Improving V2R connectivity to provide ITS applications in IEEE 802.11p/WAVE VANETs

A wide variety of applications for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) require vehicles on the road to be provided with connectivity to the Internet. Due to the high costs for deploying and maintaining an ubiquitous roadside infrastructure, only a few Road-side Units (RSUs) are expected to be initially installed to offer wireless connectivity to vehicles in a VANET (Vehicular Ad hoc Network). Discontinuous radio coverage and high vehicle mobility will cause vehicle-to-roadside (V2R) connectivity to be intermittent and short-lived. In this paper, a proposal aiming to reduce the connectivity gaps between vehicles and the RSU and to improve the radio channel utilization is evaluated when considering the upcoming 802.11p/WAVE standard for vehicular environments. Periodic beaconing from any vehicle and position-aware data rate adaptation are exploited to enhance RSU discovery capability and V2R connectivity.