Analysis and Experimental Characterization of Channel Congestion Control in Vehicular Networks

Vehicular communication technologies are the enabling factor for development of smart mobility applications. Current solutions proposed by standard organizations support short and medium range communications, based on IEEE 802.11p for delay-sensitive applications and on cellular networking for integrated data management over large areas. This distinction could be overcome by the unifying paradigm of 5G. Mobility services require a continuous exchange of awareness messages among vehicles and road infrastructure elements, mainly for safety applications. Whatever communication technology is used, a basic requirement for the effectiveness and reliability of safety applications is the radio channel availability for dissemination of information among network elements. This paper describes our ongoing activities of study, analysis, and experimentation about channel congestion evaluation and control strategies, relying both on real devices and simulation environments. The proposed framework of tools and current activities can provide a good base for modeling complex urban scenarios in a perfect context for testing, like the city of L'Aquila, that aims at being reconceived as a modern smart city, and has been selected for 5G experimentation.