One pane, giant gains
Automotive OEMs are struggling to control their connected cars because the plethora of networks they have to cross presents them with too many decisions to make over too many sub-systems, stacks and security snags. It’s like trying to configure a four wheeled data centre on the fly as it cruises through a mish mash of of 4G, LTE and 5G networks, according to integration specialist Expeto, which claims it can end the nightmare with its ‘open and extensible’ Enterprise First NeXtworking for Connected vehicles system.
Today’s connected car has essentially become a rolling edge server with hundreds of individual sub-systems, said Brian Anderson, VP of Product at Expeto. Many of those sub-systems need connecting to services hosted in the cloud. Expeto’s unified control plane allows an automotive OEM to configure and monitor the complicated data paths between each of those sub-systems and associated backend services, many of which are hosted in different cloud locations. This takes the connected car way beyond their starting point and their legacy connectivity systems lack the vision needed for self-service networking control.
Expeto’s solution is to support a range of enterprise mobile networking needs. It can, for example, dynamically create new subnets and policies for each connected application, such as quality of service over a single SIM/vehicle embedded Telematics Control Unit (TCU). It can also specify deterministic data paths for each car application to a separate cloud location. This lowers the lag in time sensitive applications like HD mapping and complies with privacy policies. It solves many technical problems, but its biggest impact is the simplicity it brings by the unification of information. The system will be updated through ‘Over the Air’ software upgrades that will also keep abreast of evolving threats.
The problem facing automotive OEMs is that they are trying to fight today’s connectivity battles with the tactics, tools and intelligence of previous conflicts, according to Expeto CEO Michael Anderson. They will have bought managed SIM card services for their Internet of Things but these were strictly regional, which was fine for the days when a connected car just wanted news, views and maintenance. These services were only as good as the service team at the mobile operator, who in turn faced a huge job launching and running network layer application performance and cybersecurity in areas that mobile networks hadn’t gone before.
As the connected car found more uses it became ‘mission critical’. So automotive OEMs needed to see everything that was happening as these four-wheel data centres crossed 4G, LTE and 5G public networks across the world. “Medium to large enterprises need the speed, reach and scale of cellular without compromising on control, agility and integration with IT and OT frameworks,” said Expeto CEO Michael Anderson, “[these are now supporting] the mission critical applications that matter for their business.”
Anderson summarised the offering as ‘one global network, one SIM card, managed from behind the enterprise firewall.’ Expeto partners with mobile network operators so they can use it to ‘monetize their 5G and Edge investments to deliver mission critical connectivity and compute’, said Anderson. “With Expeto and partners like Dell and various MNOs, we enable mission critical 4G and 5G connectivity customers to extend their existing networks and control uniformly across facilities and systems.”
Expeto CEO Michael Anderson will discuss automaker connectivity needs in the That’s My Slice session scheduled during MWC Barcelona next week.