Faster Information Propagation on Highways: a Virtual MIMO Approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a cluster-based virtual MIMO scheme for vehicular networks that significantly enhances information propagation speed, especially in moderate traffic conditions, by leveraging cooperative vehicle arrays.

Contribution

It proposes a novel cooperative forwarding scheme using virtual MIMO technology to improve highway information dissemination efficiency.

Findings

Significant IPS gain in moderate traffic scenarios.

Increased vehicle mobility enhances information propagation.

Dense or sparse traffic reduces the scheme's effectiveness.

Abstract

In vehicular communications, traffic-related information should be spread over the network as quickly as possible to maintain a safe and reliable transportation system. This motivates us to develop more efficient information propagation schemes. In this paper, we propose a novel cluster-based cooperative information forwarding scheme, in which the vehicles opportunistically form virtual antenna arrays to boost one-hop transmission range and therefore accelerate information propagation along the highway. Both closed-form results of the transmission range gain and the improved Information Propagation Speed (IPS) are derived and verified by simulations. It is observed that the proposed scheme demonstrates the most significant IPS gain in moderate traffic scenarios, whereas too dense or too sparse vehicle density results in less gain. Moreover, it is also shown that increased mobility offers more contact opportunities and thus facilitates information propagation.