Wireless Technology Assessment for Automotive Applications

Recently, automotive safety applications with wireless communications have been the focus of worldwide research and development. DSRC (Direct Short Range Communications) in particular, with its low latency vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity, now appears to be a promising wireless technology for time-sensitive crash avoidance applications. IEEE 802 and other standards organizations are advancing international wireless standards, most prominent being IEEE 802.11 and 3GPP (3 Generation Partnership Project) LTE (Long Term Evolution). IEEE 802.11 (a.k.a. Wi-Fi) based client and access point devices serve a variety of home, office and outdoor applications, which include the 802.11p based DSRC radio. Both 802.11 and LTE deployments are accelerating worldwide, bringing about volume pricing and fast advancing technological capabilities. In this paper, we first examine major automotive applications, including emerging applications, and then discuss wireless technologies and standards best suited to support these applications.