Evaluation of Multi-Channel Schemes for Vehicular Safety Communications

In the US, the Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) spectrum is organized into several channels. IEEE 1609.4 [2] defines an alternating-access channel switching scheme to enable a DSRC device to support applications concurrently on different channels. The default channel for Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) safety messages is the Control Channel (CCH), but previous research has identified performance issues with this safety communication model. This paper proposes three alternative approaches for DSRC V2V safety communication in a multi-channel environment, all of which improve performance compared to the basic IEEE 1609.4 approach, while requiring only minor changes to the standards. The alternative approaches and the basic IEEE 1609.4 approach are evaluated via ns-2 simulations.