A Multi-Scale Spatiotemporal Perspective of Connected and Automated Vehicles: Applications and Wireless Networking

TL;DR

This paper analyzes wireless communication technologies for connected and automated vehicles, categorizing applications by spatiotemporal scale to determine suitable communication methods like V2V or cellular.

Contribution

It introduces a multi-scale spatiotemporal framework to evaluate and match CAV applications with appropriate wireless communication technologies.

Findings

V2V best supports small-scale, safety-critical applications.

Cellular networks are suitable for large-scale, long-duration applications.

Heterogeneous communication resources can support medium-to-large scale applications.

Abstract

Wireless communication is a basis of the vision of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). Given the heterogeneity of both wireless communication technologies and CAV applications, one question that is critical to technology road-mapping and policy making is which communication technology is more suitable for a specific CAV application. Focusing on the technical aspect of this question, we present a multi-scale spatiotemporal perspective of wireless communication technologies as well as canonical CAV applications in active safety, fuel economy and emission control, vehicle automation, and vehicular infotainment. Our analysis shows that CAV applications in the regime of small spatiotemporal scale communication requirements are best supported by V2V communications, applications in the regime of large spatiotemporal scale communication requirements are better supported by cellular communications, and applications in the regime of small spatial scale but medium-to-large temporal scale can be supported by both V2V and cellular communications and provide the opportunity of leveraging heterogeneous communication resources.