A decentralized location-based channel access protocol for inter-vehicle communication

A new medium access control (MAC) protocol based on dynamic multiple access scheme using geo-localization is proposed for mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). The proposed scheme called location-based channel access (LCA) protocol, works without the need for a central station for channel assignment. Allocation of channels to the mobile/stationary nodes involved in the communication system is done based no their instantaneous geographical location. The geographical location is obtained either through GPS or any other geo-localization system. LCA is compared with the existing MAC protocols, and various applications for which LCA is ideally suited are discussed. As an example application, LCA for inter-vehicle communication is discussed. A patent application based on this protocol has been filed at the German Patents & Trademarks Office [Shanmukh K. et al.].