Exploring the solution space of beaconing in VANETs

Vehicular networking is an enabling technology for intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Different types of vehicular traffic applications are currently being investigated. In this paper we briefly introduce the communication requirements of a cooperative adaptive cruise control (C-ACC) vehicular traffic efficiency application. Furthermore, we propose a channel busy time model to evaluate the solution space of a vehicular beaconing system designed to communicate information both vital and sufficient for vehicular traffic applications and in particular for C-ACC. We identify that the solution space is three-dimensional. These dimensions being based on the number of nodes (or vehicles), the beacon generation rate of the nodes and the size (or duration) of a beacon message. Based on the channel busy time model we derive boundaries and ranges of parameters within which the beaconing system can be adapted to meet the requirements of the C-ACC application.