OREANDA-NEWS. What benefits and what performance aspects can LTE-Vehicular provide for connected cars? Audi AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Huawei, Toyota Motor Europe and other car manufacturers are addressing this question. Technical tests are underway on this connected vehicles technology, which is seen as a potential enabler for road safety and traffic efficiency applications. The partners are conducting these trials on a section of the “digital A9 motorway test bed" near Ingolstadt, Germany.

4G technology evolution on the road to 5G
Scope of the tests is to assess the performance of LTE-V for connected vehicle communications during its standardization process. LTE-V is an evolution variant of the fourth generation standard for mobile communications LTE (4G). It is being specified within the European 3GPP project that develops telecommunications standards as part of their Release 14. This variant is specifically designed to meet automotive requirements for both Vehicle-To-Vehicle and Vehicle-To-Infrastructure communication. It can address multiple application types ranging from connected vehicle safety applications (e.g. collision warning, pedestrian warning, etc.) to connected vehicle smart mobility applications for increased efficiency. That will enable users, systems and cars to adapt the driving strategy for fuel savings and reduced travel delay.

Looking through the customers’ eyes
LTE-V technology characterization for Vehicle-To-Vehicle and Vehicle-To-Infrastructure communication under realistic conditions on a public highway – that is how these field trials are performed. Using test cars, the technology has to prove itself under various scenarios and environmental conditions encountered in real life to evaluate its performance and feasibility for different future use cases and applications.

Deutsche Telekom infrastructure has been specially equipped with LTE-V hardware from Huawei to support the trial scenarios. Audi AG, Toyota Motor Europe and other car manufacturers have equipped research cars with the LTE-V hardware developed by Huawei.

Based on the trial results and experience gained, the partners will provide input into the standards specifications for LTE-V. The partners are contributing also to requirements definition for later releases of the 3GPP project, which will aim to enable a wide range of emerging use cases from connected and automated driving to new mobility services in the 5G era from 2020.