A Novel Centralized TDMA-Based Scheduling Protocol for Vehicular Networks

In this paper, we propose a novel centralized time-division multiple access (TDMA)-based scheduling protocol for practical vehicular networks based on a new weight-factor-based scheduler. A roadside unit (RSU), as a centralized controller, collects the channel state information and the individual information of the communication links within its communication coverage, and it calculates their respective scheduling weight factors, based on which scheduling decisions are made by the RSU. Our proposed scheduling weight factor mainly consists of three parts, i.e., the channel quality factor, the speed factor, and the access category factor. In addition, a resource-reusing mode among multiple vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) links is permitted if the distances between every two central vehicles of these V2V links are larger than a predefined interference interval. Compared with the existing medium-access-control protocols in vehicular networks, the proposed centralized TDMA-based scheduling protocol can significantly improve the network throughput and can be easily incorporated into practical vehicular networks.