As a part of its commitment to advancing ‘Next Generation Mobility’, ZF Commercial Vehicle Solutions (CVS) has announced investing in cutting-edge 5G digital connectivity.
Under this, the company has equipped its commercial vehicle test track at Jeversen, Germany, with its powerful campus network, which enables enhanced testing of ‘Big Data’ backed solutions which are increasingly facilitating the next levels of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and Transportation as a Service (TaaS).
This includes supporting the development of Level-4 and Level-5 autonomous driving, which demands seamless connectivity and enormous data management capabilities to enable autonomous vehicle control and the highest levels of safety.
ZF’s Jeversen test track, located in Lower Saxony, Germany, incorporates a mix of curves, straight and low-speed sections, replicating a wide range of road conditions to simulate real-life situations.
A press release from the company noted that combining this track configuration with advanced 5G capabilities will further enable the company to emulate different autonomous driving use cases, ranging from low-speed automated yard operations to high-speed highway operations.
It also enables connectivity with roadside infrastructure, such as traffic lights and gates. Being independent of mobile service providers, they can quickly and flexibly adapt the campus network to meet changing technology requirements and rapidly expand it to support future innovations.
Further improving the global test facility’s digital and cyber security, flexibility and reliability, ZF’s network supports seamless remote access and data transfer from test vehicles to cloud-based storage as well as rapid downloads. Manufacturers, suppliers, industry partners and other guests of the Jeversen facility will also benefit from the new network.
This includes high-quality audio and video streams from moving demonstration vehicles and track-side cameras, which can be seamlessly transferred to the visitor centre to demonstrate its latest innovations.
Dr Christian Brenneke, Senior Vice President-Product Engineering, ZF’s Commercial Vehicle Solutions division, stated, “Ensuring that we continue to support our customers with rigorously tested, cutting-edge innovations, our advanced network capabilities will enable us to meet future advances and technology changes.”
Dr Rolf Reinema, Vice President IT Workplace, IT Infrastructure & Operations, IT Security, ZF, noted that based on an open, intelligent Radio Access Network using a virtualised, cloud-based and open architecture, the new network ensures a stable transmission infrastructure with low latency and high security.
Interestingly, it took the company six months to set up this indoor and outdoor coverage system using antennas that optimally ensure reliable handovers between base stations, even during high-speed vehicle manoeuvres, Dr Reinema added.
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