The 5G standard is still several weeks away, but chipmakers are already testing 5G equipment in a variety of environments, including moving vehicles. A car traveling at 30 miles per hour was able to stream 4K video in a 5G test conducted by Intel, NTT DoCoMo, Ericsson and Toyota in Japan.
The test achieved downlink speeds of up to 1 Gbps and 600 Mbps uplink for 4K-resolution video, according to the companies. The vehicle was equipped with Intel’s GO 5G automotive platform terminal and a compact on-board antenna head designed for connected car trials. It drove on a road lined with multiple Ericsson base stations connected via cloud-RAN.
Intel said this is the first 5G multi-vendor interoperability trial involving a device connected to a base station in an automotive environment. Intel, Ericsson and Toyota plan to conduct more trials in the months ahead.
Qualcomm is also moving towards 5G in moving vehicles. The company is working on solutions for two different technologies that are being developed for autonomous driving: cellular V2X and dedicated short-range communications.
In addition, Qualcomm’s Sundar Subramanian, who is leading the company’s millimeter-wave and 5G standardization effort, said recently at the Texas Wireless Summit that his company is successfully testing 5G communication between mobile base stations and smartphones inside vehicles.
