'Towards 5G' Initiative shows fast results

The initial phase of testing demonstrated Cellular V2X (C-V2X) capabilities on the evolution towards 5G in a real environment over two use cases dedicated to the connected vehicles: ‘see through’ between two connected vehicles on a road, and ‘emergency vehicle approaching,’ aiming at notifying drivers when an emergency vehicle is nearby in real-time.

These two use cases, currently developed and tested in the experimental network, have taken advantage of improved latency, and high throughput performance, using the network-based capabilities of C-V2X to deliver a high-resolution video stream between two vehicles, demonstrating reactivity to show real time event notification.

Advanced network features implemented in a new Radio Access Network (RAN) configured with edge-computing features, allowed improved end-to-end transmission, with an average delay of 17ms for Vehicle-to-Network-to-Vehicle (V2N2V) communications. This is in comparison to the 30-60ms results measured in today’s LTE networks, and at a vehicle speed of 100km/h. These results were obtained on the 2.6GHz frequency band, delivering a 100Mbit/s performance.

The next steps of the ‘Towards 5G’ initiative will focus on:

• Implementing a dedicated network slice to prioritise Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) vehicular traffic and show improved isolation while experiencing other mobile broadband traffic in the vehicle
• Using direct communication features of C-V2X to test Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) and Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) capabilities, while assessing the enhanced performance brought by C-V2X Release 14 with regards to direct communication range, latency and reliability.
• The ‘Towards 5G’ initiative members will help to develop new use cases to assess how C-V2X with 5G NR features will be designed to support advanced applications, including traffic flow optimisation, improved safety and automated driving.

To support direct communications testing, the ‘Towards 5G’ initiative is adding Qualcomm as a new member.

“We are pleased to join PSA, Orange and Ericsson in the ‘Towards 5G’ initiative,” said Nakul Duggal, Vice President, Product Management, Automotive, Qualcomm. “Cellular-V2X R14 and its strong evolution towards 5G, using both network-based and direct communications, has great potential in helping achieve our common vision for safer, highly connected and smarter transportation.”

C-V2X technology, as defined in the 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 14 specifications, is expected to support safety and other enhanced use cases. Subsequent releases of the 3GPP specifications, including 5G New Radio (NR), are expected to evolve both network and direct communications to enable advanced use cases to support autonomous driving.

You can discover more about the ‘Towards 5G’ initiative during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, 27^th February–2^nd March.