Car2MEC was funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs. The project aimed to gather information on the value of MEC for connected driving, both in terms of technology and network architecture, as well as its economic impact. Project partners tested several different use cases on the A9 motorway, including emergency warning, traffic jam end warning, variable speed limit assistance, and HD maps.
Ronald Hain, Back-end Team Leader, Interior Systems & Technology at Continental: "In the future, multi-access edge computing will be a very important communication technology for the connected vehicle. By bridging the gap between real-time local applications and cloud services, it will allow us to improve automated driving and enable vehicles to cooperate with each other. Furthermore, local services effectively utilize the data speeds of LTE or 5G networks. Continental is currently working on a vehicle architecture that takes this communication technology into account.".
Deutsche Telekom implemented a dedicated infrastructure for the project, with two separate MECs located locally in the test area on the A9 motorway. The testbed shared resources with the live LTE network and operated for 12 months, enabling comprehensive testing. This setup provided a unique opportunity to evaluate MEC technology in a real-world environment: public roads and commercial cellular networks with numerous concurrent users.
"The project results validate the performance of edge computing on our 4G networks as a potential enabler for automotive use cases requiring low latency and extremely high reliability," says Alexander Lautz, Senior Vice President 5G at Deutsche Telekom. "Looking ahead, we will continue to collaborate with partners in the automotive sector on the evolution of this technology and its application in connected and automated driving solutions that will deliver the best possible driving experience.".
In the project, Fraunhofer ESK's hybrid communication units enabled time-sensitive applications for connected vehicles using proven and standardized protocols and message sets. A highly efficient distributed messaging service (GeoService) implemented at the multi-access edge nodes provided low-latency connectivity between vehicles and a direct link to localized services. Combined with Fraunhofer ESK's adaptive network algorithms, which select the most appropriate communication path at runtime, the complementary strengths of different technologies can be leveraged to deliver optimized Quality of Service (QoS) for each application and context.
Karsten Roscher, senior scientist at Fraunhofer ESK: "This project has given us the opportunity to evaluate and improve our ETSI ITS hybrid solution in a commercial cellular network with future 5G additions in mind. While the edge cloud improved end-to-end latency by more than 20 ms, the 4G radio access network remains a limiting factor for more demanding services in the future. However, we believe that the combination of edge cloud and 5G will shape a completely new landscape of connected and distributed applications.".
MHP provided insights into the value of MEC for connected driving from a business perspective. MHP identified critical success factors for potential business ecosystems driven by the new technology. The business opportunities that MEC offers the automotive industry are complex yet promising. Several potential areas of action were identified within the project. Cooperation and partnerships, along with standardization and a clear value proposition for each stakeholder's investment, are considered crucial for future development.
Olaf Kleindienst, partner at MHP: "Everyone is talking about the connected car, and in some ways, the connected car is already here. But there's still a long way to go and many questions remain, particularly surrounding the fully connected car. Connected vehicles represent a new environment for the automotive industry, and established key players need to reinvent themselves with new business models. We see projects like Car2MEC as an excellent opportunity to think ahead and discuss questions about this new environment.".
