5G, 50 times faster than LTE, is essential in emergency situations, realizing data-based communication

In May 2004, Captain Park Moo-taek and Jang Min of the Keimyung University Everest Expedition succeeded in reaching the summit of Everest. However, Captain Park Moo-taek, who was supporting Jang Min who soon became exhausted, was stranded at around 8,750m above sea level due to snow blindness while descending. His voice was not heard from again until the last time he relayed that he could not move due to snow blindness and frostbite.

The next morning, Captain Baek Jun-ho went out to rescue him, but his radio contact was cut off forever after he relayed the condition of Agent Park Moo-taek and his own condition.

These are scenes from the movie Himalaya, released in 2015. Ice climbing is done by relying on ropes tied to each other's bodies.

Bottom of the 9th, 2 outs, bases loaded. 2 strikes, 3 balls. The batter and runner, pitcher and manager, and coach and manager are engaged in a fierce war of nerves, sending and receiving signals. The signals they exchange include promised operations as well as false signals to confuse the opponent.
The next-generation Intelligent Transport System (C-ITS) consisting of V2X technology, including vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-person (V2P), and vehicle-to-network (V2N) and mechanical elements supporting it, such as Lidar, radar, digital cameras, sonar, GPS, and IMU, as well as complementary technologies such as CAN bus and 3D mapping, and fully autonomous vehicles are based on organic networking as well as real-time data transmission and reception and artificial intelligence technology based on deep learning.


C-ITS' real-time data transmission and reception solved with '5G'
C-ITS is a term that appeared 10 to 15 years ago, but there has been active movement to implement it based on mobile communications recently. In the case of C-ITS, a large amount of data is required for real-time data transmission and reception, so 5G, which features ultra-high speed, ultra-connectivity, and ultra-low latency, is attracting attention as a solution.
According to Intel's analysis, the amount of data that autonomous vehicles will generate is expected to be 4,000 GB per day. Radar, which recognizes distances using electromagnetic waves, and sonar, which uses ultrasonic waves to see surrounding objects, generate 10 to 100 KB of data per second, GPS, which provides the vehicle's location, generates 50 KB per second, and lidar, a laser beam useful in places with poor visibility such as fog, generates 10 to 70 MB of data per second.

Experts also predict that fully autonomous vehicles will emit 4 TB of data per hour, and the theoretical maximum speed of 5G is 20 Gbps, which can download about 2 GB of data per second and about 8,300 GB of data per hour. Therefore, if we carefully select the information that must be sent to the cloud among the 3-4 TB of data, it is believed that we will be able to perform complete analysis and take safety measures within the cloud using only 5G communications.


IT companies challenge Goliath
In 2014, in Detroit, known as the center of the global automobile industry, Google's self-driving car Waymo appeared and attracted the attention of the audience. The car had no steering wheel or brakes.
The automobile industry has been a monopoly market due to high entry barriers and exclusive competition among suppliers, but IT companies such as Google and Apple have thrown down the gauntlet and are threatening automakers such as GM, Toyota, Renault-Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai-Kia Motors.

There are differences in views on the introduction of autonomous vehicles between traditional automobile companies and IT companies, but one thing is clear: the automobile of the future will position software elements as more important values to consumers than the mechanical body.

This can be likened to the past computer market. When computers were first released, people prioritized hardware elements. However, Microsoft completely changed the paradigm of the personal computer hardware market. This was because it released operating systems called DOS and Windows. Moreover, since the Windows operating system is designed to be applied regardless of hardware, consumers no longer have to focus on hardware elements when purchasing a computer.

Since German Karl Benz introduced the world's first gasoline-powered automobile in 1886 and the American Ford introduced mass production using conveyor belts in 1908, traditional global automakers have been thoroughly blocking challenges from new competitors. Recently, due to counterattacks by Google, Apple, and Tesla, they are investing huge amounts of money in software development.

In fact, Mercedes-Benz has deployed 300 researchers (as of 2016) through its Silicon Valley division to work on cutting-edge technology projects and user experience design, while Volkswagen has commissioned 140 engineers, social scientists, and product designers to develop a new infotainment system by integrating Google Earth maps into Audi’s navigation system.

A typical car today has about 100 microprocessors inside, which can control things like brakes, cruise control, and transmission. The software systems of new vehicles consist of 5 to 10 million lines of code (LOC).

In fact, the concept of a driverless car first appeared in the world in 1939 through GM's driverless concept car, which pursued innovation and creation. The driverless concept car 'Futurama', which first appeared at the World's Fair held in Queens, New York, was finally realized as a driverless car by Google after about 60 years.

GM's Futurama showed the automated highway of the 1960s, where hands-free driving would become the norm. Futurama roamed through miniature cities, farms, countryside, and airports, all connected by a smooth ribbon of the automated highway. It is considered the ancestor of today's C-ITS.


Critical IoT in the spotlight in the 5G-based C-ITS market
Driverless car technology, which is expressed as electric vehicles, ubiquitous, wireless environments, and car sharing, is recently entering a maturity stage and is being redefined as the concept of autonomy.
The Critical IoT market, which is the most spotlighted field in 5G, is developing technology to apply edge computing technology at the network level to satisfy 99.999% connectivity and 1ms low latency in remote driving.

In Korea, we are securing competitiveness by supplementing automobile sensing technology based on the world's most advanced mobile communication and 5G technologies. In the 5G environment, we are developing so that relatively inexpensive technologies and critical technologies can be implemented simultaneously in a single network.

In fully autonomous cars, passengers will now be able to enjoy infotainment features such as watching movies or listening to music through communication services.

Vladimir Zworykin, who is considered a pioneer in cathode ray tube and automation technology, said the following while participating in an automation development project over 60 years ago:

“Every car control system needs to know the location of every vehicle on the highway, which means you need a vehicle tracking system. Every vehicle must communicate its position to other vehicles directly involved. This means communication between vehicles behind it, between vehicles, and between vehicles and the highway. The ultimate goal is to use automated control to make vehicles move based on the information collected.”

Fully autonomous vehicles will now be able to communicate with roadside traffic management servers in real time, based on data, using 5G networks and other technologies.

“5G is essential for real-time communication and information transmission between vehicles and between vehicles and infrastructure during autonomous driving,” said Neil Jablon, senior director at Qualcomm, in a keynote speech at the Smart Cloud Show 2019. “Autonomous driving is a critical technology field that puts human lives at stake. In the event of an emergency, it would be too late if the data went to the cloud and then back to the vehicle to issue a command. That’s why 5G communication with ultra-low latency is important.”

According to the definition of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 5G has a transmission speed of over 20 Gbps per second, which is 20 to 40 times faster than LTE. The 5G frequency band is up to 100 times wider than LTE, so if LTE is a one-lane road, 5G can be viewed as a 100-lane highway, and in a 5G network, 1 million devices will be connected and exchange data within a 1km radius of a communication base station.

Applying this to autonomous vehicles, while the data delay time for LTE is 0.04 to 0.05 seconds, for 5G it is less than 0.001 seconds. When a vehicle that recognizes a hazard suddenly brakes, it moves 0.8 to 1.35 meters without any control in an LTE environment, but is pushed 0.027 meters in a 5G environment. This means that the response speed of self-driving cars sending and receiving data via 5G networks is 50 times faster than that of LTE.

At 100 km/h, with the LTE latency (50 ms), the braking command is initiated after the vehicle has moved 1.4 m, but with 5G, at the ultra-fast speed of 1 ms, braking is initiated after the vehicle has moved 2.8 cm. Considering that the human braking latency is around 200 to 300 ms, this means that 5G can implement a sufficiently safe data transmission and reception environment.


Need to address privacy violations, vehicle collisions, etc.
In 1957, a TV commercial for an American power company that introduced driverless cars delivered the following message:

“One day, cars will run on electric superhighways, and electronic devices installed on the road will automatically control the speed and direction of the cars. Travel will be more enjoyable, and highways will be safer thanks to electronic devices. Traffic jams, accidents, and driver fatigue will all disappear.”

The following year, in 1958, Disney aired an episode titled "Magic Highway USA" on their TV program "Disneyland." The animation featured a family and their one vehicle, which was washed and charged with electricity. After the entire family got into the car, the father pulled a few levers to set the destination. The car will soon start driving on its own, and during the commute, the father can hold meetings while the wife and children sit in the backseat to relax and chat.
The Museum of Future Generations may display Level 0 vehicles that we drive today. Future generations will be able to get into these vehicles and control the brakes, transmission, and steering wheel themselves, experiencing the tiring or exciting vehicles that their ancestors drove in the past.

There are still many issues to be resolved in order to realize fully autonomous vehicles. In addition to positive factors, standards must be established for privacy violations, legal and ethical disputes in the event of accidents between autonomous vehicles, and negative factors such as human alienation must also be considered.

As of May 2018, 15 companies are investing in the development of autonomous driving technology, including Google Waymo, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Aptiv, Zoox, Renault-Nissan, Volkswagen-Audi, BMW, Toyota, Ford, Volvo, Hyundai, Fiat Chrysler, Tesla, and Baidu.

The 5G and autonomous vehicle industries, which will create a socioeconomic value of 73 trillion won annually, are now changing the paradigm of vehicles from a means of transportation to a living space. The software operating system of autonomous vehicles, which encompasses big data, IoT, AI, robots, and 5G, must be designed to be absolutely reliable and safe, from clear recognition of the current situation to response to the next situation.