F2008-01-021
A Global Trend for Car 2 X Communication
V2V, V2I, V2X, C2C, C2X,... are several of many expression for a set of communication patterns in the area of inter-vehicle and vehicle to roadside communication. V2X allows both passenger safety and driving comfort to be improved significantly. For example, a vehicle detecting an icy road could inform following vehicles and thereby prevent accidents. Vehicle to infrastructure communication could be used near construction sites to warn the vehicle driver about reduced number of lanes or to give him advice for an alternative route. For improved traffic efficiency, vehicles could exchange the latest traffic flow information.
V2X applications and technology have specific requirements and characteristics resulting in several technical and political challenges. Many applications rely on position awareness of the nodes, to indicate an incident's location and to judge how to react to a received message. Another challenge derives from the mobility of vehicles that form the network. Apart from technical challenges, political influences for these communication systems have to be considered. Radio frequencies have to be made available, supporting road side infrastructure has to be negotiated with the road administrations, and agreement on interoperable standards have to be achieved. Finally, there are significant challenges to create a robust business case for the market introduction of V2X technology. Usually, new technologies are introduced at first into the premium vehicle segment. As vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication requires a rapid market penetration of equipped vehicles, this is not an option.
The advantages of V2X communication have been recognized in many regions of the world. Research initiatives worldwide (e.g., in Japan, the US and Europe) have started and already produced valuable results. Additional projects to solve the open issues are on the way.
Many regional efforts are taken to consolidate the results from research projects in industrial standards. Industry consortia have been formed, namely the Car2Car Communication Consortium in Europe and the Vehicle Safety Communication Consortium in the US. The outcome of these efforts is the IEEE 1609.x and IEEE 802.11p standards in the US. In parallel, ISO already tries to tie together a standard for `Continuous Communications Air Interface for Long and Medium Range´ (CALM). Big field operational tests are on the way to support the consolidation of V2X technology, e.g., German Sim-TD, Japanese Smartway, European FOT in FP7, US CAMP CICAS-V FOT, etc..
The regional variance of boundary conditions for the development of V2X communication are standing against an easy worldwide harmonization. Whereas in Japan, there is already an existing infrastructure for vehicle information and communication (VICS) and for toll collection (ETC), but in Germany toll collection is a public taboo. While the US also has to deal with long distance driving in sparsely populated areas, the main Japanese situation is that of small crowded narrow roads and stacking of several lanes like in the Tokyo highway. While the V2X development in the US is mainly driven by infrastructure providers and the number of involved authorities is rather limited (DOT, FCC, ...), in Europe a common infrastructure seems hard to achieve due to the fragmentation with many national authorities.
Still, the mutual awareness of the world wide initiatives is growing. An increasing number of companies try to bridge the gaps between the regional developments.
Session: Traffic Management