High-speed wireless connectivity for vehicles and infrastructure

Vehicles are becoming data platforms.

Mining trucks, autonomous vehicles, buses, trains and industrial fleets increasingly need to exchange large amounts of data with each other or with fixed infrastructure. Sometimes continuously. Sometimes only for a few seconds when they reach the right location.

VehicleLink is our approach to those connections.

We design specialist wireless links for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, working across multiple wireless technologies depending on the application.

Have a vehicle connectivity requirement? Tell us what you’re trying to connect.

When conventional connectivity isn’t enough

Cellular and Wi-Fi cover a lot of vehicle connectivity requirements very well.

But there are applications where you need something different.

Perhaps you need much higher throughput at a specific location. The connection needs to be independent of the wider wireless network. RF communication is restricted or undesirable. Or two vehicles need a dedicated connection directly between them.

Typical VehicleLink applications include:

• Vehicle-to-vehicle communication
• Vehicle-to-infrastructure communication
• Autonomous and remotely operated vehicles
• Mining and heavy equipment
• High-speed data offload
• Trains and rail infrastructure
• Buses and commercial fleets
• AGVs and industrial vehicles
• Software and data transfer
• RF-sensitive environments

If an existing cellular or Wi-Fi network already solves the problem well, there may be little reason to replace it. VehicleLink is intended for the applications where it doesn’t.

Continuous connectivity while moving

Some applications need the connection to remain available as the vehicle moves.

That could mean communication between two vehicles travelling together, a vehicle communicating with roadside or trackside infrastructure, or an autonomous machine maintaining a dedicated wireless link during operation.

Movement makes the wireless design more complicated. Distance changes. Angles change. Speeds vary. Line of sight can disappear.

We assess those conditions as part of the connection rather than looking at range alone.

Transfer large amounts of data when a vehicle stops

Not every vehicle needs another always-on wireless network.

Sometimes you simply need to move a lot of data quickly.

A mining truck arrives at a charging bay. A bus returns to the depot. A train stops at a station. An autonomous vehicle reaches a service area.

VehicleLink can provide a dedicated high-speed connection at that location, allowing data to be transferred automatically while the vehicle is within the communication zone.

This can be used for:

• Operational and sensor data
• Video and other large datasets
• Diagnostics and logs
• Software and map updates
• Maintenance data

The vehicle arrives, the connection becomes available, the data moves, and the vehicle continues operating.

For many fleet applications, we think this is more interesting than trying to maintain a high-bandwidth connection everywhere.

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication

There are also situations where the connection needs to exist directly between vehicles.

That might be two industrial vehicles working together, autonomous machines coordinating their operation, or vehicles that need to exchange data without routing everything through central network infrastructure.

Depending on distance, movement and throughput requirements, different wireless technologies can be considered for the link.

Different applications need different wireless technologies

There isn’t one best technology for vehicle connectivity.

A stationary mining truck transferring gigabytes of data at a charging bay has very different requirements from two vehicles communicating while moving.

VehicleLink can incorporate optical wireless, mmWave, Wi-Fi, private wireless and other specialist technologies. We select the approach around the required distance, throughput, movement, environment and available infrastructure.

You don’t need to decide which wireless technology you need before contacting us.

Prove the connection first

Vehicle applications can look straightforward on paper and behave very differently in the real environment.

For new or demanding applications, we’d normally recommend starting with a defined connection or communication point.

We can assess the requirement, propose a suitable system and, where possible, provide an evaluation setup for testing with the actual vehicles.

Once the connection has been proven, the same approach can be scaled across additional vehicles or locations.

Tell us about your application

Tell us briefly what you need to connect and what the connection needs to do. We’ll take it from there.