Outdoor Field Test of 5G-based V2X Communication for Real-Time Monitoring and Remote Control of a Monorail Vehicle

Smart cities will be significantly shaped by their modes of mobility. For the blend of public and individual transport, smart mobility will introduce autonomous vehicles on a large scale, which often heavily rely on communication. As the capabilities of autonomous vehicles are still limited nowadays, driver-less vehicles have to be able to be remotely monitored and controlled in real-time. This creates high performance demands for the vehicle’s communication link, especially regarding latency and uplink, which can easily exceed the limits of communication standards like Long Term Evolution (LTE). Therefore, the development of the communication system for the newly developed autonomous monorail vehicle MONOCAB aims towards the use of the 5G standard. This paper presents experiences and measurements from a first outdoor field test conducted in the context of monitoring and remotely controlling the MONOCAB via 5G. Previously, all communication services were subjected to ITU-T Y.1564 compliant tests for the network planning and the deployment of a 5G Non-Public Network (NPN). This deployed 5G NPN was then used to test remote monitoring the MONOCAB, at it’s first public presentation on the 3rd of October 2022, by transmitting video streams and telemetry data from the vehicle to a central control station. Additionally, a glass-to-glass latency measurement of a video stream transmitted via 5G was conducted, to point out the latency impact of 5G.