National Instruments ("NI"), a provider of software-defined test and measurement platforms that help accelerate the development and performance of automated test and automated measurement systems, today announced the S.E.A. C-V2X open-loop test system. system, which utilizes 4G wireless cellular technology to provide high-bandwidth and low-latency communications for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications.

NI is working with NI Alliance Partners* (S.E.A.) to help OEMs and component suppliers validate the safety and efficiency of vehicles by providing software-defined test equipment to maximize the full potential of the Smart Car. With the evolution of 3GPP standards, including the 5G NR capabilities of 3GPP Release 16 scheduled for 2020, software-defined test and measurement platforms provide OEMs and component suppliers with highly flexible test and measurement platforms that adapt to the latest technologies with minimal hardware and software changes.

In a 2016 study, it was noted that NHTSA estimates that safety applications based on V2V and V2I implementations could eliminate or reduce the severity of up to 80 percent of vehicle crashes, including crashes at intersections or when vehicles change lanes. By communicating driving intent and collecting data from other vehicles about their surroundings, V2X can better inform both humans and self-driving cars to improve reaction times and reduce decision-making in vehicle interactions, such as left-turns and intersections of vehicles in intersecting road conditions.

Using cellular technology for physical layer communications, C-V2X will be able to benefit from significant investment in cellular communications (including 5G) and a large technology ecosystem. For this technology to work, participants will need to standardize communications and understand how systems from multiple vendors interact and analyze behavior in real-world scenarios. Ultimately, 5G is expected to provide higher throughput and lower latency for driverless vehicle communications, high-definition map downloads and advanced pedestrian interactions. With most projects still in the early stages of evaluation and standards still evolving, automotive OEMs, suppliers, and academic researchers are continually investing into the development of new tools to accommodate C-V2X technology.

Vehicles equipped with V2X technology give drivers and autonomous driving systems more time to respond to hazardous situations," said Dr. Gerd Schmitz, CEO of S.E.A. "S.E.A. has many years of experience bringing new technologies to market, and we recognize the need for research teams to quickly understand the functionality and validate the performance in a reliable and repeatable environment! . Road tests are valuable, but performance validation in the lab can help teams iterate faster and feel more confident in the operation of the device in a wider range of scenarios, including extreme situations that are difficult to replicate."

Dr. Schmitz also recognizes how NI's innovative approach and platform has enhanced their company's processes. "By building on the NI platform, we were able to accelerate our development by focusing on key V2X IP and driving scenarios. This allows us to release C-V2X tools early in the design cycle to help research teams have a higher level of confidence in the performance of their devices"

The new C-V2X solution combines software from NI Alliance Partner S.E.A., Inc. with NI software radio (SDR) hardware that sends real-world signals to RF and GNSS channels on the C-V2X controller and telematics control unit. By clearly surfacing the C-V2X and GNSS signals to the C-V2X controller, the new C-V2X solution can simulate, for example, emergency brake warnings or omnidirectional stop signals and help engineers modify equipment parameters in the lab. The new C-V2X solution includes pre-compiled driving scenarios such as left-turn assist, emergency brake warning and traffic jam warning scenarios, allowing users to start their first measurements more quickly.

S.E.A also offers the following software add-ons:

? Congestion simulation software for simulating the surrounding environment for up to hundreds of vehicles to improve test coverage

? Channel simulation software to simulate the physical distortion of radio waves to understand signal propagation

In addition, these systems further use NI vector signal transceivers for RF measurements for characterization and compliance analysis.

The S.E.A. C-V2X open-loop test system helps V2X research teams rapidly develop systems that scale from simple V2X playback tests (open-loop) or functional tests to HIL test systems with multiple sensor target simulators, GNSS RF, scenario simulations, and user-defined models. As standards and new business models change, engineers developing next-generation vehicles must balance product scalability and time-to-market. The new C-V2X solution provides a higher-level starting point to help demonstrate early results, and the solution also features the flexibility of the NI platform to help ensure that these teams are able to adapt to changing market needs.