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Autonomous and Connected Vehicles

Autonomous and Connected Vehicles

Realising a good communication link from a moving vehicle is always difficult, even from a train where the route is clearly defined by the tracks. For connected and autonomous vehicles operating over large geographic areas, it is significantly more challenging and it is clear that the communications system must be able to make use of many different networks.

One of the objectives of 5G is to provide seamless connectivity across cellular, satellite and terrestrial services. This acknowledges the fact that it will be necessary to make use of different technologies to realise the desired coverage. For connected and autonomous vehicles, 5G services would be a significant step forward, but access in the mid-term is likely to be focused on conurbations and cellular services only.

As part of a European Space Agency contract, Livewire Digital has developed RazorLink Smart Networking. RazorLink is a Software Defined Networking (SDN) solution that can integrate existing cellular, satellite and terrestrial services in line with the headline 5G objectives.

RazorLink provides a seamless transition between services providing full IP mobility; it can combine networks for additional bandwidth and secure the link, encrypting data whatever route the traffic takes. RazorLink accelerates TCP, improving performance over high latency satellite, poor quality cellular and intermittent Wi-Fi links.

RazorLink prioritisation makes it feasible for critical telemetry data to be given precedence over OTA updates and can deliver low latency video streams. Remote access can be realised without the complexity and overhead and poor performance of VPN based architectures.

RazorLink is a software solution that can be deployed on COTS hardware or embedded alongside the system firmware. The counterpart can be run on dedicated hardware or virtualised on Private or Public Cloud services.

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