Since 2018, vehicles manufactured in Europe have been equipped with a system that automatically contacts the emergency services in the event of a serious accident, sending location and sensor information. The system was originally developed to operate over 2G and 3G networks. However, as telecom operators phase out these older networks, a new generation of the service (called NG eCall), based on 4G / 5G mobile phone and LEO/GEO Satellite networks is being developed. In this system, eCall messages consist of two parts:
An automatically triggered message outlining location of the vehicle, forces involved etc. This is delivered on the basis that the driver or passengers may not be able to make a call themselves. However, if the occupants are able to speak, then a video or voice call can be made. With today’s eCall this is restricted to just voice with emergency services or vice versa.
The ESA ARTES NG E-call project is investigating how this might be augmented using, in particular LEO (& GEO) satcoms technology, which potentially could have a lot of positive features especially when in remote or rural areas where cellular services are not available.
A consortium led by Satellite Applications Catapult (SAC) including Calnex Solutions, Oecon and Idneo won this ESA ARTES contract and has been providing technology to create a testbed for NG eCalls over this new hybrid (5G/Satcoms) environment. This will be used to validate whether the NG eCall system will be able to use either 5G or satellite networks depending on the available connections. As part of this, Calnex Solutions has supplied its expertise and NE-ONE Enterprise Emulator which is able to implement the network conditions, including rapid changes of conditions (typically 100s of times a second), and allows modelling the effects of things like the Doppler encountered as the LEO satellites move rapidly towards and away from the NG eCall system installed in the vehicle.
This capability is being used to identify and mitigate the technical risks of deploying the NG eCall system in converged networks involving 5G and satcoms networks.
On Friday May 16th the testbed was formally handed over to ESA, at Satellite Applications Catapult offices in the Westcott Innovation Centre, Buckinghamshire
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