Mitigating wifi interference to improve throughput for in-vehicle infotainment networks

In recent years, in-vehicle infotainment networks (IVINs) have rapidly become one of the most valuable features auto makers have used to promote their flagship models as an advanced competitive marketing weapon. IVINs can provide passengers with multimedia services locally as well as Internet connectivity through a gateway known as a mobile hotspot. The in-vehicle mobile hotspot is embedded in the car and supports cellular connection. Utilizing this system, mobile devices can access the in-vehicle unified infotainment framework to comfortably enjoy streaming services, online games, online commerce, social network services, and so on. However, because of wireless access characteristics, if a significant number of Wi-Fi mobile hotspots are densely located, the throughput of the mobile devices will be tremendously diminished due to the interference among the mobile hotspots of IVINs, as well as with existing fixed office or residential APs along the road. In this article, we discuss the interference problems of Wi-Fi access in IVINs, provide effective solutions to these problems, and present the performance of each proposed approach within typical case studies.