International Journal of Electrical Energy, Vol. 1, No.

2, June 2013

A Highly Scalable IEEE802.11p Subsystem

Using Communication and Localization for
Increased Vehicular Safety
Axel Sikora
University of Applied Sciences Offenburg, D77652 Offenburg, Germany
Email: [email protected]

Manuel Schappacher
Steinbeis Innovation Center Embedded Design and Networking, D79423 Heitersheim, Germany
Email: [email protected]

AbstractThe IEEE802.11p standard describes a protocol Long and Medium range (CALM) architecture standard
for car-to-X and mainly for car-to-car-communication. It looking at vehicle-based communication networks,
has found its place in hardware and firmware particularly for applications such as toll collection,
implementations and is currently tested in various field tests. vehicle safety services, and commerce transactions via
In the research project Ko-TAG, which is part of the
cars.
research initiative Ko-FAS, cooperative sensor technology is
developed and its benefit for traffic safety applications is The European activities are also based on
evaluated. A secondary radar principle based on IEEE802.11p Wireless LAN. A frequency spectrum in
communication signals enables localization of objects with the 5.9 GHz range has been allocated on a harmonized
simultaneous data transmission. It mainly concentrates on basis in Europe [3] in line with similar allocations in
the detection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users USA. Here the higher layers are defined by the Car2Car
(VRU), but also supports pre crash safety applications. Communication Consortium [4]. Car2X communication
The Ko-TAG proposal enriches the current IEEE802.11p technology enables a number of new use cases in order to
real-time characteristics needed for precise time-of-flight improve driving safety or traffic efficiency and provides
real-time localization. This contribution describes the
information or entertainment to the driver [2].
development of a subsystem, which extends the functionality
of IEEE802.11p and fits into the regulatory schemes. It IEEE802.11p has found its place in hardware and
discusses the approach for definition and verification of the firmware implementations, and is currently extensively
protocol design, while maintaining the close coexistence with tested in various large-scale field tests, i.e. in the German
existing IEEE802.11p subsystems. System simulations were simTD test field [5].
performed and hardware was implemented. The next step In parallel to the need for information exchange
will be field measurements to verify the simulation results. between cars, an important trend has evolved during the
last years. This trend is based on the fact that during the
Index TermsIEEE802.11p/WAVE, subsystem design, significant reduction of absolute numbers of accidents
VRU eSafety, localization, secondary surveillance radar,
and fatalities in traffic (at least in Europe), the relative
standardization
risk for vulnerable road users (VRUs), i.e. for pedestrians,
cyclists, powered two wheelers, etc., has significantly
I. INTRODUCTION increased [6].
In general, precise perception of the vehicles
The IEEE802.11p standard has developed as the most environment is an essential requirement for all preventive
popular basis for C2X-communication [1]. For the USA, vehicle safety systems. For example, todays advanced
the IEEE 1609 Family of Standards for Wireless Access driver assistance systems (ADAS) are based on on-board
in Vehicular Environment (WAVE) [2] defines an environment perception sensors. It is only shortly that
architecture and a complementary, standardized set of ADAS also offers predictive pedestrian protection
services and interfaces that collectively enable secure car- systems (PPPS) functionality. These predictive systems
to-car (C2C) and car-to-infrastructure (C2I) wireless use contact- or non-cooperative perception sensor
communications. IEEE802.11p will be used as the systems for the detection of a pedestrian in the vicinity.
platform for Dedicated Short Range Communications They are limited by uncertainties in target classification.
(DSRC), a U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) Moreover, these systems offer no benefit in case of fully
project based on the ISO Communications, Air-interface, or partially hidden pedestrians like e.g. children hidden
by cars parked at the roadside. Cooperative pedestrian
Manuscript received May 1, 2013; revised June 1, 2013; accepted protection systems (CPPS) that follow the
July 1, 2013

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doi: 10.12720/ijoee.1.2.80-85
 International Journal of Electrical Energy, Vol. 1, No. 2, June 2013

communication model of secondary surveillance radar B. Characteristics & Requirements

from air traffic control overcome these weaknesses. The changes of IEEE802.11p in comparison with
Cooperative systems may be used alone or in conjunction IEEE802.11a are oriented towards only minor aspects, as
with image-based systems, like e.g. [7], [8]. The described in subsection A. However, the requirements of
technology can also be used for an omnidirectional the target application are very disjunctive to the
perception system for pre-crash safety and as sensor capabilities of both IEEE802.11a and p. I.e. three
support for intersection safety. requirements are critical. They are described in the
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: following three subsections.
Due to its limitations in scalability and real-time location
capability, the IEEE802.11p/WAVE-protocol approach is C. Real-Time Characteristics
not ideally suited for these kinds of applications, which Analyses of accidents show that the precise
will be discussed in ch. II. localization deadline is at a distance of around 50 m
Therefore, within the research project Ko-TAG, which under the assumption of intra-urban vehicle speeds of 50
is part of the research initiative Ko-FAS [9], a solution km/h. This deadline leads to the range requirement of
has been proposed, which enriches the current around 75 100m for communication setup and first
IEEE802.11p protocols, enables it for additional measurements.
application scenarios, and has been designed to work as It should be highlighted that this range should be
an add-on subsystem, which may be seamlessly achievable not only under free-space conditions, but in
integrated into IEEE802.11p-based car-to-X- real environments, additionally taking into account multi-
communication. The proposed subsystem protocol path propagation, attenuation by cars, human bodies,
combines communication and localization. It was verified building, and other obstacles, diffusion, and refraction.
in simulation and is currently implemented and tested in Thus, reaction times in the pre-crash scenarios are very
custom hardware. It is presented more detail in ch. III. In short and in the range of 500 ms to 100 ms, and must be
the second half of the Ko-TAG project, it is an explicit subject by a very low jitter, especially in critical use cases.
objective to explore and pave the way for an international These times shall include several measurements and
standardization of this approach. The arguments are information exchanges. Theoretical analyses and practical
presented in ch. IV. experience show that these times cannot be achieved in
multi-user scenarios (c.f. subsection D).
II. IEEE802.11P/WAVE AND ITS RESTRICTIONS D. Density and Scalability
The density of vehicles may be high, however is
A. Description
limited through the dimensions of a car. Consequently,
The IEEE802.11p amendment has developed as the for car2car-communication, a maximum density of 1
most popular basis for C2X-communication [1]. The node per 20 m(traffic jam) or per 60m(city traffic) is
IEEE802.11p amendment can be understood as a typically anticipated. VRU nodes may be much denser.
refinement of the IEEE802.11a/h standards, which are the This especially holds true for intra-urban situations at
consumer WLAN solutions in the 5 GHz-bands. intersections, where waiting pedestrians may reach a
On the PHY layer, IEEE802.11p usually uses the half density of 2 to 3 nodes per m.
clocked mode with 10 MHz bandwidth. Thus, the symbol The required range of (for example 75 m) leads to a
length is doubled in comparison to IEEE802.11a/h, maximum area of Pi*(75 m)= 17,662 m, which together
making the signal more robust against fading. In addition, with the anticipated density leads to a maximum number
the IEEE802.11p signal uses a carrier spacing reduced by of up to 50.000 VRU nodes within the vicinity of one
compared to IEEE802.11a/h. Beside the clock rate, the vehicle node. In addition, further vehicles will also be
adjacent channel rejection in IEEE802.11p is more active in the neighborhood. Of course, one might argue
stringent than in IEEE802.11a/h, as is the spectrum that no-one would crash incidentally into a crowd of
emission mask. 50.000 people. Nevertheless, the stability of the
On the media access control (MAC) layer, a new anticipated system shall be fulfilled also in such use-cases.
management information base (MIB) dot11ocb is The characteristics of IEEE802.11p are oriented to
defined into the MAC Layer Management Entity much smaller densities and maximum network sizes of
(MLME). When dot11ocbenabled is true, additional some dozens of nodes.
options/constraints are added to an IEEE802.11p device. E. Localization
The additional options are [10]: No support for localization apart from simple signal-
a) no authentication service, which would be strength-(RSSI)-based approaches is foreseen in
provided by the station management entity (SME) or by IEEE802.11p. These approaches achieve accuracies of
applications outside of the MAC sublayer, several meters or even tens of meters in dynamic
b) no deauthentification service, and environments without the possibility of training [11].
c) data confidentiality. Additionally all stations Therefore, additional features shall support time-of-
belong a priori to one pre-defined C2C Independent flight-(ToF) and direction-of-arrival-(DoA)-
Basic Service Set (IBSS). measurements as integrated elements.

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 International Journal of Electrical Energy, Vol. 1, No. 2, June 2013

III. THE PROPOSED SUBSYSTEM A direction of arrival (DoA) measurement phase,

which can be used in parallel for data
A. Overall Approach communication.
As a consequence of the given situation and the Thus, the channel access combines contention periods
requirements of the target application described above, for arbitrary and management traffic, and contention free
the proposed subsystem follows a dual approach: periods (reserved time slots) for time- and collision-
It shall use as many elements from IEEE802.11p critical operations. The physical breakup into the
as possible, so that the new functionality can be different frequencies helps to solve the conflict of
implemented as a subsystem and can be objectives with regard to bandwidth requirements.
seamlessly integrated into IEEE802.11p hardware. According to radar theory, the resolution and
It shall implement additional features to support hence the accuracy of ToF-distance measurements
the given requirements. Those shall be as close as grows with the use of increasing RF bandwidth.
possible to the given characteristics. The Therefore, it is highly preferable to use a channel
additional features include functionality, such as with maximum frequency bandwidth. Since the
localization, but also improved network maximum bandwidth of the available
characteristics, such as scalability or real-time IEEE802.11p channels (cf. Table I) is limited to
behavior. 30MHz, a frequency range outside of the
IEEE802.11p band from 5775MHz to 5825MHz
B. System Description
was chosen as a first step. Ongoing research
Within the Ko-TAG-architecture, it is anticipated that activities try to minimize the bandwidth
vehicles are equipped with a Localization Unit (LU), requirements of the ToF subsystem so integration
which communicates with SafeTAGs (ST). Such a ST into the standard 802.11p bands might be an
can be given to any secondary partner. In its original option in the future, too.
purpose, a VRU is equipped with a ST. In addition, if the On the other hand, the precision of DoA
ST is given to another vehicle, a significant extension of measurements is best with minimum bandwidth.
the project scope with regard to omnidirectional safety Here the possibility to extract single carriers from
will be achieved. The integration of infrastructure, i.e. at the IEEE802.11p OFDM PHY gives the benefit to
intersections, could further improve the functionality and have a narrow-band signal for the DoA
the accuracy of the system. This intersection use case is measurement without losing bandwidth for the
currently addressed in a neighbor project (Ko-PER) and simultaneous data communication. Currently the
can eventually be extended by the Ko-TAG IEEE802.11p channel no. 5 (cf. Table I) is used
communication and localization. Fig. 1 shows the for the DoA measurements and data transmissions.
potential links between traffic objects. The exchange of control information is done in
channel no. 9 (c.f. Table I) that has the same
characteristics as the DoA/Data channel. This
I1 I2 holds up the possibility to use control information
packets for additional DoA measurements in
future implementations of the protocol.
The system shall be flexible enough to support further
V1 V2 V3 functionalities, like pre-crash safety, or safety of
intersections. Both aspects are also explored within the
Ko-FAS initiative.
C. Validation
VRU1 VRU2 VRU3 VRU4 VRU5 VRU6 VRU7
In parallel with the design of the protocol, a simulation
Figure 1. Supported topologies within the Ko-TAG project; Dotted
environment has been prepared in order to verify the
lines show the potential additional links within the overall Ko- macroscopic soundness of the chosen concept and its
FAS approach interoperability with existing systems. OPNET models
have been designed and extensively simulated [12]. Fig. 5
The communication is organized in super frames, in shows one of the resulting diagrams.
which communication and localization between various
D. System Implementation
pairs are organized. The channel access divides into three
phases, which can be multiplexed in various dimensions, After the design and the verification of the protocol,
i.e. time and frequency (cf. Fig. 4): the custom hardware has been developed and produced.
A detection and network management phase, The cooperative sensor system developed in the
when VRU tags can register to vehicles. Ko-TAG project consists of On-Board units (OBU) and
transponders called SafeTAGs (ST). The sensor concept
A time of flight (ToF) measurement phase, which
allows for a selective localization of STs and a selective
is extremely time critical, as clock drifts between
communication link between localization units and STs
measurement partners lead to localization errors.
for an efficient use of the available bandwidth (link (2) in

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 International Journal of Electrical Energy, Vol. 1, No. 2, June 2013

Fig. 2). Furthermore there is a lightly modified version of IV. DISCUSSION OF UPCOMING STANDARDIZATION
the ST that can be connected to an OBU via a TCP/IP
link to provide omnidirectional safety amongst vehicles A. Objectives of Standardization Efforts
(link (3) in Fig. 2). The following aspects are the essential arguments for
the efforts towards standardization:
SafeTAG Multi-Vendor Interoperability: The anticipated
TOF
single RF- application cannot be thought without support of
antenna frontend
CCU INS multi-vendor interoperability. Parallel, non-
battery unit interoperable systems would impede market
penetration. If multi-protocol solutions would
2
become necessary, this would increase system cost,
On Board Unit size, and energy consumption at both car
antenna
TCP/
localization IP
CAN vehicle manufacturers and other road users.
internal bus
array unit
1
Besides, it is clear, that the same rules for the sub-
fusion CAN real time inertial
unit sensors
systems as for the main C2C-systems exist.
camera
image CAN
in-vehicle
Openness: It also seems attractive to open the
analysis VGA
TFT display standard to the community, as for the market
board energy system penetration, two aspects are of essential
breaking unit

(14V) headup importance. With regard to VRU safety, the VRU

generator
symbol

display
TCP/IP

tag is expected to be a consumer product, with a

cockpit
display
completely different product design and marketing
approach, than that of car manufacturers, be it
3
OEM, 1st tier or others, but it might be
SafeTAG manufacturers of schoolbags, e-bicycles, or even
TOF
single RF- smart-phones. With regard to the car side, a
antenna frontend
CCU INS continually increasing endurance of cars and thus
battery unit a growing average car age on roads can be
observed. Therefore, it can be expected that
Figure 2. Block diagram of the Ko-TAG communication and retrofit products will be an important element for
measurement elements the market success.
Regionalization: From a regulatory standpoint, it
The hardware design includes the complete system is likely that not all world regions will agree on a
design from RF-frontend over signal processing, network common frequency band allocation (cf. subsection
operation until Gigabit-Ethernet-interfacing to the C). Therefore, it must be envisaged that there
vehicles On-Board Unit (OBU). Fig. 3 shows the
might be some minor adaptations in the actual use
prototype boards being developed in the Ko-TAG project.
of frequencies. Comparable to the upcoming C2C-
At the time of submission, the boards are taken into
communication, it should be a major approach to
operation. Results from field measurements will be
available in the upcoming year 2013. have those characteristics close enough for unified
hardware solutions.
B. Industrial Basis and Involved Partners
An important element of the presented research project
is the participation not only of academic institutions, but
also the direct and strong involvement and commitment
of major industrial partners, like OEM, 1st tier
manufacturers, but also sensor vendors [13]. As the
presented project is funded from German government, the
list currently includes German manufacturers. However,
neighbor projects on the European level, like WATCH-
Figure 3. Prototype Hardware for Ko-TAG demonstrators integrating OVER [7], have already shown the European vision.
the ToF- and AoA-measurement units, the baseband processing,
Further international projects are envisaged for the future.
the networking management and a Gigabit-Ethernet-Interface

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 International Journal of Electrical Energy, Vol. 1, No. 2, June 2013

Beacon (DoA)
Beacon (ToF)
Timeslots Timeslots
CSMA/CA CSMA/CA
LU A (ToF) (DoA/Data)

Mgmt (5915 5925 MHz) ToF (5775 5825 MHz) DoA (5855 5865 MHz) Mgmt (5915 5925 MHz)

Beacon (DoA)
Beacon (ToF)
Timeslots Timeslots
CSMA/CA CSMA/CA
LU B (ToF) (DoA/Data)

Mgmt (5915 5925 MHz) ToF (5775 5825 MHz) DoA (5855 5865 MHz) Mgmt (5915 5925 MHz)

Beacon (DoA)
Beacon (ToF)

Timeslots Timeslots
CSMA/CA
LU C (ToF) (DoA/Data)

ToF (5775 5825 MHz) DoA (5855 5865 MHz) Mgmt (5915 5925 MHz)

Timeline

Figure 4. Time-and frequency multiplexing in the proposed Multi-Channel Splitted Localization (MCSL) approach

No of TOF Slots 75
3 0 0 ,0
Avg . n o . o f t h e co n n e ct e d VRUs

2 5 0 ,0
Load
SF/CTRL CH # 1
SF/CTRL CH # 2
2 0 0 ,0
SF/CTRL CH # 3
SF/CTRL CH # 4

1 5 0 ,0

1 0 0 ,0

5 0 ,0

0 ,0
10 25 45 65 95 115 140 170 190 220 245
No o f VRUs in a sce n a rio

Figure 5. Number of Connected VRUs in dependence of the Number of VRUs in the scenario and the number of control channels per super frame
considering 75 TOF slots per superframe

C. Regulatory Issues TABLE I. AVAILABLE CHANNELS IN THE 5.9 GHZ BAND AS DEFINED
BY ETSI EN 203 571 [3]
ETSI as European regulatory body has opened ten
channels in the 70 MHz broad frequency range between Channel Carrier centre Maximum channel
5.855 and 5.925 GHz in ETSI EN 302 571 [3]. This number frequency [MHz] bandwidth [MHz]
allocation is listed in Table I. It should be highlighted that
the seven 10 MHz-channels are non-overlapping and can 1 5860 10 (5855-5865)
be used independently. Alternatively, the bandwidth can 2 5865 20 (5855-5875)
be split into two 20 MHz and one 30 MHz channel. 3 5870 10 (5865-5875)
IEEE802.11p uses these channels with an OFDM PHY.
4 5880 10 (5875-5885)
V. OUTLOOK AND FURTHER ACTIVITIES 5 5890 10 (5885-5895)

In the remaining year of the Ko-TAG project, 6 5900 10 (5895-5905)

extensive measurement campaigns will be performed in 7 5910 10 (5905-5915)
order to prove the results from simulation. In addition, it
is an explicit objective to explore and pave the way of 8 5915 20 (5905-5925)

standardization of the approach, through dissemination, 9 5920 10 (5915-5925)

preparation of subsequent projects, and discussion with 10 5890 30 (5875-5905)
standardization bodies.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT [10] M. Mueller, WLAN IEEE802.11p Measurements for Vehicle to

Vehicle (V2V) DSRC, Application Note, Rohde & Schwarz
This work results from the joint project Ko-TAG, 09.2009-1 MA152_Oe.
which is part of the project initiative Ko-FAS, and has [11] U. Gromann, M. Schauch, and S. Hakobyan, The accuracy of
algorithms for WLAN indoor positioning and the standardization
been partially funded by the German Bundesministerium of signal reception for different mobile devices, Intl Journal of
fr Wirtschaft und Technologie (Federal Department of Computing, vol. 6, no.1, pp. 103-109, 2007.
Commerce and Technology) under contract number [12] D. Lill, M. Schappacher, S. Islam, and A. Sikora, "Wireless
19S9011. The authors are grateful for this support and for Protocol design for a cooperative pedestrian protection system," in
Proc. 3rd International Workshop on Communication
the excellent teamwork in the consortium. Technologies for Vehicles (Nets4Cars 2011), Oberpfaffenhofen,
23.-24, March 2011,
REFERENCES [13] Project partners (A-Z). [Online]. Available: http://ko-
fas.de/english/project-partners.html
[1] 802.11p-2010 - IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area
Networks - Specific requirements Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium
Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications
Amendment 6: Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments, Dr.-Ing. Axel Sikora holds a diploma of Electrical
Available at: Engineering and a diploma of Business
http://standards.ieee.org/findstds/standard/802.11p-2010.html Administration, both from Aachen Technical
[2] U.S. Department of Transportation, IEEE 1609 - Family of University. He has done a Ph.D. in Electrical
Standards for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments Engineering at the Fraunhofer Institute of Micro-
(WAVE), Intelligent Transportation Systems Standards Fact electronics Circuits and Systems, Duisburg, with a
Sheet, 25. Sep. 2009. thesis on SOI-technologies. After various positions in
[3] Harmonized European Standard (Telecommunication series), the telecommunications and semiconductor industry, he became a
ETSI EN 302 571 V1.1.1: Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS); professor at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University
Radiocommunications equipment operating in the 5 855 MHz to 5 Loerrach in 1999. In 2011, he joined Offenburg University of Applied
925 MHz frequency band; Harmonized EN covering the essential Sciences, where he holds the professorship of Embedded Systems and
requirements of article 3.2 of the R&TTE Directive; Communication Electronics. His major interest is in the system
http://pda.etsi.org/exchangefolder/en_302571v010101p.pdf development of efficient, energy-aware, autonomous, secure, and value-
[4] (2007)Car2Car communication consortium, manifesto overview added algorithms and protocols for wired and wireless embedded
of the C2C-CC system. Available: www.car-to-car.org communication. He is founder and head of Steinbeis Innovation Center
[5] http://www.simtd.org Embedded Design and Networking (sizedn). Dr. Sikora is author, co-
[6] European Commission, Towards a European road safety area: author, editor and co-editor of several textbooks and numerous papers
Policy orientations on road safety 2011-2020, SEC(2010)903, in the field of embedded design and wireless and wired networking.
20.7.2010, Available at: Amongst many other duties, he serves as member of the Steering Board
ec.europa.eu/transport/road_safety/pdf/com_20072010_en.pdf of Embedded World Conference.
[7] L. Andreone and F. Visintainer, Prevention of road accidents
involving Vulnerable Road Users: the outcomes of the WATCH-
OVER European project, ITS2009, Stockholm. Manuel Schappacher studied Computer Engineering
[8] H. Blume, S. Flgel, M. Kunert, W. Ritter, and A. Sikora, "Mehr at the University of Applied Sciences, Furtwangen
Sicherheit fr Fugnger: berblick ber das vom and received his Dipl.-Inform. degree in April 2009.
Bundesministerium fr Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) After that, he continued to work as project engineer at
gefrderte Forschungsprojekt Propedes," Elektronik automotive Steinbeis Innovation Center Embedded Design and
12.2011. Networking (sizedn) mainly in the field of embedded
[9] Cooperative sensor systems and cooperative perception systems wireless and wired communication, including
for preventive road safety. Ko-FAS Research Initiative. [Online]. simulation of networking protocols.
Available: http://ko-fas.de/english/home.html

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