Notes on DSRC & WAVE Standards Suite: Its Architecture, Design, and Characteristics

The Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) standards suite is based on multiple cooperating standards mainly developed by the IEEE. In particular, we focus this paper on the core design aspects of DSRC which is called Wireless Access in Vehicular Networks (WAVE). WAVE is highlighted in IEEE 1609.1/.2/.3/.4. The DSRC and WAVE standards have been the center of major attention in both research and industrial communities. In 2008, WAVE standard was the third best seller standards in the history of the IEEE. This attention reflects the potential of WAVE to facilitate much of the vehicular safety applications. In this paper we present a fairly detailed tutorial of the WAVE standards. We extend the paper by describing some of the lessons learned from particular design approaches. We direct the reader to the landmark research papers in relevant topics. We alert the reader about major open research issues that might lead to future contribution to the WAVE design.