Performance of DSRC during Safety Pilot Model Deployment 2017-01-0077

This paper provides an analysis of how communication performance between vehicles using Dedicated Short-range Communication (DSRC) devices varies by antenna mounting, vehicle relative positions and orientations, and between receiving devices. DSRC is a wireless technology developed especially for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. A frequency band near 5.9 GHz has been set aside in the US and other countries for exploring safety and other uses for road vehicles. DSRC devices installed onboard vehicles broadcast their location using global navigation space systems (GNSS), speed, heading, and other information. This can be used to study communication performance in many scenarios including: car-following situations, rear-end crash avoidance, oncoming traffic situations, left turn advisory, head-on crash avoidance and do-not-pass warnings. Message Capture Fraction and Packet Loss Duration highlight how these measures change with distance and orientation of the vehicles. Data used in this study address four years of real-world use with over 2500 vehicles, with antennas primarily in an aftermarket-style installation.