Broadcast performance analysis and improvements of the LTE-V2V autonomous mode at road intersection

An autonomous V2V communication mode (also known as side-link mode 4), which facilitates V2V communication in out of eNB coverage areas, has recently been introduced into the Long term evolution (LTE) standard. Recent research has studied the performance of this LTE-V2V autonomous mode for a highway use case. However, performance analysis for a highway use case cannot be easily applied to an intersection use case as it may contain non-line-of-sight (NLOS) communication links. In this paper, we analyze and evaluate the safety message broadcasting performance of LTE-V2V autonomous mode in an urban intersection scenario. Considering practical path loss models, we present the impact of NLOS communication link on the overall message dissemination performance. Through the analytical and simulation results, we show that the overall message dissemination performance degrades drastically with increasing vehicle density and increasing distance of the transmitting vehicle from the intersection. To improve the performance, we propose a vehicle-assisted relaying scheme in which the relaying vehicle is selected in an autonomous manner. We also present two resource allocation strategies for the relaying vehicle. For low to medium vehicle density along the street, we observe significant improvement in message dissemination through relaying compared to the scheme without relaying

On the Design of Sidelink for Cellular V2X: A Literature Review and Outlook for Future

Connected and fully automated vehicles are expected to revolutionize our mobility in the near future on a global scale, by significantly improving road safety, traffic efficiency, and traveling experience. Enhanced vehicular applications, such as cooperative sensing and maneuvering or vehicle platooning, heavily rely on direct connectivity among vehicles, which is enabled by sidelink communications. In order to set the ground for the core contribution of this paper, we first analyze the main streams of the cellular-vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology evolution within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), with focus on the sidelink air interface. Then, we provide a comprehensive survey of the related literature, which is classified and critically dissected, considering both the Long-Term Evolution-based solutions and the 5G New Radio-based latest advancements that promise substantial improvements in terms of latency and reliability. The wide literature review is used as a basis to finally identify further challenges and perspectives, which may shape the C-V2X sidelink developments in the next-generation vehicles beyond 5G

Robust distributed resource allocation for cellular vehicle-to-vehicle communication

Mit Release 14 des LTE Standards unterstützt dieser die direkte Fahrzeug-zu-Fahrzeug-Kommunikation über den Sidelink. Diese Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit dem Scheduling Modus 4, einem verteilten MAC-Protokoll ohne Involvierung der Basisstation, das auf periodischer Wiederverwendung von Funkressourcen aufbaut. Der Stand der Technik und eine eigene Analyse des Protokolls decken verschiedene Probleme auf. So wiederholen sich Kollisionen von Paketen, wodurch manche Fahrzeuge für längere Zeit keine sicherheitskritischen Informationen verbreiten können. Kollisionen entstehen vermehrt auch dadurch, dass Hidden-Terminal-Probleme in Kauf genommen werden oder veränderliche Paketgrößen und -raten schlecht unterstützt werden. Deshalb wird ein Ansatz namens "Scheduling based on Acknowledgement Feedback Exchange" vorgeschlagen. Zunächst wird eine Funkreservierung in mehrere ineinander verschachtelte Unter-Reservierungen mit verschiedenen Funkressourcen unterteilt, was die Robustheit gegenüber wiederholenden Kollisionen erhöht. Dies ist die Grundlage für eine verteilte Staukontrolle, die die Periodizitätseigenschaft nicht verletzt. Außerdem können so veränderliche Paketgrößen oder -raten besser abgebildet werden. Durch die periodische Wiederverwendung können Acknowledgements für Funkressourcen statt für Pakete ausgesendet werden. Diese können in einer Bitmap in den Padding-Bits übertragen werden. Mittels der Einbeziehung dieser Informationen bei der Auswahl von Funkressourcen können Hidden-Terminal-Probleme effizient vermieden werden, da die Acknowledgements auch eine Verwendung dieser Funkressource ankündigen. Kollisionen können nun entdeckt und eine Wiederholung vermieden werden. Die Evaluierung des neuen MAC-Protokolls wurde zum großen Teil mittels diskreter-Event-Simulationen durchgeführt, wobei die Bewegung jedes einzelnen Fahrzeuges simuliert wurde. Der vorgeschlagene Ansatz führt zu einer deutlich erhöhten Paketzustellrate. Die Verwendung einer anwendungsbezogenen Awareness-Metrik zeigt, dass die Zuverlässigkeit der Kommunikation durch den Ansatz deutlich verbessert werden kann. Somit zeigt sich der präsentierte Ansatz als vielversprechende Lösung für die erheblichen Probleme, die der LTE Modus 4 mit sich bringt.The LTE Standard added support for a direct vehicle-to-vehicle communication via the Sidelink with Release 14. This dissertation focuses on the scheduling Mode 4, a distributed MAC protocol without involvement of the base station, which requires the periodic reuse of radio resources. The state of the art and a own analysis of this protocol unveil multiple problems. For example, packet collisions repeat in time, so that some vehicles are unable to distribute safety-critical information for extended periods of time. Collisions also arise due to the hidden-terminal problem, which is simply put up with in Mode 4. Additionally, varying packet sizes or rates can hardly be supported. Consequently, an approach called "Scheduling based on Acknowledgement Feedback Exchange" is proposed. Firstly, a reservation of radio resources is split into multiple, interleaved sub-reservations that use different radio resources. This increases the robustness against repeating collisions. It is also the basis for a distributed congestion control that does not violate the periodicity. Moreover, different packet rates or sizes can be supported. The periodic reuse of radio resources enables the transmission of acknowledgements for radio resources instead of packets. These can be transmitted in a bitmap inside the padding bits. Hidden-terminal problems can be mitigated by considering the acknowledgements when selecting radio resources as they announce the use of these radio resources. Collisions can also be detected and prevented from re-occurring. The evaluation of the MAC protocol is mostly performed using discrete-event simulations, which model the movement of every single vehicle. The presented approach leads to a clear improvement of the packet delivery rate. The use of an application-oriented metric shows that the communication robustness can be improved distinctly. The proposed approach hence presents itself as a promising solution for the considerable problems of LTE Mode 4

LTE/NR V2X Communication Modes and Future Requirements of Intelligent Transportation Systems Based on MR-DC Architectures

[EN] This paper deals with the potential of Third Generation Partnership (3GPP) Project mobile cellular standards to enable vehicular communications. Starting from 3GPP Release 15, and Release 16 specifications for Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications, the different communication modes, interfaces and use cases for V2X based on Long Term Evolution (LTE) and New Radio (NR) are analyzed. This research also studies the potential beneficial impact on V2X of a network that is aware of the underlying Multi-RAT Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) architecture. The methodology followed in this work consists of a review of 3GPP standards for vehicular communications based on mobile networks. The performance evaluation of the communication modes was performed through simulations taking into account resource allocation schemes, packet transmission frequencies, packet size, vehicle density and other parameters defined in the standard. In order to perform simulations of the decentralized communication mode (mode 4), a simulator based on OMNeT++ was configured. For the centralized mode (mode 3), an analytical model in MATLAB was used to configure different simulation scenarios. The results obtained indicate that LTE networks can only support basic V2X use cases because they do not demand strict potential requirements. Simulations showed that the centralized mode offers better performance than mode 4; however, it requires cellular network coverage. More advanced use cases are key for a future Intelligent Transport System (ITS), high-performance networks (i.e., Fifth Generation (5G), NR) are expected to coexist gradually with LTE in the V2X landscape. Therefore, in order to meet the strict requirements for latency, transmission speed and reliability, MR-DC architectures combining different radio access technologies, communication modes and connection interfaces should be deployed. In addition, operation in multi-operator and cross-border scenarios must be guaranteed.This research was supported by the European Union's H2020-ICT-18-2018 action "5G for cooperative, connected and automated mobility", for project "5G for Connected and Automated Road Mobility in the European unioN (5G-CARMEN)" under grant agreement no. 825012.González, EE.; Garcia-Roger, D.; Monserrat Del Río, JF. (2022). LTE/NR V2X Communication Modes and Future Requirements of Intelligent Transportation Systems Based on MR-DC Architectures. Sustainability. 14(7):1-19. https://doi.org/10.3390/su1407387911914

Performance analysis of V2X technologies 802.11p and LTE-PC5

The concept of Digital Twin (DT) has been broadly adopted in the Industry 4.0, in the healthcare and in the Smart Cities. It represents a digital model of the reality where it is possible to test and evaluate different actions before implementing them into the real world. In the context of Smart City, the digital copy of the city includes the representation of the road infrastructure, vehicles, pedestrians, .... Its main objectives are to ease the road maintenance, to provide the means for mobility simulations, and to create traffic information management systems. This prNowadays, Vehicular-to-Everything (V2X) communications are becoming an essential element to improve safe driving conditions and autonomous driving. This thesis presents a comparison of two V2X communication technologies: IEEE 802.11p, and Cellular-V2X. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of both technologies in terms of the Medium Acces Control (MAC) layer, especially in a congested environment. Therefore, we analyze the different schemes used on these technologies to access shared channel resources and avoid interferences. The study is conducted using several simulation tools: SUMO which allows us to create personalized scenarios, and OMNeT++ used to simulate the network and transmit all the V2X messages between the vehicles. With SUMO we created a highway scenario that can support a high density of vehicles. And OMNeT++ is used to change the main simulation parameters, and obtain results such as all the packets received and sent through the network. Finally, we defined some performance metrics to analyze the results and observe how the technologies react over a congested scenario, with high densities of vehicles

An Overview of Vehicular Communications

The transport sector is commonly subordinate to several issues, such as traffic congestion and accidents. Despite this, in recent years, it is also evolving with regard to cooperation between vehicles. The fundamental objective of this trend is to increase road safety, attempting to anticipate the circumstances of potential danger. Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technologies strive to give communication models that can be employed by vehicles in different application contexts. The resulting infrastructure is an ad-hoc mesh network whose nodes are not only vehicles but also all mobile devices equipped with wireless modules. The interaction between the multiple connected entities consists of information exchange through the adoption of suitable communication protocols. The main aim of the review carried out in this paper is to examine and assess the most relevant systems, applications, and communication protocols that will distinguish the future road infrastructures used by vehicles. The results of the investigation reveal the real benefits that technological cooperation can involve in road safety. Document type: Articl

Fastening the Initial Access in 5G NR Sidelink for 6G V2X Networks

The ever-increasing demand for intelligent, automated, and connected mobility solutions pushes for the development of an innovative sixth Generation (6G) of cellular networks. A radical transformation on the physical layer of vehicular communications is planned, with a paradigm shift towards beam-based millimeter Waves or sub-Terahertz communications, which require precise beam pointing for guaranteeing the communication link, especially in high mobility. A key design aspect is a fast and proactive Initial Access (IA) algorithm to select the optimal beam to be used. In this work, we investigate alternative IA techniques to fasten the current fifth-generation (5G) standard, targeting an efficient 6G design. First, we discuss cooperative position-based schemes that rely on the position information. Then, motivated by the intuition of a non-uniform distribution of the communication directions due to road topology constraints, we design two Probabilistic Codebook (PCB) techniques of prioritized beams. In the first one, the PCBs are built leveraging past collected traffic information, while in the second one, we use the Hough Transform over the digital map to extract dominant road directions. We also show that the information coming from the angular probability distribution allows designing non-uniform codebook quantization, reducing the degradation of the performances compared to uniform one. Numerical simulation on realistic scenarios shows that PCBs-based beam selection outperforms the 5G standard in terms of the number of IA trials, with a performance comparable to position-based methods, without requiring the signaling of sensitive information

DSRC Versus LTE-V2X: Empirical Performance Analysis of Direct Vehicular Communication Technologies

Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication systems have an eminence potential to improve road safety and optimize traffic flow by broadcasting Basic Safety Messages (BSMs). Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) and LTE Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) are two candidate technologies to enable V2V communication. DSRC relies on the IEEE 802.11p standard for its PHY and MAC layer while LTE-V2X is based on 3GPP’s Release 14 and operates in a distributed manner in the absence of cellular infrastructure. There has been considerable debate over the relative advantages and disadvantages of DSRC and LTE-V2X, aiming to answer the fundamental question of which technology is most effective in real-world scenarios for various road safety and traffic efficiency applications. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of these two technologies (i.e., DSRC and LTE-V2X) and related works. More specifically, we study the PHY and MAC layer of both technologies in the survey study and compare the PHY layer performance using a variety of field tests. First, we provide a summary of each technology and highlight the limitations of each in supporting V2X applications. Then, we examine their performance based on different metrics

Radio resource management for V2X in cellular systems

The thesis focuses on the provision of cellular vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, which have attracted great interest for 5G due to the potential of improving traffic safety and enabling new services related to intelligent transportation systems. These types of services have strict requirements on reliability, access availability, and end-to-end (E2E) latency. V2X requires advanced network management techniques that must be developed based on the characteristics of the networks and traffic requirements. The integration of the Sidelink (SL), which enables the direct communication between vehicles (i.e., vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)) without passing through the base station into cellular networks is a promising solution for enhancing the performance of V2X in cellular systems. In this thesis, we addressed some of the challenges arising from the integration of V2V communication in cellular systems and validated the potential of this technology by providing appropriate resource management solutions. Our main contributions have been in the context of radio access network slicing, mode selection, and radio resource allocation mechanisms. With regard to the first research direction that focuses on the RAN slicing management, a novel strategy based on offline Q-learning and softmax decision-making has been proposed as an enhanced solution to determine the adequate split of resources between a slice for eMBB communications and a slice for V2X. Then, starting from the outcome of the off-line Q-learning algorithm, a low-complexity heuristic strategy has been proposed to achieve further improvements in the use of resources. The proposed solution has been compared against proportional and fixed reference schemes. The extensive performance assessment have revealed the ability of the proposed algorithms to improve network performance compared to the reference schemes, especially in terms of resource utilization, throughput, latency and outage probability. Regarding the second research direction that focuses on the mode selection, two different mode selection solutions referred to as MSSB and MS-RBRS strategies have been proposed for V2V communication over a cellular network. The MSSB strategy decides when it is appropriate to use one or the other mode, i.e. sidelink or cellular, for the involved vehicles, taking into account the quality of the links between V2V users, the available resources, and the network traffic load situation. Moreover, the MS-RBRS strategy not only selects the appropriate mode of operation but also decides efficiently the amount of resources needed by V2V links in each mode and allows reusing RBs between different SL users while guaranteeing the minimum signal to interference requirements. The conducted simulations have revealed that the MS-RBRS and MSSB strategies are beneficial in terms of throughput, radio resource utilization, outage probability and latency under different offered loads comparing to the reference scheme. Last, we have focused on the resource allocation problem including jointly mode selection and radio resource scheduling. For the mode selection, a novel mode selection has been presented to decide when it is appropriate to select sidelink mode and use a distributed approach for radio resource allocation or cellular mode and use a centralized radio resource allocation. It takes into account three aspects: the quality of the links between V2V users, the available resources, and the latency. As for the radio resource allocation, the proposed approach includes a distributed radio resource allocation for sidelink mode and a centralized radio resource allocation for cellular mode. The proposed strategy supports dynamic assignments by allowing transmission over mini-slots. A simulation-based analysis has shown that the proposed strategies improved the network performance in terms of latency of V2V services, packet success rate and resource utilization under different network loads.La tesis se centra en la provisión de comunicaciones para vehículos sistemas celulares (V2X: Vehicle to Everything), que han atraído un gran interés en el contexto de 5G debido a su potencial de mejorar la seguridad del tráfico y habilitar nuevos servicios relacionados con los sistemas inteligentes de transporte. Estos tipos de servicios tienen requisitos estrictos en términos fiabilidad, disponibilidad de acceso y latencia de extremo a extremo (E2E). Para ello, V2X requiere técnicas avanzadas de gestión de red que deben desarrollarse en función de las características de las redes y los requisitos de tráfico. La integración del Sidelink (SL), que permite la comunicación directa entre vehículos (es decir, vehículo a vehículo (V2V)) sin pasar por la estación base de las redes celulares, es una solución prometedora para mejorar el rendimiento de V2X en el sistema celular. En esta tesis, abordamos algunos de los desafíos derivados de la integración de la comunicación V2V en los sistemas celulares y validamos el potencial de esta tecnología al proporcionar soluciones de gestión de recursos adecuadas. Nuestras principales contribuciones han sido en el contexto del denominado "slicing" de redes de acceso radio, la selección de modo y los mecanismos de asignación de recursos radio. Respecto a la primera dirección de investigación que se centra en la gestión del RAN slicing, se ha propuesto una estrategia novedosa basada en Q-learning y toma de decisiones softmax como una solución para determinar la división adecuada de recursos entre un slice para comunicaciones eMBB y un slice para V2X. Luego, a partir del resultado del algoritmo de Q-learning, se ha propuesto una estrategia heurística de baja complejidad para lograr mejoras adicionales en el uso de los recursos. La solución propuesta se ha comparado con esquemas de referencia proporcionales y fijos. La evaluación ha revelado la capacidad de los algoritmos propuestos para mejorar el rendimiento de la red en comparación con los esquemas de referencia, especialmente en términos de utilización de recursos, rendimiento, y latencia . Con respecto a la segunda dirección de investigación que se centra en la selección de modo, se han propuesto dos soluciones de diferentes llamadas estrategias MSSB y MS-RBRS para la comunicación V2V a través de una red celular. La estrategia MSSB decide cuándo es apropiado usar el modo SL o el modo celular, para los vehículos involucrados, teniendo en cuenta la calidad de los enlaces entre los usuarios de V2V, los recursos disponibles y la situación de carga de tráfico de la red. Además, la estrategia MS-RBRS no solo selecciona el modo de operación apropiado, sino que también decide eficientemente la cantidad de recursos que los enlaces V2V necesitan en cada modo, y permite que los RB se reutilicen entre diferentes usuarios de SL al tiempo que garantiza requisitos mínimos de señal a interferencia. Se ha presentado un análisis basado en simulación para evaluar el desempeño de las estrategias propuestas. Finalmente, nos hemos centrado en el problema conjunto de la selección de modo y la asignación de recursos de radio. Para la selección de modo, se ha presentado una nueva estrategia para decidir cuándo es apropiado seleccionar el modo SL y usar un enfoque distribuido para la asignación de recursos de radio o el modo celular y usar la asignación de recursos de radio centralizada. Tiene en cuenta tres aspectos: la calidad de los enlaces entre los usuarios de V2V, los recursos disponibles y la latencia. En términos de asignación de recursos de radio, el enfoque propuesto incluye una asignación de recursos de radio distribuida para el modo SL y una asignación de recursos de radio centralizada para el modo celular. La estrategia propuesta admite asignaciones dinámicas al permitir la transmisión a través de mini-slots. Los resultados muestran las mejoras en términos de latencia, tasa de recepción y la utilización de recursos bajo diferentes cargas de red.Postprint (published version

Mobile ad hoc networks in transportation data collection and dissemination

The field of transportation is rapidly changing with new opportunities for systems solutions and emerging technologies. The global economic impact of congestion and accidents are significant. Improved means are needed to solve them. Combined with the increasing numbers of vehicles on the road, the net economic impact is measured in the many billions of dollars. Promising methodologies explored in this thesis include the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET). Interconnecting vehicles using Dedicated Short Range Communication technology (DSRC) brings many benefits. Integrating DSRC into roadway vehicles offers the promise of reducing the problems of congestion and accidents; however, it comes with risks such as loss of connectivity due to power outages as well as controlling and managing loading in such networks. Energy consumption of vehicle communication equipment is a crucial factor in high availability sensor networks. Sending critical emergency messaged through linked vehicles requires that there always be energy and communication reserves. Two algorithms are described. The first controls energy consumption to guarantee an energy reserve for sending alert signals. The second exploits Long Term Evolution (LTE) to guarantee a reliable communication path