Fastening the Initial Access in 5G NR Sidelink for 6G V2X Networks

The ever-increasing demand for intelligent, automated, and connected mobility solutions pushes for the development of an innovative sixth Generation (6G) of cellular networks. A radical transformation on the physical layer of vehicular communications is planned, with a paradigm shift towards beam-based millimeter Waves or sub-Terahertz communications, which require precise beam pointing for guaranteeing the communication link, especially in high mobility. A key design aspect is a fast and proactive Initial Access (IA) algorithm to select the optimal beam to be used. In this work, we investigate alternative IA techniques to fasten the current fifth-generation (5G) standard, targeting an efficient 6G design. First, we discuss cooperative position-based schemes that rely on the position information. Then, motivated by the intuition of a non-uniform distribution of the communication directions due to road topology constraints, we design two Probabilistic Codebook (PCB) techniques of prioritized beams. In the first one, the PCBs are built leveraging past collected traffic information, while in the second one, we use the Hough Transform over the digital map to extract dominant road directions. We also show that the information coming from the angular probability distribution allows designing non-uniform codebook quantization, reducing the degradation of the performances compared to uniform one. Numerical simulation on realistic scenarios shows that PCBs-based beam selection outperforms the 5G standard in terms of the number of IA trials, with a performance comparable to position-based methods, without requiring the signaling of sensitive information

Beam management for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications in millimeter wave 5G

Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) is expected to leverage the full potential of wireless communications. With the growing adoption of 5G and its support for Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications, beamformed vehicular communications at millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands are expected to enable the most demanding connected driving applications. Beamformed V2X links present the challenge of beam management in such a fast-changing scenario. This paper goes through the practical limitations of the 5G V2X stack to support successful beamforming procedures. Two beam management strategies are proposed. Both strategies are evaluated in terms of power performance, beam recovery time and channel usage. The results suggest that significant differences apply when the beam is more frequently updated, whereas little improvement is seen by increasing the size of the beamset. Also, the selection of a proper strategy is shown to be important to alleviate the channel from overheads, and substantial differences in required signaling can be seen depending on the beam-tracking approach.This work was partly funded by the Spanish Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología under projects TEC2013-47360- C3-1-P, TEC2016-78028-C3-1-P and MDM2016-0600, and Catalan Research Group 2017 SGR 219. The Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU17/05561) and Generalitat de Catalunya DI programme (2018- DI-084) also contribute with predoctoral grants for the authors.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

On the Role of 5G and Beyond Sidelink Communication in Multi-Hop Tactical Networks

This work investigates the potential of 5G and beyond sidelink (SL) communication to support multi-hop tactical networks. We first provide a technical and historical overview of 3GPP SL standardization activities, and then consider applications to current problems of interest in tactical networking. We consider a number of multi-hop routing techniques which are expected to be of interest for SL-enabled multi-hop tactical networking and examine open-source tools useful for network emulation. Finally, we discuss relevant research directions which may be of interest for 5G SL-enabled tactical communications, namely the integration of RF sensing and positioning, as well as emerging machine learning tools such as federated and decentralized learning, which may be of great interest for resource allocation and routing problems that arise in tactical applications. We conclude by summarizing recent developments in the 5G SL literature and provide guidelines for future research.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. To be presented at 2023 IEEE MILCOM Workshops, Boston, M

5G NR-V2X: Towards Connected and Cooperative Autonomous Driving

This paper is concerned with the key features and fundamental technology components for 5G New Radio (NR) for genuine realization of connected and cooperative autonomous driving. We discuss the major functionalities of physical layer, Sidelink features and its resource allocation, architecture flexibility, security and privacy mechanisms, and precise positioning techniques with an evolution path from existing cellular vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology towards NR-V2X. Moreover, we envisage and highlight the potential of machine learning for further enhancement of various NR-V2X services. Lastly, we show how 5G NR can be configured to support advanced V2X use cases in autonomous driving

An LTE-Direct-Based Communication System for Safety Services in Vehicular Networks

With the expected introduction of fully autonomous vehicles, the long-term evolution (LTE)-based vehicle-to-everything (V2X) networking approach is gaining a lot of industry attention, to develop new strategies to enhance safety and telematics features. The vehicular and wireless industries are currently considering the development of an LTE-based system, which may co-exist, with the IEEE 802.11p-based systems for some time. In light of the above fact, our objective is to investigate the development of LTE Proximity Service (ProSe)-based V2X architecture for time-critical vehicular safety applications in an efficient and cost-effective manner. In this chapter, we present a new cluster-based LTE sidelink-based vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) multicast/broadcast architecture to satisfy the latency and reliability requirements of V2V safety applications. Our proposed architecture combines a new ProSe discovery mechanism for sidelink peer discovery and a cluster-based round-robin scheduling technique to distribute the sidelink radio resources among the cluster members. Utilizing an OMNET++ based simulation model, the performance of the proposed network architecture is examined. Results of the simulation show that the proposed algorithms diminish the end-to-end delay and overhead signaling as well as improve the data packet delivery ratio (DPDR) compared with the existing 3GPP ProSe vehicle safety application technique

Smart Pattern V2I Handover Based on Machine Learning Vehicle Classification

The mmwave frequencies will be widely used in future vehicular communications. At these frequencies, the radio channel becomes much more vulnerable to slight changes in the environment like motions of the device, reflections or blockage. In high mobility vehicular communications the rapidly changing vehicle environments and the large overheads due to frequent beam training are the critical disadvantages in developing these systems at mmwave frequencies. Hence, smart beam management procedures are desired to establish and maintain the radio channels. In this thesis, we propose that using the positions and respective velocities of the vehicles in the dynamic selection of the beam pair, and then adapting to the changing environments using machine learning algorithms, can improve both network performance and communication stability in high mobility vehicular communications

5G NR sidelink on UE protocol stack

Abstract. The idea of effcient communication outside of coverage of base stations have been discussed for a long time. The most suitable solution for this idea has been the ability to extend the communication through devices. In theory, it would be necessary for just one device to be in the coverage of the base station, and the communication could be further extended by hopping from device to device. These communications are called device-to-device communications. Multiple different technologies could be used to solve this task, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and sidelink. Especially when it comes to high mobility and reliability dependent use cases, technologies such as Wi-Fi are simply not capable. This is where the sidelink technology comes in. The sidelink is a communication technology that allows devices to communicate with each other directly, without the need for a cellular network. This technology utilizes the frequency spectrum and enables high-speed, low-latency communication between devices. It has numerous potential applications, including vehicle-to-vehicle communication, machine-type communication, and local area networking. In this thesis, technical characteristics of 5G NR sidelink and its potential applications and challenges are considered. The overview of the ongoing standardization efforts and the deployment status of this technology are discussed. The effciency of the sidelink technology is evaluated and compared to the existing technologies. The sidelink related future updates are discussed and their effect on the current specifcation is evaluated.5G NR sidelink -käyttäjäpäätteen protokollapino. Tiivistelmä. Tukiasemien kantavuuden ulkopuolelle yltävistä verkkoyhteyksistä on keskusteltu jo pitkään. Potentiaalisesti toimivin ratkaisu olisi kasvattaa kantavuutta kannettavien laitteiden kautta. Teoriassa tukiaseman kantaman sisällä tarvitaan vain yksi laite, jonka avulla yhteys voitaisiin kuljettaa laitteelta toiselle tukiaseman kantaman ulkopuolella. Tämänlaisia yhteyksiä kutsutaan suoriksi laitteelta laitteelle yhteyksiksi. Kyseiset yhteydet voitaisiin toteuttaa useilla eri teknologioilla, kuten Wi-Fi:llä, Bluetooth:lla tai sidelink:llä. Erityisesti suurta liikkuvuutta ja luotettavuutta vaativiin käyttökohteisiin Wi-Fi ei ole riittävän tehokas. Tämänlaisissa käyttökohteissa sidelink voisi toimia sopivana Wi-Fi:n korvaajana. Sidelink-teknologia antaa laitteille mahdollisuuden kommunikoida suoraan toistensa kanssa. Nämä yhteydet eivät vaadi matkapuhelinverkkoa toimiakseen. Sidelink-teknologialla mahdollistetaan nopeat, luotettavat ja matalan latenssin yhteydet laitteiden välillä. Sidelink mahdollistaa useita moderneja käyttökohteita, kuten ajoneuvojen väliset yhteydet. Tässä diplomityössä sidelinkin ominaisuuksia käydään läpi. Potentiaalisia sovellutuksista ja teknologiaan liittyvistä haasteista keskustellaan. Käynnissä olevat standardisoinnit käydään tärkeimmiltä osiltaan läpi. Sidelink-teknologian toimivuutta verrataan olemassa oleviin vastaaviin teknologioihin. Myös LTE ja NR versioiden eroja käydään läpi. Myös tulevia muutoksia ja standardisointeja tarkastellaan

Direct communication radio Iinterface for new radio multicasting and cooperative positioning

Cotutela: Universidad de defensa UNIVERSITA’ MEDITERRANEA DI REGGIO CALABRIARecently, the popularity of Millimeter Wave (mmWave) wireless networks has increased due to their capability to cope with the escalation of mobile data demands caused by the unprecedented proliferation of smart devices in the fifth-generation (5G). Extremely high frequency or mmWave band is a fundamental pillar in the provision of the expected gigabit data rates. Hence, according to both academic and industrial communities, mmWave technology, e.g., 5G New Radio (NR) and WiGig (60 GHz), is considered as one of the main components of 5G and beyond networks. Particularly, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) provides for the use of licensed mmWave sub-bands for the 5G mmWave cellular networks, whereas IEEE actively explores the unlicensed band at 60 GHz for the next-generation wireless local area networks. In this regard, mmWave has been envisaged as a new technology layout for real-time heavy-traffic and wearable applications. This very work is devoted to solving the problem of mmWave band communication system while enhancing its advantages through utilizing the direct communication radio interface for NR multicasting, cooperative positioning, and mission-critical applications. The main contributions presented in this work include: (i) a set of mathematical frameworks and simulation tools to characterize multicast traffic delivery in mmWave directional systems; (ii) sidelink relaying concept exploitation to deal with the channel condition deterioration of dynamic multicast systems and to ensure mission-critical and ultra-reliable low-latency communications; (iii) cooperative positioning techniques analysis for enhancing cellular positioning accuracy for 5G+ emerging applications that require not only improved communication characteristics but also precise localization. Our study indicates the need for additional mechanisms/research that can be utilized: (i) to further improve multicasting performance in 5G/6G systems; (ii) to investigate sideline aspects, including, but not limited to, standardization perspective and the next relay selection strategies; and (iii) to design cooperative positioning systems based on Device-to-Device (D2D) technology