An Empirical Study on Urban IEEE 802.11p Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication

IEEE 802.11p based Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) has been considered as a promising wireless technology for enhancing transportation safety and traffic efficiency. However, with limited literature available, there is lack of understanding about how IEEE 802.11p performs for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications in urban environments. In this paper, we conduct intensive statistical analysis on V2V communication performance, based on the empirical measurement data collected from off-the-shelf IEEE 802.11p-compatible onboard units (OBUs). We have several key insights as follows. First, both line-of-sight (LoS) and non-line-of-sight (NLoS) durations follow power law distributions, which implies that the probability of having long LoS/NLoS conditions can be relatively high. Second, the packet inter-reception (PIR) time distribution follows an exponential distribution in LoS conditions but a power law in NLoS conditions. In contrast, the packet inter-loss (PIL) time distribution in LoS condition follows a power law but an exponential in NLoS condition. Third, the overall PIR time distribution is a mix of exponential distribution and power law distribution. The presented results provide solid ground to validate models, tune VANET simulators and improve communication strategies.