Evaluation of Push and Pull Communication Models on a VANET with Virtual Traffic Lights

Oscar Gama,Joao Simoes,Fabio Goncalves,Joaquim Macedo,Antonio Costa,Maria João Nicolau,Alexandre Santos,Bruno Dias,Bruno Ribeiro

doi:10.3390/info11110510

Abstract

It is expected in a near future that safety applications based on vehicle-to-everything communications will be a common reality in the traffic roads. This technology will contribute to improve the safety of vulnerable road users, for example, with the use of virtual traffic light systems (VTLS) in the intersections. This work implements and evaluates a VTLS conceived to help the pedestrians pass safely the intersections without real traffic lights. The simulated VTLS scenario used two distinct communication paradigms—the pull and push communication models. The pull model was implemented in named data networking (NDN), because NDN uses natively a pull-based communication model, where consumers send requests to pull the contents from the provider. A distinct approach is followed by the push-based model, where consumers subscribe previously the information, and then the producers distribute the available information to those consumers. Comparing the performance of the push and pull models on a VANET with VTLS, it is observed that the push mode presents lower packet loss and generates fewer packets, and consequently occupies less bandwidth, than the pull mode. In fact, for the considered metrics, the VTLS implemented with the pull mode presents no advantage when compared with the push mode.

Highlights

Statistics show that pedestrians are more vulnerable to accidents than other road users
The results shown represent the average values obtained after running 35 sets of simulations, simulations corresponds to 35 × (3 × 6) individual simulation runs, and 35 × 6 distinct pedestrians, where each set includes the notls, push, and pull test modes
The carcar trip distance is the distance ran ran by all cars, i.e., the summation of the individual car trip distances, in kilometers

Summary

Introduction

Statistics show that pedestrians are more vulnerable to accidents than other road users. In European Union, in 2016, 21% of all traffic fatalities were pedestrians [1]. Traffic signals play an important role to improve vulnerable road users (VRU) safety, because red lights stop cars at the intersections so that VRUs (pedestrians, bicyclists) can cross safely. Many intersections have no traffic light systems (TLS). There has been a significant increase in the number of connected devices on the public roads with the increase of connected vehicles. The use of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications is still expanding and improving, but in the future it will be certainly a common technology in the roads. It is expected that safety applications based on

Objectives

Results

Conclusion