LG Uses AWS Wavelength for Low-Latency, High-Throughput Delivery of V2X Data

The amount of technology enabling vehicular communications systems, and the degree to which these technologies are interconnected, continues to advance at a rapid pace. These advancements help facilitate real-time data communication between transportation agencies, law enforcement, and individual vehicles, helping to improve driver (and pedestrian) safety. The ability to move data in real-time is critical, and requires low-latency, high-throughput delivery.

Vehicle to Everything (V2X) – and in particular, Cellular-Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) communications technology – lets vehicles communicate with multiple devices on the go and when stationary. More specifically, V2X enables connected vehicles to communicate with each other and their surrounding infrastructure (e.g. roadside units, traffic lights, road signage).  To support V2X communications, there must be a reliable wireless link between both ends of the communications channel. One of the approaches used to establish that channel is C-V2X, which uses cellphone base station technology to connect all the vehicles and infrastructure units within the transportation ecosystem. According to IHS Markit, more than 11.2 million light vehicles equipped with some form of V2X system will be produced globally in 2024, representing 12% of the total light vehicle fleet. Meanwhile, Future Bridge Analysis and Insights forecasts that 50 to 60 million cars equipped with C-V2X are expected to be on roads by 2035.

With the increased adoption of V2X and C-V2X technology, the constant transmission of safety messages and the authentication of that content is critical. For broad deployment to be successful, such technologies must address security and privacy concerns to prevent potentially harmful data collection or incorrect data from being shared. In particular, the system must quickly identify malicious entities attempting to transmit invalid or incorrect information to vehicles or roadside infrastructures, or improperly receiving sensitive data, and immediately revoke system access rights. The proper handling of this type of data is a key challenge for the C-V2X industry.

To address related security and privacy requirements, and to facilitate a more streamlined communications and vehicle control workflow, LG Electronics is piloting a next-generation C-V2X platform on the Verizon 5G network using AWS Wavelength to move data in real time. This includes LG’s Authentication-as-a-Service (LG AaaS), which improves driving safety with secure information sharing between motor vehicles, mobile devices, and transportation infrastructures.

With its AaaS platform, LG is pioneering the use of unicast-oriented channels in combination with AWS Wavelength over a 5G network to ensure fast, smooth, and reliable data capture and display using cloud-based processing and distribution. 5G helps take C-V2X technology further with lower latency, greater responsiveness, more reliability, and higher bandwidths. Additionally, 5G connectivity is expected to be common in populated urban areas and can support a wide variety of connections. This includes handsets, parking meters, traffic signals, buildings, traffic cameras and more, further enabling the proliferation of C-V2X.

“Every millisecond counts in unexpected driving situations where blind spots, collisions and hydroplaning are involved,” said Rick Kreifeldt, Senior Vice President, LG America R&D Lab. “What’s critical is the ability to quickly scale computational resources providing low latency and high throughput for timely delivery of security services while preserving the privacy of the system. Our C-V2X pilot with ultra-low latency access to AWS Wavelength allows for timely message filtering that only shares relevant and trusted information for improved road safety and enhanced mobility among vehicles.”

LG has devised a networked AaaS security solution that uses the mobile edge computing capabilities of Wavelength with an LG gateway service residing on the Wavelength platform to process and deliver vehicle safety messages in a timely manner. Special activation codes are periodically sent to disparate clients that facilitate authentication within the V2X system. LG’s technology sends these activation codes via a unicast distribution model known as “uACPC,” which avoids latencies associated with broadcast transmission. This leads to bandwidth savings, higher availability, and on-demand delivery of activation codes.

To preserve the vehicle and driver’s privacy, modern vehicular public key infrastructure can now provision vehicles with multiple short-term pseudonym certificates. However, provisioning a large number of pseudonym certificates can lead to an unmanageable growth of Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) during its revocation process. This can negatively impact the bandwidth usage and processing overhead of the system. To address this issue, LG developed special optimization algorithms that efficiently uses the bandwidth while reducing system processing overhead. This avoids the generation of an unwieldy number of CRLS, which can lead to system slowdown, failure, and car accidents. The LG solution uses these algorithms in tandem with the elasticity of Wavelength’s cloud computing service to identify a misbehaving vehicle or rogue computer in a timely manner.

Working with AWS has let LG build out its system and rely on the cloud-based compute power of Wavelength to provide mobile data instantly and in a highly secure and scalable way. uACPC uses Wavelength for faster distribution of CRLs and activation codes. Wavelength also ensures ultra-low latency and fast delivery of LG’s uACPC solution.

Vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers face challenges when implementing security functions in connected vehicles. “Utilizing a unicast model as opposed a broadcast for safety warning is showing promise for efficiently managing client revocation while ensuring privacy, that in turn establishes trust among consumers for the security of an entire cellular-alerting and verification ecosystem,” said Harsh Kupwade-Patil, Security Leader/Principal Research Engineer at LG America R&D Lab.

While some are calling the connected car the next step toward complete autonomous operation, LG is working to ensure that this next step is safe, accurate, and efficient for all involved. Key to these efforts is LG’s use of Wavelength on Verizon’s 5G edge to support the ultra-low latency requirements for the LG AaaS platform.

“We recognize that security at the edge for connected vehicles is paramount and getting timely information to drivers via AWS Wavelength is a very important piece of our solution,” said Kupwade Patil. “5G gives us that connectivity piece with high bandwidth and low latency, while Wavelength is providing the necessary compute power at the edge to supplement the 5G technology. So, it’s about bringing security, privacy, connectivity, and compute together for the benefit of consumers and their safety.”

We invite you to join a growing list of innovators on the 5G journey to improve how we live, work, and play. To learn more, see AWS Wavelength and Verizon 5G Edge. For a walkthrough of deploying Wavelength, see Deploying your first 5G enabled application with AWS Wavelength.