5th Generation connected and automated mobility cross-border EU trials

Project Information

5G-ROUTES

Grant agreement ID: 951867

DOI

10.3030/951867

Project closed

EC signature date 15 July 2020

Start date 1 September 2020

End date 28 February 2025

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 11 267 378,53

EU contribution

€ 9 177 397,88

Coordinated by

ERICSSON EESTI AS
Estonia

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - 5G-ROUTES (5th Generation connected and automated mobility cross-border EU trials)

Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2025-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

5G-ROUTES was launched to address a key challenge in Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM): the need for reliable, uninterrupted, seamless cross-border communication to support advanced CAM services across transportation modes. As connected vehicles, autonomous systems, and smart infrastructure become increasingly data-driven, ensuring service continuity across EU borders is vital for safe and efficient operations. A key issue is the lack of validated, interoperable 5G infrastructure than can operate across multi-domain and multi-operator environments. Differing regulations, technical standards, and service providers, make cross-border CAM deployment complex. Prior efforts based on 4G or 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) networks have not met the ultra-reliable, low-latency, high-throughput requirements of next-generation mobility.
This challenge has substantial societal relevance. Transport accounts nearly 25% of EU's greenhouse gas emissions, while inefficient infrastructure add both environmental and economic costs. Robust 5G-enabled CAM systems can improve road safety, traffic flow, sustainability, and passenger convenience. Seamless cross-border mobility also aligns closely with the EU’s Digital Single Market and Green Deal ambitions.
Overall Objectives:
The core aim of 5G-ROUTES was to validate the latest 5G features and 3GPP specifications through advanced field trials of innovative CAM use cases in real-world, cross-border context. Trials took place across the ‘Via Baltica-North’ corridor (Latvia, Estonia, and Finland), to accelerate deployment of end-to-end interoperable CAM ecosystems across EU’s digitised trnasport routes.
To achieve this, the project focused on:
1. Development of Innovative CAM use cases
Design and implement advanced, commercially viable use cases in automotive and maritime domains, including cooperative driving, infotainment, logistics, and maritime operations.
2. Requirements Analysis and Trial Preparation
Define technical, business, regulatory, and security needs to support cross-border CAM trials.
3. Advancement of Enabling Technologies
Enhance key 5G technologies—network slicing, edge computing, AI-based service continuity, and high-precision positioning—integrated into multi-domain systems.
4. Infrastructure Setup and Integration
Deploy terrestrial and maritime 5G setups, integrate enabling technologies, and prepare lab environments for rigorous testing.
5. Field Trial Validation
Conduct large-scale trials to validate 5G performance against targeted KPIs and standards, proving commercial viability.
6. Business Model and Innovation Management
Develop sustainable business models and exploitation strategies, ensuring commercial readiness and IP protection.
7. Contribution to Standardisation
Identify gaps and contribute to 5G standardisation through collaboration with key SDOs (e.g. 3GPP, ETSI, ITU).
8. Scale-Up and Impact Dissemination
Disseminate results, engage industry stakeholders, and provide policy recommendations to support long-term deployment and scaling across Europe.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

5G-ROUTES running for 54 months, successfully executed a concise research, development, validation, and dissemination programme focused on advancing 5G-enabled CAM in European cross-border corridors. The core objective was to design, deploy, and validate a suite of innovative CAM use cases under real-life conditions along the Via Baltica-North corridor. Throughout the project, 5G-ROUTES delivered key technological innovations, demonstrating how 5G can be applied into CAM environments. Among the achievements:
• 5G Maritime Coverage Extension was achieved via a multi-hop private network solution deployed on vessels, extending 5G coverage up to 10 km offshore. Demonstrations included real-time collaboration, gaming, goods tracking, and smart ferry operations.
• An Inter-PLMN Handover Mechanism was engineered and testes across Latvia-Estonia border. The field trials confirmed cross-border mobility with service interruption times between 40–60 ms at the radio layer.
• Multi-domain CAM Services Platform was deployed and validated for backend lifecycle management. Service continuity during domain switching was enabled through a workaround (DNN swap and PCF-based session reactivation), with application-layer interruption times of 3–6 seconds.
• A high-Precision Positioning Service combining 5G and GNSS-RTK was implemented and tested, achieving accuracies below 0.3m essential for applications like platooning.
• Large-scale field trials in terrestrial (Latvia–Estonia) and maritime (Finland) settings validated advanced CAM use cases including see-through platooning, perception sharing, and immersive infotainment, while collecting real-world performance data.
• Key integration and interoperability challenges were exposed s between open-source and commercial 5G components (e.g. edge UPF), highlighting the need for dedicated testing facilities.
• Business validation activities were conducted, including business model development, cost/revenue structures and breakeven analysis, and exploitation strategies. Two stakeholder workshops (maritime and terrestrial) were organised to refine exploitation strategies.
• Four patent filings were created, protecting innovations in interference scheduling, positioning metadata analysis, ML optimization, network slicing.
• Dissemination efforts were extensive, including numerous scientific publications, demonstrations at international events (MWC, EuCNC, IEEE), and active participation in 5G-PPP initiatives.
5G-ROUTES delivered a powerful combination of technological validation, ecosystem development, business readiness, and policy engagement. The project set a new standard for deploying 5G-enabled CAM services in cross-border settings and laid the foundation for future commercial deployments across Europe.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Building on its core developments, 5G-ROUTES pushed the boundaries of CAM by validating 5G technologies in multi-country, real-world scenarios. A key differentiator was its demonstration of inter-PLMN handover and service continuity over 5G SA networks, a first at the EU level, tested successfully across both terrestrial and maritime domains.
The project’s major contributions lie in the integration and orchestration of 5G services across domains, networks, and transport modes. It validated multi-domain service management, extended 5G maritime coverage beyond the coastline, and leveraged AI-based optimisation to ensure adaptive performance across diverse conditions. In addition, a hybrid 5G GNSS-RTK positioning solution enabled sub-meter accuracy for safety-critical CAM use cases such as platooning and cooperative awareness. Extensive field trials provided robust performance evidence while revealing real-world integration challenges between commercial and open source 5G components. These insights stress the importance of vendor-agnostic validation platforms and have already led to proposals for future services supporting interoperability testing.
The project also strengthened its business and innovation footprint the development of commercialisation strategies for both maritime and terrestrial use cases. The filing of four patents on core technical components illustrates the innovation depth and potential for IP exploitation. Its dissemination activities ensured broad visibility and uptake, with results shared through high-profile conferences, publications, and collaborative efforts within the 5G-PPP ecosystem.

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