OTFS vs. OFDM in High-speed Vehicular Traffic Scenarios

The growing interest in Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) modulation for vehicular communication systems requires the validation of its advantages using suitable channel models capable of emulating the dynamic and geometric complexities of vehicle-to-infrastructure systems. This paper presents a novel, realistic geometric-based channel model, called V-CORE, specifically designed for evaluating the performance of OTFS in vehicular scenarios. Our model accurately characterizes the scattered paths by exploiting the radar cross-section of the vehicles that populate a road according to a given vehicular traffic intensity. Multiple road scenarios with different geometry and vehicle velocities are considered, resulting in a flexible tool to evaluate system performance in different traffic contexts. The V-CORE model provides the channel variables, particularly relevant to OTFS implementation, such as multipath Doppler shift and delay. We assess the performance of OTFS against that of OFDM under different road structures, traffic intensity, and vehicle velocities. Further, we compare the proposed V-CORE model to the Extended Vehicular A model and demonstrate that ours provides a deeper insight into performance in high-speed vehicular scenarios.