LTE and Millimeter Waves for V2I Communications: an End-to-End Performance Comparison

The Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard enables, besides cellular connectivity, basic automotive services to promote road safety through vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. Nevertheless, stakeholders and research institutions, driven by the ambitious technological advances expected from fully autonomous and intelligent transportation systems, have recently investigated new radio technologies as a means to support vehicular applications. In particular, the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum holds great promise because of the large available bandwidth that may provide the required link capacity. Communications at high frequencies, however, suffer from severe propagation and absorption loss, which may cause communication disconnections especially considering high mobility scenarios. It is therefore important to validate, through simulations, the actual feasibility of establishing V2I communications in the above-6 GHz bands. Following this rationale, in this paper we provide the first comparative end-to-end evaluation of the performance of the LTE and mmWave technologies in a vehicular scenario. The simulation framework includes detailed measurement-based channel models as well as the full details of MAC, RLC and transport protocols. Our results show that, although LTE still represents a promising access solution to guarantee robust and fair connections, mmWaves satisfy the foreseen extreme throughput demands of most emerging automotive applications.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Accepted to VTC-Spring 2019, workshop on High Mobility Wireless Communications (HMWC

5G for Vehicular Use Cases: Analysis of Technical Requirements, Value Propositions and Outlook

The fifth generation (5G) of wireless networks promises to meet the stringent requirements of vehicular use cases that cannot be supported by previous technologies. However, the stakeholders of the automotive industry (e.g., car manufacturers and road operators) are still skeptical about the capability of the telecom industry to take the lead in a market that has been dominated by dedicated intelligent transport systems (ITS) deployments. In this context, this paper constructs a framework where the potential of 5G to support different vehicular use cases is thoroughly examined under a common format from both the technical and business perspectives. From the technical standpoint, a storyboard description is developed to explain when and how different use case scenarios may come into play (i.e., pre-conditions, service flows and post-conditions). Then, a methodology to trial each scenario is developed including a functional architecture, an analysis of the technical requirements and a set of target test cases. From the business viewpoint, an initial analysis of the qualitative value perspectives is conducted considering the stakeholders, identifying the pain points of the existing solutions, and highlighting the added value of 5G in overcoming them. The future evolution of the considered use cases is finally discussed

A Survey on 5G Usage Scenarios and Traffic Models

The fifth-generation mobile initiative, 5G, is a tremendous and collective effort to specify, standardize, design, manufacture, and deploy the next cellular network generation. 5G networks will support demanding services such as enhanced Mobile Broadband, Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications and massive Machine-Type Communications, which will require data rates of tens of Gbps, latencies of few milliseconds and connection densities of millions of devices per square kilometer. This survey presents the most significant use cases expected for 5G including their corresponding scenarios and traffic models. First, the paper analyzes the characteristics and requirements for 5G communications, considering aspects such as traffic volume, network deployments, and main performance targets. Secondly, emphasizing the definition of performance evaluation criteria for 5G technologies, the paper reviews related proposals from principal standards development organizations and industry alliances. Finally, well-defined and significant 5G use cases are provided. As a result, these guidelines will help and ease the performance evaluation of current and future 5G innovations, as well as the dimensioning of 5G future deployments.This work is partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project TEC2016-76795-C6-4-R)H2020 research and innovation project 5G-CLARITY (Grant No. 871428)Andalusian Knowledge Agency (project A-TIC-241-UGR18)

A Review of Low Power Wide Area Technology in Licensed and Unlicensed Spectrum for IoT Use Cases

There are many platforms in licensed and license free spectrum that support LPWA (low power wide area) technology in the current markets. However, lack of standardization of the different platforms can be a challenge for an interoperable IoT environment. Therefore understanding the features of each technology platform is essential to be able to differentiate how the technology can be matched to a specific IoT application profile. This paper provides an analysis of LPWA underlying technology in licensed and unlicensed spectrum by means of literature review and comparative assessment of Sigfox, LoRa, NB-IoT and LTE-M. We review their technical aspect and discussed the pros and cons in terms of their technical and other deployment features. General IoT application requirements is also presented and linked to the deployment factors to give an insight of how different applications profiles is associated to the right technology platform, thus provide a simple guideline on how to match a specific application profile with the best fit connectivity features

Automotive Intelligence Embedded in Electric Connected Autonomous and Shared Vehicles Technology for Sustainable Green Mobility

The automotive sector digitalization accelerates the technology convergence of perception, computing processing, connectivity, propulsion, and data fusion for electric connected autonomous and shared (ECAS) vehicles. This brings cutting-edge computing paradigms with embedded cognitive capabilities into vehicle domains and data infrastructure to provide holistic intrinsic and extrinsic intelligence for new mobility applications. Digital technologies are a significant enabler in achieving the sustainability goals of the green transformation of the mobility and transportation sectors. Innovation occurs predominantly in ECAS vehicles’ architecture, operations, intelligent functions, and automotive digital infrastructure. The traditional ownership model is moving toward multimodal and shared mobility services. The ECAS vehicle’s technology allows for the development of virtual automotive functions that run on shared hardware platforms with data unlocking value, and for introducing new, shared computing-based automotive features. Facilitating vehicle automation, vehicle electrification, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication is accomplished by the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI), cellular/wireless connectivity, edge computing, the Internet of things (IoT), the Internet of intelligent things (IoIT), digital twins (DTs), virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs). Vehicles become more intelligent, connected, functioning as edge micro servers on wheels, powered by sensors/actuators, hardware (HW), software (SW) and smart virtual functions that are integrated into the digital infrastructure. Electrification, automation, connectivity, digitalization, decarbonization, decentralization, and standardization are the main drivers that unlock intelligent vehicles' potential for sustainable green mobility applications. ECAS vehicles act as autonomous agents using swarm intelligence to communicate and exchange information, either directly or indirectly, with each other and the infrastructure, accessing independent services such as energy, high-definition maps, routes, infrastructure information, traffic lights, tolls, parking (micropayments), and finding emergent/intelligent solutions. The article gives an overview of the advances in AI technologies and applications to realize intelligent functions and optimize vehicle performance, control, and decision-making for future ECAS vehicles to support the acceleration of deployment in various mobility scenarios. ECAS vehicles, systems, sub-systems, and components are subjected to stringent regulatory frameworks, which set rigorous requirements for autonomous vehicles. An in-depth assessment of existing standards, regulations, and laws, including a thorough gap analysis, is required. Global guidelines must be provided on how to fulfill the requirements. ECAS vehicle technology trustworthiness, including AI-based HW/SW and algorithms, is necessary for developing ECAS systems across the entire automotive ecosystem. The safety and transparency of AI-based technology and the explainability of the purpose, use, benefits, and limitations of AI systems are critical for fulfilling trustworthiness requirements. The article presents ECAS vehicles’ evolution toward domain controller, zonal vehicle, and federated vehicle/edge/cloud-centric based on distributed intelligence in the vehicle and infrastructure level architectures and the role of AI techniques and methods to implement the different autonomous driving and optimization functions for sustainable green mobility.publishedVersio