NTT Docomo and NEC test 5G to race car traveling at 300 km/h

NTT DOCOMO and NEC conducted a test of 5G connectivity to a race car moving at 305 km/h (190 mph)

The test, which used 28 GHz spectrum, sustained a downlink of 1.1 Gbps between the 5G base station and the 5G modem in the car moving at 293 km/h and a fast handover during communication between 5G base stations and a 5G mobile station moving at 290 km/h. In addition, the trial succeeded in a wireless live relay of 4K high-frame-rate video via uplink from a 5G mobile station moving at 200 km/h. Both the 5G base station and 5G mobile station in the car were equipped for beamforming, which concentrated radio power in a specific direction, and beam tracking, which switched the direction of the beams to follow the 5G mobile station as it moved at high speed.

The trials were conducted last month at the Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI).

The 4K video transmission operated at 120-frames-per-second and used NTT's real-time 4K high-frame-rate HEVC codec.

Other companies involved in the trials included DOCOMO 5G Open Partner Program participants, Sony Business Solutions Corporation, and DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING manager Dandelion Limited.