Recent advances in 3GPP networks for vehicular communications

The vision of cooperative and automated driving sets new challenges for various industry sectors and research domains. In this context, the telecommunications community is called to provide reliable communication systems for vehicle-to-anything (V2X) communication that combined with sensor-based technologies will improve the performance of automated driving and increase further traffic safety. 3GPP studies the requirements that derive from the wide range of V2X services. This paper presents the recent changes in 3GPP architecture and the enhancements of the sidelink and the cellular interface to support V2X communications. Key challenges for the design of 5G communication systems are also highlighted considering the more demanding performance requirements of higher levels of automation.