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SERIES EDITORIAL

TOPICS IN AUTOMOTIVE NETWORKING AND APPLICATIONS

Wai Chen Luca Delgrossi Timo Kosch Tadao Saito

I n this 10th issue of the Automotive Networking and

Applications Series, we are pleased to present three arti-
cles that address important aspects of intervehicle commu-
Intervehicle distance and radio transmission range,
among other things, have major impact on network con-
nectivity in VANETs. Since intervehicle distances random-
nications (IVC), including simulation methodology for ly vary on roadways, statistical analysis is often used to
IVC evaluations, connectivity analysis for vehicular ad hoc estimate the connectivity probability in VANET given a
networks (VANETs), and robust beaconing strategy for radio transmission range. The second article, “Effects of
cooperative roadway safety applications. Intervehicle Spacing Distributions on Connectivity of
Cooperative vehicular systems are envisioned to VANET: A Case Study from Measured Highway Traffic”
improve traffic efficiency and roadway safety through time- by L. Cheng and S. Panichpapiboon, presents an analysis
ly and reliable information exchanges among vehicles, and of measured highway traffic on Highway I-80 in California
between vehicles with infrastructures. Given the nature of and points out that a popular distribution assumed in
vehicle applications and the large number of connected many connectivity studies is a poor choice that can lead to
objects and related parameters (vehicle mobility, radio significant connectivity overestimation errors under most
propagations, roadway traffic, networking and information road traffic conditions. The authors describe in detail the
dissemination, etc.), a primary tool to investigate coopera- statistical analysis methodology used, and highlight that
tive vehicular systems is computer-based simulations. The generalized-extreme-value (GEV) distributions can cap-
credibility of such simulations has therefore become cen- ture light to modest road traffic conditions, whereas the
trally important for the research community to assess and exponential distributions can only capture very light traffic
compare technologies and applications. The first article, conditions. The authors then present extensive results on
“Toward Reproducibility and Comparability of IVC Simu- connectivity probability estimation to demonstrate that
lation Results — A Literature Survey” by S. Joerer et al., exponential distributions can significantly overestimate,
proposes an initial set of building blocks that need to be while GEV distributions produce accurate estimates. Fur-
specified for setting up simulation-based performance eval- thermore, the authors discuss several hourly periods of the
uations in order to help make the evaluation results both measured highway traffic that cannot be “fit” with either
comparable and reproducible. The authors survey a large type of distribution. The article concludes with a discussion
body of recent publications in the IEEE and ACM confer- of open technical challenges, including traffic models and
ences on vehicular networking; and they show, based on connectivity analysis in urban situations and vehicle net-
their survey, the significant progress over recent years in works that employ the store-carry-and-forward packet dis-
terms of simulation tools, communications standards and semination strategy.
their models, road traffic and vehicle mobility models, and In cooperative vehicular systems, vehicles exchange
use case scenarios. The survey also reveals, however, a dis- information such as their current positions, speeds, and
turbing situation that a substantial number of simulation headings, among others, in order to become aware of
studies still have key information missing. The authors other vehicles in the neighborhood. Such information
stress that all parts of the used models and tools need to exchanges are carried out through the use of beacon mes-
be described in sufficient detail; otherwise, different stud- sages, which are transmitted using wireless communica-
ies may end up comparing apples and oranges. The article tions among vehicles. How to exchange the beacon
concludes with a set of five core aspects that define vehicu- messages in a timely and reliable manner in the noisy
lar communication simulations, and calls on the vehicular roadway wireless environment is an important technical
networking community to develop standard use case sce- challenge. The third article, “Beaconing as a Service: A
narios that should be used for simulation evaluations. Novel Service-Oriented Beaconing Strategy for Vehicular

80 IEEE Communications Magazine • October 2012

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SERIES EDITORIAL

Ad Hoc Networks” by R. Lasowski and C. Linnhoff-Popi- Globecom, and the Vice Chair of Technical Program Committee for Vehicu-
lar Communications of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (IEEE VTC
en, introduces a service-oriented multichannel beaconing Spring 2009).
strategy that dynamically controls the beacon rate and uti-
lizes multiple channels in parallel in order to improve vehi- LUCA DELGROSSI is manager of the Vehicle-Centric Communications Group
at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America Inc., Palo Alto,
cle safety communication performance. More specifically, California. He started as a researcher at the International Computer Sci-
the authors propose to distinguish two safety-related phas- ence Institute (ICSI) of the University of California at Berkeley and received
his Ph.D. in computer science from the Technical University of Berlin, Ger-
es — a collision detection phase (with expected low proba- many. He served for many years as professor and associate director of the
bility of packet loss) and a collision avoidance phase (with Centre for Research on the Applications of Telematics to Organizations
higher probability of packet loss) — in designing safety and Society (CRATOS) of the Catholic University at Milan, Italy, where he
helped create and manage the Master’s in Network Economy (MiNE) pro-
communication protocols. A request-and-response proto- gram. In the area of vehicle safety communications, he coordinated the
col is then proposed that aims to reduce the broadcast Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) Radio and On-Board
beaconing rate during the collision detection phase, where- Equipment work orders to produce the DSRC specifications and build the
first prototype DSRC equipment as part of the Vehicle Infrastructure Inte-
as during the collision avoidance phase, the protocol gration (VII) initiative of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Mer-
enables lost beacons to be requested (on the control chan- cedes-Benz team in Palo Alto is a recognized leader in the R&D of
vehicle-to-infrastructure as well as vehicle-to-vehicle communications safe-
nel) and then forwarded on a service channel between the ty systems.
requesting vehicle and a vehicle that has the beacon. After
specifying the beacon service protocol, the authors discuss TIMO KOSCH works as a team manager for BMW Group Research and Tech-
nology where he is responsible for projects on distributed information sys-
simulation evaluation results that show significant perfor- tems, including such topics as cooperative systems for active safety and
mance improvements in safety communications — espe- automotive IT security. He has been active in a number of national and
cially in high traffic density situations. The article international research programs and serves as coordinator for the European
project COMeSafety, co-financed by the European Commission. He’s also
concludes with a comprehensive discussion of major open currently heading the system development for a large German Car2X field
technical challenges. test. For more than 3 years, until recently, he had chaired the working
group Architecture and was a member of the Technical Committee of the
We thank all contributors who submitted manuscripts Car-to-Car Communication Consortium. Mr. Kosch studied Computer Sci-
for this series, as well as all the reviewers who helped with ence and Economics at Darmstadt University of Technology and at the Uni-
thoughtful and timely reviews. We thank Dr. Steve Gor- versity of British Columbia in Vancouver with scholarships from the German
National Merit Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service. He
she, Editor-in-Chief, for his support, guidance, and sugges- received his Ph.D. from the computer science faculty of the Munich Univer-
tions throughout the process of putting together this issue. sity of Technology.
We also thank the IEEE publication staff, particularly Ms.
TADAO SAITO [LF] received a Ph. D degree in electronics from the University
Jennifer Porcello, for their assistance and diligence in of Tokyo in 1968. Since then he has been a lecturer, an associate professor
preparing the issue for publication. and a professor at the University of Tokyo, where he is now a professor
emeritus. Since April 2001 he is chief scientist and CTO of Toyota InfoTech-
nology Center, where he studies future ubiquitous information services
BIOGRAPHIES around automobiles. He has worked in a variety of subjects related to digi-
WAI CHEN ([email protected]) received his B.S. degree from Zhejiang Uni- tal communication and computer networks. His research includes a variety
versity, and M.S., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, of communication networks and their social applications such as ITS.
New York. While at Telcordia (formerly known as Bellcore), he led a vehicu- Included in his past study, in the 1970s he was a member of the design
lar communications research program over 10 years (since 2000) in collabo- group of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area Traffic Signal Control System
ration with a major automaker on automotive networking technologies for designed to control 7000 intersections under the Tokyo Police Authority.
vehicle safety and information applications. He was Principal Investigator of Now he is chairman of the Ubiquitous Networking Forum of Japan working
several government funded projects on advanced networking technologies on a future vision of the information society. He is also chairman of the
research. He was the General Co-Chair for the IEEE Vehicular Networking Next Generation IP Network Promotion Forum of Japan. He wrote two
Conference (IEEE VNC 2009–2012) and a Guest Editor for Special Issue on books on electronic circuitry, four books on computers, and two books on
Vehicular Communications and Networks for the IEEE Journal on Selected digital communication and multimedia. From 1998 to 2002 he was chair-
Areas in Communications (2011). He has also served as a Guest Editor for man of the Telecommunication Business Committee of the Telecommunica-
Special Issue on Inter Vehicular Communication (IVC) for the IEEE Wireless tion Council of the Japanese government and contributed to regulatory
Communications Magazine (2006), the IEEE Distinguished Lecturer policy of telecommunication business for broadband network deployment
(2004–2006), the Co-Chair for Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications Work- in Japan. He is also the Japanese representative to the International Federa-
shop (IEEE V2VCOM 2005–2008) co-located at IEEE Intelligent Vehicles tion of Information Processing General Assembly and Technical Committee
Symposium, the Co-Chair for the IEEE Workshop on Automotive Network- 6 (Communication System). He is an honorary member and fellow of IEICE
ing and Applications (IEEE AutoNet 2006–2008) co-located with IEEE of Japan.

IEEE Communications Magazine • October 2012 81