Maneuver Coordination for CAVs: ITS-G5 Channel and Service Performance Evaluation

Currently, Cooperative Awareness is being introduced to evermore commercially available vehicles, and Collective Perception is in the final phase of standardization to be ready as next step (Day 2) of vehicular Cooperative-Intelligent Transportation Systems. Afterwards (Day 3), Maneuver Coordination will be a key functionality for Connected Automated Vehicles. It will enable them to exchange planned trajectories and actively cooperate via Maneuver Coordination Messages (MCMs). Our study presented in this paper analyzes the capacity and performance of an ITS-G5 communication channel employed to exchange these messages, varying a set of different parameters. One of Europe’s most frequented highway intersections was modeled for the simulations, including realistic traffic patterns. Generic channel-centric metrics show that substantial channel loads can be caused, both by existing messages and by the MCM, such that multiple channels are required to host all services - depending on parameterization. New metrics specific to Maneuver Coordination, such as the Manuver Coordination Time, show a sufficient service performance even in a resource-constraint environment. However, it degrades quickly with increasing channel loads. The study provides insights on what to expect from Maneuver Coordination for researchers, engineers and regulators on both ends of the communication stack.