Influence of single and multiple antenna placements on the capacity of C2C communication systems

Due to the variety of current and future wireless services, the number of antennas installed on a vehicle is and will continuously increase. However, there is a decrease of useable antenna positions, due to design constraints or the addition of more electrical equipment components. In order to realize stable data connections or even higher data rates with the remaining installation spaces, the use of multiple antenna systems is a possible solution. In this paper 16 possible antenna positions for Car-to-Car (C2C) communication are considered and evaluated. The radiation patterns of all antennas are determined by a capacity maximizing antenna synthesis approach, which considers the real world constraints such as the available space, transmit power, the number and arrangement of the antennas. In order to compare different setups the channel capacity is used. The capacity is calculated by virtual drives through typical application scenarios. The results of this study show, which single antenna positions and which combinations of antenna positions are most suitable for C2C communication.