Nokia, along with Japanese mobile service provider KDDI, has successfully trialled the use of 4G long-term evolution (LTE) to provide a cost-efficient, low-latency connectivity for vehicles in Japan.

The trials were conducted at a rural location on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

It utilised a LTE broadcast to deploy the evolved multimedia broadcast multicast service (eMBMS) standard in two connected car applications and assessed the potentiality of 4G technology to enable complete automated driving in the future.

KDDI Technical Planning Division Connected Vehicle Technology Department general manger Munefumi Tsurusawa said: “We are pleased to work with Nokia to demonstrate our leadership in the delivery of mobile networks for IoT and connected car communications.

“This is an important trial showing how the automotive industry can leverage cellular technology to enhance safety of connect vehicles on the roads.”

“This is an important trial showing how the automotive industry can leverage cellular technology to enhance safety of connect vehicles on the roads.”

The Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology is designed to connect the vehicles with communications network infrastructure and roadside sensors such as traffic lights, as well as with other vehicles.

Withn these trials, Nokia and KDDI demonstrated vehicle to network usecase and used non-integrated systems in cars communicating with sensors through the Nokia multi-access edge computing (MEC) platform that reduces network latency.

The eMBMS hotspot solution allows sending information to multiple users simultaneously.

The usage of this technology in the trials facilitated real-time information sharing among multiple vehicles and ensures road safety.

Nokia and KDDI compared the efficiency of using LTE broadcast to the one-to-one communication enabled by LTE unicast, in vehicle-to-network-to-vehicle (V2N2V) and network real-time kinematic (RTK) applications.