Semi-Persistent Scheduling in NR Sidelink Mode 2: MAC Packet Reception Ratio Model and ns-3 Validation

Abstract: 5G New Radio (NR) Sidelink (SL) has demonstrated the promising capability for infrastructure-less cellular coverage. Understanding the fundamentals of the NR SL channel access mechanism, Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS), which is specified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), is a necessity to enhance the NR SL Packet Reception Ratio (PRR). However, most existing works fail to account for the new SPS features introduced in NR SL, which might be out-of-date for comprehensively describing the NR SL PRR. The existing models ignore the relationships between SPS parameters and, therefore, do not provide sufficient insights into the PRR of SPS. This work proposes a novel SPS PRR model incorporating MAC collisions based on new features in NR SL. We extend our model by loosening several simplifying assumptions made in our initial modeling. The extended models illustrate how the PRR is affected by various SPS parameters. The computed results are validated via simulations using the network simulator (ns-3), which provides important guidelines for future NR SL enhancement work.