A Simulation Framework for Traffic Safety with Connected Vehicles and V2X Technologies

Abstract

With the advancement in automobile technologies, existing research shows that connected vehicle (CV) technologies can provide better traffic safety through Surrogate Safety Measure (SSM). CV technologies involves two network systems: traffic network and wireless communication network. We found that the research in the wireless communication network for CV did not interact properly with the research in SSM in transportation network, and vice versa. Though various SSM has been proposed in previous studies, a few of them have been tested in simulation software in limited extent. On the other hand, A large body of researchers proposed various communication architecture for CV technologies to improve communication performance. However, none of them tested the advanced SSM in their proposed architecture. Hence, there exists a research gap between these two communities, possibly due to difference in research domain. In this study, we developed a V2X simulation framework using SUMO, OMNeT++ and Veins for the development and testing of various SSM algorithms in run time simulation. Our developed framework has three level of communication ( CV to RSU To TS) system and is applicable for large traffic network that can have mixed traffic system (CV and non-CV), multiple road side unit (RSUs), and traffic server (TS). Moreover, the framework can be used to test SSM algorithms for other traffic networks without doing much modification. Our developed framework will be publicly available for its further development and optimization.