Mobile vehicle-to-vehicle narrow-band channel, measurement and characterization of the 5.9 GHz dedicated short range communication (DSRC) frequency band

This study presents narrow-band measurements of the mobile vehicle-to-vehicle propagation channel at 5.9 GHz, under realistic suburban driving conditions in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Our system includes Differential Global Positioning system (DGPS) receivers, thereby enabling dynamic measurements of how large-scale path loss, Doppler spectrum, and coherence time depend on vehicle location and separation. A Nakagami distribution is used for describing the fading statistics. The Speed-Separation diagram is introduced as a new tool for analyzing and understanding the vehicle-to-vehicle propagation environment. We show that this diagram can be used to model and predict channel Doppler spread and coherence time using vehicle speed and separation.