  In this paper, we study the problem of utility maximization in the uplink of
vehicle-to-infrastructure communication systems. The studied scenarios consider
four practical aspects of mobile radio communication links: i) Interference
between adjacent channels, ii) interference between roadside units along the
way, iii) fast and slow channel fadings, and iv) Doppler shift effects. We
present first the system model for the IEEE 802.11p standard, which considers a
communication network between vehicles and roadside infrastructure. Next, we
formulate the problem of utility maximization in the network, and propose a
distributed optimization scheme. This distributed scheme is based on a two-loop
feedback configuration, where an outer-loop establishes the optimal signal to
interference-noise ratio (SINR) that maximizes the utility function per vehicle
and defines a quality-of-service objective. Meanwhile, inner-control loops
adjust the transmission power to achieve this optimal SINR reference in each
vehicle node regardless of interference, time-varying channel profiles and
network latency. The computation complexity of the distributed utility
maximization scheme is analyzed for each feedback loop. Simulation results
indicate that the proposed scheme reaches the objective SINRs that maximize
utility and improve energy efficiency in the network with a low time cost. The
results also show that the maximum utility is consistently achieved for
different propagation scenarios inside the vehicular communication network.
