Digital Twin Empowered In-Vehicular Channel Modeling and Wireless Planning in the Terahertz Band

TL;DR

This paper develops a digital twin-based modeling approach for in-vehicle THz band channels, validated with measurements, enabling improved wireless planning for high-speed V2X communications.

Contribution

It introduces a digital twin integrated with ray-tracing for accurate in-vehicle THz channel modeling, combining measurement data and simulation for enhanced wireless system design.

Findings

High agreement between simulation and measurement data

Validated hybrid channel model for THz in-vehicle communication

Optimized transmitter placement for better coverage

Abstract

Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology has emerged as a key enabler of intelligent transportation systems, while the Terahertz (THz) band offers abundant spectrum resources to support ultra-high-speed and low-latency V2X communications. This paper investigates the in-vehicle wireless channel in the 300~GHz band. First, channel measurement based on vector-network-analyzer (VNA) is conducted under typical V2X scenarios, including with/without human, and window-on/off cases. Then, a digital twin (DT) of the vehicle is constructed from high-resolution point cloud data and a measurement-based material property database. The DT is integrated into an open-source ray-tracing (RT) simulator, Sionna, to model multipath propagation. The DT-empowered simulation results are analyzed and validated with the measurement data, showing strong agreement and validating the feasibility. Finally, a hybrid ray-tracing-statistic channel model is established, combining the RT results and measurement data. Leveraging the validated model, further wireless planning is carried out, including signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) analysis, coverage probability evaluation, and optimal transmitter (Tx) placement. These findings provide valuable insights for the design and deployment of future THz in-vehicle communication systems.