Redes vehiculares aplicadas a la movilidad inteligente y sostenibilidad ambiental en entornos de ciudades inteligentes

Abstract

RESUMEN (en Inglés) In recent years, the society is experiencing a great technological revolution which, together with the emergence of wireless technologies and smaller devices, is leading to a great impulse in the creation of new services and applications for citizens. Within this revolution, communications networks have served to interconnect people and devices by forging the current Network Society. A few years ago, the term Smart City appeared. This concept is based on the proposal of new solutions that provide a city with services designed to improve the lives of citizens and favor the development of a city as a whole. In this area, the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) have led to an important rise in the development of new technological proposals applied to the world of transport. Within the ITS, the concept of vehicular networks arose (Vehicular Ad-hoc NETworks - VANET). This type of wireless network is capable of communicating vehicles and infrastructure to provide certain services. At present, such networks are in the sights of technological developments due to the expected number of applications and services that can contribute to the world of driving and society in general. Simulation is a fundamental tool in the study of the behavior of vehicular networks. In view of the high cost of devices that implement dedicated standards for VANET networks, such as IEEE 802.11p, and the road safety risks involved in the deployment of this type of network, simulation becomes essential for the creation and implementation of new solutions. In this sense, this PhD Thesis performs a thorough review of the existing tools used for the simulation of vehicular networks, proposing a case study applied on the exchange of video in this type of environments. As a result, the integration of three simulators to carry out the video exchange is presented, obtaining an acceptable rate of information transmitted by the vehicles and evaluating the feasibility of the proposal. The mobility is one of the most important aspects in the deployment of vehicular networks. In this sense, one of the main contributions of this PhD Thesis is the creation of a smart mobility plan based on fuzzy logic and vehicular communications which is able to determine when a traffic jam occurs in the city, allowing vehicles to adopt alternative routes. The results of this proposal achieve a reduction of pollutant emissions of up to 12.27%, leading to an improvement of environmental sustainability in the city through the adoption by vehicles of alternative routes in order to reach their destination. One of the problems posed by simulated studies is the achievement of truthful results. Due to the simulation, erroneous conclusions can be drawn which require a real deployment to confirm that the data obtained in the simulation are correct and representative. Considering the high cost of this type of deployment, one of the objectives of the PhD Thesis was to carry out a real deployment through the use of technologies accessible to citizens. At this point, it was decided to develop an application that uses Wi-Fi Direct (technology available in the majority of current smartphones), to detect possible traffic jams or retentions in the city and capable of communicating with other devices. The actual tests were carried out with two vehicles that incorporated the application. The results of this type of evaluation were satisfactory in terms of the existing possibility of carrying out vehicular communications using technologies accessible to the general public, giving a clear example of a system that can help improve mobility in the city. Once the actual study was carried out, the problem arose about the usability of devices on vehicles that provide information services in the vehicular networks. For this purpose, this PhD Thesis proposes the evaluation of two types of systems that provide information to the driver. First, systems with HDD (Head-Down Display) type screens, which are devices with opaque (conventional) screens, were evaluated. A possible solution to the problem posed by this type of screens was also studied, as it is necessary to look away from the road in order to see the screen. For this reason, it was decided to incorporate a HUD (Head-Up Display) device that contains a transparent screen and can be located in the visual field of driving in order to be able to view information about the context in which the vehicle is moving. The results obtained are encouraging and verify the great acceptance and usability that this sort of systems of information visualization has among users. In the line of environmental sustainability, it was proposed by the research group in which this thesis is developed that the networks of mobile vehicles could be a possible solution for the measurement of environmental pollution. Accordingly, an environmental monitoring service was installed in public transport (buses, waste collection vehicles, etc.), capable of measuring environmental pollution in the city. The main problem that we faced was how to represent this kind of information to make it understandable for the general public. For this reason, it was decided to carry out a subjective test on methods to represent information of this type. The results revealed the most appropriate representations of pollution, as well as the devices on which to visualize them and the types of data of most interest to the different groups of users. As we can see, this PhD Thesis proposes an extensive study on vehicle network environments and their inclusion in a Smart City environment, emphasizing the theme of smart mobility and environmental sustainability, without forgetting the technology necessary for the real implementation of new solutions, with the focus firmly on both improving transport in the city and the quality of life of citizens. Keywords: Vehicular Networks, Smart Mobility, Environmental Sustainability, Smart City.