The possibilities and challenges of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication (V2X communication) have been being researched for several years already. A popular means allowing for sufficient flexibility in the investigations whilst maintaining a relatively high level of detail is the simulation of such networks, which must take both the traffic as well as communication aspects into account. The simulation framework Veins developed at the chair has already proven to be a successful tool.
Recently, there is a growing tendency going beyond simple communication between vehicles. Under the keyword connected mobility, researchers summarize communication between diverse road users as well as with infrastructure or buildings, as expected in the near future. In this context, road users can be conventional passenger cars and utility vehicles, but also autonomous vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists. Especially in metropolitan areas evolving into smart cities, complex traffic and communication scenarios will have to be managed frequently.
In order to be able to investigate such situations already today, conventional V2X simulation has to be extended accordingly. Besides the consideration of various types of road users, it is necessary to develop new channel models that can realistically depict the three-dimensional character of complex scenarios in modern smart cities with limited computational effort. To ensure correct results the new simulation models should be validated with the help of appropriate field tests. Furthermore, the investigation of the influence of autonomous vehicles requires the consideration of algorithms from the field of artificial intelligence (AI). To this end, it is also conceivable to use similar AI methods at the level of the simulation core itself, e.g. in order to reduce the computational effort of complex simulation scenarios.