Intelligent transportation systems provide advanced traffic and transport management that allows for better coordination and communication between all components of the transportation system, from vehicles to traffic lights to pedestrians and roadside infrastructure. Central to this concept is V2X, or vehicle-to-everything, communication. Vehicles that communicate with the objects and people they share the road (and even the road itself) with will result in a safer and more efficient transportation system.
“It’s a system where there are basically zero accidents and one that is more fuel efficient,” Qualcomm’s Manager of Engineering Shailesh Patil told RCR Wireless News.
“That’s the vision we’re moving towards.”
Cellular systems are traditionally designed so that a phone or device connects to a base station, which then talks back to the device. However, because safety is a key element of V2X communication, it’s imperative that vehicles and other devices in a smart transportation system communicate directly to each other in a constant, self-organizing and distributed manner that is independent of a coverage system.
In a demonstration, Qualcomm showed how 5G V2X sidelink — a standard for static communication between devices — can provide the seamless and robust communication necessary to provide advanced safety applications and make possible enhanced autonomous vehicle use cases. By continuing to synchronize timing information across vehicles, even in locations where GNSS coverage is often lost, such as inside tunnels, the use of sidelink connections ensured that the test vehicles maintained communication.
Qualcomm also demonstrated how 5G V2X sidelink can offload the network to deliver high bandwidth map data using a local roadside unit. Capable of providing the driver with a high-resolution, 3D map in real-time that is equipped with local landmark and hazard information, sidelink communication can improve road safety and enhance autonomous driving.
Qualcomm Principal Engineer Arik Gubeskys summarized the significance of the demonstration: “We have seen how we can offload high bandwidth data downloads efficiently from wide area 5G networks to deliver new and advanced user experiences.”
“Once you connect all the different components of the transportation system, there are a lot of possibilities,” Patil said, adding that Qualcomm envisions a future in which a car is completely connected to everything around it, sharing information with the world, ensuring a safe, efficient and entirely intelligent transportation system.
Watch the RCR Interview: 5G V2X here.
For more content, including demos and live interviews, from Qualcomm’s recent Advanced 5G Research Demonstrations for MWC ’21 click here.
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