Cooperative Intelligent Transport System Pilot in Finland Revealed a 90–98 Percent Success Rate in the Delivery of Safety Messages at a Transmission Frequency of 10 Hz.
Finnish Study Evaluated the Impact of Deploying C-ITS Communications.
Sodankylä
Deployment and Analysis of Cooperative Intelligent Transport System Pilot Service Alerts in Real Environment
Summary Information
Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS)1 use vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication to enable real-time data exchange that improves safety and reduces congestion. C-ITS platforms can provide real-time data exchanges, helping drivers navigate safely, avoid hazards, and reduce congestion. This study was conducted on a 1.7 km (~1.06 mi) test track in Sodankylä, Finland. This study site included roadside infrastructure such as Road Weather Stations (RWIS), roadside units (RSU), and vehicles equipped with sensors and onboard communication units (OBU). Tailored C-ITS pilot scenarios were developed that leveraged collected road weather and traffic data to generate critical safety alerts, such as emergency vehicle warnings, roadworks alerts, and general hazard notifications. The technology tested focused on the European ITS-G5 protocol, a standard for vehicular networks, operating in the 5.9 GHz band. ITS-G5 supports the reliable exchange of safety-critical messages between vehicles and infrastructure. The study aimed to evaluate how effectively ITS-G5 performed under various real-world conditions, providing insights to guide further development and deployment of C-ITS services.
METHODOLOGY
This study evaluated the deployment and performance of C-ITS pilot service alerts in a real-world environment using a structured, multi-phase methodology. The evaluation scope covered technical performance, system impact, user acceptance, demographic effects, and financial considerations. Data collection integrated quantitative measures (e.g., packet transmission rates, latency, throughput, and packet loss) and qualitative observations, obtained through controlled field experiments using equipped vehicles and roadside infrastructure at the Sodankylä test track. The analytical techniques combined technical assessments with qualitative evaluations of system trust and significance, guided by a comprehensive assessment framework.
While the study generated valuable insights into the functional capabilities and readiness of C-ITS systems, its findings were constrained by the geographic and environmental limits of the test track, the controlled nature of the scenarios, and the early-stage development of the technologies under investigation.
FINDINGS
- The ITS-G5 communication system achieved a 90-98 percent success rate in delivering safety messages (alerts) at a transmission frequency of 10 Hz, meeting the requirements for real-time C-ITS use cases.
- End-to-end latency remained within the required threshold of under 100 milliseconds, ensuring that real-time service alerts (e.g., emergency vehicle warnings, roadworks alerts, road weather warnings, hazard warnings) were delivered with minimal delay.
- The highest packet loss (6.14 percent) was observed in the roadworks warning at 27.49 km/h speed, while the lowest for this metric (3.31 percent) occurred for the road works warning at an average speed of 30.33 km/h.
1 In Europe, the term “C-ITS” refers to cooperative intelligent transport services and platforms governed by EU ITS policies and standards. C-ITS deployments typically rely on communication technologies such as ITS-G5 (the European implementation of IEEE 802.11p, operating in the 5.9 GHz band) or, increasingly, cellular V2X (C-V2X).
