5G-based Connected Car
SK Telecom has successfully tested its fifth-generation (5G) network on a connected car running at 170 kilometers per hour with the world’s fasted speed. Based on this, the company’s 5G-based connected car will be able to send and receive massive traffic-related data with other vehicles, traffic lights and surveillance cameras in real time.
SK Telecom announced on Feb. 7 that it reached a data transfer speed of 3.6Gbps on connected cars running at 170 kilometers per hour, the highest for a 28GHz-based 5G pilot network, at BMW Driving Center in in Yeongjong Island, Incheon, in cooperation with Ericsson and BMW Group Korea.
The 3.6Gbps speed is twice faster than that of its previous test conducted at the same place in November last year, and seven times faster than the current 4G long term evolution (LTE) network’s maximum speed of 500Mbps. This means that SK Telecom’s 5G-based connected car can quickly respond to unexpected situations and obstacles, such as changes of intersection signals and minor car accidents, while running at super speed.
The 5G network tested by SK Telecom uses a 28 GHz high frequency spectrum on a 2.6-kilometer-long track. A high frequency band allows high-speed data transmission but makes it difficult to avoid obstacles as waves tend to travel in straight lines. It has also a downside of narrow communication range.
In this regard, SK Telecom said that it had overcome the disadvantages by advancing 5G network’s core beam-tracking technology that can intensively send a high frequency signal after a base station tracks an exact location of a certain device.
SK Telecom plans to further develop 5G related technologies to provide various services to users in time for the network to be commercialized in 2020.