Virtual Drive Testing based on Automotive Antenna Measurements for Evaluation of Vehicle-to-X Communication Performances

In this paper we present a new Virtual Drive Test (VDT) technique which allows to evaluate the Vehicle-to-X (V2X) communications performances taking into account the measured characteristics of transmit and receive antennas installed on vehicles. The proposed VDT technique is a multistage process where the radiation characteristics of the vehicle mounted antennas are first measured in free-space conditions in a controlled and repeatable laboratory environment. The Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) are then evaluated with a coupling equation (or transmission formula) where variable ground conditions can also be considered. The proposed technique is presented taking into account measurements of a representative scaled automotive scenario.