5GCroCo - HD maps for enabling autonomous driving
Overview of the 5GCroCo trial on 5G Cross-border service continuity for CAM
Services such as Tele-operated Driving (ToD), High-Definition (HD) Mapping and Anticipated Cooperative Collision Avoidance (ACCA) for Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) applications demand uninterrupted network connectivity. In Europe, where Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) usually only serve a single country, this is especially challenging when driving through national borders. Currently, vehicles search and register with an MNO in the country they enter, only after the MNO connection in the country of origin is lost, which can interrupt the service for several minutes. With CAM service continuity being key, e.g. for safety reasons, this situation is clearly not acceptable.
5GCroCo is one of several 5G PPP research projects funded under Horizon 2020 focused on cross-border/-MNO handover enabling seamless service continuity at country borders. As such, it has deployed a large-scale test and trial network in the border between Germany and Luxembourg as well as between Germany and France. The trials were conducted between October 2020 and April 2022 by the project consortium to evaluate the ToD, HD Mapping and ACCA use cases. The necessary exchange of information is carried out through designated interfaces so that a user can be handed over between the networks in two different countries, such as a border crossing just as a regular hand-over takes place between two MMEs (Mobility Management Entities) in the same network when traveling in a single country.
5G Empowerment
This 5GCroCo Trial was conducted on the motorway connecting Perl in Germany and Schengen in Luxembourg and also on a urban road between Saarbrücken in Germany and Forbach in France. Three Non-standalone (NSA) 5G networks were deployed, one in each country. Regarding the used spectrum, the 3.7GHz band was used for 5G coverage in TDD mode while the 700 MHz band was used for the 4G anchor cells.
The trial successfully showed that cross-border service continuity is feasible for ToD, HD Mapping and ACCA use cases thanks to cross-border/-MNO handover. For example, cross-border handover allowed for seamless service continuity for HD map download: the green/red tiles indicate successful/failed HD Mapping download, respectively. When cross-border/-MNO handover was enabled, there were no service interruptions, whereas when no cross-border/-MNO handover was enabled the service was interrupted for about a minute.
5G Key Performance Indicators
5G technology used in this trial enables:
- Reduced latency, e.g., 13 ms at percentile 99 compared to 30 ms in 4G for ACCA. Higher throughput of 5G through increased spectral efficiency and available mid-band spectrum, and the MEC-enabling can further reduce latency.
- Optimised 5G RAN configuration for the HD Mapping and ACCA use cases, E2E QoS management, QoS prediction, precise positioning, cross-domain Management and Orchestration (MANO) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) together with network slicing.
Videos and Demos
Final demo of all use cases across France, Germany, and Luxembourg available here (October 2021)
ToD demo at the French-German border available here (October 2021)
HD Mapping demo at the German-Luxembourg border available here (October 2021).
ACCA demo at the French-German border available here (October 2021)
Tests and trials for the ACCA use case at the Montlhéry Test Site available here (December 2020).
Accolades
One of the ten winners of the 2021 5G-IA Trials Working Group annual competition, featuring in the 5G Infrastructure PPP Brochure - Trials and Pilots.
Use Case Data Summary
Locations: French-German border between the cities of Saarbrücken and Forbach and also Remerschen and Schengen, near the point where the borders of Germany, France and Luxembourg come together.
Dates: October 2020 – April 2022
Partners involved: 24 partners from several European countries
EC funding reference: Horizon 2020; ICT-18-2018: 5G for cooperative, connectec and automated mobility (CCAM)
Funding cycle: November 2018-June 2022
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