Simulation and Measurement-Based Vehicle-to-Vehicle Channel Characterization: Accuracy and Constraint Analysis

In this paper, a deterministic channel model for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication is compared against channel measurement results collected during a V2V channel measurement campaign using a channel sounder. Channel metrics such as channel gain, delay and Doppler spreads, eigenvalue (EV) distribution, and antenna correlations are derived from the ray-tracing (RT) simulations as well as from the measurement data obtained from two different measurements in an urban four-way intersection. The channel metrics are compared separately for line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) situations. Most power contributions arise from the LOS component (if present) as well as from multipaths with single bounce reflections. Measurement and simulation results of the received power show a very good agreement in the presence of LOS, as most of the received power is carried by the LOS component. In NLOS, the difference is large because the ray-tracer is unable to capture some of the channel characteristics due to the underlying limitations of our ray-based propagation model. Despite the limitations, the model is suitable to characterize some, but not all, of the channel properties in a sufficient manner. We find that the diffuse scattering and multibounced nonspecular reflections must be considered for an accurate prediction of the channel in such a rich scattering environment.