Multihop R-ALOHA for intervehicle communications at millimeter waves

With reference to road transport information (RTI) applications, such as cooperative driving, short-range intervehicle communications in a highway environment are investigated in this paper. The research in this field indicates the suitability of the 60-64-GHz band. Due to the distributed nature of the intervehicle communication system, an R-ALOHA protocol is considered; multihop (MH) and single-hop (SH) strategies are compared. Network performance is assessed by considering the joint impact of random access, interference, thermal noise, propagation, and packet capture effect. Several figures of merit are analyzed and discussed: packet success probability (PSP), system stabilization time (SST), first success time (FST), and deadline failure probability (DFP). Network performance is evaluated either by an analytical approach or by a software tool able to simulate a one-lane highway scenario. Both steady-state and transition situations are considered. System performance in terms of PSP (in the presence of two-way Rice fading, noise, and interference with antenna diversity and selection combining) is analytically evaluated to validate the simulation tool and to prove the suitability of an MH network strategy. The simulation approach allows the evaluation of the impact of protocol parameters on network performance, with reference to nonsteady-state situations.