A Multi-Modal Simulation Framework to Enable Digital Twin-based V2X Communications in Dynamic Environments

Abstract: Digital Twins (DTs) for physical wireless environments have been recently proposed as accurate virtual representations of the propagation environment that can enable multi-layer decisions at the physical communication equipment. At high-frequency bands, DTs can help to overcome the challenges emerging in high mobility conditions featuring vehicular environments. In this paper, we propose a novel data-driven workflow for the creation of the DT of a Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication scenario and a multi-modal simulation framework for the generation of realistic sensor data and accurate mmWave/sub-THz wireless channels. The proposed method leverages an automotive simulation and testing framework and an accurate ray-tracing channel simulator. Simulations over an urban scenario show the achievable realistic sensor and channel modelling both at the infrastructure and at ego-vehicles. We showcase the proposed framework on the DT-aided blockage handover task for V2X link restoration, leveraging the framework's dynamic channel generation capabilities for realistic vehicular blockage simulation.