NR sidelink relay was included as a working item in the 3GPP Release 17 to further improve this technology compared to achievements recorded in the previous release.
“For Release 16, a first version of NR sidelink has been developed and it solely focuses on supporting V2X related road safety services. The design aims to provide support for broadcast, groupcast and unicast communications in both out-of-coverage and in-network coverage scenarios. On top of that, sidelink-based relaying functionality should be additionally studied in order for sidelink/network coverage extension and power efficiency improvement, considering wider range of applications and services,” 3GPP said.
