V2X Communication: Enhancing Travel Experience

Key technologies – Edge Computing & MaaS Platform

Edge computing, which is relevant for low latency applications, can enable products like safety along intersections, automated driving and other safety and non-safety apps. Mobility as a service Platform is another key technology which stitches or integrates transport modes and services. In any city with different modes of transport including public transport, urban rail services, ride sharing platforms and car-pooling, MaaS Platform can be used to bind these services together so that the end user can make optimal use of their services. MaaS Platform is being adopted by most transport companies, startups, municipalities, tolling and payment companies as an enabler in the ITS or ICT ecosystem.

There has been an ambitious drive not to just develop indigenous technologies suitable to Bharat but also to take these beyond India. The products launched by Meity at the Expo are suited for smart cities in India and around the world. The drive of taking technology beyond the country is very visible in the ecosystem in India.

Mohan Raju

Software to assembly to chip manufacturing

From being a globally recognised software nation, India is now promoting setting up of manufacturing facilities based on designs already developed. A major manufacturer and supplier of iPhone and other mobile devices, the country has taken the first baby step from software and design to assembly. The next major step would be owning chip making facilities for not only mobile phones but all devices including cars, trucks, robotic machines, containers and televisions. By the time 6G standards get implemented, India would perhaps have everything from design to software development, chip manufacturing, integration and installation, making it one of the top five leaders in telecom globally.

Collaboration for optimising services

The need for collaboration between the telecom sector and the transport sector is important not only for the vehicle itself but for improving smart city services as a whole. Case in point, in Ahmedabad they have cameras on cabs which automatically pass live information over the LTE network to the control centre reporting anomalies on the road like wandering cows, garbage piles, wrong side driving and potholes. The smart city administration attends to the problem and raises a ticket that is not closed until it has been resolved.

Beyond India’s shores

For any automotive technology to mature and be implemented on roads, government regulations need to be in place. Another important aspect of deploying new smart mobility technologies is to have investment on test beds in order to experiment with them. IIT Hyderabad has a test bed which can experiment automotive technologies related to ITS. One of the pilots on ITS CV2X was done in collaboration with Suzuki and V2V, V2I and V2N use cases were demonstrated as part of those pilot initiatives at IIT Hyderabad. In addition, the municipalities of Ahmedabad and Vadodara were using these technologies to improve response times of ambulances and buses at intersections. India has a robust ecosystem not only in software but also hardware, modules and support which is needed to build these technologies by first experimenting and then scaling. This strong base positions India to take new technologies beyond its shores to the global market.

I want to compliment the automobile sector. The cab companies in New York city wanted to improve their efficiency but did not know where the cabs were. They wanted communication from the control headquarters of the cab company to the driver and drivers to each other. That was the market demand for getting mobile conversation, a mobile connection, that has brought us here today when we are talking of 6G ubiquitous connectivity.

Vikram Tiwathia

Standardisation critical for export

If India needs to export technologies, it is imperative that its products and policies are not only aligned with global standards, but that it participates in formulating them. Instead of India adopting global standards, the global community should adopt the standard jointly formulated with India. India has already shown it can do this for the 5G standard. It remains for India to implement domestically what is adopted globally for every electronic item that has chips built into it like refrigerators, television, cars or trucks. This would be one way to ensure global exports.

Issues to be addressed

Low latency is a major requirement for implementing vehicular communication. Stakeholders including the operator need to work with the ecosystem to improve connectivity of 4G and 5G in terms of latency and number of simultaneous conversations that can take place within an area, especially when there are hundreds of vehicles. In remote areas where the BRO (Border Roads Organisation) work, connectivity was still an issue because of lack of towers, signals and speed. New technology solutions like Satcom powered by low and medium earth orbit satellites could provide the bandwidth to overcome these challenges in the near future.