A LiDAR-Aided Channel Model for Vehicular Intelligent Sensing-Communication Integration

In this paper, a novel channel modeling approach, named light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-aided geometry-based stochastic modeling (LA-GBSM), is developed. Based on the developed LA-GBSM approach, a new millimeter wave (mmWave) channel model for sixth-generation (6G) vehicular intelligent sensing-communication integration is proposed, which can support the design of intelligent transportation systems (ITSs). The proposed LA-GBSM is accurately parameterized under high, medium, and low vehicular traffic density (VTD) conditions via a sensing-communication simulation dataset with LiDAR point clouds and scatterer information for the first time. Specifically, by detecting dynamic vehicles and static buildings/trees through LiDAR point clouds via machine learning, scatterers are divided into static and dynamic scatterers. Furthermore, statistical distributions of parameters, e.g., distance, angle, number, and power, related to static and dynamic scatterers are quantified under high, medium, and low VTD conditions. To mimic channel non-stationarity and consistency, based on the quantified statistical distributions, a new visibility region (VR)-based algorithm in consideration of newly generated static/dynamic scatterers is developed. Key channel statistics are derived and simulated. By comparing simulation results and ray-tracing (RT)-based results, the utility of the proposed LA-GBSM is verified.