Mobility Is Driving the Internet of Things Smart School

Smart Schools are a great way to engage students at their own level of comfort.”

“My desire for our school is to implement a smart school within the next 5 years. :)”

The comments above reflect the sentiments of the over 600 K-12 and higher education IT managers participating in our survey about smart school technology, a concept similar thesmart city and smart hospital. In fact, 46% of those surveyed believe smart schools will have a major impact over the next one to two years. The benefits cited include: increasing student engagement, taking advantage of mobile learning, enabling more personalized education, improving efficiency, and reducing costs.

What Exactly Is An Internet Of Things Smart School?

The word smart implies an intelligence and awareness, as well as an ability to learn and transform. Smart schools have an infrastructure that enables them to grow, adapt and progress as important environments for learning. Today’s smart school utilizes Internet of Things devices that communicate their status via Wi-Fi. While this can include interactivesmart boards, the scope of smart schools reaches far beyond these boards to include iBeacons, wearables, sensors throughout the school, eBooks and tablets, collaborative classrooms, smart lighting and HVAC, and video/motion trackers. Our survey found growing use of robots, augmented reality, facial recognition, parking sensors, attendance tracking, and 3-D printers. These devices provide extensive data for both real-time and subsequent analysis.

Implementation Concerns and Drawbacks

As with all advancements, implementing the devices that enable the smart school brings along a set of concerns to be addressed. Security was cited by just over 50% of the respondents as a potential issue. Others worry about privacy, interoperability, and added expenses. Manageability will be a concern until someone comes up with a single, consistent dashboard to control all the currently-disparate devices and systems throughout the schools.

Reliable Wi-Fi leads the list of most important success factors in implementing smart school technology. Not surprisingly teacher development, well-designed learning environments, and insuring that the students have appropriate devices are also on the list of important requirements for success.

The Importance of Planning

How new smart school technology is introduced into the school is vitally important. To be successful, this requires an education vision; understanding how the technology improves education. Effective technology roll-outs require user training; adequate infrastructure, especially sufficient Wi-Fi coverage and bandwidth; and coordinated timing. As one IT manager commented, “Getting the teachers and staff on board can sometimes be more challenging than getting the new technology implemented.”

Examples of Smart School Devices In Use By Schools Surveyed:

Cameras and video

Student ID cards

School bus tracking

Smart HVAC system

Supply inventory tracking

Tablets and eBooks

Multi-touch tables

3-D printers

Interactive whiteboards

Electric lighting/ maintenance

Smart podiums

Athletic bands or wearables

Motion sensing and tracking devices

Temperature sensors

Attendance tracking

Airplay and Smart TV Devices

Wireless door locks

Adaptive learning systems

Virtual and augmented reality

Robots

Parking sensors

Facial recognition systems

iBeacons

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Source: Extreme Networks

What you need to know about IoT wide area networks.How to choose the right WAN technology for the Internet of Things

Choosing the best wireless technology for your Internet of Things (IoT) takes careful consideration. In this whitepaper, we examine IoT wide area networks (WANs) including cellular, Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA), and satellite services to help you choose the right network technology for your specific needs. IoT wireless networks are evolving to help meet the needs of a wide variety of connected devices—from wearables, cars, and homes to streetlights, parking meters, and industrial automation devices—so they can work seamlessly together. With such a broad diversity of potential applications, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to bring a one-size-fits-all approach to every situation.

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Source:AT&T

Inmarsat to provide satellite connectivity to Vodafone’s Internet of Things platform

Inmarsat plc, the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications, and Vodafone have announced a roaming agreement with the ambition to enable international satellite and cellular roaming connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT).

Delivering greater reliability and reach, the innovative collaboration, will offer competitive and flexible services, able to adapt to a broad range of industrial demands for IoT applications, for fixed or mobile requirements.

Thanks to its ubiquitous coverage and high network availability, even in extreme environmental conditions, satellite-powered IoT allows organisations to extend their services beyond terrestrial networks, where they have remote connectivity requirements, for example in the agri-tech, utilities, oil and gas and transportation sectors.

“Deploying satellite connectivity to complement terrestrial networks for IoT applications changes the Internet of Things into the Internet of Everywhere. The growth in mission critical IoT applications, is driving demand for connectivity with unprecedented reach, range and reliability on a global basis”, said Rupert Pearce, CEO, Inmarsat.  “This agreement marks a first for Inmarsat; enabling a mobile operator to utilise broadband roaming services on our global network.”

Vodafone Director of IoT, Ivo Rook said, “Success in IoT demands a mix of different technologies for different applications. By adding satellite connectivity from Inmarsat to the Vodafone portfolio we continue to deliver on our strategy to lead in managed IoT services. The IoT is transforming businesses in every sector and I am delighted we are able to support more of our customers in taking advantage of all that this technology has to offer.”

The agreement will use the Inmarsat I-4 satellite network providing global L-band coverage and is weather agnostic.

Source: Inmarsat

An integrated perspective on the future of mobility

Mobility is the lifeblood of our cities: every day, metropolitan transport systems bring people to work and to play; vehicles deliver food and essential goods, and carry away waste.

Mobility is what keeps our urban centres functioning. At the same time, mobility is a critical factor in every country’s economy both as an important sector in its own right and as a significant growth engine (or blocker) for many other industries, including the automotive, civil engineering, energy, technology, and telecom sectors.

Today, new business models introduced by companies such as Uber and Lyft are changing the way we view mobility systems, while technological innovation in the form of electrification, connectivity, and autonomy is set to bring additional opportunities to business and urban areas.

There could also be advantages for wider society: advanced transport could resolve environmental issues and improve citizens’ health. Too often, though, our mobility systems cease to function efficiently: streets become clogged – blighted by congestion and pollution – and less safe as increasing numbers of vehicles stress the available infrastructure.

These issues will come more sharply into focus as cities and suburbs expand.

By 2030, 60 percent of the world’s population will live in metropolitan areas.

The number of megacities with more than ten million people will continue to grow and with them traffic density, energy consumption, pollution, and congestion.

This combination of metropolitan expansion and rapid innovation will inevitably drive significant change – but what will the future of mobility systems look like?

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Source: BloombergMcKinsey

Driving to the future.The development of connected cars

The term “connected car” conjures up images of futuristic self-driving vehicles, buzzing around towns and cities without the need for human control. Yet the concept of connectedness in cars is far from new. Basic incar connectedness has been a part of auto technology for more than five years, introduced via in-car entertainment and mapping systems in around 2010. Since then, however, cars have started to absorb ever-greater levels of technology.

The modern car is not only a feat of engineering, it is also a mobile supercomputer. Hidden beneath the steel or aluminium body is the computing power of 20 personal computers, dealing with around 100m lines of code and holding more processing power than any of NASA’s early spacecraft, including the original Apollo lunar module.
A truly connected car, in the modern sense, still gives drivers the ability to connect to music applications and use global positioning system (GPS) equipment. In addition, however, it is also slowly beginning to reflect the internal ecosystem of the car, using connectivity to provide users with feedback on the car’s performance, monitoring of the car’s components and mechanisms to ensure the comfort and convenience of a passenger’s journey. In future, these same systems could be used for future applications, including self-driving, car-sharing or communicating with the internet of things (for example, in connected homes).

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Source: The economist

Industry 4.0 is more than just a flashy catchphrase.

Industry 4.0 is more than just a flashy catchphrase. A confluence of trends and technologies promises to reshape the way things are made.

Mention “Industry 4.0” to most manufacturing executives and you will raise eyebrows. If they’ve heard of it, they are likely confused about what it is. If they haven’t heard of it, they’re likely to be skeptical of what they see as yet another piece of marketing hype, an empty catchphrase. And yet a closer look at what’s behind Industry 4.0 reveals some powerful emerging currents with strong potential to change the way factories work. It may be too much to say that it is another industrial revolution. But call it whatever you like; the fact is, Industry 4.0 is gathering force, and executives should carefully monitor the coming changes and develop strategies to take advantage of the new opportunities.

Coming to terms

• Big data. An African gold mine found ways to capture more data from its sensors. New data showed some unsuspected fluctuations in oxygen levels during leaching, a key process. Fixing this increased yield by 3.7 percent, worth up to $20 million annually.

• Advanced analytics. Stronger analysis can dramatically improve product development. One automaker uses data from its online configurator together with purchasing data to identify options that customers are willing to pay a premium for. With this knowledge, it reduced the options on one model to just 13,000—three orders of magnitude fewer than its competitor, which offered 27,000,000. Development time and production costs fell dramatically; most companies can improve gross margin by 30 percent within 24 months.

• Human-machine interfaces. Logistics company Knapp AG developed a picking technology using augmented reality. Pickers wear a headset that presents vital information on a see-through display, helping them locate items more quickly and precisely. And with both hands free, they can build stronger and more efficient pallets, with fragile items safeguarded. An integrated camera captures serial and lot ID numbers for real-time stock tracking. Error rates are down by 40 percent, among many other benefits.

• Digital-to-physical transfer. Local Motors builds cars almost entirely through 3-D printing, with a design crowdsourced from an online community. It can build a new model from scratch in a year, far less than the industry average of six. Vauxhall and GM, among others, still bend a lot of metal, but also use 3-D printing and rapid prototyping to minimize their time to market.

Lightning in a bottle

Start with some definitions. We define Industry 4.0 as the next phase in the digitization of the manufacturing sector, driven by four disruptions: the astonishing rise in data volumes, computational power, and connectivity, especially new low-power wide-area networks; the emergence of analytics and business-intelligence capabilities; new forms of human-machine interaction such as touch interfaces and augmented-reality systems; and improvements in transferring digital instructions to the physical world, such as advanced robotics and 3-D printing. (The four trends are not the reason for the “4.0,” however. Rather, this is the fourth major upheaval in modern manufacturing, following the lean revolution of the 1970s, the outsourcing phenomenon of the 1990s, and the automation that took off in the 2000s.)

Most of these digital technologies have been brewing for some time. Some are not yet ready for application at scale. But many are now at a point where their greater reliability and lower cost are starting to make sense for industrial applications. However, companies are not consistently aware of the emerging technologies. We surveyed 300 manufacturing leaders in January 2015; only 48 percent of manufacturers consider themselves ready for Industry 4.0. Seventy-eight percent of suppliers say they are prepared.

Consider an example of each disruptive trend:

These changes and many others like them are sure to be far reaching, affecting every corner of the factory and the supply chain. The pace of change, however, will likely be slower than what we’ve seen in the consumer sector, where equipment is changed frequently. The coming of steam power and the rise of robotics resulted in the outright replacement of 80 to 90 percent of industrial equipment. In coming years, we don’t expect anything like that kind of capital investment. Still, the executives surveyed estimate that 40 to 50 percent of today’s machines will need upgrading or replacement.

To capture the potential, manufacturers can consider three moves. Primarily, companies can gather more information and make better use of it. An oil-exploration company collected more than 30,000 pieces of data from each of its drilling rigs—yet 99 percent of that data was lost due to problems of data transmission, storage, and architecture. The tiny trickle of data it did capture was incredibly useful for managers. But so much more can be done. The executives we surveyed said that correcting these data inefficiencies should improve productivity by about 25 percent.

With production data now available for the asking, executives rightly wonder about how to begin. Which data would be most beneficial? Which data leakages are causing the most pain? Which technologies would deliver the biggest return on investment for a company, given its unique circumstances? To sort through the choices, manufacturing leaders can use a “digital compass” (exhibit). The compass consists of eight basic value drivers and 26 practical Industry 4.0 levers. Cross-functional discussions that will help companies find the levers that are best suited to solve their particular problems.

One kind of lost value that is sure to interest manufacturers is process effectiveness. Industry 4.0 offers new tools for smarter energy consumption, greater information storage in products and pallets (so-called intelligent lots), and real-time yield optimization. Swiss giant ABB used the latter in an Australian cement kiln. A computer-based system mimics the actions of an “ideal” operator, using real-time metrics to adjust kiln feed, fuel flow, and fan-damper position. The company found that the new tools boosted throughput by up to 5 percent.

The bigger picture

Strategists should also take Industry 4.0 into account as they contemplate the company’s future directions—the second way to capture the potential. The traditional manufacturing business model is changing, and new models are emerging; incumbents must be quick to recognize and react to these new competitive challenges. More specifically, executives must consider the following options—and watch for others that may be deploying them. Eighty-four percent of the manufacturing suppliers we surveyed expect new competitors to enter the market soon.

• “Platforms,” in which products, services, and information can be exchanged via predefined streams. Think open-source software applied to the manufacturing context. For example, a company might provide technology to connect multiple parties and coordinate their interactions. SLM Solutions, a 3-D-printer manufacturer, and Atos, an IT services company, are currently running a pilot project to develop such a marketplace. Customers can submit their orders to a virtual broker platform run by Atos. Orders are then allocated to SLM’s decentralized network of production sites, and subsequently produced and shipped to the customer. Some companies are also trying to build an “ecosystem” of their own, as Nvidia has in its graphics-processor business. It provides software developers with resources, and offers start-ups help to build companies around Nvidia technologies.
• Pay-by-use and subscription-based services, turning machinery from capex to opex for manufacturers. Rolls-Royce pioneered this approach in its jet-engine business; other manufacturers have followed suit.
• Businesses that license intellectual property. Today, many manufacturing companies have deep expertise in their products and processes, but lack the expertise to generate value from their data. SAP offers consulting services that build on its software. Qualcomm makes more than half of its profits from intellectual-property royalties. Manufacturers might offer consulting services or other businesses that monetize the value of their expertise.
• Businesses that monetize data. The SCiO, a Kickstarter project, is a low-cost, pocket-sized spectrometer that uses near-infrared technology to assess the composition of materials. It is expected to cost $250, whereas traditional machines cost upward of $10,000. Every time a SCiO is used, it contributes to a large database of scanned materials, helping to make the machine more accurate. To be sure, it is a consumer product, and not yet ready for industrial use. But industrial models are on the way. Kaggle, a distributed network of about 270,000 data scientists, has already helped more than 20 Fortune 500 companies solve their toughest data problems.

To get the most out of Industry 4.0 technologies, and to get past square one with a digital business model, companies will have to take a third step: prepare for a digital transformation. Manufacturers should begin today to join the hunt for the best digital talent, and think about how to structure their digital organization. Data management and cybersecurity will be critical problems to solve. Many companies will find that a “two speed” data architecture can help them deploy new technologies at the speed required, while also preserving mission-critical applications.

Source: mckinsey

The IoT Pendulum Swings from LPWAN to Cellular with NB-IoT

Will cellular connectivity become the dedicated wireless technology for the huge Internet of Things (IoT) market that’s being predicted by nearly everyone in the technology industry today? The naysayers argue that non-cellular, low-power wide-area (LPWA) network technology, promoted by providers such as SigFox and the LoRa Alliance, will win this tug of war since LPWA has been building market share (at the expense of the cellular industry) while 3GPP and the cellular operators have haggled over how to adapt their LTE standard for IoT uses.

Granted, it has taken the cellular standards org, 3GPP, a lot of valuable time to finalize its cellular standards for IoT. But despite a slow start, 3GPP recently finalized in June 2016 its LTE-based IoT standards (Release 13), with the NB-IoT standard – the new IoT narrowband radio technology – gaining wide support among the mobile operators. (Even before the standard was finalized, AT&T, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, and Telefonica all had been conducting NB-IoT test trials.)

So the future for cellular-based IoT, buttressed by the new NB-IoT technology, seems to be smelling as sweet as a rose given its support by mobile network operators. But they aren’t the only ones touting the promise of cellular IoT. ABI Research predicts that by 2021 NB-IoT radio node shipments will account for more than 33% of all cellular IoT shipments – an amount that's greater than legacy M2M or current Cat-1 shipments. Now, how sweet is that!

But the debate persists even though the IoT pendulum appears to be swinging from LPWA technology to cellular connectivity thanks to NB-IoT. On the one hand, some people believe non-cellular LPWA technology will overwhelm cellular as the standard for IoT wireless connectivity, and on the other hand we have a few saying cellular will be the winner at the end of the day. More than likely, these competing technologies will split market share. NB-IoT won't be perfect for everyone, but it does provide a competitive alternative to LPWA. Let's explore this some more and start by answering the question: What’s the big deal about NB-IoT?

What's the Big Deal about NB-IoT?
The NB-IoT standard is the specification for cellular-based, low-power, wide area (LPWA) networking technology produced by 3GPP for IoT uses. It is one of several licensed-spectrum technologies (e.g., Cat-M1, LTE-MTC) designed to provide low throughput, deep coverage, and low power consumption for very long battery life (10-20 years) that was not possible with the traditional cellular standards (i.e., 2G, 3G, 4G). As a result, NB-IoT technology makes cellular connectivity a viable alternative to non-cellular LPWA technologies.

The NB-IoT standard has been optimized for low throughput and supports a very large number of devices transferring small, intermittent blocks of data, which is common to a lot of IoT applications. It can also provide indoor coverage for nodes (e.g., utility meters) located deep in basements.

NB-IoT supports uplink and downlink rates of around 200kbps. And since it requires only 200 kHz of bandwidth, it can run along with existing cellular networks. What this means is NB-IoT devices can benefit from carrier grade reliability, privacy and security, including support for user identity confidentiality, entity authentication, confidentiality, data integrity, and mobile equipment identification.

Another advantage of NB-IoT technology is that by operating in the licensed spectrum, it isn't as affected by interference, as opposed to LPWA devices in the unlicensed spectrum. An even bigger advantage over non-cellular LPWA is that NB-IoT can be configured on an LTE network with only a software upgrade. Plus, the capacity of NB-IoT is huge. 3GPP puts the number of devices that can connect to a single cell at 50,000; some vendors puts it up to 100,000. Best of all, since NB-IoT devices are low complexity, they will be competitively priced, especially as demand increases.

Table 1: NB-IoT Specifications

3GPP Release	13
Downlink Peak Rate	250 kbps
Uplink Peak Rate	250 kbps (multi-tone) 20 kbps (single-tone)
Duplex Mode	Half Duplex
No. of Antennas	1
Device Receive Bandwidth	180 kHz
Receiver Chains	1 (Single In / Single Out)
Device Transmit Power	23 dBm
Coverage	164 dB

Source:Farnell

Why The Internet of Things (IoT) Won't Survive Without Satellite

It's been a topic of conversation for a while now, the expected transformation in order to support, and in some cases compliment, the Internet of Things (IoT). From consumers to businesses, the number of connected devices will range, but is expected to be massive.

From something as simple as a connected refrigerator to an entire connected home, the industry is still a bit unsure of how it will handle the flood of connections. 5G is often mentioned, as it is said to be one of the biggest factors. Another, sometimes overlooked aspect, is satellite.

It may be news to you, or maybe not, but satellite has been playing a major part in supporting the IoT, and the immense number of connected devices in remote areas. For consumers, this includes trackers, for businesses, it's monitoring heavy equipment, trucks, and even pipelines.

And so one major question remains—just how will the IoT affect the satellite machine-to-machine (M2M) market?

After the buzz of conversation around this topic at the SATELLITE 2016 show, we went straight to Mohammad Marashi, VP Innovation and Service Architecture at Intelsat for the answers.

WDD: How will the IoT affect the satellite machine-to-machine (M2M) market?

Marashi: Improvements in throughput and cost that will be enabled by high throughput platforms – in conjunction with innovative ground technology – will drive operational efficiencies for multiple sectors that use M2M technologies. We believe these improvements will resonate on the bottom line, and this, in turn, will spark even more interest in satellite-enabled M2M.

For example, in the maritime sector, ships have been carrying a multitude of data-collecting sensors for decades, but until recently, this data has not been fully utilized to optimize operations because current M2M delivery channels are not capable of moving the data cost-efficiently. The improved throughput delivered by HTS will lead to better tracking of containers, and this could improve utilization by 10-25 percent, potentially reducing annual spending on containers by nearly $13 billion per year in 2025. It is also estimated that these techniques could enable operators to raise average ship speeds by 11–13 percent resulting in an economic impact of $4.5 billion to $9.3 billion in 2025.

WDD: What capabilities will be needed to ensure satellite will play a major role in the IoT?

Marashi: The capabilities necessary to ensure that satellite will play a major role in IoT are already well into development. The high throughput satellites that will deliver improved throughput and better economics are steadily moving into orbit. But to truly have an impact in IoT, we also need to make access to satellite services easier than ever. This requires innovation throughout the ecosystem to facilitate access while also complementing other technologies to enable hybrid solutions.

For example, to fully optimize the performance and simplify access to our technology, we made strategic investments in antenna technology with two providers, Kymeta and Phasor. These partnerships will yield a range of antenna and terminal products across our core application verticals such as mobility, content delivery and wireless backhaul applications. In addition, it will provide the opportunity to expand our reach into new aspects of IoT and M2M and have a significant impact on the ground transportation sector. All of these are expected to see significant demand over the next 10 years.

WDD: What new opportunities will emerge for satellite?

Marashi: NSR estimates that by 2023, there will be 5.8 million M2M and IoT connections via satellite around the globe. This represents a big opportunity for the satellite sector, but we believe that opportunity to be much larger. This is because satellite-enabled IoT is dominated currently by narrowband providers, such as L-band. When high-throughput Ku- and Ka-band connections begin to take hold, we believe the volume of opportunity in the IoT and M2M sectors will be much, much higher, as we also unlock new opportunities in the IoT and M2M sector.

And that is just the beginning, our investment with LEO constellation operator OneWeb will provide a fully interoperable Ku-band GEO/LEO satellite network that will open up even more opportunities. By combining highly efficient GEO broadcast capabilities with high elevation angle LEO solutions for cities; the partnership will deliver unmatched ubiquity and elevation angles for better access to all user environments for mobility and IoT, including urban canyons which will be important for applications such as the connected car.

WDD: Will satellite remain a small niche or will it expand into a larger market, such as vehicle safety?

Marashi: Delivering bandwidth to the “connected car” offers a major market opportunity for communications companies. We are just beginning to see this technology develop with cars on the road today using LTE cellular networks, and satellite is the ideal technology to take the connected car to the next level. The global nature of satellite systems and the ability to broadcast to multiple points will enable auto manufacturers to reach all of their vehicles on a single network, whether the cars are in Canada or South Africa, to provide services such as software updates. This is in stark contrast to having to contract with hundreds of terrestrial cell carriers in order to achieve global coverage. Satellite also offers a consolidated distribution opportunity that reduces cyber-attack vectors by eight or nine orders of magnitude when compared to cellular in terms of entry and exit points, demonstrating the security benefits that satellite delivers, a major requirement for the future of the connected car. While privacy issues need to be resolved, insurance providers, car rental companies and others will be able to monitor driver behavior. Cars already have the equivalent of a “black box” that records operational data. With a connected car, this information could be streamed in real-time to a central location. While some motorists might not want their driving monitored, others might want an insurance discount for safe driving.

Lastly, while some people are talking about the connected car. Intelsat and Kymeta are already driving it. At the Detroit Auto show, Toyota announced that they will leverage Kymeta antennas to power their connected cars.  To demonstrate, Kymeta leveraged Intelsat’s satellite technology and together, we recently completed an 8,000-mile journey across the United States using a Kymeta and Intelsat satellite-enabled test car. Over the course of the tour, the test car automatically acquired and tracked Intelsat Ku-band satellite signals while on the move. In the future, this type of efficient, high-throughput connectivity can be used for services such as delivering software upgrades to fleets of cars while at the same, delivering cost-savings to manufacturers that will no longer have to provide this type of service to each unit individually at designated facilities. Certainly, there are also possibilities in broadcasting software upgrades that affect vehicle safety.

Source:wireless design and development (WDD)

Vodafone Testing 5G Benefits for Vehicles

David Lister, Vodafone Group’s 5G research manager, and Bob Banks, Vodafone Group’s R&D programme manager, have issued a new blog post on the company’s LTE-V2X trials and how it relates to the company's work on the future 5G standard.

They explain that "LTE-V2X enables cars to chat with each other to improve road safety and efficiency", and as "cars have been getting smarter and safer, partly due to the role of embedded cellular communications", 5G promises to "accelerate this trend".

If you have a modern car, then it likely already supports "eCall, which automatically notifies emergency services in the event of a crash, providing information such as vehicle type and location".

Our intrepid car comms adventurers ask: “Wouldn’t it be better if there were fewer crashes, reducing the 25,000 annual fatalities on European roads?”

Of course, people in the US, Australia, Asia and elsewhere where cars exist presumably want to ask the same question, but clearly the tests have to start somewhere, and for Vodafone UK, this is in Europe.

We are told that "while some of the features in new cars such as automatic braking, lane-tracking and blind spot warning already help to reduce crashes, they depend on sensors within the vehicle which have a limited range".

So, what is Vodafone doing?

It is "now testing new technology to enable vehicles to talk to each other and to roadside infrastructure over greater distances".

Lister and Banks tell us that "this is the aspiration associated with an intelligent transportation system (ITS) that promises to bring about a transformational change to driving, vehicle safety and traffic congestion management".

The explanation continues, stating that "with this system, vehicles will be able to become much more aware of both their immediate and surrounding environment. For example, a car which is part of the ITS will be able to tell other cars of its intention to change lane or to signal an emergency stop. The vehicle could also be told the optimal speed to drive in order to avoid traffic congestion".

They said that "one of the key communication paths to be used in the ITS is vehicle to vehicle communications.

"This technology will be based on extensions to the widely used 4G standard commercially deployed around the world.

"By building these capabilities on the worldwide 4G standard we can ensure safe, reliable communications whilst making the most efficient use of radio spectrum and support a smooth transition to 5G".

So, what is LTE-V2X exactly?

The blog post explains that Vodafone is "currently driving the development of this new technology, known as LTE-V2X which means connecting vehicles (V) to everything (X)".

The company says that it, and its industry partners "are developing LTE-V2X through the standards organisation 3GPP".

Vodafone says it has "already completed an initial validation of LTE-V2X on a private test track in the UK" and is "actively developing plans to trial it in Germany".

Furthermore, Vodafone says that "as with all our products and services, making sure customer data is secure and their privacy is protected is central to the design, development and delivery of LTE-V2X".

Clearly, "achieving communication between vehicles and infrastructure is an important step that will lead to full automation of cars after 2020".

Vodafone proudly boasts its is "excited to be trialling the technology that will bring new 5G capabilities to vehicles enabling safer and smarter driving for all".

The company says anyone lucky enough to be "attending the Paris Motor Show can see and hear more about this activity and get an insight into some of our other LTE-V2X activities by visiting the Vodafone-Huawei co-branded stand in Pavilion 3, Hall 231".

Just watch out for the gangsters in Paris who targeted Kim Kardashian and stole all her jewellery, something that smart cars and IoT devices of the future will likely have vastly more success in tracking so the authorities can apprehend them much more easily!

Source: itwire