Why the mobility industry is moving towards 5G
As regulators worldwide are looking into future rules for connected cars technologies, the 5G Automotive Association has conducted tests to compare the performance of 802.11p/DSRC and Cellular V2X PC5 radio technologies in delivering V2V (Vehicle-To-Vehicle) safety messages.
The test results show that Cellular V2X (Vehicle-to-everything) direct communications technology, consistently - and in many cases overwhelmingly - outperforms 802.11p/DSRC. With a natural evolution path towards the low latency and high bandwidth benefits of 5G NR, C-V2X also demonstrated superior performance in several dimensions, including the following:
1. Enhanced reliability over extended communications range. 2. Better non-line-of-sight performance. 3. Greater resiliency to interference (e.g. arising from other devices).
Reliable and timely radio performance is a crucial requirement that all those with a stake in transport safety depend on to deliver critical safety applications. Such test procedures are a prerequisite to comparing the available radio technologies, and the results are very clear: C-V2X direct communications (PC5) performs better.
C-V2X is commercially available and reuses the decades-long investment into protocols and upper layer applications to improve safety, deliver traffic efficiency, and support automated driving.
The design and execution of each experiment were set up to ensure that environmental conditions, radio frequency parameters, system integration details, and physical structures were consistent when comparing 802.11p/DSRC and C-V2X direct communications.
As yet another strong signal about the global momentum behind C-V2X, 5GAA today counts 102 members (40% from Europe, 35% Asia-Pacific and 25% Americas), an increase of 60% since January 2018, quite a movement for a 2-year-old organization.
5GAA brings together the automotive and ICT industry leaders from all world regions among which carmakers, Tier-1 suppliers, mobile network operators, chipset manufacturers, test equipment vendors, telecom suppliers and traffic signal suppliers in order to continue C-V2X field tests and to accelerate in-vehicle and infrastructure commercial deployments, foreseen beginning in 2019 globally.
Maxime Flament, CTO of the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) said, "These test results demonstrate that C-V2X direct communications, is today's most cutting-edge technology for connected and automated driving, and the best to finally deliver upon safety and traffic efficiency.
"Hence why C-V2X ecosystem is growing so rapidly - the 5G Automotive Association has now more than 100 members who believe in C-V2X as the future of mobility."
