An IEEE 802.11p-Based Multichannel MAC Scheme With Channel Coordination for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

In recent years, governments, standardization bodies, automobile manufacturers, and academia are working together to develop vehicular ad hoc network (VANET)-based communication technologies. VANETs apply multiple channels, i.e., control channel (CCH) and service channels (SCHs), to provide open public road safety services and the improve comfort and efficiency of driving. Based on the latest standard draft IEEE 802.11p and IEEE 1609.4, this paper proposes a variable CCH interval (VCI) multichannel medium access control (MAC) scheme, which can dynamically adjust the length ratio between CCH and SCHs. The scheme also introduces a multichannel coordination mechanism to provide contention-free access of SCHs. Markov modeling is conducted to optimize the intervals based on the traffic condition. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed scheme is able to help IEEE 1609.4 MAC significantly enhance the saturated throughput of SCHs and reduce the transmission delay of service packets while maintaining the prioritized transmission of critical safety information on CCH.