Qualcomm's Li Yan: China is expected to become a leader in the evolution of C-V2X to 5G

C-V2X, together with 5G-based connectivity technology and AI-based automation technology, constitute the three basic technical supports for the smart transportation system.

This Internet of Vehicles communication standard, which is regarded as the car's "circle of friends", connects the car and surrounding road participants through an end-to-end direct connection, enabling the car to perceive road participants in a timely manner, understand the intentions of other participants on the road, and reasonably plan routes to avoid accidents.

At the "Automotive Business Media Communication Conference" held by Qualcomm recently, Dr. Li Yan, Senior Director of Qualcomm Technology Standards, introduced the latest progress in C-V2X standards and industrial implementation.

"The industry generally believes that China will become a leader in C-V2X technology. In addition to the launch of vehicle networking construction projects in many parts of the country, many regions have begun to provide LTE V2X coverage. At the same time, many automobile manufacturers have announced that they will mass-produce C-V2X-enabled cars by the end of this year or early next year." Li Yan said.

C-V2X is gaining momentum globally

C-V2X, C refers to Cellular, V2X refers to Vehicle to Everything, mainly including vehicle-to-vehicle (V2X), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) and vehicle-to-network (V2N) connections.

Six years ago, the industry proposed the idea of ​​solving the problem of vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity based on direct communication. Since then, ecosystem partners including Qualcomm have jointly introduced C-V2X technology into 3GPP for standardization. The final version of the C-V2X standard was completed in June 2017, including V2I, V2P, V2N, and V2V. In June 2018, 3GPP completed the formulation of the C-V2X technical standard based on Rel-14, namely LTE V2X.

After the standard was released, Qualcomm joined automakers and other communications companies to establish the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA). Today, 5GAA has become a leading organization in promoting C-V2X technology verification and industrial development worldwide, with more than 140 member companies. Almost all of the world's leading automakers, mobile communications manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, terminal manufacturers, operators, including road builders and roadside facility suppliers have participated in 5GAA to jointly promote the industrialization of C-V2X.

According to Li Yan, since 2017, under the leadership of 5GAA, a large number of C-V2X tests have been carried out worldwide, including related tests in North America, Europe, China and other regions. Qualcomm has participated in almost all test verification work worldwide, and released the 9150 C-V2X chipset in September 2017 and the Snapdragon Automotive 4G/5G platform in 2019. The 9150 C-V2X chipset mainly provides C-V2X direct communication technology.

"Today, the 9150 C-V2X chipset has been widely used. As of January this year, 11 module manufacturers have used the 9150 C-V2X chipset in their modules, and 12 roadside infrastructure (RSU) manufacturers have used the above modules to develop products. At the same time, at least 10 Tier 1 suppliers and aftermarket On-Board Unit (OBU) manufacturers have used the 9150 C-V2X chipset to develop some OBUs for front-end and rear-end installation, supporting the preparation for C-V2X industrialization." said Li Yan.

In July this year, Qualcomm and its partners completed the ConVex project in Germany, which was jointly initiated by relevant car companies, road builders, and schools to verify C-V2X technology. This is also the latest C-V2X test completed in Europe, which fully proves the reliability of C-V2X technology to European car companies and regulatory agencies.

"From the completion of standard setting, to independent field testing, and then to early commercial use, C-V2X will usher in strong development momentum in different regions and numerous industries. There is reason to believe that in the future, more OEMs will support the mass production of C-V2X functions based on Qualcomm Snapdragon Automotive 4G/5G platforms," ​​said Li Yan.

China will become a leader in C-V2X

At present, China is also actively promoting the industrialization of C-V2X. Through the introduction of relevant policies and the promotion of C-V2X technical verification, the society can fully understand the concept of C-V2X technology, and at the same time prove that C-V2X technology can help improve traffic safety and traffic efficiency.

In October 2018 and October 2019, the China Society of Automotive Engineers and the C-V2X Working Group of the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group and other organizations jointly organized the "three-cross" ("chip module + terminal + car manufacturer") and "four-cross" ("chip module + terminal + car manufacturer + CA platform") activities, which fully verified the maturity of C-V2X technology and the safety applications achieved using V2X technology.

In October 2019, Qualcomm, together with more than 30 leading companies in the automotive industry chain, participated in China's first "cross-chip module, cross-terminal, cross-vehicle, and cross-security platform" C-V2X application demonstration event in the C-V2X "four-cross" interconnection application demonstration event of China's protocol standard. Among the 26 vehicle manufacturers and 28 terminal equipment and protocol stack manufacturers participating in the event, nearly two-thirds adopted the Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset solution, which fully verified the reliability and maturity of C-V2X technology and met the expectations of Qualcomm's product technology design.

In November 2018, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Interim Provisions on the Use of the 5905-5925MHz Frequency Band for Direct Communication of Internet of Vehicles (Intelligent Connected Vehicles)", which planned a dedicated frequency resource with a total bandwidth of 20MHz in the 5905-5925MHz frequency band for direct communication technology of V2X intelligent connected vehicles based on the evolution of LTE.

Li Yan said that China has introduced relevant policies and promoted the technical verification of C-V2X, allowing society to fully understand the concept of C-V2X technology. At the same time, it has proved that C-V2X technology can help improve traffic safety and improve traffic efficiency. C-V2X deployment has also been carried out on a global scale.

"At present, the industry generally believes that China will become the leader in C-V2X technology. In the past period of time, many regions in the country, such as Tianjin, Wuxi, Chongqing, and Wuhan, have had a large number of vehicle networking construction projects. Through the continuous transformation of roadside infrastructure, many areas have begun to provide LTE V2X coverage. At the same time, many automobile manufacturers have announced that they will mass-produce C-V2X-enabled cars by the end of this year or early next year." Li Yan said.

C-V2X continues to evolve towards 5G

With the development of 5G, C-V2X technology is also evolving towards 5G V2X. In July this year, 3GPP announced the freezing of Rel-16 version, completing the 5G V2X standard based on the 5G framework for the first time.

In Li Yan's opinion, in the Rel-14 version, LTE V2X is benchmarked against DSRC, focusing on solving the basic status information sharing between vehicles, improving the perception ability of vehicles, and focusing on supporting some basic safety applications to solve safety problems. 5G V2X fully utilizes the characteristics of 5G's large bandwidth, low latency, and high reliability to improve the perception ability between vehicles, and then focuses on supporting autonomous driving technology.

Li Yan believes that Rel-14 LTE V2X and Rel-16 5G V2X complement each other rather than replace each other. LTE V2X is more about the digitization of infrastructure, providing basic security services, including digitizing the traffic light system and broadcasting it as a wireless signal. It not only broadcasts the current traffic light information, but also the information of traffic light changes, notifying passing vehicles of traffic light changes. Vehicles can use this to optimize their own speed, thereby ensuring smooth traffic.

The Rel-16 version is aimed at other scenarios, such as supporting autonomous driving. Because 5G has a larger network bandwidth, there will be more shared perception and shared path planning between cars in the future. At present, the industry generally divides autonomous driving capabilities into five levels. Experts engaged in autonomous driving generally believe that if you rely on single-vehicle intelligence, you can only reach the L3 level. In specific scenarios, multi-dimensional digital capabilities are difficult to achieve L4 or L5 advanced autonomous driving and full-scenario autonomous driving. To achieve full-scenario autonomous driving, it is necessary to enhance the perception of road infrastructure signals, including the perception of road participants, through the Internet of Vehicles technology. The most important thing is to use the Rel-16 version of 5G V2X technology to conduct collaborative perception and path planning between cars, so as to effectively avoid accidents.

Since Rel-14 and Rel-16 are complementary, Qualcomm has introduced the concept of multi-mode for future applications in cars.

"Although we have entered the 5G era, today's mobile phones are multi-mode, supporting 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G at the same time. Sometimes you have to go back to the 2G network to make a call, and use 4G and 5G networks when surfing the Internet. The evolution of C-V2X technology in vehicles in the future will be the same. Every car will support Rel-14 C-V2X technology, using this technology to achieve basic status perception between cars and between cars and roads. All vehicles can perform basic safety application scenarios based on Rel-14. For some vehicles that support autonomous driving, when they need to conduct collaborative perception and path planning with other autonomous driving vehicles, they will use Rel-16 version or other future versions of 5G V2X technology on another channel to negotiate driving intentions more quickly and reliably. These are two different modes, and they coexist through multi-mode terminals." said Li Yan.