Exploratory Study of 802.11ad Vehicular Links

IEEE 802.11ad leverages the large channel widths available in the 60 GHz mm-wave unlicensed spectrum to provide high throughput. Due to the high propagation loss at these frequencies, 802.11ad uses highly directional beamforming and constructive multipath to achieve indoor ranges of up to 50 m. It has been shown that 802.11ad links can be used outdoors for vehicular communications, but ranges tend be very short when few or no reflectors are present. While carrying out vehicular experiments with mobility, we occasionally observed communication ranges of up to similar to 30 m. We hypothesize that the cause lies in constructive reflections on the vehicles' roofs, which function as ground planes. In this paper, we report preliminary results on the experiments and our efforts to quantify the roof's ground plane effect using TP-Link Talon AD7200 802.11ad routers.