Wireless communication between vehicles, the infrastructure and attached backend systems forms the basis for the next generation of so called Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The use of bidirectional transmission systems enables the realization of innovative cooperative applications for improving traffic efficiency and road safety and supporting a large variety of convenience applications in connected vehicles.

A nationwide, sustainable, inter-fleet, and geographically independent adoption of ITS requires the use of complementary, hybrid communication systems based on an open, modular, and extendable communication architecture.

In order to prepare the realization of hybrid communication systems for ITS applications, an analysis with concluding, quantitative assessment of adequate communication standards should be provided within this research study.

Coverage of the street network with a single communication standard is difficult to provide. Hence, it is beneficial to combine cellular systems like 3GPP LTE Rel. 8 at 2.6GHz and ad-hoc systems like ETSI ITS G5 at 5.9GHz in a hybrid approach. Additionally, new frequencies become available at 700-800 MHz by means of the digital dividend that are also very well suited for vehicular communications.