A Framework for Performance Evaluation of Communication Alternatives for Intelligent Transportation Systems

The communications infrastructure is critical for effective and efficient operation of intelligent transportation system (ITS) functions. Relatively large investments from the public sector are usually required to construct and maintain or provide leasing fee to private telecommunication companies for such infrastructure. Consequently, a rigorous analysis and evaluation of communication alternatives is of utmost importance. This research sought to develop a systematic framework and associated platform that will facilitate the evaluation of the communication alternatives for ITS. The framework includes identifying alternative architectures, such as distributed, centralized, or a combination of both, and identifying communication mediums including wired, wireless, or a combination of both. This article presents, as a part of the framework, important measures of effectiveness (MOE) for making objective comparisons between alternatives based on the performance of the communication systems related to ITS. A simulation platform that integrated a traffic and communication simulator was used for efficiently evaluating communication alternatives with different architecture and mediums by generating important MOEs. A case study was performed for a test network in Greenville, South Carolina. The proposed evaluation framework identified four communication alternatives, namely, the centralized wired, distributed wired, centralized wireless, and distributed wireless, to generate the selected MOEs, such as throughput, delivery ratio, and throughput cost ratios, for comparing and analyzing these alternatives.