Telefonica and Huawei announced a successful proof of concept test for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology built on 3GPP 5G NR specifications, a move the two said paves the way for large-scale field trials.

In a statement, the companies said the test proved the ultra-reliability and low-latency communication (URLLC) mode of 5G NR could meet the stringent requirements needed to safely support V2X technology. The trial used the 5G New Radio specifications for standalone operation unveiled by the 3GPP in December 2017 and was performed at the 5G Joint Innovation Lab in Madrid.

“The exercise achieved 99.999 per cent reliability with a low latency of 1 millisecond required for autonomous driving in a typical macro cellular outdoor environment, such as dense urban, suburban and rural areas,” the pair said.

Huawei Technologies CTO Wen Tong added: “The 5G-V2X proof of concept is another joint effort to pave the way for commercialisation of 5G and lay a solid foundation to realise the 5G vision of enabling cooperative autonomous driving.”

V2X technology was identified as one of the most promising industrial innovations powered by 5G networks, with a number of cross-sector trials being conducted to accelerate development of the technology.

In January, a group of companies including Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nissan and NTT Docomo announced they were preparing a V2X field trial based on cellular V2X technology in Japan. In November 2017, Nokia, Ford and AT&T teamed up to prepare a V2X trial in the US.