Project: #383 Bringing Connected Vehicle Communications to Unlicensed Spectrum Progress Report - Reporting Period Ending: Sept. 30, 2022 Principal Investigator: Jon Peha Status: Active Start Date: July 1, 2022 End Date: June 30, 2023 Research Type: Advanced Grant Type: Research Grant Program: FAST Act - Mobility National (2016 - 2022) Grant Cycle: 2022 Mobility21 UTC Progress Report (Last Updated: Sept. 27, 2022, 6:48 a.m.) % Project Completed to Date: 25 % Grant Award Expended: 25 % Match Expended & Document: 25 USDOT Requirements Accomplishments The objective of this project is to explore spectrum management approaches that would make it possible to support the communications needs of connected vehicles despite the fact that the Federal Communication Commission reduced the spectrum available for this purpose by 60%, thereby creating spectrum scarcity. More specifically, we are developing methods that would allow vehicles and roadside infrastructure to make effective use of the unlicensed band that is adjacent to the Intelligent Transportation Services (ITS) band, thereby once again giving vehicles a much larger and contiguous block of spectrum. One of our accomplishments has been to identify a range of possible modifications to the C-V2X protocol that we hypothesize would allow for more efficient sharing between connected vehicles and unlicensed devices such as Wi-Fi. A second accomplishment is to make great progress on developing software that will allow us to simulate both existing technologies and novel variations to see how well they operate. We are currently simulating highway scenarios, in which all cars move in one direction along a long highway, with unlicensed devices on both sides, to see how well both C-V2X devices on the highway and unlicensed devices near the highway perform when operating in the same spectrum. This project has provided opportunities for professional development to a recent graduate of a Ph.D. program, who is now working as a postdoctoral fellow. The PI of this project is also teaching a graduate course at Carnegie Mellon that presents material from this research project. 45 students are enrolled in this class. In the next reporting period, we will continue developing our simulation software, and we will continue using that software to experiment with novel spectrum sharing techniques. We will produce results that help us assess whether and under what circumstances our new approach to C-V2X can allow both C-V2X devices and Wi-Fi devices to achieve good quality of service while sharing the same spectrum band. We will also continue providing professional development opportunities to one postdoctoral fellow and to many students. Impacts We have made progress on a novel approach that would allow connected vehicles to effectively use unlicensed spectrum while maintaining adequate quality of service. We believe that when that approach has been more fully assessed, it will constitute a valuable contribution to C-V2X technology and to spectrum policy, especially when those results are disseminated to spectrum policymakers. This research is intended to support informed decisions by policymakers on spectrum decisions related to connected vehicles. In the U.S., those decisions ultimately fall to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In 2022, the PI of this project joined the Technological Advisory Council (TAC) of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He is an active member of the subcommittee of the TAC that the FCC has tasked with investigating the future communications needs of connected vehicles. Thus, he is able to disseminate ideas by participating in private discussions among TAC committee members and FCC staff that occur every week, and public discussions that occur a few times per year. Other We made progress in the invention of a novel way for intelligent transportation systems to make effective use of unlicensed spectrum in a way that meets the quality of service objectives for connected vehicles, the quality of service objectives for unlicensed devices such as Wi-Fi, and the desires of spectrum regulators to improve spectrum efficiency. Outcomes New Partners None Issues None