Modern WLAN for V2X Applications: Exploiting Beamforming for Platooning

A key challenge in the domain of Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC) is to make the best use of limited channel capacity to achieve a continuous exchange of information. In this work, we propose the use of directional radio transmission and reception (known from modern WLAN standards, but following the IEEE 802.11p specifications) to lower the channel utilization. In this work, we use platooning as an example application, since this application offers a well-defined communication topology. Using extensive simulations, we show that directional communication can substantially lower the channel busy ratio to less then half for platoon vehicles and down to less than 1% for non-platoon vehicles. If care is not taken, however, it can drastically increase the probability for packet collisions.