# On Unified Vehicular Communications and Radar Sensing in Millimeter-Wave and Low Terahertz Bands

## TL;DR

This paper explores the integration of vehicular communications and radar sensing in millimeter-wave and terahertz bands, proposing a unified system to enhance performance and reduce interference in next-generation vehicles.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel concept of unified channel access for vehicular communications and radar, supported by real measurements and modeling to demonstrate performance benefits.

## Key findings

- Significant interference mitigation achieved
- Enhanced system performance demonstrated through measurements
- Potential for integrated vehicular communication and radar systems

## Abstract

Future smart vehicles will incorporate high-data-rate communications and high-resolution radar sensing capabilities operating in the millimeter-wave and higher frequencies. These two systems are preparing to share and reuse a lot of common functionalities, such as steerable millimeter-wave antenna arrays. Motivated by this growing overlap, and advanced further by the space and cost constraints, the vehicular community is pursuing a vision of unified vehicular communications and radar sensing, which represents a major paradigm shift for next-generation connected and self-driving cars. This article outlines a path to materialize this decisive transformation. We begin by reviewing the latest developments in hybrid vehicular communications and radar systems, and then propose a concept of unified channel access over millimeter-wave and higher frequencies. Our supporting system-level performance characterization relies upon real-life measurements and massive ray-based modeling to confirm the significant improvements brought by our proposal to mitigating the interference and deafness effects. Since our results aim to open the door to unified vehicular communications and radar sensing, we conclude by outlining the potential research directions in this rapidly developing field.