A new Self-Organizing Multi-channel MAC schema for RSU-centric VANETs

Media Access Control (MAC) schemas of the network are the most important parts of the coordination and control of vehicles in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET). The MAC schemas work on all nodes in self-organized networks, while they are working on Road Side Units (RSUs) that manage the centrally managed networks. Especially in self-organized networks, the MAC schema must be able to provide fast connection and coordination to all vehicles. Due to the rapid displacement of the vehicles in the Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs), the transitions between the two RSUs occurs in a short time, but most of the time, this period is not enough for vehicles to reconnect. Therefore, packet loss and performance degradation occur in the network. In this study, the mobile vehicles made their channel reservations while they were in the intersection area of two neighboring RSUs, enabling the rapid transition to the next RSU network without disconnecting from the network. Accordingly, we propose a Self-organizing Multi-channel MAC (SOMMAC) that enables the rapid handover to the next RSU network without disconnecting from the network, when the mobile vehicles that make their channel reservations are in the intersection area of two neighboring RSUs. In our simulation results, we observed that the proposed SOMMAC schema provides better performance in the parameters of network joining delay, media access collisions, and packet transmission rate compared to the other studies.