A Wideband Channel Model for Intravehicular Nomadic Systems

Abstract

The increase in electronic entertainment equipments within vehicles has rendered the idea of replacing the wired links with intra-vehicle personal area networks. Ultra-wideband (UWB) seems an appropriate candidate technology to meet the required data rates for interconnecting such devices. In particular, the multiband OFDM (MB-OFDM) is able to provide very high transfer rates (up to 480 MBps) over relatively short distances and low transmit power. In order to evaluate the performances of UWB systems within vehicles, a reliable channel model is needed. In this paper, a nomadic system where a base station placed in the center of the dashboard wants to communicate with fixed devices placed at the rear seat is investigated. A single-input single-output (SISO) channel model for intra-vehicular communication (IVC) systems is proposed, based on reverberation chamber theory. The model is based on measurements conducted in real traffic conditions, with a varying number of passengers in the car. Temporal variations of the wireless channels are also characterized and parametrized. The proposed model is validated by comparing model-independent statistics with the measurements.