车载自组织网络MAC协议研究综述

A Survey of MAC Protocols in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

近年来,随着车载通信系统的不断发展和自组织网络技术的日益成熟,将二者有机结合成一体的车载自组织网络(VANET, Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks)已引起学术界和工业界的极大关注。媒介接入控制(MAC, Medium Access Control)协议是保证移动终端能够公平有效地共享无线信道的必要手段,是车载自组织网络的关键技术之一。由于VANET自身的特点及不断增长的业务不同,现有自组织网络的MAC协议并不能直接用于车载自组织网络中。本文在简要介绍车载自组织网络特点和MAC协议基本原理的基础上,对车载自组织网络MAC协议的最新研究进展进行了综述,探讨了几种具有代表性的车载自组织网络MAC协议方案,分析了目前研究中存在的主要问题和挑战,并指出了该领域未来发展趋势。

In recent years, with the rapid development of vehicular communication systems and advanced ad hoc network technologies, Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET) which combines both of them has greatly attracted those people’s attention in academic and industry fields. As one of the key technologies in vehicular ad hoc networks, MAC (Medium Access Control) protocol is indispensable to ensure the mobile nodes share the wireless medium fairly and efficiently. Since the specific characteristics and the increased variety of services in VANET, MAC protocols which are designed for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks are impossible to apply in VANET directly. In this paper, a survey of current MAC protocols for VANET is given. Then, we describe several latest MAC protocol schemes and analysis the main problems and challenges. Finally, some future research areas for MAC in VANET are pointed out.