This book presents cutting-edge work on
the most challenging research issues concerning intelligent transportation
systems (ITS), introducing selected, highly relevant advanced research on
scheduling and real-time communication for vehicular networks, as well as fault
tolerance, test beds and simulations for ITS. The authors define new
architectures that support cooperative sensing in ITS and offer guidance for
the development of a reference end-to-end implementation. The presented results
allow advanced traffic and travel management strategies to be formulated on the
basis of reliable and real-time input data. The effectiveness of these new
strategies, together with the proposed systems, is assessed in field trials and
via simulations.

The chapters in this book detail new
research findings, algorithms, protocols, and the development of an
implementation platform for ITS that merges and integrates heterogeneous data
sources into a common system. In addition, they provide a set of advanced tools
for the control, monitoring, simulation, and prediction of traffic that result
in safer, more sustainable, and less congested roads. 

Work undertaken within the framework of the
FP7 project ICSI (Intelligent Cooperative Sensing for Improved traffic
efficiency) is also included in the research activities addressed.