Cellular and DSRC approaches for vehicular traffic safety

Nearly half of the total number of vehicle crashes occurs at road intersections, leading to severe health and economic consequences. Technological innovations in the transport field are playing a significant role in the inversion of this trend, with the purpose of ceasing this type of accidents in the near future. Connected vehicles represent the pillar of vehicular safety applications, and their connection to the surroundings is a key element in the implementation of awareness among the actors of Intelligent Transport Systems networks. In the present day, two main technologies exist for the establishment of the communication in vehicular applications: the cellular technology and the WiFi-based one, and the debate to determine the best suited one is still open. In this thesis, the Long Term Evolution and the Dedicated Short Range Communication are tested singularly and combined for the communication of safety-related messages in a Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network (VANET). Their performances are evaluated in terms of the number of avoided collisions and the reliability of the system is assessed through the study of the false positive detections.