A flexible and adaptive medium access control protocol for improving quality of service in vehicular ad-hoc networks

Abstract

Designing MAC (Medium Access Control) protocols for VANETs is a difficult task due to the inherently unstable nature of these networks when compared to traditional ad hoc networks (high node speed, position changes that lead to disconnections, signal losses, etc.). In recent years, several standardization efforts have been made by the IEEE in association with the scientific community in this area and they proposed the 1609.4 MAC protocol in the IEEE WAVE (Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments) stack. The aim of our work is to improve the quality of service and overall performances of this 1609.4 MAC protocol by proposing three mechanisms. First, we introduce an equity algorithm that aims to ensure more fairness between nodes. We also adapt the SCH (Service CHannel) interval to the network's needs with a dynamic SCH interval mechanism. Finally, we propose an emergency mechanism that aims to ensure the transmission of critical safety packets when dangerous events occur on the road. The results of our simulations show a significant improvement of the protocol's performances in terms of throughput, packet loss and critical packet delivery rates under several scenarios.

Keywords:

• Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs)
• IEEE 1609.4
• medium access control
• quality of service

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yani-Athmane Bennai

Yani-Athmane Bennai is currently a Phd student at the University of Béjaïa, Algeria. He received his Master Degree (Computer Science) in 2017 at the University of Béjaïa. He is a member of the research group EPSIRT at the laboratory LAMOS of the University of Bejaia, he currently works in the area of vehicular ad hoc networks, especially on enhancing QoS within VANETs.

Samira Yessad

Dr. Samira Yessad is currently a Lecturer at the University of Béjaïa, Algeria. She received her engineer degree in computer science from the University of Tizi-Ouzou (Algeria), the Master Degree in 2007 and her Ph.D in 2015 in computer science from the University of Béjaïa (Algeria). She works as a teacher at the department of Computer Science at the University of Bejaia and she is a member of a research group at the laboratory LAMOS of the University of Bejaia. She worked in the area of sensor networks and many works to enhance network lifetime at MAC and Network layer were done. Currently, she works in the area of vehicular ad hoc networks, IoT, IoV and smart cities.

Louiza Bouallouche-Medjkoune

Professor Louiza Bouallouche-Medjkoune works as a teacher at the Department of Computer Science of University of Bejaia and as a researcher at the Research Unit LAMOS (Modeling and Optimization of Systems). She is head of the research team EPSIRT (Performance Evaluation of Computer Systems and telecommunication Networks) since 2005 and Chair of the Scientific Committee since January 2016. Her publications have appeared in various publishing houses: Taylor & Francis, Elsevier, Springer, IEEE Ed., Wiley Ed., AMS, BCS, etc. Her research interests are: Improving performance and Quality of Service, Information management (Cache Management, Load balancing, Security, …), Modeling and Evaluation of Performances (Markov Chains, Queuing Networks, Simulation, etc.) in Heterogeneous IT Systems and Networks (Very High Throughput, Ad hoc, Sensors, IoT, …).