OpenCAMS: An Open-Source Connected and Automated Mobility Co-Simulation Platform for Advancing Next-Generation Intelligent Transportation Systems Research

We introduce OpenCAMS (Open-Source Connected and Automated Mobility Co-Simulation Platform), an open-source, synchronized, and extensible co-simulation framework that tightly couples three best-in-class simulation tools: (i) SUMO, (ii) CARLA, and (iii) OMNeT++. OpenCAMS is designed to support advanced research in transportation safety, mobility, and cybersecurity by combining the strengths of each simulation domain. Specifically, SUMO provides large-scale, microscopic traffic modeling; CARLA offers high-fidelity 3D perception, vehicle dynamics, and control simulation; and OMNeT++ enables modular, event-driven network communication, such as cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X). OpenCAMS employs a time-synchronized, bidirectional coupling architecture that ensures coherent simulation progression across traffic, perception, and communication domains while preserving modularity and reproducibility. For example, CARLA can simulate and render a subset of vehicles that require detailed sensor emulation and control logic; SUMO orchestrates network-wide traffic flow, vehicle routing, and traffic signal management; and OMNeT++ dynamically maps communication nodes to both mobile entities (e.g., vehicles) and static entities (e.g., roadside units) to enable C-V2X communication. While these three simulators form the foundational core of OpenCAMS, the platform is designed to be expandable and future-proof, allowing additional simulators to be integrated on top of this core without requiring fundamental changes to the system architecture. The OpenCAMS platform is fully open-source and publicly available through its GitHub repository https://github.com/minhaj6/carla-sumo-omnetpp-cosim, providing the research community with an accessible, flexible, and collaborative environment for advancing next-generation intelligent transportation systems.