Feasibility study of IEEE 802.11ad for Vehicle-to-X communication

This thesis studies the Physical Layer (PHY) of the new IEEE 802.11ad Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) standard and its feasibility for Vehicle-to-X (V2X) communication, which refers to vehicle-to-device communication and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication in this report. The current version of this standard was completed in 2012, and promises multi-gigabit throughput communication at short communication distances. It works in the unlicensed 60 GHz frequency band with much wider bandwidth. It employs higher order modulation schemes and supports Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) beamforming to improve the communication performance. To understand the feasibility as well as the practical limitation of this standard for V2X communication, the standard for certain applications is evaluated in terms of link range, data throughput, packet error rate and coverage capability. The link range and the performance of MIMO beamforming are investigated by the use of mathematical models and Matlab simulations. The practical communication performance on physical (PHY) layer and MAC layer is measured in a real vehicle with the help of 802.11ad evaluation kits (EVKs). The results show the possibility of the implementation of this standard for the V2X communication. Meanwhile, the test outcomes also reflect some practical challenges on the implementation of this standard, such as large path loss, effects of human body, weak reflection gain and so on. As a result, many further investigations are still required.