"Digital Freeway Test Field"

Continental, Deutsche Telekom, Fraunhofer ESK, and Nokia Networks Showcase First Safety Applications at "digital A9 motorway test bed".

Continental, Deutsche Telekom AG, Fraunhofer ESK, and Nokia Networks today demonstrated real-time communication between vehicles via the LTE cell network, in the presence of Federal Minister of Transport Alexander Dobrindt. This was a demonstration of the first project arising from the "Innovation Charter for the digital A9 motorway test bed".

The exercise demonstrates how vehicles on the motorway can share hazard information using the LTE network of Deutsche Telekom. As extremely short transmission times are vital for this purpose, a section of the Deutsche Telekom network was equipped with innovative Mobile Edge Computing technology from Nokia Networks, and upgraded with position-locating technology developed by Fraunhofer ESK. This combination will, for the first time, permit signal transport times between two vehicles of less than 20 milliseconds. Combining the technology with the vehicle electronics interface developed by Continental gives rise to a number of different applications aimed at making driving safer and more comfortable.

Information about the technology

The project involved upgrading Deutsche Telekom’s existing LTE network of at sections of the A9 motorway test bed with Mobile Edge Computing technology from Nokia Networks. The LTE base stations were upgraded with plug-in modules (known as "cloudlets"). These cloudlets ensure that information is directly routed within the cells, instead of transporting data through the mobile network via the cloud. This means that end-to-end latency can be cut dramatically, to 20 milliseconds and below. Without the new technology, transmission of signals between two vehicles via LTE networks and the central cloud can take a hundred milliseconds in the best-case scenario, and as much as several hundred milliseconds in unfavorable conditions. Road safety applications via mobile networks are only possible thanks to this fast data transmission.

Incident warnings

The test vehicles contain an on-board unit, which is connected to the vehicle systems and communicates with the LTE network via a wireless module. Continental supplies the interface to the cars’ on-board systems via the CAN bus and the tablet application software. Fraunhofer ESK developed the GeoService software, which ensures that the vehicles' position data is recorded and processed directly at the LTE base station. The geo service at the mobile base stations allows that incident warnings can be sent practically in real-time to all vehicles in the relevant area.