Advanced Vehicular Communications Through Cellular and Short-Range Networks Exploiting Road Weather and Traffic Observation Data

Thesis event information

Date and time of the thesis defence

Place of the thesis defence

Linnanmaa campus, lecture hall L5, University of Oulu, Finland

Topic of the dissertation

Advanced Vehicular Communications Through Cellular and Short-Range Networks Exploiting Road Weather and Traffic Observation Data

Doctoral candidate

M.Sc (Tech) Muhammad Naeem Tahir

Faculty and unit

University of Oulu Graduate School, Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, CWC-Networks and Systems

Subject of study

Communications Engineering

Opponent

Professor Elena Simona Lohan, Tampere University

Custos

Professor Marcos Katz, University of Oulu, Finland

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Advanced Vehicular Communications Through Cellular and Short-Range Networks Exploiting Road Weather and Traffic Observation Data

Good road infrastructure and an efficient transportation system form the foundations of modern societies. The development of road traffic systems places safety as a top priority. In recent years, weather information has developed as an increasingly important factor in road traffic safety. Icy and slippery roads have become the leading cause of road accidents in the winter season, especially in the northern regions of Europe and North America. For the safety of road traffic, the most important factors are accurate information on real-time weather and road traffic. Short-range vehicular networking based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard 802.11p (ITS-G5), Wi-Fi and visible light communications (VLC) can be utilised to provide vehicular communications. Cellular communication in the form of the fourth (4G) and fifth generation (and (5G) networks is currently considered as a potential system for vehicular communication.

During my dissertation research, we conducted pilot measurements of both short-range and long-range wireless technologies in different vehicular environments. The research was conducted at the Petäjämaa and Sodankylä airport test tracks, which are owned by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) in Sodankylä, Finland. The test tracks are equipped with the two road weather stations (RWS) facilitated by Wi-Fi and IEEE-802.11p networks and a 5G network based on Long Term Evolution (LTE) Release 15 and 4G networks.

This thesis examines the planning, development, and implementation of different vehicular communication field measurements utilising road weather and road traffic data collection. This data has been exchanged between vehicles and roadside units (RSUs) as well as RWSs. As part of the thesis study, a system level comparison was carried out. The measurements of IEEE 802.11p/ITS-G5, Wi-Fi have been compared with the similar pilot network measurements of LTE and 5G networks. A collection of communication scenarios for IEEE 802.11p, ITS-G5, Wi-Fi
and 4G/5G networks have been piloted and analysed to draw the results . The piloted use-case scenarios are vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-RWS (V2RWS), vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P), pedestrian-to-infrastructure (P2I), drone-to-vehicle (D2V) and drone-to-infrastructure (D2I) communication utilising road weather and road observation data.

In this dissertation, a system-level performance analysis of short and long-range communication was conducted, considering various parameters including latency, goodput, throughput, packet loss, and location-based services. The security of vehicular communications is also essential for ensuring secure and reliable communication for road traffic safety. In vehicular communications, the communication layer is composed of vehicle dynamics and environmental sensors that are susceptible to eavesdropping, jamming, and spoofing attacks.

To address these issues, a embedded safety feature (Safe Cooperating Cyber-Physical Systems using Wireless Communication, or SafeCOP), has been developed at the FMI. The SafeCOP feature provides a secure and reliable communication platform for vehicular networking, and its performance has been analysed by considering V2V and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication scenarios.

In this thesis, the performance metrics of the pilot platform for connected vehicles, such as scalability, efficiency, and robustness, have been studied in depth. The short-range and long-range (heterogeneous) vehicular networking system, together with an embedded safety feature, enable the use of vehicle-based actuators, sensors, and observation data to develop an intelligent service platform and real-time services for road traffic safety.

The outcome of this doctoral research will contribute to the improvement of road traffic safety, performance, and security of communication platforms through the exchange of dependable road weather data within constrained network characteristics. In addition, the long range and short-range (hybrid) model will also demonstrate network behaviour in extreme winter conditions.
Last updated: 30.8.2024