A Directional Clustering Protocol for Millimeter Wave Vehicular Ad hoc Networks

In this paper, we propose a novel technique to integrate millimeter wave (mmWave) communication into the popular direct short-range communication (DSRC) standard to achieve ultra-reliable, low-latency, and high data rate communication (URLLHDC). Specifically, a vehicle is equipped with a front and a rear directional mmWave antenna as well as a DSRC omni-directional antenna. Then, we design a clustering protocol that groups vehicles driving in the same lane by multi-hop mmWave links. To minimize collisions and latency, only the first and last vehicles in the cluster will enable the DSRC channel acting as gateways for the remaining DSRC-inactive cluster members. The proposed scheme is evaluated using realistic VANET simulators, namely, VEINS and SUMO. The results show that the scheme can achieve URLLDHC in different road densities and with negligible overheads. © 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.