Overview
The Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Program definition of connected vehicles includes both 5.9 Gigahertz (GHz) Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) and non-DSRC technologies as means of facilitating communication for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) applications. Non-DSRC technologies (e.g. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular communication) enable use of existing commercial infrastructure for additional capacity support, but may not meet the low-latency needs of transmitting safety-critical information.
DSRC is a two-way wireless communications protocol suite that integrates the IEEE 802.11, 1609.x standards, SAE J2735, and SAE J2945. The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) is pursuing DSRC because of its low-latency and high-reliability performance that can be used to reduce fatalities through active safety applications, including collision avoidance, incident reporting and management, emergency response, and pedestrian safety. Furthermore, DSRC supports the close-range communication requirements to distribute Signal Phase and Timing (SPaT) information for intersection-based applications and localized roadway warnings. This document will set the requirements for roadside units (RSU) capable of acting as a network edge device for 5.9GHz DSRC infrastructure.