Wireless Communications Enabling Smart Mobility: Results from the Project PEGASUS

Wireless communications for real time traffic information are considered to efficiently provide smart mobility in congested cities. In this work, we aim at summarizing objectives the results of the Italian project PEGASUS, where wireless communications have been exploited, in real time, to: i) acquire traffic information directly from vehicles (uplink) and ii) retransmit updated information to interested vehicles (downlink) after a proper processing at a control center. Specifically we focus on i) the uplink collection of data from vehicles through the universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), ii) the downlink transmission of updated information to vehicles through UMTS, iii) the cellular resource saving through the exploitation of short range communications based on wireless access in vehicular environment (WAVE)/IEEE 802.11p, and iv) the impact of updated information on travel time. Results are provided through the development of an integrated simulation platform that jointly takes into account vehicular traffic behavior in urban environment, data processing at the control center, and performance of the communication networks at the different layers of the protocol pillar.