Lessons Learned from the Real-world Deployment of a Connected Vehicle Testbed

The connected vehicle (CV) system promises unprecedented safety, mobility, environmental, economic and social benefits, which can be unlocked using the enormous amount of data shared between vehicles and infrastructure (e.g., traffic signals, centers). Real-world CV deployments including pilot deployments help solve technical issues and observe potential benefits, both of which support the broader adoption of the CV system. This study focused on the Clemson University – Connected Vehicle Testbed (CU-CVT) with the goal of sharing the lessons learned from the CU-CVT deployment. The motivation of this study was to enhance early CV deployments with the objective of depicting the lessons learned from the CU-CVT testbed, which includes unique features to support multiple CV applications running simultaneously. The lessons learned in the CU-CVT testbed are described at three different levels: i) the development of system architecture and prototyping in a controlled environment, ii) the deployment of the CU-CVT testbed, and iii) the validation of the CV application experiments in the CU-CVT. Our field experiments with a CV application validated the functionalities needed for running multiple diverse CV applications simultaneously under heterogeneous wireless networking, and real-time and non-real-time data analytics requirements. The unique deployment experiences, related to heterogeneous wireless networks, real-time data aggregation, a distribution using broker system and data archiving with big data management tools, gained from the CU-CVT testbed, could be used to advance CV research and guide public and private agencies for the deployment of CVs in the real world.