3GPP C-V2X and IEEE 802.11p for Vehicle-to-Vehicle communications in highway platooning scenarios

The focus of this study is the performance of high-density truck platooning achieved with different wireless technologies for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. Platooning brings advantages such as lower fuel consumption and better traffic efficiency, which are maximized when the inter-vehicle spacing can be steadily maintained at a feasible minimum. This can be achieved with Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control, an automated cruise controller that relies on the complex interplay among V2V communications, on-board sensing, and actuation. This work provides a clear mapping between the performance of the V2V communications, which is measured in terms of latency and reliability, and of the platoon, which is measured in terms of achievable inter-truck spacing. Two families of radio technologies are compared: IEEE 802.11p and 3GPP Cellular-V2X (C-V2X). The C-V2X technology considered in this work is based on the Release 14 of the LTE standard, which includes two modes for V2V communications: Mode 3 (base-station-scheduled) and Mode 4 (autonomously-scheduled). Results show that C-V2X in both modes allows for shorter inter-truck distances than IEEE 802.11p due to more reliable communications performance under increasing congestion on the wireless channel caused by surrounding vehicles.