The Impact of Transmission Power on the Safety-Related Performance of IEEE 802.11p

In this paper, we report and analyze results from a field test campaign aimed at assessing the real-world performance of IEEE 802.11p for safety-related applications. Regulator bodies in the EU and the US recommend the use of domestic-level transmission powers for general usage while granting the opportunity of employing higher powers for safety purposes. While the latter are generally expected to result in higher network performance, we want to quantitatively assess what they translate to in terms of metrics relevant from an application point of view, such as, goodput, round-trip times, jitter, and losses. These are studied and associated with conditions out of the network control at urban and suburban speeds, that is, in absence or in presence of different degrees of congestion, and in complete or partial line-of-sight. In general, we find evidence of an inverse correlation between the degree of congestion and the benefits granted by higher transmission powers. Up to the tested speed, IEEE 802.11p appears able to provide safety guarantees even at relatively long distances, as long as an appropriate transmission power is employed. At the same time, it must be acknowledged that higher power alone cannot overcome the significant dips in performance resulting from highly congested environments and non-line-of-sight scenarios.