press release

Fujikura Ltd. (Director, President and CEO Okada Naoki), in collaboration with 11 companies including Kansai Electric Power Transmission and Distribution Co., Ltd., conducted a safe driving support demonstration and monitoring support demonstration in Sanda City, Hyogo Prefecture from April 18 to 22, 2022 ^*1.
Of these, the safe driving support demonstration for which we provided equipment aims to verify the effectiveness of safe driving support through "road-to-vehicle communication" using utility poles and "vehicle-to-vehicle communication" with bicycles when a bus is traveling through an intersection where it is difficult to check the movements of pedestrians and other people due to blind spots.
Specifically, information and communication devices installed on utility poles and bicycles around intersections will detect information such as the speed and location of pedestrians and cyclists in blind spots, and if there is a risk of an accident, they will alert bus drivers and other drivers, thereby supporting safe driving.

For this demonstration, Fujitsu constructed a control signal network connecting three poles by attaching its 60 GHz millimeter wave communications devices to two utility poles equipped with sensors that detect dynamic information about pedestrians and other objects, and ITS radio devices that perform road-to-vehicle communications with buses, and to a pole equipped with an LED display board.
The optimal installation location for devices such as sensors and display boards varies depending on the shape of the intersection and traffic volume, but traditionally they were concentrated on one utility pole. In this demonstration, we achieved optimal device placement by connecting devices distributed in three locations using low-latency 60 GHz millimeter wave wireless. With this configuration, we were able to successfully conduct a safe driving support experiment in which dangerous information captured by sensors was transmitted to devices such as LED display boards and ITS radios via our 60 GHz millimeter wave communication device, and a timely warning was given to the bus driver.
60 GHz millimeter wave wireless is easy to use without a license, aspect low interference, low latency, high speed and large capacity, and is expected to application to wireless relay networks in smart cities where various sensors and cameras are installed throughout the city. This demonstration confirmed the effectiveness of application to such wireless relay networks.

Through these and other demonstrations, Fujitsu will continue to demonstrate various application of 60 GHz millimeter wave wireless technology and contribute to the realization of a better society.

*1: https://www.kansai-td.co.jp/corporate/press-release/2022/0318_1j.html

[Terminology explanation]
Road-to-vehicle communication: Two-way communication between vehicles and communication equipment installed on roads for various driving support purposes.
Vehicle-to-vehicle communication: Two-way communication between vehicles for various driving assistance purposes.
ITS radio: A radio system that uses a dedicated frequency (760MHz) for ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) to connect vehicles and vehicles to roadside infrastructure equipment.