An Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is an application or service aimed at advancing transportation safety, mobility, and environmental sustainability to enhance productivity. Key characteristics of ITS technologies are the integration of communication and electronic sensing into transportation infrastructure and vehicles. Additionally, ITS applications are becoming increasingly dependent on the use of many connected sensors (Internet-of-Things – IoT) to produce vast amounts of historical data (big data) to learn and model physical phenomena and gain new insights.

The future Smart City hold the promise of having connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) which can be shared to reduce congestions, pollution, and free travel-time for other tasks. While much progress has been made in the last 10 years since the DARPA Grand Challenge, there are still many technical challenges with respect to CAV penetration rate and coordination with human drivers, the effects of wide deployment of electric vehicles on the electric grid, and safe control for the variety of natural life situations.

The last focus area, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, is a necessity for advanced mobility applications as it provides seamless communication between all participants. Significant efforts have been devoted to the 802.11p DSRC protocol (specifically designed for ad hoc deployment without infrastructure and designed with low-latency for safety) and the C-V2X protocol (which operates with the addition of the 5G cellular-network). Low-cost, multi-protocol, and secure communication is essential for the next generation of Smart Cities.