Welcome to my 5 part blog series where we continue to explore challenges with International vehicle controls and telematics in the heavy duty machinery market. In this segment we cover the challenge of frequencies of 4G & 5G.
The most popular method in telematics systems for pushing data off the vehicle is via cellular (LTE). Satellite is too expensive, Wi-Fi doesn’t have the coverage, but Cellular networks are used all over the world and the cost is decreasing rapidly.
Did you know there are 88 different frequency bands of LTE (existing 4G) utilized in the world, of which 72 are standard and used in various regions around the world? This makes it extremely difficult for industry experts to support hardware and test software. Each country has its own set of certifications to meet in order to offer products in their region, this adds a lot of cost and time to each OEM and with technology moving faster each year, this leaves is a shorter window of time to make your ROI. Advancements in this technology are moving so fast that major players in the market are developing and utilizing their own frequency bands.
Right now, 5G is under development and has been deployed in some major cities with issues arising around the need for more towers due to higher frequencies having a lower signal range. Some additional concerns surrounding 5G are that it is too close in proximity to other frequencies with remote sensing-including weather systems and earth’s observation satellites, there are surveillance concerns-mainly with Chinese developed hardware which has been banned in some countries, and lastly, health concerns due to more radiation at higher frequencies within 5G FR1 and FR2.
Stay tuned for my next blog post, Challenge 3: Data Privacy Laws.
Challenge 1: Harmonizing Standards
Challenge 3: Data Privacy Laws
Vehicle Controls & Intelligence Cooperative is a collective effort by the organization to leverage knowledge, creative writing and various points of view by organizational thought leaders. The teams goal is to provide engaging and relevant content to educate the HED customer base and industry followers of vehicle controls, manual interfaces and telematics technology.