A Novel MIMO-OFDM Based MAC Protocol for VANETs

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have recently become more significant to intelligent transport systems (ITS). Recent works focused on improving throughput and decreasing delay. In this paper, a novel MIMO-OFDM based MAC Protocol is proposed for VANETs to enhance their performance. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) are integrated to exploit the benefit of both MIMO and OFDM. To accord MIMO with OFDM, a novel access mechanism is proposed. 3D Markov chain model-based analytical study is presented, considered a non-saturated condition. Nakagami-m fading channels are taken into account in the study. Parameters affecting performance are taken into consideration, and relationships are derived. The probability of successful transmission, probability of outage, bit error rate (BER), throughput, and delay expressions are achieved. Moreover, numerical results are presented, which verify analytical studies.