A 5G mobility testbed, located in Latvia's “Bikernieki” race track, has been successfully launched by the Latvian operator LMT and will become the first-ever cross-border mobility simulation space in Europe.
It will use Latvia's LMT and Estonia's Telia 5G networks to imitate fully functioning international connectivity. Developing the cross-border mobility simulation space in Latvia is a part of the 5G-Routes project, an international effort to ensure cross-border automated mobility. It's also planned to use the cross-border mobility simulation space in “Bikernieki” to develop and demonstrate several 5G-Routes project use cases.
The newly launched 5G mobility testbed in Latvia has already demonstrated its first use case – on August 20, 2021, a teleoperated vehicle simulation was conducted remotely over LMT's 5G network from the town of Cesis 80km away.
In order to successfully implement automated mobility elements in Europe, a continent with many borders and various mobile operators, it's necessary to solve the question of cross-border connectivity. To do this, the Baltic operators have been working together to ensure the smooth transition from one operator on one side of the border, to the other, while also ensuring connectivity in the middle. This is a technical challenge, as border areas tend to have weaker mobile coverage, which is what 5G technologies depend upon.
The 5G-Routes project, with a consortium made up of 21 partners, began work on September 1, 2020. The project aims to validate 5G field trials on the “Via Baltic North'' 5G cross-border corridor, spanning the borders of three EU countries – Finland, Estonia, and Latvia. Therefore, the project's consortium members are working in close cooperation to ensure successful development of the 5G-Routes objectives.
Artūrs Lindenbergs, Innovation Lead at LMT
This successful teleoperated vehicle use case demonstration shows that operating automated vehicles on the 5G network is not only possible but a fast-approaching reality. Therefore, we believe that thanks to the strong network coverage in the Baltics, the Baltic corridor will be one of the great examples of deploying 5G solutions to enable a smart, cross-border highway for connected and autonomous vehicles.
