Efficient PHY Layer Abstraction for 5G NR Sidelink in ns-3

Physical (PHY) layer abstraction is an effective method to reduce the runtimes compared with link simulations but still accurately characterize the link performance. As a result, PHY layer abstraction for IEEE 802.11 WLAN and 3GPP LTE/5G has been widely configured in the network simulators such as ns-3, which achieve faster system-level simulations quantifying the network performance. Since the first publicly accessible 5G NR Sidelink (SL) link simulator has been recently developed, it provides a possibility of implementing the first PHY layer abstraction on 5G NR SL. This work deploys an efficient PHY layer abstraction method (i.e., EESM-log-SGN) for 5G NR SL based on the offline NR SL link simulation. The obtained layer abstraction which is further stored in ns-3 for use aims at the common 5G NR SL scenario of OFDM unicast single layer mapping in the context of Independent and Identically Distributed (i.i.d.) frequency-selective channels. We provide details about implementation, performance, and validation.