Performance analysis of a hybrid efficient and reliable MAC scheme for vehicular Ad Hoc networks in safety applications

Abstract

Safety applications are the highest priority services in the Vehicular Ad Hoc NETworks (VANETs). To support the highest priority service, the Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol is designed to provide efficient broadcast. Compared to IEEE 1609.4, a new multi-channel MAC for VANET (HER-MAC) is proposed which is more reliable in safety applications. In this paper, we propose an analytical model to evaluate the performance of HER-MAC protocol under non-saturation condition through the packet delivery ratio. We also describe two MAC access schemes for HER-MAC protocol: safety application packets using TDMA access scheme and safety application packets using Distributed Coordination Function (DCF). Simulation results show that safety application packets using TDMA access scheme has higher packet delivery ratio and more reliability than safety application packets using distributed coordination function.