The Port of Virginia in the US expects to have autonomous trucks running on a private 5G network at its site from early next year (2024). The port has a new private 5G network from Verizon Business, operating in high-band millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum, which uses radio and core network infrastructure from Swedish vendor Ericsson. The initial scope will demonstrate the “safety and viability” of the technology. “Eventually this will evolve to small, controlled groups of trucks moving in convoys from the ports to local warehouses.”
The new private 5G network, announced in July last year, sets the “foundation” for a broad range of “future smart-ports technologies”, writes Ericsson in a blog post. Rich Ceci, senior vice president of technology and projects at Virginia International Terminals, is quoted in the piece: “Our vision has evolved from the ‘science experiment phase’ of an autonomous truck experiment into something where we might replace all of our Wi-Fi with a 5G network. We think 5G would be a candidate to just be one homogeneous solution that does it all.”
US ports are also looking at further spectrum options in the mid-band (3.7-4.2 GHz) and shared CBRS band (3.55-3.7 GHz) to deliver more coverage and capacity for new IoT apps, as well, writes Ericsson. “More area with less equipment,” it writes, pointing to parallel mid-band LTE work in the Port of Rotterdam, where it replaced 50 Wi-Fi access points with two cellular radios and two antenna masts. Future private 5G-for-IoT cases include: “enhanced differential GPS, tablets in tough working conditions, and push-to-talk (PTT).”
The Port of Virginia is already looking to expand its 5G network to include a second terminal to support PTT and other undefined “mission critical communications”, says Ericsson. The blog states the “mentality” among port officials has shifted “from a pilot phase to how… [to] benefit ongoing operations”. It says: “The Port of Virginia sees private 5G… as key to future proof operations and keep the port ahead of the technology curve.” Much is made in the blog of the Port of Virginia’s own tech leadership.
Adam Schipper, director of business development for transportation and logistics for Ericsson in North America, is quoted: “Innovation is a skill, not a gift. And seeing the team… put that skill into action… makes it easy to understand why they are leading the way as America’s most modern gateway.” The Virginia trucking project has evolved out of a federal grant, issued to US ports in 2020, to investigate how to accommodate driverless trucks coming into shipping and logistics environments. The money inspired the port to look also at how to manage driverless trucks on site, also.
The blog notes the mood in the trucking industry about autonomous vehicles is “bullish” anyway, and autonomous trucking is variously permitted intrastate already. Driver shortages and tech development has further built momentum. By the time private 5G was up for discussion, as a way to extend autonomous trucking onto its premies, the Port of Virginia already had 50 miles of fiber cable to support autonomous cranes, cameras for vehicle checks, and unmanned kiosks at its entries and exits.
Ericsson says its ambitions and trials to launch stretching IoT projects – “things like autonomous vehicles, inventory tracking, and more” – had already failed with Wi-Fi. The port wanted a network that was “dedicated, secure, and reliable”, and which could also handle high-and-rising data volumes across its IT infrastructure. There was only one option, as the story goes. “Put simply, private cellular networks are what will enable the smart ports of the future,” writes Ericsson. The infrastructure backbone was already in place, writes Ericsson.
Ericsson states: “Managers wanted to make sure they had a network that could handle the requirements like real-time command and control decisions to ensure the unmanned trucks could operate safely with manned vehicles working in the same area. Trust in the reliability of the network is a major factor, not only for operational efficiency, but also to keep workers safe, as safety use cases are a large component of success within the private 5G cellular network deployment.”
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