Poster: Connectivity analysis of millimeter wave vehicular networks

The next generations of vehicles will require data transmission capacities that go well beyond the capabilities of the current communication technologies for vehicular networks, calling for new solutions. In this regard, the millimeter-wave (mmWave) band is very appealing due to the vast amount of largely unused available spectrum. Nevertheless, the potential is hindered by the very difficult propagation characteristics of the mmWave channel, especially when considering highly mobile scenarios. In particular, mmWave links are typically directional, to benefit from the resulting beamforming gain, and require strict coordination between the endpoints to maintain or restore beam alignment, an operation which may require a significant overhead. The preservation of the connectivity has therefore widespread implications for the design of efficient vehicular protocols and affects the communication performance of the network nodes. In this paper, we illustrate some of the complex and interesting tradeoffs that have to be considered when engineering solutions for vehicular scenarios based on mmWave links. We investigate the performance of mmWave vehicular communications in dynamic systems and analyze the impact of several automotive-specific features such as the nodes speed, the alignment periodicity, the base stations density and the antenna geometry.