Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology, including Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I), and Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) technology, allows vehicles to communicate with other vehicles, infrastructure, and vulnerable road users to enhance safety, prevent traffic crashes and reduce fatalities, reduce congestion, and reduce the environmental impact of the transportation system.  The full 75 MHz of the 5.9 GHz spectrum band has long been reserved for intelligent transportation services such as V2X technologies.  However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently advanced a rulemaking that would reallocate 45 MHz of this spectrum for use by unlicensed devices, leaving V2X technologies with only 30 MHz of spectrum.

Due to the FCC’s proposal, ITS America established a Future of V2X Working Group that includes representatives from infrastructure owner operators (IOOs), automotive manufacturers, and technology companies, to evaluate the potential effect of the proposal on the types of messages and V2X applications that could be deployed.  The Working Group drafted a preliminary application map that attempts to show the message types and applications that will likely be deployed in the proposed limited 30 MHz spectrum environment and the message types and applications that would likely be lost in such a scenario.  Notably, advanced V2X applications, including those that rely on collective perception messages (CPM), maneuver coordination messages (MCM), and personal safety messages (PSM) will likely be lost.

ITS America continues to advocate that the full 75 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band be preserved for transportation communications.  However, we believe it is prudent to evaluate what is possible in a limited 30 MHz spectrum environment to ensure that the transportation industry can continue to develop and deploy these life-saving technologies.  This document includes a preliminary application map as a starting point for discussions within the transportation industry regarding operating V2X technologies in such an environment.  The application map is based on several assumptions and to the extent possible reflects current and anticipated standards and methods of deployment.  The application map should not be considered final nor conclusive, as much work remains to test the assumptions and further evaluate the impact that a 30 MHz environment will have on V2X application deployment.  Furthermore, many of the assumptions are based on existing deployments and technologies, and a number of applications have the potential to be deployed using alternative message types.

ITS America is eager to involve a broader set of transportation stakeholders in this conversation as the industry seeks to establish a path forward to realize the many safety, environmental, and economic benefits of V2X technologies.