Heterogeneous Vehicular Communications-Multi-Standard Solutions to Enable Interoperability

Abstract

Vehicular communication is considered to be a key enabler for future automated driving applications, which is considered one of the most promising vertical sectors for mobile networks. The 5.9 GHz frequency band has been allocated for safety and non-safety critical services in various regions of the world. Two radio access technologies have being defined and are currently competing for market adoption: IEEE Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE)/Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) based on the IEEE 802.11p and 3GPP LTE Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X). Standard bodies have independently specified these technologies, which rely on different channel access schemes. Consequently, three major challenges arise when the two technologies are supposed to access the spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band: Coexistence, Interoperability and Backwards Compatibility. Moreover, multi-operator interoperability is another key issue for a wide market acceptance. In this paper, we propose an innovative way to use Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) infrastructure, preferably colocated with Coud-RAN, to enable interoperability between distinct vehicular communication systems operating in the same band at the same location. Moreover, we also show how MEC enables vehicles from multiple OEMs to communicate via multiple Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) service providers.