Performance evaluation of IEEE 802.11p vehicle to infrastructure communication using off-the-shelf IEEE 802.11a hardware

IEEE 802.11p standard was ratified in July 2010 to enhance road safety. Though its performance has been evaluated theoretically or by simulations in the past, field tests are not widely conducted because IEEE 802.11p hardware is rare and expensive. This paper is aimed at proposing a program to solve this problem. Firstly, we analyze the similarities and differences between IEEE 802.11p and IEEE 802.11a/e contrastively. Secondly, a communication platform of approximate IEEE 802.11p is implemented using off-the-shelf IEEE 802.11a hardware with specific parameters amending. Thirdly, vehicular networking field tests are conducted in order to analyze the impact of distance, antenna settings (e.g. height, angle and gain) and vehicle speed on the performance metrics (e.g. link variability, delay and packet loss rate,) of IEEE 802.11p in vehicle-to-infrastructure(V2I) communications. Finally, we draw conclusions and provide guidance for the future deployment of RSU(Roadside Unit) and OBU(On Board Unit).