The future of Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) in Europe relies on one key enabler: uninterrupted connectivity across borders. Vehicles must stay connected while moving from one country to another—something current commercial networks cannot guarantee. To address this, three Horizon 2020 projects—5G-Blueprint, 5GMED, and 5G-ROUTES—joined forces to test and demonstrate how 5G Standalone (SA) networks can make seamless mobility a reality.

Three projects, one mission

• 5G-Blueprint focused on teleoperation of vehicles and vessels across the Belgium–Netherlands corridor. By enabling remote-controlled platooning and vessel transport, it demonstrated how 5G can boost logistics efficiency and reduce workforce challenges.
• 5G-ROUTES led trials along the Estonia–Latvia border, exploring innovative use cases such as see-through platooning, hazard sharing, and immersive infotainment, backed by precise positioning and network slicing.
• 5GMED, at the Spain–France Mediterranean corridor, advanced high-speed teleoperated driving, digitalized road infrastructure, and follow-me infotainment—showcasing Europe’s ambition to integrate 5G into everyday transport.

5GMED’s breakthroughs

Among the three, 5GMED introduced critical innovations that reduce latency and boost efficiency in cross-border CAM:

• Local Break-Out (LBO) roaming combined with Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), cutting latency from 25 ms to just 8–9 ms—essential for real-time driving applications.
• A Neutral Host and RAN sharing model, ensuring sustainable and cost-effective deployment across operators while optimizing roaming handovers.
• MEC federation across Spain and France, enabling applications to migrate seamlessly as users cross borders, ensuring services never drop.

Together, the three projects reduced mobility interruption times from several seconds (or even minutes) in today’s networks to around 100 ms—a milestone for road safety and service continuity.

A path towards European leadership in CAM

This joint work highlights how Europe is taking coordinated steps to ensure that connected mobility knows no borders. While each project tackled different corridors and challenges, 5GMED stood out in pioneering roaming and edge computing solutions that can serve as a blueprint for large-scale CAM deployment.

Read the full white paper below

White-Paper-from-5G-Blueprint-5GMED-and-5G-ROUTES-1