As part of 5G-Blueprint’s activities, project partner Locatienet reached out to renowned telecommunication firm Oppo to support their work. Here below, our brief exchange with Tom van de Ven of Locatienet, who we interviewed to gain a couple of insights on this collaboration.
What is the role of Locatienet within the 5G-Blueprint project?
LN developed a smartphone based service called Vectordrive that warns road users for potential collisions with tele-operated vehicles (TOV) as well as the operators of the TOVs. In the 5G-Blueprint project LN will assess the benefits of using new 5G features for this service through extensive field trials.
How does Oppo contribute to the related Locatienet activities?
In the field trials LN wants to test the benefits of using the service over a 5G slice that is set up to support interactions between road users and the road infrastructure. This slice offers lower latency and higher reliability which is crucial for a safety related feature such as the prioritises data traffic. Accessing a slice requires the 5G mobile telecommunication network to operate in stand-alone mode (SA mode). 5G-Blueprint partners Telenet and KPN will provide this in the designated 5G-Blueprint trial areas. However, to use 5G networks in SA-mode the handsets that will run the Vectordrive app of LN will also have to support SA-mode. Because no handsets are commercially available that support SA-mode LN approached Oppo with the question whether they could provide SA-enabled handsets for the trials.
What’s the impact of this collaboration on the project?
Oppo has provided LN with 5 handsets with a special firmware version that supports SA-mode. This will allow LN, Telenet and KPN to trial the Vectordrive solution in a full fledged 5G SA network setting, providing invaluable insights into the benefits of the new 5G technology in supporting advanced connected ITS solutions.
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