| Abstract: | The existing adaptive multichannel medium access control (MAC) protocols in vehicular ad hoc networks can adjust themselves according to different vehicular traffic densities. These protocols can increase throughput and guarantee a bounded transmission delay for real‐time safety applications. However, the optimized control channel interval is computed based on the maximum throughput while ignoring the strict safety packet transmission delay requirements. In this paper, we analyze the effects of the throughput and strict safety packet transmission delay with adaptive multichannel MAC protocols, such as connectivity‐aware MAC (CA MAC), adaptive multi‐priority distributed MAC (APDM), multi‐priority supported p‐persistent MAC (MP MAC), and variable control channel interval MAC (VCI) protocols. The performance and analysis results show that: (a) under a low data rate condition, CA MAC does not guarantee a strict safety packet transmission delay; (b) APDM not only satisfies the safety packet transmission requirement, but also provides the lowest safety packet transmission delay; (c) under a high data rate condition, we suggest APDM for use as an adaptive MAC protocol because it allows for high throughput for nonsafety packets and preserves low safety packet transmission delay; (d) under a low data rate condition with various data packet sizes, we suggest MP MAC for high throughput, which satisfies the safety packet transmission requirement; and (e) under low vehicle density and low data rate conditions, VCI can support high throughput. A balance between transmission delay and throughput must be considered to improve the optimal efficiency, reliability, and adaptability. |
