Vehicle trial leveraged sensors, eMBMS, Nokia MEC platform
Finnish vendor Nokia and Japanese communications firm KDDI said they have successfully demonstrated the use of LTE technology in Japan to deliver low-latency connectivity for vehicles.
The partners claimed to be the first in the world to use LTE broadcast, implementing the evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services standard in two connected car applications, and demonstrating the potential of cellular technology to enable fully automated driving in the future.
The trials were conducted at a rural location on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology is designed to connect vehicles to each other, to communications network infrastructure, and to roadside sensors, including connectivity to traffic lights, radar and other functions, Nokia said. For the proof-of-concept trials in Japan, Nokia and KDDI focused on the vehicle-to-network use case and used non-integrated systems in vehicles interacting with sensors via the Nokia Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) platform.
Nokia’s eMBMS hotspot solution was used in the trial to allow real-time information to be shared with multiple vehicles. The companies compared the efficiency of using LTE broadcast to the one-to-one communication enabled by LTE unicast, in two connected car applications:
-Vehicle-to-network-to-vehicle (V2N2V) – in which cars maintained constant contact with the MEC system, sending real-time location, direction and speed data to roadside sensors.
-Network Real-Time Kinematic (network RTK) – a test using LTE to enhance fully automated in-vehicle navigation. It showed how eMBMS could use existing geo-location systems to communicate to many vehicles in real time and ensure accurate navigation.
“We are pleased to work with Nokia to demonstrate our leadership in the delivery of mobile networks for IoT and connected car communications. This is an important trial showing how the automotive industry can leverage cellular technology to enhance safety of connect vehicles on the roads,” said Munefumi Tsurusawa, general manager in the Connected Vehicle Technology Department of the Technical Planning Division at KDDI Corporation.
“Nokia has a comprehensive solution package for V2X based on its MEC platform and eMBMS hotspot solution aiming to cost-effectively accelerate the adoption of vehicle-to-everything communication. While manual intervention was used in the proof-of-concept trials, a clear evolution path to 5G will enable operators such as KDDI to support the widespread adoption of automated vehicles,” said Uwe Puetzschler, head of Car2X at Nokia.
In November 2017, Nokia, together with AT&T, Ford and Qualcomm Technologies, announced cellular-V2X (C-V2X) trials in San Diego.
For this trial, C-V2X platforms were installed in Ford cars using the Qualcomm 9150 solution to facilitate direct communications, and were complemented by AT&T’s 4G LTE network communications and ITS platform. Meanwhile, Nokia provided the wireless base stations and multi-access edge computing technology.
The San Diego region was designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation as one of ten automated vehicle proving grounds in the U.S. last year.
