How will 5G revolutionize mobility?

5G could provide extreme value in the ways we commute in our everyday life, but what exactly is going to be different? What can be done with 5G in the area of mobility that cannot be done nowadays? Is 5G the missing piece in making autonomous driving possible or is it just another hyped technology? In general, the major contribution of 5G is creating use cases that improve the safety of passengers. By reducing the time it takes to send information, 5G allows critical information to be processed in real time and thus enhancing the driver’s capabilities. At a later stage, it will make it possible for vehicles to be driven remotely or to drive autonomously. This article describes the different use cases and mentions some of the multiple challenges this technology is facing before it can be seen implemented in our daily commutes.

Data is transforming mobility and the way we commute in our everyday lives as we have seen in our latest smart mobility articles (see also our interview on RTM in China). One part of this revolution involves the creation of new applications through machine learning or data analytics. At the same time, a whole other transformation is taking place regarding the transmission of the data and the available data rates and latency. Some automobile manufacturers, for example, consider the collection of real-time data more relevant than the collection of big data. Live data of the traffic system is particularly interesting, as it provides information to guide participants, operators or vehicles in real time.

5G is one of the main drivers behind making sure that data is available as fast and reliable as possible. 5G is the latest standard for cellular network communication, and with its technology it will enable new use cases that are currently not possible with its predecessor, LTE. The goal of this article is to describe some of the unprecedented functionality provided by 5G and the possible impact it is expected to have particularly in the field of autonomous driving.

How will 5G be different from its predecessor?

5G combines multiple technologies to generate improvements in three communication characteristics: Data rate, latency or reliability, and number of devices. In the context of autonomous driving, data rate and latency are the most relevant factors given the need for transmitting more data and guaranteeing the safety of the passenger. On the other hand, the increase in number of devices makes 5G an attractive technology to become the ultimate platform for smart mobility solutions.

With 5G, the data rate is planned to be up to 10 times faster, allowing a vehicle to send and receive more information for either driving or entertainment purposes. Regarding latency – which is, simply speaking, the time it takes for data to travel from source to destination – with 5G, it can be up to 5 times lower than with 4G networks. Finally, the increase in number of devices means 5G is now able to provide coverage to more than a million devices with only one cell, which could include vehicles, sensors in the infrastructure or users’ smartphones.  

5G offers much more than just a faster version of 4G

Besides the previously mentioned benefits, 5G opens a wide range of options through the following set of features enabled by this technology:

Predictive quality of service: This consists of monitoring and predicting the network’s quality of service the passenger will have in the future based on the trajectory to follow as well as on environmental aspects such as weather and traffic conditions. Based on this information, the vehicle can make decisions to provide the best user experience regarding connectivity. For example, if the passenger requires a high bandwidth, the vehicle may take a certain route to guarantee the user does not have any connectivity issues.

V2X communication (vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, vehicle-to-people): Thanks to 5G, vehicles are now enabled to use a standard protocol to communicate among themselves and hence inform each other about, e.g., road conditions without having to communicate through a base station. This allows a major reduction in latency – especially crucial for safety-critical information where milliseconds count – as data travels shorter distances before reaching another vehicle.

Positioning: 5G enhances location information from GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) to increase its accuracy or to complement it in case satellites are not visible. This functionality allows vehicles to have information that is more accurate about their location and reach accuracies below 30cm which enables multiple use cases such as remote driving.

MEC (Multi-access Edge Computing): The edge computing capabilities of 5G lowers the latency of the response as information can be processed directly at a base station. Additionally, it increases reliability since it can process video, audio or navigation information and based thereupon generate an answer for this vehicle or inform further vehicles about road conditions.  

Network slicing:A major advantage of 5G is the possibility of slicing the network according to functionality in order to assign different resources to each slice or assign a different scheduling algorithm. This allows, for instance, the possibility of giving priority to emergency signals from vehicles where someone’s life may be at risk over applications that are not so essential.

Discovering the new use cases enabled through 5G

5G enables many new use cases in multiple industries and smart mobility is not the exception. Below, an exemplary selection of these use cases is highlighted. A majority of them, however, is still in the development phase and the technology behind is being tested. For example, the Deutsche Telekom is actively involved in multiple European initiatives validating various use cases such as 5GCroCo or 5G CARMEN. Most of the use cases currently being tested refer to autonomous driving, which is the direction towards which mobility is heading.

The main reason why 5G represents a key enabler for autonomous driving is its new capabilities to transfer safety critical information to vehicles, people or the infrastructure. It is important, however, to stress that when we refer to autonomous vehicles we are not only referring to cars but also trucks or trains.

A few of the use cases identified so far are mentioned below and classified according to the characteristics of 5G enabling these use cases in contrast to 4G.

Increased number of devices

Route monitoring: Given the increase of devices able to connect per cell, vehicles and sensors in the infrastructure will have the possibility of constantly sharing information about the conditions of the route. The increased number of sensors in vehicles could inform about traffic conditions or anomalies on the route, for example, holes in the road, and indicate the exact locations with GPS data. At the same time, infrastructure sensors can inform about the number of vehicles on a certain road or other conditions as temperature, humidity, inclination, etc.

Data rate use case

Video streaming: The data rate provided by 5G enables travelers to stream HD videos from the internet, which is currently challenging particularly because of the high speed of movement and transition among different antennas. This application is valuable when speaking of high level autonomous vehicles where passengers no longer need to pay attention to the road but can enjoy a movie while commuting. An important factor in order to achieve this data rate is to maintain a high QoS (Quality of Service) along the travel, which relates to the predictive QoS feature mentioned before. This means: The vehicle may decide on taking a different route to guarantee the user can continue downloading information from the network.

Latency use cases

Cooperative maneuvering / cooperative collision avoidance: Through 5G, vehicles can exchange information regarding their speed, position and intended trajectories in order to execute efficient cooperative maneuvering. Furthermore, vehicles or the infrastructure itself can share information about dangerous events on the route with enough time of anticipation for other vehicles to take action in advance.

Tele-operated driving: In an everyday situation, an autonomous vehicle should be capable of taking the decisions needed to steer itself in a safe manner. However, in an emergency, the vehicle could possibly be incapable of executing this task, for example if some sensors or actuators have been damaged. In this case, temporary tele-operated driving may be required and an external operator can take over control of the unit until it reaches a safe point. With 4G, this is currently impossible given its high latency. 5G prioritizes safety-critical information to lower latency and minimizes the traveling path by using edge computing which makes it possible for an operator sitting in a control cabin to drive the vehicle remotely, be it a car, a truck or a train.

Platooning: In this application, vehicles travel in close formation to reduce fuel consumption. 5G allows the sharing of information so that each vehicle can adapt its own acceleration and speed, while considering the state of preceding vehicles. This type of communication has to be very low in latency and high in reliability in order to handle scenarios where, for instance, there is an abrupt braking by the lead vehicle. In addition, predictive QoS could provide valuable information in such use cases, e.g., by increasing the distance between vehicles before going through a zone with possible bad signal reception.

The challenges ahead for 5G and smart mobility

As stated above, 5G enhances the security of vehicles and provides new information to better plan and control traffic. Its benefits for smart mobility are mostly related to autonomous driving, which itself is going through multiple challenges such as people’s security concerns, legal and regulatory hurdles, technical difficulties, and lack of infrastructure. On the other hand, 5G is just starting to be deployed, which is why most of the use cases mentioned in this article are still at an early stage of development.

The 2019 Gartner Hype Cycle for Connected Vehicles and smart mobility places 5G in the middle of the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” phase and it is expected to reach the Productivity Plateau in 2 to 5 years. Once 5G reaches the productivity plateau, it will work as an enabler for applications that enhance the driving capabilities of conductors. In order for drivers to respond appropriately in time, they could be provided with information about possible issues on the road moments before encountering them. Nevertheless, the real capabilities of 5G will fully shine when autonomous driving reaches the point where the vehicle is capable of performing all driving functions by itself at least under certain conditions, which may still need more than 10 years according to the Gartner Hype Cycle.

Source: Michael Ramsey, Gartner

An additional challenge for the telecommunication providers who are investing in the infrastructure behind the network is to identify the business models behind the new services enabled by this technology. The value is shifting from data transmission towards the services provided by the vehicles or the data, and for this reason telcos have to identify their new fields of opportunity. In this respect, the solution telcos are following is usually shared revenue models, for example, establishing joint ventures with companies who are developing use cases in this space or setting up collaboration platforms for companies to develop the new applications jointly.

5G is taking mobility one step closer to full autonomy, but first it will be a major enabler for new smart mobility platforms

In the short term, 5G will be a key technology for the development of smart mobility platforms as it enables the connectivity of thousands of vehicles, users and IoT sensors, and provides a higher bandwidth than 4G. In doing so, it is, of course, dependent on the installation of IoT sensors that inform about route conditions as well as on the deployment of vehicles with 5G modules.

In a longer-term scenario, autonomous vehicles will be able to maximize the user experience and safety of passengers. Here, 5G will work as a main enabler for safety-related applications and autonomous driving. These applications require reliable and low latency communication as people’s lives might depend on data transmission. It is exactly the field, where 5G differentiates from 4G in the context of mobility. For this reason, it is certain that within a few years 5G will revolutionize mobility and accelerate the transition towards autonomous driving.