A Multi Channel Beaconing Service for Collision Avoidance in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

Pre-crash warning is a core functionality in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETS). To avoid accidents, each vehicle calculates the probability of a collision with any of its neighbors based on the received beacons. An accurate neighbor awareness requires a high beacon transmit rate, which leads to an overloaded communication channel in dense traffic scenarios. To reduce channel load and increase the accuracy of information for vehicles residing in critical situations, we propose a novel multi channel beaconing service based on a request/reply protocol. Based on simulations, we evaluate the proposed approach in low and high density scenarios. We show that the approach provides highly up-to-date information in safety critical situations, while still keeping the communication overhead low.