9-Month Demonstration using MnCAV and the POWDER Testbed
This 9-month DRIVE-SAFE demonstration showcases connected remote driving over a mobile wireless network by integrating the MnCAV vehicle with the POWDER testbed. The project addresses a critical challenge in remote driving: maintaining low-latency, reliable communication as vehicles move and wireless channel conditions change.
The demonstration brings together mobility management, wireless link adaptation, and end-to-end remote-driving control into a single operational system.
Key Demonstration Components
Trajectory-Driven Mobility Management
The mobility-management framework uses vehicle trajectory information to avoid unnecessary handovers that can disrupt video streaming and vehicle-control traffic. By making handover decisions based on the expected vehicle path, the system maintains more stable connectivity as the vehicle moves across the wireless network.
Mobility-Aware Link Adaptation
The link-adaptation framework dynamically adjusts wireless communication parameters in response to vehicle mobility and changing network conditions. This helps reduce delay variation, improve transmission reliability, and maintain more consistent communication during vehicle movement.
End-to-End Remote Driving
The demonstration integrates real-time video streaming with steering, acceleration, and braking commands to evaluate the complete remote-driving loop under real vehicle operation. The remote operator receives live visual and telemetry feedback from the vehicle and sends control commands back through the wireless network.
Overall Architecture
MnCAV streams live video and vehicle telemetry over the POWDER private wireless network to a remote-driving application. The operator uses this real-time feedback to send steering, acceleration, and braking commands back to the vehicle, creating a closed-loop system for evaluating remote driving under realistic mobility and network conditions.
This end-to-end architecture allows DRIVE-SAFE to evaluate not only individual networking mechanisms, but also how network behavior directly affects the responsiveness and reliability of the complete remote-driving system.
End-to-end DRIVE-SAFE testbed architecture integrating MnCAV, the POWDER wireless network, and the remote-driving application.
Measurable Impact
DRIVE-SAFE delivered substantial improvements in communication stability, responsiveness, and reliability during the evaluated demonstration scenarios.
- 100% fewer unnecessary handovers: avoidable network transitions were eliminated in the evaluated scenarios, resulting in more stable connectivity during vehicle movement.
- Approximately 40% lower tail latency: high-delay communication events were reduced, making network behavior more predictable during remote-driving operation.
- Approximately 28% lower average video-frame latency: video feedback reached the remote operator faster, improving responsiveness and situational awareness.
- Reduced jitter and improved reliability: more consistent packet delivery supported smoother video streaming and more stable vehicle-control communication.
Together, these results demonstrate DRIVE-SAFE's potential to support more reliable, responsive, and mobility-aware remote driving across changing wireless network conditions.
Demonstration Video
The video below shows the 9-month DRIVE-SAFE demonstration using MnCAV and the POWDER testbed.
Demonstration Summary
The 9-month demonstration validates the integration of mobility-aware wireless networking with real-time remote vehicle operation. Rather than evaluating individual networking components in isolation, DRIVE-SAFE tests how mobility management, wireless adaptation, video delivery, and vehicle control interact as part of a complete remote-driving system.
The results show that incorporating mobility awareness into the wireless network can reduce unnecessary handovers, lower communication latency, improve video responsiveness, and provide a more stable end-to-end remote-driving experience.
