Timo Sukuvaara

Wireless traffic service platform for combined vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications

Vehicular wireless communications and vehicular ad hoc networks are nowadays widely identified enablers for improving traffic safety and efficiency, and a large number of suggestions for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication have been presented. The focus is typically on bilateral communication between two vehicles or on broadcasting information from one vehicle or infrastructure to vehicles in the surrounding area. In the Carlink project [1, 2] of the European Celtic program call 3 we have developed an intelligent hybrid wireless traffic service platform between cars supported by roadside wireless base stations. Communication between cars will be arranged in an ad hoc manner, supported by wireless base station connection to the backbone network whenever possible. The platform consists of a specific set of services (e.g., local road weather service and incident warning service), but a variety of services can be integrated to this kind of a system. The ultimate goal was to enhance traffic safety and smoothness, but also to generate a completely new communication entity, allowing new types of applications, services, and business opportunities. In this article we present the concept and example services of the Carlink platform. The platform simulations, field tests, and analysis show that the platform operability and efficiency are suitable for a large-scale traffic system, to be verified in the pilot system deployment.

IEEE 802.11p Based Vehicular Networking Operational Pilot Field Measurement

For vehicular networking purposes the main communication standard approach on global scale is the IEEE 802.11p. This protocol-based system, together with the 3G cellular network, was the main elements of our car communications test-bed network. The developed test-bed implements an intelligent heterogeneous traffic safety network between cars and infrastructure. It also offers the possibility to exploit vehicle based sensor and observation data in order to generate intelligent real-time services and a service platform for vehicles. The main goal was to improve traffic safety with accident and weather condition related accurate services, but also to offer a platform for true bi-directional Internet-like networking experience tailored cost-effectively to vehicular environments. This paper presents the field test results of a new standard system for car communication, IEEE 802.11p vehicular networking measurements in Northern Finland (with supporting simulations). The results achieved in developed heterogeneous networking system (with special services) pilot testing are presented also. Based on the experience gained from both field measurements and pilot deployment, we propose a system deployment strategy for simple scenarios with general system efficiency estimation. It is shown that the solution has clear potential for a comprehensive heterogeneous vehicular communication and safety network.

SNORTEX (Snow Reflectance Transition Experiment): Remote sensing measurement of the dynamic properties of the boreal snow-forest in support to climate and weather forecast: Report of IOP-2008

Large discrepancies are observed between snow albedo in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models and from satellite observations in the case of high vegetation. Knowledge of the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) of snow-forest system is required to solve the problem. The 3-years SNORTEX (Snow Reflectance Transition Experiment) campaign acquires from 2008 in situ measurements of snow and forest properties in support to the development of modelling tools and to validate coarse resolution satellite products (POLDER, MODIS, MERIS, METOP). The measurement scheme and some first example results are presented from the Intensive Observing Period (IOP) of 2008, which can be decomposed into airborne and ground operations. Multi-temporal BRDF at a metric resolution were acquired from OSIRIS (airPOLDER) onboard a helicopter and from ground with FigiFiGo spectrogoniometer. The same helicopter embarked a pair of UV sensors, pyranometers and a wide-optics camera. Ground component includes exhaustive snow measurements.

Reflectance spectroradiometer measurement system in 30 meter mast for validating satellite images

Reflectance spectroscopy is a well established field of research, evolved from simple laboratory instruments into a satellite-oriented global environment research tool. However, due to the effect of the atmosphere and the large area coverage of satellite images, reflectances extracted from satellite data or ground based spectra are not correlating properly. In order to improve the comparability of satellite-borne and ground-based reflectance observations, we have constructed a reflectance spectrometer measurement assembled to a 30 meter mast. With this construction we are able to average reflectance spectra from up to 400 m2 area in the ground and up to 180 m2 area in the level of tree tops, respectively. A primary function of our measurement system is the correction of satellite images from atmospheric effects. This paper presents the measurement system for validating satellite images, constructed to Arctic Research Centre in Sodankylauml. The operative measurements in the system started at the summer of 2006.

Road weather station acting as a wireless service hotspot for vehicles

The European Eureka/Celtic Plus project CoMoSeF (Co-operative Mobility Services of the Future) aims to create co-operative mobility solutions (including devices and applications), feasible for large scale deployment. In practice this means combined vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), communication system employing interactive example services related to safety and weather information exchange. In this paper we present FMI (Finnish Meteorological Institute) approach to employ CoMoSef vehicular networking entity by creating a specific service hotspot for vehicles bypassing the combined Road Weather Station (RWS)/Road Side Unit (RSU). Local road weather and route weather (a special type of weather service tailored for dedicated road stretches, constructed both from FMI meteorological systems data and the data collected from local RWSs) are the obvious services offered, but in addition to them there is a variety of services available, from specialized weather data into more general traffic information and local accident warnings. The ultimate aim is to provide data to vehicles regardless of their communication devices available. The supported media at the moment consists of IEEE 802.11p and traditional Wi-Fi communication operated through special vehicle computer, Android-based tablet PC or standard laptop computer, but it is expected to be supplemented at least with iPad- and Jolla-devices, respectively.

Wireless traffic safety network for incident and weather information

Vehicular wireless communications with Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET) utilizing Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication tools are key technological approaches in efforts to improve traffic safety and efficiency. The European project WiSafeCar (under the Celtic cluster of the EUREKA network) has as one of its key targets to develop an intelligent hybrid wireless traffic safety network between vehicles and infrastructure. Vehicle based sensors and observations are exploited to generate intelligent real-time services on a service platform for vehicles. WiSafeCar considers not only urban areas, but also the special case of operating in rural areas where no high-density base station (road side unit) network for V2I communication is available. Hybrid communication of cellular and IEEE 802.11p based wireless vehicular networking has been employed, with the primary objective of the cellular communication to provide an alternative solution in areas outside of the range of the wireless vehicular network.

Field measurements of IEEE 802.11p based vehicular networking entity

Wireless media for vehicular networking purposes with support for instantaneously delivered safety messages is the ultimate design goal of IEEE 802.11p. Even if the full standard is just on the final approval phase, some compatible equipment has been already available in the markets for a while, making it possible to evaluate the performance enhancements motivated the standard development. This paper presents the vehicular networking field measurement results conducted in the vicinity area of Finnish Meteorological Institute facilities in Sodankylä, Finland. Based on the field measurements, it seems clear that the design goals of IEEE 802.11p has been fulfilled, and true efficient vehicular networking environment with combined Vehicle-to-Infrastructure, Vehicle-to-Vehicle and even multi-hop vehicular network can be provided.

Vehicle in a cognitive network

To facilitate intelligent traffic communication, a reliable, realistic network is required for ad-hoc communication between vehicles. Many solutions compete in the different existing vehicular networking systems. However, one solution to suit all purposes has not been determined. While vehicle-to-infrastructure communication methods, such as standardized GPRS, HSPA, and LTE are currently used, vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside units are more or less under construction. In addition to connections to server/traffic centers, connections to local sensors and traffic signs are needed to obtain actual local information in changing environments. In this paper, we describe the results of tests using wireless sensor network (WSN) radios of different kinds to communicate with moving vehicles. Our aim is to provide measured background information about different kinds of vehicular networking methodologies in order to find an optimal solution for different kinds of usage scenarios.

Simulation of IEEE 802.11p Vehicular Networking with Real-Life Traffic Scenario

Vehicular networking is nowadays very hot topic within the research field of telecommunications. Lot of different approaches exist, although the standard approach called IEEE 802.11p is gaining the majority of interest. Even if IEEE 802.11p seems to be the main approach, the operability in real conditions has not yet been under careful consideration. This paper presents the vehicular networking simulations, which are configured by the field measurement results, and in the scenarios derived from real-life traffic information.

Wireless traffic service communication platform for cars

Rapidly changing weather conditions, especially in winter, have caused numerous disastrous traffic accidents in Northern Europe and in the Alpine region during recent years. Information about hazardous weather and road conditions is often potentially available but difficult or sometimes even impossible to deliver to drivers. This paper presents the international CARLINK (Wireless Platform for Linking Cars) project [1,2] of the Celtic Cluster Programme Call 3 whose aim was to develop an intelligent wireless traffic service platform between cars supported with wireless transceivers along the roads. The project was conducted between 2006 and 2008. The platform consisted of a specific set of services, however not only these but variety of other services can be integrated to this kind of a system. Two of the major services were real-time local road weather service and incident warning service. The real-time local road weather service is a solution where up-to-date local weather related information is being collected from cruising vehicles and then further delivered to other vehicles in the area. Incident warning service operates in the same manner, but concentrates to the parameters related to traffic incidents or accidents, and (depending on seriousness of the incident) delivers a warning of such events to the vehicles in the traffic network without delay. The ultimate goal was to develop an intelligent communication platform for vehicles so that they can deliver their own observations of traffic and weather conditions to the platform core. Vehicular networking is nowadays a widely studied research field, and a large number of suggestions for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications have been presented. The focus is typically on bilateral communication between two vehicles or on broadcasting information from one vehicle or infrastructure to vehicles in the surrounding area. The CARLINK project developed an intelligent hybrid wireless traffic service platform between cars supported with wireless base stations beside the road(s). Communication between the cars were arranged in an ad-hoc manner, supported with a wireless base station connection to the backbone network, whenever possible. The ultimate goal was to enhance traffic safety and smoothness, but also to generate completely new communication entity, allowing new types of applications, services and business opportunities. Not only the encountering cars and the infrastructure can broadcast data, but all the data can be delivered instantly over the communications network to all CARLINK-compliant vehicles. High impact and extreme weather generated challenges are increasing throughout the world, not least because of the climate change. CARLINK can truly contribute to meeting these challenges. The preliminary network simulations, communication tests and weather service prototypes have already shown that a new kind of wireless communication environment can be created and it is indeed capable of enhancing traffic safety.