Properties of the MAC layer in safety vehicular Ad Hoc networks

With intervehicle communications becoming a more and more popular research topic recently, the medium access control layer of the vehicular network has also received a considerable amount of attention. However, this increased interest has not always translated into a careful analysis of the properties exhibited by the MAC protocol when used by vehicular safety applications. This article tries to fill this gap by providing a comprehensive discussion on a number of important characteristics of the link layer in vehicular communications.