iTETRIS: An Integrated Wireless and Traffic Platform for Real-Time Road Traffic Management Solutions

Wireless vehicular cooperative systems have been identified as an attractive solution to improve road traffic management, thereby contributing to the European goal of safer, cleaner, and more efficient and sustainable traffic solutions. V2V-V2I communication technologies can improve traffic management through real-time exchange of data among vehicles and with road infrastructure. It is also of great importance to investigate the adequate combination of V2V and V2I technologies to ensure the continuous and costefficient operation of traffic management solutions based on wireless vehicular cooperative solutions. However, to adequately design and optimize these communication protocols and analyze the potential of wireless vehicular cooperative systems to improve road traffic management, adequate testbeds and field operational tests need to be conducted. Despite the potential of Field Operational Tests to get the first insights into the benefits and problems faced in the development of wireless vehicular cooperative systems, there is yet the need to evaluate in the long term and large dimension the true potential benefits of wireless vehicular cooperative systems to improve traffic efficiency. To this aim, iTETRIS is devoted to the development of advanced tools coupling traffic and wireless communication simulators

A City-Scale ITS-G5 Network for Next-Generation Intelligent Transportation Systems: Design Insights and Challenges

As we move towards autonomous vehicles, a reliable Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication framework becomes of paramount importance. In this paper we present the development and the performance evaluation of a real-world vehicular networking testbed. Our testbed, deployed in the heart of the City of Bristol, UK, is able to exchange sensor data in a V2X manner. We will describe the testbed architecture and its operational modes. Then, we will provide some insight pertaining the firmware operating on the network devices. The system performance has been evaluated under a series of large-scale field trials, which have proven how our solution represents a low-cost high-quality framework for V2X communications. Our system managed to achieve high packet delivery ratios under different scenarios (urban, rural, highway) and for different locations around the city. We have also identified the instability of the packet transmission rate while using single-core devices, and we present some future directions that will address that.Comment: Accepted for publication to AdHoc-Now 201

Synergizing Roadway Infrastructure Investment with Digital Infrastructure for Infrastructure-Based Connected Vehicle Applications: Review of Current Status and Future Directions

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.The safety, mobility, environmental and economic benefits of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are potentially dramatic. However, realization of these benefits largely hinges on the timely upgrading of the existing transportation system. CAVs must be enabled to send and receive data to and from other vehicles and drivers (V2V communication) and to and from infrastructure (V2I communication). Further, infrastructure and the transportation agencies that manage it must be able to collect, process, distribute and archive these data quickly, reliably, and securely. This paper focuses on current digital roadway infrastructure initiatives and highlights the importance of including digital infrastructure investment alongside more traditional infrastructure investment to keep up with the auto industry's push towards this real time communication and data processing capability. Agencies responsible for transportation infrastructure construction and management must collaborate, establishing national and international platforms to guide the planning, deployment and management of digital infrastructure in their jurisdictions. This will help create standardized interoperable national and international systems so that CAV technology is not deployed in a haphazard and uncoordinated manner

5G-Enabled Autonomous Platooning on Robotic Vehicle Testbed

Humanity is progressively moving towards a more intuitive and technological future. The area of Intelligent and Cooperative Transport Systems has revealed itself as one of the areas in great evolution, through technologies of autonomous driving and intravehicle communication. With the main goal of providing accident-free environments as well as optimizing the movement of vehicles on roads all over the world, Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communication is very important when it comes to all kinds of vehicular applications. The CMU|PT FLOYD project focuses on this area, with the aim of developing new systems for possible future implementation. In this report, a vehicular application using a 5G-capable module to perform Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communications was evaluated. This vehicular application is based on an emergency braking scenario, whereby detecting an approaching vehicle in a place where an accident occurred, a message is sent over the network that is picked up by the main vehicle, triggering braking. It should be noted that this sending will be made through the module with 5G capacity, thus being an innovative application. Complementary to this scenario is the tracking of a vehicle by another vehicle, thus making a more complex emergency braking application with a cooperative platoon. This platoon will be maintained through sensors present in the following vehicle, such as LiDAR and ZED camera. With this, image processing and a sensor fusion was done in order to keep the follower at a safe distance but with the ability to follow the leader. In order to validate and test this entire solution, robotic testbeds were used as a low-cost solution, allowing a concrete evaluation, with enlightening physical results of the entire application performed.A humanidade, está a caminhar, progressivamente, para um futuro mais intuitivo e tecnológico. A área dos Sistemas Inteligentes e Cooperativos de Transporte tem-se revelado como uma das áreas em grande evolução, através de tecnologias de condução autónoma e comunicação intra-veicular. Com o objetivo principal de proporcionar ambientes sem acidentes, assim como otimizar o movimento de veículos nas estradas de todo o mundo, a comunicação V2X é muito importante no que toca a todo o tipo de aplicações veiculares. O projeto CMU|PT FLOYD centra-se nesta mesma área, com o intuito de desenvolver novos sistemas de possível implementação futura. Neste relatório, é avaliada assim uma aplicação veicular utilizando um módulo com capacidade 5G para realizar comunicações V2I. Essa aplicação veicular baseiase num cenário de travagem de emergência, em que ao detetar uma aproximação de um veículo num local onde ocorreu um acidente, é enviada uma mensagem pela rede que é captada pelo veículo principal, despoletando a travagem. De destacar que este envio será feito através do módulo com capacidade 5G, sendo desta forma uma aplicação inovadora. Complementado a este cenário está a realização do seguimento de um veículo por parte de um outro veículo, tornando assim uma aplicação mais complexa de travagem de emergência com um pelotão cooperativo. Este pelotão será mantido através de sensores presentes no veículo seguidor como o LiDAR e a ZED camera. Com isto, foi utilizado processamento de imagem e foi feita a fusão de sensores de forma a manter o seguidor a uma distância de segurança mas com capacidade de seguir o líder. Com o objetivo de validar e testar toda esta solução, foram utilizadas plataformas robóticas como solução de baixo custo, permitindo assim ter uma avaliação concreta, com resultados físicos esclarecedores de toda a aplicação realizada

V2X Content Distribution Based on Batched Network Coding with Distributed Scheduling

Content distribution is an application in intelligent transportation system to assist vehicles in acquiring information such as digital maps and entertainment materials. In this paper, we consider content distribution from a single roadside infrastructure unit to a group of vehicles passing by it. To combat the short connection time and the lossy channel quality, the downloaded contents need to be further shared among vehicles after the initial broadcasting phase. To this end, we propose a joint infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication scheme based on batched sparse (BATS) coding to minimize the traffic overhead and reduce the total transmission delay. In the I2V phase, the roadside unit (RSU) encodes the original large-size file into a number of batches in a rateless manner, each containing a fixed number of coded packets, and sequentially broadcasts them during the I2V connection time. In the V2V phase, vehicles perform the network coded cooperative sharing by re-encoding the received packets. We propose a utility-based distributed algorithm to efficiently schedule the V2V cooperative transmissions, hence reducing the transmission delay. A closed-form expression for the expected rank distribution of the proposed content distribution scheme is derived, which is used to design the optimal BATS code. The performance of the proposed content distribution scheme is evaluated by extensive simulations that consider multi-lane road and realistic vehicular traffic settings, and shown to significantly outperform the existing content distribution protocols.Comment: 12 pages and 9 figure

Waveform Design for 5G and beyond Systems

5G traffic has very diverse requirements with respect to data rate, delay, and reliability. The concept of using multiple OFDM numerologies adopted in the 5G NR standard will likely meet these multiple requirements to some extent. However, the traffic is radically accruing different characteristics and requirements when compared with the initial stage of 5G, which focused mainly on high-speed multimedia data applications. For instance, applications such as vehicular communications and robotics control require a highly reliable and ultra-low delay. In addition, various emerging M2M applications have sparse traffic with a small amount of data to be delivered. The state-of-the-art OFDM technique has some limitations when addressing the aforementioned requirements at the same time. Meanwhile, numerous waveform alternatives, such as FBMC, GFDM, and UFMC, have been explored. They also have their own pros and cons due to their intrinsic waveform properties. Hence, it is the opportune moment to come up with modification/variations/combinations to the aforementioned techniques or a new waveform design for 5G systems and beyond. The aim of this Special Issue is to provide the latest research and advances in the field of waveform design for 5G systems and beyond

An Emulation Framework for Evaluating V2X Communications in C-ITS Applications

C-ITS enhances transportation systems with advanced communication tech, enabling vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure data exchange for real-time decision-making. The thesis explores C-ITS concepts, DSRC, and C-V2X tech, and proposes a versatile C-ITS framework for app prototyping and communication evaluation. Real-world tests and simulations validate its potential to improve road safety and efficiency, suggesting integration opportunities for stakeholders and promoting a smarter, sustainable transportation ecosystem