iTETRIS

Description

The iTETRIS project has set out to satisfy this need through the development of an open, ETSI standard, compliant, and flexible simulation platform that will create close collaboration between engineering companies, road authorities, and communications experts, and enable them to develop adequate solutions for the key issues of cooperative ITS. V2V/V2I communication technologies can improve traffic management through real-time exchange of traffic information (RTTI). To meet this aim, iTETRIS integrates wireless communications and road traffic simulation platforms in an environment that is easily tailored to specific situations allowing performance analysis of cooperative ITS at city level. The accuracy and scale of the simulations leveraged by iTETRIS reveal the impact of traffic engineering on city road traffic efficiency, operational strategy, and communications interoperability. Therefore, quantifiable results of city level deployment and investment on cooperative ITS applications can be presented to road authorities.

Previous Projects

AKTIV
ATESST
Geonet
CVIS

iTETRIS

Project Status

Closed (July2008 – January 2011)

CONTACT

Thales Communication

dissemination@ict-itetris.eu

Objectives

Address large scale vehicular communication scenarios, never been analysed with this level of accuracy before.
Facilitate a pan-European standardised and open platform for advanced evaluation of cooperative ICT solutions for road traffic management, nonexistent worldwide.
Develop new hybrid traffic control strategies more autonomous, adaptive and with a new level of granularity that rely on co-operative technology and can be analysed with the performance metrics defined.
Augment current traffic mobility and vehicular communication platforms with highly accurate energy, noise, pollution and wireless link models respectively and integrate them in a unique simulation platform.
Define new traffic metrics that quantify the overall traffic network performance in terms of e.g. travel time, congestion, energy consumption and pollution.
Propose new protocols for data dissemination and routing capable of handling the varying wireless link conditions underestimated nowadays.
Propose advanced V2V-V2I cooperative ICT strategies to handle low density V2V systems scenarios.
Analyse and propose optimal and suitable communication strategies to handle transient period when V2V technology is at low penetration level, while supporting new traffic management policies, key aspect in initial technology roll outs.
Development of adequate, robust and self-adaptable communication protocols for vehicular communications to guarantee QoS and ultimately user experience and safety.

Architecture

System Architecture

iTETRIS is aligned with the communication architecture defined by ETSI for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). The architecture assumes three different actors communicating in an ITS scenario, each representing a given subsystem: vehicle, roadside and central subsystems

The Access Technologies layer reflects CALM’s objective to allow seamless communication over several coexisting radio access technologies. The architecture therefore includes mechanisms to dynamically select the most appropriate communication technology to be used.

The Networking & Transport layer contains the different networking and transport protocols needed for a fully functional communication in an ITS scenario.

The ITS Facilities layer collects a set of common functionalities which are shared by several applications for various tasks. The facilities provide data structures to store, process and maintain data of different type and source.

The Applications layer contains the user applications exploiting the communication functionalities provided by the remaining part of the communication protocol stack. “Road Safety”, “Traffic Efficiency”, and sOther Applications” are defined.

The Management layer is a transversal layer handling cross-layer information exchange among the horizontal layers. The main functionalities implemented in this block include the dynamic selection of the access technology for a given application, the monitoring of communication interfaces’ parameters, the management of transmission permissions and priorities, the management of services, and the implementation of congestion control mechanisms.

Finally, the Security layer is the block implementing security services for the communication protocol stack and the management layer.

Simulation Architecture

In the simulation architecture both the simulators (NS3 and SUMO) and simulated application are coupled to a middleware instance called iCS (iTETRIS Control System) using socket connections, as shown in Figure 2. The middleware instance is responsible for translating information between the simulator and application instances and for synchronizing them. In addition, it contains structures enriching and storing information obtained from both simulators making the whole simulation system compliant with the COMeSafety architecture.

Inputs

On Board Unit (OBU)

V2V and V2I communication enabling hardware, varies from car to car manufacturer.

Road Side Unit (RSU)

V2I communication RSU

Data Processing Hub

Simulator to integrate Wireless technologies.
SUMO for traffic management.
NS3 for simulation.

Communication Technology

Dynamic and adaptive communication technology and transmission mode selection.
WAVE (802.11p), WiMAX, DVB-H and UMTS wireless communication support & channel modelling.
C2C-CC & IP communication stack implementation V2V/V2I Single-hop broadcast/multicast/unicast communication.
V2V/V2I Multi-hop Geo-networking information exchange.
Support for Opportunistic Networking.

Achievements/Benefits

Better optimization of communication protocol design, which will improve the QoS levels provided by cooperative systems.
Reduction in Gasoline Consumption and Air Pollutant Emission.
Reduction in Traffic Congestion.