Experimental Insights into UDP-Based Video and Control Traffic over IEEE 802.11p ITS-G5

2026-06-11

AI Summary

This study addresses the lack of systematic evaluation of UDP traffic performance over IEEE 802.11p ITS-G5 networks in real-world settings, particularly for low-latency vehicular applications such as cooperative driving and real-time video streaming. The authors construct an experimental platform using Raspberry Pi-based onboard units and commercial roadside units, uniquely integrating synthetic traffic with live MPEG-TS video streams to comprehensively assess the impact of modulation and coding schemes (MCS), IPv4 unicast versus IPv6 multicast configurations, and CAKE active queue management on latency and jitter. Results demonstrate that higher-order MCS significantly reduces both latency and jitter, while IPv6 multicast exhibits greater latency variability compared to IPv4 unicast. Network congestion amplifies the effects of transmission mode and IP version, and CAKE fails to enhance latency predictability under the tested conditions.

Abstract

Vehicular applications such as cooperative driving, teleoperation, and real-time perception increasingly rely on low-latency wireless communication. In this context, ITS-G5, based on IEEE 802.11p, represents a key technology for enabling direct vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. Despite its relevance, experimental studies focusing on the performance of UDP-based traffic over IEEE 802.11p under realistic conditions remain limited. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of UDP transmission over an IEEE 802.11p ITS-G5 testbed composed of Raspberry Pi-based onboard units and commercial roadside units. The analysis investigates the impact of different modulation and coding schemes (MCS). It also evaluates two network-layer configurations (IPv4 unicast and IPv6 multicast) and the use of CAKE for active queue management. In addition to synthetic traffic generated with iPerf, the evaluation includes real-time video streaming using MPEG-TS over UDP to emulate latency-sensitive vehicular applications. Results show that the modulation scheme is the dominant factor influencing latency at low traffic loads, while the choice of transmission mode and IP version becomes increasingly significant under congested conditions. Higher-order modulations significantly reduce latency and variability, whereas IPv6 multicast exhibits greater delay dispersion than IPv4 unicast. Furthermore, active queue management does not seem to improve delay predictability. These findings provide practical insights for configuring ITS-G5 networks supporting latency-sensitive vehicular services.

Problem

• UDP
• IEEE 802.11p
• ITS-G5
• vehicular communication
• latency

Innovation

• IEEE 802.11p
• ITS-G5
• UDP video streaming
• modulation and coding scheme
• active queue management