2019 Field Trial Results: Part 3
Field Trial
Group 5Field Trial
Group 6Use Case Field Trial of 5G Low Latency Reliable
Communication in a High-speed Mobile Environment
Use Case Field Trial of 5G Massive Machine-type
Communication in Indoor and Rural Outdoor
Environments

Hitoshi Yoshino
SoftBank Corporation

Part I: F ield Trial to Realize Connectedand Automated Vehicles using 5G
Ultra Reliable and Low-latencyCommunication
Field Trial Group 5 SoftBank Corporation:
Hitoshi Yoshino, Manabu Mikami

1. Introduction
5th Generation Mobile Communication Systems (5G)
encompasses not only enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB),
which is a further enhancement of conventional Mobile
Broadband capabilities, but also the new features of Ultra Reliableand Low Latency Communication (URLLC) and massive
Machine Type Communication (m-MTC). These new features
are anticipated as infrastructure for our advanced informationsociety. Commercial deployment of eMBB has already begun.
The new 5G features, URLLC and m-MTC, have potential toopen up new markets in industrial applications. It is importantto establish concrete 5G use cases in these new areas as early aspossible.
From FY2017 to FY2019, the Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications (MIC) of Japan conducted 5G Comprehensive
Demonstration Tests[1] (hereinafter referred to as “5G FieldTrials”). These field trials needed not only to assess technicalaspects of 5G radio systems for commercial deployment, butalso to conduct the 5G field trials in cooperation with potential
industrial 5G users (Vertical sectors).
For this field trial, SoftBank Co. Ltd. and Wireless City
Planning Co. Ltd. were members of Field Trial Group V (GV),
which handles the 5G URLLC domain. The 5G URLLC fieldtrials handled mission-critical use cases, studying applicationsof 5G to remote operation of passenger vehicles and truck
platooning. This article reports on the activities of GV.

2. Evacuation Guidance during Disaster(Smart intersections)
In the use case category of connected vehicles, a field trial

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Hideto Funayoshi

Wireless City Planning Inc.

was conducted using the low-latency feature of 5G to provide
guidance for safe and rapid evacuation during a disaster. The trial
was carried out in March 2020, in collaboration with the City ofKitakyushu and the Kitakyushu Foundation for the Advancementof Industry, Science and Technology (FAIS) and in partnershipwith Nippon Signal Co. Ltd., at the Kitakyushu Science andResearch Park (KSRP) in Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture.
Car collisions and traffic congestion are issues during evacuation
when disaster occurs. The trial verified that smart intersections
utilizing 5G can help avoid collisions and ensure that evacuations
proceed smoothly. The demo scenario examined (i) controlling
traffic to merge smoothly at intersections during an evacuation,and (ii) how to avoid collisions between vehicles and protect
pedestrians at intersections during evacuation. For use of 5G toprovide evacuation guidance during a disaster, the trial focused on
three issues: (i) when implementing smart intersections, whether
it is possible to significantly reduce the cost at an intersection by
utilizing the high capacity and low-latency communication of
5G, (ii) whether advanced intersection control such as collision
prevention can be done for vehicles entering an intersection using
5G low-latency, and (iii) whether a low-cost smart intersection
with advanced functionality can be built without installing special
equipment for traffic control on the roadside, using the highcapacity and low latency of the wide-area 5G network.
The evacuation guidance field trial scenario using 5G is shownin Figure 1. In the figure, a 4K surveillance camera is installed atintersection A, and the video from the camera is sent to a Mobile
Edge Computing (MEC) server at the 5G base station by a 5G
user terminal device installed on the traffic-light pole. The MEC
server uses AI image processing to detect the positions of vehicles
entering the intersection (in the figure, the red car with the rightof-way, and the white car without right-of-way), and if they getclose within a predetermined zone, it sends warnings that they aregetting too close, to terminals in the cars via 5G. If they get too
close, it also sends a stop command through the 5G connection
to the vehicle entering the intersection that does not have rightof-way (the white vehicle in the figure), forcing it to stop and■ Figure 1: Field trial scenario for evacuation guidance PoC■ Figure 4: Experimental 5G base station■ Figure 5: R emote-controlled car with onboard 5G user
terminal

preventing a collision. If a pedestrian crosses the intersection, they
are also detected in the surveillance camera video using AI image
processing, and if the pedestrian and a vehicle get close within aprescribed area, The MEC server at the base station sends a stop
command to the 5G terminal in the vehicle, giving it a warning,and even forcing it to stop.
The course used for the field trial at KSRP is shown in
Figure 2.
Photographs of the traffic signal, surveillance camera, and 5G
terminals installed for the field trial are shown in Figure 3, the5G base station used is in Figure 4, and the remote-controllable
vehicle with 5G terminal installed is in Figure 5.
■ Figure 2: PoC field trial course

The results of the field trial showed that a low-cost smart
intersection able to protect pedestrians and prevent vehicle
collisions can be implemented, without installing expensive
sensors at intersections, using just a 5G terminal and a surveillancecamera (with 4K resolution) at the smart intersection. The cost ofthe smart intersection system at each intersection for installationand maintenance can be reduced significantly, because AI andother advanced image analysis of video from the intersection canbe performed centrally by a MEC server at the 5G base station.

3. 5G Application to remote operation ofabandoned vehicle
Kitakyushu Science and Research Park
■ Figure 3: Smart intersection

In the use case category of connected vehicles, a field trialof remote vehicle operation using the low-latency feature of 5G
was conducted. The trial was demonstrated in March 2020, in
collaboration with the City of Kitakyushu and the Kitakyushu
Foundation for the Advancement of Industry, Science andTechnology (FAIS) and in partnership with FEV Japan, Co.
Inc., which develops remote control vehicles, at the Kitakyushu
Science and Research Park (KSRP) in Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka
Prefecture. The scenario for this field trial was the removal ofabandoned vehicles by remote operation, to open up roadwaysfor disaster relief, to help with rapid rescue and recovery during
disaster. For disaster rescue, any obstacles on roadways must
be removed quickly, so that rescue vehicles can get through. In
contrast with wireless control systems using dedicated frequency
bands, or local remote control using wireless LAN, using a 5Gwide-area cellular communications network for remote operationenables abandoned vehicles to be moved to a vacant area fromNew Breeze Winter 2021

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■ Figure 6: Field trial scenario for remote operation ofabandoned car■ Figure 7: R emote operation of abandoned car from aremote surveillance and operation center

distances of hundreds of km or more away. In other words, using
5G enables disaster rescue and recovery activities to be done in realtime from outside of the disaster area.
In the field trial, vehicles were controlled remotely from theremote-vehicle control center through 5G, while looking througha forward-facing onboard camera in the vehicle, and abandoned
vehicles were moved from the roadway to a vacant area (Figure 6).
In fact, to get a feel for 5G radio control in the trial, the remotevehicle control center was set up under the 5G base station used
for the trial and not at a distant location, for demonstration
purposes. Figure 7 shows a photograph of performing remotevehicle operation at the remote vehicle operation center.
Conventionally, remote operation has been done with systems
using dedicated frequency bands or wireless LAN systems, within
the operator’s field of view and the radio signal range (tens tohundreds of m). The trial showed that, using the high capacity
and low-latency of 5G communication, an operator can operate
a vehicle by looking through a high-resolution onboard camera
with low-latency communication rather than having the vehicle
in their field of view. 5G networks have low latency in the tens ofmilliseconds, even including network delay, so remote operation
will be possible even from locations hundreds of kilometers awayin the future. This field trial showed that when a disaster occurs,
damage recovery with remote operation from outside the disasterarea will be possible using the low latency and high-capacity ofwide-area 5G networks.

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4. 5G Application to truck platooning
In the use case category of automated vehicles, a field trialof truck platooning (self-driving following vehicles) using thehigh reliability and low latency of 5G was conducted. With truck
platooning, several trucks form a platoon and drive together.
Communication between trucks is used to control the platoon as
one unit.
Truck platooning can be used to solve various societal issues.
The distance between trucks can be reduced through platooning,
reducing air resistance, and improving fuel economy. It has beenshown that a three truck platoon travelling at 80 km/h with 4
m between trucks would reduce fuel consumption by 15%[2]. By
further reducing the separation to 2 m, fuel consumption would
be reduced by 25%. Reducing the distance between vehicles also
increases capacity of the roadway, mitigating congestion. This canalso reduce CO2 emissions. There are also other societal issues inJapan, such as an aging driver population and driver overwork.
Platoon driving can be expected to reduce driver workload andimprove safety.
Use of 5G for communication between vehicles can improvestability and reduce a phenomenon called hunting (fluctuation ofdistances between vehicles), which is caused by delay in the control
process. To further reduce fuel consumption and increase capacityof roadways, the distance between vehicles must be reduced still
more, and the number of vehicles in a platoon increased, while still
maintaining safety, so application of 5G URLLC, with its low
latency and high reliability, is anticipated for application in thisfield.
In FY2019 (Feb. 2020), a field trial was conducted on theShin-Tomei expressway using 5G URLLC for platooning, withan inter-vehicle distance of 10 m (trials in FY2018 used 35 m), andwith later trucks following the lead truck (steering control). Thetrial was done in partnership with Advanced Smart Mobility Co.
Ltd. (ASM) and received technical and operational support fromthe Platooning Project of the Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry (METI) and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure andTransport (MLIT). Several 5G bases stations were also installed
along the Shin-Tomei Expressway and trials were conductedon dynamic switching with two modes of radio resource
management: (1) base station control mode and (2) autonomous■ Figure 8: F ield trial of 5G Truck platooning on Shin-Tomei
expressway —CACC—■ Figure 9: Field trial of automated following of a leading
vehicle using 5G —automated steering—

Part II: F ield Trial for Early Introduction of 5G
Massive Machine-type Connectivity
Field Trial Group 6 Wireless City Planning Inc.:Hideto Funayoshi, Yusuke Tajima

1. Introduction

control mode; for 5G New Radio (NR) Sidelink (vehicle-tovehicle direct communication).
Trial conditions on the Shin-Tomei Expressway are shown in
Figure 8 and Figure 9.

5. Conclusion
Field trials of 5G ultra-reliable low latency communication(URLLC) in the use case category of connected cars andautomated vehicles were conducted. For connected vehicles, fieldtrials of smart intersections and vehicle remote control weredone in the city of Kitakyushu. The actual use cases for thetrials were of giving fast and safe evacuation guidance and ofclearing roadways during a disaster. Results showed that smart
intersections can be created at low cost per intersection using
5G, and that vehicles can be cleared from roadways using remotecontrol from outside of the disaster area, even hundreds ofkilometers distant.
In the field of automated vehicles, 5G was applied to truck
platooning (automatic driving of following trucks), and driving
trials were conducted on the Shin-Tomei Expressway. Results
verified that 5G was effective in two cases: for low-volume, lowlatency communication needed for truck platooning (for vehiclecontrol), and for high-volume, low-latency communication (formonitoring the following trucks).
References[1] MIC, “5G Comprehensive Demonstration Tests Begin,” Press Release,
http://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01kiban14_02000297.html, May 2017.
[2] K. Aoki, “Implementing autonomous driving and platooning —State of autonomous driving
development—,” pp.303-309, IPSJ Journal, Vol. 54, No. 4, Apr. 2013.

Products are currently being developed and implemented forcommercialization of 5th Generation Mobile Communication
systems (5G) in 2020. 5G is anticipated as next generation social
infrastructure featuring ultra-high-speed communication, but it
also features ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC)
and massive Machine-Type Communication (mMTC).
Establishing concrete uses cases for these features is an urgent
matter.
This article introduces field trials of two such use cases,
conducted as 5G commercial services were starting in 2020. The
first was i-Construction, which was proposed at a 5G utilization
ideas contest for solutions to regional issues, with the theme, “Safe,secure, labor-saving, and usable anywhere.” The second use casewas smart logistics, to deal with a serious labor shortage in thelogistics industry.

2. 5G for i-Construction
Because the population of working-aged people in Japan isdecreasing, various industries need to increase labor productivity
by upgrading information and communications (ICT) and otherequipment, reducing travel and labor by utilizing data, and othermeasures. Japan is also very mountainous, with many tunnels
as part of the social infrastructure. Serious accidents can occur
on tunnel construction work sites, such as cave-ins, landslides,
suffocation, and fires, so safe and secure work environments must
be implemented.
In this field trial, sensors for dangerous toxic or flammablegases, and other indexes of work environment conditions such astemperature and carbon dioxide were installed to detect hazards
within a tunnel, and data was collected through 5G, making iteasier to detect these dangers. If an accident occurred, unmanned
construction equipment was also remotely operated to perform an
initial safety check inside the tunnel.
2.1 Tunnel construction site safety monitoring with gassensors, environment sensors and wearable sensors, andremote operation of construction machinery for initialsafety confirmation during disaster
This trial involved a system to monitor safety in tunnel
worksites, using gas and other environmental sensors and wearable
sensors to gather data on poisonous or flammable dangerous gasesthat can occur in tunnel worksites, to monitor work environment
indices such as temperature and carbon dioxide levels in real time,
and to send alerts to workers if dangerous levels were detected.
Then, 5G terminals were installed with remote controlequipment on a hydraulic shovel and crawler carrier at thetunnel work site, to build an environment remotely operating
construction equipment from an operator room outside of thetunnel. By using 5G high capacity communication and a MEC
server, the trial verified that construction equipment could beoperated remotely from the operating room, approximately 1,400

New Breeze Winter 202125■ Figure 1: Issues with tunnel work and trial details■ Figure 2: System architecture■ Figure 3: T rial resultsm from the 5G equipment, and that video from four, full-HDcameras mounted on the equipment could be transmitted to thecontrol room, with no problems due to data loss or delay. Gas
sensors were also installed on the construction equipment, and thetrial verified the ability to check the environment in the tunnel.

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2.2 Verifying slicing functions integrating various
communication requirements
It was anticipated that wireless communication capacity could
be strained when remotely controlling construction equipment
to check site safety when a disaster has occurred. This would

require high-capacity communication in a tunnel construction
site with many IoT devices such as gas and other environmentalsensors. Accordingly, the trial also verified the performanceof per-application priority control using the network slicing
function. The slicing function allows the required bandwidth
to be guaranteed for the priority application, according to a predetermined priority profile, even if the capacity is strained. In thistrial, gas sensor data, which is life-critical, was given the highest
priority and communication for remote operation of equipment
was given the next highest priority. In this way, the ability totransmit gas sensor data without loss, and to transmit the video
data required to control equipment remotely, with acceptable delay,
was verified.

3. Smart logistics
A promising way to address significant issues in the logistics
industry, such as the shortage of truck drivers and reforming work
practices, would be to build an efficient cargo loading system. As
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) has developed, various measures
have also been proposed, such as mixing loads of passengers
and goods or sharing transport, and there is increasing need tovisualize load data in order to implement such measures.
To deal with such needs and issues, Wireless City Planningand Nippon Express are conducting a field trial using 5G
networks with LiDAR (laser scanners) to visualize the state of
the load on a truck, and acceleration and other sensors to makedecisions about loading the storage compartment. A field trial■ Figure 4: Use of network slicing■ Figure 5: I ssues with cargo loading work and trial details

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■ Figure 6: System architecture■ Figure 7: T rial results

was also conducted using Cat. M1 to check load temperature andweight.
3.1 Truck load state visualization and loading decisions
using 5G and a MEC server
To visualize the space available in the cargo area of a truck,a 5G terminal was used to send a point set of the space, obtainedusing LiDAR, to a manager in a location distant from the truck.
Using high-capacity 5G communication and a MEC server,
the point set data from the cargo area can be transmitted andanalysed in real time, and the load state can be visualized on themanager’s screen. By attaching sensors to the freight that senddata frequently, the trial verified that whether the freight has been
packed in the cargo area can be detected based on the accelerationand location data from the sensors.

4. Conclusion
This article has described two usage scenarios envisioned for5G mass connectivity, working toward implementations of 5G insociety that provide solutions to regional issues.

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In tunnel recovery work after a disaster as envisioned fori-Construction, workers would conventionally have to check theenvironment with absolutely no idea what the conditions were.
However, by using remote operation of equipment and gas sensors
to get information, it was demonstrated that a higher level ofsafety can be expected. With smart logistics, it was shown that thesystem could be used to save labor by reducing the amount of workin loading cargo, and also by increasing loading efficiency. Bothof these use cases required an amount of traffic exceeding thatspecified by ITU-R, but the implementation operated without
difficulty using 5G. The two use cases also required the 5G
network to satisfy both ultra-fast communication and massive
connectivity requirements at the same time, and this was shown to
be possible with a single base station.
These trials also revealed further issues with implementationof 5G in society, including packaging, reducing the size, power
consumption and price of 5G terminals, and selecting sensor
devices with consideration of measurement accuracy. Further
study of these issues will need to continue in the future.