Reliability of cluster-based multichannel MAC protocols in VANETs

The IEEE 802.11p or Wireless Access in Vehicular Environment (WAVE) has been adopted as a main technology for vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Its Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol is based on the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) of the IEEE 802.11 which has low performance and high collision rate especially when using a single channel. Therefore, many clustering-based multi-channel MAC protocols have been proposed to limit channel contention, provide fair channel access within the cluster, increase the network capacity by the spatial reuse of network resources and control the network topology more effectively. Most of these protocols did not study the optimized cluster parameters such as average cluster size, communication range within the cluster and between cluster heads, and the life time of a path. In this paper, we analyze the reliability and connectivity of a typical cluster-based MAC protocol in terms of these parameters.