Statement in Lieu of an Oath

For several years, automobile makers and government agencies have sought ways to improve safety on roadways and effectively manage traffic flow. As wireless communication systems are advancing, the vision of automobiles talking to each other and to roadside units is becoming a reality. These planned automotive wireless communication systems are known as Intelligent Transportation Systems which envision an ad-hoc WLAN like communication between vehicles. High mobility in vehicular environments and the resulting physical consequences, degrade the performance of wireless communication systems. The goal of this thesis is to bring high mobility in vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems. First, a channel estimation scheme based on the basic matching pursuit algorithm is implemented with several novel ideas like limiting the search space and using the Delay-Doppler Search technique to intuitively search for the channel parameters. These novel ideas help reduce the complexity of the estimation algorithm. After that, the channel state information is leveraged by the equalizer to correct the data. As a part of this thesis, equalizers like the one-tap equalizer, Linear Minimum Mean Square Error equalizer and the Successive Interference Canceller are implemented to equalize effects of the time-varying multipath channel. Finally, the cases of high mobility are considered and the need for channel tracking is shown. A channel tracking scheme based on the LS estimator is implemented. The channel equalization schemes are implemented for the IEEE 802.11p standard which is defined to provide wireless access in vehicular environments. The results show that the equalizers ensure an improvement in performance for different channel conditions that can be seen in a vehicular environment. The results of channel tracking also show a significant improvement especially in cases of high mobility. The channel estimation and equalization schemes compensate the effects of a time-varying multipath channel and is a step towards bringing high mobility in vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems. The implementation in GNU radio provides a platform for future development and research in this field. Acknowledgements During the journey of this Masters program, I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to work with some of the most remarkable people. First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Prof. Dr.-Ing Thorsten Herfet for giving me this opportunity to do my Master Thesis at his chair. His support and encouragement has been the driving factors for me. I also thank him for the many discussions we had that encouraged me to follow intuition. I would also like to thank my supervisor Nasimi Eldarov for his constant feedback and encouragement. I would like to thank Prof. Dr.-Ing Michael Moeller for agreeing to review my thesis in spite of his busy schedule. I must also thank the members of the Telecommunication Lab who have provided a conducive atmosphere to pursue this thesis. Christopher and Tobias, thank you. I would like to thank all the developers promoting open source. Their projects and feedback have enabled this thesis to be implemented completely in open source software. Although far fetched, I would like to thank Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the makers of google.com without which this thesis would be close to unachievable. I would say that many a time I have googled myself out of a problem. Lastly, I have to thank my parents who have toiled to give me a good education and provided me with the means to pursue my Masters education in Germany. I thank all my friends near and far in chronological order, Shreya, Sarika, Ashwini, Wenny, Uday, Justin, Kaustav, Dilip, Varun, Claus and Sergio who have been by my side in thick and thin. Special thanks to Andreas Schmidt for helping me orient myself in Germany and also providing his valuable insights in various aspects.