Ericsson keeps on testing the efficiency of its 5G networks and how it performs under different circumstances. Recently, the European telecom vendor partnered with the premium car maker Volvo to test how the 5G networks perform in cross border vehicular handover. The purpose of this test was to check how efficient the 5G networks are in delivering real-time information to the vehicles for enabling a seamless driving experience when crossing the borders between different nations.
The test was conducted at the AstaZero test track located in Sweden. This test was a small part of the 5GCroCo project. The aim of this project is to prepare for a large-scale connected car trial across the 5G corridors of Merzig in Germany, Metz in France, and Luxembourg.
5G Networks Enhanced Seamless Service Continuity Across Borders
The results of the AstaZero tracks tests have shown that 5G networks are capable of providing seamless service continuity to vehicles when they cross the border. This ensures that the vehicles get real-time information from the maps to keep the driving experience as smooth as possible.
For this trial, Volvo used two cars with an HD map of the route, and Ericsson deployed a 5G mobile radio network for helping the cars communicate. The 5G network allowed the cars to get real-time information on the HD maps so that a clear pathway could be determined.
When the HD maps aren’t updating and have outdated information, the cars can send the information to the Mobile Edge Cloud, which enables cars at the back to receive updates of the route from the cloud.
The Volvo cars had an HD map application that could identify and measure the boundaries of the turning and straight lanes so that the cars could recognise the situations better.
This is a big step in the future of bringing autonomous and connected cars to the world. 5G networks will play a pivotal role in delivering real-time data to the other cars and drivers in the same route. This will potentially result in a smoother driving experience for everyone on the road and also help in avoiding accidents because of outdated information.
