An Experimental Vegetation Density-Based Propagation Modeling of V2V Channel: A Case Study in Turkey

Abstract In vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) networks, vegetation has a significant attenuation impact on radio signal propagation; however, existing research either lacks relevance to V2V environments or requires additional experimental and modeling studies to provide extensive insights into propagation patterns for different scenarios. This study focused on a comprehensive investigation of the varying impacts of vegetation density on V2V communication on flat or sloped roads. Therefore, experimental measurements were conducted in different vegetation densities and road types. Path-loss modeling showed that the log-normal model suits vegetation areas, while for no-vegetation areas, it fits flat roads, and the two-ray model is better for sloped roads. Then, the vegetation density-based empirical V2V attenuation model was developed for each of the flat and sloped roads, incorporating both distance and success rate parameters. The results reveal that the proposed model has been quite successful in determining the required fading depths to achieve the desired success rates, with an average R $$^2$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mmultiscripts> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mmultiscripts> </mml:math> of 0.9 and an RMSE of less than 2 dB, calculated using regression analysis and validated with independent test data. Finally, the proposed models were validated using independent V2V test data, achieving RMSE reductions of 2.1%-45.4% compared to existing literature models and demonstrating superior accuracy in predicting vegetation-based attenuation. This study fills a critical gap in the literature as the first comprehensive examination of V2V communication in the context of combining different vegetation density environments with various road types.