Analysis of radio propagation at intersection considering car antenna positions for inter-vehicle communications

In the development of the inter-vehicle communication systems for the prevention of car crashes, it is important to know the radio propagation characteristics at blind intersections. In experiments and numerical simulations of the radio propagation, a half wavelength dipole antenna is assumed to be the wave source in many cases. However, the directivity of car antenna is changed by the effect of car body. Additionally, the directivity of car antenna is also changed by the effect of antenna position on car body. Therefore, it seems necessary to investigate radio propagation characteristics considering car antenna positions. In this paper, the effect of car antenna positions on propagation loss at different receiving height in a blind intersection for inter-vehicle communications is investigated. Here, the hybrid method using both the FDTD and ray-tracing methods is used for the radio propagation analysis.