Vehicle clustering for improving enhanced LTE-V2X network performance

TLDR

Vehicle‑to‑Everything (V2X) communication promises safer roads by enabling reliable, low‑latency services, and the rapid growth of connected vehicles creates a pressing need for V2X solutions. This study aims to improve V2I and V2V connectivity on multi‑lane freeways by offloading vehicles with low SINR to better‑connected peers using LTE‑A roadside units. The authors propose a clustering mechanism that transfers low‑SINR vehicles to high‑quality V2V links and evaluate its impact on throughput probabilities through extensive system‑level simulations. Simulation results demonstrate that the approach raises successful transmission probability from 93 % to 99.4 % by redirecting weak V2I links to stronger V2V links.

Abstract

Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication holds the promise for improving road safety and reducing road accidents by enabling reliable and low latency services for vehicles. Vehicles are among the fastest growing type of connected devices. Therefore, there is a need for V2X communication, i.e., passing of information from Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) or Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) and vice versa. In this paper, we focus on both V2I and V2V communication in a multi-lane freeway scenario, where coverage is provided by the Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) road side unit (RSU) network. Here, we propose a mechanism to offload vehicles with low signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) to be served by other vehicles, which have much higher quality link to the RSU. Furthermore, we analyze the improvements in the probabilities of achieving target throughputs and the performance is assessed through extensive system-level simulations. Results show that the proposed solution offloads low quality V2I links to stronger V2V links, and further increases successful transmission probability from 93% to 99.4%.