Resource allocation of sidelink positioning reference signals in resource pool

Abstract

Various embodiments herein provide techniques related to sidelink positioning reference signals (SL PRSs). In some embodiments, the SL PRS may be multiplexed with information about one or more other SL channels on resources in a resource pool associated with SL transmissions. The multiplexed SL PRS and information about one or more other SL channels may then be transmitted. Other embodiments may be described and / or claimed.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 446,178, filed on February 16, 2023; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 492,683, filed on March 28, 2023; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 494,969, filed on April 7, 2023; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 509,195, filed on June 20, 2023. Background Art

[0003] Various embodiments may generally relate to the field of wireless communications. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] By the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, it will be easy to understand each embodiment. In order to facilitate this description, similar reference numerals designate similar structural elements. In the illustrations of the accompanying drawings, the embodiments are shown by way of example and not by way of limitation.

[0005] Figure 1 Examples of sidelink positioning are illustrated according to various embodiments.

[0006] Figure 2 An example of multiplexing a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), and a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL PRS) in a resource pool is illustrated according to various embodiments.

[0007] Figure 3 Alternative examples of multiplexing PSSCH, PSCCH, and SLPRS in a resource pool are illustrated according to various embodiments.

[0008] Figure 4 Alternative examples of multiplexing PSSCH, PSCCH, and SLPRS in a resource pool are illustrated according to various embodiments.

[0009] Figure 5 Alternative examples of multiplexing PSSCH, PSCCH, and SL PRS in a resource pool are illustrated according to various embodiments.

[0010] Figure 6 A wireless network according to various embodiments is schematically illustrated.

[0011] Figure 7 Components of a wireless network according to various embodiments are schematically illustrated.

[0012] Figure 8The block diagram illustrates components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (eg, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and executing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some example embodiments.

[0013] Figure 9 A network according to various embodiments is illustrated.

[0014] Figure 10 Depicted are example procedures for implementing the various embodiments discussed herein.

[0015] Figure 11 Depicted is another example process for implementing the various embodiments discussed herein.

[0016] Figure 12 Depicted is another example process for implementing the various embodiments discussed herein.

[0017] Figure 13 Depicted is another example process for implementing the various embodiments discussed herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numerals may be used in different figures to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for the purpose of illustration and not limitation, specific details such as specific structures, architectures, interfaces, technologies, etc. are recorded to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of the various embodiments. However, it will be clear to those skilled in the art who benefit from this disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments can be implemented in other examples that depart from these specific details. In some cases, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted to avoid obscuring the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary details. For the purposes of this document, the phrases "A or B" and "A / B" mean (A), (B), or (A and B).

[0019] Mobile communications have evolved significantly from early voice systems to today's highly sophisticated integrated communications platforms. The next generation of wireless communication systems, which may be referred to as fifth generation (5G) and / or new radio (NR) systems, are expected to provide a variety of users and applications with access to information and sharing of data anywhere, anytime. NR can be thought of as a unified network / system that is designed to meet very different and sometimes conflicting performance dimensions and services. This diverse multi-dimensional requirement may be driven by different services and applications. In general, NR is expected to evolve based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced (collectively referred to as "LTE-A") technology and utilize additional potential new radio access technologies (RATs) to enrich people's lives with better, simpler and more seamless wireless connectivity solutions. The wireless connectivity that NR can achieve is capable of delivering fast and rich content and services.

[0020] NR supports high-precision positioning in both vertical and horizontal dimensions, relying on timing-based, angle-based, power-based, or hybrid (e.g., some combination of the above) techniques to estimate the user's position within the network. In particular, the following RAT-dependent positioning techniques can be used to meet the positioning needs of various use cases (e.g., indoor, outdoor, Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), etc.).

[0021] Downlink Time Difference of Arrival (DL-TDOA)

[0022] Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (UL-TDOA)

[0023] Downlink Angle of Departure (DL-AoD)

[0024] Uplink Angle of Arrival (ULAoA)

[0025] Multi-cell round-trip time (multi-RTT)

[0026] NR Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID)

[0027] Leveraging the wide bandwidth and beamforming capabilities for positioning signals in the millimeter wave (mmWave) band (also referred to as frequency range 2 or FR2 band and may refer to frequencies between approximately 24.25 gigahertz (GHz) and 52.6 GHz), higher positioning accuracy can be achieved through RAT-dependent positioning techniques. Note that in the 3GPP Release 16 (Rel-16) specification, the downlink positioning reference signal (DL-PRS) and uplink sounding reference signal (UL-SRS) for positioning can be used to enable / achieve target performance features.

[0028] In Release 18 (Rel-18), sidelink or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) positioning is considered to address use cases such as autonomous driving. More specifically, various scenarios, including in-coverage, partial coverage, and out-of-network coverage, can be considered for sidelink positioning. To meet positioning accuracy requirements, a new sidelink reference signal, the Sidelink Positioning Reference Signal (SLPRS), is expected to be introduced.

[0029] Figure 1 An example of sidelink positioning is illustrated using an anchor user equipment (UE) and a target UE. In this example, the target UE can indicate the UE to be positioned, while the anchor UE indicates (e.g., by transmitting and / or receiving an SLPRS and providing positioning-related information) UEs that support positioning of the target UE. Note that the SLPRS can be transmitted between the anchor UE and the target UE for sidelink positioning.

[0030] For sidelink positioning, SLPRS can be transmitted in a dedicated SL PRS resource pool or a shared SL PRS resource pool, where the sidelink resource pool that can be used to transmit both SL PRS and PSSCH will be referred to as the shared SL PRS resource pool, while the sidelink resource pool that can be used to transmit SLPRS but not PSSCH will be referred to as the dedicated SL PRS resource pool. In addition, the sidelink control information (SCI) format in the resource pool can be used to allocate resources for SL PRS transmission. To ensure normal operation, certain mechanisms can be defined for resource allocation of SL PRS in the resource pool.

[0031] The embodiments herein relate to resource allocation of SL PRS in a resource pool.

[0032] SL PRS resource allocation in the resource pool

[0033] As mentioned above, to address use cases such as autonomous driving, sidelink or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) positioning is being considered. More specifically, various scenarios, including in-coverage, partial coverage, and out-of-coverage, can be considered for sidelink positioning. To meet positioning accuracy requirements, it is anticipated that a sidelink reference signal, namely the Sidelink Positioning Reference Signal (SLPRS), will be used.

[0034] For sidelink positioning, SL PRS can be transmitted in a dedicated SL PRS resource pool or a shared SL PRS resource pool. In addition, the Sidelink Control Information (SCI) format in the resource pool can be used to allocate resources for SL PRS transmission. To ensure normal operation, certain mechanisms can be defined for resource allocation of SL PRS in the resource pool.

[0035] The following is an example of resource allocation of SL PRS in a resource pool for SLPRS transmission:

[0036] In one embodiment, in the resource pool used for SLPRS transmission, SLPRS can be multiplexed with other SL channels and / or signals in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner. In some aspects, other SL channels and / or signals may include physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) and / or associated demodulation reference signal (DMRS) transmission. In addition, the resource pool may be a dedicated SLPRS resource pool and / or a shared SLPRS resource pool.

[0037] In one option, the SL PRS can be multiplexed with the PSCCH and PSSCH and associated DMRS in a time-division multiplexing (TDM) fashion in a resource pool. In some aspects, the PSCCH is used to carry the first stage sidelink control information (SCI), while the PSSCH is used only to carry the second stage SCI. In this case, the sidelink shared channel (SL-SCH) is not included in the PSSCH.

[0038] In this case, a bit field may be included in the first-phase SCI to indicate whether the SL-SCH is carried by the PSSCH. Specifically, bit "1" may be used to indicate that the SL-SCH is present in the PSSCH, while bit "0" may be used to indicate that the SL-SCH is not present in the PSSCH. To ensure backward compatibility, this one-bit field may be included in the reserved bits of the first-phase SCI format. Alternatively, whether the SL-SCH can be carried by the PSSCH may be (pre-)configured for each resource pool.

[0039] In another embodiment, the PSSCH carrying the second stage SCI may be allocated only in symbols where the PSCCH is located and occupy the remaining resources not allocated for PSCCH transmission in the (one or more) sub-bands used for PSSCH-PSCCH transmission, which are indicated in the first stage SCI. This may be Figure 2 Depicted in.

[0040] In an example of an embodiment, the duration of the PSSCH multiplexed with the SLPRS in a time slot may be shorter than the minimum duration of the PSCCH defined for the SL bandwidth part (BWP), which is given by (sl-LengthSymbols-2), where sl-LengthSymbols is provided by a higher layer. For example, the duration of the PSSCH multiplexed with the SL PRS may be the same as the number of symbols of the associated PSCCH. In addition, in one example, the demodulation reference signal (DMRS) associated with such a PSSCH may be limited to a single DMRS symbol and located in the first symbol of the PSSCH transmission after the automatic gain control (AGC) symbol. In this case, the SL PRS is transmitted after the PSCCH symbol and occupies the sub-band indicated in the first phase SCI. Alternatively, the DMRS associated with such a PSSCH may be limited to two DMRS symbols and located in the first and fifth symbols of the PSSCH transmission after the AGC symbol. In this case, the SLPRS is transmitted after the PSCCH symbol and occupies the subband indicated in the first stage SCI, so that the SLPRS is mapped to temporally consecutive symbols except the second PSSCH DMRS symbol.

[0041] Figure 2 The figure illustrates an example of multiplexing PSSCH, PSCCH, and SLPRS in a resource pool. In this example, PSSCH, which carries the second-stage SCI, is allocated in the remaining resources of a subchannel not used for PSCCH transmission but in the same symbol as the PSCCH transmission. Furthermore, the first symbol is allocated for DMRS associated with the PSSCH transmission. SLPRS is transmitted after PSCCH and PSSCH in the resource pool.

[0042] In another option, if DMRS does not exist in the symbol where PSCCH is located, then the DMRS symbol can be inserted immediately after the PSCCH symbol. In this case, in one example, PSSCH can be associated with a single DMRS symbol immediately after the last PSCCH symbol, and SLPRS can be transmitted after the PSSCH DMRS symbol and occupy the subband indicated in the first stage SCI. This can be done in Figure 3 Depicted in.

[0043] Figure 3The figure illustrates an example of multiplexing PSSCH, PSCCH, and SLPRS in a resource pool. In this example, the PSSCH carrying the second-stage SCI is allocated in the remaining resources of the PRB not used for PSCCH transmission but in the same symbol as the PSCCH transmission. In addition, the DMRS associated with the PSSCH transmission is transmitted after the PSSCH and PSCCH symbols. In the resource pool, the SL PRS is transmitted after the PSCCH, PSSCH, and associated DMRS.

[0044] In some aspects, when the SL PRS is multiplexed with the PSSCH and PSCCH in a resource pool, the SL PRS occupies the remaining symbols of the time slot within the resource pool except for the last symbol reserved for the guard symbol.

[0045] In another embodiment, the PSSCH carrying the second stage SCI can be allocated in the symbol where the PSCCH is located or in the symbol after the PSCCH transmission. When the PSSCH is allocated after the PSCCH transmission, the PSSCH occupies all subchannels indicated in the first stage SCI. This can be Figure 4 Depicted in.

[0046] In one option of this embodiment, the number of symbols allocated for PSSCH transmission can be shorter than the minimum duration of PSSCH defined for SLBWP, which is given by (sl-LengthSymbols-2), where sl-LengthSymbols is provided by higher layers. In addition, the number of symbols used for PSSCH can be indicated in the first stage SCI. In some aspects, the field used to indicate the number of symbols can be located in a reserved bit of the first stage SCI.

[0047] In another option, the number of symbols allocated for PSSCH transmission may be determined based on the number of symbols allocated for the resource pool, DMRS associated with the PSSCH, PSCCH, SLPRS, automatic gain control (AGC), and guard symbols for Tx and Rx turnaround time. In one example, assuming that one symbol is allocated for each of the AGC and guard symbols, and as indicated by the higher layer parameter sl-LengthSymbols, there are 10 symbols in the time slot for the resource pool, 3 symbols for PSCCH transmission, 4 symbols for SLPRS transmission, and 1 symbol for DMRS associated with the PSSCH transmission, in this case, the number of symbols allocated for PSSCH transmission may be determined to be 3.

[0048] In a further example, the SL PRS may be mapped to a slot in the shared SL PRS resource pool after the last symbol of the PSSCH in the slot.

[0049] In another option, the number of additional symbols allocated for PSSCH after PSCCH transmission can be dynamically indicated in the first stage SCI. In some aspects, the field indicating the number of additional symbols can be located in a reserved bit of the first stage SCI. In one example, a one-bit indicator in the first stage SCI can be used to indicate whether zero or one additional symbol is allocated for PSSCH transmission after PSCCH.

[0050] In another option, the number of symbols allocated for PSSCH can be determined as the minimum integer number of PSSCH symbols used to carry the number of REs calculated for the second stage SCI, according to the formula for the number of coded modulation symbols in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.212, Section 8.4.4. An example change to the formula is shown below.

[0051] As a further extension, a one-bit indicator in the first stage SCI may be used to indicate whether 0 or N additional symbols are allocated for PSSCH transmission after PSCCH, where the value N may be (pre-)configured by higher layers.

[0052] In another option, the number of symbols used for PSSCH or the number of additional symbols used for PSSCH after PSCCH can be dynamically indicated in the first stage SCI. More specifically, when the UE determines that PSSCH is used to carry only the second stage SCI, some fields in the first stage SCI can be reused to indicate the number of symbols used for PSSCH or the number of additional symbols used for PSSCH after PSCCH, based on the indication of whether SL-SCH is carried by PSSCH and / or whether a new second stage SCI format for scheduling SL PRS is indicated by the first stage SCI. In some aspects, some fields may include at least one or more of the following fields: beta_offset indicator, modulation and coding scheme, additional MCS table indicator, PSFCH, and overhead indication.

[0053] Figure 4 This figure illustrates an example of multiplexing PSSCH, PSCCH, and SLPRS in a resource pool. In this example, the PSSCH carrying the second-stage SCI is allocated to the remaining resources in the subchannel not used for PSCCH transmission. Based on the indication in the first-stage SCI, an additional symbol is used for PSSCH transmission. In the resource pool, SL PRS transmission follows the PSSCH.

[0054] In another embodiment, the amount of resources allocated for the second phase SCI is calculated according to a pre-existing formula defined in Section 8.4.4 of 3GPP TS 38.212 [1]. In addition, the determined number of coded modulation symbols generated for the second phase SCI transmission is aligned with a symbol boundary within a subchannel, as indicated by the first phase SCI.

[0055] Specifically, for the second phase SCI transmission on PSSCH with SL-SCH, the number of coded modulation symbols generated for the second phase SCI transmission before duplication (if any) for the second layer is denoted as Q′ SCI2 , which is determined as follows:

[0056]

[0057] in

[0058] γ is the number of idle resource elements in the resource block within the subchannel of the last PSSCH symbol to which the last coded symbol of the second stage SCI belongs.

[0059] · is the number of resource elements in OFDM symbol l that can be used to transmit the second stage SCI,

[0060] o in is the scheduling bandwidth of SLPRS transmission, expressed in the number of subcarriers.

[0061] ·L SCI2 is the CRC field length for the second stage SCI, which can be multiplexed into 24 bits or can be reduced to a smaller value according to the payload size of the second stage SCI used for positioning.

[0062] Note that other parameters in the above formula may be defined in Section 8.4.4 of 3GPP TS 38.212 [1].

[0063] When multiple different SL PRS configurations are configured in a shared SL PRS resource pool, based on the (pre-)configuration, The value of is the (pre)configured amount of resources or is the number of symbols (pre-)configured for the SLPRS resources, or the minimum or maximum number of SLPRS REs depending on all potential SLPRS configurations (pre-)configured in the resource pool.

[0064] In another embodiment, the resource calculation of the second stage SCI is changed in the shared SL PRS resource pool only if a new second stage SCI format includes information about the SL PRS.A new formula is defined for the resource calculation of the second stage SCI.

[0065] In one example, the beta offset values ​​are reinterpreted for the new second-phase SCI format. In this case, for each beta offset value, a fixed percentage of resources, including SL PRS REs, is (pre-)configured for each resource pool. Note that this calculation can take into account the actual number of REs used for SLPRS, the (pre-)configured amount of resources for SLPRS resources, or the minimum or maximum amount of SLPRS REs depending on all potential SLPRS configurations (pre-)configured in the resource pool.

[0066] In another example, instead of calculating the resources for the second-stage SCI relative to the code rate indicated by MCS signaling, the beta offset is applied relative to the spectral efficiency of the transmission. Note that in this case, it may be necessary to ensure that the code rate of the second-stage SCI is not too high, as it may use quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation.

[0067] The first example updates the current formula to take into account the number of spatial layers and modulation format of the PSSCH. The update to the number of resource elements for the second stage SCI in 3GPP TS 38.212 clause 8.4.4 can be given as follows:

[0068] For the second phase SCI transmission on PSSCH with SL-SCH, the number of coded modulation symbols used for the second phase SCI transmission is denoted as Q′ SCI2 , which is determined as follows:

[0069]

[0070] in:

[0071] -O SCI2 is the number of bits used for SCI formats 0-2

[0072] -L SCI2 is the number of CRC bits used for SCI formats 0-2.

[0073] - Indicated in the corresponding SCI format 0-1.

[0074] -C SL-SCH is the number of SL-SCH code blocks used for PSSCH transmission.

[0075] - is the scheduling bandwidth of PSSCH transmission, expressed in the number of subcarriers;

[0076] - Alternatively, considering the remaining PRBs after sub-channelization, is the default / nominal scheduling bandwidth that takes into account the actual number of PRBs. It may be the bandwidth determined by the TBS used for this TB.

[0077] - is the number of subcarriers in OFDM symbol 1 that carry DMRS in PSSCH transmission; alternatively, the maximum configuration density of DMRS can be considered.

[0078] - is the number of subcarriers in OFDM symbol l that carry PT-RS in PSSCH transmission.

[0079] -

[0080] - Alternatively, in The number of symbols used for PSSCH in addition to AGC when PSFCH is present

[0081] - Alternatively, in The number of symbols used for PSSCH in addition to AGC for the case when PSFCH does not exist

[0082] - Alternatively, in is the number of PSSCH symbols determined by the TBS used for this PSSCH

[0083] -v is the number of spatial layers of PSSCH

[0084] -Q m is the modulation order of PSSCH

[0085] -γ is the number of otherwise free resource elements in the resource block to which the last coded symbol of SCI formats 0-2 belongs.

[0086] -K r is the rth code block size of SL-SCH used for PSSCH transmission.

[0087] -α is configured by the higher layer parameter [SL-scaling].

[0088] In another example, the update of the amount of resource elements for the second stage SCI in 3GPP TS 38.212 clause 8.4.4 may be given as follows:

[0089] For the second phase SCI transmission on PSSCH with SL-SCH, the number of coded modulation symbols for the second phase SCI transmission is denoted as Q′ SCI2 , which is determined as follows:

[0090]

[0091] in:

[0092] -O SCI2 is the number of bits used for SCI formats 0-2

[0093] -L SCI2 is the number of CRC bits used for SCI formats 0-2, which is [xxx] bits.

[0094] - Indicated in the corresponding SCI format 0-1.

[0095] -C SL-SCH is the number of SL-SCH code blocks used for PSSCH transmission.

[0096] - is the scheduled bandwidth for PSSCH transmission, expressed in number of subcarriers; excluding the remaining PRBs and any configured PSFCH.

[0097] - is the number of subcarriers in OFDM symbol 1 that carry DMRS in PSSCH transmission. It is possible to consider the maximum density of the remaining PRBs and / or all configured DMRS patterns.

[0098] - is the number of subcarriers in OFDM symbol l that carry PT-RS in PSSCH transmission. It is possible to only consider PT-RS that are not in the remaining PRBs

[0099] -- -s max is the maximum allowed spectral efficiency for the second stage PSCCH

[0100] -γ is the number of otherwise free resource elements in the resource block to which the last coded symbol of SCI formats 0-2 belongs

[0101] -K r is the rth code block size of the SL-SCH used for PSSCH transmission

[0102] -α is configured by higher layer parameters [SL-scaling]

[0103] In another example, using the nominal PSSCH spectrum efficiency as an alternative can solve the problem of dependence on TBS

[0104]

[0105] -in:

[0106] -O SCI2 is the number of bits used for SCI formats 0-2

[0107] -L SCI2 is the number of CRC bits used for SCI formats 0-2, which is [xxx] bits.

[0108] - Indicated in the corresponding SCI format 0-1.

[0109] -v is the number of spatial layers of PSSCH

[0110] -Q m is the modulation order of PSSCH

[0111] -r is the nominal code rate of the PSSCH according to the MCS used

[0112] -s max is the maximum allowed spectral efficiency for the second stage PSCCH

[0113] -γ is the number of otherwise free resource elements in the resource block to which the last coded symbol of SCI formats 0-2 belongs

[0114] -α is configured by higher layer parameters [SL-scaling]

[0115] In one embodiment, it is not expected to provide the UE with a sidelink resource pool configuration that causes the number of PSSCH symbols required to carry the second stage SCI together with the number of symbols used for other configuration signals (e.g., SLPRS, PSCCH, PSFCH, AGC, Gap) to exceed the configured sidelink slot length indicated via the higher layer parameter sl-LengthSymbols.

[0116] In one embodiment, the above embodiments and examples and / or other embodiments herein may apply only to a resource pool dedicated to SL PRS transmission.

[0117] In another embodiment, the same bandwidth may be allocated for PSSCH, PSCCH, and SL PRS transmissions. In this case, the DMRS associated with the PSCCH transmission may be used for channel estimation of the PSSCH. In addition, the DMRS associated with the PSSCH may not be used.

[0118] Figure 5An example of multiplexing PSSCH, PSCCH, and SL PRS in a resource pool is shown. In this example, PSSCH carrying the second-stage SCI is allocated in the remaining resources of the subchannel not used for PSCCH transmission. PSSCH transmission is based on the PSCCH DMRS and is limited to single-layer transmission.

[0119] In another embodiment, PSSCH transmission is limited to single-layer transmission. The code rate and modulation order of the PSSCH can be indicated in the first phase via conventional MCS signaling or can be pre-configured. The beta offset associated with the second-phase SCI can also be dynamically signaled in the first-phase SCI or (pre-)configured in the resource pool configuration.

[0120] In another embodiment, all information for decoding the PSSCH based on the PSCCH DMRS is signaled in the first stage SCI.

[0121] In another embodiment, when the SL-SCH is carried by the PSSCH, and when the SL PRS is scheduled in the shared SLPRS resource pool and associated with the PSSCH, the transport block size (TBS) can be determined based on the number of symbols allocated to the SLPRS transmission. Specifically, a field in the first phase SCI format can be used to indicate whether the SL PRS overhead is used to determine the TBS for the PSSCH transmission. Alternatively, a combination of the code point of the bit field for indicating the second phase SCI format and / or another field in the first phase SCI can be used to indicate whether the SL PRS overhead is used to determine the TBS for the PSSCH transmission. In an example of this alternative option, the code point for the second phase SCI format can indicate the second phase SCI format of a UE that is (pre) configured to receive SLPRS and for scheduling SLPRS transmission. In some aspects, the code point "11" used for the second phase SCI format indication in the first phase SCI can be used to indicate a new second phase SCI format, such as SCI format 2-D.

[0122] In addition, when the first stage SCI format indicates the use of SL PRS overhead to determine the TBS for PSSCH, the number of symbols used for SLPRS transmission can be included in the formula for TBS determination, where the number of symbols used for SL PRS transmission can be (pre-)configured by higher layers or derived from SL PRS configuration parameters.

[0123] In some aspects, a one-bit field in the first-phase SCI format for indicating whether SL PRS overhead is used to determine the TBS for PSSCH transmission may be implemented using a reserved bit in the first-phase SCI format. This bit field may be interpreted as SL PRS overhead only if the second-phase SCI format corresponds to the SCI format of a UE that is (pre-)configured to receive SLPRS and schedule SL PRS transmission.

[0124] For the above embodiments, the new second-phase SCI format for UEs that are (pre)configured to receive SL PRS (which can schedule SL PRS transmission) can also indicate the absence of SL PRS transmission. A separate field in the second-phase SCI format or a reserved value(s) for the SL PRS resource indication can be used to indicate the absence of SL PRS transmission.

[0125] For the above embodiment, to prevent legacy Rel-16 / 17 devices from attempting to decode using an incorrect TBS, the first stage indication of the SLPRS presence is transmitted only when using the second stage SCI format 2-D. Alternatively, the handling of potential decoding using an incorrect TBS assumption can be based on UE implementation, without being restricted to using the SLPRS OH presence bit field only when using SCI format 2-D.

[0126] In another embodiment, when the dynamic presence of SLPRS is signaled in the first stage SCI, the number of symbols related to SLPRS can be removed from the resource calculation of the second stage SCI, that is, the second stage SCI can be independent of the presence of SLPRS, which will allow the second stage SCI decoding to be performed before the presence of SLPRS is known.

[0127] In another embodiment, when the PSSCH TBS calculation takes into account the SLPRS resources (given the parameters indicated by dynamic signaling or (pre-)configured parameters), the deduction of the SL PRS resource elements (Re) may be performed in any of the following ways:

[0128] Remove all OFDM symbols with SLPRS from the symbols used for PSSCH transmission,

[0129] Remove Re from the PSSCH RE calculation per PRB. The number of removed Res can be either SLPRS configuration dependent or (pre)configured per resource pool. Note that in order to balance the cases with and without SLPRS, system profiling should have the option to (pre)configure the relevant values ​​for each potential SLPRS configuration;

[0130] · Remove the actual SLPRS Re number from the PSSCH Re.

[0131] In one example of this embodiment, for TBS determination of PSSCH transmission, the following text in 3GPP TS 38.214 [2] Section 8.1.3.2 may be updated in red.

[0132] The UE should first determine the number of Re in the time slot (N RE ).

[0133] -UE first passes Determine the number of REs allocated to PSSCH within a PRB (N′ RE ),in

[0134] - is the number of subcarriers in a physical resource block,

[0135] - Where sl-LengthSymbols is the number of sidelink symbols in a time slot provided by higher layers,

[0136] - If the higher layer parameter sl-PSFCH-Period is 2 or 4, then in case the "PSFCH Overhead Indication" field of SCI format 1-A indicates "1", otherwise

[0137] If the higher layer parameter sl-PSFCH-Period is 0, then

[0138] If the higher layer parameter sl-PSFCH-Period is 1, then

[0139] - If the "SL PRS Overhead Indication" field of SCI format 1-A indicates "1", it is the number of symbols transmitted by SLPRS. Otherwise, Or the number of symbols used for SLPRS as indicated by the SLPRS resource indicator in the new second-stage SCI format.

[0140] - is the overhead given by the higher layer parameter sl-X-Overhead,

[0141] - It is given by Table 8.1.3.2-1 according to the higher layer parameter sl-PSSCH-DMRS-TimePatternList.

[0142] In another example of this embodiment, for TBS determination of PSSCH transmission, the following text in 3GPP TS 38.214 [2] Section 8.1.3.2 may be updated in red.

[0143] The UE should first determine the number of Re in the time slot (N RE ).

[0144] UE first passes Determine the number of REs allocated to PSSCH within a PRB (N′ RE ),in

[0145] - is the number of subcarriers in the physical resource block,

[0146] - Where sl-LengthSymbols is the number of sidelink symbols in a time slot provided by higher layers,

[0147] - If the higher layer parameter sl-PSFCH-Period is 2 or 4, then in case the "PSFCH Overhead Indication" field of SCI format 1-A indicates "1", otherwise If the higher layer parameter sl-PSFCH-Period is 0, then If the higher layer parameter sl-PSFCH-Period is 1, then

[0148] - is the overhead given by the higher layer parameter sl-X-Overhead,

[0149] - It is given in Table 8.1.3.2-1 according to the higher layer parameter sl-PSSCH-DMRS-TimePatternList,

[0150] - It is the per-PRB overhead given by the higher layer parameter sl-SL PRS-Overhead.

[0151] In another example of this embodiment, for TBS determination of PSSCH transmission, the following text in 3GPP TS 38.214 [2] Section 8.1.3.2 may be updated in red.

[0152] UE passes Determine the total number of REs allocated to PSSCH (N RE ),in

[0153] -n PRB is the total number of PRBs allocated to PSSCH,

[0154] - is the total number of REs occupied by PSCCH and PSCCH DM-RS.

[0155] - is the number of coded modulation symbols generated for the second stage SCI transmission (before duplication for the second layer, if any) according to clause 8.4.4 of [5, TS 38.212], assuming γ = 0,

[0156] - is the total number of REs occupied by SL PRS.

[0157] As a further extension, the number of SLPRS symbols determined by TBS for PSSCH may be determined based on the minimum or maximum number of symbols used for SLPRS in all SL PRS resources configured in the shared SLPRS resource pool.

[0158] In another option, the number of SLPRS symbols determined for the TBS of PSSCH can be (pre) configured for the shared SLPRS resource pool. In this case, when the presence of SLPRS is dynamically indicated in the shared SLPRS resource pool, the TBS of PSSCH can be determined accordingly based on the aforementioned embodiment.

[0159] In another option, the number of PSSCH symbols used for TBS determination may be (pre)configured per resource pool.Furthermore, this assumption about the number of PSSCH symbols may only apply when SCI format 2-D is used (SCI with the presence of SLPRS).

[0160] In an example of an embodiment, the indication of the absence / presence of the SL-SCH in the scheduled PSSCH and the indication of the assumption of the SLPRS overhead determined by the TBS for the PSSCH are indicated by a single bit, which is implemented using a reserved bit in the first stage SCI format. That is, if the assumption of the SLPRS overhead determined by the TBS for the PSSCH is indicated, it is assumed that the SL-SCH is included in the PSSCH, otherwise, it is not included.

[0161] In another example of an embodiment, if the scheduled PSSCH may not include SL-SCH and only carry the second stage SCI when multiplexed with SLPRS in a time slot, the UE may be (pre)configured as part of the SL resource pool configuration. In this case, the use of a reserved bit in the first stage SCI format to dynamically indicate the absence or presence of SL-SCH in the scheduled PSSCH may not be used. As part of the SL resource pool configuration, the same or separate (pre)configuration of the UE may also indicate whether the TBS of the scheduled PSSCH is determined assuming SLPRS overhead.

[0162] In another embodiment, whether and how the TBS calculation should consider SL PRS resources is signaled as part of the second phase format. In some aspects, the code point "11" used in the first phase SCI for the second phase SCI format indication can be used to indicate a new second phase SCI format, such as SCI format 2-D.

[0163] In another embodiment, the first receiving UE may not expect the same TB (with a given HARQ ID) to be retransmitted by a second UE having a different SL PRS multiplexing assumption than the initial transmission or other (re)transmissions of the TB, i.e., the first receiving UE may expect either all (re)transmissions to have SL PRS or all (re)transmissions to have no PRS.

[0164] In another embodiment, it is not expected that the UE (re)transmits a TB with a different SLPRS multiplexing assumption than the initial transmission or other (re)transmissions of the TB.

[0165] In another embodiment, the source ID and destination ID used for SL communication may be the same as or different from the source ID and destination ID used for SL positioning, respectively.

[0166] In one option, when SL communication and SL positioning use different source IDs and destination IDs, an association between the source ID and destination ID used for SL communication and SL positioning may be defined.

[0167] In this case, for the shared SLPRS resource pool, when SL-SCH is carried by PSSCH and SLPRS is scheduled in the shared SL PRS resource pool associated with PSSCH, the source ID and destination ID for SL communication can be included in the second stage SCI as the source ID and destination ID for both SL communication and SL positioning.

[0168] Alternatively, for a shared SLPRS resource pool, when SL-SCH is carried by PSSCH and SL PRS is scheduled in the shared SLPRS resource pool associated with PSSCH, the source ID and destination ID for SL positioning may be included in the second stage SCI as the source ID and destination ID for both SL communication and SL positioning.

[0169] Alternatively, for the shared SLPRS resource pool, when the SL-SCH is not carried by the PSSCH and the SL PRS is scheduled in the shared SLPRS resource pool associated with the PSSCH, the source ID and destination ID for SL positioning may be included in the second stage SCI.

[0170] In another option, when the source ID and destination ID used for SL communication and SL positioning are different, and for a shared SLPRS resource pool, when the SL-SCH is carried by the PSSCH and the SLPRS is scheduled in the shared SL PRS resource pool associated with the PSSCH, the source ID and destination ID included in the second stage SCI can be defined as a function of the source ID and destination ID used for both SL communication and SL positioning.

[0171] In one example, an AND, OR, or XOR operation may be applied to the source ID and destination ID used for SL communication and SL positioning to derive the source ID and destination ID indicated in the second-stage SCI. In addition, the receiving UE may assume the same transmitting UE regardless of whether the source IDs used for SL communication and for SL positioning are the same. In another example, the receiving UE may respectively assume the same transmitting UE and receiving UE regardless of whether the source ID and destination ID used for SL communication and for SL positioning are the same.

[0172] In another embodiment, if SLPRS is indicated as being present in a time slot, and SCI format 1-A in the same time slot indicates that one or more time slots are reserved in the future, it can be assumed that SL PRS is present in the indicated one or more future reserved time slots, which are determined based on the time resource allocation in SCI format 1-A.

[0173] In another embodiment, a field may be included in SCI format 2-D to indicate whether SLPRS transmissions are present in one or more future reserved time slots. The future reserved time slots may be determined based on the time resource allocation in SCI format 1-A.

[0174] In one example, when the maximum number of reserved resources, or sl-MaxNumPerReserve, is 2, a one-bit indication may be included in SCI format 2-D to indicate whether SLPRS transmissions are present in future reserved time slots. In another example, when the maximum number of reserved resources, or sl-MaxNumPerReserve, is 3, a two-bit indication may be included in SCI format 2-D to indicate whether SLPRS transmissions are present in two future reserved time slots. In yet another example, when the maximum number of reserved resources, or sl-MaxNumPerReserve, is 2 or 3, a one-bit indication may be included in SCI format 2-D to indicate whether SLPRS transmissions are present in one or two future reserved time slots.

[0175] In another embodiment, a field may be included in SCI format 2-D to indicate one or more SLPRS resources in one or more future reserved time slots. The future reserved time slots may be determined based on the time resource allocation in SCI format 1-A.

[0176] Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PT-RS) Mapping in Shared SL PRS Resource Pool

[0177] An embodiment of PT-RS mapping in a shared SLPRS resource pool is as follows:

[0178] In one embodiment, when a PT-RS resource element collides with an SL PRS symbol in the shared SLPRS resource pool, the PT-RS mapping restarts and moves to the next available symbol. Specifically, the same PT-RS mapping used for the PSSCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) is applied to the SLPRS.

[0179] The following text in clause 8.4.1.2.2 of 3GPP TS 38.211[3] may be updated in red as follows:

[0180] The set of time indices l defined relative to the start of the PSSCH allocation is defined as follows:

[0181] 1. Set i = 0 and l ref =0

[0182] 2. If in the interval max(l ref +(i-1)L PT-RS +1,l ref ),…,l ref +iL PT-RS If any symbol in overlaps with a symbol used for DM-RS according to clause 8.4.1.1.2 or a symbol used for SLPRS according to clause 8.4.1.6, then

[0183] - Set i = 1

[0184] - Will l ref Set to the symbol index of the DM-RS symbol or SL PRS symbol

[0185] -As long as l ref +iL PT-RS Within the PSSCH allocation, repeat from step 2

[0186] 3. ref +iL PT-RS Added to the PT-RS time index set

[0187] 4. Increment i by one

[0188] 5. As long as l ref +iL PT-RS Within the PSSCH allocation, repeat from step 2 above

[0189] Among them L PT-RS ∈{1,2,4} is given by clause 8.4.3 of [6, TS 38.214].

[0190] In another embodiment, when the PT-RS resource elements collide with SL PRS symbols in the shared SLPRS resource pool, the PT-RS is dropped by puncturing the PSSCH PT-RS. In addition, the legacy PT-RS mapping according to DM-RS symbols can be reused.

[0191] The following text in clause 8.4.1.2.2 of 3GPP TS 38.211[3] may be updated in red as follows:

[0192] PSSCH PT-RS should be mapped to resource elements according to the following formula

[0193]

[0194] k=4n+2k′+Δ

[0195] When all of the following conditions are met

[0196] -l within the OFDM symbols allocated for PSSCH transmission;

[0197] - Resource element (k, l) is not used for PSCCH nor for DM-RS associated with PSSCH,

[0198] It is also not used for SL PRS in the resource pool shared by PSSCH and SLPRS transmission;

[0199] -k' and Δ correspond to

[0200] <unchanged text omitted>

[0201] The PSSCH PT-RS should not be mapped to resource elements including the PSCCH or PSCCH DMRS or SL PRS by puncturing the PSSCH PT-RS.

[0202] References

[0203] [1] 3GPP TS 38.212.V17.4.0, “Multiplexing and Channel Coding”

[0204] [2] 3GPP TS 38.214.V17.4.0, “NR: Physical layer procedures for data”

[0205] [3] 3GPP TS 38.211.V17.4.0, “NR: Physical layer procedures for data”

[0206] System and implementation

[0207] Figure 6-Figure 9 Various systems, devices, and components are illustrated in which aspects of the disclosed embodiments may be implemented.

[0208] Figure 6 A network 600 is illustrated according to various embodiments. The network 600 may operate in a manner consistent with the 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G / NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited thereto, and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems, etc.

[0209] The network 600 may include a UE 602, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with the RAN 604 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 602 may be communicatively coupled to the RAN 604 via a Uu interface. The UE 602 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a wearable computer device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment device, an in-vehicle entertainment device, an instrument cluster, a head-up display device, an onboard diagnostic device, an in-dash mobile device, a mobile data terminal, an electronic engine management system, an electronic / engine control unit, an electronic / engine control module, an embedded system, a sensor, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system, a networked appliance, a machine-type communication device, an M2M or D2D device, an IoT device, or the like.

[0210] In some embodiments, the network 600 may include multiple UEs that are directly coupled to each other via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M / D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels, such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.

[0211] In some embodiments, the UE 602 may also communicate with the AP 606 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 606 may manage a WLAN connection that may be used to offload some / all network traffic from the RAN 604. The connection between the UE 602 and the AP 606 may conform to any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where the AP 606 may be a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) In some embodiments, the UE 602, the RAN 604, and the AP 606 may utilize cellular-WLAN aggregation (eg, LWA / LWIP). Cellular-WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 602 being configured by the RAN 604 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

[0212] RAN 604 may include one or more access nodes, such as AN 608. AN 608 may terminate air interface protocols for UE 602 by providing access layer protocols, including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and L1 protocols. In this manner, AN 608 may enable data / voice connectivity between CN 620 and UE 602. In some embodiments, AN 608 may be implemented in a separate device or as one or more software entities running on a server computer, for example, as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. AN 608 may be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. AN 608 may be a macrocell base station or a low-power base station for providing a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

[0213] In an embodiment where the RAN 604 includes multiple ANs, they may be coupled to each other via an X2 interface (if the RAN 604 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 604 is a 5G RAN). The X2 / Xn interface (which may be separated into control / user plane interfaces in some embodiments) may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handover, data / context transfer, mobility, load management, interference coordination, and the like.

[0214] Each AN of the RAN 604 may manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc., to provide an air interface for network access to the UE 602. The UE 602 may be simultaneously connected to multiple cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 604. For example, the UE 602 and the RAN 604 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 602 to connect to multiple component carriers, each corresponding to a PCell or Scell. In a dual connectivity scenario, the first AN may be a primary node providing an MCG, and the second AN may be a secondary node providing an SCG. The first and second ANs may be any combination of eNBs, gNBs, ng-eNBs, etc.

[0215] The RAN 604 may provide an air interface via licensed or unlicensed spectrum. To operate in unlicensed spectrum, a node may utilize LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms based on Carrier Access Control (CA) technology and PCell / Scell. Before accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the node may perform medium / carrier sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0216] In a V2X scenario, the UE 602 or AN 608 may be or may function as an RSU, which may refer to any traffic infrastructure entity used for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by an appropriate AN or a fixed (or relatively fixed) UE. An RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU"; an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU"; an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU"; and so on. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled to roadside RF circuitry that provides connectivity support to passing vehicular UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic flow statistics, media, and applications / software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU can provide extremely low-latency communications required for high-speed events such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular / WLAN communication services. The components of the RSU may be housed in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (eg, Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or backhaul network.

[0217] In some embodiments, RAN 604 may be an LTE RAN 610 with an eNB, such as eNB 612. LTE RAN 610 may provide an LTE air interface with the following features: 15 kHz SCS; CP-OFDM waveform for DL ​​and SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo coding for data and TBCC for control; among other features. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH / PDCCH demodulation; and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurement, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation / detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operate in frequency bands below 6 GHz.

[0218] In some embodiments, the RAN 604 may be an NG-RAN 614 with a gNB, such as gNB 616, or an NG-RAN 614 with an ng-eNB, such as ng-eNB 618. The gNB 616 may connect to 5G-capable UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 616 may connect to the 5G core via an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 618 may also connect to the 5G core via an NG interface, but may connect to the UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 616 and ng-eNB 618 may connect to each other via an Xn interface.

[0219] In some embodiments, the NG interface can be divided into two parts, one is the NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between the node of the NG-RAN 614 and the UPF 648 (e.g., N3 interface), and the other is the NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is the signaling interface between the node of the NG-RAN 614 and the AMF 644 (e.g., N2 interface).

[0220] The NG-RAN 614 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following features: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for control, and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS and PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS, similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for PDSCH phase tracking; and tracking reference signals for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operate in either FR1, which includes sub-6 GHz bands, or FR2, which includes bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include SSBs, which are a region of the downlink resource grid that includes the PSS / SSS / PBCH.

[0221] In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface can utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWPs can be used for dynamic adaptation of SCSs. For example, a UE 602 can be configured with multiple BWPs, each configured with a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 602, the transmitted SCS is also changed. Another example use case for BWPs is related to power conservation. Specifically, a UE 602 can be configured with multiple BWPs with different amounts of frequency resources (e.g., PRBs) to support data transmission in different traffic load scenarios. A BWP with a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with a small traffic load, while allowing power savings at the UE 602 and, in some cases, at the gNB 616. A BWP with a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic loads.

[0222] The RAN 604 is communicatively coupled to the CN 620, which includes network elements that provide various functions to support data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of the UE 602). The components of the CN 620 may be implemented in one physical node or in separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all functions provided by the network elements of the CN 620 onto physical compute / storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 620 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 620 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

[0223] In some embodiments, CN 620 may be an LTE CN 622, which may also be referred to as an EPC. LTE CN 622 may include an MME 624, an SGW 626, an SGSN 628, an HSS 630, a PGW 632, and a PCRF 634, which are coupled to each other via interfaces (or "reference points"), as shown. The functions of the elements of LTE CN 622 may be briefly described as follows.

[0224] The MME 624 may implement mobility management functions to track the current location of the UE 602 to facilitate paging, bearer activation / deactivation, handover, gateway selection, authentication, and the like.

[0225] The S-GW 626 terminates the S1 interface towards the RAN and routes data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 622. The S-GW 626 can be the local mobility anchor point for handovers between RAN nodes and can also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0226] The SGSN 628 can track the location of the UE 602 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 628 can perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; select the PDN and S-GW as specified by the MME 624; select the MME for handover; etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 624 and the SGSN 628 can enable user and bearer information exchange for mobility between 3GPP access networks in idle / active states.

[0227] HSS 630 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information, to support network entities in handling communication sessions. HSS 630 may provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing resolution, location compliance, and more. The S6a reference point between HSS 630 and MME 624 may enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data to authenticate / authorize user access to LTE CN 620.

[0228] The PGW 632 can terminate the SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 636, which may include an application / content server 638. The PGW 632 can route data packets between the LTE CN 622 and the data network 636. The PGW 632 can be coupled to the SGW 626 via an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 632 can also include a node (e.g., PCEF) for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Furthermore, the SGi reference point between the PGW 632 and the data network 636 can be an external public or private PDN or an intra-operator packet data network, such as for provisioning IMS services. The PGW 632 can be coupled to the PCRF 634 via a Gx reference point.

[0229] PCRF 634 is the policy and charging control element of LTE CN 622. PCRF 634 can be communicatively coupled with application / content server 638 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows. PCRF 632 can provision the associated rules into PCEF with the appropriate TFT and QCI (via the Gx reference point).

[0230] In some embodiments, CN 620 may be 5GC 640. 5GC 640 may include AUSF 642, AMF 644, SMF 646, UPF 648, NSSF 650, NEF 652, NRF 654, PCF 656, UDM 658, and AF 660, which are coupled to each other via interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functions of the elements of 5GC 640 may be briefly described as follows.

[0231] The AUSF 642 can store data used for authentication of the UE 602 and handle authentication-related functions. The AUSF 642 can facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 640 via reference points as shown, the AUSF 642 can also expose a Nausf service-based interface.

[0232] The AMF 644 allows other functions of the 5GC 640 to communicate with the UE 602 and the RAN 604 and subscribe to notifications about mobility events for the UE 602. The AMF 644 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., for registering the UE 602), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 644 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 602 and the SMF 646 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF 644 may also provide transport for SMS messages between the UE 602 and the SMSF. The AMF 644 may interact with the AUSF 642 and the UE 602 to perform various security anchoring and context management functions. In addition, the AMF 644 can be the termination point for the RAN CP interface, which can include or be the N2 reference point between the RAN 604 and the AMF 644; and the AMF 644 can be the termination point for NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS encryption and integrity protection. The AMF 644 can also support NAS signaling with the UE 602 via the N3 IWF interface.

[0233] The SMF 646 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, tunnel management between the UPF 648 and the AN 608); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP functions; configuring traffic steering at the UPF 648 to route traffic to the appropriate destination; termination of interfaces to policy control functions; control portions of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and interfaces to the LI system); termination of the SM portion of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiation of AN-specific SM information sent to the AN 608 via the AMF 644 over N2; and determination of the SSC mode for the session. SM may refer to the management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 602 and the data network 636.

[0234] The UPF 648 can serve as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point for interconnection to the data network 636, and a branch point to support multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 648 can also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane portion of policy rules, perform lawful interception of packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic validation (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport-level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 648 can include an uplink classifier to support routing of traffic flows to the data network.

[0235] The NSSF 650 may select a set of network slice instances to serve the UE 602. If necessary, the NSSF 650 may also determine the allowed NSSAIs and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs. The NSSF 650 may also determine the set of AMFs to be used to serve the UE 602, or a list of candidate AMFs, based on appropriate configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 654. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 602 may be triggered by the AMF 644 with which the UE 602 is registered, by interacting with the NSSF 650, which may result in a change of the AMF. The NSSF 650 may interact with the AMF 644 via the N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in the visited network via the N31 reference point (not shown). In addition, the NSSF 650 may expose an Nnssf service-based interface.

[0236] NEF 652 can securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions to third parties, internal exposure / re-exposure, AF (e.g., AF 660), edge computing or fog computing systems, and the like. In such embodiments, NEF 652 can authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AF. NEF 652 can also translate information exchanged with AF 660 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, NEF 652 can translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. NEF 652 can also receive information from other NFs based on the exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information can be stored at NEF 652 as structured data or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by NEF 652 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes, such as parsing. In addition, NEF 652 can present an NNEF service-based interface.

[0237] The NRF 654 can support service discovery functionality, receiving NF discovery requests from NF instances and providing information about discovered NF instances to the NF instances. The NRF 654 also maintains information about available NF instances and the services they support. As used herein, the term "instantiation" can refer to the creation of an instance, while "instance" can refer to the specific occurrence of an object, which can occur, for example, during the execution of program code. In addition, the NRF 654 can expose an Nnrf service-based interface.

[0238] PCF 656 can provide policy rules to control plane functions for enforcement and can also support a unified policy framework to constrain network behavior. PCF 656 can also implement a front end to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of UDM 658. In addition to communicating with functions through reference points as shown in the figure, PCF 656 can also expose an NPCF service-based interface.

[0239] The UDM 658 can handle subscription-related information to support network entities handling communication sessions and can store subscription data for the UE 602. For example, subscription data can be communicated via the N8 reference point between the UDM 658 and the AMF 644. The UDM 658 may include two components: an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 658 and PCF 656, and / or store structured data and application data (including PFDs for application detection and application request information for multiple UEs 602) for exposure to the NEF 652. The Nudr service-based interface may be exposed by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 658, PCF 656, and NEF 652 to access a specific set of stored data, as well as read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and be notified of changes to subscription-related data in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE, which is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, and the like. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identity handling, access authorization, registration / mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs through reference points as shown, the UDM 658 can also expose Nudm service-based interfaces.

[0240] The AF 660 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to the NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

[0241] In some embodiments, 5GC 640 can implement edge computing by selecting an operator / third-party service to be geographically close to the point where UE 602 attaches to the network. This can reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge computing implementation, 5GC 640 can select a UPF 648 close to UE 602 and perform traffic manipulation from UPF 648 to data network 636 via the N6 interface. This can be based on UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by AF 660. In this way, AF 660 can influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 660 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator can allow AF 660 to interact directly with relevant NFs. In addition, AF 660 can expose a service-based interface to the NAF.

[0242] The data network 636 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services, which may be provided by one or more servers, including, for example, an application / content server 638 .

[0243] Figure 7 Schematically illustrated is a wireless network 700 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 700 may include a UE 702 in wireless communication with an AN 704. The UE 702 and the AN 704 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, similarly named components described elsewhere herein.

[0244] UE 702 may be communicatively coupled with AN 704 via connection 706. Connection 706 is illustrated as an air interface to enable the communicative coupling and may conform to a cellular communication protocol, such as the LTE protocol or the 5G NR protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies.

[0245] UE 702 may include a host platform 708 coupled to a modem platform 710. Host platform 708 may include application processing circuitry 712, which may be coupled to protocol processing circuitry 714 of modem platform 710. Application processing circuitry 712 may run various applications that source and sink application data for UE 702. Application processing circuitry 712 may further implement one or more layer operations to send and receive application data to and from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (e.g., UDP) and internet (e.g., IP) operations.

[0246] Protocol processing circuitry 714 may implement one or more layer operations to facilitate sending or receiving data over connection 706. The layer operations implemented by protocol processing circuitry 714 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS operations.

[0247] The modem platform 710 may also include digital baseband circuitry 716, which may implement one or more layer operations in the network protocol stack "below" the layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 714. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations, including one or more of the following: HARQ-ACK functionality, scrambling / descrambling, encoding / decoding, layer mapping / demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol / bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding / decoding (which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency, or spatial coding), reference signal generation / detection, preamble sequence generation and / or decoding, synchronization sequence generation / detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

[0248] Modem platform 710 may also include transmit circuitry 718, receive circuitry 720, RF circuitry 722, and an RF front end (RFFE) 724, which may include or be connected to one or more antenna panels 726. Briefly, transmit circuitry 718 may include digital-to-analog converters, mixers, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; receive circuitry 720 may include analog-to-digital converters, mixers, IF components, etc.; RF circuitry 722 may include low-noise amplifiers, power amplifiers, power tracking components, etc.; and RFFE 724 may include filters (e.g., surface / bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (e.g., phased array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the transmit circuitry 718, receive circuitry 720, RF circuitry 722, RFFE 724, and antenna panels 726 (generally referred to as "transmit / receive components") may depend on the details of the specific implementation, such as whether the communication is TDM or FDM, at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit / receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit / receive chains, may be disposed in the same or different chips / modules, and so on.

[0249] In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 714 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functionality for the transmit / receive components.

[0250] UE reception may be established by and via antenna panel 726, RFFE 724, RF circuitry 722, receive circuitry 720, digital baseband circuitry 716, and protocol processing circuitry 714. In some embodiments, antenna panel 726 may receive transmissions from AN 704 via receive beamformed signals received by multiple antennas / antenna elements of one or more antenna panels 726.

[0251] UE transmission may be established by and via protocol processing circuitry 714, digital baseband circuitry 716, transmit circuitry 718, RF circuitry 722, RFFE 724, and antenna panel 726. In some embodiments, the transmit component of UE 704 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of antenna panel 726.

[0252] Similar to UE 702, AN 704 may include a host platform 728 coupled to a modem platform 730. Host platform 728 may include application processing circuitry 732 coupled to protocol processing circuitry 734 of modem platform 730. The modem platform may also include digital baseband circuitry 736, transmit circuitry 738, receive circuitry 740, RF circuitry 742, RFFE circuitry 744, and an antenna panel 746. The components of AN 704 may be similar to the similarly named components of UE 702 and may be substantially interchangeable. In addition to performing data transmission / reception as described above, the components of AN 708 may also perform various logical functions, including, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

[0253] Figure 8 The block diagram of illustrates components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and executing any one or more of the methods discussed herein according to some example embodiments. Specifically, Figure 8 A diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 800 is shown, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 810, one or more memory / storage devices 820, and one or more communication resources 830, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 840 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments utilizing node virtualization (e.g., NFV), a hypervisor 802 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / subslices utilizing the hardware resources 800.

[0254] Processor 810 may include, for example, processor 812 and processor 814. Processor 810 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination of these.

[0255] The memory / storage device 820 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 820 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, and the like.

[0256] The communication resources 830 may include interconnect or network interface controllers, components, or other appropriate devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 804 or one or more databases 806 or other network elements via the network 808. For example, the communication resources 830 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, NFC components, (or low energy consumption ) component, components, and other communication components.

[0257] The instructions 850 may include software, programs, applications, applet programs, apps, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 810 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 850 may reside entirely or partially within at least one of the processors 810 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor), within the memory / storage device 820, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition, any portion of the instructions 850 may be transferred to the hardware resources 800 from any combination of the peripheral devices 804 or the database 806. Thus, the memory of the processor 810, the memory / storage device 820, the peripheral devices 804, and the database 806 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0258] Figure 9 The diagram illustrates a network 900 according to various embodiments. The network 900 may operate in a manner that complies with the 3GPP technical specifications or technical reports for 6G systems. In some embodiments, the network 900 may operate simultaneously with the network 600. For example, in some embodiments, the network 900 may share one or more frequency or bandwidth resources with the network 600. As a specific example, a UE (e.g., UE 902) may be configured to operate in both the network 900 and the network 600. This configuration may be based on the UE including circuits configured to communicate with the frequency and bandwidth resources of both the network 600 and the network 900. In general, several elements of the network 900 may share one or more characteristics with elements of the network 600. For the sake of brevity and clarity, these elements may not be repeated in the description of the network 900.

[0259] The network 900 may include a UE 902, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with the RAN 908 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 902 may be similar to, for example, the UE 602. The UE 902 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a wearable computer device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment device, an in-vehicle entertainment device, an instrument cluster, a heads-up display device, an onboard diagnostic device, an in-dash mobile device, a mobile data terminal, an electronic engine management system, an electronic / engine control unit, an electronic / engine control module, an embedded system, a sensor, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system, a networked appliance, a machine-type communication device, an M2M or D2D device, an IoT device, or the like.

[0260] Although Figure 9 Although not specifically shown in FIG, in some embodiments, the network 900 may include multiple UEs that are directly coupled to each other via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M / D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc. Similarly, although in Figure 9 Although not specifically shown, UE 902 can communicate with AP (e.g., Figure 6 606) are communicatively coupled. Figure 9 Although not specifically shown, in some embodiments, the RAN 908 may include one or more ANs, such as Figure 6 The AN 608 is described. The RAN 908 and / or the AN of the RAN 908 may be referred to as a base station (BS), a RAN node, or by some other terminology or name.

[0261] The UE 902 and the RAN 908 may be configured to communicate via an air interface that may be referred to as a sixth generation (6G) air interface. The 6G air interface may include one or more features, such as communication in the terahertz (THz) or sub-THz bandwidth, or joint communication and sensing. As used herein, the term "joint communication and sensing" may refer to a system that implements wireless communication and radar-based sensing via various types of multiplexing. As used herein, THz or sub-THz bandwidth may refer to communication in a frequency range of 80 GHz and above. This frequency range may additionally or alternatively be referred to as a "millimeter wave" or "mmWave" frequency range.

[0262] The RAN 908 may enable communication between the UE 902 and the 6G core network (CN) 910. Specifically, the RAN 908 may facilitate the transmission and reception of data between the UE 902 and the 6G CN 910. The 6G CN 910 may include various functions, such as the NSSF 650, NEF 652, NRF 654, PCF 656, UDM 658, AF 660, SMF 646, and AUSF 642. Figure 9 As shown, 6G CN 910 may also include UPF 648 and DN 636.

[0263] Furthermore, RAN 908 may include various additional functions that are in addition to or in place of the functions of traditional cellular networks (e.g., 4G or 5G networks). Two such functions may include a compute control function (compute CF) 924 and a compute service function (compute SF) 936. Compute CF 924 and compute SF 936 may be parts or functions of the compute service plane. Compute CF 924 may be a control plane function that provides functions such as management of compute SF 936, generation and management of compute task contexts (e.g., creation, reading, modification, and deletion), interaction with the underlying compute infrastructure for compute resource management, and the like. Compute SF 936 may be a user plane function that acts as an interface gateway between compute service users (e.g., UE 902) and the compute nodes behind the compute SF instances. Some functions of compute SF 936 may include parsing compute service data received from users to calculate tasks executable by the compute nodes; maintaining a service mesh ingress gateway or service API gateway; enforcing service and billing policies; performance monitoring and telemetry collection, and the like. In some embodiments, a Compute SF 936 instance may serve as a user plane gateway for a cluster of compute nodes.A Compute CF 924 instance may control one or more Compute SF 936 instances.

[0264] Two other such functions may include a communication control function (communication CF) 928 and a communication service function (communication SF) 938, which may be part of the communication service plane. The communication CF 928 may be a control plane function for managing the communication SF 938, communication session creation / configuration / release, and managing communication session context. The communication SF 938 may be a user plane function for data transmission. The communication CF 928 and the communication SF 938 may be considered as upgrades to the SMF 646 and UPF 648, both of which have been referenced. Figure 6 The upgrade provided by the communication CF 928 and the communication SF 938 can achieve service-aware transmission. For traditional (e.g., 4G or 5G) data transmission, the SMF 646 and UPF 648 can still be used.

[0265] Two other such functions may include a data control function (data CF) 922 and a data service function (data SF) 932, which may be part of the data service plane. The data CF 922 may be a control plane function and provide functions such as data SF 932 management, data service creation / configuration / release, data service context management, etc. The data SF 932 may be a user plane function and act as a gateway between data service users (e.g., various functions of the UE 902 and the 6G CN 910) and data service endpoints behind the gateway. Specific functions may include parsing data service user data and forwarding it to the corresponding data service endpoints, generating billing data, and reporting data service status.

[0266] Another such function may be the Service Orchestration and Chaining Function (SOCF) 920, which can discover, orchestrate, and chain communication / computing / data services provided by functions in the network. Upon receiving a service request from a user, SOCF 920 may interact with one or more of the Compute CF 924, the Communication CF 928, and the Data CF 922 to identify instances of the Compute SF 936, the Communication SF 938, and the Data SF 932, configure service resources, and generate a service chain, which may include multiple Compute SF 936, Communication SF 938, and Data SF 932 instances and their associated compute endpoints. Workload processing and data movement can then be performed within the generated service chain. SOCF 920 may also be responsible for maintaining, updating, and releasing the created service chain.

[0267] Another such function may be a service registration function (SRF) 914, which may act as a registration center for system services provided in the user plane, such as services provided by service endpoints behind the compute SF 936 and data SF 932 gateways, and services provided by the UE 902. The SRF 914 may be considered a counterpart to the NRF 654, which may act as a registration center for network functions.

[0268] Other such functions may include the evolved service communication proxy (eSCP) and the service infrastructure control function (SICF) 926, which can provide service communication infrastructure for control plane services and user plane services. The eSCP may be related to the service communication proxy (SCP) of 5G, with the addition of user plane service communication proxy capabilities. The eSCP is therefore expressed as two parts: eCSP-C 912 and eSCP-U 934, for control plane service communication proxy and user plane service communication proxy, respectively. The SICF 926 can control and configure the eCSP instance in terms of service traffic routing policies, access rules, load balancing configuration, performance monitoring, etc.

[0269] Another such function is the AMF 944. The AMF 944 may be similar to the 644, but with additional functionality. Specifically, the AMF 944 may include potential functional re-splitting, such as moving message forwarding functionality from the AMF 944 to the RAN 908.

[0270] Another such function is a service orchestration exposure function (SOEF) 918. SOEF may be configured to expose service orchestration and chaining services to external users (eg, applications).

[0271] The UE 902 may include an additional function called a compute client service function (compute CSF) 904. The compute CSF 904 may have both control plane and user plane functions and may interact with corresponding network-side functions (e.g., SOCF 920, compute CF 924, compute SF 936, data CF 922, and / or data SF 932) to implement service discovery, request / response, computing task workload exchange, etc. The compute CSF 904 may also cooperate with network-side functions to decide whether computing tasks should be run on elements of the UE 902, RAN 908, and / or 6G CN 910.

[0272] UE 902 and / or computing CSF 904 may include a service mesh proxy 906. The service mesh proxy 906 may act as a proxy for service-to-service communications in the user plane. The functions of the service mesh proxy 906 may include one or more of addressing, security, load balancing, and the like.

[0273] Example Process

[0274] In some embodiments, Figure 6-Figure 9 Or some other figure(s) of this or that electronic device(s), network(s), system(s), chip(s) or component(s) or some portion or implementation thereof may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques or methods as described herein, or some portion thereof. One such process is as Figure 10 shown. Figure 10 The process may include or involve a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of the UE, and / or an electronic device including and / or implementing the UE. The process may include: identifying a sidelink positioning reference signal (SLPRS) at 1001; identifying at least one other sidelink (SL) channel at 1002; multiplexing the SLPRS and the at least one other SL channel in a resource pool at 1003; and transmitting the multiplexed SLPRS and the at least one other SL channel at 1004.

[0275] Another such process is Figure 11 shown. Figure 11 The process may include or relate to a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of the UE, and / or an electronic device including and / or implementing the UE. The process may include: identifying a transmission including multiplexed information from another user equipment (UE) at 1101; and demultiplexing the multiplexed information to identify information related to a sidelink positioning reference signal (SLPRS) and at least one other sidelink (SL) channel at 1102.

[0276] Another such process is Figure 12 shown. Figure 12 The process may include or involve a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of the UE, and / or an electronic device including and / or implementing the UE. The process may include: identifying a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL PRS) at 1201; identifying information related to at least one other sidelink (SL) channel at 1202; identifying information related to a resource pool at 1203, the resource pool being related to SL transmission; multiplexing the SL PRS and at least one other SL channel on resources of the resource pool at 1204; and facilitating transmission of the multiplexed SL PRS and at least one other SL channel on resources of the resource pool at 1205.

[0277] Another such process is Figure 13 shown. Figure 13The process may include or involve a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of the UE, and / or an electronic device including and / or implementing the UE. The process may include: at 1301, identifying a sidelink (SL) transmission received from another UE, wherein the SL transmission includes a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL PRS) multiplexed with information about one or more other SL channels on resources of a resource pool related to the SL transmission; and at 1302, demultiplexing the multiplexed information to identify the SL PRS and the information about the one or more other SL channels.

[0278] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components described in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods described in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuit described above in connection with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more examples described below. For another example, the circuits associated with the UE, base station, network element, etc. described above in connection with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more examples described in the example section below.

[0279] Example

[0280] Example 1 may include wireless communication systems and methods for fifth generation (5G) or new radio (NR) systems:

[0281] The UE multiplexes the sidelink positioning reference signal (SL PRS) and other SL channels and signals in a resource pool in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner;

[0282] The SL PRS and other SL channels and signals are transmitted by the UE in the resource pool.

[0283] Example 2 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the other SL channels and signals may include at least one of a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), and an associated demodulation reference signal (DMRS) transmission.

[0284] Example 3 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the resource pool may be a dedicated SL PRS resource pool for SL PRS transmission and / or a shared SL PRS resource pool for both SL communication and SL PRS transmission.

[0285] Example 4 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the SLPRS may be multiplexed with the PSCCH and PSSCH and associated DMRS in a resource pool in a TDM manner.

[0286] Example 5 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein a bit field may be included in the first stage sidelink control information (SCI) to indicate whether the SL-SCH is carried by the PSSCH.

[0287] Example 6 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other examples in this document, wherein the PSSCH carrying the second-stage SCI may be allocated only in the symbols where the PSCCH is located and occupy the remaining resources in the (one or more) sub-bands for PSSCH-PSCCH transmission that are not allocated to PSCCH transmission, which is indicated in the first-stage SCI.

[0288] Example 7 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the duration of the PSSCH multiplexed with the SLPRS in the time slot may be shorter than the minimum duration of the PSCCH defined for the SL BWP.

[0289] Example 8 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the DMRS associated with such a PSSCH may be limited to a single DMRS symbol and located in the first symbol of the PSSCH transmission after the AGC symbol.

[0290] Example 9 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other examples herein, wherein, if the DMRS does not exist in the symbol where the PSCCH is located, the DMRS symbol may be inserted immediately after the PSCCH symbol.

[0291] Example 10 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the PSSCH carrying the second stage SCI may be allocated in a symbol where the PSCCH is located or in a symbol after the PSCCH transmission.

[0292] Example 11 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the number of symbols allocated to PSSCH transmission may be determined based on: the number of symbols allocated to the resource pool, the DMRS associated with the PSSCH, the PSCCH, the SL PRS, automatic gain control (AGC), and protection symbols for Tx and Rx turnaround time.

[0293] Example 12 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the number of additional symbols allocated for the PSSCH following the PSCCH transmission may be dynamically indicated in the first stage SCI.

[0294] Example 13 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the field for indicating the number of additional symbols may be located in a reserved bit of the first stage SCI.

[0295] Example 14 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the number of symbols allocated for PSSCH may be determined as the minimum integer number of PSSCH symbols required to carry the number of REs calculated for the second stage SCI.

[0296] Example 15 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein a bit indicator in the first stage SCI may be used to indicate whether 0 or N symbols are allocated to PSSCH transmission after the PSCCH, where the value of N may be (pre)configured by a higher layer.

[0297] Example 16 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the determined number of coded modulation symbols generated for the second phase SCI transmission is aligned with a symbol boundary within a subchannel, as indicated by the first phase SCI.

[0298] Example 17 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein it is not desired to provide the UE with a sidelink resource pool configuration that results in the number of PSSCH symbols required to carry the second stage SCI together with the number of symbols used for other configuration signals (e.g., SL PRS, PSCCH, PSFCH, AGC, Gap) exceeding the configured sidelink slot length indicated via the higher layer parameter sl-LengthSymbols.

[0299] Example 18 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the same bandwidth may be allocated for PSSCH, PSCCH, and SLPRS transmissions; wherein DMRS associated with PSSCH may not be required.

[0300] Example 19 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the number of symbols used for PSSCH or the number of additional symbols used for PSSCH after PSCCH may be dynamically indicated in the first stage SCI.

[0301] Example 20 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein, when the SL-SCH is carried by the PSSCH and when the SLPRS is scheduled in a shared SLPRS resource pool and associated with the PSSCH, the transport block size (TBS) can be determined based on the number of symbols allocated for the SLPRS transmission.

[0302] Example 21 may include the method of Example 1 and / or other examples herein, wherein when the dynamic presence of SLPRS is signaled in the first stage SCI, the number of symbols associated with SL PRS is removed from the resource calculation of the second stage SCI.

[0303] Example 22 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example in the present document, wherein the TBS calculation taking into account SL PRS resources may be performed by removing REs in view of parameters indicated by dynamic signaling or preconfigured parameters in any of the following ways: removing OFDM symbols with SL PRS from symbols used for PSSCH transmission, removing REs from the PSSCH RE calculation per PRB, or removing the actual number of SL PRS REs from the PSSCH REs.

[0304] Example 23 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the indication of the absence / presence of SL-SCH in a scheduled PSSCH and the indication of the assumption of SLPRS overhead determined by the TBS for the PSSCH are indicated by a single bit, which is implemented using a reserved bit in the first stage SCI format.

[0305] Example 24 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the source ID and destination ID used for SL communication may be the same as or different from the source ID and destination ID used for SL positioning.

[0306] Example 25 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein, when SL communication and SL positioning use different source IDs and destination IDs, an association between the source ID and the target ID for SL communication and SL positioning may be defined.

[0307] Example 26 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example in the present document, wherein, when the source ID and destination ID used for SL communication and SL positioning are different, and for a shared SLPRS resource pool, when the SL-SCH is carried by the PSSCH and the SLPRS is scheduled in a shared SL PRS resource pool associated with the PSSCH, the source ID and destination ID included in the second stage SCI can be defined as a function of the source ID and destination ID used for both SL communication and SL positioning.

[0308] Example 27 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein resource determination of REs for the second-stage SCI is changed for the updated SCI format.

[0309] Example 28 may include the method of Example 27 and / or some other example herein, wherein the beta offset value indicated in the first stage SCI has a different (pre-)configured interpretation that determines a defined number of REs or a percentage of remaining REs, wherein the REs removed from the PSSCH REs for the SL PRS are either (pre-)configured or derived from a maximum, minimum, or average number of REs used for SLPRS transmission, which is derived from a (pre-)configured SLPRS transmission option.

[0310] Example 29 may include the method of Example 27 and / or some other example herein, wherein, for the second stage SCI resource determination, a beta offset relative to spectral efficiency is used.

[0311] Example 30 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the number of SLPRS symbols determined for TBS of PSSCH may be determined based on the maximum or minimum number of symbols used for SLPRS in all SL PRS resources configured in the shared SLPRS resource pool.

[0312] Example 31 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein the TBS-determined number of SLPRS symbols for the PSSCH may be (pre-)configured for a shared SLPRS resource pool.

[0313] Example 32 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein, if the SLPRS is indicated as being present in a time slot and the SCI format 1-A in the same time slot indicates that one or more time slots are reserved in the future, the SLPRS may be assumed to be present in the indicated one or more future reserved time slots, which are determined based on the time resource allocation in the SCI format 1-A.

[0314] Example 33 may include the method of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein a field may be included in SCI format 2-D to indicate whether an SLPRS transmission occurs in one or more future reserved time slots. The future reserved time slots may be determined based on the time resource allocation in SCI format 1-A.

[0315] Example 34 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein when a PT-RS resource element collides with an SLPRS symbol in the shared SLPRS resource pool, the PT-RS mapping restarts and moves to the next available symbol.

[0316] Example 35 may include the method of Example 1 and / or some other example herein, wherein when a PT-RS resource element collides with an SLPRS symbol in a shared SLPRS resource pool, the PT-RS is dropped by puncturing the PSSCH PT-RS.

[0317] Example 36 may include a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of a UE, and / or an electronic device including and / or implementing a UE, wherein the method includes:

[0318] Identify the Sidelink Positioning Reference Signal (SLPRS);

[0319] identifying at least one other sidelink (SL) channel;

[0320] multiplexing the SLPRS and at least one other SL channel in a resource pool; and

[0321] Transmit multiplexed SLPRS and at least one other SL channel.

[0322] Example 37 may include the method of Example 36 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the SL PRS and at least one other SL channel are multiplexed in a TDM manner.

[0323] Example 38 may include the methods of any of Examples 36-37 and / or some other examples herein, wherein at least one other SL channel includes: a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) and / or an associated demodulation reference signal (DMRS) transmission.

[0324] Example 39 may include the method of any of Examples 36-38 and / or some other example herein, wherein the resource pool is a dedicated SL PRS resource pool for SLPRS transmission.

[0325] Example 40 may include the method of any of Examples 36-39 and / or some other example herein, wherein the resource pool is a shared SL PRS resource pool for SL communication and SLPRS transmission.

[0326] Example 41 may include a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of a UE, and / or an electronic device including and / or implementing a UE, wherein the method includes:

[0327] identifying a transmission including multiplexing information from another user equipment (UE); and

[0328] The multiplexed information is demultiplexed to identify information related to a sidelink positioning reference signal (SLPRS) and at least one other sidelink (SL) channel.

[0329] Example 42 may include the method of Example 41 and / or some other example herein, wherein the SL PRS and at least one other SL channel are multiplexed in transmission in a TDM manner.

[0330] Example 43 may include the method of any of Examples 41-42 and / or some other example herein, wherein at least one other SL channel includes a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) and / or an associated demodulation reference signal (DMRS) transmission.

[0331] Example 44 may include a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of the UE, and / or an electronic device including and / or implementing the UE, wherein the method includes: identifying a sidelink positioning reference signal (SLPRS); identifying at least one other sidelink (SL) channel; identifying a resource pool associated with SL transmission; multiplexing the SLPRS and at least one other SL channel on resources of the resource pool; and transmitting the multiplexed SL PRS and at least one other SL channel on resources of the resource pool.

[0332] Example 45 may include the method of Example 44 and / or some other example herein, wherein the SL PRS and at least one other SL channel are multiplexed in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner.

[0333] Example 46 may include the method of any of Examples 44-45 and / or some other example herein, wherein at least one other SL channel includes a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) or a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

[0334] Example 47 may include the method of Example 46 and / or some other example herein, wherein the method further comprises: multiplexing a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) on resources of the resource pool; and transmitting the DMRS on the resources of the resource pool.

[0335] Example 48 may include the method of any of Examples 46-47 and / or some other example herein, wherein the method further comprises: multiplexing automatic gain control (AGC) symbols on resources of the resource pool; and transmitting the AGC symbols on the resources of the resource pool.

[0336] Example 49 may include the method of any of Examples 44-48 and / or some other example herein, wherein the resource pool is a resource pool that includes resources related to SL PRS transmission and does not include resources related to SL communication.

[0337] Example 50 includes the method of any one of Examples 44-49 and / or some other example, wherein the resource pool is a shared SL PRS resource pool including resources related to SL communication and resources related to SLPRS transmission.

[0338] Example 51 includes a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of a UE, and / or an electronic device including and / or implementing a UE, wherein the method includes: identifying a sidelink (SL) transmission from another user equipment (UE), the sidelink transmission including a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL PRS) multiplexed with information about another SL channel on resources of an SL resource pool; and demultiplexing the multiplexed information to identify the SLPRS and the information about another SL channel.

[0339] Example 52 includes the method of Example 51 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the SL PRS and at least one other SL channel are multiplexed in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner.

[0340] Example 53 includes the method of any of Examples 51-52 and / or some other example herein, wherein at least one other SL channel includes a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) or a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

[0341] Example 54 includes the method of Example 53 and / or some other example herein, wherein the transmission further includes a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) multiplexed across resources of the resource pool.

[0342] Example 55 includes the method of any of Examples 53-54 and / or some other example herein, wherein the transmission further includes automatic gain control (AGC) symbols multiplexed across resources of the resource pool.

[0343] Example 56 includes the method of any of Examples 51-55 and / or some other example herein, wherein the resource pool is a resource pool that includes resources related to SLPRS transmission and does not include resources related to SL communication.

[0344] Example 57 includes the method of any of Examples 51-56 and / or some other example herein, wherein the resource pool is a shared SLPRS resource pool that includes resources related to SL communication and resources related to SLPRS transmission.

[0345] Example 58 includes a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of the UE, and / or one or more electronic devices including and / or implementing the UE, wherein the method includes: identifying a sidelink positioning reference signal (SLPRS); identifying information related to at least one other sidelink (SL) channel; identifying information related to a resource pool, the resource pool being related to SL transmission; multiplexing the SLPRS and at least one other SL channel on resources of the resource pool; and transmitting the multiplexed SL PRS and at least one other SL channel on resources of the resource pool.

[0346] Example 59 includes the method of Example 58 and / or some other example herein, wherein the method further comprises multiplexing the SLPRS and at least one other SL channel in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner.

[0347] Example 60 includes the method of any of Examples 58-59 and / or some other example herein, wherein at least one other SL channel includes a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) or a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

[0348] Example 61 includes the method of Example 60 and / or some other example herein, wherein the method further comprises: multiplexing a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and an SL PRS on resources of a resource pool in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner; and transmitting the DMRS on resources of the resource pool.

[0349] Example 62 includes the method of any of Examples 60-61 and / or some other example herein, wherein the method further comprises: multiplexing automatic gain control (AGC) symbols on resources of the resource pool; and transmitting the AGC symbols on the resources of the resource pool.

[0350] Example 63 includes the method of any of Examples 58-62 and / or some other example herein, wherein the resource pool is a shared SLPRS resource pool for transmitting both SLPRS and PSSCH.

[0351] Example 64 includes the method of Example 63 and / or some other example herein, wherein the method further comprises: identifying, in a second phase sidelink link control information (SCI) format, a number of symbols in a time slot for SL PRS transmission; and determining, based on the number of symbols in the time slot, a transmission block size for PSSCH transmission in a shared SL PRS resource pool.

[0352] Example 65 includes the method of any of Examples 63-64 and / or some other example herein, wherein the method further comprises: canceling SL transmission of a phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) in symbols associated with SLPRS transmission in a shared SL PRS resource pool.

[0353] Example 66 includes the method of any of Examples 58-65 and / or some other example herein, wherein the resource pool is a dedicated SLPRS resource pool used for transmitting the SL PRS and not configured for transmitting the PSSCH.

[0354] Example 67 includes a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of a UE, and / or one or more electronic devices including and / or implementing a UE, wherein the method includes: identifying a sidelink link (SL) transmission received from another UE, wherein the SL transmission includes a sidelink link positioning reference signal (SLPRS), the SL PRS being multiplexed with information about one or more other SL channels on resources in a resource pool associated with the SL transmission; and demultiplexing the multiplexed information to identify the SL PRS and the information about the one or more other SL channels.

[0355] Example 68 includes the method of Example 67 and / or some other example herein, wherein the SLPRS and at least one or more other SL channels are multiplexed in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner.

[0356] Example 69 includes the method of any of Examples 67-68 and / or some other example herein, wherein at least one or more other SL channels include a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) or a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

[0357] Example 70 includes the method of any of Examples 67-69 and / or some other example herein, wherein the resource pool is a shared SLPRS resource pool for transmitting both SLPRS and a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

[0358] Example 71 includes the method of Example 70 and / or some other example herein, wherein a transport block size for PSSCH transmissions in the shared SLPRS resource pool is based on a number of symbols used for SL PRS transmissions in a timeslot.

[0359] Example 72 includes the method of any of Examples 70-71 and / or some other example herein, wherein the SLPRS resource pool does not include an SL phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) in symbols associated with SL PRS transmission.

[0360] Example 73 includes the method of any of Examples 67-72 and / or some other example herein, wherein the resource pool is a dedicated SL PRS resource pool used for transmitting SLPRS and not configured for transmitting PSSCH.

[0361] Example Z01 may include an apparatus including means for performing one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of Examples 1-73, or any other method or process described herein.

[0362] Example Z02 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of Examples 1-73 or any other method or process described herein.

[0363] Example Z03 may include an apparatus including logic, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of the method described in or related to any of Examples 1-73, or any other method or process described herein.

[0364] Example Z04 may include methods, techniques, or processes as described in or relating to any of Examples 1-73, or portions thereof.

[0365] Example Z05 may include a device comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of Examples 1-73, or portions thereof.

[0366] Example Z06 may include signals as described in or relating to any of Examples 1-73, or portions thereof.

[0367] Example Z07 may include a datagram, packet, frame, fragment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of Examples 1-73, or some portion thereof, or a datagram, packet, frame, fragment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0368] Example Z08 may include a signal encoding data as described in or relating to any of Examples 1-73, or portions thereof, or data otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0369] Example Z09 may include a signal encoding a datagram, packet, frame, fragment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of Examples 1-73, or some portion thereof, or a datagram, packet, frame, fragment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0370] Example Z10 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or portions thereof, as described in or related to any of Examples 1-73.

[0371] Example Z11 may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element causes the processing element to perform a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of Examples 1-73, or portions thereof.

[0372] Example Z12 may include signals in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0373] Example Z13 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0374] Example Z14 may include a system for providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

[0375] Example Z15 may include an apparatus for providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

[0376] Unless expressly stated otherwise, any of the above examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples). The above description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired through implementation of the various embodiments.

[0377] abbreviation

[0378] Unless used differently herein, the terms, definitions, and abbreviations may be consistent with those defined in 3GPP TR 21.905 v16.0.0 (2019-06). For the purposes of this document, the following abbreviations may apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

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[0398] the term

[0399] For purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

[0400] The term "application" can refer to a complete, deployable, packaged environment that implements a function within an operating environment. The term "AI / ML application" or similar terms can refer to an application that includes some AI / ML models and application-level descriptions.

[0401] As used herein, the term "circuit" refers to a hardware component configured to provide the described functionality, such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or grouped) and / or memory (shared, dedicated, or grouped), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), a digital signal processor (DSP), etc. In some embodiments, the circuit may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term "circuit" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) and program code to perform the functions of the program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a specific type of circuit.

[0402] The term "processor circuit" as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes a circuit that is capable of sequentially and automatically performing a sequence of operations or logical operations, or recording, storing, and / or transmitting digital data. The processing circuit may include one or more processing cores to execute instructions, and one or more memory structures to store program and data information. The term "processor circuit" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and / or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions such as program code, software modules, and / or functional processes. The processing circuit may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, and the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms "application circuit" and / or "baseband circuit" may be considered synonymous with "processor circuit" and may be referred to as "processor circuit".

[0403] As used herein, the term "interface circuitry" refers to circuitry that enables, is a part of, or includes circuitry that enables information exchange between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuitry" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an I / O interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, and the like.

[0404] As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" refers to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communication network. The term "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous with, and may be referred to as, the following terms: client, mobile phone, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio device, reconfigurable radio device, reconfigurable mobile device, and the like. Furthermore, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

[0405] As used herein, the term "network element" refers to a physical or virtualized device and / or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and / or referred to as the following terms: networked computer, networking hardware, network device, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN equipment, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, etc.

[0406] As used herein, the term "computer system" refers to any type of interconnected electronic devices, computing devices, or components thereof. Furthermore, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to components of a computer that are communicatively coupled to one another. Furthermore, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to multiple computing devices and / or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled to one another and configured to share computing and / or networking resources.

[0407] As used herein, the terms "appliance," "computer appliance," and the like refer to a computer device or computer system having program code (e.g., software or firmware) specifically designed to provide specific computing resources. A "virtual appliance" is a virtual machine image implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or is otherwise dedicated to providing specific computing resources.

[0408] As used herein, the term "resource" refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and / or a physical or virtual component within a specific device, such as computer equipment, mechanical equipment, memory space, processor / CPU time, processor / CPU usage, processor and accelerator load, hardware time or usage, power, input / output operations, ports or network sockets, channel / link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database, and application, workload units, and the like. "Hardware resources" may refer to the computing, storage, and / or network resources provided by (one or more) physical hardware elements. "Virtualized resources" may refer to the computing, storage, and / or network resources provided by a virtualization infrastructure to applications, devices, systems, and the like. The terms "network resources" or "communication resources" may refer to resources accessible by a computer device / system via a communication network. The term "system resource" may refer to any type of shared entity that provides a service, and may include computing and / or network resources. System resources may be considered to be a collection of coherent functions, network data objects, or services accessible through a server, where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

[0409] The term "channel" as used herein refers to any transmission medium, whether tangible or intangible, for conveying data or data streams. The term "channel" may be synonymous with and / or equivalent to "communication channel," "data communication channel," "transmission channel," "data transmission channel," "access channel," "data access channel," "link," "data link," "carrier," "radio frequency carrier," and / or any other similar terms that represent a path or medium through which data is conveyed. In addition, the term "link" as used herein refers to a connection between two devices over a RAT for the purpose of sending and receiving information.

[0410] As used herein, the term "instantiation" or the like refers to the creation of an instance. "Instance" also refers to the concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code.

[0411] As used herein, the terms "coupled," "communicatively coupled," and their derivatives are used. The term "coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, may mean that two or more elements are in indirect contact with each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and / or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements said to be coupled with each other. The term "directly coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term "communicatively coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in contact with each other by communication means, including through wires or other interconnections, through wireless communication channels or links, and the like.

[0412] The term "information element" refers to a structural element comprising one or more fields. The term "field" refers to the individual content of an information element, or a data element comprising content.

[0413] The term "SMTC" refers to the SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

[0414] The term "SSB" refers to SS / PBCH block.

[0415] The term "primary cell" refers to an MCG cell operating on a primary frequency, where the UE either performs an initial connection establishment procedure or initiates a connection re-establishment procedure.

[0416] The term "primary SCG cell" refers to an SCG cell in which a UE performs random access when performing a reconfiguration procedure with synchronization for DC operation.

[0417] The term "secondary cell" refers to a cell that provides additional radio resources for UEs configured with CA on top of a special cell.

[0418] The term "secondary cell group" refers to a subset of serving cells including a PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC.

[0419] The term "serving cell" refers to a primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED that is not configured with CA / DC, and there is only one serving cell consisting of the primary cell.

[0420] The term "serving cell" refers to a set of cells including special cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE configured with CA / in RRC_CONNECTED.

[0421] The term "special cell" refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term "special cell" refers to the Pcell.

[0422] The term "machine learning" or "ML" refers to the use of computer systems that implement algorithms and / or statistical models to perform(one or more) specific tasks without the use of explicit instructions, but instead relying on patterns and reasoning. ML algorithms build or estimate(one or more) mathematical models (referred to as "ML models" or the like) based on sample data (referred to as "training data", "model training information", or the like) in order to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform such tasks. In general, an ML algorithm is a computer program that learns from experience and some performance metric about a task, and an ML model can be an object or data structure created after training the ML algorithm with one or more training data sets. After training, the ML model can be used to make predictions on new data sets. Although the term "ML algorithm" refers to a different concept than the term "ML model", these terms as described herein may be used interchangeably for the purposes of this disclosure.

[0423] The terms "machine learning model," "ML model," or similar terms may also refer to the ML methods and concepts used by ML-assisted solutions. An "ML-assisted solution" is a solution that uses ML algorithms to solve specific use cases during operation. ML models include supervised learning (e.g., linear regression, k-nearest neighbor (KNN), decision tree algorithms, support machine vectors, Bayesian algorithms, lumping algorithms, etc.), unsupervised learning (e.g., K-means clustering, principal component analysis (PCA), etc.), reinforcement learning (e.g., Q-learning, multi-armed bandit learning, deep RL, etc.), neural networks, and others. Depending on the implementation, a specific ML model may have many sub-models as components, and all sub-models may be trained together. During inference, separately trained ML models may also be chained together in an ML pipeline. An "ML pipeline" is a set of functions, features, or functional entities specific to an ML-assisted solution; an ML pipeline may include one or more data sources in a data pipeline, a model training pipeline, a model evaluation pipeline, and actors. An “actor” is an entity that uses the output of ML model inference to host an ML-assisted solution. The term “ML training host” refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts the training of a model. The term “ML inference host” refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts a model during inference mode (this includes both model execution and any online learning, if applicable). The ML host informs the actor of the output of the ML algorithm, and the actor makes decisions for actions (an “action” is performed by the actor as a result of the output of the ML-assisted solution). The term “model inference information” refers to information used as input to an ML model in order to determine (one or more) inferences; the data used to train an ML model and the data used to determine inferences may overlap, however, “training data” and “inference data” refer to different concepts.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Memory for: Storage side link positioning reference signal (SL PRS); storing information associated with at least one other sidelink (SL) channel; as well as storing information related to a resource pool, wherein the resource pool is related to SL transmission; and one or more processors configured to: multiplexing the SL PRS and the at least one other SL channel on resources of the resource pool; and The SL PRS and at least one other SL channel that facilitates multiplexing are transmitted on the resources of the resource pool.

2. The UE according to claim 1, wherein: The one or more processors are configured to multiplex the SL PRS and the at least one other SL channel in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner.

3. The UE according to claim 1, wherein: The at least one other SL channel includes a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) or a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

4. The UE according to claim 3, wherein: The one or more processors are further configured to: multiplexing a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and the SLPRS on resources of the resource pool in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner; and Transmission of the DMRS on resources of the resource pool is facilitated.

5. The UE according to claim 3, wherein: The one or more processors are further configured to: multiplexing automatic gain control (AGC) symbols on resources of the resource pool; and Transmission of the AGC symbol on resources of the resource pool is facilitated.

6. The UE according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: The resource pool is a shared SL PRS resource pool used for transmitting both SL PRS and PSSCH.

7. The UE according to claim 6, wherein: The one or more processors are further configured to: Identifying the number of symbols used for SL PRS transmission in a slot in a second stage sidelink control information (SCI) format; and A transport block size for PSSCH transmission is determined in the shared SL PRS resource pool based on the number of symbols in the time slot.

8. The UE according to claim 6, wherein: The one or more processors are further configured to cancel transmission of an SL phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) in symbols in the shared SL PRS resource pool associated with the SLPRS transmission.

9. The UE according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: The resource pool is a dedicated SL PRS resource pool, which is used to transmit the SL PRS but is not configured to transmit the PSSCH.

10. A user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory for storing a sidelink (SL) transmission received from another UE, wherein the SL transmission includes a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL PRS), the SL PRS being multiplexed with information about one or more other SL channels on resources of a resource pool associated with the SL transmission; and One or more processors configured to demultiplex the multiplexed information to identify the SL PRS and the information about the one or more other SL channels.

11. The UE according to claim 10, wherein: The SL PRS and at least one or more other SL channels are multiplexed in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner.

12. The UE according to any one of claims 10 to 11, wherein: At least one or more other SL channels include a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) or a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

13. The UE according to any one of claims 10 to 11, wherein: The resource pool is a shared SL PRS resource pool used to transmit both the SL PRS and a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

14. The UE according to claim 13, wherein: The transport block size of PSSCH transmission in the shared SL PRS resource pool is based on the number of symbols used for SL PRS transmission in a time slot.

15. The UE according to claim 13, wherein: The SL PRS resource pool does not include an SL phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) in symbols related to SL PRS transmission.

16. The UE according to any one of claims 10 to 11, wherein: The resource pool is a dedicated SL PRS resource pool, which is used to transmit the SL PRS but is not configured to transmit the PSSCH.

17. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), are configured to cause the UE to: Identify the Sidelink Positioning Reference Signal (SL PRS); identifying at least one other sidelink (SL) channel; Identify the resource pools associated with SL transmission; multiplexing the SL PRS and the at least one other SL channel on resources of the resource pool in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner; and The multiplexed SL PRS and at least one other SL channel are transmitted on the resources of the resource pool.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein: The at least one other SL channel comprises a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH).

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein: The at least one other SL channel includes a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of any one of claims 17-19, wherein: The instructions further cause the UE to: Multiplexing a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and an SL PRS in a TDM manner on resources of the resource pool, or multiplexing an automatic gain control (AGC) symbol on resources of the resource pool; as well as The DMRS or the AGC symbol is transmitted on the resources of the resource pool.

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