A collaborative MAC protocol for inter-vehicle and road to vehicle communications

A medium access control (MAC) protocol using both IVC (inter-vehicle communications) and RVC (road to vehicle communications) collaboratively, called vehicle to vehicle and road to vehicle collaborative MAC protocol (VRCP), is proposed. VRCP achieves seamless communications by selecting a channel assignment method adaptively. In other words, each vehicle communicates using a channel selected randomly by non-persistent CSMA in the areas where the RSU (road side unit) does not exist, and communicates using a channel selected by TDMA where the RSU exists. The performance evaluations of VRCP are carried out by simulation. The results show the fundamental characteristics of VRCP, and VRCP is superior to a non-persistent CSMA.