A Gis-Based Tool For Optimizing C-Its Communication Infrastructure

A GIS-based tool has been developed which estimates and visualizes the coverage from communication infrastructures providing C-ITS services to the road network. The purpose of this tool is to help operators and decision makers design and optimize the communication infrastructure required to support requirements for future C-ITS services. The tool has been constructed as a QGIS plugin, estimating received signal levels along road segments at given locations for roadside units and base stations. It can also estimate where roadside units and base stations should be placed in order to provide optimal coverage for the nearby road network. The communication systems included in the tool are cellular systems (2G/3G/4G), Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN, e.g. LoRa) and ITS-G5. Input parameters include the GPS coordinates of roadside units and base stations, transmitted and received antenna heights, operating frequency, and layers in QGIS that provide both terrain and vegetation information as well as road links. Estimates from the plugin have been compared to measurements of received signal levels for ITS-G5 and 4G communication and have been shown to be relatively accurate.