5G-Enabled V2X Communication: The Future of Smart Transportation
Every day millions of vehicles travel on roads. However most of these vehicles operate alone. Drivers depend on sight, reaction time and limited sensors to operate their vehicles. This has been sufficient far but it is not perfect. Road accidents, traffic congestion and poor decision-making continue to be problems all over the world. The problem is simple: vehicles cannot communicate with each other or with their environment in time. Vehicle to Everything or V2X is the solution to this problem.
V2X is a technology that allows vehicles to share information with vehicles, road infrastructure, pedestrians and cloud networks. Of acting independently vehicles become part of a connected transportation system. For example one vehicle will be able to notify another vehicle when it suddenly stops. Traffic lights will be able to notify vehicles of changes. Pedestrians will be. Notified before they reach an intersection. The goal of V2X is not to allow communication between vehicles but also to coordinate in order to improve smart and safe transportation.
In the past technology was not developed enough to enable all the opportunities of vehicles. DSRC was available with latency but only worked over short distances and required special infrastructure to support it. 4G LTE provided coverage but had higher latency and was susceptible to network congestion. This made it difficult to support real-time applications where even a small amount of latency could lead to life-threatening results.
With the introduction of 5G technologies, which have -low latency and allow for virtually instantaneous transmission of information vehicles can continuously communicate with each other with no latency. This allows for more accurate decision-making using real-time data. Vehicle to Everything or V2X enables vehicles to communicate with each other and with their surroundings. A typical V2X-enabled 5G system will comprise different types of connected devices. Each vehicle will have a variety of devices including GPS systems and sensors. These devices can provide data about the vehicle’s state and ongoing communication with vehicles.
Roadside equipment will also provide communication by relaying information between vehicles and transmitting their data to 5G base stations for connectivity. The data generated by the vehicles will then be processed in time using edge and/or cloud-based technologies. These components will work together to create an environment in which information can be shared throughout the system continuously. All decisions can be made instantaneously. For instance if one vehicle on the road detects an obstacle the information can be communicated to vehicles within milliseconds of detection. This allows them to take action even before a driver is able to perceive the danger.
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There are possible applications for Vehicle to Everything technology. Some examples include providing warnings of collisions improving the efficiency of traffic and allowing emergency vehicles to receive priority when responding to emergencies. This decreases the response time in an emergency. Most significantly Vehicle to Everything provides a key enablement for autonomous vehicles to navigate and make decisions without the need for human operators.
Each time we compare types of communications technology the advantages of 5G become even more apparent. While DSRC provides low latency it lacks scalability and coverage. 4G has connectivity. Does not provide real-time performance consistency. Meanwhile 5G delivers latency, high speed and strong reliability. This makes 5G the option to support the way we will transport goods and people in the future. The transition from systems to interconnected networks is an important step in advancing engineering and technology.
There are still some challenges associated with 5G-enabled Vehicle to Everything. For instance the cost of deploying all the infrastructure for supporting such a system is very expensive. Building out the needed 5G network and smart road infrastructure has a capital expense. Concerns also exist around cyber-security as connected vehicles might become targets of hackers or malicious attacks. Lastly the need for data sharing creates privacy risks, as user location and behaviour will be tracked.
Considering the future of vehicles raises significant ethical considerations. If a self-driving automobile improperly uses technology, who would be held accountable? How much control will machines be allowed to have for emergency life situations? Will only a select few people in countries have access to this technology or will everyone in every nation have the opportunity to take advantage of this technology? These issues will require an detailed regulatory framework as well as responsible use of this type of technology.
The growth of 5G-enabled Vehicle to Everything communication will be directly related to the enhancement of cities and autonomous systems. As a result of adding intelligence to the existing traffic system cities will be able to manage traffic flow before it happens eliminating congestion altogether. Vehicles will not communicate with one another but with the urban community as a whole creating an interconnected transportation network. Vehicle to Everything technology represents a paradigm shift from having vehicles as entities to an entire system of intelligent and interconnected ecosystems. Information is shared in time and decision making will be completed in a collaborative manner between numerous sources.
As we look at the issues associated with implementing Vehicle to Everything technology we see that while cost, security and ethical considerations exist the potential benefits for safety and efficiencies and the number of innovative applications resulting from Vehicle to Everything will be so substantial that they cannot be easily overlooked. In time as advancements within Vehicle to Everything continue our roads will become more secure and more productive business systems, for our future.
