A Cooperative C-V2X System with UAV-aided Enhanced Connectivity

In the context of 6G next generation networks, the Internet of vehicles (IoV) paradigm will be supported by overlapping network layers, like the aerial and space ones, to guarantee enhanced performance and 3D connectivity. Specifically, the integration of aerial devices, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), into IoV is expected to enhance network performance, especially for vehicular safety applications, where packet delivery requires low latency and reduced connectivity loss, as compared to existing communication modes. In this paper, the technique ALI, an aggregate LiDAR images-based approach for road safety applications in a 6G context is introduced. It considers multiple LiDAR images that are shared and collected among vehicles to improve the accuracy in vulnerable road users detection. As compared to a single LiDAR image, ALI approach shows an enhanced detection accuracy, as well as allows alert message forwarding to other approaching vehicles in case of obstacle detection, via multiple interface cards and transmission modes. Results show that the adoption of UAVs as communication nodes allows to extend the coverage between 80 m and 130 m for an outage probability of 1%, overcoming vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-network communication modes and to provide a communication latency lower than 30 ms achieved up to 150 m.