Time-slot-based system and method of inter-vehicle communication

A vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system comprising:

• a V2V transmitter configured to operate in a transmitting vehicle;
• wherein the V2V transmitter is configured to accept as input a subject vehicle position and a subject vehicle heading;
• wherein the V2V transmitter broadcasts V2V messages comprising:
• (i) the subject vehicle position;
• (ii) the subject vehicle heading;
• (iii) a subject vehicle speed;
• wherein the V2V broadcast messages are broadcast repeatedly in a basic time interval of predetermined duration;
• wherein the basic time interval comprises time slots of a predetermined duration;
• a V2V message collision detector wherein the detector is configured to detect when two or more V2V messages within receive range are broadcast at the same time, a “message collision;”
• a message collision notification message, wherein the message collision notification message is broadcast in response to the detection of the message collision;
• and
• wherein the message collision notification message identifies within the message at least one source of the message collision by the time when the message collision occurred.

A vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system comprising:

• a V2V transmitter configured to operate in a transmitting vehicle;
• wherein the V2V transmitter is configured to accept as input a subject vehicle position and a subject vehicle heading;
• wherein the V2V transmitter broadcasts V2V messages comprising:
• (i) the subject vehicle position;
• (ii) the subject vehicle heading;
• (iii) a subject vehicle speed;
• wherein the V2V broadcast messages are broadcast repeatedly in a basic time interval of predetermined duration;
• wherein the basic time interval comprises time slots of a predetermined duration;
• a V2V message collision detector wherein the detector is configured to detect when two or more V2V messages within receive range are broadcast at the same time, a “message collision;”
• a message collision notification message, wherein the message collision notification message is broadcast in response to the detection of the message collision;
• and
• a second V2V message collision detector, wherein a second V2V transmitter, associated with the second V2V message collision detector, does not transmit a message collision notification message if a V2V receiver, associated with the second V2V transmitter, first receives a substantially similar collision notification message prior to the time that the second V2V transmitter would have broadcast the message collision notification message.

A vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system comprising:

• a V2V transmitter configured to operate in a transmitting vehicle;
• wherein the V2V transmitter is configured to accept as input a subject vehicle position and a subject vehicle heading;
• wherein the V2V transmitter broadcasts V2V messages comprising:
• (i) the subject vehicle position;
• (ii) the subject vehicle heading;
• (iii) a subject vehicle speed;
• wherein the V2V broadcast messages are broadcast repeatedly in a basic time interval of predetermined duration;
• wherein the basic time interval comprises time slots of a predetermined duration;
• a plurality of transmit frames, wherein the V2V transmitter messages comprise one or more frames, and wherein a frame is a continuous transmission;
• an inter-frame time gap between frames from one or more V2V transmitters within communication range of each other wherein the inter-frame time gap is free of transmission;
• and
• wherein the inter-frame time gaps are generally shorter in duration than the maximum communication range over which the V2V system is designed to operate divided by the speed of light.