Cooperative ITS systems are expected to improve road traffic safety and efficiency, and provide infotainment services on the move, through the dynamic exchange of messages between vehicles, and between vehicles and infrastructure nodes. The complexity of cooperative ITS systems and the interrelation between its components requires their extensive testing before deployment. The lack of simulation platforms capable to test, with high modelling accuracy, cooperative ITS systems and applications in large scale scenarios triggered the implementation of the EU-funded iTETRIS simulation platform. iTETRIS is a unique open source simulation platform characterized by a modular architecture that allows integrating two widely adopted traffic and wireless simulators, while supporting the implementation of cooperative ITS applications in a language-agnostic fashion. This paper presents in detail the iTETRIS simulation platform, and describes its architecture, standard compliant implementation, operation and new functionalities. Finally, the paper demonstrates iTETRIS large scale cooperative ITS evaluation capabilities through the implementation and evaluation of cooperative traffic congestion detection and bus lane management applications. The detailed description and implemented examples provide valuable information on how to use and exploit iTETRIS simulation potential.

V2X communication -communication between vehicles (V2V) and between vehicles and infrastructure (V2I) -promises new methods for traffic management by supplying new data and by opening new ways to inform drivers about the current situation on the roads. Currently, V2X cooperative systems are under development, forced by both the industry and by the European Commission which supports the development as a part of its Intelligent Car Initiative. Within this publication, "iTETRIS", a new system for simulating V2X-based traffic management applications is described which aims on high-quality simulations of large areas. This is achieved by coupling two well-known open source simulators. The sustainability of the project is guaranteed by making the whole also available as an open source tool.

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