Coverage on winding roads: testing your network out in the field

A field test brings a product, such as a car infotainment system, into a real environment and assesses whether it operates the way it should.

In her role as Global Field Test Manager at DEKRA, Lourdes Sanchez is involved in the latest technological developments around field testing for connected vehicles.

In this interview she explains, amongst others, why field testing is needed, what it does for safety, and what her view is on how it will change in the coming years.

What is field testing actually?
Lourdes: “Field testing happens in the very last stage of product development, right before the product hits the market. In a sense, the name says it all: in a field test, we bring a product into a real environment and test whether it operates the way it should.

For example, a car infotainment system has specific functions that need to keep working, no matter where the car is at a given time; in a mountainous area, near the sea, or in an open field. So we test if it does what it is supposed to do.

Through field testing, we assess the functionalities and reliability of the system under many different real life scenarios, some of which you could never simulate in a lab. Reality really is much more complex than a simulated environment.”

Who is asking for these field tests?
Lourdes: “We perform field tests for many different types of customers. Many of them are in the telecommunications industry. Some of our largest customers are network operators who need to ensure that communication between automotive systems and their networks (3G or LTE/4G, for example) is reliable, no matter the circumstances.

Of course, the telecommunications industry is not the only industry that needs to do field testing: automotive manufacturers combine and assemble technologies from various suppliers and build them into their cars.

To ensure that their systems work under all circumstances, they approach us to perform field tests in many different situations.

Earlier you said “no matter where the car is’. Do you mean all over the world?
Lourdes: “Frankly, yes, we do field testing all over the world. In the past year, we have performed tests in all of Latin America, in the US, Canada, in many countries in Europe, China, Australia, and even New Zealand.

That’s because network operators are different everywhere, and so are the issues that they deal with.”

What do you actually test when you perform a field test on a system?
Lourdes: “Usually, a car manufacturer makes a car available to us with the system or product that needs to be tested. But sometimes we use our own company cars or even a rental and build in the product or system ourselves.

Before we start a field test, we determine relevant key performance indicators, such as the desired upload and download data rates (throughput) time-to-connect, or the coverage rates (what percentage of surface is covered by which technologies).

Throughput measures the data rates when you are using a 3G or LTE/4G connection for listening to music, for example, or for downloading your route.

The coverage rate indicates how well a city or area is covered by a specific technology, such as LTE or 3G. The time-to-connect does exactly what its name says: how long does it take for the device to connect to the operator?

Other aspects revolve more around the application itself: retrieving a destination, downloading files, sending texts, and so on. So in effect we not only test the technology itself, but also the built-in applications that enable the service.

If any of those aspects does not meet the expectations, manufacturers will know what they have to do.”

There aren’t that many connected vehicles yet. Do we already need field testing?
Lourdes: “Yes, already field testing has become a necessity. Currently, cars are being equipped with all kinds of smart connectivity systems, like eCall, the automatic emergency call system that will become mandatory from April 2018 onwards in every personal and light commercial vehicle.

In the near future, around 2020, it is estimated that 60 to 70 percent of vehicles will have some form of built-in technology that can have a safety-related function, like road work warnings, left turn assist, green light optimal speed advisory, and reduced speed zone warnings.

As we move into the future, we will see that the safety of cars and their drivers becomes increasingly dependent on systems that provide real-time data and information about the road, its surroundings, and various infrastructure elements and circumstances.

Right now, we test 2G, 3G and 4G connections to test communication between a smart phone, the car, and the network. However, in the future an interconnected smart city network will require a much larger effort.

Imagine a smart city environment in which cars talk to their passengers, driver, to other cars, pedestrians outside, the traffic infrastructure, and network operators. Not only the network, but many more elements and protocols will be involved that revolve around, for example, the city’s infrastructure.

They will differ per city and have an effect on safety, because they are used to anticipate accidents, give crash warnings, and so on. Field testing is just one of the many tests that need to take place to ensure the safety of people, the car, and their environment.

That sounds as interesting as it does overwhelming. What does DEKRA do to keep pace?
Lourdes: “We follow developments in the automotive market very closely. We take part in standardization committees that set the stage for future developments and are a member of several industry consortia.

In addition, we form partnerships with innovative players in the automotive industry; this is a very beneficial way of keeping each other informed about what is happening and how we together can guarantee the safety of the connected car.

Finally, we are evolving our own in-house developed test tools to support new technologies from a very early stage onwards.

As we are speaking, our field test teams are performing tests all over the world simultaneously, on five different continents. That really shows the extent and profoundness of these tests.”

Originally published at www.dekra-product-safety.com on January 29, 2018.