An Energy-Efficient Broadcast MAC Protocol for Hybrid Vehicular Networks

Abstract

In vehicular networks, sparse roadside vehicular communication (RVC) systems on highways are difficult to provide full coverage of existing roadways because the distance between the roadside units (RSUs) is farther than the RSU's transmission range. In sparse RVC, collision-free communication is required because the time available for communication is very short. In addition, the collision-free communication has an energy-efficient feature. Therefore, we propose an energy-efficient broadcast MAC protocol in order to expand the service coverage in RVC systems and collision-free communication. The proposed protocol performs a hybrid vehicular communication (HVC). It has a rebroadcast mechanism using a vehicle's velocity, distance, and angle from nearby vehicle for collision-free communication. Then, we show our protocol's performance evaluation using ns-2.