T2 – Digital twins, Resources, and Innovative tools for Vehicular networks (DRIVE) Tutorial

Co-organizer: Francesco Linsalata, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Co-organizer: Eugenio Moro, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Co-organizer: Marco Rapelli, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Co-organizer: Francesco Raviglione, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Abstract: In the landscape of Intelligent Transportation Systems, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) increasingly rely on Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication and AI-driven decision-making. Designing, validating, and deploying such systems demands rigorous testing environments that combine simulation flexibility with the realism of emulation and field trials.

This tutorial presents open-source frameworks for simulating and emulating V2X systems, focusing on ms-van3t—a modular, multi-stack platform for virtual validation of vehicular communications.
Supporting realistic mobility, ETSI-compliant message stacks, and multiple radio access technologies, ms-van3t is ideal for large-scale, heterogeneous V2X testing.
A key innovation is the integration of the Sionna Ray Tracer, enabling accurate physical-layer modeling in complex urban settings. This extends ms-van3t beyond basic propagation models toward 3Daware channel simulations, laying the groundwork for realistic digital twin environments.

We also cover hybrid methodologies, including hardware-in-the-loop and dataset-in-the-loop approaches, using OScar (Open Stack for car)—a full ETSI-compliant C-ITS stack for vehicular field testing, runnable on Linux PCs and embedded On-Board Units. We demonstrate how OScar enables seamless integration between simulation and real hardware. Participants will engage in hands-on sessions using open datasets—such as mobility traces and 3D city models—to experiment with full-stack V2X setups and coexistence scenarios.

By uniting simulation, emulation, and hardware integration through interoperable open-source tools, this tutorial responds to the critical need for flexible yet realistic validation environments. It provides
a reproducible, extensible foundation for both academic research and industrial deployment of next-generation connected mobility systems.

Program:

• 14:00–14:15 → Welcome and Introduction
  Brief overview of the tutorial structure, goals, and expected outcomes.
• 14:15–14:45 → Session 1: Foundations of V2X Simulation and Emulation
  Introduction to the role of simulation and emulation in the CAV ecosystem, including key concepts in V2X communication, challenges of field testing, and the value of hybrid approaches.
• 14:45–15:30 → Session 2: Simulation Frameworks for Vehicular Networking
  Focus on the ms-van3t simulator: mobility integration with SUMO, support for multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs), such as IEEE 802.11p, LTE-V2X, NR-V2X. Discussion of standard-compliant modelling and reproducibility.
• 15:30–16 → Short Break
• 16–16:30 → Session 3: Full-Stack Integration and Digital Twin Concepts
  Presentation of an end-to-end emulation architecture that integrates physical-layer modelling, network stacks, and applications. Live demonstration and hands-on session of ns3-rt integrated with ms-van3t as a basic building block for vehicular communication digital twins.
• 16:30–17:15 → Session 4: Hands-On Demo with ms-van3t and OScar
  Live demonstration of configuring a CAV scenario using open data, running hybrid simulation/emulation, and interpreting performance metrics. Tools: ms-van3t, OScar, and supporting datasets.
• 17:15–end → Open Discussion and Q&A
  Group discussion on practical challenges, dataset usage, and integration with research workflows. Final remarks and future collaboration opportunities.

Co-organizer’s Bios:

Francesco Linsalata

Francesco Linsalata received his M.Sc. and PhD degrees cum laude in Telecommunication engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 2019 and 2022, respectively. He is a researcher at the Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano. His main research interests focus on V2X communications and waveforms design for B5G wireless networks. He was the co-recipient of the best-paper award and recipient of the best student paper award at BalkanCom’19. He serves as TPC member in several IEEE and ACM conferences.

Eugenio Moro

Eugenio Moro received his PhD in Information Technology cum laude from Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy in 2023. Currently, he is an assistant professor at Politecnico di Milano. His research
focuses on wireless networks, with a particular interest on network economics, optimization, smart propagation environment, Open RAN and vehicular communications. He was a visiting researcher in Nokia Bell Labs, Stuttgart, Germany and Northeastern University, Boston, USA.

Marco Rapelli

Marco Rapelli received his B.Sc. in Telecommunications Engineering (2015) and his M.Sc. in Computer and Communication Networks Engineering (2017) both at Politecnico di Torino. He took part of FULL (Future Urban Legacy Lab), an inter-disciplinary center of Politecnico di Torino, where, in March 2021, he received his Ph.D. cum laude in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. During his Ph.D., he also spent a eight-month visiting period at the Computer and Communication Systems Labs at Technische Universität Berlin, in Berlin, Germany. He is now an Assistant Professor with time contract at Computer and Communication Network Department (DAUIN) of Politecnico di Torino. His main research interests focus on mobility studies, large-scale urban traffic simulators and vehicular networks.

Francesco Raviglione