Performance Evaluation of Onboard Processing Capability Reduction in Cooperative Vehicles Using 5G and Artificial Intelligence

Fifth-generation (5G) technology is one of the keys to the Industrial Revolution known as Industry 4.0 as it provides faster connectivity and allows a greater number of devices to be connected simultaneously. In the transport sector, newly produced vehicles are equipped with various sensors and applications to help drivers perform safe maneuvers. However, moving from semiautonomous to fully autonomous vehicles to cooperating systems remains a major challenge. Many researchers have focused on artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and the ability to share information to achieve this cooperative behavior. This information can be made up of different data, which can be obtained from different sensors such as laser imaging detection and ranging (LiDAR), radar, camera, global positioning system (GPS), or data related to the current speed, acceleration, or position. The combination of the different shared data is performed depending on the approach of each navigation algorithm. This data fusion will allow a better understanding of the environment but will overload the network, as the traffic generated will be massive. Therefore, this paper addresses the challenge of achieving this cooperation between vehicles from the point of view of network requirements and computational capacity. In addition, this study contributes to advancing theory into real-world practice by examining the performance of cooperative navigation algorithms in the midst of the migration of computational resources from onboard vehicle equipment to the cloud. In particular, it investigates the transition from a cooperative navigation algorithm based on a decentralized architecture to a semidecentralized one as computationally demanding processes previously performed onboard are performed in the cloud. Additionally, the paper discusses the indispensable role of 5G in fulfilling the escalating demands for high throughput and low latency in these services, particularly as the number of vehicles increases. The results of the tests show that the AI acting alone cannot achieve optimal performance, even using 100% of the computational capacity of the onboard equipment in the vehicle. However, a system that integrates 5G and AI-based joint decisions can achieve better performance, reduce the computational resources consumed in the vehicle, and increase the efficiency of collaborative choices by up to 83.3%.