Vehicle-2-vehicle communication channel evaluation using the CVIS platform

The concept of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) presents new research and development challenges in the transportation and ICT (Information and communication technologies) sectors and is currently receiving considerable interest from the research community. Accurate simulation of wireless vehicular communications for large-scale system testing is heavily reliant on the precision of the underlying environmental models. Incorrect assumptions made in these models can lead to erroneous conclusions on the effectiveness of proposed techniques. This paper tries to address this issue in relation to channel modelling in the ITS scenario and presents results from empirical measurements of the IEEE 802.11p communications channel. Utilising prototype CVIS (Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems) platform IEEE802.11p equipment, measurement campaigns were carried out in rural, urban and highway scenarios focusing specifically on the Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications paradigm. Examining the RSSI and packet loss performance observed during testing, standard matching techniques have been applied in characterising a model of the 802.11p channel for V2V communications in these diverse driving environments. It is shown that a Nakagami matched model is the most accurate fit for the empirical data.