Evaluation of terrain effects on mobile WiMax in a vehicular environment

Abstract

Mobile WiMax is a suitable wireless technology for networked vehicular applications because of its mobility support at vehicular speeds and its inherent wide coverage, which minimizes the rate of handover and thus data loss due to disrupted communication. Apart from vehicular mobility, the terrain over which the network is deployed will also impact the network due to its effects on wireless signal propagation. In this paper, the performance of a WiMax vehicular network is investigated under different terrain environments, namely flat, urban and rural terrains, with varying building heights and densities, using realistic signal propagation models and vehicle movement patterns.

Wireless Communication Technologies for Vehicular Nodes

“…WiMax or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is a broadband wireless technology designed for provisioning high-speed data access over long distances (Aphiraksatyakul, Seet, & Lau, 2008). It is designed to provide broadband wireless over Metropolitan Area Network.…”

“…This will result in better service continuation and less disruption rendering fewer packets dropped. Research in Aphiraksatyakul, Seet, and Lau (2008) also shows that loss of LOS increases latency and reduces throughput of WiMax transmissions. This does not bode well for urban environment where there are buildings and trees that may obstruct LOS.…”

“…Other contributing factors towards V2I communication success is the terrain where the communication infrastructure is placed. Some researches (Abdrabou & Zhuang, 2011, Aphiraksatyakul, Seet, & Lau, 2008 have shown that rather than speed, the terrain where the access point is placed has a bigger impact on V2I communication. Also, (Aphiraksatyakul, Seet, & Lau, 2008) has shown if enough access points are not placed strategically, performance of V2I communication degrades.…”

“…Some researches (Abdrabou & Zhuang, 2011, Aphiraksatyakul, Seet, & Lau, 2008 have shown that rather than speed, the terrain where the access point is placed has a bigger impact on V2I communication. Also, (Aphiraksatyakul, Seet, & Lau, 2008) has shown if enough access points are not placed strategically, performance of V2I communication degrades. The future of V2I communication actually comes down to which technology will satisfy International Telecommunications Union -Radio Standardization Sector (ITU-R) definition of a 4G network.…”

Performance study of mobile WiMAX network with changing scenarios under different modulation and coding

“…Subscriber stations are of very low mobility Outdoor-to-indoor and pedestrian path-loss environment [23] PL = 40 log 10 R +30 log 10 f +49. PL is the instantaneous attenuation in dB, R is the distance between the base station and the mobile station in kilometers and f is the carrier frequency Small cell size, base stations with low antenna heights and low transmission power are located outdoors while pedestrian users are located on streets and inside buildings and residences Vehicular environment [24] PL = 40(1−4×10 −3 × h b )log 10 R − 18 log 10 h b −21 log 10 f +80 dB. R is the distance between the base station and the mobile station, f is the carrier frequency and h b is the base station antenna height in meters Larger cells and higher transmitter power.…”