Vehicular wireless media network (VWMN): a distributed broadband MAC for inter-vehicle communications

The allocation of 75MHz spectrum in the 5.9GHz band for Dedicate Short Range Communications (DSRC) in North America makes it possible to deliver high data rate multimedia applications via vehicle-to-roadside and even vehicle-to-vehicle wireless links. However, Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols mostly studied for DSRC systems are designed for safety relevant applications and insufficient for high data rate multimedia applications. In this work we propose a novel MAC solution, namely Vehicular Wireless Media Network (VWMN), based on a distributed beaconing scheme. The VWMN MAC is designed to support both time critical safety relevant applications and high data rate multimedia applications in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs), especially with multiple channels and in multi-hop scenarios. The most challenging issues faced by Inter-Vehicle Communications (IVC), i.e. synchronization and dynamic topology control, are discussed as well based on the VWMN MAC with proposed solutions.