Modeling on impact of metal object obstruction in urban environment for internet of things application in vehicular communication

Objects such as vehicles are considered one of challenging obstruction on the road and very little attention has been made to address its significance on the wireless signal. As such, this paper validates the impact of vehicle obstruction on signal propagation using received signal strength indicator (RSSI) based on the wireless channel measurements of realistic environmental obstruction at 2.4 GHz frequency band. Low mobility IEEE 802.15.4 XBee S2C compliant device which is designed to collect received signal power was used and these devices were deployed at area congested with cars. The channel measurements were conducted on LOS car parking area with two scenarios; single-sided and double-sided vehicle obstruction which mimics the obstruction of metal objects. The effect of existing vehicle on the signal propagation is demonstrated based on RSSI and RMSE. The attenuation profile of vehicular obstruction on wireless signal is modeled and compared with large-scale propagation models. Results show that metal object significantly reduce transmission range and signal power. The findings may incite for future implementation of cooperative deployment program and internet of things (IoT) applications in vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication.