Vodafone Germany and Porsche have deployed a private 5G network at the latter’s Weissach Development Center.
The new 5G technology will improve the framework conditions for the strategic development of new vehicle systems and functions at the industrial facility, the two companies said.
When installing the 5G private network at the Weissach Development Center, the partners said they focused on secure and instantaneous transmission between vehicles and digital devices.
Vodafone Germany and Porsche noted that the mobile communications architecture at Weissach is a complete 5G Standalone solution in the 3.5 GHz frequency range. Its latency is only around 10 milliseconds, which Porsche said makes Weissach’s one of the fastest 5G networks in Europe.
In addition, the 5G SA network deployed at Porsche’s development center will enable network slicing technology, which means that Vodafone and Porsche can provide small sub-networks with guaranteed bandwidths and latency times for certain events and projects at the facility.
“With 5G Standalone we have brought Europe’s fastest network to Weissach, and therefore enable new digital services for the cars of tomorrow. 5G is revolutionizing the development of vehicles – from the first prototype to the finished series model. In future, Porsche engineers will be able to work on digital vehicle models and prepare them for use on the road. Starting in Weissach, 5G is moving directly into the cars on our roads,” said Vodafone Germany CEO Hannes Ametsreiter.
The real-time capability through 5G and Multi Access Edge Computing (MEC) is an indispensable development requirement for future predictive warning and assistance systems as well as automated driving functions in which safety-relevant data is to be exchanged between vehicles. One application example is a warning function that draws vehicle occupants’ attention to dangers on the route ahead.
Other possibilities of fast 5G data transmission are new connectivity and streaming services with higher transmission rates. In future, bandwidths of up to 1,000 megabits per second and real-time data exchange will enable HD-quality content streaming as well as delay-free cloud gaming and augmented reality transmissions in the vehicle.
Work on the 5G network for the outdoor areas of the Weissach Development Center was completed just a few weeks ago. Two mobile communications stations and several antennae provide fast network coverage for the entire premises. The next stage is to expand 5G to the facility’s indoor areas. The first area will be the electronics integration center, where high-performance data exchange is made possible via the 5G network with the aid of special indoor antennae.
“In future, it will be possible to test developments on the basis of the new mobile communications standard in the electronics labs at the Weissach Development Center and the results can then be verified on site on the test tracks in real conditions. This saves time during the testing stage, which in turn means we can reduce development times for new vehicle systems,” said André Schlufter, Connectivity and SIM Manager at Porsche AG.
The 5G infrastructure at the Weissach site will enable Porsche AG to test new technology at an early stage of the development process and prepare it for deployment in vehicles.
In April, Vodafone Germany launched its 5G standalone (SA) network in partnership with Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and OPPO.
Vodafone upgraded 1,000 sites to SA 5G, covering 170 cities and municipalities via 3.5 GHz spectrum. The new network was initially launched in some major cities including Frankfurt, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf.
The telco said that it aims to reach 4,000 sites in the 5G SA network by the end of the year.
