6th March 2019
The connectivity tests of the Sat2Car project were carried out in Vigo on 20 December. Hispasat has been involved with the project for the last few months. Its objective was to demonstrate the viability of the connections in a mobile vehicle from different places and under different conditions of use, so that these technologies can be validated in different scenarios expected for connected cars.
The goal of Sat2Car is to connect a moving car with the rest of the world regardless of its geographic position, through a combination of terrestrial and satellite infrastructure. Among the more interesting applications that this connectivity offers, the solution can detect possible failures in the car's management software, download user manuals, update software or maps, make emergency calls and offer entertainment services.
After several months conducting the tests in the laboratory, the last test verified that the vehicle's communications operate successfully in two different scenarios. On the one hand, mobility tests were conducted on the 3G/4G networks through the streets of Vigo and, on the other, static tests were made on the H30W-6 satellite in the installations of the CTAG (Automotive Technological Centre of Galicia).
The forward satellite link was established from Hispasat's offices in the Canary Islands toward Vigo using the DVB-S2X standard, and the return, between Vigo and Gran Canaria, using the new ETSI 102 744 mobility standard.
Several innovative services have been applied during this project in the sphere of mobility known as SOTA (Software Over The Air, for wireless software updates) and WebRTC (application for Internet browsers which enables voice calls, chats and shared use of P2P files). After the success of the tests conducted in December in a functional scenario, stability and stress tests were conducted in January and February for these applications in order to determine how fast and robust communications can be for connected cars. These tests were the last for the connected car pilot project.
The results from this programme will contribute to the process of standardising these technologies and will offer conclusions about the potential of terrestrial and satellite telecommunications services for the automotive sector in the new hybrid ecosystems.
HISPASAT is collaborating in this project in a consortium formed by several companies, including the PSA Peugeot Citroën group, the Orense-based Egatel and the Gradiant technological centre, thus starting the path toward the future globally connected car, based on the 5G ecosystem and the different forms of connectivity that can be offered by combining terrestrial infrastructure with satellites.
