Por fin me he aclarado con el tema. Aquí dejo una definición de DSRC:
Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) is a proposed variant of IEEE 802.11a, designed to operate within a frequency band (5.9 GHz) licensed solely for the purposes of vehicular communications, and is being optimized for operation within high-speed vehicular environments. It is currently undergoing joint development by government and industry partners for adoption as the de-facto standard for communications-based vehicular safety and non-safety applications. In general, the DSRC physical layer is adapted from the IEEE 802.11a standard using OFDM modulation, and the DSRC medium access control layer is adapted, in part, from the original IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.11e (QoS) standards.
Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) is a proposed variant of IEEE 802.11a, designed to operate within a frequency band (5.9 GHz) licensed solely for the purposes of vehicular communications, and is being optimized for operation within high-speed vehicular environments. It is currently undergoing joint development by government and industry partners for adoption as the de-facto standard for communications-based vehicular safety and non-safety applications. In general, the DSRC physical layer is adapted from the IEEE 802.11a standard using OFDM modulation, and the DSRC medium access control layer is adapted, in part, from the original IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.11e (QoS) standards.
[extraído de "Cooperative Collision Warning Using Dedicated Short Range Wireless Communications", Tamer ElBatt, Siddhartha K Goel, Gavin]