eprintid: 10191484 rev_number: 7 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/19/14/84 datestamp: 2024-05-01 13:14:47 lastmod: 2025-02-13 09:54:01 status_changed: 2024-05-01 13:14:47 type: article metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Li, Yunxin creators_name: Liu, Fan creators_name: Du, Zhen creators_name: Yuan, Weijie creators_name: Shi, Qingjiang creators_name: Masouros, Christos title: Frame Structure and Protocol Design for Sensing-Assisted NR-V2X Communications ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B04 divisions: C05 divisions: F46 note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions. abstract: The emergence of the fifth-generation (5G) New Radio (NR) technology has provided unprecedented opportunities for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) networks, enabling enhanced quality of services. However, high-mobility V2X networks require frequent handovers and acquiring accurate channel state information (CSI) necessitates the utilization of pilot signals, leading to increased overhead and reduced communication throughput. To address this challenge, integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) techniques have been employed at the base station (gNB) within vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) networks, aiming to minimize overhead and improve spectral efficiency. In this study, we propose novel frame structures that incorporate ISAC signals for three crucial stages in the NR-V2X system: initial access, connected mode, and beam failure and recovery. These new frame structures employ 75% fewer pilots and reduce reference signals by 43.24%, capitalizing on the sensing capability of ISAC signals. Through extensive link-level simulations, we demonstrate that our proposed approach enables faster beam establishment during initial access, higher throughput and more precise beam tracking in connected mode with reduced overhead, and expedited detection and recovery from beam failures. Furthermore, the numerical results obtained from our simulations showcase enhanced spectrum efficiency, improved communication performance and minimal overhead, validating the effectiveness of the proposed ISAC-based techniques in NR V2I networks. date: 2024-12 date_type: published publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/tmc.2024.3389697 oa_status: green full_text_type: other language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 2271183 doi: 10.1109/tmc.2024.3389697 lyricists_name: Masouros, Christos lyricists_id: CMASO14 actors_name: Flynn, Bernadette actors_id: BFFLY94 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing volume: 23 number: 12 pagerange: 11045 -11060 issn: 1536-1233 citation: Li, Yunxin; Liu, Fan; Du, Zhen; Yuan, Weijie; Shi, Qingjiang; Masouros, Christos; (2024) Frame Structure and Protocol Design for Sensing-Assisted NR-V2X Communications. IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing , 23 (12) 11045 -11060. 10.1109/tmc.2024.3389697 <https://doi.org/10.1109/tmc.2024.3389697>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10191484/1/Frame_Structure_and_Protocol_Design_for_Sensing-Assisted_NR-V2X_Communications.pdf