Salvatore Iandolo

Antonio Solida, Giovanni Gambigliani Zoccoli, Gaetano Orazio Cauchi et al.

Safety applications in vehicle-to-everything communications and Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems rely on reliable and timely message exchange, which in turn depends on accurate modeling of wireless signal propagation. Simulation frameworks such as VEINS are widely adopted to design and evaluate such systems before deployment; however, their realism strongly depends on the validity of the underlying channel and antenna models. This work presents an empirical validation of the VEINS simulator against real-world data collected from the MASA living laboratory. Using the default configuration, we compare Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), number of messages, and attenuation of the signal. The results show that VEINS systematically overestimates the RSSI value, while losing approximately 18% of the total number of messages received compared to the MASA, revealing inconsistencies between simulation and reality. The contribution of this study is a direct comparison between simulated and real world data, establishing a quantitative basis for future calibration of VEINS parameters to improve the fidelity of VANET simulations in C-ITS safety research.

Lorenzo Farina, Federico Gavioli, Salvatore Iandolo et al.

The automotive sector is following a revolutionary path from vehicles controlled by humans to vehicles that will be fully automated, fully connected, and ultimately fully cooperative. Along this road, new cooperative algorithms and protocols will be designed and field tested, which represents a great challenge in terms of costs. In this context, in particular, moving from simulations to practical experiments requires huge investments that are not always affordable and may become a barrier in some cases. To solve this issue and provide the community with an intermediate step, we here propose the use of 1:10 scaled cooperative, autonomous, and connected mini-cars. The mini-car is equipped with a Jetson Orin board running the open Robot Operating System 2 (ROS2), sensors for autonomous operations, and a Raspberry Pi board for connectivity mounting the open source Open Stack for Car (OScar). A key aspect of the proposal is the use of OScar, which implements a full ETSI cooperative-intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) compliant stack. The feasibility and potential of the proposed platform is here demonstrated through the implementation of a case study where the Day-1 intersection collision warning (ICW) application is implemented and validated.

Lorenzo Farina, Vittorio Todisco, Federico Gavioli et al.

Cooperative driving enabled by connected and automated vehicles is expected to improve traffic efficiency and safety, particularly at intersections where traditional control mechanisms such as traffic lights introduce delays and unnecessary stops. Although cooperative intersection management algorithms have been widely studied, experimental demonstrations remain limited. This paper presents a real-time demonstration of cooperative intersection management using connected autonomous mini-cars. The testbed consists of multiple 1:10 scale vehicles equipped with autonomous driving capabilities and wireless communication modules that interact with a centralized controller responsible for scheduling their crossing of the intersection. Vehicles approaching the intersection exchange messages with the controller to set the appropriate mobility profile to traverse the intersection without stopping. The demonstration integrates autonomous driving, wireless communication, and cooperative control in a single experimental platform, providing a practical environment for validating cooperative intersection management concepts for future intelligent transportation systems.

Antonio Solida, Gaetano Orazio Cauchi, Salvatore Iandolo et al.

Vehicular applications such as cooperative driving, teleoperation, and real-time perception increasingly rely on low-latency wireless communication. In this context, ITS-G5, based on IEEE 802.11p, represents a key technology for enabling direct vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. Despite its relevance, experimental studies focusing on the performance of UDP-based traffic over IEEE 802.11p under realistic conditions remain limited. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of UDP transmission over an IEEE 802.11p ITS-G5 testbed composed of Raspberry Pi-based onboard units and commercial roadside units. The analysis investigates the impact of different modulation and coding schemes (MCS). It also evaluates two network-layer configurations (IPv4 unicast and IPv6 multicast) and the use of CAKE for active queue management. In addition to synthetic traffic generated with iPerf, the evaluation includes real-time video streaming using MPEG-TS over UDP to emulate latency-sensitive vehicular applications. Results show that the modulation scheme is the dominant factor influencing latency at low traffic loads, while the choice of transmission mode and IP version becomes increasingly significant under congested conditions. Higher-order modulations significantly reduce latency and variability, whereas IPv6 multicast exhibits greater delay dispersion than IPv4 unicast. Furthermore, active queue management does not seem to improve delay predictability. These findings provide practical insights for configuring ITS-G5 networks supporting latency-sensitive vehicular services.

Marco Savarese, Gaetano Orazio Cauchi, Salvatore Iandolo et al.

This paper presents a measurement-based performance evaluation of two custom Smart Roadside Units (SmartRSUs) featuring different V2X antenna architectures. The first configuration integrates GNSS and communication antennas into an all-in-one rooftop module, whereas the second uses external dual ITS-G5 (IEEE 802.11p) antennas operating at 5.9~GHz and a dedicated GNSS antenna. Both systems are built upon a proprietary On-Board Unit (OBU) platform adapted for infrastructure deployment. The experimental campaign evaluates key V2X communication metrics, including coverage, received signal strength indicator (RSSI), packet loss, and end-to-end latency in both transmission (OBU-to-infrastructure) and reception (infrastructure-to-OBU) directions. To ensure objective validation, a commercial off-the-shelf V2X Roadside Unit is co-located on the same infrastructure and used as a performance benchmark, providing ground-truth reference measurements under identical environmental conditions through a controlled co-located deployment. Results highlight the impact of antenna design and placement on communication reliability and latency, revealing trade-offs between integrated and external antenna configurations in real-world deployment scenarios. The findings provide practical insights for the design and optimization of next-generation SmartRSUs in cooperative intelligent transportation systems (C-ITS).

Gaetano Orazio Cauchi, Antonio Solida, Salvatore Iandolo et al.

Remote driving has gained increasing attention as a key enabler for connected and automated vehicles. Yet its practical deployment hinges on wireless networks' ability to guarantee low, predictable latency. In this paper, we present an extensive latency analysis of ITS-G5 and cellular (5G) technologies within the Modena Automotive Smart Area (MASA), a real-world, city-scale testbed equipped with a distributed intelligent transportation infrastructure. By conducting controlled experiments under varying network loads and traffic conditions, we measure network and end-to-end latency components relevant to remote driving, in which the uplink consists of a continuous video stream transmitted from the vehicle to the remote operator, and the downlink conveys control commands back to the car. Measurements conducted under diverse conditions reveal how latency and variability differ across the two technologies and how infrastructure coverage impacts video-stream transmission performance. Based on the observed latency distributions and reliability metrics, we assess the practical feasibility and safety margins of remote driving in mixed network environments. The results provide actionable insights for future teleoperation deployments and motivate hybrid communication strategies that combine the strengths of ITS-G5 and cellular networks.