Multi-Path Propagation Measurements for Vehicular Networks at 5.9 GHz

Broadband sounding of the vehicle-to-vehicle channel is reported in suburban, rural, and highway environments. A direct sequence spread spectrum waveform based on zero correlation zone sequences was used with an instantaneous bandwidth of about 40 MHz. Cumulative distribution functions are presented for the maximum excess delay, RMS delay spread, and coherence bandwidth using a threshold of 15 dB below the peak. The highway environment showed the largest median RMS delay spread (about 110 ns), the largest median maximum excess delay (about 600 ns) and the smallest median 90% coherence bandwidth (about 900 kHz). In general, the distributions of these quantities for the suburban environment were narrower than those for the rural and highway environments. This is interpreted in terms of the more restricted range of distances to scattering objects in the suburban environment.