Minimization of IEEE 802.11p Packet Collision Interference through Transmission Time Shifting

V2I communications are characterized by the presence of network nodes in vehicles and in the infrastructures that these vehicles use, as well as by the wireless interactions among them. Safety-related applications demand stringent requirements in terms of latency and packet delivery probability, especially when safety messages have to be delivered to vehicles by the infrastructure. Interference issues stem from the typical characteristics of wireless communications, i.e., the noise of the wireless medium, the limited communication range of the wireless entities, and the receiver passivity of all the conventional wireless transceivers during transmissions. This paper presents a synchronization mechanism to artificially replicate at a host premises destructive interference due to hidden terminals, together with an application-level technique to minimize that interference by shifting the packet transmission time, similarly to the MAC TDMA channel access method. As both have been field-tested, the paper also analyzes the results of these tests, all performed with real hardware on IEEE 802.11p over different frequencies and transmission powers, and with repeatability in mind. The resulting figures attest that interference effects due to hidden terminals may indeed take place on real IEEE 802.11p networks, and that carefully designed time-shifting mechanisms can actively mitigate them

Analytical Models of the Performance of IEEE 802.11p Vehicle to Vehicle Communications

The critical nature of vehicular communications requires their extensive testing and evaluation. Analytical models can represent an attractive and cost-effective approach for such evaluation if they can adequately model all underlying effects that impact the performance of vehicular communications. Several analytical models have been proposed to date to model vehicular communications based on the IEEE 802.11p (or DSRC) standard. However, existing models normally model in detail the MAC (Medium Access Control), and generally simplify the propagation and interference effects. This reduces their value as an alternative to evaluate the performance of vehicular communications. This paper addresses this gap, and presents new analytical models that accurately model the performance of vehicle-to-vehicle communications based on the IEEE 802.11p standard. The models jointly account for a detailed modeling of the propagation and interference effects, as well as the impact of the hidden terminal problem. The model quantifies the PDR (Packet Delivery Ratio) as a function of the distance between transmitter and receiver. The paper also presents new analytical models to quantify the probability of the four different types of packet errors in IEEE 802.11p. In addition, the paper presents the first analytical model capable to accurately estimate the Channel Busy Ratio (CBR) metric even under high channel load levels. All the analytical models are validated by means of simulation for a wide range of parameters, including traffic densities, packet transmission frequencies, transmission power levels, data rates and packet sizes. An implementation of the models is provided openly to facilitate their use by the community

Robust distributed resource allocation for cellular vehicle-to-vehicle communication

Mit Release 14 des LTE Standards unterstützt dieser die direkte Fahrzeug-zu-Fahrzeug-Kommunikation über den Sidelink. Diese Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit dem Scheduling Modus 4, einem verteilten MAC-Protokoll ohne Involvierung der Basisstation, das auf periodischer Wiederverwendung von Funkressourcen aufbaut. Der Stand der Technik und eine eigene Analyse des Protokolls decken verschiedene Probleme auf. So wiederholen sich Kollisionen von Paketen, wodurch manche Fahrzeuge für längere Zeit keine sicherheitskritischen Informationen verbreiten können. Kollisionen entstehen vermehrt auch dadurch, dass Hidden-Terminal-Probleme in Kauf genommen werden oder veränderliche Paketgrößen und -raten schlecht unterstützt werden. Deshalb wird ein Ansatz namens "Scheduling based on Acknowledgement Feedback Exchange" vorgeschlagen. Zunächst wird eine Funkreservierung in mehrere ineinander verschachtelte Unter-Reservierungen mit verschiedenen Funkressourcen unterteilt, was die Robustheit gegenüber wiederholenden Kollisionen erhöht. Dies ist die Grundlage für eine verteilte Staukontrolle, die die Periodizitätseigenschaft nicht verletzt. Außerdem können so veränderliche Paketgrößen oder -raten besser abgebildet werden. Durch die periodische Wiederverwendung können Acknowledgements für Funkressourcen statt für Pakete ausgesendet werden. Diese können in einer Bitmap in den Padding-Bits übertragen werden. Mittels der Einbeziehung dieser Informationen bei der Auswahl von Funkressourcen können Hidden-Terminal-Probleme effizient vermieden werden, da die Acknowledgements auch eine Verwendung dieser Funkressource ankündigen. Kollisionen können nun entdeckt und eine Wiederholung vermieden werden. Die Evaluierung des neuen MAC-Protokolls wurde zum großen Teil mittels diskreter-Event-Simulationen durchgeführt, wobei die Bewegung jedes einzelnen Fahrzeuges simuliert wurde. Der vorgeschlagene Ansatz führt zu einer deutlich erhöhten Paketzustellrate. Die Verwendung einer anwendungsbezogenen Awareness-Metrik zeigt, dass die Zuverlässigkeit der Kommunikation durch den Ansatz deutlich verbessert werden kann. Somit zeigt sich der präsentierte Ansatz als vielversprechende Lösung für die erheblichen Probleme, die der LTE Modus 4 mit sich bringt.The LTE Standard added support for a direct vehicle-to-vehicle communication via the Sidelink with Release 14. This dissertation focuses on the scheduling Mode 4, a distributed MAC protocol without involvement of the base station, which requires the periodic reuse of radio resources. The state of the art and a own analysis of this protocol unveil multiple problems. For example, packet collisions repeat in time, so that some vehicles are unable to distribute safety-critical information for extended periods of time. Collisions also arise due to the hidden-terminal problem, which is simply put up with in Mode 4. Additionally, varying packet sizes or rates can hardly be supported. Consequently, an approach called "Scheduling based on Acknowledgement Feedback Exchange" is proposed. Firstly, a reservation of radio resources is split into multiple, interleaved sub-reservations that use different radio resources. This increases the robustness against repeating collisions. It is also the basis for a distributed congestion control that does not violate the periodicity. Moreover, different packet rates or sizes can be supported. The periodic reuse of radio resources enables the transmission of acknowledgements for radio resources instead of packets. These can be transmitted in a bitmap inside the padding bits. Hidden-terminal problems can be mitigated by considering the acknowledgements when selecting radio resources as they announce the use of these radio resources. Collisions can also be detected and prevented from re-occurring. The evaluation of the MAC protocol is mostly performed using discrete-event simulations, which model the movement of every single vehicle. The presented approach leads to a clear improvement of the packet delivery rate. The use of an application-oriented metric shows that the communication robustness can be improved distinctly. The proposed approach hence presents itself as a promising solution for the considerable problems of LTE Mode 4

Modeling and analysis of IEEE 1609.4 MAC in the presence of error-prone channels

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) have been developed to improve the safety, comfort and efficiency of driving on the road. The IEEE 1609.4 is a standard intended to support multi-channel in VANETs. These channels include one control channel for safety applications and six service channels for service applications. However, there is still no comprehensive analysis for the average delay and system throughput of IEEE 1609.4 MAC in VANETs considering error-prone channel under non-saturated conditions. In this paper, we propose an analytical models based on 1-D and 2-D Markov chain to evaluate the performance analysis of IEEE 1609.4 MAC in the presence of error-prone channels. Besides, freezing of the back-off timer is taken into consideration to provide an accurate estimation of access to the channel. The simulation results have been carried out to validate the analytical results of our model. The results show that the performance of our model outperforms the existing model in terms of packet delivery ratio and average delay of safety packets over CCH, and system throughput of service packets over SCHs

Towards understanding the performance of IEEE 802.11 MAC in heterogeneous traffic conditions

Motivated by the need to study the performance of vehicular communication protocols as applicable to heterogeneous traffic conditions, we study the performance of IEEE 802.11p medium access protocol under such a traffic setup. We consider a setup comprising connected vehicles and human-driven Motorised Two Wheelers (MTWs), where the connected vehicles are required to move as platoon with a desired constant headway despite interruptions from the two wheelers. We invoke specific mobility models for the movement of the vehicles--car following models for connected vehicle platoons and gap-acceptance model to capture the movement of the MTWs--and use them to configure (i) the traffic setup and (ii) the rate at which data packets related to safety-critical messages need to be transmitted. A control-theoretic analysis of the car-following models yields a bound on the admissible communication delay to ensure non-oscillatory convergence of the platoon headway. We then use suitable Markov chain models to derive the distribution of the MAC access delay experienced by packets pertaining to safety-critical events as well as routine safety messages. The distribution along with the bound on the admissible delay enables us to derive the reliability of the 802.11p MAC protocol in terms of traffic and EDCA parameters. Our study highlights the need for redesign of MAC protocols for vehicular communications for safety-critical applications in heterogeneous conditions.Comment: 15 page