Performance-Cost Tradeoff of Using Mobile Roadside Units for V2X Communication.

Roadside unit (RSU) is a communication device for vehicular networks that provides vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) connectivity to nearby vehicles. It allows broadcasting of traffic and safety information, Internet connectivity, shared storage, advertisement, as well as supporting and enhancing vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication for future autonomous vehicles. However, high cost of its deployment and management has so far prevented RSUs from being used widely in practice despite its utility and importance. In this paper, we investigate the performance-cost tradeoff and viability of using buses as mobile RSUs (mRSUs). Although there have been some prior works that suggest the use of cars, public transportation, and controlled vehicles as mRSUs to address the cost problem of static RSUs (sRSUs), their assumptions were mostly rather idealistic. We aim to provide a more realistic view of the problem. Through real-world measurements, experiments, analysis, and simulation, we show how mRSUs can replace sRSUs while maintaining the same level of throughput, contact time, and inter-contact time. Our results provide a basis for judging whether it is beneficial to complement sRSUs with mRSUs depending on the deployment environment and cost-performance tradeoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]