Telstra says it has successfully trialled vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications over its 4G (LTE) network in South Australia, in conjunction with Cohda Wireless.
It describes this as “a pivotal first step in developing vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology,” but neglects to mention Wi-Fi variant 802.11p in which Cohda is a world leader and which it has publicly advocated as being preferable to LTE.
According to Telstra, examples of V2X include vehicles talking to infrastructure (such as traffic lights), vehicles talking to other vehicles, and vehicles talking to vulnerable road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians.
Said Cohda Wireless CEO Paul Gray: “There are a number of V2X use cases that can be deployed right now using 4G, and Telstra’s 4G network is ideal for supporting these.”
Cohda, however, is leading the world in vehicle-to-vehicle communication and collision avoidance using a version of Wi-Fi, and in April posted on its Web site a link to a lengthy academic paper, Why 802.11p Beats LTE and 5G for V2x, co-authored by Cohda CTO Paul Alexander.
It concluded: “At NXP, Cohda Wireless and Siemens [the employing companies of the co-authors] believe 802.11p is the better choice for deploying V2x applications today, because it’s ready to roll …
“LTE Release 8 may already be part of vehicles, but it will take a long time – perhaps eight years or more – before the required cellular standards, namely LTE-A and 5G, fully support all safety-related and non-safety-related V2x use-cases.
“By contrast, field-proven, compliance-tested solutions based on 802.11p are ready right now, and can be deployed on a large scale, worldwide, at any time. Moving ahead with 802.11p means enjoying the benefits of V2x use-cases that much sooner.”
