The physical layer of VANETs

Abstract

This chapter is about the physical layer (PHY) of VANETs and will present all its main features with a bottom-up approach, starting from the relevant physical propagation and reception phenomena; afterwards, the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)-Wi-Fi standard, as adapted to the vehicular environment, will be introduced; then, the architecture of transceivers will be presented, so to match theoretical solutions with practical implementations and a hands-on perspective; eventually, some open research areas will be introduced, highlighting how much the physical layer could be improved in a standard-compliant way. More innovative solutions will be presented in the following chapters.