3 research outputs found
Physical and Link Layer Implications in Vehicle Ad Hoc Networks
Vehicle Ad hoc Networks (V ANET) have been proposed to provide safety on the
road and deliver road traffic information and route guidance to drivers along with
commercial applications. However the challenges facing V ANET are numerous. Nodes
move at high speeds, road side units and basestations are scarce, the topology is
constrained by the road geometry and changes rapidly, and the number of nodes peaks
suddenly in traffic jams. In this thesis we investigate the physical and link layers of
V ANET and propose methods to achieve high data rates and high throughput.
For the physical layer, we examine the use of Vertical BLAST (VB LAST) systems
as they provide higher capacities than single antenna systems in rich fading
environments. To study the applicability of VB LAST to VANET, a channel model was
developed and verified using measurement data available in the literature. For no to
medium line of sight, VBLAST systems provide high data rates. However the
performance drops as the line of sight strength increases due to the correlation between
the antennas. Moreover, the performance of VBLAST with training based channel
estimation drops as the speed increases since the channel response changes rapidly. To
update the channel state information matrix at the receiver, a channel tracking algorithm
for flat fading channels was developed. The algorithm updates the channel matrix thus
reducing the mean square error of the estimation and improving the bit error rate (BER).
The analysis of VBLAST-OFDM systems showed they experience an error floor due to
inter-carrier interference (lCI) which increases with speed, number of antennas
transmitting and number of subcarriers used. The update algorithm was extended to
VBLAST -OFDM systems and it showed improvements in BER performance but still
experienced an error floor. An algorithm to equalise the ICI contribution of adjacent
subcarriers was then developed and evaluated. The ICI equalisation algorithm reduces
the error floor in BER as more subcarriers are equalised at the expense of more
hardware complexity.
The connectivity of V ANET was investigated and it was found that for single lane
roads, car densities of 7 cars per communication range are sufficient to achieve high
connectivity within the city whereas 12 cars per communication range are required for
highways. Multilane roads require higher densities since cars tend to cluster in groups.
Junctions and turns have lower connectivity than straight roads due to disconnections at
the turns. Although higher densities improve the connectivity and, hence, the
performance of the network layer, it leads to poor performance at the link layer. The
IEEE 802.11 p MAC layer standard under development for V ANET uses a variant of
Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA). 802.11 protocols were analysed
mathematically and via simulations and the results prove the saturation throughput of
the basic access method drops as the number of nodes increases thus yielding very low
throughput in congested areas. RTS/CTS access provides higher throughput but it
applies only to unicast transmissions. To overcome the limitations of 802.11 protocols,
we designed a protocol known as SOFT MAC which combines Space, Orthogonal
Frequency and Time multiple access techniques. In SOFT MAC the road is divided into
cells and each cell is allocated a unique group of subcarriers. Within a cell, nodes share
the available subcarriers using a combination of TDMA and CSMA. The throughput
analysis of SOFT MAC showed it has superior throughput compared to the basic access
and similar to the RTS/CTS access of 802.11
Cooperative & cost-effective network selection: a novel approach to support location-dependent & context-aware service migration in VANETs
Vehicular networking has gained considerable interest within the research community and industry. This class of mobile ad hoc network expects to play a vital role in the design and deployment of intelligent transportation systems. The research community expects to launch several innovative applications over Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs). The automotive industry is supporting the notion of pervasive connectivity by agreeing to equip vehicles with devices required for vehicular ad hoc networking. Equipped with these devices, mobile nodes in VANETs are capable of hosting many types of applications as services for other nodes in the network. These applications or services are classified as safety-critical (failure or unavailability of which may lead to a life threat) and non-safety-critical (failure of which do not lead to a life threat). Safety-critical and non-safety-critical applications need to be supported concurrently within VANETs. This research covers non-safety-critical applications since the research community has overlooked this class of applications. More specifically, this research focuses on VANETs services that are location-dependent. Due to high speed mobility, VANETs are prone to intermittent network connectivity. It is therefore envisioned that location-dependence and intermittent network connectivity are the two major challenges for VANETs to host and operate non-safety-critical VANETs services. The challenges are further exacerbated when the area where the services are to be deployed is unplanned i.e. lacks communication infrastructure and planning. Unplanned areas show irregular vehicular traffic on the road. Either network traffic flows produced by irregular vehicular traffic may lead to VANETs communication channel congestion, or it may leave the communication channel under-utilized. In both cases, this leads to communication bottlenecks within VANETs. This dissertation investigates the shortcomings of location-dependence, intermittent network connectivity and irregular network traffic flows and addresses them by exploiting location-dependent service migration over an integrated network in an efficient and cost-effective manner
Wireless Adhoc Networks for Inter-Vehicle Communication," in Zukunft der Netze - Die Verlezbarkeit meistern, 16. DFNArbeitstagung \über Kommunikationsnetze: GI
Future enhancements in automobile technology will cope – besides traditional aspects, like security and driving conditions or comfort aspects of passengers – especially with the ability of vehicles to communicate. The aspirated enhancements in the ability of communication of vehicles should not only focus on the use of existing wireless (cellular) networks, but should also concentrate on totally new concepts for inter-vehicle communication. Th