CONVAS: Connected Vehicle Assessment System for Realistic Co‐simulation of Traffic and Communications

This chapter describes the connected vehicle assessment system (CONVAS), which flexibly integrates a traffic simulator with a communication simulator, providing an ideal platform for co‐simulating transportation system applications. Its communication models can be tuned based on real‐world measurements in scenarios such as urban, residential and highway traffic. The platform can be used to test, validate and assess vehicular communications under a variety of operating traffic and communication conditions and settings. The chapter reviews research related to co‐simulation of traffic and wireless communications, realistic channel models and current challenges. CONVAS channel models were tuned based on data collected during the Michigan safety pilot model deployment (SPMD), a research initiative that featured real‐world implementation of connected vehicle (CV) safety technologies, applications and systems using everyday drivers. The chapter also describes and presents results with an application called intelligent dilemma zone avoidance (IDZA) to demonstrate the use of the CONVAS platform for testing applications.