Millimeter Wave Vehicular Communication to Support Massive Automotive Sensing

TL;DR

This paper advocates for millimeter wave communication in connected vehicles to support high data rates for sensor data exchange, proposing a solution to reduce beam training overhead using sensor and DSRC information.

Contribution

It introduces a high-level approach leveraging sensor and DSRC data to optimize mmWave beam training, addressing a key challenge in vehicular communication.

Findings

Beam alignment overhead can be significantly reduced using position information.

Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Millimeter wave is identified as the only viable technology for high-bandwidth vehicle communication.

Abstract

As driving becomes more automated, vehicles are being equipped with more sensors generating even higher data rates. Radars (RAdio Detection and Ranging) are used for object detection, visual cameras as virtual mirrors, and LIDARs (LIght Detection and Ranging) for generating high resolution depth associated range maps, all to enhance the safety and efficiency of driving. Connected vehicles can use wireless communication to exchange sensor data, allowing them to enlarge their sensing range and improve automated driving functions. Unfortunately, conventional technologies, such as dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) and 4G cellular communication, do not support the gigabit-per-second data rates that would be required for raw sensor data exchange between vehicles. This paper makes the case that millimeter wave (mmWave) communication is the only viable approach for high bandwidth connected vehicles. The motivations and challenges associated with using mmWave for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure applications are highlighted. A high-level solution to one key challenge - the overhead of mmWave beam training - is proposed. The critical feature of this solution is to leverage information derived from the sensors or DSRC as side information for the mmWave communication link configuration. Examples and simulation results show that the beam alignment overhead can be reduced by using position information obtained from DSRC.