5.9GHz IEEE 802.11p inter-vehicle communication: Non-Line-of-Sight reception under competition

Inter-vehicle communication promises to prevent accidents by enabling applications such as cross-traffic assistance. This application requires information from vehicles in Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) areas due to buildings at intersection corners. The periodic Cooperative Awareness Messages (CAM) are foreseen to be sent via 5.9GHz IEEE 802.11p. While reception rate measurements and validated propagation models for vehicular 5.9GHz NLOS conditions recently emerged, NLOS reception rates under competition on the channel are an open issue and require an in-depth evaluation to judge application feasibility. In this paper, we investigate NLOS reception on a 5.9GHz inter-vehicle communication channel by network simulation in ns-2. The simulator has been enhanced to support a state of the art vehicular NLOS propagation model. A traffic flow simulation is used to derive realistic simulation scenarios, reflecting cross-traffic assistance critical traffic situations. Results of the network simulations under different environment conditions show that reception rates in NLOS areas are on acceptable levels under competition on the channel by various transmitters.