Sidelink Enhancements
Sidelink is a special kind of communication mechanism between device and device.
The Mapping of Common Requirements at the 2nd 5G Vertical User Workshop (July 2019) brought together diverse vertical industries to identify areas of mutual interest around sidelink enhancements through 3GPP standardisation work. The main outcomes are:
- Sidelink is relevant for several vertical industries and 5G use scenarios, such as V2X, commercial and critical communications, including FR2 (>6GHz) aspects. The goal within 3GPP is to achieve maximum commonality between these usages.
- Benefits include improving redundancy and robustness.
- More complex use cases include shared sensors and complex manoeuvres.
- Negotiation-based actions (2 or more participants) include manoeuvering at intersections with multiple verticals. Moving forward, it is important to understand which ones and how synergies and economies of scale can be achieved across verticals.
According to Steffen Schmitz from Volkswagen, sidelink and C-V2X is important for ensuring robustness and redundancy of the system (highly congested traffic scenarios, out-of-coverage synchronisation, flexible speed compensation, support of small message sizes), support of SW / data distribution. Sidelink support is also important for small message sizes (e.g. "keep alive" messages) and data exchange.
Interested verticals and associations: Automotive (5GAA), public safety (PSCE), utilities (EUTC) and IIoT (5G-ACIA).
Pitches on common requirements for Sidelink: Steffen Schmitz, Volkswagen AG.
Related work items in 3GPP include:
- SA1 TR 22.827 (AVProd): Study on Audio Visual Service Production. Release 17.
- SA1 TR 22.832 (eCAV): Study on enhancements for cyber-physical control applications in vertical domains. Release 17.
