On the Feasibility of Integrating mmWave and IEEE 802.11p for V2V Communications

TL;DR

This paper compares mmWave and IEEE 802.11p for vehicle-to-vehicle communications, highlighting their complementary strengths and limitations in supporting future automotive data demands.

Contribution

It provides a simulation-based analysis of how mmWave and IEEE 802.11p can be integrated to enhance V2V communication performance.

Findings

mmWave supports ultra-high transmission speeds

IEEE 802.11p offers reliable and robust communication

Both technologies can complement each other in V2V scenarios

Abstract

Recently, the millimeter wave (mmWave) band has been investigated as a means to support the foreseen extreme data rate demands of emerging automotive applications, which go beyond the capabilities of existing technologies for vehicular communications. However, this potential is hindered by the severe isotropic path loss and the harsh propagation of high-frequency channels. Moreover, mmWave signals are typically directional, to benefit from beamforming gain, and require frequent realignment of the beams to maintain connectivity. These limitations are particularly challenging when considering vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) transmissions, because of the highly mobile nature of the vehicular scenarios, and pose new challenges for proper vehicular communication design. In this paper, we conduct simulations to compare the performance of IEEE 802.11p and the mmWave technology to support V2V networking, aiming at providing insights on how both technologies can complement each other to meet the requirements of future automotive services. The results show that mmWave-based strategies support ultra-high transmission speeds, and IEEE 802.11p systems have the ability to guarantee reliable and robust communications.