Experimental demonstration of the viability of IEEE 802.11b based inter-vehicle communications

Abstract

This paper demonstrates experimentally the viability of the wireless technology IEEE 802.11b for inter-vehicle communications. Although IEEE802.11b was designed for low-mobility, indoor scenarios, we demonstrate that is possible to use it in high-mobility, outdoor scenarios where vehicles reach relative speeds of 260 km/h. For the first time, this demonstration takes into account both the speed and the presence/absence of line-of-sight in the IEEE 802.11b communication link. These are key aspects to the most aggressive vehicular scenarios for VANET communications, such as urban streets where the surrounding buildings produce constant signal reflections or high-speed freeways. The results obtained are part of the Virtual Sub-Centre developed in the European COM2REACT project, which is a novel building block to manage efficiently moving groups of vehicles in close proximity.