6G driven Vehicular Tracking in Smart Cities using Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces

Smart cities intelligently control the functionalities of the city through the use of various electronic methods, sensors, and advanced communication techniques. An intelligent transport system (ITS) is the backbone of smart cities and refers to a system in which numerous vehicles utilize a communication infrastructure to exchange vital information, such as traffic, congestion, and road conditions. One of the key elements of ITS is vehicle tracking or localization, which is the monitoring of a moving vehicle's location using a Global Positioning System (GPS). Accurate vehicle localization is required because many safety and traffic management applications depend on the precise positioning of the vehicles. Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is a new technology that offers attractive features like improved performance gains, enhanced network coverage, and flexible deployment, and is considered a key enabler for the 6G-driven vehicle-to-everything (V2X) systems that provide a programmable wireless environment. In this paper, a comprehensive view of a 6G-driven vehicle localization mechanism utilizing IRS is provided. The work also lists the benefits of IRS-enabled sensing in 6G vehicular networks including enhanced security, overcoming blockages, and improved localization. A case study to highlight the advantages of the IRS in vehicle tracking is presented. Finally, we also present the research challenges and future work directions in IRS-enabled vehicle tracking.