Investigation of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Communication for Autonomous Control of Connected Vehicles

Autonomous Driving Vehicles (ADVs) has received considerable attention in recent years by academia and industry, bringing about a paradigm shift in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), where vehicles operate in close proximity through wireless communication. It is envisioned as a promising technology for realising efficient and intelligent transportation systems, with potential applications for civilian and military purposes. Vehicular network management for ADVs is challenging as it demands mobility, location awareness, high reliability, and low latency data traffic. This research aims to develop and implement vehicular communication in conjunction with a driving algorithm for ADVs feedback control system with a specific focus on the safe displacement of vehicle platoon while sensing the surrounding environment, such as detecting road signs and communicate with other road users such as pedestrian, motorbikes, non-motorised vehicles and infrastructure. However, in order to do so, one must investigate crucial aspects related to the available technology, such as driving behaviour, low latency communication requirement, communication standards, and the reliability of such a mechanism to decrease the number of traffic accidents and casualties significantly. To understand the behaviour of wireless communication compared to the theoretical data rates, throughput, and roaming behaviour in a congested indoor line-of-sight heterogeneous environment, we first carried out an experimental study for IEEE 802.11a, 802.11n and 802.11ac standards in a 5 GHz frequency spectrum. We validated the results with an analytical path loss model as it is essential to understand how the client device roams or decides to roam from one Access Point to another and vice-versa. We observed seamless roaming between the tested protocols irrespective of their operational environment (indoor or outdoor); their throughput efficiency and data rate were also improved by 8-12% when configured with Short Guard Interval (SGI) of 400ns compared to the theoretical specification of the tested protocols. Moreover, we also investigated the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) for vehicular communication and compared it with the traditional network, which is generally incorporated vertically where control and data planes are bundled collectively. The SDN helped gain more flexibility to support multiple core networks for vehicular communication and tackle the potential challenges of network scalability for vehicular applications raised by the ADVs. In particular, we demonstrate that the SDN improves throughput efficiency by 4% compared to the traditional network while ensuring efficient bandwidth and resource management. Finally, we proposed a novel data-driven coordination model which incorporates Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication and Intelligent Driver Model (IDM), together called V2X Enabled Intelligent Driver Model (VX-IDM). Our model incorporates a Car-Following Model (CFM), i.e., IDM, to model a vehicle platoon in an urban and highway traffic scenario while ensuring the vehicle platoon's safety with the integration of IEEE 802.11p Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication scheme. The model integrates the 802.11p V2I communication channel with the IDM in MATLAB using ODE‐45 and utilises the 802.11p simulation toolbox for configuring vehicular channels. To demonstrate model functionality in urban and highway traffic environments, we developed six case studies. We also addressed the heterogeneity issue of wireless networks to improve the overall network reliability and efficiency by estimating the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) parameters for the platoon vehicle's displacement and location on the road from Road-Side-Units (RSUs). The simulation results showed that inter-vehicle spacing could be steadily maintained at a minimum safe value at all the time. Moreover, the model has a fault-tolerant mechanism that works even when communication with infrastructure is interrupted or unavailable, making the VX-IDM model collision-free

Throughput and Range Performance Investigation for IEEE 802.11a, 802.11n and 802.11ac Technologies in an On-Campus Heterogeneous Network Environment

This paper presents an analysis and measurement results for an experimental study on throughput, range and efficiency performance of IEEE 802.11a, 802.11n and 802.11ac standards in an indoor environment on a typical University Campus. The investigation considers a number of key system features including PHY layers mainly, Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO), Channel Bonding and Short-Guard Interval (SGI) in the heterogeneous wireless network. The experiment is carried out for the IEEE 802.11ac standard along with the legacy protocols 802.11a/n in a heterogeneous environment which is typically deployed on Campus. The results compare the maximum throughput of IEEE 802.11 standard amendments, in terms of theoretical and experimental throughput over TCP and UDP protocols for different set of parameters and features to check their efficiency and range. To achieve this desired goal, different tests are proposed. The result of these tests will help to determine the capability of each protocol and their efficiency in a practical heterogeneous on-campus environment

Software-Defined Approach for Communication in Autonomous Transportation Systems

Autonomous driving technology offers a promising solution to reduce road accidents, traffic congestion, and fuel consumption. The management of vehicular networks is challenging as it demands mobility, location awareness, high reliability and low latency of data traffic. In this paper, we propose a novel communication architecture for vehicular network with 5G Mobile Networks and SDN technologies to support multiple core networks for autonomous vehicles and to tackle the potential challenges raised by the autonomous driving vehicles. Data requirements are evaluated for vehicular networks with respect to number of lanes and cluster size, to efficiently use the frequency and bandwidth. Also, the network latency requirements are analysed, which are mandatory constraints for all the applications where real time end-to-end communication is necessary. A test environment is also formulated to evaluate improvement in vehicular network using SDN-based approach over traditional core networks

Adapting Future Vehicle Technologies for Smart Traffic Control Systems

Traffic control systems are imperative to the everyday function and quality of life for society. The current methods, such as; SCATS, SCOOT and InSync, provide this solution, but with limited flexibility. With the advances in context-aware technologies and wireless vehicular communication as discussed by Maglaras, and the rise of the Internet of Things allowing inexpensive networking of devices current technologies are becoming rapidly outdated. Some examples of such vehicle technologies are discussed in recent studies, namely, social internet of vehicles, and wireless sensing technologies. As the smart city landscape develops, some of these technological advances can be adapted into smart traffic control systems, improving the transport efficiency throughout the road network, while reducing levels of traffic congestion, amount of air pollution, improving quality of life. Although air pollution can be somewhat mitigated with technologies like Stop-Start, Hybrid or Electric, traffic congestion still has negative effect on the quality of life for the drivers, as well as the residence in the affected areas. As it has been outlined before by Glaesar, reducing traffic congestion remains a crucial goal of these future vehicle technologies. Addressing the traffic congestion problem, this chapter reviews existing technologies and future vehicle concepts that can be a good starting point for future studies of implementing a Smart Traffic Control System (STCS), starting by looking at the importance of STCSs, reviewing existing technologies in use with a focus on the most common, and identifying their shortcomings. Afterward, three potential vehicular technologies; V2X (Vehicle-to-X) communication, vehicle cloud computing (VCC) and vehicle social networks (VSNs) , will be reviewed based on previous works, with their applicability in STCSs based on potential efficiency, security and privacy aspects

Design and Numerical Implementation of V2X Control Architecture for Autonomous Driving Vehicles

This paper is concerned with designing and numerically implementing a V2X (Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) control system architecture for a platoon of autonomous vehicles. The V2X control architecture integrates the well-known Intelligent Driver Model (IDM) for a platoon of Autonomous Driving Vehicles (ADVs) with Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) Communication. The main aim is to address practical implementation issues of such a system as well as the safety and security concerns for traffic environments. To this end, we first investigated a channel estimation model for V2I communication. We employed the IEEE 802.11p vehicular standard and calculated path loss, Packet Error Rate (PER), Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), and throughput between transmitter and receiver end. Next, we carried out several case studies to evaluate the performance of the proposed control system with respect to its response to: (i) the communication infrastructure; (ii) its sensitivity to an emergency, inter-vehicular gap, and significant perturbation; and (iii) its performance under the loss of communication and changing driving environment. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control model. The model is collision-free for an infinite length of platoon string on a single lane road-driving environment. It also shows that it can work during a lack of communication, where the platoon vehicles can make their decision with the help of their own sensors. V2X Enabled Intelligent Driver Model (VX-IDM) performance is assessed and compared with the state-of-the-art models considering standard parameter settings and metrics

Next-Generation Indoor Wireless Systems: Compatibility and Migration Case Study

The indoor connected environment has witnessed significant research and development attention from industries and academia due to the growing number of smaller smart indoor devices around us. Developing an effective and efficient wireless access standard is one of the challenging tasks to enable the next generation indoor connected environment. The technical characteristics of existing wireless access standards, including IEEE 802.11a, 802.11n, and 802.11ac, are considerably limited for realizing indoor connected environments, particularly with a growing number of smaller intelligent devices. Moreover, their backward compatibility and migration strategies are significant for developing the next-generation wireless access standard for the indoor Internet of Things environment. In this context, this paper presents an indoor environmental experimental study focusing on the backward compatibility and migration-centric performance analysis of existing wireless access standards. Three wireless access standards that operate in the 5 GHz frequency spectrum are evaluated considering the metrics, including throughput, range, efficiency, and backward compatibility in an indoor environment. The experimental results are also compared with the analytical path loss model to observe the attributes for next-generation wireless access between the observed and analytical models. The evaluation can attest to the suitable migration strategy for stable next-generation wireless access development and deployment for an indoor smart Internet of Things environment

Communication Infrastructure and Data Requirements for Autonomous Transportation

Autonomous driving technology has been regarded as a promising solution to reduce road accidents and traffic congestion, as well as to optimize the usage of fuel and lane. However, one of the main challenges in autonomous driving is a limited sensing from single vehicle that causes warning and dead-lock situation. The network management in Vehicular network is challenging and demands mobility, location awareness, high reliability and low latency of data traffic which are not feasible or efficiently implemented with today’s network architecture. In this paper, we propose the novel communication architecture for vehicular network with Fifth generation Mobile Networks (5G) and SDN technologies to gain more flexibility and support multiple core networks for vehicular networks and to tackle the potential challenges raised by the autonomous driving vehicles

Radius-based Multipath Courier Node Routing Protocol for Acoustic Communications

Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) use acoustic waves to communicate in underwater environment. Acoustic channels have various limitations that can be low bandwidth, a higher end to end delay and path loss at certain nodes. Considering the limitations of UWSNs, energy efficient communication and reliability of network UWSNs has become an inevitable research area. The current research interests are to operate sensors for a longer time. Currently investigated research area towards efficient communication have various challenges, like flooding, multiple copies creation path loss and low network life time. Different from previous work which solve these challenges by measuring the depth, residual energy and assigning hop-ID’s to node. This article has proposed a novel scheme called Radius-based Courier Node (RMCN) routing. RMCN uses radius-based architecture in combination with cost function, track-id, residual energy, and depth to forward data packets. The RMCN is specifically designed for long term monitoring with higher energy efficiency and packet delivery ratio. The purpose of RMCN is to facilitate network for longer periods in risky areas. The proposed routing scheme has been compared with DBR and EMGGR in respect of alive nodes left, end to end delay, delivery ratio and energy consumption