開發一個高品質的IEEE 802.11p 及IEEE 1609 車輛無線網路模擬系統

Abstract

智慧型運輸系統是一個正在快速興起的產業，很多專家學者都看好它會成 為台灣的第三個產值超過兆元的產業。美國及世界其他很多先進國家也都看好 這個產業，都正在積極投入人力及資金進行研發。車輛無線網路（vehicular wireless networks）是近幾年來剛興起且非常熱門的研究領域，目的就在於 利用車輛之間的短距無線通訊網路來達成智慧型運輸系統所要達成的種種目 標及建造出各式各樣有用的應用服務。被此新穎車輛無線網路所致能的應用有 非常多種。目前專家學者將它們歸類為（一）車輛及行人安全應用（二）道路 及交通資訊應用、及（三）一般資訊及娛樂應用。希望能利用車輛無線網路科 技來實現這些應用以達成造福人群的目的。 有鑑於這種新網路的重要性，IEEE society 已經成立 802.11p working group 來制訂適合這種網路的通訊協定及系統。802.11p 通訊協定標準是以 802.11a 通訊協定標準為基礎，其上再依據車輛無線網路的種種獨特性質而做 修正及增加新功能。除了 802.11p 及 802.11a，IEEE society 已經制定了 IEEE 1609 通訊協定標準的草案。IEEE 1609 包含 1609.1, 1609.2, 1609.3, 1609.4 四個子標準，分別處理車輛無線網路在通訊協定堆內各層的問題，這些層包含 實體層、媒體存取控制層、網路層、傳輸層、應用層及網路安全的種種議題。 由於車輛無線網路是一個非常新的網路，目前市場上無任何產品可供實驗 進行研究，因此開發一個能模擬此類網路的軟體網路模擬器是非常重要。這是 因為若能有一個高品質的此類網路模擬器，很多為此類網路所設計的新穎通訊 協定設計及應用服務就可在此模擬器上進行功能驗證及效能評估。除此之外， 由於不用去租借多部車輛及購買多套硬體網路設備、且不用同時召集多人一起 進行實驗，模擬研究的成本也比真實道路實驗小很多。另外從安全上來考量， 模擬研究也比在路上進行真實實驗來的更加安全。總之，為此類新穎的車輛無 線網路開發一個高品質的網路模擬器是一件非常重要且有價值的工作。 在這個所提持續三年的研究計畫中，第一年我們將著重於開發 802.11p、 802.11a 及 802.11g 模擬系統。第二年，我們將著重於開發 IEEE 1609.1， 1609.2，1609.3 及1609.4 模擬系統，第三年我們將著重於開發道路網路的模 擬及符合真實世界車流運動行為的車輛行為模擬。由於這些通訊協定標準都 非常複雜完整，預計開發這些模擬系統的工作份量都很大。另外各模擬模組 開發完後尚須要經過嚴謹繁複耗時的validation 及 verification 程序其 模擬結果的正確性才能被信賴，因此預計各年度的研究工作份量都會相當吃 重。除此之外，由於這些模擬子系統最後需要整合在一起，它們之間的整合、 整合測試、及除錯預期也會相當地費時費力。 開發一個高品質車輛無線網路模擬器需要長期的研究投入，由於其對於研 究此一新穎的網路是非常重要且不可或缺， 因此本計畫預計用三年的時間來 持續開發此一重要研究工具。

Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is a fast-growing industry, many researchers and experts think that it will become the third billion-level industry of Taiwan. The united states and many other advanced countries in the world also think that this is an important industry and are spending human effort, time, and money on this important industry. Vehicular wireless networks (VWN) has become a novel and very popular research field in recent years. Its goal is to use short-range wireless communication network technology to achieve the many goals of ITS and build various useful applications and services. It is envisioned that VWM can enable many different applications and services. Nowadays, experts divide these applications into three categories: (1) safety application; (2) road and traffic information application, and (3) Internet information and entertainment application. It is hoped that VWN can enable these applications to improve the quality of human＇s lives. Because VWN is very important and promising, the IEEE society has formed the 802.11p working group to define network protocols and systems suitable for such a network. 802.11p is based on 802.11a standard and then it is modified or added new functions to suit the special needs of VWN. In addition to 802.11p and 802.11a, the IEEE society has defined IEEE 1609 standard draft for VWN. IEEE 1609 consists of 1609.1, 1609.2, 1609.3 and 1609.4 sub-standards, each addresses various issues at the physical layer, MAC layer, network layer, transport layer, and application layer. Security issues are also handled in 1609 standard. Because VWN is a very new type of network, there are no products available on the market for doing its experiments. As such, developing a high-quality network simulator for such a new network is extremely important and useful. This is because if we can have such a network simulator, many network protocols, applications, and services developed for VWN can be evaluated on this network simulator to see their performances under various network conditions and configurations. In addition, because now there is no need to rent many cars and buy many network equipments and hire many people together to do the experiments on the road, the cost of simulation of VWN will be much less than that of real experiments of VWN on the road. From the researchers＇ safety concerns, simulation of VWN is also much safer than conducting real experiments on the road. In summary, developing a high-quality network simulator for VWN is a very important and valuable project. In this proposed three-year project, we plan to develop the simulation subsystem of 802.11p, 802.11a, and 802.11g in the first year. In the second year, we plan to develop the simulation subsystem of IEEE 1609.1, 1609.2, 1609.3 and 1609.4. In the third year, we plan to develop the simulation subsystem of road networks and vehicles that moves realistically mimicking human＇s driving behavior. Because these protocol standards are all very complex and complete, it is expected that it will take tremendous human effort and time to develop these simulation subsystems. In addition, after these simulation subsystems have been developed, they still need to go through serious and thorough verification and validation processes to make sure that their results can represent the results achieved in the real world. This will also be a tremendous work. As such, it is expected that the research workload of each of the planned three-years will be very high. Because finally these simulation subsystems need to be integrated together to form a complete VWN simulation system, it is also expected that the human effort and time spent on these integrations will be quite high. Developing a high-quality network simulator for VWN need much research effort and time. But because such a network simulator is so indispensible for studying VWN, in this project we plan to spend three years to develop such a high-quality network simulator.