Rapid Prototyping for Evaluating Vehicular Communications

[Abstract] This Thesis details the different elements of a rapid prototyping system able to implement and evaluate vehicular communications fast, according to the continuously evolving requirements of the industry. The system is basically composed of a testbed and a channel emulator, which allow evaluating communication transceivers in realistic vehicular scenarios. Two different testbeds are introduced: a generic 2x2 system and a vehicular platform. The former is used to compare and study space-time block coding (STBC) transmissions at 2.4 GHz over different indoor channels. The latter makes use of software transceivers whose performance is evaluated when they work under artificial high-speed Rayleigh-fading scenarios. To show the capabilities of both platforms, three software transceivers have been developed following the specifications for the physical layers of the standards IEEE 802.11p, IEEE 802.11a and IEEE 802.16e (Mobile WiMAX). The present work details the different elements that make up each transceiver and indicates how to connect them to the rest of the system to perform evaluation measurements. Finally, single-antenna and multi-antenna performances are measured thanks to the design and implementation of three FPGA-based channel emulators that are able to recreate up to seven different vehicular scenarios that include urban canyons, suburban areas and highways[Resumo] A presente Tese detalla os elementos necesarios para constituir un sistema basado en prototipado rápido capaz de levar a cabo e avaliar comunicacións vehiculares. O hardware do sistema está composto básicamente por unha plataforma de probas (testbed) e un emulador de canal, os cales permiten avaliar o rendemento de transceptores inartiamicos recreando diferentes escenarios vehiculares. Inicialmente, este traballo céntrase na descripción do hardware do sistema, detallando a construcción e proba dunha plataforma multi-antena e un testebed vehicular. Estos sistemas permitiron, respectivamente, estudar o comportamento de códigos STBC (space-time block codes) en interiores e medir o rendemento de tranceptores software ao traballar a distintas velocidades vehiculares en canais con desvaecemento Rayleigh. Tres transceptores software foron creados seguindo as especificacións das capas físicas dos estándares IEEE 802.11p, IEEE 802.11a e IEEE 802.16e (Mobile WiMAX). Este traballo detalla os diferentes componentes de cada transceptor, indicando cómo conectalos ao resto do sistema para realizar a avaliacition do seu rendemento. Dita avaliación realizouse coa axuda de tres emuladores de canal basados en tecnoloxía FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), os cales son capaces de recrear ata sete escenarios vehiculares distintos, incluindo cañóns urbanos, zonas suburbanas e autopistas.[Resumen] La presente Tesis detalla los elementos necesarios para constituir un sistema basado en prototipado rtiapido capaz de llevar a cabo y evaluar comunicaciones vehiculares. El hardware del sistema está compuesto por una plataforma de pruebas (testbed) y un emulador de canal, los cuales permiten evaluar el rendimiento de transceptores inaltiambricos recreando diferentes escenarios vehiculares. Inicialmente, este trabajo se centra en la descripcition del hardware del sistema, detallando la construccition y prueba de una plataforma multi-antena y un testebed vehicular. Estos sistemas han permitido, respectivamente, estudiar el comportamiento de ctiodigos STBC (space-time block codes) en interiores y medir el rendimiento en canal con desvanecimiento Rayleigh de tranceptores software a distintas velocidades vehiculares. Tres transceptores software han sido creados siguiendo las especificaciones de las capas físicas de los estandares IEEE 802.11p, IEEE 802.11a e IEEE 802.16e (Mobile WiMAX). Este trabajo detalla los diferentes componentes de cada transceptor, indicando ctiomo conectarlos al resto del sistema para realizar la evaluacition de su rendimiento. Dicha evaluacition se realiztio con la ayuda de tres emuladores de canal basados en FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array), los cuales son capaces de recrear comunicaciones multi-antena en hasta siete escenarios vehiculares distintos, incluyendo cañones urbanos, zonas suburbanas y autopistas

Enabling Accurate Cross-Layer PHY/MAC/NET Simulation Studies of Vehicular Communication Networks

Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside communications is required for numerous applications that aim at improving traffic safety and efficiency. In this setting, however, gauging system performance through field trials can be very expensive especially when the number of studied vehicles is high. Therefore, many existing studies have been conducted using either network or physical layer simulators; both approaches are problematic. Network simulators typically abstract physical layer details (coding, modulation, radio channels, receiver algorithms, etc.) while physical layer ones do not consider overall network characteristics (topology, network traffic types, and so on). In particular, network simulators view a transmitted frame as an indivisible unit, which leads to several limitations. First, the impact of the vehicular radio channel is typically not reflected in its appropriate context. Further, interference due to frame collisions is not modeled accurately ( if at all) and, finally, the benefits of advanced signal processing techniques, such as interference cancellation, are difficult to assess. To overcome these shortcomings we have integrated a detailed physical layer simulator into the popular NS-3 network simulator. This approach aims to bridge the gap between the physical and network layer perspectives, allow for more accurate channel and physical layer models, and enable studies on cross-layer optimization. In this paper, we exemplify our approach by integrating an IEEE 802.11a and p physical layer simulator with NS-3. Further, we validate the augmented NS-3 simulator against an actual IEEE 802.11 wireless testbed and illustrate the additional value of this integration

Evaluating aggregation protocols for vehicular networks in simulation

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-85).Routing for vehicular networks has so far presented special challenges such as high node mobility and velocity, and until now there have been few experiments performed using real data. This thesis uses a dataset of 538 taxicabs driving around the San Francisco Bay Area to gather measurements about connectivity to lay down a framework with which to reason about these networks. Additionally. this thesis describes a simulation framework written in Python to perform rapid evaluation of aggregation protocols as well as simulations where a fraction of the cars are assumed to be internet access points.by Subha Gollakota.M.Eng