C-V2X Applications for a 5G network testbed exploiting OpenAirInterface framework and Multi-Access Edge Computing

5G Next Generation networks are envisioned as means to offer a wide range of services, with many different requirements, to final users. New cellular communication systems are configuring not just as a simple enhancement of the broadband mobile network service available nowadays, but as the key for future integration and continuity of technologies and industrial sectors traditionally disjointed. This revolution opens the door, for new players like the Vertical industries, to telecommunication market and apply new business models, as opportunity for new incomes. A network of services, managed by several Mobile Network Operators (MNO) and Verticals, is going to be built upon a common physical infrastructure, thanks to Virtualization of network resources and Softwarization of network functions (SDN/NFV). Two 5G pillars will be exploited to meet these tight requirements: network slicing and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC). Network slicing helps 5G in the difficult task to reduce costs, managing all the resources efficiently. MEC enables very low latency services, nowadays impossible, but still mandatory for many future applications. Automotive Vertical, one of the most invested sector by this revolution, with connected cars and the ever-increasing level of automation is ready to enter definitely the mobile network environment. Several associations are born to support them in the deployment and management processes, in order to better meet their costumers’ needs: car safety and infotainment. 5G-Transformer (5G-T) project is an initiative launched in 2017 by one of these associations, called 5G Private Public Partnership (5GPPP). 5G-T is aimed at supporting needs of main Vertical industries in the evolution of mobile communication networks towards a more flexible and scaling SDN and NFV based transport and communication infrastructure. This Thesis project, developed in collaboration between Politecnico di Torino, Centro Ricerche FIAT and other European players, is part of 5G-T. The objective is demonstrating C-V2X communication, namely V2X communication based on proto-5G cellular network, between two applications, developed in C++ programming language. The exploited mobile network architecture is based on OpenAirInterface (OAI), an open-access framework that provides 3GPP standard-compliant implementation of LTE Release 10, on a standard Linux-based computing equipment. The former application, acting as a vehicle is named OAICodeCar (OAICC). OAICC is capable of interfacing either with a vehicle CAN bus and with GPS receiver or to a SUMO simulator file, extracting mobility-related values, used to construct ETSI CAM messages. The latter, called OAICodeCAlert (OAICA), behaving as Road Side Unit collecting CAM messages, is an ETSI DENM generator. The two applications have been designed to communicate and cooperate. They communicate transmitting and receiving messages. They cooperate saving log files of transmitted and received information and computing statistical analysis of the traffic flow over the network where they have been installed. The results of this Thesis is the core part of the Automotive demonstrator and shall represent a valuable starting point for the next phases of the project.