ITU-R and 3GPP: Use of IMT for Cellular-Vehicle-to-Everything Applications
ITU-R WP5D is working on a preliminary draft report titled, “The use of the Terrestrial Component of IMT for [Cellular-Vehicle-to-Everything] Application.”
When completed (TBD), the report will address the perceived mutual relationship between IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications) technologies and Cellular-Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) as a specific application and elements of functions in IMT technologies that are used to realize C-V2X applications.
Author’s Note:
Vehicle to everything (V2X) is a term that refers to high-bandwidth, low latency and highly reliable communication between a broad range of transport and traffic-related sensors. Many pundits and cheerleaders say that 5G mobile networks will be key to providing connectivity for vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communications. Others say that the 4G-LTE V2X sidelink will do just fine.
Also, there are two different types of V2X systems – one based on IEEE 802.11 standards and another (cellular) based on 3GPP specifications. That’s illustrated in this chart:
The focus of this article is on the Cellular-V2X system, previously developed by 3GPP and now via the aforementioned new draft ITU-R report.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The future ITU-R report will provide details and an overview on: Usage of IMT technology, Relationship between IMT and C-V2X, Characteristics and Capabilities supported by IMT, and Case Studies associated with C-V2X for the various scenarios including eMBB, mMTC, and URLLC of terrestrial component of IMT.
IMT usages relevant to vehicle communication are also indicated in the ITU-R M.2445 “ITS usage” report.
The C-V2X applications [described in the 3GPP Release 16 specifications], referred to as Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X), contain the following four different types:
– Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V)
– Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I)
– Vehicle-to-Network (V2N)
– Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P)
…………………………………………………………………………………….
Utilizing 5G to enhance automotive safety was a focus area for 3GPP Release 16. Release 14 C-V2X introduced a 4G-LTE sidelink (V2V, V2I, V2P) to support basic safety use cases. Release 16 builds on Release 14/15 by introducing a NR-based sidelink that will enable new advanced safety use cases while also paving the path for autonomous driving. Release 16 supports reliable and efficient multicast communication based on HARQ feedback and uses distance as a new dimension at the physical layer, which enables “on-the-fly” multicast groups based on distance and applications.
Relevant ITU-R Recommendations and Reports:
Recommendation ITU-R M.1890 Operational radiocommunication objectives and requirements for advanced Intelligent Transport Systems
Recommendation ITU-R M.2083 IMT Vision – Framework and overall objectives of the future development of IMT for 2020 and beyond
Recommendation ITU-R M.2084 Radio interface standards of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure two-way communications for Intelligent Transport System applications
Recommendation ITU-R M.2121 Harmonization of frequency bands for Intelligent Transport Systems in the mobile service
Report ITU-R M.2228 Advanced intelligent transport systems (ITS) radiocommunications
Report ITU-R M.2441 Emerging usage of the terrestrial component of International Mobile Telecommunication (IMT)
Report ITU-R M.2444 Examples of arrangements for Intelligent Transport Systems deployments under the mobile service
Report ITU-R M.2445 Intelligent transport systems (ITS) usage
Handbook on Land Mobile (including Wireless Access) – Volume 4: Intelligent Transport Systems
[Editor’s note: More references to be added]
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
References:
https://blog.3g4g.co.uk/2020/07/an-introduction-to-vehicle-to.html
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9212349
https://www.gsma.com/iot/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/02_5GAA_Maxime-Flament.pdf
https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-r/opb/rep/R-REP-M.2441-2018-PDF-E.pdf
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~szm0001/papers/3gpp_v2x.pdf
2 thoughts on “ITU-R and 3GPP: Use of IMT for Cellular-Vehicle-to-Everything Applications”
Comments are closed.
Alan, thanks for the update. It will be interesting to see where this standardization effort leads and what uses cases become relevant.
The CV2-X approach seems to be winning in the U.S. market, particularly after Toyota through in the towel on DSRC in 2019 (in the comments section of this article).
https://viodi.com/2019/02/07/dsrc-vs-c-v2x-and-more-spectrum-is-the-goldmine/
CV2-X chipsets are apparently integrated into most new cars. It will be interesting to see how far the network extends beyond vehicles and how relevant this technology will actually be for the touted use-cases.
For instance, are there other ways to detect pedestrians and other cars? I just interviewed a company that is using long-range radar that will penetrate buildings, allowing autonomous vehicles to see around corners without the need for CV2-X. To augment such a radar system, would it be possible to detect radio signals coming from vehicles (or people) to identify speed and location? Of course, this wouldn’t help in the case where the pedestrian (or animal) doesn’t have a smartphone on his person, but that’s a limitation of both CV2-X and DSRC, as well.
And does each traffic light need its own transmitter/ receiver to provide its status to the surrounding cars? A company in Oregon, Connect Signals, had a concept where they would pull the traffic signal data from a city’s traffic controller and then send the signaling data via the cellular network to cell phones (of course, these could be connected vehicles as well). Unfortunately, their website isn’t working, but here is a demonstration of it working in Las Vegas.
https://viodi.com/2018/03/16/connected-signals-without-dsrc-or-other-traffic-signal-retrofits/
Lastly, the DSRC approach seems to rely more heavily on single-purpose hardware and municipal infrastructure for backhaul; a municipal infrastructure that isn’t there today and would probably take years to build. Plus, municipalities aren’t overflowing with funds to build more infrastructure. CV2-X has the advantage of using the same network as either 4G or 5G. Plus, its end-points are either the same devices that consumers already have or are using the same silicon that those devices need.
Thanks for your comprehensive comment Ken. Note that the ITU-R CV2-X initiative will be a report- not a standard (i.e recommendation). As you well know, 3GPP specs have no legal standing, so they must be transposed by SDOs, most notably ETSI as 3GPP does not send their specs to ITU-T.
What I wonder is if DSRC will be supplanted by the 3GPP specs on CV2-X.