On the Impact of Re-Evaluation in 5G NR V2X Mode 2

5G NR V2X has been designed to support advanced connected and automated driving V2X services. These services are characterized by variable traffic patterns that can generate packet collisions in decentralized systems where vehicles autonomously select their radio resources like 5G NR V2X mode 2. 5G NR V2X introduces a re-evaluation mechanism at the MAC layer to detect and avoid possible packet collisions before a vehicle transmits in selected resources. Most of the studies conducted to date on 5G NR V2X do not consider the re-evaluation mechanism despite being a mandatory MAC feature. This article advances the state of the art with an in-depth analysis and evaluation of the operation and performance of re-evaluation in 5G NR V2X mode 2 under different traffic patterns and mode 2 configurations. The study shows that re-evaluation is effective in avoiding collisions with periodic traffic but its effectiveness decreases with aperiodic traffic and of variable size. The study also shows that re-evaluation is effective in avoiding collisions generated by the retransmission of packets. However, its overall impact on the performance of 5G NR V2X mode 2 is small, while it can have a relevant implementation cost due to the frequent re-evaluation checks and resource reselections. This raises questions on the current design of the re-evaluation mechanism that is a mandatory feature in 5G NR V2X mode 2.