The 5G-ROUTES project has been included in IGLO's list of success stories among other European initiatives.
IGLO (Informal Group of R&I Liaison Offices) has recognized a project involving LMT as one of their success stories. The 5G-ROUTES project, which received funding from Horizon Europe Research and Innovation program, was selected as a success story among other European endeavors.
IGLO’s core aim is to foster collaboration, information exchange, and cooperation between its members, their respective national research systems, and the European institutions on issues related to EU research. This includes monitoring and assessing innovation activities with the goal of promoting effective and efficient knowledge sharing among stakeholders.
The main objective of the 5G-ROUTES project is to carry out cross-border EU trials for connected and automated mobility. This involves conducting advanced field trials for the most innovative and representative CAM applications that can seamlessly operate along a designated 5G cross-border corridor, known as ‘Via Baltica-North’, which spans across the borders of three EU member states – Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.
These trials aim to verify and validate the latest 5G features and 3GPP specifications under practical conditions. By doing so, the trials aim to accelerate the deployment of 5G E2E interoperable CAM ecosystems and services on digitized motorways, railways, and waterways throughout Europe. The ultimate goal is to establish an interconnected and robust communication network to improve transportation safety and efficiency.
LMT is part of the 20-company consortium that initiated the 5G-ROUTES project on September 1st, 2020. LMT leads a working group that is responsible for:
- Creating the necessary 5G infrastructure at trial sites in Latvia, Estonia, and Finland, which includes ensuring uninterrupted mobile network connectivity in the 5G cross-border corridor.
- Providing connected and automated mobility solutions for digital roads and smart vehicles, such as self-driving cars, trains, and ferries.
- Implementing and configuring the latest 5G network capabilities.
- Conducting trial tests before operating them in the planned test sites.
The 5G-ROUTES project has made steady progress since its inception. On May 12th, 2022, the project achieved a significant milestone with the first use case demonstrations held at LMT’s 5G cross-border mobility testbed, located at the Bikernieki race track in Riga, Latvia. This testbed utilizes the 5G networks of LMT and Telia in Latvia and Estonia, respectively, to simulate cross-border connectivity.
Several partners from the 5G-ROUTES project demonstrated a total of four cross-border use cases during the test:
- The Latvian Institute of Electronics and Computer Science presented dynamic vehicle platooning, where an autonomous vehicle mimicked the maneuvers of a manually controlled vehicle using only vehicle data transmitted over a commercial 5G network.
- VEDECOM Institute for the Energy Transition and Tallinn University of Technology tested two use cases: vulnerable road user collision avoidance and connected maintenance. During the demonstration, a pedestrian was warned of a potential collision by a connected electric vehicle that detected faults through sensors, allowing them to avoid danger. Cross-border connectivity was tested by connecting the vulnerable road user and electric vehicle to different mobile operators.
- Brainstorm tested the capabilities of a 5G non-standalone network by demonstrating multiplayer gameplay, connecting gamers through 5G-enabled smartphones and laptops.
The recognition of the 5G-ROUTES project as a success story by IGLO highlights the significance of developing innovative connected and automated mobility solutions through a collaborative pan-European approach.