![](bg8.png)
The platooning model in the tool focuses on the
separate communication interactions between a sta-
tion and its predecessor and successor (whenever ap-
plicable). In the bottom line of the platooning pane
in the V2X Test Tool, shown in Figure 8, the platoon-
ing state of the front and rear controllers are shown
through indicators (Platooning State [local]). The in-
dicator in the middle signals that platooning is com-
plete in former sense: both front and rear controllers
are connected to another station, and the platoon is in
steady state (no ongoing join or leave actions).
Figure 8: The Platooning (application) pane in the V2X Test
Tool.
The main advantage of using a somewhat more ab-
stract model for platooning is that it allows for quick
adaption to changes in the concrete (ENSEMBLE)
platooning protocol, as long as the protocol fits in the
model. In particular, we rarely needed changes in the
V2X Test Tool GUI despite the frequent changes in
the ENSEMBLE protocol. Finally, it allowed the use
of the V2X Test Tool while designing the protocol
itself. Certain protocol features during design could
thus be evaluated in an early stage.
5 FINDINGS
The ENSEMBLE V2X Test Tool was designed, re-
alized and deployed in an early stage of the specifi-
cation of truck platooning in ENSEMBLE. It proved
its use as a verification and validation tool, for debug-
ging and testing, conformance testing of the V2V pla-
tooning message sets, and also served as a protocol-
assessment tool. As mentioned earlier, the tool proved
a great help to ensure message interoperability at a
relatively early stage of the ENSEMBLE project. It is
essential to have such a tool, because current available
commercial V2X communication tools does not sup-
port the non-standard project-defined platooning mes-
sage sets, or the relevant test scenario for platooning.
Other advantages include its use as a debugging
tool in Field Testing (since the tool features frame
capturing and analysis). Also it is possible to use
the tool for performance analysis, for example by us-
ing stress testing scenarios with: high message loads;
higher updates rates; high number of Station ID’s;
etc. Another option for performance analysis is creat-
ing failure scenarios by using wrong messaging (for-
mat, timing, protocol logic, message drop, etc.) for
testing the robustness of the platooning protocol and
higher application layers. The main performance re-
sults from the ENSEMBLE project are available in
(Kalose and Goos, 2022); reflections on the v2x pro-
tocols can be found in (Mascalchi et al., 2022).
Finally, the development of the V2X Test Tool
itself required an early in-depth analysis of the EN-
SEMBLE protocol, which resulted in useful feedback
during protocol design. In a way, it forced the early
implementation of the ENSEMBLE message sets and
protocol logic long before the finalization of the pla-
tooning specifications.
In the near future, we hope to fully implement the
security features of the ENSEMBLE protocol, in par-
ticular transmitting and receiving the symmetrically
encrypted PCM message. Together with security test
scenarios for the validation of the security function-
ality and for identifying possible vulnerabilities and
threats. Thus offering useful verification and valida-
tion feedback as a security engineering tool for taking
mitigating actions against security threats. Also, we
intend to reuse the V2X Test Tool in future Cooper-
ative Automated Driving and ITS projects aiming at
development and implementations of novel message
sets and protocols. And to extend it with subsequent
suitable testing scenarios supporting the cooperative
interactions.
The source code for the V2X Test Tool is available
upon request for research purposes.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to express their gratitude to Sandesh
Manganahalli Jayaprakash, Daan Ravesteijn, Ramon
de Souza Schwartz, Harry Wedemeijer and Bastiaan
Wissingh, all at TNO, for their help during the design
and implementation of the V2X Test Tool.
REFERENCES
ACEA (2017). ACEA Roadmap Truck Pla-
tooning. https://www.acea.auto/publication/
eu-roadmap-for-truck-platooning/. Page visit on
5th of January 2022.
Atanassow, B. et al. (2022). Security framework of platoon-
ing. Technical report, H2020 project ENSEMBLE.
Deliverable D2.9.
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