Link level performance comparison between LTE V2X and DSRC

Journal of Communications and Information Networks, Vol.2, No.2, Jun. 2017 DOI: 10.1007/s41650-017-0022-x c Posts & Telecom Press and Springer Singapore 2017 Research paper Special Issue on Internet of Vehicle Link level performance comparison between LTE V2X and DSRC Jinling Hu1 , Shanzhi Chen1 , Li Zhao1 , Yuanyuan Li1 , Jiayi Fang1 , Baozhu Li2 * , Yan Shi2 1. State Key Laboratory of Wireless Mobile Communications, China Academy of Telecommunications Technology, Beijing 100191, China 2. State Key Laboratory of Networking and Switching Technology, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China * Corresponding author, Email: tiger Abstract: Applications of VANETs (Vehicular Ad hoc Networks) have their own requirements and challenges in wireless communication technology. Although regarded as the first standard for VANETs, IEEE 802.11p is still in the field-trial stage. Recently, LTE V2X (Long-Term Evolution Vehicular to X) appeared as a systematic V2X solution based on TD-LTE (Time Division Long-Term Evolution) 4G. It is regarded as the most powerful competitor to 802.11p. We conduct link level simulations of LTE V2X and DSRC (Dedicated Short-Range Communication) for several different types of scenarios. Simulation results show that LTE V2X can achieve the same BLER (Block Error Ratio) with a lower SNR (Signal Noise Ratio) than DSRC. A more reliable link can be guaranteed by LTE V2X, which can achieve the same BLER with lower receiving power than DSRC. The coverage area of LTE V2X is larger than that of DSRC. Keywords: LTE V2X, DSRC, link level simulation, frequency offset estimation, VANET ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Citation: J. L. Hu, S. Z. Chen, L. Zhao, et al. Link level performance comparison between LTE V2X and DSRC [J]. Journal of communications and information networks, 2017, 2(2): 101-112. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Introduction Vehicular Ad hoc Networks have attracted much attention from academia and industry recently owing to the broad range of new applications of wireless communication technologies. Existing V2V (Vehicleto-Vehicle) direct communication together with V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) communication use wireless data communication between vehicles and between vehicles and RSUs (Road-Side Units). This can significantly decrease the number of accidents on the roads. All kinds of applications are emerging. Lane departure warning and assistance, cooperating safety systems and emergency vehicle routing are examples of applications[1] . These traffic safety related systems indicate an increased number of requirements and challenges for wireless communication. The unpredictable behavior of wireless channels needs to be overcomed. In addition, developers must cope with fast vehicular movement, rapid topology changes in vehicular networks, and strict timing and reliability requirements. Timing requirements can be deduced from the fact that it is only relevant to communication about an Manuscript received Jan. 25, 2017; accepted Apr. 18, 2017 This work is supported in part by the National Science and Technology Major Projects of China (No. 2017ZX03001014), the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (No. 61425012) and the National Science Foundation Project (No. 61300183). 102 Journal of Communications and Information Networks upcoming dangerous situation before the situation is a fact, and perhaps can be avoided (e.g., report a probable collision before the vehicles collide)[2] . One thing we need to consider is how shared channels should be fairly divided among vehicle nodes. This is accomplished through MAC (Medium Access Control) mechanism. A lot of attention has been devoted to improving MAC performance by introducing different QoS (Quality of Service) classes[3] . The MAC layer is unlikely to need many different service classes. However, to ensure that time-critical communication tasks meet their deadlines, the MAC mechanism must first provide a strict and finite access time to the channel. Once channel access is successful, different coding strategies, retransmission schemes, and diversity techniques can be used to finish the required correctness and robustness. Information delivered after the deadline is not only useless but also wastes time and precious resources, and poses severe consequences for traffic safety. This problem has also been pointed out in Ref. [4]. Many wireless technologies can provide the wireless access required by vehicular Ad hoc communications. These technologies include cellular networks (3G and 4G), traditional Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11p, and even infrared communications[5,6] . Owing to their small communication range, traditional WiFi and infrared communications are not appropriate for supporting high mobility and frequent topology changes[5] . Although people can use cellular networks, they suffer from low rates, high costs, and long latencies. In these technologies, although IEEE 802.11p as the first standard specifically for vehicular networks has arisen, it has obvious weaknesses such as hidden node problems, unbounded delays, low reliability and intermittent V2I connectivity[7-10] . From an industrial perspective, the wide deployment of IEEE 802.11p network infrastructure requires huge investments. A lot of effort has been made by using LTE as a promising wireless technology to support vehicular communications[11,12] . Owing to its high penetration rate, high data rate, large coverage, and comprehensive QoS supporting, LTE has inherent advantages in support- ing V2I communications. However, LTE faces severe challenges when being applied in V2V communications for the following reasons: the heavy load caused by safety-related and periodic messages strongly influences LTE capacity and potentially disadvantages traditional applications, and its centralized mode has no support for V2V communications[7] . Extending LTE with direct communications between vehicles will be a promising solution, because cellular and Ad hoc communications are suggested to be complementary[13,14] . Vehicular networks mainly provide safer, more comfortable driving and traffic efficiency; however, if we do not ensure the reliability (error probability) of a system supported by a PHY (Physical) layer, the benefits of vehicular networks cannot be exploited and utilized. We need to investigate the characteristics of the PHY layer of LTE V2X and DSRC to evaluate their BLER performance. In this paper, we conduct a link level evaluation between LTE-V2X and DSRC by using an extensive simulation. By the evaluation based on simulation, we derive that the performance of the PHY layer of LTE V2X is obviously superior to that of DSRC with regard to simulation parameters such as different traveling velocities and different packet sizes. The rest of the paper is (...truncated)