MIMO HetNet IEEE 802.11p–LTE deployment in a vehicular urban environment

Abstract Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are receiving significant interest due to a wide variety of applications such as road safety, traffic efficiency and infotainment. To satisfy the diverse vehicular application requirements, this paper presents a detailed comparative performance simulation study over IEEE 802.11p, LTE and the proposed Heterogeneous (HetNet) IEEE 802.11p–LTE network for urban environments. Therefore, a hybrid handover algorithm is proposed, combining the IEEE 802.11p-based multihop clustering and the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks, with the goal of achieving a high data packet delivery ratio (PDR) and low delay. The COST-231 Walfisch–Ikegami propagation model is evaluated, incorporating 3D antenna radiation patterns measured in an Anechoic Chamber. The performance evaluation analysis is validated through VEINS–OMNeT++ network simulator over several performance metrics such as Throughput, Packet Delivery Ratio, End-to-End Delay and SNIR Lost Packets for a variety of vehicle density and vehicle speed under both SISO and MIMO open loop 2 × 2 Spatial Multiplexing (SM) scheme antenna techniques respectively. The results indicate that the HetNet 802.11p–LTE network is the most prominent solution in urban environments outperforming both IEEE 802.11p and LTE in terms of delay, reliability, and scalability, whereas LTE offers acceptable performance for sparse network topologies.