A Semi-Virtual Long-Range Test Drive for Car2X with Virtual Traffic Simulator and its Application on Antenna Diversity

A measurement platform for reproducible semi-virtual test drives for Car2Car/Car2X communication is being extended for use in long-distance scenarios. It enables the evaluation of vehicle-integrated antennas as well as associated circuits such as antenna diversity systems and corresponding algorithms under realistic propagation conditions in various multipath scenarios. Wave propagation on a long route in a Rayleigh fading scenario is simulated in a virtual city model, with ray tracing applied at discrete points along the route, while for the positions between these points an analysis of the Doppler frequencies for the wave propagation paths leads to the intermediate results. In addition, a traffic simulation is implemented to enable investigation of various traffic scenarios using the intelligent driver model. The long-range test drive is performed using a scan-phase diversity circuit and its antennas as an example. Compared to a single antenna, micro-diversity shows a significant reduction in packet error rate and an increase in received signal strength. In contrast to conventional field tests, the semi-virtual test drive ensures exactly the same environmental conditions for the different antenna systems under test.