Implementation and Performance Evaluation for DSRC-Based Vehicular Communication System

Traffic accidents and congestion are the most common on-road problems that might be anywhere and anytime. Recently, to deal with such problems, well-coordinated wireless communication system between vehicles, road side units (RSU), drones, etc., namely vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication system, has been considered as a key technology enabling on-road human safety and convenience. One of the well-known building blocks of the V2X communication system is Wi-Fi based Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) which performs stably, owing to a long year of study, simplicity and capability of distributed operation. In spite of promising opportunities brought by DSRC, its elaborate performance evaluation must be done under real-world scenarios, in advance to the actual use, since its performance is directly related to human and vehicle safety. In this context, this article presents field test results of DSRC-based V2X communication system we implemented. As a result of the line-of-sight (LoS) test, the distance represented by 90% or more of packet reception rate (PRR) was 720 meters at 5 dBm, and 1,035 meters at 11 dBm. In Non-LoS (NLOS) shadowing test, the distance represented by 90% or more of PRR was 175 meters at 5 dBm, and 520 meters at 11 dBm. And in NLoS intersection test, the distance represented by 90% or more of PRR was 320 meters at 5 dBm, and 515 meters at 11 dBm. Meanwhile, the distance for PRR 90% was up to 520 meters at urban environment, 1,219 meters on highway, and 1,700 meters inside a tunnel.