flow with a general vehicle headway distribution. A detailed comparison between the proposed model and an existing RSU location model is conducted through Monto Carlo simulation experiments under different vehicle headway distributions, traffic densities, budget sizes, and road separation distances. The results indicate that the proposed model outperforms the existing model in all cases. Moreover, it is shown that it is necessary to consider the general vehicle headway distribution and road separation in RSU locations that are focused on information propagation promotion.