Automotive at MWC19: C-V2X, 5G, and MEC

The message at the event organized by the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) at MWC19 was clear: there is no stopping the power of the growing C-V2X ecosystem, with 5GAA membership now exceeding 110 semiconductor vendors, automotive Tier1 suppliers, network infrastructure providers, carriers, vehicle OEMs, software developers, and module vendors. For the first time in history, the automotive and telco industries are joining forces to develop next-generation IoT connectivity technologies for the vehicles of the future.

Remaining regulatory issues related to accessing the 5.9 GHz ITS spectrum in the United States and Europe are not preventing car OEMs like Ford from committing to the deployment of C-V2X in new car models from 2022. C-V2X is increasingly touted as the open platform on top of which a wide range of applications can be launched, ranging from informational V2I convenience services to mission-critical V2V safety and cooperative mobility applications and, in the longer-term, driverless Level 5 operation.

During MWC, Telefonica, Seat, and a range of partners including Ficosa and Qualcomm demoed real life 5G assisted driving use cases, pedestrian and cyclist detection, and 4K content streaming as part of the 5G Barcelona initiative. Huawei, meanwhile, won the GLOMO award in the automotive category for its efforts related to the widespread deployment of C-V2X in the Wuxi project, providing another boost for C-V2X stakeholders.

With C-V2X already available on 4G, 5G will add additional capabilities, enabling a wider range of automotive use cases.

Short-range C-V2X is just the first step. 5G will add long-range low latency connectivity, based on networking slicing, enabling the remote control of autonomous vehicles, which is increasingly seen as the killer application of 5G in automotive even if the very notion of a “killer app” is losing its relevance amid the platformization trend. Vendors like Phantom Auto are already developing remote control solutions.

Ericsson suggests geo-fenced autonomous fleet operations have the potential to become an important driver to launch new business models, with stakeholders across industry verticals (co-)funding 5G network deployments and enhancements, guaranteeing the availability and reliability of cellular connectivity for mission-critical applications in managed environments like fixed routes transportation.

Equally, if not more, important, 5G will provide the capacity to connect 1.2 billion vehicles, regardless of any other benefits 5G will offer in terms of latency and bandwidth. The question of whether or not we really need 5G for automotive has now convincingly been positively answered.

The most fundamentally transformative aspect of 5G is its innate low latency capability, across radio and core networks, which facilitates “bringing the cloud to the edge.” With ultra-low latency, select edge-based computing can be pushed back to the “edge cloud,” enabling hardware cost savings at the edge, in terms of both reduced computing power requirements and lifecycle management efforts.

5G will bring mission-critical cloud services to an automotive industry that so far has shied away from embracing the cloud for anything other than basic convenience and infotainment services. 5G will also enable cloud-based voice assistants, minimizing delays and improving responsiveness.

However, there is a second, perhaps even more important benefit to putting “real-time” analytics capabilities in the cloud, in terms of its function of “translating” data flows between clouds from different stakeholders and achieving interoperability on both the radio access and core network connectivity levels.

MEC is one of the six priority areas the 5GAA has deemed critical for linking clouds of various stakeholders, including car OEMs and carriers.

The first signs of telco players starting to truly understand what 5G is about in terms of its unifying capabilities, ecosystem dynamics, and transformative business models became visible at MWC19—an area telcos should prioritize in their quest to offer value added services to car OEMs.