Can Beacons be Compressed to Reduce the Channel Load in Vehicular Networks?

Significant efforts have been devoted to date to the congestion control problem in vehicular networks. The solutions proposed so far have been designed to adapt the communication parameters to reduce and control the channel load. A totally different approach would be the compression of the data generated by each vehicle. This paper proposes and explores for the first time the use of data compression to reduce the channel load in vehicular networks. By compressing and decompressing V2X messages, the channel load generated could be reduced, thereby decreasing the interference and packet loses due to collisions. We apply this idea in this study to CAMs using existing data compression tools to have a first estimate of the compression gain that could be achieved, and the time needed to compress and decompress. The results obtained show that the CAM length could be reduced by up to around 14%, which is a non-negligible percentage given the relevance of the congestion control problem. The data compression and decompression times obtained demonstrate its potential for its integration in V2X devices. The results obtained motivate to more deeply investigate the compression of V2X messages in vehicular networks.