Vehicle platoon is a group of vehicles moving in the same direction at a certain speed while maintaining a stable inter-vehicle distance, and so the vehicles are closely connected with each other in a virtual way. While a vehicle platoon can improve traffic efficiency, there are some challenges in maintaining communication among platoon members, especially when some vehicles join an existing platoon that includes long-body, heavy-duty or special vehicles. In order to solve this problem, we propose a spectrum sensing scheduling (SSS) scheme for communication resource management in platooning. First, we propose a three-level platoon architecture, which includes the cloud, road side unit (RSU), and vehicles to increase the communication coverage of a platoon and multiple platoons. Second, the spectrum sensing model, platoon control error model, and platoon communication delay model are established for the platoon delay under the SSS scheme. Third, we propose a greedy algorithm for resource allocation, which is based on the SSS scheme and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, to minimize platoon delay. Finally, we simulate platoon delay and platoon safety status of the SSS scheme when some vehicles join an existing platoon. Simulation results show that the proposed SSS scheme reduces the platoon communication delay by around 50% and achieves a smaller platoon error as compared with existing baseline schemes for resource scheduling.

In emergency communication scenarios, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be used as an air relay to provide higher-quality communication for indoor users. When bandwidth resources are scarce, the use of free space optics (FSO) technology will greatly improve the resource utilization of the communication system. Therefore, we introduce FSO technology into the backhaul link of outdoor communication, and use free space optical/radio frequency (FSO/RF) technology to realize the access link of outdoor indoor communication. The deployment location of UAVs will affect not only the through wall loss of outdoor–indoor communication but also the quality of FSO communication, and, therefore, it needs to be optimized. In addition, by optimizing the power and bandwidth allocation of UAVs, we realize the efficient utilization of resources and improve the system throughput on the premise of considering information causality constraints and user fairness. The simulation results show that, by optimizing the location and power bandwidth allocation of UAVs, the system throughput is maximized, and the throughput between each user is fair.

The cruising range of an electric vehicle is limited by its battery. Reducing the energy consumption of MES (main energy systems) or AES (auxiliary energy systems) of the vehicle battery is an effective means to increase the electric vehicle cruising range. Platoon driving can greatly reduce the wind resistance of the vehicle and then reduce the energy consumption of MES for electric vehicles. This paper proposes an adaptive communication energy optimization scheme based on road curvature radius to save the energy of AES for the electric vehicle platoon on curved roads. In this paper, the inter-vehicle distance error based on the car-like model in a two-dimensional space is established. Then, the inter-vehicle distance error is used to design a control law K to accomplish successful platooning. Next, three platooning control schemes based on different information flow topologies are discussed. Finally, the consensus of three platooning control schemes and the energy consumption of electric vehicle communication systems are analyzed by MATLAB’s Simulink. Simulation results show that the communication energy optimization scheme reduces the power consumption of AES as long as the platoon driving on curved roads.

Vehicle platooning is the first step to realize fully automatic driving. In vehicle platoon, wireless communication is not only the medium of platooning control input, but also the medium for platooning members (PMs) to perceive the surrounding environment. Therefore, platooning communication with high reliability and low delay is the guarantee of platooning safety. However, due to the lack of communication resources, there will be excessive delay in platooning management. In order to reduce platooning delay, this paper proposes an energy detection scheduling (EDS) scheme. In this paper, we first discuss the impact of joining or leaving vehicles on the communication delay of the original platoon. Then we propose to use spectrum sensing to increase the number of platooning communication resources. Next, the local optimization algorithm is used to solve the resource optimization problem, and EDS algorithm is proposed. Finally, the platooning delay is simulated by MATLAB. Simulation results show that the EDS scheme reduces the platooning delay by more than half compared with the traditional resource allocation scheme.

The cruising range of an electric vehicle is limited by its battery. Reducing the energy consumption of MES (main energy systems) or AES (auxiliary energy systems) of the vehicle battery is an effective means to increase the electric vehicle cruising range. Platoon driving can greatly reduce the wind resistance of the vehicle and then reduce the energy consumption of MES for electric vehicles. This paper proposes an adaptive communication energy optimization scheme based on road curvature radius to save the energy of AES for the electric vehicle platoon on curved roads. In this paper, the inter-vehicle distance error based on the car-like model in a two-dimensional space is established. Then, the inter-vehicle distance error is used to design a control law K to accomplish successful platooning. Next, three platooning control schemes based on different information flow topologies are discussed. Finally, the consensus of three platooning control schemes and the energy consumption of electric vehicle communication systems are analyzed by MATLAB's Simulink. Simulation results show that the communication energy optimization scheme reduces the power consumption of AES as long as the platoon driving on curved roads.