Antenna Placement and Wave Propagation for Car-to-Car Communication

The investigation of various antenna placements for Car-to-Car (C2C) communication has turned out to be crucial to achieve an omnidirectional coverage in the horizontal plane of the antenna. The complex shape and huge electrical size of a car at 5.9 GHz yield a high challenge for the numerical modeling. In this contribution, a new way of handling the analysis of near and far-field propagation for C2C antennas is proposed and applied in examples, which enables to investigate the whole car chassis by asymptotic methods, with a significantly reduced computational effort compared with a full wave analysis. The effect on radiation pattern of an antenna placed on the roof, side mirrors and bumpers is discussed. Dispensable parts of the car have been identified to speed up the simulation without losing accuracy. The influence of a glass roof on the radiation pattern is characterized using full wave methods in order to account for wave guidance, diffractions and creeping waves. Measurements are in good agreement with simulations.