SDMA: On The Suitability for VANET

Medium access control (MAC) is critical for vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET). A real commercial VANET system has not come into the market. Different MAC schemes have been proposed to attempt to achieve the expected performance, such as bounded delay, high packet reception rate, security, etc. Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) is one of the VANET MAC proposals and has been theoretically investigated. However, it has not been studied whether SDMA is realistically feasible in VANET. In this paper, the suitability of SDMA for VANET is studied. The core mechanisms of the proposed SDMA and of the possible SDMA functions for VANET are analyzed and evaluated. Concerns upon practical implementation issues and theoretical limits are presented, based on which the conclusion of the unsuitability of SDMA for VANET is drawn.