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Advanced Communication and Networking Technologies for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs)

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensor Networks".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 April 2024) | Viewed by 16565

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Qiong Wu

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Guest Editor

School of Internet of Things Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
Interests: VAENTs; autonomous driving communication technology; edge computing and machine learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Pingyi Fan

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Guest Editor

Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Interests: B5G technology; network coding; network information theory; machine learning and big data analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The application potential of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) is extensive in various fields, such as autonomous driving, smart industry, vehicular networking and space technology. Despite the promising prospects, designing productive VANET systems may involve challenges. For example, communication networks must be fault-resistant in order to achieve reliable information distribution; data collection, processing and transmission may incur excessive delay and data loss, which would reduce the reliability of VANETs; ensuring the security and privacy of users in heterogeneous VANETs is not straightforward. With the newest developments in edge computing, 5G communication technologies, reinforcement learning, federated learning and other technologies provide effective solutions to these problems.

The goal of this Research Topic is to focus on the security, reliability, resource optimization, sensor topology optimization, sensor information collection and analysis in VANET systems. We particularly welcome the achievements yielded by the investigation of novel communication and networking technologies in VANETs, such as ultra-reliable and low-latency communication, intelligent communication network collaboration, communication performance analysis and optimization. This Research Topic invites novel contributions from academia and industrial sectors to research, develop and investigate the opportunities, challenges and solutions related to the implementation of innovative architectures, methods, approaches and technologies for VANETs.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

Ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) for VANETs.
New communication technologies based on 5G NR and other applications for VANETs.
Modeling of routing and MAC protocol for VANETs.
Federated-learning-based security and privacy issues for VANETs.
Machine-learning-based resource management for VANETs.
Reinforcement learning for VANETs.
Artificial-intelligence-assisted data collection and analysis for VANETs.
Collaborative communication and self-organization technologies for VANETs.
Sensing for
Positioning for
Cloud computing and edge computing for
Emerging applications for VANETs.

Dr. Qiong Wu
Prof. Dr. Pingyi Fan
Guest Editors

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Keywords

ad hoc networks
VANETs
communication technologies
networking technologies
machine learning
positioning
sensing
cloud computing and edge computing
collaborative communication
resource allocation
5G NR

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3313 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Framed Slotted Aloha Medium Access Control Protocol Based on Capture Effect in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

by Lianyou Lai, Zhongzhe Song and Weijian Xu

Sensors 2024, 24(3), 992; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24030992 - 3 Feb 2024

Viewed by 987

Abstract

The capture effect is a frequently observed phenomenon in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) communication. When conflicts arise during time slot access, failure to access does not necessarily occur; instead, successful access may still be achieved. The capture effect can enhance the likelihood of multiple access and improve communication efficiency. The security of VANETs communication is undoubtedly the primary concern. One crucial approach to enhance security involves the design of an efficient and reliable medium access control (MAC) protocol. Taking into account both aspects, we propose a novel framed slotted Aloha (FSA) MAC protocol model. Firstly, we derive the closed-form expression for the capture probability in the Rician fading channel in this paper. Subsequently, we analyze how the number of vehicles and time slots influence the success probability of vehicle access channels as well as examine the impact of the capture effect on this success probability. Then, under constraints regarding vehicle access channel success probability, we derive optimal values for slot numbers, access times, and transmission power while proposing a comprehensive implementation method to ensure high access channel success probabilities. We verify both theoretical derivations and proposed methods through simulation experiments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Communication and Networking Technologies for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs))

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12 pages, 536 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Integrated Sensing and Secure Communication with XL-MIMO

by Ping Sun, Haibo Dai and Baoyun Wang

Sensors 2024, 24(1), 295; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24010295 - 3 Jan 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1478

Abstract

This paper studies extremely large-scale multiple-input multiple-output (XL-MIMO)-empowered integrated sensing and secure communication systems, where both the radar targets and the communication user are located within the near-field region of the transmitter. The radar targets, being untrusted entities, have the potential to intercept the confidential messages intended for the communication user. In this context, we investigate the near-field beam-focusing design, aiming to maximize the achievable secrecy rate for the communication user while satisfying the transmit beampattern gain requirements for the radar targets. We address the corresponding globally optimal non-convex optimization problem by employing a semidefinite relaxation-based two-stage procedure. Additionally, we provide a sub-optimal solution to reduce complexity. Numerical results demonstrate that beam focusing enables the attainment of a positive secrecy rate, even when the radar targets and communication user align along the same angle direction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Communication and Networking Technologies for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs))

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20 pages, 686 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Power Allocation for Minimizing Age of Information and Energy Consumption in Multi-Input Multi-Output and Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access Internet of Things Systems

by Qiong Wu, Zheng Zhang, Hongbiao Zhu, Pingyi Fan, Qiang Fan, Huiling Zhu and Jiangzhou Wang

Sensors 2023, 23(24), 9687; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23249687 - 7 Dec 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1594

Abstract

Multi-input multi-output and non-orthogonal multiple access (MIMO-NOMA) Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems can improve channel capacity and spectrum efficiency distinctly to support real-time applications. Age of information (AoI) plays a crucial role in real-time applications as it determines the timeliness of the extracted information. In MIMO-NOMA IoT systems, the base station (BS) determines the sample collection commands and allocates the transmit power for each IoT device. Each device determines whether to sample data according to the sample collection commands and adopts the allocated power to transmit the sampled data to the BS over the MIMO-NOMA channel. Afterwards, the BS employs the successive interference cancellation (SIC) technique to decode the signal of the data transmitted by each device. The sample collection commands and power allocation may affect the AoI and energy consumption of the system. Optimizing the sample collection commands and power allocation is essential for minimizing both AoI and energy consumption in MIMO-NOMA IoT systems. In this paper, we propose the optimal power allocation to achieve it based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL). Simulations have demonstrated that the optimal power allocation effectively achieves lower AoI and energy consumption compared to other algorithms. Overall, the reward is reduced by 6.44% and 11.78% compared the to GA algorithm and random algorithm, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Communication and Networking Technologies for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs))

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21 pages, 3288 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Analytical Model for the IEEE 802.11p/bd Medium Access Control, with Consideration of the Capture Effect in the Internet of Vehicles

by Yang Wang, Jianghong Shi, Zhiyuan Fang and Lingyu Chen

Sensors 2023, 23(23), 9589; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23239589 - 3 Dec 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1177

Abstract

The traditional vehicular ad hoc network (VANET), which is evolving into the internet of vehicles (IoV), has drawn great attention for its enormous potential in road safety improvement, traffic management, infotainment service support, and even autonomous driving. IEEE 802.11p, as the vital standard for wireless access in vehicular environments, has been released for more than one decade and its evolution, IEEE 802.11bd, has also been released for a few months. Since the analytical models for the IEEE 802.11p/bd medium access control (MAC) play important roles in terms of performance evaluation and MAC protocol optimization, a lot of analytical models have been proposed. However, the existing analytical models are still not accurate as a result of ignoring some important factors of the MAC itself and real communication scenarios. Motivated by this, a novel analytical model is proposed, based on a novel two-dimensional (2-D) Markov chain model. In contrast to the existing studies, all the important factors are considered in this proposed model, such as the backoff freezing mechanism, retry limit, post-backoff states, differentiated packet arrival probabilities for empty buffer queue, and queue model of packets in the buffer. In addition, the influence of the capture effect under a Nakagami-m fading channel has also been considered. Then, the expressions of successful transmission, collided transmission, normalized unsaturated throughput, and average packet delay are all meticulously derived, respectively. At last, the accuracy of the proposed analytical model is verified via the simulation results, which show that it is more accurate than the existing analytical models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Communication and Networking Technologies for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs))

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20 pages, 1566 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Heuristic Path Search and Multi-Attribute Decision-Making-Based Routing Method for Vehicular Safety Messages

by Lei Nie, Junjie Zhang, Haizhou Bao and Yiming Huo

Sensors 2023, 23(23), 9506; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23239506 - 29 Nov 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1174

Abstract

Efficient routing in urban vehicular networks is essential for timely and reliable safety message transmission, and the selection of paths and relays greatly affects the quality of routing. However, existing routing methods usually face difficulty in finding the globally optimal transmission path due to their greedy search strategies or the lack of effective ways to accurately evaluate relay performance in intricate traffic scenarios. Therefore, we present a vehicular safety message routing method based on heuristic path search and multi-attribute decision-making (HMDR). Initially, HMDR utilizes a heuristic path search, focusing on road section connectivity, to pinpoint the most favorable routing path. Subsequently, it employs a multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) technique to evaluate candidate relay performance. The subjective and objective weights of the candidate relays are determined using ordinal relationship analysis and the Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) weighting methods, respectively. Finally, the comprehensive utility values of the candidate relays are calculated in combination with the link time and the optimal relay is selected. In summary, the proposed HMDR method is capable of selecting the globally optimal transmission path, and it comprehensively considers multiple metrics and their relationships when evaluating relays, which is conducive to finding the optimal relay. The experimental results show that even if the path length is long, the proposed HMDR method gives preference to the path with better connectivity, resulting in a shorter total transmission delay for safety messages; in addition, HMDR demonstrates faster propagation speed than the other evaluated methods while ensuring better one-hop distance and one-hop delay. Therefore, it helps to improve the performance of vehicular safety message transmission in intricate traffic scenarios, thus providing timely data support for secure driving. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Communication and Networking Technologies for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs))

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22 pages, 1423 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Computing Offloading Based on TD3 Algorithm in Cache-Assisted Vehicular NOMA–MEC Networks

by Tianqing Zhou, Ming Xu, Dong Qin, Xuefang Nie, Xuan Li and Chunguo Li

Sensors 2023, 23(22), 9064; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23229064 - 9 Nov 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1316

Abstract

In this paper, in order to reduce the energy consumption and time of data transmission, the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and mobile edge caching technologies are jointly considered in mobile edge computing (MEC) networks. As for the cache-assisted vehicular NOMA–MEC networks, a problem of minimizing the energy consumed by vehicles (mobile devices, MDs) is formulated under time and resource constraints, which jointly optimize the computing resource allocation, subchannel selection, device association, offloading and caching decisions. To solve the formulated problem, we develop an effective joint computation offloading and task-caching algorithm based on the twin-delayed deep deterministic policy gradient (TD3) algorithm. Such a TD3-based offloading (TD3O) algorithm includes a designed action transformation (AT) algorithm used for transforming continuous action space into a discrete one. In addition, to solve the formulated problem in a non-iterative manner, an effective heuristic algorithm (HA) is also designed. As for the designed algorithms, we provide some detailed analyses of computation complexity and convergence, and give some meaningful insights through simulation. Simulation results show that the TD3O algorithm could achieve lower local energy consumption than several benchmark algorithms, and HA could achieve lower consumption than the completely offloading algorithm and local execution algorithm. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Communication and Networking Technologies for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs))

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16 pages, 4124 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Capture-Aware Dense Tag Identification Using RFID Systems in Vehicular Networks

by Weijian Xu, Zhongzhe Song, Yanglong Sun, Yang Wang and Lianyou Lai

Sensors 2023, 23(15), 6792; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23156792 - 29 Jul 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1471

Abstract

Passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems have been widely applied in different fields, including vehicle access control, industrial production, and logistics tracking, due to their ability to improve work quality and management efficiency at a low cost. However, in an intersection situation where tags are densely distributed with vehicle gathering, the wireless channel becomes extremely complex, and the readers on the roadside may only decode the information from the strongest tag due to the capture effect, resulting in tag misses and considerably reducing the performance of tag identification. Therefore, it is crucial to design an efficient and reliable tag-identification algorithm in order to obtain information from vehicle and cargo tags under adverse traffic conditions, ensuring the successful application of RFID technology. In this paper, we first establish a Nakagami-m distributed channel capture model for RFID systems and provide an expression for the capture probability, where each channel is modeled as any relevant Nakagami-m distribution. Secondly, an advanced capture-aware tag-estimation scheme is proposed. Finally, extensive Monte Carlo simulations show that the proposed algorithm has strong adaptability to circumstances for capturing under-fading channels and outperforms the existing algorithms in terms of complexity and reliability of tag identification. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Communication and Networking Technologies for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs))

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15 pages, 2631 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Mutual Coupling Reduction of a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Antenna Using an Absorber Wall and a Combline Filter for V2X Communication

by Yuanxu Fu, Tao Shen and Jiangling Dou

Sensors 2023, 23(14), 6355; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23146355 - 13 Jul 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1350

Abstract

This paper presents an MIMO antenna for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, which adopts two ways of combline filters and absorption wall decoupling. A combline filter and an absorption wall are used, respectively, for internal and external decoupling. The combline filter is incorporated between the ground of the two adjacent antennas, which reduces the mutual coupling between them. Additionally, the mutual coupling of radiation between adjacent antennas is significantly reduced by the absorber wall. These combline filters and absorber walls use the method of electromagnetic field distribution to explain the reduction in the mutual coupling between the adjacent antennas. The transmission coefficient and surface current distribution explain the effectiveness of the decoupling structure. When the frequency is between 3.8 and 4.8 GHz, the simulation and measurement results show that

S_{11}

is less than −10 dB, the bandwidth is 25% and the peak gain is 7.8 dBi. In addition, the proposed MIMO antenna has a high isolation between antenna units (>37 dB), and the envelop correlation coefficient (ECC) is less than 0.005. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Communication and Networking Technologies for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs))

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21 pages, 6091 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Next-Hop Relay Selection for Ad Hoc Network-Assisted Train-to-Train Communications in the CBTC System

by Sixing Ma, Meng Li, Ruizhe Yang, Yang Sun, Zhuwei Wang and Pengbo Si

Sensors 2023, 23(13), 5883; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23135883 - 25 Jun 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1385

Abstract

In the communication-based train control (CBTC) system, traditional modes such as LTE or WLAN in train-to-train (T2T) communication face the problem of a complex and costly deployment of base stations and ground core networks. Therefore, the multi-hop ad hoc network, which has the characteristics of being relatively flexible and cheap, is considered for CBTC. However, because of the high mobility of the train, it is likely to move out of the communication range of wayside nodes. Moreover, some wayside nodes are heavily congested, resulting in long packet queuing delays that cannot meet the transmission requirements. To solve these problems, in this paper, we investigate the next-hop relay selection problem in multi-hop ad hoc networks to minimize transmission time, enhance the network throughput, and ensure the channel quality. In addition, we propose a multiagent dueling deep Q learning (DQN) algorithm to optimize the delay and throughput of the entire link by selecting the next-hop relay node. The simulation results show that, compared with the existing routing algorithms, it has obvious improvement in the aspects of delay, throughput, and packet loss rate. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Communication and Networking Technologies for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs))

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18 pages, 2704 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Absorbing Material of Button Antenna with Directional Radiation of High Gain for P2V Communication

by Yuanxu Fu, Tao Shen, Jiangling Dou and Zhe Chen

Sensors 2023, 23(11), 5195; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23115195 - 30 May 2023

Viewed by 1469

Abstract

Vehicular communication systems can be used to enhance the safety level of road users by exchanging safety/warning messages. In this paper, an absorbing material on a button antenna is proposed for pedestrian-to-vehicle (P2V) communication, which provides safety service to road workers on the highway or in a road environment. The button antenna is small in size and is easy to carry for carriers. This antenna is fabricated and tested in an anechoic chamber; it can achieve a maximum gain of 5.5 dBi and an absorption of 92% at 7.6 GHz. The maximum distance of measurement between the absorbing material of the button antenna and the test antenna is less than 150 m. The advantage of the button antenna is that the absorption surface is used in the radiation layer of the antenna so that the antenna can improve the radiation direction and gain. The absorption unit size is 15 × 15 × 5 mm³. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Communication and Networking Technologies for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs))

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13 pages, 1888 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Stereoscopic UWB Yagi–Uda Antenna with Stable Gain by Metamaterial for Vehicular 5G Communication

by Yuanxu Fu, Tao Shen, Jiangling Dou and Zhe Chen

Sensors 2023, 23(9), 4534; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23094534 - 6 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1768

Abstract

In this paper, a stereoscopic ultra-wideband (UWB) Yagi–Uda (SUY) antenna with stable gain by near-zero-index metamaterial (NZIM) has been proposed for vehicular 5G communication. The proposed antenna consists of magneto-electric (ME) dipole structure and coaxial feed patch antenna. The combination of patch antenna and ME structure allows the proposed antenna can work as a Yagi–Uda antenna, which enhances its gain and bandwidth. NZIM removes a pair of C-notches on the surface of the ME structure to make it absorb energy, which results in two radiation nulls on both sides of the gain passband. At the same time, the bandwidth can be enhanced effectively. In order to further improve the stable gain, impedance matching is achieved by removing the patch diagonally; thus, it is able to tune the antenna gain of the suppression boundary and open the possibility to reach the most important characteristic: a very stable gain in a wide frequency range. The SUY antenna is fabricated and measured, which has a measured −10 dBi impedance bandwidth of approximately 40% (3.5–5.5 GHz). Within it, the peak gain of the antenna reaches 8.5 dBi, and the flat in-band gain has a ripple lower than 0.5 dBi. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Communication and Networking Technologies for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs))

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