Coverage-Improvement of V2I Communication Through Car-Relays in Microcellular Urban Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a microcellular urban network, where micro-cells provide a wireless connection to vehicular users. We focus on vehicular relaying to enhance the quality of the V2I link and therefore to improve the overall coverage in the network. To quantify the coverage gain, we compare the performance of direct communication between microcell and vehicular user with the relay-aided communication. In the examined scenario, we create a Manhattan grid of streets where in each street micro-cell base stations and vehicular users are randomly placed according to a Poisson point process. The employed pathloss distinguishes whether the transmitter is in the same street as the receiver, in a crossing or in a parallel street. We investigate our model analytically by leveraging tools from stochastic geometry as well as by Monte Carlo system level simulations. We compare results for the relay-assisted link and the direct link depending on the user density in terms of pathloss, SINR and coverage.