Vehicular Communication Applications Research Articles

A Radiation-Pattern Reconfigurable Antenna Array for Vehicular Communications.

This paper presents a low-profile reconfigurable antenna array capable of five radiation-pattern modes for vehicular communication applications. The antenna array consists of four antenna elements, each containing four square patches. Exciting one of the square patches generates a broadside radiation. A square parasitic patch is added at the rear of the excited patch, and two square parasitic patches are placed at the front. By optimizing the design of these parasitic patches, including the treatment of center slotting and addition of shorting pins, the antenna element achieves an end-fire beam with a certain tilt angle. On this basis, a reconfigurable feeding network is designed with 1:1 and 1:4 output modes. By connecting the reconfigurable feeding network to the four antenna elements and altering the on/off states of the PIN diodes in the feeding network, a reconfigurable antenna with four end-fire beams and one omnidirectional beam in its radiation pattern is realized. Measurement results demonstrate an excellent impedance bandwidth, radiation pattern, and gain performance in all modes. The four end-fire and one omnidirectional radiation characteristics make it highly suitable for vehicular communication applications.

Wideband Via-Less Reconfigurable Reflection and Transmission Linear-Circular / Linear-Cross Polarizer for Vehicular Satellite Communication Applications

Wideband Via-Less Reconfigurable Reflection and Transmission Linear-Circular / Linear-Cross Polarizer for Vehicular Satellite Communication Applications

Dual-Notched UWB Orthogonal MIMO Antenna with Improved Gain Characteristics Using Frequency Selective Surfaces for Wireless Communication Applications

In this paper, a complementary split ring resonator (CSRR) loaded compact CPW-fed circular shaped monopole UWB antenna with dual band notch characteristics is designed on an FR-4 substrate. The propounded band-notched UWB antenna is integrated with two frequency selective surface layers referred as bandpass frequency selective surface (FSS-1) and reflector (FSS-2) to offer enhanced radiation performance. Bandpass FSS-1 enhances the gain of the antenna by improving directivity and reflector FSS-2 reflects back the backside radiation of the proposed antenna towards the forward direction thereby increasing gain and directivity of the proposed antenna. Furthermore, a two-element orthogonal MIMO antenna is proposed with improved gain using two FSS layers. The complete configuration of the proposed two-element MIMO antenna consists of CSRR-based radiating patches, monopole ground planes and two integrated FSS layers. The proposed MIMO antenna operates in UWB range from 3.46[Formula: see text]GHz to 16.02[Formula: see text]GHz with dual notches at 3.9[Formula: see text]GHz and 7.2[Formula: see text]GHz. Isolation between MIMO elements is greater than 23 dB. Both antennas are fabricated and investigated at 5.9[Formula: see text]GHz for vehicular communications. Maximum gain improvements of 8 dB and 6.4 dB are observed in case of the presented single element and MIMO antenna within the entire operating band due to the integration of dual FSS layers. The diversity performance of the suggested MIMO antenna is investigated by analyzing mean effective gain, envelope correlation coefficient, channel capacity loss and diversity gain parameters. The proposed MIMO antenna is a suitable candidate for vehicular and UWB wireless communication applications.

Performance analysis of ambient backscatter communication empowered IoV networks

This paper investigates the performance of Internet-of-Vehicles networks supporting vehicular communication applications empowered by ambient backscatter communication technology. Specifically, we consider that the tag and reader are mounted on the vehicles while the ambient radio frequency source is a fixed infrastructure, allowing for both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure modes of communication in the network under consideration. We evaluate the exact outage probability expression for the AmBC-enabled Internet-of-Vehicles systems by characterizing the fading associated with vehicle-to-infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle transmissions as Rayleigh distributed and cascaded (double) Rayleigh distributed, respectively. Also, asymptotic outage probability expression is derived under high signal-to-noise ratio regime, from which a meaningful discussion on the system’s diversity order is carried out. Moreover, we deduce the tight ergodic capacity expression over mixed Rayleigh and double-Rayleigh fading channels. Finally, the simulation studies verify the proposed theoretical framework and show the impact of various channel and system parameters on the outage probability and ergodic capacity performance.

Triple‐band circularly polarized conformal antenna for vehicular communication applications

AbstractVehicular communication presents a compact wideband implantable antenna for the best wireless transmission of information. The key role of the antenna is handled by the thickness of the substrate present in that antenna. Also, the shape of the antenna causes the performance characteristics. Now, vehicle‐to‐vehicle communication is the interesting task for designers to create successful and organized vehicular communication systems. This article presents a triple‐band circularly polarized conformal antenna for vehicular communication. An antenna is introduced as a triple‐band circular polarized conformal antenna and preserved a suitable mount on the vehicle surface for greater gain to provide well‐maintained operational performance characteristics. For getting circular polarization, circular cuttings are provided in the design of the proposed antenna. The radiation gives a fixed direction by providing 0.3 mm thickness. Here, use a circularly polarized antenna to rectify the signal absorption due to the contact material used in the antenna. A polyamide material is used as a substrate to get a probable successful link and improve the flexibility of the antenna. The triple‐band circularly polarized antenna is designed to operate in vehicular communication bands such as 2.4 GHz Wi‐Fi, 3.5 GHz WiMAX, and 5.9 GHz dedicated short range communication. The antenna is designed to resonate in a triple band to improve the antenna parameters like frequency response characteristics, gain, return loss, voltage standing wave ratio, left hand circularly polarization, right hand circularly polarization, axial ratio, fidelity factor, directivity, radiated power, and input impedance. Under the operating frequency bands of 2.4, 3.4, and 5.9 GHz, the efficiency of the proposed antenna is 98.48%, 97.31%, and 97.90%, respectively. The triple‐band circularly polarized conformal antenna is implemented in the high‐frequency structure simulator platform. The proposed tri‐band antenna is applicable in vehicular communication systems and healthcare for efficient wireless transmission.

Dual-Band Dual-Circularly Polarized Fabry-Pérot Cavity MIMO Antenna Using CMM-Based Polarization Converter and MMA for Vehicular Satellite Communications

A 2 × 2 dual-band dual-circularly polarized (CP) Fabry-Pérot cavity (FPC) multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna is proposed in this paper. It is formed by arranging four identical FPC antenna elements with 90° rotation. The FPC antenna element is composed of a single linearly polarized (LP) feeder and a chiral metamaterial (CMM)-based partially reflective surface (PRS), which acts as a polarization converter. The feeder is with a hybrid structure of a slot radiator operating in the low band and a patch radiator in the high band. As the orthogonal currents on the end and center arms of the H-shaped patch break the degeneracy of two CP waves at different frequencies, the PRS simultaneously realizes left-hand CP (LHCP) and right-hand CP (RHCP) features at two different bands, respectively. To enhance the port isolation between two adjacent antenna elements, a broadband, wide-angle, polarization-independent metamaterial absorber (MMA) is introduced to suppress the space wave coupling. To verify the design concept, the proposed MIMO antenna prototype is fabricated and measured. The measured bandwidth with a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) of less than 2 covers 3.32-3.42 GHz and 6.23-6.93 GHz, and the LHCP pattern and RHCP pattern are realized at 3.33-3.42 GHz (2.7%) and 6.59-6.75 GHz (2.4%), respectively. A maximum gain enhancement is up to 5.31 dBi in the low band and up to 4.3 dBi in the high band. In addition, the port isolation is better than 42 dB, and the ECC is less than -40 dB. With these performances, the proposed MIMO antenna is suitable for vehicular satellite communication applications.

A Fairness-Enhanced Intelligent MAC Scheme Using Q-Learning-Based Bidirectional Backoff for Distributed Vehicular Communication Networks

With the increasing attention to front-edge vehicular communication applications, distributed resource allocation is beneficial to the direct communications between vehicle nodes. However, in highly dynamic distributed vehicular networks, quality of service (QoS) of the systems would degrade dramatically because of serious packet collisions in the absence of sufficient link knowledge. Focusing on the fairness optimization, a Q-learning-based collision avoidance (QCA) scheme, which is characterized by an ingenious bidirectional backoff reward model R <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">QCA</inf> corresponding to arbitrary backoff stage transitions, has been proposed in an intelligent distributed media access control protocol. In QCA, an intelligent bidirectional backoff agent based on the Markov decision process model can actively motivate each vehicle agent to update itself toward an optimal backoff sub-intervel BSI <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">opt</inf> through either positive or negative bidirectional transition individually, resulting in the distinct fair communication with a proper balance of the resource allocation. According to the reinforcement learning theory, the problem of goodness evaluation on the backoff stage self-selection policy is equal to the problem of maximizing Q function of the vehicle in the current environment. The final decision on BSI <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">opt</inf> related to an optimal contention window range was solved through maximizing the Q value or <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$Q_{\max}$</tex> . The ε-qreedy algorithm was used to keep a reasonable convergence of the <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$Q_{\max}$</tex> solution. For the fairness evaluation of QCA, four kinds of dynamic impacts on the vehicular networks were investigated: mobility, density, payload size, and data rate with a network simulator NS2. Consequently, QCA can achieve fair communication efficiently and robustly, with advantages of superior Jain's fairness index, relatively high packet delivery ratio, and low time delay.

Inverted Sierpinski Carpet fractal‐inspired dielectric resonator antenna for wideband applications

AbstractThis communication explains a novel approach for attaining wideband inverted Sierpinski Carpet fractal geometry with a rectangular shape dielectric resonator antenna (DRA). Dielectric Resonators (DRs) have advantages, like, high gain, efficiency, wide bandwidth, low conduction loss, and minimum surface waves. Rectangular shape DR (εrdr = 9.8, 14 × 12 × 8 mm3) made from alumina (Al2O3) is mounted on top of a primary square patch. Inverted Sierpinski fractal geometry provides the benefit to decrease the volume to the surface area without removing elements from the patch. The proposed fractal DRA is printed on an FR4 substrate (εr = 4.4), fed with a 50‐Ω microstrip feed line, and has a compact size of 38 × 38 × 9 mm3. At the backside of the antenna, an extended stub from the partial ground plane enhances impedance matching from 4 to 5 GHz. The prototype of the proposed DRA is fabricated and measured. The antenna functions with an impedance bandwidth of 98.84% for S11 &lt; − 10 dB, covering 3.5–10.34 GHz of the ultrawideband range. The proposed DRA offers a stable omnidirectional radiation pattern, maximum measured gain of 7.01 dBi, and has an average efficiency above 97% over the region of operation. These features make the proposed DRA applicable for cellular communication repeaters, local area networks, and vehicular communication applications.

Hybrid mmWave-Li-Fi 5G Architecture for Reconfigurable Variable Latency and Data Rate Communications

Despite modern vehicles having the necessary advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for autonomous operation, current implementations rely solely on sensor information from the surrounding environment or data from smart infrastructure. However, shortcomings in current implementations and standards around cost-effective variable latency and data rate have prevented widespread adoption of the technology to enable autonomous operation. This paper presents a proof-of-concept (PoC) reconfigurable design and performance of a hybrid high-ultra-high bands [i.e., millimetre-Wave (mmWave)-light fidelity (Li-Fi)] fifth generation (5G) architecture for autonomous vehicular communication applications. The hybrid multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system architecture design is mathematically modelled and presented. The reported prelim PoC validation focuses on the Li-Fi experiment and results. The proposed hybrid system’s effectiveness was evaluated using the open-source “Model-based Autonomous Traffic Simulation” (MOBATSim). The simulation results of a potential Li-Fi system and a PoC prototype are presented to demonstrate the role of the Li-Fi system in the proposed hybrid mmWave-Li-Fi 5G architecture. Three models of LED/lamp and two models of photodiode were simulated at three different vehicle speeds to ascertain the potential of the system. Promising results are reported at low speeds with received power values of up to -8.39 dBm and signal to noise ratios of up to 29.39 dB. Practical prototype simulations showed auspicious results including received power of -24.6 dBm to -34.12 dBm at the vehicle speeds of 10 MPH to 30 MPH respectively. The implemented PoC Li-Fi technology component has demonstrated the ability to transmit information with a theoretical output of 333 bits per second at 1.92 m, without the use of any high-power processors, components, and modulation techniques. The proposed system yields high data rates due to reconfigurable high bandwidth channels; many simultaneous multimedia mmWave-Li-Fi connections enabled due to spatial reuse with narrow beams; and easier mmWave-Li-Fi ultra-low latency support occasioned by smaller packet sizes. This holds a great promise for the hybrid 5G/6G mmWave-Li-Fi autonomous vehicular communication use case and/or applications.

Artificial neural network optimized ultra wide band fractal antenna for vehicular communication applications

AbstractThe article proposes a microstrip patch antenna for vehicular communication applications under 5G communication frequency band. The dimensions of the antenna play an important role in the field of vehicular communication applications. The antenna dimensions are optimized by introducing back propagation algorithm. Overall dimension of the antenna is reduced by 16% as compare to the traditional formulations. Further fractal geometry is implemented on the patch and recessed ground as defected ground structure. FR4 epoxy is used to construct the substrate of the proposed antenna with the dimensions of 50 mm × 60 mm × 1.6 mm and the patch is designed as rectangular patch with H‐cut and I‐cut. The proposed antenna is simulated using Ansys high frequency structure simulator v15 and the frequency of operation is 27 to 33 GHz. The antenna parameters such as reflection coefficient, voltage standing wave ratio, gain, radiation, and current distribution are investigated. The antenna is designed in compact in shape such that it is suitable for vehicular communication applications.

High-Density Platooning in Cellular Vehicle-To-Everything Systems: On the Importance of Communication-Aware Networked Control Design

Fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks enable many vehicular communication applications by providing wireless interfaces for the exchange of messages among vehicles [vehicle to vehicle (V2V)] and among vehicles and pedestrians, infrastructure components, and application servers [vehicle to everything (V2X)]. Platoon networked control systems to maintain intervehicle distance (IVD) represent one of the most demanding use cases in V2X. Closed-loop feedback controllers introduced decades ago have been demonstrated to work with string stability and IVDs of only a few meters at highway speeds. However, the effects of temporally and spatially correlated packet losses, as experienced at the cell edge and during handovers, have not been sufficiently analyzed.

Design and packaging of polarization diversity 3D-UWB MIMO antenna with dual band notch characteristics for vehicular communication applications

In this article, the design, fabrication, testing, and packaging of a Substrate Integrated Waveguide(SIW) based polarization diversity 3D eight-port Ultra-Wideband (UWB) MIMO antenna introduced with dual-band notch characteristics for vehicular communication applications. In this proposed UWB MIMO design, we employed a SIW technique to achieve UWB bandwidth with a compact size of 60 × 60 mm3. The SIW based metallic via integrated with L-shaped parasitic slot stub and radiator to notch the WLAN and L-shaped stub connected at the ground plane to notch the X-band. The SIW based radiators are placed in the vertical and horizontal plane to realize the polarization diversity. In addition to providing polarization diversity, the antenna’s direction also contributes a reliable link with communication equipment. The antenna performance metrics such as reflection coefficient(Sii), mutual coupling(Sij), the peak gain, radiation pattern, radiation efficiency, Envelope Correlation Coefficient (ECC), Diversity Gain (DG), Total Active Reflection Coefficient (TARC), Channel Capacity Loss (CCL) and Mean Effective Gain(MEG). The proposed 3D antenna performance analyzed when mounted inside the different types of housing. Hence, the proposed polarization diversity antenna is suitable for vehicular communication applications.

Circularly polarized dielectric resonator‐based multiple input multiple output antenna with pattern and polarization diversity for vehicular applications

SummaryIn this article, a modified layout of cylindrical dielectric material‐based, resonator‐type multiple input multiple output antenna (MIMO) is presented. The beam tilting feature is achieved by using a conducting plate placed in the mid of two antenna elements. Dual frequency‐band operation, that is, 2.4–4.02 and 4.78–6.21 GHz is obtained by sourcing the ring DRA electromagnetically with asymmetric S‐shaped aperture via microstrip line. Dual CP waves are supported by the designed antenna within the operating frequency band, that is, 2.84–2.95 and 5.63–5.66 GHz. The two ports are placed in parallel. Some salient features of the designed antenna are (i) pattern diversity (θ = ±30° in XZ plane) is obtained between two parallel placed ports by applying conducting plate; (ii) polarization diversity is obtained by simply taking a mirror image of the proposed aperture. The most favorable value of diversity parameters of the suggested DR‐based MIMO antenna makes it satisfactory for smart transport and vehicular communication applications in the sub‐6‐GHz range.

Design and Analysis of a Circularly polarized flexible, compact and transparent antenna for Vehicular Communication Applications

A Compact, flexible, and circularly polarized transparent monopole antenna is proposed for vehicular communication applications by IEEE 802.1p standard. Canopy mesh is used as a conductive layer and the PDMS substrate is used as a substrate with dielectric constant e r = 2.66 and loss tangent tan 6= 0.023. The overall dimension of the proposed antenna is 20 × 20 × 1 mm3. The rectangular patch with a T-shape slot with a truncated corner and partial ground provide resonant frequency at 5.85 GHz with a reflection coefficient (S11) bandwidth of 5.2-6.86 GHz (1.66 GHz) and axial ratio(dB) bandwidth of 5.7 GHz-6.14 GHz (404 MHz).

Low‐loss ultra‐wideband beam switching metasurface antenna in X‐band

This study proposes an ultra-wideband (UWB) metasurface-based beam-switching antenna system. A coplanar (CP) waveguide fed slot antenna (with 49% operating bandwidth) is coupled with a hexagonal metallic aperture to generate CP beam in the 10.2–10.8 GHz band. An octagonal split ring inclusion-based meta-element is designed to achieve 2π transmission phase variation with near-unity magnitude. The principle of the Pancharatnam–Berry metasurface is used to design an offset metasurface superstrate for tilting the main beam of the UWB antenna for the CP band. Measured results (S11, axial ratio, and radiation pattern) agree well with full-wave simulations. The fabricated X-band UWB aperture coupled antenna system uses the metasurface superstrate to achieve a broadside beam for the lower band and tilted beam for the upper band. This antenna system holds promise for next-generation vehicular and satellite communication applications.

Edge-Facilitated Augmented Vision in Vehicle-to-Everything Networks

Vehicular communication applications require an efficient communication architecture for timely information delivery. Centralized, cloud-based infrastructures present latencies too high to satisfy the requirements of emergency information processing and transmission, while Vehicle-to-Vehicle communication is too variable for reliable in-time information transmission. In this paper, we present EAVVE, a novel Vehicle-to-Everything system, consisting of vehicles with and without comprehensive data processing capabilities, facilitated by edge servers co-located with roadside units. Adding computation capabilities at the edge of the network allows reducing the overall latency compared to vehicle-to-cloud and makes up for scenarios in which in-vehicle computational power is not sufficient to satisfy the service demand. To improve the offloading efficiency, we propose a decentralized algorithm for real-time task scheduling and a client/server algorithm for information filtering. We demonstrate the practical applications of EAVVE with a bandwidth-hungry, latency constrained real-life prototype system that connects vehicular vision through Augmented Reality vision. We evaluate this prototype system with real-life road tests. We complement this practical evaluation with extensive simulations based on real-world base station and vehicular traffic data to demonstrate the scalability of EAVVE and its performance in citywide scenarios. EAVVE decreases the latency by 42.6% and 78.7% compared to local and remote cloud solutions while relaxing congestion at the bottleneck by 99% with reasonable infrastructure expenditure.

Cooperative Data Scheduling in Software Defined Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network (SDVAN)

Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is the form of mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) in which the movement of vehicle is restricted by direction of road and traffic regulation. Real-world applications of vehicular communications are restricted due to rigidity in the deployment of protocol. To cover up this limitation in VANET, Software Defined Network (SDN) should be used for better utilization of channels and wireless resources. Due to dynamic nature of vehicles, finding and maintaining data dissemination is essential. Various applications uses different data from different sources, but for short period, high speed vehicles lives in the locality of road side unit (RSU) which results in latency issue. Therefore, to reduce delay scheduling of data is important so that it can serve as much requests as possible. The paper aims to implement SDN architecture along with flow management and Cooperative Data Dissemination (CDD) algorithm which will increase the speed of data dissemination. The performance of proposed algorithm is analyzed on the basic of parameters such as service ratio, service delay and gain of scalability. System performance is improved by improving CDD with peer to peer network.

Autonomous Resource Slicing for Virtualized Vehicular Networks With D2D Communications Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning

Considering bandwidth-hungry and low latency requirement of vehicular communications applications, we propose a novel dynamic reinforcement learning-based slicing framework and optimization solutions for efficient resource provisioning in virtualized network for D2D-based vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication. The aim is to balance resource utilization and quality of service (QoS) satisfaction levels for multiple slices. The slicing framework is designed as a three-stage layered framework. In the first stage, we propose dynamic deep reinforcement learning-based virtual resource allocation scheme to allocate distinct resources to slices. In the second stage, we aggregate the D2D resource portion of the slice resource for D2D-based V2V communication. In the third stage, due to the computational complexity and signaling overhead of the physical resource allocation, we transform the problem into a convex optimization problem and solve with an alternating direction method of multipliers-based distributed algorithm. Performance results are provided in terms of resource utilization, QoS satisfaction and throughput to show the benefit of integrating resource slices dedicated to supporting interslice D2D-based V2V communication in vehicular network.

A compact reconfigurable aperture coupled fed antenna for intelligent transportation system application

This article presents a novel reconfigurable aperture coupled fed antenna with a defected ground plane for an intelligent transportation system (ITS). The antenna design with aperture coupled feed line. The defected ground plane allows variation in reactance of the proposed antenna around the center frequency and coupling of energy. This antenna is multiband and works at resonant frequencies of 2.45, 5.9, and 24 GHz allowing measurable reconfigurability with the help of PIN diode. From the measurement, one can infer that the bandwidth is 0.8, 1, and 8.5 GHz, and gain obtained are 11.7, 4.04, and 4.4 dBi at 2.45, 5.9, and 24 GHz frequencies, respectively. It is circularly polarized with a broadside radiation pattern. The advantage of this design is that it covers all the three bands allocated by the Federal Communications Commission for ITS and vehicular communication applications. It is an electrically small, low profile antenna and has a simple structure thus gives large bandwidth.

Bandwidth reconfigurable antenna on a liquid crystal polymer substrate for automotive communication applications

A compact and ultrathin frequency reconfigurable antenna is presented in this article (40×30×0.1 mm3) for vehicular communication applications. The proposed antenna design contains a coplanar waveguide fed circular ring structure along with the angularly placed parasitic circular elements fabricated on a Rogers ULTRALAM-3850 liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate of Ɛr = 2.9. The operating bandwidth around the targeted resonant modes 2.4 GHz, 5.9 GHz, 9.5 GHz and 12.5 GHz of the antenna are reconfigured by controlling the BAR64-03W PIN diode switching elements in the antenna design. Further, this work focused on analyzing the radome substrate permittivity effects and radome housing effects on the performance of the proposed reconfigurable antenna at different switching states and then far-field characteristics of the radome enclosed antenna after placing the antenna on rooftop of the vehicle are also presented. A step further, the radome paint effects on the propagation of the signal in a real-time environment are experimentally studied by measuring the received signal strength parameter and presented in the article. The gain of the proposed antenna swings between −0.51 dB to 6.12 dB for the antenna in stand-alone mode whereas it varies from 2.85 dB to 8.54 dB for the antenna installed with radome.