Vehicular communication networks are essential to the development of intelligent navigation systems and improvement of road safety. Unlike most terrestrial networks of today, vehicular networks are characterized by stringent reliability and latency requirements. In order to design efficient networks to meet these requirements, it is important to understand the system-level performance of vehicular networks. Stochastic geometry has recently emerged as a powerful tool for the modeling and analysis of wireless communication networks. However, the canonical spatial models such as the 2D Poisson point process (PPP) does not capture the peculiar spatial layout of vehicular networks, where the locations of vehicular nodes are restricted to roadways. Motivated by this, we consider a doubly stochastic spatial model that captures the spatial coupling between the vehicular nodes and the roads and analyze the performance of vehicular communication networks. We model the spatial layout of roads by a Poisson line process (PLP) and the locations of nodes on each line (road) by a 1D PPP, thereby forming a Cox process driven by a PLP or Poisson line Cox process (PLCP). In this dissertation, we develop the theory of the PLCP and apply it to study key performance metrics such as coverage probability and rate coverage for vehicular networks under different scenarios. First, we compute the signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR)-based success probability of the typical communication link in a vehicular ad hoc network (VANET). Using this result, we also compute the area spectral efficiency (ASE) of the network. Our results show that the optimum transmission probability that maximizes the ASE of the network obtained for the Cox process differs significantly from that of the conventional 1D and 2D PPP models. Second, we calculate the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR)-based downlink coverage probability of the typical receiver in a vehicular network for the cellular network model in which each receiver node connects to its closest transmitting node in the network. The conditioning on the serving node imposes constraints on the spatial configuration of interfering nodes and also the underlying distribution of lines. We carefully handle these constraints using various fundamental distance properties of the PLCP and derive the exact expression for the coverage probability. Third, building further on the above mentioned works, we consider a more complex cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) communication network in which the vehicular nodes are served by roadside units (RSUs) as well as cellular macro base stations (MBSs). For this setup, we present the downlink coverage analysis of the typical receiver in the presence of shadowing effects. We address the technical challenges induced by the inclusion of shadowing effects by leveraging the asymptotic behavior of the Cox process. These results help us gain useful insights into the behavior of the networks as a function of key network parameters, such as the densities of the nodes and selection bias. Fourth, we characterize the load on the MBSs due to vehicular users, which is defined as the number of vehicular nodes that are served by the MBS. Since the limited network resources are shared by multiple users in the network, the load distribution is a key indicator of the demand of network resources. We first compute the distribution of the load on MBSs due to vehicular users in a single-tier vehicular network. Building on this, we characterize the load on both MBSs and RSUs in a heterogeneous C-V2X network. Using these results, we also compute the rate coverage of the typical receiver in the network. Fifth and last, we explore the applications of the PLCP that extend beyond vehicular communications. We derive the exact distribution of the shortest path distance between the typical point and its nearest neighbor in the sense of path distance in a Manhattan Poisson line Cox process (MPLCP), which is a special variant of the PLCP. The analytical framework developed in this work allows us to answer several important questions pertaining to transportation networks, urban planning, and personnel deployment. / Doctor of Philosophy / Vehicular communication networks are essential to the development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and improving road safety. As the in-vehicle sensors can assess only their immediate environment, vehicular nodes exchange information about critical events, such as accidents and sudden braking, with other vehicles, pedestrians, roadside infrastructure, and cellular base stations in order to make critical decisions in a timely manner. Considering the time-sensitive nature of this information, it is of paramount importance to design efficient communication networks that can support the exchange of this information with reliable and high-speed wireless links. Typically, prior to actual deployment, any design of a wireless network is subject to extensive analysis under various operational scenarios using computer simulations. However, it is not viable to rely entirely on simulations for the system design of highly complex systems, such as the vehicular networks. Hence, it is necessary to develop analytical methods that can complement simulators and also serve as a benchmark. One of the approaches that has gained popularity in the recent years for the modeling and analysis of large-scale wireless networks is the use of tools from stochastic geometry. In this approach, we endow the locations of wireless nodes with some distribution and analyze various aspects of the network by leveraging the properties of the distribution. Traditionally, wireless networks have been studied using simple spatial models in which the wireless nodes can lie anywhere on the domain of interest (often a 1D or a 2D plane). However, vehicular networks have a unique spatial geometry because the locations of vehicular nodes are restricted to roadways. Therefore, in order to model the locations of vehicular nodes in the network, we have to first model the underlying road systems. Further, we should also consider the randomness in the locations of vehicles on each road. So, we consider a doubly stochastic model called Poisson line Cox process (PLCP), in which the spatial layout of roads are modeled by random lines and the locations of vehicles on the roads are modeled by random set of points on these lines. As is usually the case in wireless networks, multiple vehicular nodes and roadside units (RSUs) operate at the same frequency due to the limited availability of radio frequency spectrum, which causes interference. Therefore, any receiver in the network obtains a signal that is a mixture of the desired signal from the intended transmitter and the interfering signals from the other transmitters. The ratio of the power of desired signal to the aggregate power of the interfering signals, which is called as the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), depends on the locations of the transmitters with respect to the receiver. A receiver in the network is said to be in coverage if the SIR measured at the location of the receiver exceeds the required threshold to successfully decode the message. The probability of occurrence of this event is referred to as the coverage probability and it is one of the fundamental metrics that is used to characterize the performance of a wireless network. In our work, we have analytically characterized the coverage probability of the typical vehicular node in the network. This was the first work to present the coverage analysis of a vehicular network using the aforementioned doubly stochastic model. In addition to coverage probability, we have also explored other performance metrics such as data rate, which is the number of bits that can be successfully communicated per unit time, and spectral efficiency. Our analysis has revealed interesting trends in the coverage probability as a function of key system parameters such as the density of roads in a region (total length of roads per unit area), and the density of vehicles on the roads. We have shown that the vehicular nodes in areas with high density of roads have lower coverage than those in areas with sparsely distributed roads. On the other hand, the coverage probability of a vehicular node improves as the density of vehicles on the roads increases. Such insights are quite useful in the design and deployment of network infrastructure. While our research was primarily focused on communication networks, the utility of the spatial models considered in these works extends to other areas of engineering. For a special variant of the PLCP, we have derived the distribution of the shortest path distance between an arbitrary point and its nearest neighbor in the sense of path distance. The analytical framework developed in this work allows us to answer several important questions pertaining to infrastructure planning and personnel deployment.

Automobile accidents are one of the leading causes of death and claim more than 40,000 lives annually in the US alone. A substantial portion of these accidents occur at road intersections. Stop signs and traffic signals are some of the intersection control devices used to increase safety and prevent collisions. However, these devices themselves can contribute to collisions, are costly, inefficient, and are prone to failure. This thesis proposes an adaptive, decentralized, cooperative collision avoidance (CCA) system that optimizes each vehicle's controls subject to the constraint that no collisions occur. Three major contributions to the field of collision avoidance have resulted from this research. First, a nonlinear 5-state variable vehicle model is expanded from an earlier model developed in [1]. The model accounts for internal engine characteristics and more realistically approximates vehicle behavior in comparison to idealized, linear models. Second, a set of constrained, coupled Extended Kalman Filters (EKF) are used to predict the trajectory of the vehicles approaching an intersection in real-time. The coupled filters support decentralized operation and ensure that the optimization algorithm bases its decisions on good, reliable estimates. Third, a vehicular network based on the new WAVE standard is presented that provides cooperative capabilities by enabling intervehicle communication. The system is simulated against today's common intersection control devices and is shown to be superior in minimizing average vehicle delay. / Master of Science

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are a subclass of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) in which the mobile nodes are vehicles; these vehicles are autonomous systems connected by wireless communication on a peer-to-peer basis. They are self-organized, self-configured and self-controlled infrastructure-less networks. This kind of network has the advantage of being able to be set-up and deployed anywhere and anytime because it has no infrastructure set-up and no central administration. Distributing information between these vehicles over long ranges in such networks, however, is a very challenging task, since sharing information always has a risk attached to it especially when the information is confidential. The disclosure of such information to anyone else other than the intended parties could be extremely damaging, particularly in military applications where controlling the dissemination of messages is essential. This thesis therefore provides a review of the issue of security in VANET and MANET; it also surveys existing solutions for dissemination control. It highlights a particular area not adequately addressed until now: controlling information flow in VANETs. This thesis contributes a policy-based framework to control the dissemination of messages communicated between nodes in order to ensure that message remains confidential not only during transmission, but also after it has been communicated to another peer, and to keep the message contents private to an originator-defined subset of nodes in the VANET. This thesis presents a novel framework to control data dissemination in vehicle ad hoc networks in which policies are attached to messages as they are sent between peers. This is done by automatically attaching policies along with messages to specify how the information can be used by the receiver, so as to prevent disclosure of the messages other than consistent with the requirements of the originator. These requirements are represented as a set of policy rules that explicitly instructs recipients how the information contained in messages can be disseminated to other nodes in order to avoid unintended disclosure. This thesis describes the data dissemination policy language used in this work; and further describes the policy rules in order to be a suitable and understandable language for the framework to ensure the confidentiality requirement of the originator. This thesis also contributes a policy conflict resolution that allows the originator to be asked for up-to-date policies and preferences. The framework was evaluated using the Network Simulator (NS-2) to provide and check whether the privacy and confidentiality of the originators’ messages were met. A policy-based agent protocol and a new packet structure were implemented in this work to manage and enforce the policies attached to packets at every node in the VANET. Some case studies are presented in this thesis to show how data dissemination can be controlled based on the policy of the originator. The results of these case studies show the feasibility of our research to control the data dissemination between nodes in VANETs. NS-2 is also used to test the performance of the proposed policy-based agent protocol and demonstrate its effectiveness using various network performance metrics (average delay and overhead).

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are a hot topic in the intelligent transport system (ITS) area. The introduction of wireless communications between vehicles will enable many useful applications to enhance road traffic safety as well to increase efficiency. The standardization of IEEE 802.11p, being an amendment to IEEE 802.11 intended for VANETS, faces many challenges. In Europe a 30 MHz spectrum at 5.9 GHz have been dedicated for ITS and this spectrum has to be used to its full potential. For this reason this thesis compares a 20 MHz wide frequency channel with a 10 MHz wide through measurements using 802.11p hardware. The measurements were conducted on a highway with relative speeds of up to 240 km/h. The results from these initial measurements show that a 20 MHz channel does not perform worse than a 10 MHz channel despite the high relative speeds and large metal signs scattering the signals. What enabled this thesis to do the measurements was Halmstad University‟s participation in the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC) 2011. In GCDC nine teams mostly from Europe competed in having the vehicle that had the best behaviour in a platoon of vehicles using cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC), the CACC algorithm controlled the vehicles‟ acceleration and breaking autonomously based on in-vehicle sensors and communicated messages between the vehicles in the platoon using 802.11p. This thesis implemented the communication part of Halmstad University‟s vehicle. The challenge was held in Helmond, Holland, May 14-15, 2011. Halmstad University‟s team finished in second place. / CoAct

Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) est un réseau conceptuel construit sur des réseaux physiques existantes. Il se sert des données détectées et fournit des services de connaissances à quiconque, n'importe où et à tout moment, et où l'information est générée en utilisant la sensibilité au contexte. Dispositifs et USN portables intelligents émergent rapidement en offrant de nombreux services fiables facilitant la vie des gens. Ces petits terminaux et terminaux très utiles besoin d'un substrat de communication globale pour fournir un service complet de l'utilisateur final global. En 2010, ITU -T a fourni les exigences pour supporter des applications et services USN dans le Next Generation Network (NGN) de l'environnement d'exploiter les avantages du réseau de base. L'un des principaux marchés prometteurs pour l'application et les services USN est la e- santé. Il fournit le suivi des patients en continu et permet une grande amélioration dans les services médicaux. D'autre part, des Véhicules Ad-hoc NETwork (VANET) est une technologie émergente qui permet une communication intelligente entre les véhicules mobiles. Intégrer VANET avec USN a un grand potentiel pour améliorer la sécurité routière et la fluidité du trafic. La plupart des applications VANET sont appliqués en temps réel et ils sont sensibles à retarder, en particulier ceux liés à la sécurité et à la santé. Dans ce travail, nous proposons d'utiliser l'IP Multimédia Subsystem (IMS) comme une sous- couche de contrôle de service dans l'environnement USN fournir un substrat mondiale pour un service complet de bout en bout. De plus, nous vous proposons d'intégrer VANETs avec USN pour des applications et des installations riches plus, ce qui facilitera la vie des humains. Nous avons commencé à étudier les défis sur la route pour atteindre cet objectif / Ubiquités Sensor Network (USN) is a conceptual network built over existing physical networks. It makes use of sensed data and provides knowledge services to anyone, anywhere and at anytime, and where the information is generated by using context awareness. Smart wearable devices and USNs are emerging rapidly providing many reliable services facilitating people life. Those very useful small end terminals and devices require a global communication substrate to provide a comprehensive global end user service. In 2010, the ITU-T provided the requirements to support USN applications and services in the Next Génération Network (NGN) environment to exploit the advantages of the core network. One of the main promising markets for the USN application and services is the e-Health. It provides continuous patients’ monitoring and enables a great improvement in medical services. On the other hand, Vehicular Ad-Hoc NETwork (VANET) is an emerging technology, which provides intelligent communication between mobile vehicles. Integrating VANET with USN has a great potential to improve road safety and traffic efficiency. Most VANET applications are applied in real time and they are sensitive to delay, especially those related to safety and health. In this work, we propose to use IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as a service controller sub-layer in the USN environment providing a global substrate for a comprehensive end-to-end service. Moreover, we propose to integrate VANETs with USN for more rich applications and facilities, which will ease the life of humans. We started studying the challenges on the road to achieve this goal

Dans le cadre du développement des innovations dans les Systèmes de Transport Intelligents, les véhicules connectés devront être capables de télécharger des informations basées sur la position sur et depuis des serveurs distants. Ces véhicules seront équipés avec des différentes technologies d’accès radio, telles que les réseaux cellulaires ou les réseaux véhicule-à-véhicule (V2V) comme IEEE 802.11p. Les réseaux cellulaires, avec une couverture presque omniprésente, fournissent un accès à internet avec garanties de qualité de service. Cependant, l’accès à ces réseaux est payant. Dans cette thèse, un algorithme de clustering multi-saut est proposé avec pour objectif de réduire le coût d’accès au réseau cellulaire en agrégeant des données sur le réseau V2V. Pour faire ceci, le leader du cluster (CH, de l’anglais Cluster Head) est utilisé comme passerelle unique vers le réseau cellulaire. Pour le test d’une application d’exemple pour télécharger du Floating Car Data agrégé, les résultats des simulations montrent que cette approche réduit l’utilisation du réseau cellulaire de plus de 80%, en s’attaquant à la redondance typique des données basées sur la position dans les réseaux véhiculaires. Il y a une contribution en trois parties : Premièrement, une approche pour déléguer la sélection du CH à la station de base du réseau cellulaire afin de maximiser la taille des clusters, et par conséquent le taux de compression. Deuxièmement, un algorithme auto-adaptatif qui change dynamiquement le nombre maximum de sauts afin de maintenir un équilibre entre la réduction des coûts d’accès au réseau cellulaire et le taux de perte de paquets dans le réseau V2V. Finalement, l’incorporation d’une théorie de la justice distributive, afin d’améliorer l’équité sur la durée concernant la distribution des coûts auxquels les CH doivent faire face, améliorant ainsi l’acceptabilité sociale de la proposition. Les algorithmes proposés ont été testés via simulation, et les résultats montrent une réduction significative dans l’utilisation du réseau cellulaire, une adaptation réussie du nombre de sauts aux changements de la densité du trafic véhiculaire, et une amélioration dans les métriques d’équité, sans affecter la performance des réseaux. / For the development of innovative Intelligent Transportation Systems applications, connected vehicles will frequently need to upload and download position-based information to and from servers. These vehicles will be equipped with different Radio Access Technologies (RAT), like cellular and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technologies such as LTE and IEEE 802.11p respectively. Cellular networkscan provide internet access almost anywhere, with QoS guarantees. However, accessing these networks has an economic cost. In this thesis, a multi-hop clustering algorithm is proposed in the aim of reducing the cellular access costs by aggregating information and off-loading data in the V2V network, using the Cluster Head as a single gateway to the cellular network. For the example application of uploading aggregated Floating Car Data, simulation results show that this approach reduce cellular data consumption by more than 80% by reducing the typical redundancy of position-based data in a vehicular network. There is a threefold contribution: First, an approach that delegates the Cluster Head selection to the cellular base station in order to maximize the cluster size, thus maximizing aggregation. Secondly, a self-adaptation algorithm that dynamically changes the maximum number of hops, addressing the trade-off between cellular access reduction and V2V packet loss. Finally, the incorporation of a theory of distributive justice, for improving fairness over time regarding the distribution of the cost in which Cluster Heads have to incur, thus improving the proposal’s social acceptability. The proposed algorithms were tested via simulation, and the results show a significant reduction in cellular network usage, a successful adaptation of the number of hops to changes in the vehicular traffic density, and an improvement in fairness metrics, without affecting network performance.

La dissémination d’information dans les réseaux VANET est une opération fondamentale pour la sécurité routière. Il est dès lors nécessaire de concevoir et mettre en oeuvre des algorithmes efficaces et adaptatifs pour la dissémination d’informations sélectives et pertinentes.Dans ce travail, des approches Bio-inspirées sont proposées, à partir des comportements auto-organisés des essaims comme les colonies de fourmis et d’abeilles. Ces approches visent à fournir à chaque véhicule des informations en provenance de son environnement et alerter les conducteurs. Dans la première approche, le système de communication direct et indirect des fourmis est utilisé. Les fourmis partagent les informations sur les sources de nourriture avec des membres de la colonie en sécrétant la phéromone sur leurs chemins. La deuxième approche est inspirée par le système de communication des abeilles. Les abeilles partagent les informations à propos des sources de nourriture avec les autres membres de la ruche par des messages spécifiques, selon l’importance de ces sources.Une nouvelle mesure de "pertinence" associée aux messages est définie, par analogie à la sécrétion des phéromones des fourmis et au niveau de l’intensité des messages pour les abeilles, pour disséminer des informations de sécurité dans une zone géographique. Les simulations sont effectuées en utilisant le simulateur NS2 pour mesurer l’efficacité des approches proposées sous différentes conditions, en particulier en termes de densités et vitesses des véhicules. / Information dissemination in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) is a fundamental operation to increase the safety awareness among vehicles on roads. Thus, the design and implementation of efficient and scalable algorithms for relevant information dissemination constitutes a major issue that should be tackled.In this work, bio-inspired information dissemination approaches are proposed, that use self-organization principles of swarms such as Ant and Honey Bee colonies. These approaches are targeted to provide each vehicle with the required information about its surrounding and assist drivers to be aware of undesirable road conditions. In the first approach, Ant’s direct and indirect communication systems are used. Ants share information about food findings with colony members by throwing pheromone on the returning to the nest. The second, an RSU-based approach is inspired by the Bee communication system. Bees share profitable food sources with hive-mates in their hive by specific messages.A “relevance” value associated to the emergency messages is defined as an analogue to pheromone throwing in Ant colony, and as an analogue to profitability level in Bee colony, to disseminate safety information within a geographical area. Simulations are conducted using NS2 network simulator and relevant metrics are evaluated under different node speeds and network densities to show the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.

No description available.

<p>This licentiate thesis work investigates two medium access control (MAC) methods, when used in traffic safety applications over vehicular <em>ad hoc</em> networks (VANETs). The MAC methods are carrier sense multiple access (CSMA), as specified by the leading standard for VANETs IEEE 802.11p, and self-organizing time-division multiple access (STDMA) as used by the leading standard for transponders on ships. All vehicles in traffic safety applications periodically broadcast cooperative awareness messages (CAMs). The CAM based data traffic implies requirements on a predictable, fair and scalable medium access mechanism. The investigated performance measures are <em>channel access delay</em>, <em>number of consecutive packet drops</em> and the <em>distance between concurrently transmitting nodes</em>. Performance is evaluated by computer simulations of a highway scenario in which all vehicles broadcast CAMs with different update rates and packet lengths. The obtained results show that nodes in a CSMA system can experience <em>unbounded channel access delays</em> and further that there is a significant difference between the best case and worst case channel access delay that a node could experience. In addition, with CSMA there is a very high probability that several <em>concurrently transmitting nodes are located close to each other</em>. This occurs when nodes start their listening periods at the same time or when nodes choose the same backoff value, which results in nodes starting to transmit at the same time instant. The CSMA algorithm is therefore both <em>unpredictable</em> and <em>unfair</em> besides the fact that it <em>scales badly</em> for broadcasted CAMs. STDMA, on the other hand, will always grant channel access for all packets before a predetermined time, regardless of the number of competing nodes. Therefore, the STDMA algorithm is <em>predictable</em> and <em>fair</em>. STDMA, using parameter settings that have been adapted to the vehicular environment, is shown to outperform CSMA when considering the performance measure <em>distance between concurrently transmitting nodes</em>. In CSMA the distance between concurrent transmissions is random, whereas STDMA uses the side information from the CAMs to properly schedule concurrent transmissions in space. The price paid for the superior performance of STDMA is the required network synchronization through a global navigation satellite system, e.g., GPS. That aside since STDMA was shown to be scalable, predictable and fair; it is an excellent candidate for use in VANETs when complex communication requirements from traffic safety applications should be met.</p>

Throughout the last decade, vehicle localization has been attracting significant attention in a wide range of applications, including Navigation Systems, Road Tolling, Smart Parking, and Collision Avoidance. To deliver on their requirements, these applications need specific localization accuracy. However, current localization techniques lack the required accuracy, especially for mission critical applications. Although various approaches for improving localization accuracy have been reported in the literature, there is still a need for more efficient and more effective measures that can ascribe some level of accuracy to the localization process. These measures will enable localization systems to manage the localization process and resources so as to achieve the highest accuracy possible, and to mitigate the impact of inadequate accuracy on the target application. In this thesis, a framework for fusing different localization techniques is introduced in order to estimate the location of a vehicle along with location integrity assessment that captures the impact of the measurement conditions on the localization quality. Knowledge about estimate integrity allows the system to plan the use of its localization resources so as to match the target accuracy of the application. The framework introduced provides the tools that would allow for modeling the impact of the operation conditions on estimate accuracy and integrity, as such it enables more robust system performance in three steps. First, localization system parameters are utilized to contrive a feature space that constitutes probable accuracy classes. Due to the strong overlap among accuracy classes in the feature space, a hierarchical classification strategy is developed to address the class ambiguity problem via the class unfolding approach (HCCU). HCCU strategy is proven to be superior with respect to other hierarchical configuration. Furthermore, a Context Based Accuracy Classification (CBAC) algorithm is introduced to enhance the performance of the classification process. In this algorithm, knowledge about the surrounding environment is utilized to optimize classification performance as a function of the observation conditions. Second, a task-driven integrity (TDI) model is developed to enable the applications modules to be aware of the trust level of the localization output. Typically, this trust level functions in the measurement conditions; therefore, the TDI model monitors specific parameter(s) in the localization technique and, accordingly, infers the impact of the change in the environmental conditions on the quality of the localization process. A generalized TDI solution is also introduced to handle the cases where sufficient information about the sensing parameters is unavailable. Finally, the produce of the employed localization techniques (i.e., location estimates, accuracy, and integrity level assessment) needs to be fused. Nevertheless, these techniques are hybrid and their pieces of information are conflicting in many situations. Therefore, a novel evidence structure model called Spatial Evidence Structure Model (SESM) is developed and used in constructing a frame of discernment comprising discretized spatial data. SESM-based fusion paradigms are capable of performing a fusion process using the information provided by the techniques employed. Both the location estimate accuracy and aggregated integrity resultant from the fusion process demonstrate superiority over the employing localization techniques. Furthermore, a context aware task-driven resource allocation mechanism is developed to manage the fusion process. The main objective of this mechanism is to optimize the usage of system resources and achieve a task-driven performance. Extensive experimental work is conducted on real-life and simulated data to validate models developed in this thesis. It is evident from the experimental results that task-driven integrity assessment and control is applicable and effective on hybrid localization systems.