Simulation-Based Evaluation of ETSI ITS-G5 and Cellular-VCS in a Real-World Road Traffic Scenario

TLDR: This contribution studies the performance of the two named technologies in a real-world road traffic scenario through comprehensive simulations and proves that both technologies work stable at moderate road traffic conditions but have significant differences in the quantified communication parameters.

Abstract: In recent years, two candidates for vehicular communications have evolved for the support of road safety and traffic efficiency applications. On the one hand, ad-hoc networks exist based on the ITS-G5/802.11p protocol stack, and on the other hand, there are cellular network infrastructures based on an extended LTE stack, which we refer to as Cellular-based Vehicular Communication Systems (Cellular-VCS). The most important extension of the classical LTE stack is a direct link among vehicles which is also called Device-to-Device (D2D) communication. Both approaches meet the requirements on vehicular communications but show technology-inherent mechanisms that result in different performances. ITS-G5 features a small latency at a small network load whereas Cellular-VCS promises a highly reliable packet transmission. One of the main difference of both approaches lies in the channel access which is random-based for ITS-G5 and centrally scheduled for Cellular-VCS. This contribution studies the performance of the two named technologies in a real-world road traffic scenario through comprehensive simulations. The simulation scenario makes use of real road traffic density measurements for modeling the mobility of the vehicles. Mixed network data traffic of periodically and event-based messages is generated through particular generation rules. The results prove that both technologies work stable at moderate road traffic conditions but have significant differences in the quantified communication parameters.