Testing Cutting-Edge V2N/V2Cloud Applications on a HIL Simulator

• Unique hardware-in-the-loop system with mobile network emulator
• Realistic LTE and 5G SA or NSA simulation for conducted and antenna-based setups
• Early development of automotive applications powered by 5G and edge computing
• Validation of entire vehicle-to-network (V2N) processing chain
• Seamless integration with dSPACE solutions for automated driving
• Easy control of the Anritsu Radio Communication Test Station from Simulink®

Even today, drivers can use their smartphones to locate their vehicles or easily navigate to the nearest free parking space. Smartphones often use V2-Cloud applications for this purpose. These applications exchange the required data, such as the vehicle position, free parking spaces, etc., with Internet services via a mobile radio network, prepare the data, and make it available to the driver. The combination of 5G and edge computing, which promises high data throughputs and low latencies, could pave the way for completely new applications. This can allow for cooperative perception, swarm intelligence based on shared AI, or real-time traffic optimization to make automated driving more comfortable, ecofriendly, and safer. The applications for connected cars will be integrated more closely with the vehicle, which will lead to high demands on simulation and test environments in order to validate the entire processing chain. The unparalleled integration of the Anritsu Radio Communication Test Station for LTE and 5G with the dSPACE SCALEXIO HIL system allows for early development and end-to-end validation of cutting-edge applications for connected and cooperative automated driving, without being dependent on local 5G test sites and infrastructure. The Anritsu Test Station provides a realistic test network that consists of base stations (radio access network, RAN) and a core network. The MT8000A base station emulator is capable of providing 5G RAN and 5G core network in a single housing. Also, it supports 5G NSA (non-stand-alone) as a mixed setup with LTE and pure LTE cells. The Anritsu Test Stations can be connected directly to the cloud or a back-end server and exchange data between edge computing services and the tested application in the vehicle. You can use wires or antennas to connect the RAN emulators to the device under test. For the DUT, the radio signals must be shielded appropriately.

You can control the mobile network emulator from the HIL simulator using a Simulink blockset. This lets you reconfigure the mobile network to manipulate data throughput and latency, for example, and also supports mobility scenarios such as a handover (changing from one cell site to another). During a virtual test drive, the radio link is transferred from one base station to the next without losing the data link. Another frequent test case is path loss, where the radio signal becomes increasingly weaker or even breaks off completely while driving.