5G TESTING WHY IS THE MILLBROOK 5G-ENABLED NETWORK IMPORTANT?
High speed, reliable, high bandwidth and low-latency connectivity is one of the major enabling technologies for CAVs. Autonomous vehicles need to be aware of their surroundings in order to operate and achieving this requires robust vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2X) connectivity. There is currently nothing commercially available that is adequate for coping with this requirement. Fifth generation (5G) mobile
communications will meet the latency and bandwidth requirements for CAV operation. It will also enable other automotive advancements, such as predictive safety systems and infotainment improvements, none of
which can be developed into usable systems without 5G infrastructure. Since this infrastructure isn’t currently
available anywhere, it has been created at Millbrook in a flexible way that uses development spectrum and can connect with 4G LTE cells while being ready for 5G cells as they become available. It therefore provides infrastructure now for mobile networks that are yet to come. According to Rahim Tafazolli of the
Institute of Communication Systems, 5G is not just the next phase beyond 4G and people shouldn’t expect more of the same. Speaking at Millbrook, he said, “5G is important because it’s an enormous enabler for industry systems, smart infrastructure and CAV development.”
The test bed offers a staged progression from virtual software
development to real scenario
tests.According to Alex Burns, the president of Millbrook, the move into 5G communications linked to simulation models represents new areas of technology that the organisation has previously not ventured into. The event was attended by experts across diverse industries that
previously had not had such close cooperation. “The infrastructure that we’ve launched allows our customers to test and develop CAV systems to a quality and level of detail never before realised in this country,” says Burns.
NEUTRAL NETWORK Based on both 4G and 5G small cells that operate on a neutral host basis, the infrastructure can simultaneously be used by multiple public and private mobile operators, making the network more economical. The concept of a neutral host is that the network doesn’t depend
on the availability of a single mobile network provider. I spoke to representatives from neutral network provider, Dense Air, and mobile operator, BT. Both agreed that the concept could work and is particularly useful for extending the reach of networks into rural areas, where some operators have poor coverage. On a neutral network, mobile operators would buy their space
on the network and the end user would continue to have a commercial relationship with the operator. In doing so, the way the network operates would be transparent to the user. I asked Mansur Hanif of Ofcom whether such an arrangement would ultimately result in a battle for bandwidth. He agreed with
❱❱ Alex Burns, president of Millbrook, believes the new facility will give automotive engineers the ability to develop world class technology
the stance of both Dense Air and BT that resources could be shared and that it would require industry cooperation, with Ofcom stepping in where necessary to ensure coverage is maintained. According to Brendan O’Reilly, CTO at consortium member
Telefónica UK, the AutoAir project is a great demonstration of how partnerships can help shape the use cases and drive the benefits that we all want to see from 5G. “Test networks at sites like Millbrook will be crucial in
understanding the business and consumer network use cases which will transform the automotive sector,” he adds.
COMMUNICATING AT SPEED At the project launch, attendees witnessed the capabilities of 5G networking in providing low latency, high bandwidth, high-speed communications between vehicles and insfrastructure using both the sub-6GHz networks (2.3GHz and 3.7GHz) and the 60GHz mmWave network for Gigabit access to fast moving vehicles. The convoy of vehicles travelling around the high-speed bowl
included a slow-moving coach equipped with video monitors, several emergency services vehicles equipped with sensors and receivers to detect incidents beyond the line of sight and a McLaren sports car travelling at speeds of up to 160mph. Using the small cell network, video from eight 4K cameras
mounted on the emergency vehicles was streamed to screens on the coach, demonstrating the high capacity data uplink that can be used for the real time monitoring of test vehicles and multi-access edge computing (MEC) using an application running on a server at the Millbrook site. The Blu Wireless 60GHz mmWave network around the
high-speed circuit was used to show data streaming at rates of more than 1Gbps to the McLaren travelling at high speed. One of the primary uses of this sort of network is for accessing data in trains. Deploying the network around Millbrook’s high-speed circuit provides a unique facility for testing and enhancing this technology for rail, as well as road transport, applications. An array of 16 antenna beamforming devices developed by the
University of Surrey 5G Innovation Centre was used for 4k video streams between vehicles moving at high speed. While the high speeds at Millbrook may seem extreme, the
❱❱ Representatives from the automotive industry rubbed shoulders with those from telecoms companies to find common ground at Millbrook
12 /// Testing & Test Houses /// March 2019
capability to perform successful V2V and V2X communications in such demanding environments will be a key stage in achieving the robust infrastructures needed to support the nationwide deployment of CAVs in the future. T&TH
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