Improving reliability of platooning control messages using radio and visible light hybrid communication

Autonomous platoon control is a promising auto drive technology. It frees drivers from stressful driving task and offers comfortable car trip experience. It is also expected to contribute to energy savings. In platooning control systems, beacon messages have an important role. Each member vehicle controls its acceleration according to the information of the position, speed, and acceleration included in the beacons from 1) the leader vehicle and 2) its preceding vehicle. Since the position, speed, and acceleration of a vehicle can be observed by its direct follower vehicle using on-board sensors, the beacon for preceding vehicle is not so critical. In contrast, the beacon transmitted from the leader vehicle to the member vehicles cannot be replaced by on-board sensors and is the key factor that requires high reliability. However, radio communication from the leader to the member vehicles is vulnerable to radio jamming attacks. This paper proposes a radio and visible light communication (VLC) hybrid protocol to tackle RF jamming attacks. Simulation results show that the proposed hybrid protocol can avoid long end-to-end delay and achieve high message delivery ratio even under RF jamming attacks.