Adaptive Beamwidth Configuration for Millimeter Wave V2X Scheduling

Millimeter wave (mmWave) technologies will support the high bandwidth and data rate requirements of V2X services demanded by connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). MmWave V2X technologies will leverage directional antennas that challenge the management of the communications in dynamic scenarios including the identification of available links, beams alignment, and scheduling. Previous studies have shown that these challenges can be reduced when mmWave communications are supported by side information like the one transmitted in sub-6GHz V2X technologies. In this context, this paper proposes a beamwidth-aware mmWave scheduling scheme for V2V communications supported by sub-6GHz V2X technologies. The proposal enables mmWave transmitters to schedule a mmWave transmission to several neighboring vehicles at the same time by adapting the beamwidth configuration. In addition, the proposal derives the minimum beamwidth that mmWave transmitters should use to contact their neighboring vehicles in a limited number of scheduling intervals. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposal helps increasing the amount of mmWave data that can be transmitted to neighboring vehicles.