Australian firm Cohda Wireless has developed a cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) turnkey system for smart cities using the Qualcomm Snapdragon Automotive 5G and 4G platforms.

Cohda Wireless chief engineer Fabien Cure said porting Cohda’s software stack to the Snapdragon platforms strengthened the long-standing relationship between the two companies.

“The porting of Cohda’s software to the Snapdragon Automotive 5G and 4G platforms, in conjunction with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 2150 platform, delivers automakers a more complete offering for C-V2X which is by design pre-integrated with the latest 5G and 4G telematics platforms, telematics SDK and Qualcomm Aerolink communication technology,” said Cure. “This delivers a faster time to market leveraging a mature and proven C-V2X and can be leveraged with confidence in the interests of establishing a cooperative, intelligent road transport system that will make our roads safer, less congested and, ultimately, less damaging to the environment.”

The Snapdragon platforms feature integrated C-V2X direct communications, 5G and/or 4G cellular network connectivity, high-precision multi-frequency global navigation satellite system (HP-GNSS), RF front-end, telematics SDK and Aerolink security functionalities to support operators across key spectrum bands globally.

With these functionalities, the Snapdragon platforms are designed to provide support for rich in-vehicle experiences, precise positioning for lane level navigation accuracy, multi-gigabit vehicle-to-network cloud connectivity, and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-roadside infrastructure (V2I) direct communication to enable a broad set of end-to-end applications that include high bandwidth low latency teleoperations support, each of which are requirements for automotive safety, platooning, autonomous and always-connected driving.

Cohda’s vehicle location system, V2X-Locate, solves the problem of inaccurate vehicle positioning in urban canyons where GNSS, even combined with RTK corrections, does not produce reliable vehicle positioning accuracy.

“Cohda Wireless’ V2X has been installed in two production vehicles giving Cohda practical experience in bringing automotive ITS to industry,” said Cure. “In addition, as a roadmap item, Cohda will enable the C-V2X-Locate on the platform resulting in the most advanced, versatile and implementation-ready design.”

Cohda’s V2X supports the two radio communications technologies under consideration globally. The firm is also entrenched in the C-V2X-exclusive China region, where it has a presence in Shanghai, and is a major stakeholder in the USA where C-V2X has recently been allocated use of the 5.9GHz ITS spectrum.

In October 2020, Cohda Wireless’ C-V2X software stack proved compliant with the latest Chinese standards and specifications at the 2020 C-V2X Cross-Industry & Large-Scale Pilot Plugfest. IMT-2020 (5G) is regarded as one of the interoperability standardisation processes that is likely to be adopted with others including the CAICV of the China Society of Automotive Engineers. Cohda also has demonstrated C-V2X interoperability at the latest round of European plugtests and US plugfests.

Cohda Wireless is a member of the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), a global, cross-industry organisation of companies from the automotive, technology, ICT and telecommunications industries working together to develop end-to-end products for future mobility and transportation services.

Cohda is headquartered in Australia and has offices in Europe, China and the USA. Its products are used widely in locations including the USA, Europe, Australia, Japan, Africa, Middle East, China, Singapore and Korea.