Highly-Efficient Sidelink SSB Format and Synchronization Algorithm for Common-Mode Signaling in 5G NR Sidelink-Based mmWave WPAN Systems

Sidelink communication has evolved as a distributed device-to-device (D2D) communication system within the third-generation partnership project (3GPP) for the advancements in next-generation distributed autonomous systems. However, the current sidelink communication system basically being considered for operation at microwave band is not suitable for distributed wireless networking with a Gbit/s-level data rate. In this context, we have conceptualized a millimeter wave (mmWave) sidelink-based wireless personal area network (WPAN) to enable high-speed distributed wireless networking among indoor proximate devices. Particularly, inspired by the notion of “common-mode signaling (CMS)” in the IEEE 802.15.3c/11ad mmWave WPAN standards, we proposed an innovative physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) coined CMS- PSBCH to reach a robust inter-node control signaling to maintain a connection under harsh mmWave channel characteristics. As a sequential study, this paper proposes a robust signal detection and timing synchronization scheme tailored for CMS-PSBCH to lead a successful detection and demodulation, thereby providing a complete set of robust synchronization signal block (SSB) for the sidelink-based mmWave WPAN. Our link-level evaluation shows that the proposed scheme effectively detects synchronization signals and symbol timing even under the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of −18 dB. Moreover, the proposed scheme leads to successful demodulation of CMS- PSBCH payload for various multipath channels for a wideband indoor short-range communication scenario at the 60 GHz band.