26 November 2018
High-speed comms will enable autonomous vehicles to quickly share masses of data with each other as well as traffic management systems.
Researchers at Warwick University’s WMG research group claim to have set a new 5G communications speed record using a Level 4 autonomous vehicle. Working in the 28GHz millimetre wave (mmW) band, they are said to have hit 2.867Gbps in over-the-air transmissions. According to the team, that’s nearly 40 times faster than current fixed line broadband speeds and equivalent to sending a detailed satellite navigation map of the UK within a single second, or an HD film in less than 10 seconds.
As well as being used to deliver high-definition content to in-car entertainment systems, the system will allow autonomous vehicles to rapidly share large quantities of data with each other and with traffic management systems. This will include precise 3D road maps created by LiDaR (a type of radar system that uses laser light instead of radio waves), HD video images of the vehicle’s surroundings, and traffic information.
The WMG project’s aim is to accelerate the introduction for connected and autonomous vehicles, and its facility at Warwick University is said to include some of Europe’s most advanced 5G mmWave testing equipment. This has been provided by a £250,000 WMG Centre HVM Catapult award, alongside an equipment collaboration with National Instruments for its mmWave technology platform.
The research team set the communications speed record working with an autonomous pod built by Coventry-based manufacturer of Level 4 low speed autonomous vehicles, RDM. The team optimised antenna placement both inside the pod, and on roadside infrastructure, such as a traffic light.
WMG’s Dr. Matthew Higgins says the controlled trials are critical to better understanding the capabilities of 5G in mmW bands. He says: “This project, which includes real-world 5G mmWave trials on the [university] campus, will also attempt to examine how the dynamics of both the vehicle and the environment affect performance between infrastructure and connected and autonomous vehicles.”
