Best Practices in OBU Antenna Procurement for Connected Vehicle Deployments

With the increase in connected vehicle testbed deployments, there is increasing need for understanding the most important aspect of the deployment: “The on-board antenna”. Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications operate in the 5.9GHz Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) band. At these frequencies, the signal experiences scattering and unique propagation effects depending on the material of interaction. In this paper, we describe at a high-level, a method for testing V2V on-board antenna placements. We also discuss figures or merit which should be considered. This paper intends to provide a practical understanding of the DSRC spectrum and how future connected vehicle deployments can reliably choose the best antenna pattern and placement for user vehicles.