Outage probability analysis for short-range communication systems at 60 GHz in ATT urban environments

In the context of a short-range communication system for advanced transport telematics (ATT) applications, this paper presents an analytical method to derive outage probability in the presence of Rice fading, noise, interference, and antenna diversity with selection combining; the approach is exploited to evaluate the performance of beacon-to-vehicle communications in urban environments. ATT applications are becoming more and more relevant for the purpose of designing a road traffic management system, either in urban or highway environments. The interest of researchers in this field mainly indicated two different frequency ranges for system operability, i.e., the 5.8and 60-64-GHz bands. The advantage of using millimeter waves is discussed with reference to efficient spatial filtering effects, having chosen a suitable model for channel characterization at 60 GHz. The validity of the analytical method is checked by means of Monte Carlo simulation. The role of oxygen and rain absorption on system performance is also investigated. By considering a monodimensional topology and a Manhattan scenario, system availability is evaluated in a multiuser context by taking the role of interfering signals on downlink performance into account. As an example of application, a time-division multiple-access (TDMA) scheme is assumed for channel access. The methodology exploited allows the definition of suitable design criteria; numerical results give the optimum value of distance between beacons as a function of system parameters and link budget.