The two companies included a 5G testbed at Dekra’s Lausitzring speedway
Deutsche Telekom and German firm Dekra announced they are expanding the facilities at a test and race track in Lausitzring speedway, in Germany, to include a 5G testbed for smart mobility.
Under the agreement between the two companies, Deutsche Telekom will provide the latest 4G and 5G infrastructure for the testbed. Other new technologies such as edge computing, precise positioning and C-V2X, will also be tested at the facility.
“The Dekra Technology Center is Europe’s largest vendor-independent test center for the mobility of the future. The spotlight is on automated and connected driving. We are delighted to have Deutsche Telekom on board as a strategic partner. We are confident this will be beneficial to both sides – but above all for road safety as a whole,” said Wolfgang Linsenmaier, chairman of Dekra Automobil.
“By equipping the Lausitzring with our 5G infrastructure, we and our partner Dekra are offering industry the perfect testing environment for developing new, future-oriented services. This applies to the requirements on the part of the automotive industry in moving toward autonomous driving, and also to intelligent traffic control as part of smart city projects,” said Hagen Rickmann, director for business customers at Deutsche Telekom.
The Dekra technology center at the Lausitzring speedway claims to be Europe’s largest independent test area for connected and automated driving. The roads recreate downtown, country road and highway conditions. There are also special asphalt zones for testing autonomous parking systems.
NTT DoCoMo demo 8 Gbps 5G communications on connected car with Ericsson and AGC
In related news, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo and compatriot firm AGC achieved what it claims to be the world’s first 8 Gbps 5G communications with a fast-moving vehicle equipped with “vehicle glass mounted antennas” (on-glass antennas) in a field trial conducted in conjunction with Ericsson Japan, which was in charge of the provision and operation of the 5G base station and mobile station equipment.
The 5G 28 GHz band compatible on-glass antennas used in the field trial were designed and developed by AGC. These antennas can be installed on glass surfaces without affecting the vehicle design.
By installing an on-glass antenna on the vehicle, radio waves above 6 GHz can be transmitted and received using the “beam forming function”, which concentrates radio waves in a specific direction, and the “MIMO function”, which improves communication speed by simultaneously transmitting different data from multiple antennas, NTT DoComo said.
For this field trial, 5G high-speed communications using both the beam forming function and the MIMO function was performed with a vehicle equipped with on-glass antennas.
The trial was held at the National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. While moving at speeds of approximately 100 km/h, a maximum communication speed of 8 Gbps was achieved, and a maximum of 11 Gbps was achieved at a speed of approximately 30 km/h.
