A cohort of MWC stalwarts led by Spanish operator Telefónica is preparing a 5G showcase for Barcelona next week that will make use of cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) and edge technologies, and seek to establish the Catalan capital as a “reference 5G hub” in Europe.
The MWC 2019 demo will see a car, from Spanish maker SEAT, with which Telefónica has worked on a number of industrial 5G trials, use 5G to communication with cars, motorcycles, cyclists, and pedestrians, as well as city infrastructure like traffic lights and signals.
Telefónica said it will “deploy 5G capabilities” in the streets around Barcelona to make latencies minimal; an edge server will host content and applications “very close to where the user is consuming them”, it said.
SEAT has contributed two vehicles equipped with new connectivity and instrument panels that issue warnings to their drivers. Ericsson has contributed the edge functions, and Qualcomm has chipped in the 5G platform for the network communication and direct communication.
As well as safety and communications, Telefónica said the trial will be the world’s first to showcase 5G in-car entertainment, notably 4K downloads from the edge server.
Telefónica has opening up its network to allow third parties to deploy traffic management applications at the edge of the network. Other technologies are being provided by various Spanish firms: Ficosa is supplying the in-car C-V2X communications platform; i2CAT is responsible for the location solution for bicycles; ETRA has provided the technology in the traffic light system.
The vehicles will use 5G to detect pedestrians, cyclists, and non-moving cars. In the first case, the traffic lights will detect pedestrians at a zebra crossing through a thermal camera and notify the cars via an edge function. A notice will show on the driver’s control panel, if necessary.
Connected bicycles will use a geolocation solution to communicate their position, specifically as they turn right, via ultra-wideband beacons placed along the road. In the event of a possible collision, cars will again display a warning in the control panel.Non-moving cars in areas of road with low visibility will activate emergency lights and notify approaching vehicles via a direct communication link with a message in the control panel.
Mobile World Capital Barcelona has supervised the project, and offered support. The demo will take place around the streets of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat in Barcelona during MWC next week.
Telefónica teamed up with SEAT and Ficosa to showcase an IoT-based supply-chain and manufacturing concept for the automotive industry at MWC last year. The demo, one of many industrial IoT concepts from telecoms operators and vendors at the event, is applicable to manufacturing and supply chain processes in all sectors. Industrial IoT will invariably be a feature of this year’s show, too.
