US Federal Communications Commission pro V2V, V2I and V2X

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For many years, the battle is brewing for the band of the radio frequency spectrum, which was allocated 20 years ago for communications in vehicles, in particular for the transfer of information between the vehicles themselves (vehicle-to-vehicle) and the relationship between vehicles and infrastructure (vehicle-to-infrastructure), also known as V2x (Vehicle-to-everything).

A protocol was created for these communications, and over the past decades many experiments and demonstrations have been carried out, but widespread production still seems very distant and will continue to be so until every vehicle has been shipped with such equipment for at least 10 years.

In November 2019, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Ajit Pai said the wait was delayed, and recommended that the commission redistribute the desired 75 MHz bandwidth in the 5.9 GHz band. His suggestion is to convert 45 MHz to the unlicensed spectrum like the one that uses the Wi-Fi protocol, and leave 20 MHz for the updated LTE-based V2X protocol called C-V2X. He leaves open the question of whether the remaining 10 MHz will also be used for C-V2X or whether it can be left for use by the older protocol. DSRC.

I believe those who read our articles used to know that the V2X connection suffered the fate of the naked king. It is hardly useful and poses a threat to computer security. It is also very difficult, almost impossible, to launch network technology, which will require all devices around it before it even benefits.

The unlicensed spectrum has been one of the largest FCC cases in recent decades. Typically, the FCC grants spectrum monopolies to a specific owner or for a specific application. If you own any spectrum and get interference from someone who broadcasts illegally in it, then you contact the FCC and demand to disconnect the intruder.

In the case of the unlicensed spectrum, the opposite was true. Nobody owns it, it is not reserved for any purpose, and if interference comes from someone (below certain power limits), then this is not their problem, but yours. You need to figure out how to deal with interference. This revolution pushed engineers to high creativity, and over the years we saw in the field of unlicensed broadcasts the greatest revolution in the history of radio. From WiFi to Bluetooth, ZigBee, LoRa, and many other low-power Internet of Things protocols, we are seeing an explosion of opportunity, despite a corresponding explosion of usage and interference. Everyone joyfully welcomes unlicensed communications and their expansion. The DSRC band is next to the existing unlicensed band, which allows manufacturers of equipment for the 5.8 GHz band to use the increased channel width.

The Department of Transportation and DSRC fans will be unhappy and will try to return everything as it was. Fewer lanes complicate their plans (they will say that makes them impossible and wrong), because they planned everything on the basis of the belief that the entire spectrum will be reserved for their use in the field of automobile communications. They will be able to adapt to the use of a smaller range.

I proposed to the committee a better plan, which was that the entire range would be made unlicensed with one caveat: anyone who broadcasts on this frequency from mobile devices (cars or smartphones) will be required to implement some kind of road safety protocol for this device. As a result, after about 2 years, all new cell phones will support this protocol, and after 2 years, 90% of cars will contain a device that supports this protocol.

Compare this with the plan of the Department of Transport, requiring a protocol in all recently sold cars, starting 2-3 years after the release of the federal mandate. For this to be done in half of the cars on the road, it will take time until 2030. In this way, a quarter of accidents could have been prevented – but only after 10 years.

Of course, the protocol working between the phones will not have the same penetration of the radio transmission as the antenna on top of the car. Phones lie on the seats of cars and are installed on the dashboards. Some of them are not connected to chargers, which means that they do not have the necessary power. But a system that works 20% worse, but is present in almost all cars by 2023 is better than the one that by that time will be present in only 10% of cars. Cell phones are updated every 1-2 years, and they are replaced with newer and more advanced technologies.

Phone makers will love this. “You need to buy an iPhone 13! It can save your life! ”, – phone manufacturers are desperate for ways to make each new phone truly unique. At the same time, Wi-Fi receivers are installed in all cars, therefore, through the connection to the roof antenna, they broadcast between cars, which people want so much. They can also have a signal booster to make the signal from any mobile phone more reliable.

If the technology can be implemented in the phone, then it wins. Nothing can compete because of the scale of the release and the refresh rate of cell phones.

Of course, the automotive protocol must deal with interference. It sounds scary, but it’s really just a new challenge for engineers, which they do very well.


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