Dynamic channel selection for wireless mobile ad hoc networks: Adaptation and learning

Abstract

In this paper, we presented a dynamic channel selection system for vehicular communications that learns from the varying channel congestion levels and automatically selects the least congested channel to maintain link quality. The high mobility of vehicles and a crowded frequency spectrum result in fast-changing channel conditions that make channel selection a challenging problem. Such a system has the potential of supporting future automotive technologies such as vehicle pla-tooning, an emerging technology that could significantly increase road capacity as well as achieve semi-auto driving by grouping individual cars into tight platoons. The key to such applications is accurate and instant coordination among platoon members, which requires reliable low-latency intra-platoon communication links that our channel selection algorithm aims to achieve. We implemented this system integrating radio subsystems based on off-the-shelf networking boards and implemented essential features for achieving dynamic channel access in vehicular environment, including mobility awareness, channel congestion measurement, and channel coordination between mobile nodes. With real-world experiments we showed performance enhancements offered by proposed dynamic channel selection system by avoiding congestion.