992

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 46, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 1997

Multihop R-ALOHA for Intervehicle

Communications at Millimeter Waves
Roberto Verdone, Member, IEEE

AbstractWith reference to road transport information (RTI)

applications, such as cooperative driving, short-range intervehicle
communications in a highway environment are investigated in
this paper. The research in this field indicates the suitability of
the 6064-GHz band.
Due to the distributed nature of the intervehicle communication
system, an R-ALOHA protocol is considered; multihop (MH) and
single-hop (SH) strategies are compared. Network performance
is assessed by considering the joint impact of random access,
interference, thermal noise, propagation, and packet capture
effect. Several figures of merit are analyzed and discussed: packet
success probability (PSP), system stabilization time (SST), first
success time (FST), and deadline failure probability (DFP). Network performance is evaluated either by an analytical approach
or by a software tool able to simulate a one-lane highway scenario. Both steady-state and transition situations are considered.
System performance in terms of PSP (in the presence of tworay Rice fading, noise, and interference with antenna diversity
and selection combining) is analytically evaluated to validate the
simulation tool and to prove the suitability of an MH network
strategy. The simulation approach allows the evaluation of the
impact of protocol parameters on network performance, with
reference to nonsteady-state situations.
Index TermsHighway, intervehicle, millimeter waves, multihop.

I. INTRODUCTION

ITH THE purpose of designing a road traffic management system, either in urban or in highway environments, intervehicle communications will play a relevant
role for road transport information (RTI) applications such as
collision avoidance and cooperative driving, aimed at improving traffic safety and efficiency [1], [2]. Several European
Research Programs (such as DRIVE and PROMETHEUS)
have dedicated efforts to this field in the past years. System designers are considering higher and higher frequency
ranges having larger bandwidth capacity; more precisely,
microwave and millimeter wave systems are investigated in
Europe [3][5].
In a highway environment, information exchange (about
speed, acceleration, etc.) between vehicles has to be allowed
either in the presence or in the absence of fixed infrastructure:
this can be achieved by means of short-range intervehicle
communication links [6], [7]. In this sense, the use of the

Manuscript received April 7, 1996; revised September 9, 1996. This work

was performed under contract with Progetto Finalizzato Trasporti 2, CNR,
Rome, Italy.
The author is with CSITE-CNR, University of Bologna, 40136 Bologna,
Italy.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9545(97)05116-5.

6064-GHz band is suggested by the presence of a peak in

the oxygen absorption at those frequencies, allowing efficient
spatial filtering effects. In Europe, the 63.5-GHz band has been
recommended [8].
In this paper, a short-range communication system at 63.5
GHz for highway environments and cooperative driving applications, is considered. Due to the need for distributed network
management, a suitable multiple-access protocol has to be
proposed. Moreover, since propagation impairments can cause
high levels of unavailability of the service, proper transmission
techniques have to be exploited [9], [10].
In the literature, some recent papers have been dedicated
to intervehicle communication systems at millimeter waves
[9][14], but usually investigating transmission or network
aspects separately.
The aim of this paper is to evaluate network performance
by taking propagation impairments, transmission techniques,
random access and network structure into account: the effects
of fading and cochannel interference are also considered.
In [11], narrowband and spread-spectrum modulation systems were compared in the framework of an S-ALOHA
protocol, and the former showed superior performance in the
given scenario. In [12] and [13], an S-ALOHA network in
a real environment was investigated. However, for cooperative driving applications, vehicles have to send their status
information to the neighborhood mobiles periodically; hence,
a protocol allowing a form of channel reservation should
be considered. An R-ALOHA network was investigated in
[15], but an ideal channel was assumed for performance
evaluation. R-ALOHA and its modifications were proposed
for intervehicle communications also in [6] and [7]
This paper starts from the conclusions drawn in [15], and
its first aim is to show the impact of the propagation channel
on network performance when R-ALOHA is used; a one-lane
scenario, where vehicles are separated by a fixed distance,
is considered. Frame synchronization is assumed, which can
be obtained either by means of roadside infrastructures supporting the intervehicle system, or by exploiting a distributed
algorithm [16].
The number of mobile terminals that should receive the
information referred to a given vehicle [defining the so-called
zone of relevance (ZOR)] is a parameter of relevance, from the
point of view of both the application and the communication
protocol [17]; moreover, the information could be transmitted
either by broadcasting to all the vehicles in the ZOR, or
by means of multihop (MH) links, where mobile terminals
retransmit received packets. In this paper, MH and single-hop

00189545/97$10.00 1997 IEEE

VERDONE: MULTIHOP R-ALOHA FOR INTERVEHICLE COMMUNICATIONS

(SH) R-ALOHA systems are compared, in order to underline

the suitability of the MH strategy in the given context.
In the paper, several figures of merit are analyzed: packet
success probability (PSP), system stabilization time (SST), first
success time (FST), deadline failure probability (DFP). The
performance is assessed as a joint effect of fading, noise and
interference: suitable channel characterization at 63.5 GHz is
given by means of a two-ray Rice model taking the effect
of the road-reflected wave into account. With the purpose of
evaluating network performance, two means are exploited.
1) An analytical procedure [14], [18][20] allowing the
evaluation of PSP in the joint presence of thermal
noise, cochannel interference, Rician fading, and antenna
diversity with selection combining.
2) A simulation tool able to model the one-lane highway
environment under investigation. It allows the simulation
of nonsteady-state situations.
Both the analytical and the simulation approach take into
account channel impairments due to fading, antenna diversity,
the mo-demodulation techniques employed and the strategy of
received power measurement; the packet capture effect, in the
framework of the R-ALOHA protocol, is also considered.
As a first step in the paper, PSP is evaluated by means
of the analytical procedure. Its determination allows proper
testing of the simulation tool results; moreover, starting from
the analytical approach, a suitable comparison between the
performance of the SH and MH strategy can be carried
out. Then, with the aim of stressing the impact of protocol
parameters on network performance in the real environment
considered, nonsteady-state situations are analyzed through the
use of the simulation tool.
In conclusion, the combined approach enables proper investigation of system sensitivity, in a real environment, to several
parameters such as the number of vehicles in the network,
the number of slots per frame, bit rate, intervehicle distance,
the SH or MH strategies, power requirements, etc. The impact
of channel propagation, movement of vehicles and antenna
diversity on network performance is evaluated.
The paper is organized as follows. In Section II, the communications scenario is introduced. In Section III, the main
characteristics of the intervehicle link at 63.5 GHz are summarized. Section IV introduces the analytical method for link
performance evaluation proposed in [14]. Then, the assumptions regarding the network model are described (Section V).
The performance comparison between an SH and an MH
approach is shown in Section VI. Section VII presents the
simulation tool for analyzing network behavior in nonsteadystate situations. Finally, numerical results are given.

993

Fig. 1. One-lane highway scenario.

Fig. 2. SH and MH strategies.

given vehicle, in its neighborhood. It defines the ZOR [17]. In

this paper, it is assumed that the status of a given mobile has to
be known by the
closest terminals:
of these behind
and
ahead. Different values of
are considered.
An R-ALOHA protocol is investigated: the time resource is
subdivided into frames of duration
seconds, each of them
slots. Each vehicle exploits the radio channel
consisting of
to transmit packets containing its status to the
closest
mobiles in its ZOR, according to (see Fig. 2) the following.
1) An SH strategy: the vehicle broadcasts the packets to
the mobiles directly
2) An MH strategy: the vehicle transmits the packets to
the two closest terminals
; these retransmit the
information in the following frame (together with their
own data), playing as repeaters.
For cooperative driving applications, a channel bit rate in
the order of 10 Kb/s is sufficient to allow the necessary
information to be exchanged [17]. However, data have to be
exchanged cyclically, in order to permit proper control of
traffic flow, with a period of about 100 ms [17]. Thus, the
frame duration has to be in the order of 100 ms, whereas slot
duration,
will depend on
In the paper, as a reference
case, the overall bit rate is fixed at
Mb/s.
The protocol has distributed management, and, as a consequence, channel (slot) reuse is obtained, at distance
where is an integer (random) value.
III. THE INTERVEHICLE LINK AT MILLIMETER WAVES
Due to the choice of a contention protocol and to the
implicit reuse strategy introduced by the network, each packet
is received in an interfered environment, where one vehicle
plays the role of useful transmitter and are interferers. In
general, only the two closest interfering terminals need to be
considered.
A. Vehicle Equipment

II. THE COMMUNICATIONS SCENARIO

A one-lane highway scenario is investigated: a group of
mobiles separated by an intervehicle distance
is
considered, as shown in Fig. 1. From a communications point
of view, mobile users are distinguishable by means of their
identification number (ID).
A parameter of relevance in network design is the number
of terminals, which have to receive the information about a

Each vehicle is equipped with a communication device and

four directional antennas (see Fig. 3): two of them radiating
in the backward direction and two in the forward.
Each couple of antennas represents a two-branch diversity
system, where the two elements are vertically separated by a
distance
The two couples are separated by a distance
In [9], the efficiency of height in comparison with
horizontal diversity was shown. Let us consider the link

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 46, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 1997

Fig. 3. Vehicle equipment.

Fig. 4. Two-ray Rice model.

between a transmitting and a receiving mobile: antenna heights

with respect to flat terrain are assumed to fluctuate due
to ground unevenness around mean values
and
for the transmitting vehicle,
and
for the receiver. The instantaneous values of
heights will be denoted by
and
respectively,
or more generally by
and
Fluctuations are modeled by
a sinusoidal law with frequency 1 Hz and peak deviation
The transmitted power is denoted by
transmitter and
receiver antenna gains by
and
, respectively. The
receiver is characterized by means of its noise figure

where antenna number 1 is assumed to be the transmitting one,

whereas
can denote either
or
In the given scenario,
, where is an integer. A reference received power
can be introduced as the free-space received power at
distance
, which depends on link budget parameters and
wavelength [9].
As far as the direct path is concerned, let us denote by
and
the useful received power and link range, respectively;
similarly,
and
are the th interferer direct path received
power and link range, respectively
The
distances between antennas are denoted by
and
We
have [21]:

B. Propagation Model
At 63.5 GHz, the specific attenuation due to oxygen absorption is roughly equal to
dB/Km. Moreover, rainfall
can introduce large values of the specific attenuation due to
rain,
Let us denote by
the overall
specific attenuation.
In the given scenario, a flat fading channel can be assumed
[4], [22]; constant power at each antenna is received during a
slot time. On the other hand, it is assumed that in consecutive
slots power samples are independent [12]. In the following,
indicates the useful received power. Let us also denote by
the th interfering received power.
In [9], the channel model for intervehicle links in the
6064-GHz band in highway scenarios, was described; a tworay Rice model, based on the coherent cumulation of the direct
and road-reflected (with reflection coefficient
paths, and
the incoherent addition of a multipath power component, was
presented. For the sake of completeness, the relations holding
in the two-ray Rice model are shown [9].
With reference to a generic link (either useful or interfering,
see Fig. 4), let us denote by
the distance between the
transmitting and receiving mobiles (referred to, e.g., forward
antennas); the distance between antennas is
(1)

(2)
(3)
(4)
The total received average power for the generic link is
given by the sum
(5)
is the power due to the direct and road-reflected
where
waves (when present),
the average multipath power. Depending on the presence of line-of-sight (LOS) conditions, we
may have two different situations, described in the following.
1) LOS link: in the presence of direct and road-reflected
paths, the Rice factor describing the statistic of the
received power is given by
(6)
where
is the road-reflection coefficient,
the
reflection-free (direct) path power (corresponding to

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995

and
for the useful and th interfering signals,
respectively), and

TABLE I
SYSTEM

AND LINK BUDGET PARAMETERS

EXPLOITED IN THE PAPER

(7)
is the phase shift between the direct and the roadreflected waves. Under these conditions, the ratio
(8)
and
are the two degrees of freedom of the model.
2) NonLOS (NLOS) link: when the direct and roadreflected paths are obstructed, the received signal
statistic is Rayleigh distributed; hence
(9)
whereas the average multipath (overall) power
can
be determined by choosing a proper value for the parameter
(10)
represents the received power in case of free
where
space propagation (corresponding to
or
Under
these conditions, is the only degree of freedom of the
model.
In both cases, the probability density function of the shortterm useful power can be generally written as
(11)
is the average multipath received power [generally
where
denoted by
in (5)] from the useful user given by
(12)
where

the Rice factor, which, from (6) and (8), is equal to

(13)

and
represents the modified zero-order Bessel function of
the first kind.
Similar expressions hold for the th interfering signal by
replacing
and
with
and
It is worth noting that the useful and interfering signals
can generally come from a LOS or a NLOS link, depending
on the receiver and transmitter relative positions in the lane;
since in this paper we assume a fixed (when
is chosen)
monodimensional scenario, the following considerations can
be made.
1) When the signal comes from one of the two closest
vehicles, we have a LOS link, characterized by a given
Rice factor
and
(two-ray Rice fading) [9].
2) When the signal comes from vehicles at a larger distance, we have a NLOS link because of the obstruction
due to the closest vehicles, so
and
can
be chosen (Rayleigh fading).

Some analytical evaluations based on the experimental

results of [4] suggest the values
dB and
for LOS conditions and
dB for NLOS.
As far as the system and link budget parameters (transmitted power, antenna gains, etc.) are concerned, the values
reported in Table I, based on existing RF devices, are exploited
throughout the paper.
IV. LINK PERFORMANCE
Link performance can be defined in terms of PSP and outage
probability.
A. Capture Model
A threshold capture model is assumed in this paper: having
fixed the desired link quality in terms of bit-error probability,
since received power in a packet time is assumed to be
constant, the PSP can be described as
(14)
where
conventional signal-to-noise ratio;
minimum value of
required to obtain
the desired link quality in the absence of
interference;
total interference short-term received power;
signal-to-interference protection ratio related
to
The signal-to-noise threshold
and the protection ratio
depend on the transmission system and the multiple-access
method considered, the countermeasures employed, and the
quality desired. The conventional signal-to-noise ratio at the
receiver can be defined as
(15)
Noise power is evaluated over a bandwidth equal to the bit
rate
, starting from the two-sided power spectral density
of thermal noise
, which depends on the receiver noise
figure
Let us also define the threshold useful power
In [20], it was shown that for a minimum shift keying
(MSK) system with limiter-discriminator (LD) detection, the

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 46, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 1997

Fig. 5. Outage probability as a function of interferer position: (a) without and (b) with height diversity.

values
dB and
dB correspond to a biterror probability (when two interferers are present)
Here, we assume that this quality level is sufficient (in the
presence of a suitable coding scheme) to capture, with high
probability, the packet [23]. So, in the numerical results,
as a reference case,
dB and
dB are
fixed.
In [14] and [19], an analytical procedure to derive outage
probability defined as
(16)
has been proposed. Since from (14) and (16) we have
(17)
the same analytical procedure of [14] and [19] can be exploited
to derive PSP. In Appendix A, the approach proposed in
[14] and [19] is summarized; it takes thermal noise, Rice
fading, and interference into account in the presence of antenna
diversity with selection combining: the antenna having the
highest level of measured total short-term received power
is connected to the receiver [24]. The analytical method is
approximated: the validity of the approximation was checked
in [14], [18], and [19] by comparison with Monte Carlo
simulation results and other approaches.
B. Numerical Evaluations
In order to stress the importance of the combined effects
of the propagation channel and the multiple-access protocol,
the transmission of a packet from the closest vehicle, in
static conditions (that is, neglecting antenna fluctuations), is
considered.
By fixing the intervehicle distance
m, in Fig. 5
outage probability is shown as a function of the position in

the lane of the closest interferer with respect to the receiver

The relative position of the useful transmitter
is equal to
one (that is, a LOS useful link is considered). The performance
is evaluated either in the presence or in the absence of
antenna diversity. The propagation channel model described
in Section III is used: the values of system parameters are
those described in Table I. Fig. 5 shows that
is almost
unitary when
(since the useful and the interfering
links have the same range), that is, the PSP is about zero;
however, because of the obstruction of the direct and roadreflected waves for interfering signals coming from distant
vehicles,
is very small (that is, PSP is almost unitary)
when
Now, in order to emphasize the role played by the direct
path in the link performance, results are shown in the absence
of interference as an ideal case to which the network tends.
Fig. 6 shows as a function of
, with diversity; the choice
of the link budget parameters allows large value of PSP up
to several hundred of meters. In Fig. 7, is displayed as a
function of the position in the lane of the transmitter with
respect to the receiver
with diversity. Several values of
are exploited.
V. THE NETWORK MODEL
A brief description of the R-ALOHA protocol considered
is given in this section.
At first, a vehicle contends for the radio channel in a
frame by transmitting in a randomly chosen slot a packet
in both directions (backward and forward) and waiting for
acknowledgments (acks) from the
closest terminals
of these behind and
ahead). This is the contention phase.
Upon reception of all the acknowledgments during the frame,
the vehicle will use the same slot in the following frames; this

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Fig. 6. Outage probability as a function of intervehicle distance for a LOS link in the absence of interference.

Fig. 7. Outage probability as a function of useful transmitter position in the absence of interference.

will be the contention-free phase. If an ack is missing, a slot

will be randomly chosen in the next frame and the contention
phase will continue.
The choice of the slot to be used for transmission in a frame
during the contention phase is made on the basis of a table
indicating which slots are busy and which are free. This table
is achieved by means of total received power measurements,
carried
and consequent comparison with a given threshold
out by each vehicle.

In the contention-free phase, a packet can be lost due to

fading; if this happens, the same slot will be exploited in the
following frame until a chosen time-out expires.
The following simplifying assumptions are made throughout
the paper.
1) Packets: they have the same duration of one slot.
2) Framing: perfect frame synchronization is obtained by
means of a global time reference.

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3) Acknowledgments: if a terminal receives a packet correctly, its ack has a probability of success equal to one;
acks can be transmitted by means of a time division duplexing (TDD) technique and a dedicated frame section.
It is not the intention of this paper to define how acks
should be sent to transmitting vehicles.
4) Power measurements: they are carried out during nontransmitting slots; hence, the slot just exploited can be
reused in the next frame. The power measured is the sum
of the short-term received powers at the two antennas.
5) Mobile identity: each vehicle has knowledge of the
ID of the
closest terminals ahead and the
behind; this can be obtained by means, e.g., of a periodical procedure in which, at regular intervals, each
mobile transmits in a round-robin fashion a short packet
informing the closest terminals of its location [25].
Thus, vehicles know how many acks are expected to
be received.
6) Destination addressing: each transmitted packet contains
the ID of vehicles which have to receive it; a mobile
discards any packet which is not intended for it or
it retransmits the information in the following frame
(together with its own data) if the MH strategy is used
and the packet is to be received by other vehicles in its
neighborhood [25].
VI. SINGLE-HOP

AND

MULTIHOP STRATEGIES

The aim of this section is the comparison between the

performance of an SH
and an MH
strategy
in a R-ALOHA framework and a monodimensional scenario.
Let us assume a steady-state situation, where each vehicle
in the lane is in the contention-free phase and the distribution
of the time resource is optimal: vehicle 1 transmits during slot
1, vehicle 2 during slot 2,
, vehicle
during slot
,
vehicle
during slot 1, and so on. That is, the same
slot is reused at distance
Let us also consider, as
large enough to have noise-limited
an example, a value of
links (Fig. 5 shows that
is sufficient for this purpose,
i.e.,
has to be chosen).
The choice of
mainly affects the ability of the network
to react to situations of danger (e.g., a warning from a vehicle
ahead due to an accident) and the PSP.
Let us define, as a quality measure for the comparison, the
steady-state DFP (SS-DFP) defined as
-

(18)

where
is the packet delivery delay and
is a given
integer number. The SS-DFP obviously depends on PSP,
which, as shown in Fig. 7, is highly affected by the relative
positions of active terminals in the lane; for this reason,
in the following PSP(m) will denote the PSP at distance
At first, let us evaluate PSP(m) for SH and MH strategy.
1) SH: for the sake of simplicity, let us consider only
the transmission to the farthest vehicle in the ZOR
we have
(19)

where the dependence of on the relative positions of

transmitter and receiver has been emphasized.
2) MH: let us assume that a packet to be repeated is retransmitted only in the subsequent frame; by concentrating
on the farthest vehicle in the ZOR, we can calculate the
as a function of the PSP(1) of each hop
(20)
Now, the SS-DFP, whose dependence on
and
explained in the following, can be evaluated as

will be

(21)
SH: it can be easily found that

(22)
hence
(23)
MH: if
DFP
needed for

is smaller that
we have SSsince at least
frames are
hops; on the other hand, when

(24)
hence
(25)
The strategy having the smallest value of SS-DFP
is the most appropriate since it determines the largest values
of probability of having a fast transmission of information
through the lane. As an example, Figs. 8 and 9 show SSDFP as a function of
for intervehicle distance equal to 200
m, in the interference-free case considered in Fig. 7, by fixing
different values of
From the figures, it can be noted that for
values of
slightly larger or equal to
an MH strategy
offers better performance than SH, in terms of SS-DFP.
Let us note that the delay introduced by the MH scheme can
be larger, in mean; however, if frame length and bit rate are
suitably chosen, the delay remains within acceptable bounds.
For this reason, in the following an MH strategy will be
considered. On the other hand, it is worth noting that the
impact of the strategy on network performance has to be
considered also in nonsteady-state conditions. This will be
done in the next sections.

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999

Fig. 8. Steady-state deadline failure probability as a function of

N for the SH and MH strategy; div = 200 m and Nz = 4 and 6.

Fig. 9. Steady-state deadline failure probability as a function of

N for the SH and MH strategy; div = 200 m and Nz = 8 and 10.

VII. THE SIMULATION TOOL

A software simulation tool has been developed to analyze an
R-ALOHA network in a one-lane highway scenario; the aim of
the computer program is the evaluation of the impact of protocol parameters (such as, e.g., the number of slots per frame) on
system performance. The multiple-access protocol, the channel
propagation and packet capture model implemented are those
described in previous sections.

Fig. 10. Test scenario for validation purposes.

For the purpose of testing and validating the computer

program, with particular emphasis on the channel propagation

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Fig. 11. PSP as a function of useful distance when interference is at

simulation results (circles).

Fig. 12.

di

= 200 m; comparison between the analytical approach (line) and the

Probability distribution of SST with reference to number of frames; the impact of

and packet capture modules, the following situation has been

investigated, by means of either the analytical approach presented in Section IV, or simulation: PSP is found as a function
for a LOS link between a transmitting,
of useful distance
T, and a receiving, R, mobile, when an interfering vehicle, I,
m on an NLOS
is transmitting from a fixed distance
link (see Fig. 10). Fig. 11 shows the comparison obtained

Nr Ns

= 16; Nv = 9; and

div

= 200 m.

by means of the two approaches for some values of useful

distance. The results validate the computer program.
The simulation tool enables the evaluation of the probability
distribution of some figures of merit defined in the following.
Although it can be exploited to investigate either steady-state
or nonsteady-state conditions, in this paper the latter case is
analyzed since the intervehicle communication network must

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be able to react quickly to unpredictable situations. Thus, a

worst case situation is considered, as in [15]: let us assume that
all vehicles in the lane simultaneously compete for a channel
starting from a memoryless state, that is, no information on
free and collision slots is available.
The probability distributions of SST and FST are evaluated
as a function of the number of slots per frame
the number
of vehicles in the lane
intervehicle distance
and the
number of mobiles which have to receive a packet
1) SST is defined as the number of frames that elapse until
all the
vehicles in the lane have successfully locked
onto a slot (by transmitting a packet and receiving the
expected number of acknowledgments: let us call this
the success event) [15]; it depends on
2) FST is defined as the number of frames that elapse
until a given mobile succeeds in transmitting its packet
(success event) [15]. It is not a function of
as long
is sufficiently large.
as
Their probability distributions are estimated by counting the
of times the observed success event happens for
number
the first time at the th frame from the start of simulation:
the probability
is given by the ratio between
and the total number of iterations,
can be determined in a similar way.
From the above-mentioned figures of merit, the nonsteadystate DFP (NSS-DFP) can be defined as
-

(26)

is the maximum delay required in the successful

where
transmission of one packet.
It is worth noting that SST, FST, and NSS-DFP are defined
with reference to the number of frames, as in [15]. However,
when different network configurations are investigated by
varying the number of slots per frame, nonhomogeneous
parameters are obtained. So, in the next section when
is
considered as a variable parameter, SST and FST are described
with reference to the number of slots
instead of number of
frames
VIII. NUMERICAL RESULTS
The simulation campaign was based on
iterations
for each set of input parameters. In this section, the results
obtained are presented.
Some of the system parameters have been fixed: they
are summarized in Table I. It is worth recalling that the
propagation model is chosen in accordance with Section III.
Height diversity with selection combining, fluctuations of
antennas due to ground unevenness, and two-ray Rice fading
(in LOS links) are considered.
Power thresholds have been fixed, and their values are reported in Table II; the value of
has not been optimized, so
further investigation could lead to slightly better performance
results (see [26]).
A. The Impact of
Fig. 12 shows the probability distribution of SST (in
terms of the number of frames) when varying
for

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TABLE II
VALUES OF POWER THRESHOLDS
EXPLOITED IN THE SIMULATION

TABLE III
LIST OF ACRONYMS EXPLOITED
THROUGHOUT THE PAPER

and
m. The impact of
on the reaction time of the network is evident. It is clear
that by choosing an MH network
, a much faster
allotment of channels is obtained.
Hence, in the following
will be fixed.
B. The Impact of Channel Propagation
Fig. 13 shows the probability distribution of SST when
fixed
and
the value of
the intervehicle distance
varies from 20 to 400 m. In
Fig. 14, the same performance results are shown in the absence of antenna diversity. In both cases, the curves in
the figures are almost indistinguishable; this underlines the
fact that up to several hundred of meters, network behavior
is determined by protocol optimization rather than by link
performance.
C. The Impact of
In Fig. 15, the probability distribution of FST in terms of
the number of frames is displayed;
and
m are fixed. The minimum value of the number
needed
to approximate an infinitely long lane of vehicles has been
chosen as a function of the number of slots per frame.
varies from 6 up to 12. From the figure, it seems that by
increasing
, smaller and smaller values of the mean FST
can be obtained. However, as already noted, when varying
, the number of frames
is not a homogeneous measure
of time. So, Fig. 16 shows the same results with reference to
number of slots. Finally, in Fig. 17, the NSS-DFP is depicted
as a function of delay
expressed in time slots. This last
figure points out that when
is larger than ten, no increase
in the performance is achieved.
IX. CONCLUSIONS
MH and SH R-ALOHA networks for intervehicle communications in a highway environment at 63.5 GHz, with reference
to cooperative driving applications, have been studied. Several
conclusions can be carried out. Table III reports the list of
acronyms exploited throughout the paper.

1002

Fig. 13.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 46, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 1997

Probability distribution of SST with reference to number of frames; the impact of

Fig. 14. Probability distribution of SST with reference to number of frames; the impact of
and Nr = 2:

1) R-ALOHA protocols can be exploited for the application

considered since they provide good reaction times to
dangerous situations and offer an efficient means for the
purpose of allowing periodical data exchange between
vehicles.
2) MH strategy performs better than SH in the given
environment because of the monodimensional structure
of the scenario.

div Ns

div

= 16; Nv = 9; and

Nr

= 2:

when antenna diversity is neglected;

Ns

= 16; Nv = 9;

3) A link budget has been found, based on existing RF

devices, giving good link performance up to several
hundred of meters.
4) The impact of channel characteristics, given that only
LOS links between adjacent vehicles in the lane are
exploited, is negligible.
5) The number of slots per frame can be chosen according
to the performance analysis carried out in Fig. 17, where

VERDONE: MULTIHOP R-ALOHA FOR INTERVEHICLE COMMUNICATIONS

1003

Fig. 15.

Probability distribution of FST with reference to number of frames; the impact of

Fig. 16.

Probability distribution of FST with reference to number of slots; the impact of

it has been shown that a number of slots per frame

larger than ten does not improve system performance.
could
It is worth noting that different values of
lead to different numerical conclusions; moreover, the
on system performance also depends on
impact of
the intervehicle distance. Nevertheless, from the analysis
shown, the presence of an optimum value of the number
of slots per frame is underlined.

Ns ; Nr = 2 and div

Ns ; Nr = 2 and div

= 200 m.

= 200 m.

On the other hand, some of the conclusions could depend on

the given one-lane scenario; the effect of the same parameters
on system performance could be different in
such as, e.g.,
a multilane scenario. This will be investigated in future work.
APPENDIX A
THE ANALYTICAL PROCEDURE TO DERIVE PSP
This methodology is based on considering the probability
density function
of total interfering short-term received

1004

Fig. 17.

power

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 46, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 1997

NSS-DFP with reference to number of slots; the impact of

Ns ; Nr

to be Gaussian, with mean

(27)

and variance
(28)
From this assumption, an expression for is determined.
In the absence of antenna diversity, we have [19]

= 2 and

div

= 200 m.

Due to the combining method chosen, at the combiner

output outage can occur in three different cases.
i)
.
ii)
, but
(antenna 1
is selected).
iii)
, but
(antenna 2
is selected).
The probability of outage can be evaluated as the sum of
the probabilities of the three events i), ii), and iii)
(31)
The two latter components of the sum would be zero if
interference did not cause errors in choosing the antenna with
the largest useful power. The three terms of (31) are now
reported [14]
i)
is given by [24]:

(29)
Let us now consider antenna diversity and denote by
total received short-term power

the
(30)

Moreover, in order to distinguish signals at each antenna,

and
denote the useful total interference and
total short-term power at the th antenna placed at height
respectively
Signals are assumed to be
independently faded at each antenna.
at the th antenna, an
By defining
outage condition occurs if the received useful power
is
less than the threshold
or the ratio between useful and
is less than
Let
total interference received power
us denote by
a Boolean variable, which indicates
whether an outage condition occurs at the th antenna.

(32)
where
is the outage probability at the th antenna and is
determined by means of (29) by properly choosing the mean
power values related to the th antenna.
ii) Prob(ii) can be derived by means of a simplified approach: with the aim of deriving Prob(ii), we neglect the
presence of noise; moreover, as far as interference is considered, a Rayleigh probability density function is assumed [14].
So, we have

(33)

VERDONE: MULTIHOP R-ALOHA FOR INTERVEHICLE COMMUNICATIONS

where
and
denote the average value of total interference at antennas 1 and 2, respectively.
iii) Prob(iii) can be evaluated in a similar way as Prob(ii),
leading to

1005

[13]

[14]

[15]

(34)
It is worthwhile recalling that the approximated method has
been checked in different conditions, and its validity has been
proven in [14], [18], and [19]; when interference is due to a
low number of terminals and NLOS links (as in the scenario
considered in this paper), the accuracy of the model is shown
to be very high.

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

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Roberto Verdone (M95) was born in Bologna, Italy, on August 6, 1965.

He received the Dr. Ing. degree in electronic engineering (with honors)
and the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering and computer science from
the University of Bologna, Bologna, in March 1991 and October 1995,
respectively.
Since 1994, he has been a Lecturer in Telecommunications at the University
of Bologna. Since 1996, he has been a Researcher at CSITE-CNR (Research
Center for Informatics and Telecommunication Systems of the National
Research Council). His research activity is concerned with digital modulation,
cellular and mobile systems, multiple access, and spectrum efficiency. Part of
his work is dedicated to intervehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications at millimeter waves. He was involved in the European research program
PROMETHESUS and the national research program TELCO.