Moonshot Catalyst Showcases Promise of Federated Edge Computing for Connected Vehicles

Automotive manufacturers like Toyota are increasingly seeking sophisticated applications to enhance connected vehicle experiences and create new revenue opportunities, particularly within enterprise markets. These high-value applications demand seamless access to on-demand network resources that can be supported through standardized CAMARA APIs and robust edge infrastructure for optimal performance. However, the mobile nature of vehicles creates unprecedented technical challenges that traditional static computing models cannot address effectively.

Overcoming Connected Car Challenges

Three fundamental obstacles have historically limited the viability of advanced connected vehicle services:

• Edge Infrastructure Continuity: As vehicles move continuously across geographic locations, maintaining application consistency and meeting stringent service level agreements becomes increasingly complex. The challenge lies in ensuring seamless application performance as computational workloads must be dynamically distributed across multiple edge locations while maintaining uninterrupted service delivery.
• Cross-Network Seamless Experience: Modern vehicle journeys frequently cross telecommunications network boundaries and international borders. Maintaining consistent service quality and user experience across these transitions requires sophisticated coordination between multiple network operators and regulatory frameworks.
• API Consistency Across Networks: Connected vehicle applications require reliable access to network APIs, but ensuring consistent API behavior and performance across diverse telecommunications infrastructures presents significant integration challenges.

Innovative Solution Framework

The Moonshot Catalyst addresses these challenges through a comprehensive three-pronged approach that leverages the combined expertise of automotive and telecommunications industry leaders.

1. The project establishes a federated edge systems architecture that enables seamless Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) application deployment across any edge location. This federation model ensures that applications can migrate dynamically as vehicles move, maintaining performance standards regardless of geographic location.
2. The solution delivers ubiquitous connectivity that transcends traditional network boundaries, providing seamless experiences that meet the stringent service level agreements required for safety-critical automotive applications. This approach enables consistent service delivery whether vehicles operate within urban centers or traverse international highways.
3. Universal API access to network assets through standardized CAMARA APIs ensures that vehicle-based applications can reliably access network resources regardless of the underlying telecommunications infrastructure, creating a unified development and deployment environment for automotive software developers.

The project brings together diverse industry organizations including TMF, GSMA, 3GPP, ETSI, the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), CAMARA and the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium (AECC) to demonstrate real-world interoperability and alignment with vertical industry objectives. This collaborative approach ensures that solutions are both technically sound and commercially viable across the broader ecosystem.

Toyota provides essential functional and performance requirements based on real-world automotive applications, ensuring solutions meet actual market needs. Vodafone's Procure & Connect platform serves as the hub-and-spoke federation broker, managing complex multi-party relationships and service orchestration. The AECC contributes strategic guidance on digital twin use cases and architecture patterns, while NTT Data delivers advanced 5G simulation capabilities and slice management technologies. Netcracker implements the advanced IT and API Management environment that enables sophisticated operational and business agility across the federated ecosystem.

Delivering Real Business Impact and Future Roadmap

The project targets significant business outcomes including optimized operational efficiency, 3-5% ARPU uplift for telecommunications partners, successful monetization of low-latency connectivity services, accelerated service rollout capabilities, enhanced vehicle safety features and substantial CO2 emission reductions through optimized routing and vehicle efficiency improvements.

The solution architecture is designed to be composable and reusable, enabling expansion and customization for other industry verticals beyond automotive, creating a foundation for broader digital transformation initiatives across multiple sectors requiring edge computing and seamless connectivity solutions.

Most promising of all, while automotive remains the flagship scenario of the Catalyst, the same architecture and approach could empower a host of other industry scenarios, including:

• Smart Factories: Edge-powered quality inspection billed per inference.
• Augmented Reality: AR streaming metered per session minute.
• Healthcare Tele-Surgery: Compute and slice usage billed per procedural segment.
• Cloud Gaming & XR: GPU-hour and frame-delivery metering for immersive experiences.