Wireless backhauling in Intelligent Transportation Systems

The deployment of more sustainable land transportation is a non-debatable global issue. It is generally agreed that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will play the role of the main enabler to achieve the ambitious objective of improving transportation efficiency, thus reducing pollution, time and resource wastage, and accidents. In this paper we first discuss the general architecture of the ICT infrastructure for the new generation of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs). Then, we focus on the data network for transferring information between the devices that are installed road-side and in the vehicles, and the data center where the actual storage and logic resides. Specifically, the state-of-the-art on wireless technologies that can be used to this purpose is reviewed, and one solution is investigated in details by also providing results from preliminary laboratory trials showing its effectiveness in practical scenarios.