5G in Smart Transportation — the new horizon for the Communication Service Providers
Transportation and traffic management has long been one of the basic needs of civilization and humanity. With rising global income, cheaper and more affordable automobiles — vehicles have become an everyday household item. An efficient economy demands from us that we move quickly, and we are on time every day to start our jobs. This has led to extremely high levels of traffic congestions in the metropolitan areas. Manual traffic management system which are used today, are prone to human errors and are inefficient. AI, big data analytics and 5G technologies can transform today’s inefficient traffic management systems into smart traffic management systems which will dramatically improve the transportation efficiency, reduce our transit time, and will have a big impact on the economy. As more and more Smart Cities projects are coming up, globally, the Smart Transportation market is expected to grow from USD 94.5 B in 2020 to USD 156.5 B in 2025. (Smart Transportation Market, 2020)
Benefits of Smart Transportation
Before delving deep into the ecosystem of smart transportation, let us have a look at how it can improve our lives.
Enhanced Livability — Reduction of the levels of congestion, number of accidents, overall commute time and fuel spending. Smart transportation will make today’s cities more livable and enjoyable.
Enhanced Workability and Economic Activities — Smart transportation will lead to reduced waiting time in traffic which will lead to more productivity. Better mental and physical health are some other intangible benefits of smart transportation which can-not be captured easily in monetary terms.
Enhanced Sustainability — Another huge benefit of Smart Transportation is enhanced sustainability. Noise pollution and Air pollution are bound to reduce by a significant level with smart transportation which will be highly beneficial for our society. (Smart Cities Council | How Smart Transportation Networks Benefit Your City, 2020)
Smart Transportation Architecture
Now, let us have a look at the high-level architecture of the system to get an idea on how the system functions. The following is an image of the overall architecture of a part of the system –
From Figure 2 we can see that component wise it has the following components — Video and Traffic Control System, Supervisory Computer Control and Peripheral Devices. Data from these different components are collected by the controlling and monitoring unit. Different software and data analytics tools run on top of this layer to manage the traffic flawlessly.
As shown in Figure 1, there is a local database in every traffic server. In the regional database, information of many such distributed information systems is stored. There are data processing centers as well for processing the wide range of data. For the system to be robust and adaptive, very efficient communication systems are required. 5G will prove to be a huge improvement over the existing communication capabilities. On top of that, in many parts of the world, AI-ML and Big Data capabilities are being implemented in the datacenters to do predictive modelling for identifying upcoming traffic trends.
Key features of 5G which will complement smart transportation
5G technology has got many intrinsic features which will be the enablers of smart transportation ecosystem.
The eMBB (Enhanced Mobile Broadband) feature of 5G is a massive improvement over LTE. This feature provides greater capacity to the network to support peak data rates. The large amount of data that is generated in a smart transportation system between the IoT devices, vehicles and pedestrians can flow seamlessly through the 5G network. This will lead to better managed traffic systems, greater overall capacity and reduced congestion.
5G with its mMTC (massive machine type communication) feature will make IOT and V2V communication on a very large scale feasible — which is one of the core requirements of smart transportation.
5G massive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) expands beyond the legacy system by adding much higher number of antennas to the base station which helps in increasing efficiency and throughput. This will help in sending a massive amount of data from sensors and RSUs to vehicles which will reduce the number of traffic accidents due to continuous communication.
5G network slicing helps in multiplexing independent logical networks which helps in embracing very different service level requirements. In smart transportation this feature can specially come in handy in case of emergency vehicle routing.
Hence, 5G is an indispensable technology for smart transportation and it will play a key role in realizing the dream of smart transportation and traffic management throughout the world. (5G: What Are EMBB, URLLC and MMTC?, 2020)
Smart Transportation Ecosystem
As shown in the figure below, smart transportation ecosystem has got 5 different components — Infrastructure, Network, Platforms, Applications & Users.
From a Communication Service Provider’s standpoint, they will play the most crucial role in the overall ecosystem. CSPs will be responsible for setting up the 5G infrastructure and connections to different terminals. CSPs can also provide other value-added services like data management and cloud services. IT service providers will also have a major role to play in this ecosystem. In the network layer the IT players can help to build efficient Vehicle to Vehicle, Vehicle to Infrastructure and Vehicle to Pedestrian communication systems. In the Platforms layer, the IT players can implement AI, Big Data and Video Analytics capabilities which are crucial for any smart transportation system. From traffic control and analytics to adaptive signaling and automatic number plate recognition — the IT players possess the capabilities to play a dominant role in the Applications layer.
We are living in a constantly evolving world where change is the only constant. Over the past few years, the CSPs have taken a hit on their voice revenue and the trend is predicted to continue in the foreseeable future. CSPs are under increasing pressure to find new revenue sources or to limit unnecessary losses. Application of 5G technology in smart transportation projects can be a lucrative source of revenue for the CSPs. The industry is moving fast — industry leaders like AT&T, BT have already started embracing this new opportunity. Other CSPs will also need to move fast and make the most of this opportunity, or risk being left behind.
Sources:
1. Smart Transportation Market. (2020). Markets and Markets. https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/smart-transportation-market-692.html#:%7E:text=The%20global%20smart%20transportation%20market%20size%20to%20grow%20from%20USD,10.6%25%20during%20the%20forecast%20period.
2. Communications, C. O. H. A. J. J.-. (2021, May 26). 8 Smart Cities Lead the Way in Advanced Intelligent Transportation Systems. Otonomo. https://otonomo.io/blog/smart-cities-intelligent-transportation-systems/
3. Smart Cities Council | How smart transportation networks benefit your city. (2020). Smart Cities Readiness Guide. https://rg.smartcitiescouncil.com/readiness-guide/article/benefits-how-smart-transportation-networks-benefit-your-city#:%7E:text=A%20smart%20transportation%20network%20is,realize%20even%20greater%20environmental%20benefits.
4. 5G: What are eMBB, URLLC and mMTC? (2020, March 12). MediaTek. https://www.mediatek.com/blog/5g-what-are-embb-urllc-and-mmtc
