Author: Ryan Hall

JL: People developing chipsets and test equipment have a lot a stake in the early stages of development. It moves rather quickly to those developing modules and those integrating chips.  Tier One suppliers may not feel they need to drive the process but should attend, so they are not caught by surprise as the process develops. Those that are developing RSU and OBU’s are going to want to make sure they have their arms wrapped around the issues early and are ready to run through newly developed test cases.

MB: When I think about these different organizations, it would be great to have more involvement from deploying agencies and automotive OEM’s. I understand that these two groups might not want to get into the bits and bytes about C-V2X and certification, but they must have a high-level understanding of the programs.  It is also crucial for us to understand their market needs as we develop our plans. Having those two groups in the room will help us shape the program for those demanding certification and ultimately paying for those services.  

JL: At the end of the day, road operators, OEM’s and Tier One’s will be writing RFQ’s. The first thing they need to know is what to write in the RFQ in terms of certification. What certification tests are required, what is critical and what is optional.  Having been in the wireless chip business for over 20 years, when someone launches a new technology and companies use that chip in a module and integrate into a final system, there are many opportunities where the final product could fail. If the end-user is a toy manufacturer, it might not matter if the device fails. It is the opposite, for a road operator or an OEM. When the equipment is used in a safety application, it is in their best interest that they know what goes into certification, and the final product is a known and trusted device.   

MB: OmniAir has a long history of ensuring interoperability. OmniAir has been doing this for over a decade in practice supporting many pilots. With this long history, we have seen first hand what works and does not, and what the industry needs. The other part is the makeup of the organizations. Looking at OmniAir’s composition,  not many organizations can boast such a diverse and complete membership that can offer this level or breadth of expertise. OmniAir members also cover a large geographical area and bring with it a truly global perspective. With the long history of OmniAir, coupled with the diverse ecosystem of members and geographic locations, I do not know of any other organization that has all these pieces.

JL: The efforts championed by Mike Brown and others over the last few years have been vital to the success of implementing C-V2X technology. While C-V2X technology was able to capitalize on the many similarities there are a few differences, since C-V2X is a different radio and there are unique features in the lower layers, DSRC is based on the IEEE 802.11 MAC and PHY, and was developed as part of the ethernet ecosystem, while C-V2X is based on LTE, so how we handle MAC and IP addresses are different.

JL: The group is focused on SAE: J3161/1. Slash One is the minimum performance requirements, which are the minimum features that are needed in every device and to assure adequate performance and interoperability.  J3161/1 specifies radio pre-configuration, so when you turn it on, it is appropriately configured to communicate with every other C-V2X radio without needing to connect to a cellular network. 

JL: Cellular carriers primarily drive GCF certification, but because C-V2X does not use the carrier spectrum, there is not a mandatory requirement. This leads to an interesting issue about certification inside OmniAir.  We will not be able to assume that every device has gone through GCF because it’s only required for devices brought onto a carrier network.   As a result, OmniAir will probably do some level of lower layer testing based on 3GPP test specifications.

JL: No, the thing to remember about cellular V2X, is that it doesn’t use carrier spectrum and doesn’t require cellular connectivity to operate.  C-V2X uses 3GPP release 14 for the first generation and  5G new radio, release 16 and beyond, for advanced applications.   Both methods operate without cellular infrastructure. The good news is we do not have to pay a carrier to use licensed spectrum for these Sidelink modes, also called PC5. The Sidelink technology is complementary to a cellular modem if available in the vehicle, so we expect to see many vehicles deploy both C-V2X and traditional cellular technology, both 4G LTE and 5G.

JL:  Road operators have a lot at stake as they are spending public funds to put out infrastructure, and cannot run the test themselves. Unlike OEMs like Ford or GM, which have test labs and can evaluate products, your average state DOT or toll operator does not have the funding or capability to run tests.

MB: We recently had one of our DOT clients contact us after making a large procurement of V2X devices. It turned out the devices they purchased were not OmniAir certified, and they didn’t live up to their expectations.

We would love to have all V2X devices vetted and certified by OmniAir as it reinforces the equipment is reliable to system integrators. If we only have to spend time to shake out the deployment and application-level issues, this would save our clients a tremendous amount of time and money.

With certified devices, we no longer have to worry if manufacturer A’s equipment will work with manufacture B’s if it is certified too.  We want to help our clients do something with devices, versus just trying to get them to talk at a basic level.  

One other item I’d like to add is when writing a procurement specification; it is much easier to request an OmniAir Certified products and add a few specific deployment requirements, versus writing a 300 requirement specification.

JM: One of the critical things for C-V2X was to maintain the same security system because there was a lot of excellent work done in IEEE 1609.2 to get it right. We may have to go back someday to and items because of quantum computing, but we didn’t want to reinvent it because we are using a different radio.  The underlying radio technology security schemes on top of it should be independent of the radio. 

MB: If you look at SwRI’s mission statement, benefiting government, industry, and the public through innovative science and technology, when you unpack that, you get V2X and OmniAir. Benefiting government and industry go to OmniAir’s membership, and that is who we are trying to serve.  We are trying to help our clients, both government and industry. Our work with OmniAir ultimately benefits the public if we can save lives, improve mobility, reduce environmental impact, and improve operational efficiencies for agencies. All of those things V2X can help enable and V2X is the innovative science and technology portion of our mission. Working with OmniAir fits directly within our mission.

JL: As a company primarily in the  wireless technology business, we supply essential components to the broader automotive ecosystem. For the ecosystem to thrive, we must build sound  soultions that people trust, and have the confidence to use it to develop reliable products. Working with OmniAir and participating in their industry testing events or Plugfests, our technology is vetted by the industry, and it provides our customers another level of confidence that our products will work well and fulfill the needs of our clients.