Concept of Operations for CARMA Integrated Highway Prototype 2

Ma, Jiaqi; Leslie, Ed; Ghiasi, Amir; Rush, Kyle · 2022 · ROSA P / United States. Federal Highway Administration

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Summary

This document presents the Concept of Operations (ConOps) for the Integrated Highway Prototype 2 (IHP2), a project under the Federal Highway Administration’s Cooperative Driving Automation (CDA) program. The research addresses the need to advance cooperative automation strategies beyond the limitations of the previous Integrated Highway Prototype 1 (IHP1). While IHP1 focused on SAE Level 1 automation with longitudinal control and required 100% vehicle connectivity in managed lanes, IHP2 aims to support SAE Level 3 and above automated driving systems (ADS) in general-purpose freeway facilities. The primary motivation is to improve safety, traffic throughput, and energy efficiency by leveraging vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications to coordinate vehicle movements during recurring congestion. The IHP2 framework is built upon the open-source CARMA3 ecosystem, which integrates CARMA Platform, CARMA Cloud, and other tools to facilitate research and development. The operational concept centers on three key feature groups: Cooperative Lane Follow (CLF), which includes platooning and cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC); Cooperative Lane Coordination (CLC), encompassing cooperative lane changes, merges, and weaves; and Cooperative Traffic Management (CTM), involving speed and gap control, lane assignment, and queue management. Unlike IHP1, which relied on segment-based speed harmonization and dedicated managed lanes, IHP2 introduces more sophisticated tactical maneuvers, such as hierarchical platoon control and trajectory-based algorithms for merging areas. The design allows for cooperation among multiple participants, including non-automated entities via CARMA Messenger, and supports operations in mixed traffic environments rather than requiring exclusive managed lanes. The document outlines specific operational scenarios, including end-to-end CDA operations from freeway entry to exit and dedicated facility operations for early deployment. It details the infrastructure needs, such as roadside units connected to traffic management centers, and defines performance metrics for evaluating vehicle behavior and traffic performance. The analysis highlights potential benefits, including increased highway lane capacity through reduced following gaps in CACC systems and improved merging efficiency by minimizing disturbances to mainline traffic. The validation plan includes simulation testing and field testing to assess the system's impact on congestion reduction and infrastructure efficiency. The significance of this work lies in its transition from proof-of-concept demonstrations to a more comprehensive operational framework for cooperative driving automation. By expanding functionality to include lateral maneuvers and broader traffic management strategies, IHP2 provides a roadmap for deploying ADS technologies that leverage infrastructure to support cooperative automation. This approach aims to realize benefits for both individual travelers and the overall traffic system, even at lower market penetration rates, by concentrating equipped vehicles and optimizing their interactions through standardized, open-source tools. The document serves as a guide for stakeholders, including system developers, infrastructure operators, and researchers, to advance the integration of CDA technologies into the transportation network.

Key finding

The IHP2 concept integrates cooperative lane follow, coordination, and traffic management into a unified operational framework to enhance freeway safety and efficiency through vehicle-infrastructure collaboration.

Methodology

review

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• v2x connected vehicle
• traffic density

Information type

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• Methodological Resource: dataset resource