Preventing total packet collision collapse in 1,000-vehicle highway traffic jams using hierarchical cluster-head aggregation.
In dense traffic bottlenecks, standard 10 Hz basic safety broadcasts from hundreds of uncoordinated vehicles cause catastrophic channel congestion: channel busy ratios (CBR) exceed 85%, packet collisions spike, and safety message delivery probability plunges.
V2XCluster organizes nearby vehicles moving at similar velocities into dynamic micro-clusters. Cluster members transmit low-power telemetry to an elected Cluster Head (typically a high-clearance commercial vehicle). The Cluster Head aggregates member telemetry into a single compressed message for macro-broadcasting. ``` +-----------------------+ Low-Power PC5 +-----------------------+ | Cluster Member #1..N | --------------------------------> | Elected Cluster Head | | (Intra-Cluster <50m) | | (High Roof / Antenna) | +-----------------------+ +-----------------------+ | v Macro Highway Broadcast 75% Less Spectrum Load ```
In NS-3 simulations of an 8-lane highway with 1,200 vehicles per kilometer, V2XCluster reduced packet collision rates from 44% down to under 3.8% while ensuring 99.9% delivery of critical safety alerts.