Opinion: What’s driving your connected autonomous vehicle?

By Tristan Wood, managing director of Livewire Digital

Establishing a robust communication connection while on the move presents fundamental challenges, even when on a train with a well-defined path guided by tracks.

When it comes to autonomous connected vehicles operating across expansive geographical regions, the complexity escalates, and the communication infrastructure must hold the capability to seamlessly integrate with a multitude of diverse networks.

With hybrid connectivity, connected vehicles and fleets seamlessly harness multiple networks – cellular, satellite, Wi-Fi, WAN, and more – orchestrating a symphony of connections that ensures an unbreakable link to the digital realm.

The genius of hybrid connectivity lies in its strategic design. By distributing the data load across diverse connections, it eradicates the vulnerability of a single point of failure. In the face of network congestion or outages, the vehicle’s connection remains steadfast, ushering in an era of resilience and redundancy.

But first, we need to take a close look at the ‘classic networking approach’, and how failover, whilst offering a degree of resilience and redundancy, isn’t truly hybrid.

Failover refers to the ability of a system to switch to a backup connection when the primary connection fails - they do not fundamentally transform the nature of the connectivity architecture. As a consequence, the degree of resilience is inherently constrained.

Introducing true hybrid connectivity

In a truly hybrid - or ‘heterogeneous’ - network, multiple network technologies seamlessly work together, actively sharing the load and resources, combining, and binding together a variety of bearers from cellular and LTE to satellite and Wi-Fi into a single ‘pipe’.

When optimised in this way, a hybrid system is capable of working through degradation and failure to ensure that connections are maintained and accelerated (TCP acceleration), regardless of the availability and performance of the underlying networks.

This ability to optimise connectivity, even in the most challenging conditions, will deliver a truly consistent and uninterrupted user experience. In critical operations, where connectivity can be the difference between life and death – such as connected ambulances - hybrid and resilience take on a whole new meaning.

The increased reliance upon resilience and redundancy

The need to be able to ‘connect’ within any given environment, regardless of whether terrestrial infrastructure is available or has been compromised is now more significant than ever.

Emergency services need real-time access to ongoing incidents, and fleets of ambulances are reliant on good connectivity to access patient data or the services of a clinician while on the move or at the kerbside.

Even the cars we drive and the appliances we use daily are harnessing variations of satellite, Wi-Fi and cellular communications, and with low earth orbit (LEO) satellites becoming more and more accessible, the applications and opportunities are endless.

For connected and autonomous vehicles, 5G services will be a significant step forward, but access in the mid-term is likely to be focused on conurbations and cellular services only.

While urban environments boast an abundance of cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity, these signals quickly diminish to the point of being unusable or entirely non-existent in many rural areas.

To counter this reliance on conventional connectivity, manufacturers should contemplate adopting a system that embraces ‘true hybrid connectivity’.

This implies that in remote areas, satellite connectivity may start to play a pivotal role in keeping systems online and functioning seamlessly.

To ensure the success of this approach, all these technologies must collaborate harmoniously in a manner that is performant and addresses the need for security.

For instance, in urban settings, tall buildings might obstruct a satellite signal, but cellular or Wi-Fi can step in to bridge the gap—and conversely, when a vehicle departs from an urban area.

We have truly entered the era where autonomous connected vehicles promise safer roads, reduced congestion, and enriched passenger experiences. But many hybrid systems simply provide a backup where the switchover is often measured in minutes and by no means guaranteed.

While this might be adequate for some, it doesn’t meet the evolving requirements of industries that rely upon always-on, fail-safe connectivity, such as autonomous and connected vehicles.