DSRC Versus LTE-V2X: Empirical Performance Analysis of Direct Vehicular Communication Technologies

TLDR

Vehicle‑to‑vehicle communication using Basic Safety Messages can enhance road safety and traffic flow, and the two leading technologies, DSRC (IEEE 802.11p) and LTE‑V2X (3GPP Release 14), are debated for their real‑world effectiveness. This study surveys DSRC and LTE‑V2X, focusing on their PHY and MAC layers, and compares PHY‑layer performance through field tests. The authors summarize each technology, identify limitations for V2X applications, and evaluate performance across multiple metrics.

Abstract

Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication systems have an eminence potential to improve road safety and optimize traffic flow by broadcasting Basic Safety Messages (BSMs). Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) and LTE Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) are two candidate technologies to enable V2V communication. DSRC relies on the IEEE 802.11p standard for its PHY and MAC layer while LTE-V2X is based on 3GPP’s Release 14 and operates in a distributed manner in the absence of cellular infrastructure. There has been considerable debate over the relative advantages and disadvantages of DSRC and LTE-V2X, aiming to answer the fundamental question of which technology is most effective in real-world scenarios for various road safety and traffic efficiency applications. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of these two technologies (i.e., DSRC and LTE-V2X) and related works. More specifically, we study the PHY and MAC layer of both technologies in the survey study and compare the PHY layer performance using a variety of field tests. First, we provide a summary of each technology and highlight the limitations of each in supporting V2X applications. Then, we examine their performance based on different metrics.