Preliminary Comparison of Empirical Performance Between DSRC and CV2X for Emergency Response Applications

Emergency response services rely on optimizing response times to be effective, necessitating priority on the road. However, current techniques involving non-adaptive traffic control systems can be dangerous and inefficient. Automating ERV prioritization using V2X technology can enhance response times and improve safety during emergencies. To this end, this paper empirically compared two competing V2X technologies, DSRC and C-V2X, in terms of latency, RSSI, and reliability in the context of emergency response applications such as ERV prioritization. These performance metrics were evaluated across highway and urban environments, as well as LOS and NLOSv link states, varying separation distance between a simulated ERV and traffic control infrastructure that actuates ERV prioritization. Preliminary findings suggest that DSRC outperforms C-V2X across all metrics, demonstrating its advantage for automating emergency response applications, particularly ERV prioritization.