What Is LTE V and LTE-V2X Technology?

The telecom industry is forever looking for acronyms which they can add to the letters LTE in order to explain they have discovered a new use for LTE. They have now come up with the term LTE-V for 5G connected cars as the industry regularly does with other acronyms which can be added to LTE. LTE-V2X is also a popular term with the telecom industry for indicating the use of the LTE infrastructure for a vehicle to everything communication.

As mentioned earlier the telecom industry is frequently adding new letters to LTE to make it look slightly different. They could be doing it for a good reason as we presently have LTE-A for advanced, LTE-M for machines, LTE-U for unlicensed spectrum and LTE-V for vehicles.

Major Manufacturers in the automotive industry such as Auto-talks are exploring the LTE-V because of the simple reason that the technology has the potential to make open transport safer and more efficient. The technology allows vehicle to vehicle, a vehicle to people as well as a vehicle to network communications over the existing networks of the operator. Basically, LTE-V is the application of vehicular connectivity over the existing operator mobile network infrastructure.

The fresh batch of intelligent transport systems can already be supported by integrating LTE for cellular access and ad hoc connectivity between vehicles operating on IT S designated spectrum at 5.9 GHz.

Research conducted by Ericsson has indicated that communication ranges between vehicles can be doubled with the use of LTE-V when compared to the standard 802.11p regardless of whether the vehicle is in congested urban areas or is being driven on high-speed highway scenarios. Most discussions over the standardization of vehicular LTE revolved around the use of unlicensed spectrum. In order to avoid frequency interference or conflict with other services is it would become essential to ensure interference of any kind with the 5.9 GHz band. The European Commission had already allocated some parts of the 5.9 GHz band for priority transport safety purposes back in 2008. It was also dedicated for a vehicle to vehicle use.

Presently after a decade of the actions taken by the European Commission and a variety of V2V technology being introduced the changes introduced by the European Commission are expected to be revisited when the 3 GPP completes the work on release 14.

LTE-V has grabbed the attention of major providers of infrastructure and it is now believed that the days for 802.11p could well be numbered and it will soon be consigned into the background. Research is still undergoing to understand the many conflicts could arise to understand how LTE-V competes or coexists with the 802.11p standard which until this moment was being viewed as the de facto standard for intelligent transport systems.

LTE-V2X will certainly bring along a better method for vehicles to communicate with each other as they wouldn’t be relying on outdated technology but will be utilizing the 5.9 GHz band which offers them better connectivity over a larger distance. Whether the technology will be available instantly or not is the only matter that needs to be taken into account presently. However, it can be confirmed that the technology is well on its way to being introduced because tests are already undergoing in certain countries to understand how they can make V2X even safer than it presently is.

Going ahead people using connected vehicles will have the ability to observe their vehicles communicating with other vehicles on the road, people and even infrastructure which may have been installed. It would be the LTE-V technology which would be helping them to drive safely knowing full well they are constantly receiving updates of road conditions from the technology installed in their vehicles.

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