Piloting cybersecure and interoperable cellular C-ITS services

C-ITS stands for Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems, which enable ITS-stations to interact and cooperate by exchanging secured and trusted messages. There are two channels for exchanging these messages: long-range utilizing commercial cellular networks and short-range using direct communication. In Europe, ITS-G5 technology has been most used short-range technology, but recently 3GPP's C-V2X has emerged as a potential alternative.
The objectives of this study were divided into three sections. 1) Deploy and demonstrate EU-wide EU CCMS system, 2) Test and demonstrate the operation of C-V2X (LTE-V2X) technologies defined by 3GPP, and 3) Investigate the applicability and compatibility of C-Roads platform specifications together with C-V2X technologies. To achieve these objectives, C-Roads platform specified C-ITS service was implemented at a traffic-light controlled intersection.
The test intersection was equipped with an LTE-V2X capable Road Side Unit (RSU) that could directly communicate with a vehicle equipped with an LTE-V2X On Board Unit (OBU). C-ITS messages from the Traffic Light Controller were simultaneously transmitted to both the RSU and the Tampere C-ITS Node (TLEX platform). From the Tampere C-ITS Node, messages were distributed to a mobile application through Nodeon Finland’s C-ITS service provider back-end system. The communication between RSU and OBU was secured using ETSI certificates issued by a Root Certificate Authority included in the EU CCMS.
Tests were conducted to study and evaluate the performance of short-range communication together with long-range communication. These tests examined factors such as security and overall latency. Results from these tests indicated that the latencies were in the same range for both communication methods. However, long-range communication did not include the signing of messages, leaving potential effects resulting from out of these results.
Based on the results, conclusions and recommendations are provided both for C-ITS station operators and authorities.
The LTE-V2X technology used is expected to have a relatively short lifetime as it is being replaced with NR-V2X technology. In the future, the deployment of C-ITS will require a transition to security level 2 of EU CCMS, creating requirements for C-ITS station operators and devices. One of these requirements will be ISO 27001 compliance.
The results indicated that both short- and long-range communication solutions provided a well-functioning platform for informative C-ITS applications. Each of these solutions had its own unique set of advantages and disadvantages. The
large-scale deployment of short-range C-ITS stations would require physical installations, ongoing maintenance, and active operation by the responsible party. As for long-range solutions, the next phases of the development of connected and automated driving may generate a demand for guaranteed quality of communication, a feature not currently provided by best-effort mobile networks.
To ensure the interoperability and compatibility of C-ITS services across Europe, it is important that Finnish authorities in the future work even more closely within the joint initiative of European Member States and road operators, C-Roads.