Device-to-device communication over wireless access network relay device

Abstract

A wireless communication network is described that includes one or more relay devices and one or more user equipments (UEs). A relay device provides a first bi-directional link comprising a first relay resource and a second bi-directional link comprising a second relay resource, the first bi-directional link and the second bi-directional link communicating with a radio access network (RAN) of a wireless communication network using a first interface, such as a Uu interface. The UE is configured to use a second interface, such as a PC5 interface, for device-to-device (D2D) communication or sidelink (SL) communication in a wireless communication network by a relay device on one or more first relay resources or on one or more of the first relay resource and the second relay resource, direct communication with a network entity of a wireless communication network is performed.

Description

[0001] manual

[0002] The present invention relates to a wireless communication system or network, and more particularly, to a wireless communication network including a relay device (e.g., a radio access network (RAN) relay device) that provides respective bidirectional links to the RAN of the wireless communication system. Embodiments of the present invention relate to a wireless communication network in which a user equipment (UE) can communicate directly with a network entity (e.g., a RAN entity or another UE) via the relay device on one or more resources allocated for bidirectional link communication.

[0003] As shown in FIG1(a), FIG1 is a schematic diagram of an example of a wireless network 100, which includes a core network 102 and one or more radio access networks RAN1, RAN2, ..., RAN N Figure 1(b) shows the radio access network RAN n The following diagram illustrates an example of a wireless access network (RAN) that may include one or more base stations (gNB1 to gNB5), each serving a specific area around the RAN, schematically represented by corresponding cells 1061 to 1065. A RAN provides services to users within a cell. One or more RANs may provide services to users in licensed and / or unlicensed frequency bands. The term "base station" (BS) refers to a gNB in ​​a 5G network, an eNB in ​​Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A), or Long Term Evolution-Advanced Pro (LTE-APro), or a base station in other mobile communication standards. Users may be fixed or mobile devices. Mobile IoT devices or fixed IoT devices connected to a RAN or user may also access the wireless communication system. Mobile or IoT devices may include physical devices, ground vehicles (such as robots or cars), aerial vehicles (such as manned or unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones), buildings, and other objects or devices that are embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, or the like and have network connectivity, enabling them to collect and exchange data through existing network infrastructure.

[0004] Figure 1(b) shows an example diagram of five cells. However, RAN n More or fewer such cells may be included, RAN nAlternatively, only one base station may be included. Figure 1(b) shows two users, UE1 and UE2, or user equipment (UE), located in cell 1062 and served by base station gNB2. Another user, UE3, is located in cell 1064 and served by base station gNB4. Arrows 1081, 1082, and 1083 schematically represent uplink (UL) / downlink (DL) connections for transmitting data from users UE1, UE2, and UE3 to base stations gNB2 and gNB4, or from base stations gNB2 and gNB4 to users UE1, UE2, and UE3. This can occur in either licensed or unlicensed frequency bands. Furthermore, Figure 1(b) shows two IoT devices 1101 and 1102 located in cell 1064. These IoT devices can be fixed or mobile. IoT device 1101 accesses the wireless communication system via base station gNB4 to receive and transmit data, as indicated by arrow 1121. IoT device 1102 accesses the wireless communication system through user UE3, as indicated by arrow 1122. Each base station gNB1 to gNB5 can be connected to the core network 102 via respective backhaul links 1141 to 1145, for example, over an S1 interface. These backhaul links are schematically represented in Figure 1(b) by arrows pointing to "core." The core network 102 can be connected to one or more external networks. These external networks can be the internet, private networks such as intranets, or any other type of campus network, such as dedicated Wi-Fi or 4G or 5G mobile communication systems. Furthermore, some or all of the base stations gNB1 to gNB5 can be interconnected via respective backhaul links 1161 to 1165 over S1 or X2 interfaces, or the Xn interface in New Radio (NR). These backhaul links are schematically represented in Figure 1(b) by arrows pointing to "gNB." Sidelink (SL) channels allow direct communication between UEs, also known as device-to-device (D2D) communication. In the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the sidelink interface is named PC5.

[0005] Data transmission may use a physical resource grid. The physical resource grid may consist of a collection of resource elements to which various physical channels and physical signals are mapped. For example, physical channels may include physical downlink, uplink and sidelink shared channels, physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) (these physical channels carry user-specific data, also known as downlink, uplink and sidelink payload data), physical broadcast channel (PBCH) (carrying master information block (MIB) and one or more system information blocks (SIBs), and if supported, one or more SL information blocks (SLIBs)), physical downlink, uplink and sidelink control channels, physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) (these channels carry downlink control information (DCI), uplink control information (UCI) and sidelink control information (SCI)), physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) that carries PC5 feedback response. Note that the sidelink interface may support two levels of SCI, which refers to a first control region comprising part of the SCI and, optionally, a second control region comprising a second part of control information.

[0006] For the uplink, the physical channels may further include a physical random access channel (PRACH) or RACH, which the UE may use to access the network once it is synchronized and has obtained the MIB and SIB. The physical signals may include reference signals or symbols (RS), synchronization signals, etc. The resource grid may include frames or radio frames with a certain duration in the time domain and a certain bandwidth in the frequency domain. The frame may have a certain number of subframes of a predetermined length (e.g., 1 millisecond). Each subframe may include 12 or 14 one or more orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, depending on the length of the cyclic prefix (CP). The frame may also consist of a smaller number of OFDM symbols, for example, when utilizing a shortened transmission time interval (sTTI) or a mini-slot / non-slot based frame structure consisting of only a few OFDM symbols.

[0007] The wireless communication system can be any single-frequency or multi-carrier system using frequency division multiplexing technology, such as an OFDM system, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system, or any other inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT)-based signal with or without CP, such as DFT-s-OFDM. Other waveforms can also be used, such as non-orthogonal waveforms for multiple access, such as filter bank multi-carrier (FBMC), generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM), universal filter multi-carrier (UFMC), etc. The wireless communication system can operate using the LTE-APro standard, the 5G or NR (new radio) standard, or the unlicensed 5G new radio (NR-U) standard.

[0008] The wireless network or communication system shown in Figure 1 can be a heterogeneous network with different overlay networks, such as a macrocell network, each macrocell including macro base stations, such as base stations gNB1 to gNB5, and a small cell base station network (not shown in Figure 1), such as a femtocell base station or a picocell base station. Figure 2 FIG1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication network, as described above with reference to FIG1 , including a RAN entity, such as a base station 120, that serves one or more UEs 1221 and 1222. Base station 120 provides communication between one or more UEs 1221 and 1222 and another network entity 126, such as another UE served by base station 120, another base station in the network, or an application server coupled to network entity 126. Base station 120 communicates with network entity 126 via a relay device 128. Thus, the coverage of base station 120, i.e., the area in which the base station can serve other UEs, can be extended through the use of relay device 128. According to other examples, relay device 128 can be used to overcome obstacles that hinder the coverage of a base station. For example, if a base station is located in an area surrounded by mountains, its coverage may not extend to an adjacent valley. By using relay device 128, the coverage of a base station in one valley can be extended to an adjacent valley. Similarly, indoor scenarios can be envisioned where a UE is connected to a base station, such as a small cell within a building, which, through a relay device, can connect to a macrocell base station located outside the building. According to other examples, relay device 120 may also be a space-borne or airborne device, such as a satellite or aircraft, for example, used to connect a base station in a remote area to the core network of a wireless communication system. A first bidirectional link 134 (also known as an access link or service link) is established between relay device 128 and the base station, and a second bidirectional link 136 (also known as a backhaul link or feeder link) is established between relay device 128 and network entity 126. Communication on links 134 and 136 uses the Uu interface. In addition, respective bidirectional links 1381 and 1382 using the Uu interface are established between base station 120 and UEs 1221 and 1222. Because relay device 128 provides respective bidirectional links 134 and 136 for the RAN of the wireless communication system, the relay device may also be referred to as a RAN relay device.

[0009] The relay device 128 described above can operate using the so-called bent-pipe or U-bend principle, simply amplifying and possibly converting from an uplink frequency to a downlink frequency to send back what went into the pipe. Payloads transmitted using this principle are also referred to as bent-pipe payloads or transparent payloads. According to other examples, the relay device 128 can use onboard processing to demodulate, decode, re-encode, and modulate the signal. Payloads transmitted using this principle are also referred to as regenerated payloads.

[0010] As described above, the relay device or transponder 128 can be a satellite-borne device or an airborne device, and thus the wireless communication network can also include non-terrestrial network (NTN) components. Satellite-borne devices can include satellites at different altitudes or orbital periods, such as low earth orbit (LEO), medium earth orbit (MEO), geosynchronous orbit (GSO), geostationary orbit (GEO), or high earth orbit (HEO), while airborne vehicles can include unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), such as tethered UAS, lighter-than-air (LTA) UAS, heavier-than-air (HTA) UAS, and high altitude UAS platforms (HAP). Figure 3 yes Figure 2 1 , a schematic diagram of an example wireless communication network includes a core network 102 and a RAN, including a base station 120 serving a UE 1221 and one or more other base stations 1301 and 1302. The relay device connecting the base station 120 with the one or more other base stations 1301 and 1302 is a satellite 128a or an aircraft 128b. The base stations 120, 1301, and 1302 are connected to the satellite 128a and the aircraft 128b via respective gateways 1321 to 1323, respectively. Figure 3 The example of FIG. 1 shows a wireless communication network including multiple NTN components, including one or more onboard / onboard devices 128 a and 128 b and corresponding NTN gateways (GWs) 1321 to 1323. Arrows 1341 and 1342 schematically represent uplink / downlink links for data communication between base station 120 and corresponding onboard / onboard devices 128 a and 128 b via NTN GW 1323, also known as service links. The onboard / onboard devices 128 a and 128 b are connected to the core network 102 via NTN GWs 1321 and 1322 and base stations 1301 and 1302 via respective links 1361 and 1362 (also known as feeder links). The uplink / downlink connection between base station 120 and UE 1221 is represented by arrow 138.

[0011] It should be noted that the information in the above section is only used to deepen the understanding of the background of the present invention, and therefore may contain some prior art information that is not known to ordinary technicians in this field.

[0012] In the above-described wireless communication network, there may be a need to improve communication between a user equipment and a destination entity via a base station connected to the destination through a relay device.

[0013] The following describes the embodiments of the present disclosure in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0014] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of an example terrestrial wireless communication network.

[0015] Figure 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication network that connects a base station to a destination via a relay device.

[0016] Figure 3 yes Figure 2 An example schematic diagram of a wireless communication network is shown, in which the relay devices are satellites or aircraft.

[0017] Figure 4 A wireless communication network, such as a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network, according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown.

[0018] Figure 5 A wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, which uses a satellite as a relay device.

[0019] Figure 6 Another embodiment of the present invention is shown, according to which a user equipment (UE) acts as a relay UE for a remote UE.

[0020] Figure 7 An embodiment of a chained connection of satellites is shown for reaching a destination connected to a core network of a wireless communication system.

[0021] Figure 8 An embodiment is shown in which a UE is connected to a 5G New Radio (NR) non-terrestrial network (NTN) via a satellite using a Uu interface to an NTN base station (ground station).

[0022] Figure 9 An embodiment of a communication system is shown in which two UEs are outside of terrestrial network coverage but within satellite coverage and communicate via a sidelink (SL) through the satellite.

[0023] Figure 10 Shown Figure 9 An embodiment of a communication system is shown in which the satellite is not connected to a network.

[0024] Figure 11 Shown Figure 9 or Figure 10 An embodiment of the communication system is shown, wherein UEs are unable to interconnect via the NTN Uu interface.

[0025] 12 illustrates an embodiment of a substructure of a frequency division duplex (FDD) band or sub-band for establishing sidelink communications through a relay device.

[0026] FIG. 13 illustrates an embodiment in which the allocated paired spectrum of a satellite communication system FDD operation is used for sidelink communications depending on whether the link with the ground station is lost.

[0027] Figure 14 An example of utilizing uplink (UL) / downlink (DL) frequency band resources for sidelink communication is shown.

[0028] Figure 15 A schematic block diagram of a UE according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown.

[0029] Figure 16 A schematic block diagram of a UE according to another embodiment of the present invention is shown.

[0030] Figure 17 An example of a computer system is shown on which the units or modules and the method steps described according to the method of the present invention can be executed.

[0031] Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same or similar elements are given the same reference characters.

[0032] Considering the above reference Figure 3In the wireless communication scenario of the wireless communication network described above, UE 1221 may wish to establish communication with a third party, which may be connected to gNB 1301, such as another UE or located in an external network connected to core network 102. In this scenario, UE 1221 communicates with base station 122 via uplink / downlink 138, and base station 122 is connected to gNB 1301 via NTN GW 1323 and satellite 128a, as well as NTN GW 1321. gNB 1301 provides connectivity to required network entities, such as another UE connected to gNB 1301 via a Uu interface, core network entities, or external devices connected to core network 102. However, communication between UE 1221 and base station 120, i.e., communication via the terrestrial radio access network (RAN), may not be possible or feasible. For example, the connection between UE 1221 and base station 120 may be lost or unestablished due to insufficient service coverage, e.g., because UE 1221 is located in a remote area and link 138 with base station 120 is lost or unestablished. Communication may be unavailable due to a service disruption, e.g., because base station 120 is not operational, which may be caused by a natural disaster, a power outage, or other similar reasons. Furthermore, even if a connection is established with a desired destination or network entity, communication may still be deemed unavailable, e.g., because certain requirements related to the communication, such as the desired quality of service (QoS) associated with the communication, may not be met. This may be because the communication latency between UE 1221 and the network entity is insufficient to meet or accept the required QoS, or because the bandwidth, capacity, or data rate of the backhaul connection (i.e., the connection from base station 120 via NTN GW 1323, satellite 128a, NTN GW 1321, or gNB 1301) is insufficient or unacceptable for the required QoS, or because the end-to-end reliability of the communication is insufficient or unacceptable for the required QoS.

[0033] In other words, in the above reference Figure 2 and Figure 3 In the described scenario, the base station communicates with the desired destination or communication network entity of the user equipment through a relay device connected between the destination and the base station. Although the relay device brings many advantages, the communication of the user equipment to the destination may still be completely impossible to achieve, for example, because the connection between the user equipment and the base station and / or the connection between the base station and the relay device is lost or cannot be established, or because the communication has specific requirements associated with it (such as specific QoS), and the channel established between the UE and the destination through the base station and the relay device may not meet the requirement.

[0034] In another scenario, UE 1221 and another UE within the coverage area of ​​base station 120 can communicate directly via the sidelink using the PC5 interface. If the sidelink connection cannot be established or is lost, UE 1221 and the other UEs need to establish a connection via base station 120 using the Uu interface. However, as described above, such a connection via base station 120 may not be possible, for example, because one of the UEs is not within the coverage area of ​​base station 120 or is not served by base station 120. In addition, the required communication quality may not be achieved via the Uu interface. In this case, communication between the UEs is impossible.

[0035] Embodiments of the present invention address the aforementioned problems and provide improvements for communications between user equipment and a destination or network entity in a system that uses relay devices to provide bidirectional links to a radio access network of a wireless communication network.

[0036] wireless communication network

[0037] The present invention provides a wireless communication network, comprising:

[0038] One or more relay devices, wherein the relay device provides a first bidirectional link including a first relay resource and a second bidirectional link including a second relay resource, the first bidirectional link and the second bidirectional link communicating with a radio access network (RAN) of a wireless communication network using a first interface (e.g., a Uu interface); and

[0039] One or more user equipments (UEs), wherein the UEs are configured to perform direct communication with a network entity of a wireless communication network via a relay device using a second interface (such as a PC5 interface) for device-to-device (D2D) communication or sidelink (SL) communication in the wireless communication network on one or more first relay resources or on one or more relay resources of the first relay resource and the second relay resource.

[0040] According to some embodiments,

[0041] - Network entities include RAN entities, such as base stations;

[0042] - the UE is configured to perform communication with the relay device on the first relay resource using the second interface; and

[0043] The relay device is configured to perform communication with the RAN entity on the second relay resource using the first interface or the second interface.

[0044] According to some embodiments, the UE is configured to perform communication with the relay device on the first relay resource using the second interface in response to one or more of the following:

[0045] - Loss of connectivity between the UE and the RAN;

[0046] -The connection between the UE and the RAN cannot be established;

[0047] - the connection via the RAN is unable to provide one or more of the required communication requirements, such as the desired Quality of Service (QoS), for example, latency, bandwidth or capacity of the backhaul link or data rate, or the end-to-end reliability may be insufficient to achieve the desired QoS; and

[0048] - signaling indicating one or more operating modes, the one or more operating modes being related to a different usage of the first resource and / or the second resource and the first interface compared to a currently or previously used operating mode.

[0049] According to some embodiments,

[0050] - the network entity includes another UE;

[0051] - the UE is configured to perform communication with the relay device on the first relay resource using the second interface; and

[0052] The relay device is configured to perform communication with another UE on the second relay resource using the first interface or the second interface.

[0053] According to some embodiments, the wireless communication network comprises:

[0054] RAN entities, such as base stations; and

[0055] Another relay device provides a third bidirectional link including a third relay resource between another UE and another relay station, and provides a fourth bidirectional link including a fourth relay resource between another relay station and a RAN entity, wherein the third bidirectional link and the fourth bidirectional link use the first interface.

[0056] in,

[0057] - another UE is configured to perform communication with another relay device on a third relay resource using the first interface or the second interface; and

[0058] - Another relay device is configured to perform communication with the RAN entity on a fourth relay resource using the first interface or the second interface.

[0059] According to some embodiments, the UE is configured to perform communication with another UE on the first relay resource and the second relay resource using the first interface or the second interface in response to one or more of the following:

[0060] - Loss of connectivity between the UE and the RAN;

[0061] -The connection between the UE and the RAN cannot be established;

[0062] - the connection via the RAN is unable to provide one or more of the required communication requirements, such as the desired QoS, e.g. latency, bandwidth or capacity of the backhaul link or data rate, or end-to-end reliability may not be sufficient to achieve the desired QoS;

[0063] -Loss of connection between the relay device and the RAN;

[0064] -The connection between the relay device and the RAN cannot be established;

[0065] - the connection via the relay device cannot provide one or more of the required communication requirements, such as the desired QoS, for example, latency, bandwidth or capacity of the backhaul link or data rate, or end-to-end reliability may not be sufficient to achieve the desired QoS;

[0066] - A SL connection between the UE and another UE is lost, the SL connection being performed on SL resources of the wireless communication network, the SL resources being different from the first relay resources and the second relay resources;

[0067] -A connection between a UE and another UE cannot be established;

[0068] - the SL between the UE and another UE cannot provide one or more of the required communication requirements, such as the desired QoS, e.g. latency, bandwidth or capacity of the backhaul link or data rate, or end-to-end reliability may not be sufficient to achieve the desired QoS; and

[0069] - signaling indicating one or more operating modes, the one or more operating modes being related to a different usage of the first resource and / or the second resource and the first interface compared to a currently or previously used operating mode.

[0070] According to some embodiments, a wireless communication network includes a base station that serves a UE and provides indirect communication between the UE and a network entity via a relay device, wherein if a connection between the UE and the network entity is established, the UE is configured to:

[0071] - perform only direct communications with network entities; or,

[0072] - In addition to indirect communication with network entities, direct communication with network entities is performed.

[0073] According to some embodiments, the UE is aware of the availability or expected availability of the relay device and is configured to send message information to the relay device on a first relay resource via an uplink sidelink broadcast (SL-BC).

[0074] According to some embodiments, the relay device is configured to, in response to receiving the uplink SL-BC, forward at least the message information received in the uplink SL-BC to the network entity via the downlink SL-BC.

[0075] According to some embodiments, the network entity is configured to send a response message to the UE in response to receiving the downlink SL-BC.

[0076] According to some embodiments,

[0077] - the network entity is configured to send a response to the relay device on the first relay resource or the second relay resource via another uplink sidelink broadcast (SL-BC); and

[0078] -The relay device is configured to, in response to receiving another uplink SL-BC, forward a response message received in the other uplink SL-BC to the UE entity through another downlink SL-BC on the first relay resource.

[0079] According to some embodiments, a wireless communication network includes a remote UE, wherein the UE and the remote UE are directly connected to each other, and the UE is used to relay communications between the remote UE and a network entity.

[0080] According to some embodiments, the UE has multiple RAT capabilities, the multiple RAT capabilities including:

[0081] a first RAT capability for providing a SL connection with a remote UE using sidelink resources of the wireless communication network, the sidelink resources being different from the first relay resources and the second relay resources, and the UE being used to relay communications to / from the remote UE; and

[0082] -Second RAT capability, used to connect remote UEs, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

[0083] According to some embodiments, the UE subscribes to one or more other networks in addition to the wireless communication network, and wherein the UE is connected to the remote UE in the following manner:

[0084] - a wireless communication network providing a SL connection between the UE and a remote UE using sidelink resources of the wireless communication network, the sidelink resources being different from the first relay resources and the second relay resources, and the UE being used to relay communications to / from the remote UE; and / or,

[0085] - One or more other networks, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

[0086] According to some embodiments, the relay device:

[0087] - includes at least a subset of base station functions, such as resource scheduling, resource allocation or mapping; or,

[0088] - is intended to operate as an amplify and forward (AF) relay, such as an in-band relay or an in-band repeater; or,

[0089] - is intended to operate as an amplify, band switch and forward (ABSF) relay, such as an out-of-band relay or an out-of-band repeater; or,

[0090] - Used to operate as a decode and forward (DF) relay.

[0091] According to some embodiments, the sidelink communication includes time division duplex (TDD) communication, frequency division duplex (FDD) communication, or full duplex (FD) communication.

[0092] According to some embodiments, the first relay resources and the second relay resources used by the UE for communicating with the network entity comprise unused or substantially unused radio resources allocated for communicating using the first interface.

[0093] According to some embodiments, the unused or substantially unused relay resources include radio resources including no existing traffic exceeding a predetermined threshold, or no existing traffic at all.

[0094] According to some embodiments, the existing traffic includes at least one of the following:

[0095] - UL traffic and / or DL ​​traffic from / to one or more other network entities using the first interface on the first bidirectional link of the relay device; or,

[0096] - UL traffic and / or DL ​​traffic from / to one or more other network entities using the first interface over the second bidirectional link of the relay device.

[0097] According to some embodiments, the first relay resource and / or the second relay resource are configured to allocate a spectrum according to an FDD configuration, wherein the FDD configuration defines a first frequency band or downlink (DL) frequency band for transmissions from the relay device and a second frequency band or uplink (UL) frequency band for transmissions to the relay device.

[0098] According to some embodiments,

[0099] The DL frequency band and / or UL frequency band are subdivided into:

[0100] - one or more first UL time slots for transmission from the BS to the relay device, and one or more second UL time slots for transmission from the UE to the relay device; and / or,

[0101] - one or more first bandwidth parts (BWP) for transmission from the BS to the relay device,

[0102] and one or more second BWPs for transmission from the UE to the relay device, and

[0103] If the DL frequency band or the UL frequency band is not subdivided, the DL frequency band or the UL frequency band is completely used for transmission to / from the relay device.

[0104] According to some embodiments, the UE is configured to synchronize communications with a relay device on a DL band and / or a UL band using one or more reference signals broadcast in the DL band and / or the UL band, wherein the one or more reference signals may be from the relay device (e.g., a beacon signal) or another network device operating in the corresponding frequency band.

[0105] According to some embodiments, the relay device is used to transmit a DL control channel in the DL frequency band, and the DL control channel includes additional information related to the wireless resources temporarily or semi-statically provided for direct communication or sidelink communication between the UE and the relay device, such as block waiting time (BWT, Block Waiting Time), the number of time slots, the number of resource blocks (RB, resourceBlock), etc.

[0106] According to some embodiments, the UE is configured to obtain a configuration for performing communication with a network entity using one or more of the following configurations:

[0107] -preset or preconfigured configurations, such as default configurations, configurations based on factory settings, and recently updated configurations;

[0108] - based on the last used configuration or the last used operating mode or a change of operating mode, such as from Uu link to sidelink, from sidelink to Uu link, from Uu link to trunk link, from trunk link to Uu link, from SL to trunk link or from trunk link to SL;

[0109] -Configuration provided by the network;

[0110] - configuration provided by a database, e.g. a database connected to the RAN as an entity;

[0111] - configurations provided by alternative RAN, such as via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth;

[0112] - configuration provided by the remote UE or group leader UE; and,

[0113] - Sidelink connection provides configuration:

[0114] ○ directly from another UE connected to the UE via the SL; or,

[0115] ○ Indirectly from another UE that is connected to the UE through the SL and via a relay device.

[0116] According to some embodiments, the UE is configured to receive one or more assistance information messages (AIMs) from a network entity;

[0117] The one or more AIMs may include one or more of the following:

[0118] - Auxiliary information related to resource allocation, such as:

[0119] ○ Resource model;

[0120] ○ Resource pool;

[0121] ○ Available and / or excluded wireless resources;

[0122] o Information about specific frame structures, such as (pseudo) TDD slot structure on an FDD band in one or more FDD bands or TDD bands used for SL communication, sub-band full duplex (SBFD) configuration, and almost blank subframes (ABS); and

[0123] ○Sub-band full duplex (SBFD) configuration indication.

[0124] - Link-related auxiliary information, such as:

[0125] o The timing of connectivity opportunities (current and future), availability / unavailability, readiness (e.g., window of opportunity to see a satellite or satellite constellation area), scarcity or abundance of resources.

[0126] -Timing advance assistance information;

[0127] - Doppler assistance information;

[0128] - auxiliary information related to distance;

[0129] - auxiliary information related to the geographical area;

[0130] - auxiliary information related to the group;

[0131] -Assistance information related to the UE pair;

[0132] - auxiliary information related to relays / transponders;

[0133] - Capabilities of devices transmitting or receiving AIMs;

[0134] - Information requested by the device transmitting or receiving the AIM regarding capability information to be provided by the UE; and

[0135] - Emergency message header with wake-up, configuration state activation trigger function or priority purpose (e.g., transmission of emergency message including emergency ID, requested action, location, UE-ID, etc.).

[0136] According to some embodiments, the relay resources and the additional relay resources include one or more of the following:

[0137] - one or more symbols;

[0138] - one or more time slots or subframes or frames;

[0139] - one or more frequencies or carriers or subchannels or groups of subchannels;

[0140] -One or more subcarriers, for example, for transmitting IoT messages, such as NB-IoT, LoRA, etc.;

[0141] - one or more interfaces;

[0142] - one or more channels, such as a control channel, a user data channel or any other dedicated channel;

[0143] -One or more resource block (RB) sets;

[0144] - one or more frequency bands, such as unlicensed sub-bands;

[0145] - one or more bandwidth portions;

[0146] - one or more resource pools;

[0147] - one or more LBT sub-bands; and

[0148] -One or more spatial resources, for example using spatial multiplexing, directional beams, etc.

[0149] According to some embodiments, the relay resource set and the additional relay resource set include one or more of the following:

[0150] - one or more resources;

[0151] - channel;

[0152] - subchannel;

[0153] - sub-band;

[0154] -RB set;

[0155] -interface;

[0156] - Resource pool;

[0157] -Bandwidth Part (BWP).

[0158] According to some embodiments, the network entity includes one or more of the following:

[0159] - Another BS;

[0160] -Roadside unit (RSU);

[0161] - orbital side unit (OSU), which exchanges information with passing satellites or aircraft; - mobile BS installed on land or water vehicles (such as cars, buses, trains, ships or vessels, submarines, etc.), or mobile BS installed on containers, or mobile BS installed on or attached to any equipment of a vehicle;

[0162] - Mobile BS installed on non-terrestrial or aerial vehicles or devices, such as aircraft, UAVs, balloons, rockets, satellites, or any other objects or devices that move or float in three-dimensional space but do not touch the surface of the Earth or the liquid on the Earth (such as lake or sea water, etc.);

[0163] - another UE;

[0164] -Customer Premises Equipment (CPE);

[0165] -IoT devices;

[0166] - broadcast towers for digital audio (radio) or television (video) broadcasting;

[0167] -Relay equipment;

[0168] - another relay device;

[0169] -Core network;

[0170] - Functions located somewhere in the communication network, such as UPF, LMF, AMF, SMF, etc.;

[0171] - Application servers connected to the core network;

[0172] - Aggregation nodes, used to store, process (fusion, decision making, calculation output) or forward sensor data, messages, retransmissions, AIMs, measurement reports, configurations, etc.;

[0173] -database.

[0174] According to some embodiments, the relay device includes one or more of the following:

[0175] - Mobile or stationary ground equipment, such as repeaters, transponders, vehicle-mounted repeaters or transponders, or reconfigurable reflected surfaces (RIS);

[0176] - Mobile or stationary liquid-borne equipment, such as equipment on or in water, such as ships or submarines, such as repeaters, transponders, vehicle-mounted repeaters or transponders, or reconfigurable reflective surfaces (RIS);

[0177] - mobile or stationary airborne equipment, such as drones, UAVs, or aircraft; and

[0178] - Mobile or stationary spaceborne equipment, such as low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites or geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellites.

[0179] According to some embodiments,

[0180] - the first interface comprises a Uu air interface for connection with the RAN; and

[0181] - The second interface includes a PC5 interface for D2D connection or SL connection.

[0182] According to some embodiments, the UE and / or relay device is configured to signal capability information.

[0183] According to some embodiments, the first bidirectional link comprises an access link or a serving link, and the second bidirectional link comprises a backhaul link or a feeder link.

[0184] According to some embodiments,

[0185] UE includes one or more of the following: power-limited UE; or handheld UE, such as UE used by pedestrians (also known as vulnerable road users (VRU), or pedestrian UE (P-UE, Pedestrian UE); or body-carried or handheld UE used by public safety personnel and first responders, also known as public safety UE (PS-UE, Publicsafety UE); or IoT UE, such as sensors, actuators; or UE provided in a campus network, used to perform repetitive tasks and requires regular input from a gateway node; or mobile terminal; or fixed terminal; or cellular IoT-UE; or SL UE; or vehicle-mounted UE; or vehicle-mounted group leader UE (GL-UE); or scheduling UE (S-UE, scheduling UE); or IoT or narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) device; or ground vehicle; or air vehicle; or drone; or mobile base station; or water vehicle (ship, submarine); or road side unit (RSU); or building; or customer premises equipment (CPE, equipment); or any other item / device with network connectivity that enables the item / device to communicate using a wireless communication network, such as a sensor or actuator; or any other item / device with network connectivity that enables the item / device to communicate using a sidelink, such as a sensor or actuator; or any network entity that supports a sidelink; and

[0186] A base station includes one or more of the following: a macrocell base station; or a small cell base station; or a central unit of a base station; or a distributed unit of a base station; or an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node; or a road side unit (RSU); or a UE; or a SL UE; or a group leader UE (GL-UE); or a repeater or a remote radio head; or an AMF; or an SMF; or a core network entity; or a mobile edge computing (MEC) entity; or a network slice in the context of NR or 5G core; or any transmission / reception point (TRP) that enables an item / device to communicate using a wireless communication network, and the item / device has network connectivity to communicate using the wireless communication network.

[0187] According to some embodiments, a wireless communication network comprises:

[0188] -3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP, 3rd Generation Partnership Project network; or

[0189] - Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), such as LoRa or Mioty; or

[0190] -Wi-Fi network.

[0191] User Equipment

[0192] The present invention provides a user equipment (UE) applicable to a wireless communication network, wherein the wireless communication network includes one or more relay devices, wherein the relay device provides a first bidirectional link including a first relay resource and a second bidirectional link including a second relay resource, and the first bidirectional link and the second bidirectional link communicate with a radio access network (RAN) of the wireless communication network using a first interface (such as a Uu interface); and

[0193] The UE is used to perform direct communication with a network entity of the wireless communication network through a relay device using a second interface (such as a PC5 interface) for device-to-device (D2D) communication or sidelink (SL) communication in the wireless communication network on one or more first relay resources or on one or more relay resources of the first relay resource and the second relay resource.

[0194] method

[0195] The present invention provides a method for operating a wireless communication network, the wireless communication network including one or more relay devices, wherein the relay device provides a first bidirectional link including a first relay resource and a second bidirectional link including a second relay resource, the first bidirectional link and the second bidirectional link communicating with a radio access network (RAN) of the wireless communication network using a first interface (e.g., a Uu interface), the method comprising:

[0196] One or more user equipments (UEs) perform direct communication with a network entity of a wireless communication network through a relay device using a second interface (such as a PC5 interface) for device-to-device (D2D) communication or sidelink (SL) communication in the wireless communication network on one or more first relay resources or on one or more relay resources of the first relay resource and the second relay resource.

[0197] Computer program product

[0198] An embodiment of the present invention provides a computer program product comprising instructions. When the instructions are executed on a computer, one or more methods of the present invention are performed.

[0199] Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention solve the above Figure 2 The problem is that the UE operating in the wireless communication network cannot communicate with the RAN at all or cannot communicate in accordance with their respective requirements (such as their respective QoS requirements). The method is to allow the user equipment to be directly connected to the destination or network entity through a relay device (such as a satellite), thereby providing an opportunity to connect to the destination entity in a single-hop wireless transmission manner through the relay device. Traditionally, the relay device lacks any underlying network protocol required for direct communication between the UE and the network entity through the relay device, so such communication cannot be supported, while single-hop wireless connection through a relay device (such as a satellite or any other wireless signal forwarding element or device) is basically feasible. The root cause of this problem is that the relay device is configured or pre-configured so that the first bidirectional link 134 (see Figure 3 ) and the second bidirectional link 136 use a first interface (e.g., a Uu interface) to communicate with the RAN of the wireless communication network. Therefore, the relay resources allocated for communication on the first bidirectional link 134 and the second bidirectional link 136 are only applicable to Uu communication. The present invention solves the above-mentioned problem by allowing the UE to use the second interface (e.g., the PC5 interface) used for device-to-device (D2D) communication or sidelink (SL) communication in the wireless communication network to directly communicate with the network entity of the wireless communication network through a relay device on one or more first relay resources (i.e., the first bidirectional link 134) or one or more relay resources of the first relay resource and the second relay resource (i.e., the first bidirectional link 134 and the second bidirectional link 136).

[0200] In other words, the UE and the target entity can communicate directly with each other through the relay device, utilizing the relay resources originally allocated by the system for communication between the relay device and the RAN on a bidirectional link. In other words, some or all of the relay resources used for Uu communications to and from the relay device can be used by the UE to establish a direct connection with the network entity. According to some embodiments, the UE can conduct sidelink communications with the network entity using some or all of the relay resources allocated for Uu communications to and from the relay device in accordance with the existing 3GPPSL communication protocol framework.

[0201] Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the aspects or embodiments summarized and described below may be combined so that some or all aspects / embodiments can be implemented in one embodiment. Furthermore, it should be noted that when "resources" are mentioned in this specification, resources should be understood to include one or more of the following:

[0202] - one or more symbols;

[0203] - one or more time slots or subframes or frames;

[0204] - one or more frequencies or carriers or subchannels or groups of subchannels;

[0205] - one or more interfaces;

[0206] -One or more resource block (RB) sets;

[0207] - one or more frequency bands, such as unlicensed sub-bands;

[0208] - one or more bandwidth portions;

[0209] - one or more resource pools;

[0210] - one or more LBT sub-bands;

[0211] - One or more spatial resources, for example using spatial multiplexing.

[0212] Additionally, it should be noted that when a "resource set" is mentioned in this specification, a resource set may include one or more resources, and the definition of "resource" is as described above. Furthermore, it should be noted that when a "channel" is mentioned in this specification, it may refer to the resource set mentioned above. Therefore, a "channel" may also refer to a subchannel, subband, RB set, interface, resource pool, or SL BWP.

[0213] According to an embodiment of the present invention, a solution is provided for the problems existing in the prior art methods, which allows a UE to communicate directly with a network entity in a wireless communication network via a relay device on its relay resources. The above-mentioned relay resources are initially scheduled or allocated by the system for the bidirectional link provided by the relay device for communicating with the RAN using a first interface (such as a Uu interface). The UE is allowed to utilize these relay resources to communicate directly using a second interface (such as a PC5 interface) for D2D communication or SL communication. In other words, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method that allows the UE to use relay resources allocated to a RAN relay device (such as a satellite) for SL communication. This overcomes the above-mentioned problems encountered in the following situations: the UE intends to establish a connection with another network entity but may not be able to connect to the RAN of the wireless communication network or loses the connection, or the existing sidelink communication is lost and a connection cannot be established at all, or the relay device (such as a satellite) loses the connection with the RAN to which the UE is connected.

[0214] Figure 4The wireless communication network according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, for example, a 3GPP network. The wireless communication system includes a UE 1221 and a relay device 128. The relay device provides a first bidirectional link 134, for example, an access link or a service link. The first bidirectional link 134 includes a first relay resource and uses a first interface (for example, a Uu interface) to provide a first RAN entity (for example, a UE). Figure 3 The relay 128 provides a second bidirectional link 136, such as a backhaul link or a feeder link, which includes a second relay resource and also uses the first interface (such as the Uu interface) for communication from / to the RAN (such as the base station 120 shown in FIG. Figure 3 For example, the wireless communication network may configure or pre-configure a relay device 128 with a first relay resource and a second relay resource for communication from / to the RAN entities 120 and 1301 using a Uu interface, such as for connecting a user equipment and a base station, as described above with reference to Figure 2 According to the method of the present invention, UE 1221 communicates directly with another network entity (e.g., base station 1301 or another UE) through relay device 128 on one or more first relay resources 134a or on one or more first relay resources and second relay resources. In other words, according to some embodiments of the present invention, UE 1221 now uses one or more first relay resources 134a for the first bidirectional link 134 to communicate directly with relay device 128 using a second interface (e.g., PC5 interface) for establishing device-to-device (D2D) communication or sidelink (SL) communication. Therefore, the resources originally allocated to the Uu interface on link 134 are now used by the PC5 interface. According to some embodiments, the second link 136 may maintain its initial configuration, i.e., provide a Uu connection to the network entity 1301. However, according to other embodiments, one or more second relay resources 136a on the second bidirectional link 136 may also be used for communication using the PC5 interface.

[0215] According to some embodiments, the access link 134 between the BS 120 and the relay device 128 uses specific radio resources. These radio resources are the same as the resources used to connect the UE to the relay device. The access link resources can operate in FDD mode. In addition, the backhaul link 136 can also operate in FDD mode, in which case the access link uses two frequencies (FDD) and the backhaul link uses the same frequency for backhaul (FDD). If UL and DL refer to "to or from" the RAN, the access and backhaul mappings are the same on F1 and F2, which are FDD bands. If the access link and backhaul link use different frequency bands, for example, the backhaul may use different frequency band combinations or laser link pairs, the relay device shortens or bridges the access link and forwards one access link over another FDD frequency band (outbound relay mode) or on itself (in-band relay mode).

[0216] Allowing the UE to access the relay station 128 via the sidelink communication interface is advantageous because, once one or more relay resources available for such sidelink communication are known, the UE can directly apply the sidelink communication protocol (e.g., the 3GPP standardized framework) to establish communication via the relay station, without having to perform the required access procedures, such as RACH procedures, when establishing communication via the Uu interface. Thus, embodiments of the present invention provide a simple and easy-to-implement method for allowing a UE to conduct sidelink communication with another entity via a relay device, for example, where a direct connection to the other entity is not possible or lost, or where a relay device was initially used but its connection to the RAN was lost such that a direct connection via the relay device is required, or where the UE may not be able to access its own RAN, for example, because its connection to a base station of the RAN to which the UE belongs is lost or cannot be established).

[0217] Embodiments of the present invention solve the following problems:

[0218] - there may be no communication at all between the UE 1221 and the target entity 1301, for example due to a failure of the link 138 between the UE 1221 and the base station 120, or due to a failure of the connection between the base station 120 and the relay device 128 on the access link 134, or,

[0219] - For example, due to limited capabilities of the link 138 and / or the access link 134, the desired communication requirements (such as the desired QoS) may not be achieved between the UE 1221 and the target entity 1301.

[0220] In other words, according to an embodiment dependent on a particular event or situation, UE 1221 may utilize relay resources to establish a direct connection with target entity 1301, thereby bypassing or circumventing an insufficient or failed link. In other words, in response to a particular event or particular situation, the UE may terminate communication with base station 120 and initiate direct communication with the destination entity via relay device 128 using some or all of the relay resources originally allocated for Uu communication between base station 120 and relay device 128 on access link 134, using a forwarding link communication protocol.

[0221] According to some embodiments, in response to a situation where the link 138 connection between the UE 1221 and the base station 120 is interrupted or cannot be established, the UE may operate using the method of the present invention. Another situation may be that the link 138 and / or the access link 134 cannot provide the required communication requirements, such as meeting the desired QoS, because the latency, the bandwidth or capacity of the backhaul link or the data rate, or the end-to-end reliability may not be sufficient to obtain the above-mentioned desired QoS.

[0222] UE 1221 may also switch to direct communication using relay resources in response to a signal from base station 120 or relay device 128. For example, base station 120 may recognize that connection 138 cannot achieve the desired communication needs, or that connection 134 with relay device 128 is lost or cannot be established. In this case, base station 120 may signal UE 1221 using link 138, and UE 1221 may initiate direct communication through relay device 128 in response to the signal.

[0223] According to a further embodiment, for example, when the relay device 128 finds that the connection with the base station 122 has been lost or may not be established, so that the backhaul connection between the base station and the wireless communication network has been lost or may not be established, the relay device can also send a signal to the UE 1221 to enable it to initiate direct communication through the relay device 128.

[0224] According to other embodiments, if some of the relay resources on the access link 134 or the backhaul link 136 are not used (e.g., due to a lack of regular Uu transmissions), the UE may communicate directly 150 via the relay device 128. These unused resources may be used by the UE 1221 for a direct connection via the relay device 128. This embodiment improves spectrum efficiency by preventing resources allocated to the access link 134 and / or the backhaul link 138 from remaining idle.

[0225] According to a further embodiment, when a UE is connected to a base station 120 serving the UE and a connection is established between the UE and a network entity by providing indirect communication between the UE and the network entity via a relay device, the UE may perform direct communication with the network entity only, or in addition to the indirect communication with the network entity. In other words, direct communication via relay device 128 may replace or supplement communication via links 134, 136, and 138. In other words, if a link from the UE to the target entity via the base station and relay device exists and provides the required QoS requirements, and additional direct communication meeting the same requirements is possible due to the existence of unused additional resources, then UE 1221 may establish a connection with the base station 120 via the relay device and simultaneously establish direct communication via relay station 128.

[0226] Further embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to a wireless communication system (e.g., a 3GPP network) in which a UE communicates directly with another UE or a base station via a satellite using a satellite as a relay station. However, it should be noted that the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. Rather, the method of the present invention may also be implemented in other wireless communication systems and may enable direct communication between a UE and different network entities via any other type of relay device.

[0227] According to some embodiments, the wireless communication network includes a Low Power Wide Area network (LPWAN), such as a LoRa network or a Mioty network, or a Wi-Fi network.

[0228] According to some embodiments, the relay device can be (i) a mobile or stationary ground device, such as a repeater, a transponder station, a vehicle-mounted repeater or a vehicle-mounted transponder station, or a reconfigurable reflecting surface (RIS); (ii) a mobile or stationary liquid-borne device, such as a device on or in the water such as a ship or submarine, such as a repeater, a transponder, a vehicle-mounted repeater or a vehicle-mounted transponder, or a RIS; (iii) a mobile or stationary airborne device, such as a drone, UAV, airplane, or helicopter; or, (iv) a mobile or stationary satellite-borne device, such as a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite, a medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite, or a geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite.

[0229] According to some embodiments, the network entity may include one or more of the following:

[0230] - Another BS;

[0231] -Roadside unit (RSU);

[0232] - Orbital side unit (OSU), which exchanges information with passing satellites or aircraft;

[0233] - A mobile BS installed on a land vehicle or water vehicle (such as a car, bus, train, ship or vessel, submarine, etc.), or a mobile BS installed on a container, or a mobile BS installed on or attached to any equipment on a vehicle;

[0234] - Mobile BS installed on non-terrestrial or aerial vehicles or devices, such as aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), balloons, rockets, satellites, or any other objects or devices that move or float in three-dimensional space but do not touch the surface of the Earth or liquids on the Earth such as lake or sea water;

[0235] - another UE;

[0236] -Customer Premises Equipment (CPE);

[0237] -IoT devices;

[0238] - broadcast towers for digital audio (radio) or television (video) broadcasting;

[0239] -Relay equipment;

[0240] - another relay device;

[0241] -Core network;

[0242] - Functions located somewhere in the communication network, such as UPF, LMF, AMF, SMF, etc.;

[0243] - Application servers connected to the core network;

[0244] - Aggregation nodes, used to store, process (fusion, decision making, calculation output) or forward sensor data, messages, retransmissions, AIMs, measurement reports, configurations, etc.;

[0245] -database.

[0246] Figure 5A wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, which uses a satellite as a relay device 128. The wireless communication system may include terrestrial components (such as a base station (not shown) and a destination entity 1301), as well as NTN components (such as an NTN gateway (not shown) and a satellite 128). If UE 1221 does not have a connection with the base station, direct communication with the destination entity 1301 via satellite 128 may be established using link 134. For example, the base station may be out of service or unavailable for other reasons, or UE 1221 may be outside the coverage area of ​​the base station. Assuming that UE 1221 is within the coverage area 128a of satellite 128, and in response to detecting a lack of connection with the base station, UE 1221 may determine whether satellite 128 is available or can become available. In other words, UE 1221 is aware of the availability or expected availability of satellite 128. Once UE 1221 confirms satellite 128 is available, UE 1221 can utilize uplink sidelink broadcast (SL-BC) 140 to send a message to satellite 128 over satellite service link 134 resources, which is not necessarily synchronized. For example, if UE 1221 supports NTN communications, UE 1221 can establish a connection with ground station 1301 via satellite 128. If the UE is unable to access the satellite network synchronously according to the NTN protocol specifications, the UE can utilize sidelink SL-BC communication with ground station 1301 via satellite 128. A relevant scenario might be an emergency scenario, where the UE wishes to send a distress / emergency message to ground station 1301 using the radio resources of satellite service link 134, which are typically used by UEs communicating with ground station 1301 via satellite 128 in accordance with the NTN protocol over the Uu link. The UE intending to send a distress message uses the resources of satellite service link 134 to send the SL-BC message. These messages may include information about the UE's location, emergency-related circumstances, and actions required by responders. In addition to the emergency-related information portion, another information portion may relate to the ground station's response via satellite using SL-BC. This may include an acknowledgment of the distress message and configuration information related to further communications via the satellite, such as frequency band allocation, frame structure indication (including time slot structure), frequency band allocation, and other transmission / reception-related configuration information to allow for further and / or enhanced communications via the satellite. These messages requested by the UE and further responded to by the ground station may be considered any type of AIM (Assisting Information Message) intended to facilitate UE communications via satellite using SL-BC (PC5). Satellite 128 is connected to one or more ground stations 1301 via feeder link 136, which operates using the Uu interface and forwards the message information to ground station 1301.UE 1221 sends SL-BC 140 using radio resources normally used for the access link between the base station and the satellite 128. Figure 5 The illustrated embodiment may be advantageous because a UE that cannot operate using the NTN protocol can still use the satellite to send specific messages, such as emergency messages, to the NTN ground station. According to a further embodiment, satellite 128 can forward the response from ground station 1301 via downlink SL-BC 142, also using the radio resources normally used for the access link. In the illustrated embodiment, satellite 128 receives the response over the feeder link via the Uu interface.

[0247] According to some embodiments, UE 1221 may be an NTN-capable UE, i.e., a user equipment having the capability / circuitry to directly connect to satellite 128. For example, an NTN UE may include, in addition to circuitry for connecting to a RAN (e.g., using 3GPP standards), necessary components for establishing a connection with a satellite, such as a satellite ground station in the form of an NTN gateway.

[0248] Figure 6 Another embodiment of the present invention is shown, according to which UE 1221 acts as a relay UE for a remote UE 144. UE 1221 may have multiple radio access technology (RAT) capabilities, such as a first RAT capability for providing a SL connection 146 with the remote UE using direction-finding link resources of a wireless communication network, noting that the sidelink resources are different from the first relay resources and the second relay resources; and a second RAT capability for connecting the remote UE to the UE via a network connection 148 of a network different from the wireless communication network (e.g., Wi-Fi or Bluetooth). According to other embodiments, UE 1221 and the remote UE 144 may subscribe to one or more additional networks in addition to the wireless communication network, so that UE 1221 and the remote UE 144 may connect via the wireless communication network providing the SL connection 146 between UE 1221 and the remote UE 144, using the sidelink resources of the wireless communication network, and / or connect via one or more other networks (e.g., Wi-Fi or Bluetooth).

[0249] Figure 6 The embodiment in may have advantages in the following situations: the remote UE 144 (ie Figure 6 UE 1) in FIG is aware of the availability or expected availability of satellite 128, but may not be able to connect to that satellite 128, for example because it is outside the coverage area 128a of satellite 1301 (e.g. Figure 6); or UE1 is located inside a building and cannot communicate with the satellite even though it is within the coverage area 128a of satellite 1301. In this case, UE1 can establish direct communication with ground station 1301 via satellite 128 using UE 1221 and UE 2, which are both within the coverage area 128a of satellite 128 and can connect to satellite 128. In this embodiment, direct communication is a two-hop connection, including a first hop 146 / 148 for connecting to UE 2, which in turn provides a second hop 140b of direct communication 140 to the destination via the satellite. Therefore, according to Figure 6 , which can address situations or scenarios where UE 1 cannot access satellite 128. UE 1 establishes a sidelink connection 146 or Wi-Fi connection 148 with UE 2, which acts as a forwarding agent because it can access satellite 128.

[0250] According to a further embodiment, it is possible to Figure 5 A chain connection is established between UE 1221 in the communication and a destination (eg, a ground station). Figure 7 An embodiment is shown in which a satellite is daisy-chained to a destination that is connected to a core network of a wireless communication system. Figure 7 Shown with Figure 5 In a similar scenario, it is assumed that UE 1221 and UE1 may not be able to access the RAN, so according to the method of the present invention, direct communication is established via the satellite 128. Figure 5 The difference is that the feeder link 136 of the satellite 128 is not directed directly to the ground station 1301, but to an intermediate destination 1301', which may be another UE, e.g. Figure 7 UE 2 is shown, which is located within the coverage area 128a of satellite 128 and the coverage area 156a of another satellite 156. UE 2 is connected to a ground station 1301 via another service link 134' and another feeder link 136' (both operating using the Uu interface), and the ground station 1301 is connected to the core network 102 of the wireless communication system. In some embodiments, as shown at 142', the other satellite 156 can forward the response message of the ground station to UE 2 using SL-BC. Figure 7 In the illustrated scenario, UE 1 and UE 2 are both within the coverage area of ​​a first NTN satellite 128, which itself is not connected to the network. However, UE 2 is also within the coverage area of ​​both first satellite 128 and second satellite 156, enabling sidelink communication between UE 1 and UE 2 via the first satellite, which acts as a repeater for the sidelink signal between UE 1 and UE 2.

[0251] The advantage of the above embodiment is that the UE can establish direct communication with another network entity (such as a base station or another UE) using a side two-way communication protocol via the satellite 128, thereby avoiding the necessary procedures required to establish a connection via the Uu interface, such as the RACH procedure.

[0252] refer to Figures 5 to 7 The described embodiment assumes that the UE has lost its connection with the RAN, but the UE can also utilize the method of the present invention in the event that sidelink communication with another UE within the same RAN is no longer possible. Figure 8 An embodiment is shown in which UE 2 is connected to an NTN base station 1301 (ground station) via satellite 128 using the Uu interface via 5G-NR NTN. Furthermore, UE 1 is within the coverage area 128a of satellite 128 and communicates with UE 2 exclusively via a satellite sidelink, as the terrestrial sidelink between UE 1 and UE 2 is inoperable due to, for example, the distance between UE 1 and UE 2. Here, UE 2 acts as a sidelink relay / remote UE within the 5G-NR single-hop framework. For example, if UE 1 is not subscribed to the satellite-provided NTN network, UE 1 can connect to the internet via UE 2 acting as an L3 relay. Both connectivity options (5G-NR remote UE / sidelink relay and SL hotspot) may require prior configuration to ensure that these transmission and relay solutions are supported and available.

[0253] Figure 9 An embodiment of a communication system is shown in which UE 1 and UE 2 are outside the coverage of a terrestrial network but within the coverage area 128a of a satellite 128. Satellite 128 does not provide "normal" or conventional NTN connectivity via the Uu interface, and / or the UEs are not NTN-capable but rather SL-capable. According to the method of the present invention, the UEs communicate with each other via the satellite using SL-BC, utilizing satellite radio resources.

[0254] Figure 10An embodiment of a communication system is shown, in which UE 1 and UE 2 are outside of terrestrial coverage but within coverage 128a of an NTN satellite 128. The NTN satellite itself is not connected to the network (ground station) and can be considered similar to an IAB access node, with no backhaul to a central unit (CU) and / or core network. Although the satellite is not directly or indirectly connected to the ground station, UE 1 and UE 2 are within the satellite's coverage and are utilizing the sidelink communication of the present invention, in which the satellite acts as a sidelink signal repeater between the two UEs. In normal operating mode, sidelink communication between the UEs utilizes radio resources supported by the satellite in the forward link (downlink) and / or reverse link (uplink), with the satellite forwarding Uu downlinks from the ground station to the UEs in the forward link and Uu uplinks from the UEs to the ground station in the reverse link. Utilizing temporarily unused Uu radio resources for sidelink communications enables highly autonomous connectivity between UEs. This relies on knowledge of available radio resources, which can be pre-configured or discovered through sensing / detection (with or without additional knowledge, such as the potential availability of satellites and / or the used / allocated spectrum for satellite communications). Using a sidelink (SL), UEs communicate directly via the sidelink in TDD, FDD, and / or FD mode, taking into account the extended RTT of the satellite-sidelink-relay. Furthermore, within NTN coverage without NTN backhaul (and therefore no available NTN-Uu), this autonomous SL mode between UEs can be pre-configured via RRC at the ground station, triggered by events such as loss of the NTN satellite downlink signal, beaconing by the satellite without backhaul to the ground station, or any combination thereof.

[0255] Figure 11 Another embodiment is shown, where UE 1 and UE 2 are located within the coverage area 128a of NTN satellite 128, which may or may not be connected to the network (ground station), see Figure 9 and Figure 10Two scenarios described. In addition, the UEs cannot be interconnected via NTN Uu, for example, the satellite 128 may have lost the backhaul and / or the UEs are not subscribed to the same network. Although the satellite is not directly or indirectly connected to the ground station, UE1 and UE2 are within the coverage of the same satellite, so UE 1 and UE 2 communicate using a side link via the satellite according to the method of the present invention, that is, the satellite acts as a side link signal repeater between the two UEs. In addition, the second UE acts as a SL relay / remote UE in the connection with its 5G-RAN (terrestrial RAN). The SL resources used by UE 1 and UE 2 for SL-BC can be pre-configured by the NTN and / or TN. Another alternative implementation of the relay functionality provided by UE 2 is similar to the L3 relay of a Wi-Fi hotspot, where the communication between UE 1 and UE 2 uses 5G-NR SL-BC, and the communication between UE 2 and the gNB uses 5G-NR Uu instead of Wi-Fi as the RAT. UE 1 is essentially connected to the Internet of Things through the Internet provided by UE 2, but does not terminate at the 5G-RAN provided by the gNB. Therefore, UE 1 does not need to subscribe to the same 5G-NT network as UE 2.

[0256] According to some embodiments, the UE may communicate directly via the sidelink in TDD, FDD, and / or FD mode, taking into account the extended round trip time (RTT) on the satellite 128. This autonomous SL mode between the UE and the destination in the absence of an NTN backhaul (i.e., no NTN-Uu available) may be pre-configured, for example, via RRC signaling from a ground station, or may be triggered by an event, such as loss of downlink signal from the NTN satellite, in response to a beacon sent by the satellite to the ground station when the satellite has no backhaul.

[0257] According to embodiments of the present invention, a UE can utilize at least temporarily unused relay resources to establish a direct connection to a destination via a satellite. Using temporarily unused relay resources for sidelinks enables a highly autonomous connection between the UE and the destination, relying on knowledge of available resources, which can be pre-configured or discovered through sensing / detection, and / or requiring no additional knowledge, such as the potential availability of satellites. Furthermore, utilizing only a portion of the spectrum allows for more efficient use of the spectrum allocated for satellite communications. Therefore, if a relay device or satellite communicates with a RAN via access and backhaul links, providing backhaul capabilities for the RAN, but current or future traffic volume results in insufficient spectrum utilization, the unused resources can be utilized to enable direct communication via the relay. Conventional approaches dedicate the access and backhaul FDD frequency bands to Uu communications, while the present invention avoids underutilized spectrum, such as unused frequency bands, as these bands can be used for other direct communication purposes. According to other embodiments of the present invention, such unused spectrum and / or time domain resources are not utilized. According to an embodiment, one or more subbands, BWPs, subframes, time slots, TTIs, SPSs, or symbols may be used to establish the direct communication of the present invention between a UE and a relay device or a satellite.

[0258] The following describes another embodiment of the present invention, which utilizes the above-mentioned unused resources, i.e., resources allocated to service links and feeder links, which may not have been used for a period of time, for example, because some entities using the corresponding links have nothing to transmit. In order to make more efficient use of the spectrum, i.e., to avoid the existence of unused resources, according to an embodiment, as described above with reference to Figure 4 As described above, the UE 1221 may use these unused relay resources to establish a direct connection 140 via the relay device as a supplement to or instead of a regular connection via the base station.

[0259] Considering relay communications, such as satellite communications using an FDD configuration, embodiments of the present invention provide further improvements to such configurations. Assuming a conventional FDD configuration, paired spectrum is allocated for satellite communications on the access link or on the access and backhaul links, using spaced-apart frequency bands for uplink transmissions to the relay device and downlink transmissions to the relay device. According to some embodiments, one or more or all FDD frequency bands can be structured so that non-existing traffic is mapped to selected time and / or frequency domain resources of the frequency band / subband. In the downlink or uplink, some resources (e.g., subframes, SPSs, symbols) may contain no or substantially no existing traffic, meaning that the existing traffic on the resource only accounts for a predetermined proportion of the total traffic, e.g., less than 10% or less. The existing traffic may include UL traffic and / or DL ​​traffic from / to one or more other network entities using the first interface on the first bidirectional link of the relay device, or UL traffic and / or DL ​​traffic from / to one or more other network entities using the first interface on the second bidirectional link of the relay device. According to other embodiments, one or more FDD frequency bands can be configured to exclude existing traffic from certain frequency bands or sub-bands, such as within certain bandwidth portions (BWPs). When only a low percentage of traffic within a frequency band is associated with existing traffic, the resources not carrying existing traffic can be used via the satellite for sidelinks. When a frequency band has no existing traffic, the entire frequency band or BWP can be used via the satellite for sidelinks between the UE and the destination.

[0260] FIG12 shows an embodiment of an FDD frequency band or sub-band subdivision structure for establishing sidelink communications through a relay device. FIG12 shows an uplink frequency band or sub-band on the left side and a downlink frequency band or sub-band on the right side. FIG12(a) shows a conventional method of allocating FDD frequency bands for access link or backhaul link satellite communications, wherein a first frequency band 160 is used only for uplink transmissions, and a second frequency band 162 having a different frequency from the first frequency band 160 is used only for downlink transmissions. However, as described above, during satellite communications, the resources in the frequency bands 160 and 162 may not all be used for communications, and these temporarily unused resources may be used to perform direct communications between the UE and the destination via the satellite, in a manner as described above with reference to FIG12(a). Figures 4 to 7 According to the embodiments of Figures 12(b) to 12(d), the uplink frequency band 160 can be partially used for SL communication, while the downlink frequency band 162 is used only for downlink transmission. In the embodiment of Figure 12(e), the uplink and downlink frequency bands 160 and 162 can be partially used for SL communication.

[0261] According to the embodiment of FIG12(b), UL frequency band 160 is subdivided into UL time slots 1601 and 1602 for conventional FDD satellite communications, while frequency band 1603, which assumes no or substantially no uplink communications, is available for sidelink communications. FIG12(c) illustrates an embodiment in which UL frequency band 160 is subdivided into one or more bandwidth paths 1604 for conventional FDD satellite communications and one or more bandwidth paths 1605 for sidelink communications via the satellite. In the embodiment of FIG12(d), uplink frequency band 160 is subdivided into one or more UL time slots 1601 and one or more UL bandwidth paths 1604 for conventional FDD satellite communications, while one or more specific time slots 1606 of a specific bandwidth portion are used for sidelink communications. Thus, FIG12(d) is essentially a combination of the embodiments of FIG12(b) and FIG12(c) for the uplink frequency band. FIG12(e) illustrates an embodiment that is essentially a combination of the embodiments of FIG12(b) and FIG12(c) for both the uplink and downlink frequency bands. The uplink frequency band is subdivided in a manner similar to FIG12(d), and the downlink frequency band 162 is subdivided into one or more downlink time slots 1621 and 1622, wherein one or more specific time slots of the bandwidth portion are dedicated to sidelink communications, as shown at 1623.

[0262] According to a further embodiment, an FDD frequency band used for satellite communications may be allocated for sidelink transmissions depending on whether the satellite has lost its connection to a ground station (e.g., an NTN gateway). In this scenario, resources such as frequency bands may be used for sidelink communications. FIG13 illustrates an embodiment in which paired spectrum allocated for FDD operation of a satellite communications system is used for sidelink communications depending on whether the link with the ground station has been lost. FIG13 illustrates an uplink frequency band 160 and a downlink frequency band 162 in a manner similar to FIG12 . FIG13( a ) illustrates an embodiment in which it is assumed that the uplink frequency band is in an out-of-service state, i.e., the satellite has lost its service link with the base station serving the UE, and therefore the UE may use all resources of the uplink frequency band for direct communication or sidelink communication with the satellite. In FIG13( a ), it is assumed that a downlink connection in the downlink frequency band exists in the service link, and therefore the frequency band is not used for sidelink communications. FIG13( b) illustrates an embodiment in which, assuming that the downlink frequency band has lost its connection to the ground station, the resources of the downlink frequency band 162 are available for sidelink communication, while the resources of the uplink frequency band are not used for sidelink communication. In FIG13( c), assuming that both the uplink frequency band and the downlink frequency band have lost or may not be able to establish their connection to the ground station, the resources of both the uplink frequency band and the downlink frequency band are available for sidelink communication.

[0263] According to an embodiment, resource allocation for the side link may be assisted by a slot format pilot or slot format reference signal (RS) provided by a relay device (such as a satellite) or other entities within the coverage area of ​​the satellite (including a group leader UE, a slot master UE, or similar devices). If slot format assistance is not provided, the side link operation may follow a resource pool framework such as LTE-V2X-SL, or a fully autonomous sensing, listen-before-talk (LBT), or group-assisted resource allocation framework. The time-frequency resource grid available for SL communication may adopt different duplex forms and variants, including but not limited to TDD, FDD, SBFD, half-duplex FDD, and half-duplex TDD.

[0264] The concurrent uplink and / or downlink traffic provided by the satellite provides a technical means for synchronizing the sidelink operation of the present invention to the frame or time slot structure indicated by the allocated resources and / or reference symbols broadcast in the downlink and / or uplink frequency bands. These reference signals in the frames, time slots, or symbols serve as aids and time / frequency anchors for allocating radio resources for concurrent sidelink communications in the uplink and / or downlink frequency bands used for satellite communications.

[0265] According to a further embodiment, the existing downlink control channel may be used to signal to sidelink capable UEs and legacy UEs additional information about resources (such as BWP, time slots, RBs, etc.) that are temporarily or semi-statically provided for sidelink communications. Figure 14 An example of using resources in the uplink / downlink frequency band for sidelink communications is shown. The uplink frequency band 160 is divided into an uplink bandwidth portion and a sidelink bandwidth portion, as shown in 1601 and 1602, for time slots n through n+3, where the time slots can have the same or different durations in time, as shown in time slot n+3. Time slot n+4 is used only for uplink data transmission. Figure 14 The structure described in may also be referred to as the sidelink bandwidth path operating in the uplink frequency band, ie, SL BWP in the UE. Figure 14 It is shown that an embodiment according to the present invention may be referred to as a "sidelink bandwidth part operating in the uplink frequency band (SL BWP in UL)".

[0266] As described above, embodiments of the present invention solve the problem encountered when a UE is unable to establish a communication link with one or more other entities of the RAN in a wireless communication system. These network entities or target entities may include one or more of the following:

[0267] - another base station (BS);

[0268] -Roadside Unit (RSU);

[0269] - Trackside unit (equivalent to the roadside unit, which can exchange information with the RSU when a satellite or aircraft passes by);

[0270] - A mobile BS installed on a land vehicle or water vehicle (such as a car, bus, train, ship or vessel, submarine, etc.), or a mobile BS installed on a container on such a vehicle, or a mobile BS installed on or attached to any equipment on such a vehicle;

[0271] - Mobile BS installed on non-terrestrial or aerial vehicles or devices (such as aircraft, drones, balloons, rockets, satellites, or any other objects or devices that move or float in three-dimensional space but do not touch the surface of the Earth or liquid on the Earth (such as lake or sea water);

[0272] - another UE;

[0273] -Customer Premises Equipment (CPE);

[0274] -IoT devices;

[0275] - Similar to broadcast towers used for digital audio (radio) or television (video) broadcasting;

[0276] -Relay equipment;

[0277] - another relay device;

[0278] -Core network;

[0279] - Functions located somewhere in the communication network, such as UPF, LMF, AMF, SMF, etc.;

[0280] - Application servers connected to the core network;

[0281] - Aggregation nodes for storing, processing (fusion, decision making, computing outputs), or forwarding sensor data, messages, retransmissions, AIMs, measurement reports, configurations, etc.; and

[0282] -database.

[0283] To address these scenarios, the UE can use the PC5 interface to communicate directly with the desired destination through a relay device, as detailed above. The failure to establish a communication link with other RAN entities may be due to insufficient coverage of the base station in a remote, isolated, obscured, shadowed or other highly attenuated environment, or due to reduced or complete unavailability of communication resources due to access link limitations, backhaul link limitations, control channel limitations or imbalance between uplink and downlink transmissions. The problem of insufficient coverage is also referred to as in coverage (IC) or out of coverage (OOC) scenarios, while the availability of communication resources is referred to as in-service (IS) or out of service (OOS). The above resource limitations may refer to reduced or complete unavailability of the following resources, including:

[0284] - Access links, such as Uu links, NTN links, sidelinks / PC5 links, missing SSPCs, and Wi-Fi links;

[0285] -Backhaul link;

[0286] - Relay link;

[0287] - Control link, link imbalance in the access link or backhaul link, such as downlink transmission compared to uplink transmission;

[0288] - Link imbalance (downlink vs. uplink);

[0289] -RIS;

[0290] - one or more symbols;

[0291] - one or more time slots or subframes or frames;

[0292] - one or more frequencies or carriers or subchannels or groups of subchannels;

[0293] -One or more subcarriers, for example, for transmitting IoT messages, such as NB-IoT, LoRA, etc.;

[0294] - one or more interfaces;

[0295] - one or more channels, such as a control channel, a user data channel or any other dedicated channel;

[0296] - one or more resource block sets (RB sets);

[0297] - one or more frequency bands, such as unlicensed sub-bands;

[0298] - one or more bandwidth portions;

[0299] - one or more resource pools;

[0300] - one or more LBT sub-bands;

[0301] - one or more spatial resources, such as using spatial multiplexing, directional beams, etc.;

[0302] - one or more resources;

[0303] - subchannels; and

[0304] -Sub-band.

[0305] Because the UE relies on another network entity (e.g., a base station) to provide it with configuration information, such as information about parameter settings such as power, frequency, modulation, universal numbering, carrier allocation, time-frequency allocation, and pattern characteristics, it is unlikely that the UE will be able to obtain such information due to the above conditions. Configuration information may include the current and / or future availability / unavailability, shortage / sufficiency of resources related to one or more of the following:

[0306] - Space resources;

[0307] - Time resources;

[0308] - spectrum resources; and

[0309] - Services provided.

[0310] Generally, the aforementioned issues of communication link performance degradation, interruption, disconnection, or unavailability in known networks may be due to a shortage of communication resources that fall below a level suitable for the required, selected, and targeted operation of the communication link and its related parameters and indicators. This situation may be an unexpected change in the wireless communication system compared to normal operation with connectivity to the RAN. According to the above-described embodiment, while the UE can handle such situations or unexpected changes by implementing the direct communication of the present invention through a relay device, it is also necessary to make the UE aware of such situations or unexpected changes to improve the communication reliability of the wireless communication system.

[0311] Therefore, compared to known systems, further embodiments of the present invention improve communication reliability in wireless communication systems by making unexpected changes in the wireless system (such as the above-mentioned loss of connection to the RAN) expected by the UE, enabling the UE to react to changes in resource availability based on past, present or future changes. According to an embodiment of the present invention, configuration information (CI) is provided to the UE, which indicates changes in availability that would otherwise be unknown to the UE in the known communication standards that have been implemented. For example, the purpose of providing the configuration information is to allow the UE to handle loss of connection to the network using the method of the present invention, i.e., to provide a sidelink connection via a relay device. The UE may obtain configuration using one or more of the following configurations in order to perform communications with a network entity via a relay device:

[0312] -preset or preconfigured configurations, such as default configurations, configurations based on factory settings, and recently updated configurations;

[0313] - based on the last used configuration or the last used operating mode or a change of operating mode, such as from Uu link to sidelink, from sidelink to Uu link, from Uu link to trunk link, from trunk link to Uu link, from SL to trunk link or from trunk link to SL;

[0314] -Configuration provided by the network;

[0315] - configuration provided by a database, e.g. a database connected to the RAN as an entity;

[0316] - configuration provided via other RAN (e.g. via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth);

[0317] - configuration provided by the remote UE or group leader UE (GL-UE); and,

[0318] - Configuration as provided by the sidelink connection:

[0319] ○ directly from another UE connected to the UE via the SL; or,

[0320] ○ Indirectly from another UE that is connected to the UE through the SL and via a relay device.

[0321] According to an embodiment, a UE is configured to communicate in a wireless communication system according to a configuration for using resources of the wireless communication system and to communicate using a wireless interface of the UE. The UE includes a control unit configured to process configuration information indicating a change in resource availability. The configuration information may be used for or transmitted to the UE, for example, for wireless reception, (pre-) configuration, storage, etc. The control unit is configured to adjust a configuration based on the configuration information to react to the change in availability, thereby allowing the UE to adjust the configuration according to the change in resource availability to change its behavior in the wireless communication system, for example, from using a connection to a destination provided by the RAN and a relay device using a Uu interface to a direct connection to the destination via a relay device using a PC5 interface as described above.

[0322] According to an embodiment, such a change is related to an abnormal availability of a resource and / or a significant change in availability.

[0323] According to an embodiment, the configuration information may make such abnormal changes an expected situation for the UE.

[0324] According to an embodiment, abnormal availability is related to at least one of the following:

[0325] - Time (e.g., a start, end, time period / interval / duration, or change in state or trend) is related to at least one of the following:

[0326] ○ Availability and / or unavailability of resources;

[0327] o The occurrence of a blocking event that results in at least partial obstruction of the communication link;

[0328] ○ Occurrence of communication interruption events and / or interruption periods;

[0329] ○ The occurrence of interference events and / or blocking events that affect communications; or,

[0330] ○ Occurrence of energy-related and / or power-related states of communication, such as low battery state, charging time, estimated remaining energy, transmit power limitation due to EIRP limitation, multi-band operation, interference limitation.

[0331] - Resources are limited by:

[0332] ○ At least one communication-related parameter falls below a threshold;

[0333] o At least one communication-related parameter increases above a threshold;

[0334] o At least one communication-related parameter value remains within or outside a range;

[0335] o The validity region or range of at least one communication-related parameter remains within or outside the validity region or range of the metric (e.g., coverage, capacity, data rate, reliability, latency);

[0336] o A specific distribution of parameters and / or states in at least one parameter dimension related to using the resource for communication, such as distribution in terms of time, frequency, space, direction, location, etc.

[0337] - Resource-related constraints must consider at least one of the following:

[0338] ○The amount of data provided;

[0339] ○ Allocated spectrum and / or resource blocks (RBs);

[0340] The modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used for communication;

[0341] ○ The block size used for communication;

[0342] ○ Message size, volume (e.g., amount of data or size of folder / file) and / or number of messages (e.g., per unit time and / or per unit opportunity);

[0343] ○ Any change in the above, such as status / value or trend (increase → decrease, decrease → increase); or,

[0344] o Specific or recurring patterns, distributions, statistics, states, values, and / or trends of occurrence.

[0345] According to an embodiment, the configuration information relates to the availability of a resource or to the at least partial unavailability of a resource.

[0346] According to an embodiment, the configuration information indicates availability changes at past, present and / or future time instances.

[0347] According to an embodiment, the control unit is configured to process the configuration information to obtain a processing result indicating that the resource for communication is at least partially unavailable and / or at least temporally unavailable, and control the UE to avoid using the resource for communication based on the processing result.

[0348] According to an embodiment, the control unit is configured to process the configuration information to obtain a processing result indicating that the availability of resources for communication has been restored and / or indicating that the availability of resources has been established, and to control the UE to postpone using the resources for communication based on the processing result until the availability of the communication resources has been restored or established.

[0349] According to an embodiment, the configuration is related to at least one of the following:

[0350] - Transmission, reception and combination thereof provided by the UE as communication;

[0351] - Measurements, logging, reporting, confirmation and their combinations provided by the UE;

[0352] - transmission and / or reception of at least one preconfigured signal (e.g., a test signal), at least one preconfigured reference signal, and / or at least one preconfigured message (e.g., a test message); or,

[0353] - performing a transmission procedure of at least one signal and / or a reception procedure of at least one signal and its processing, such as beam scanning and frequency scanning.

[0354] According to an embodiment, the above-mentioned resources include at least one of the following:

[0355] - Access link resources, side link resources, relay link resources and / or backhaul link resources;

[0356] - Time, frequency, sequence (spreading sequence) and / or spatial communication resources;

[0357] - transport channels, positioning channels, control channels and / or data channels;

[0358] - Transmit / receive beams represented by beam identification (ID), synchronization signal block (SSB), channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), beam sweep and / or coordinated beam group;

[0359] - Propagation channel components, such as line-of-sight (LOS) components, non-line-of-sight (NLOS) components

[0360] of-sight) component, obstructed line-of-sight (OLOS) component, main or specific multipath component (MPC, multi-path component);

[0361] - Services or connections provided by another UE (e.g., gNB, core network, access network, transponder, RIS, satellite);

[0362] -Quality of Service (QoS) related to communication metrics such as coverage, capacity, latency and / or jitter.

[0363] According to an embodiment, the configuration information includes at least one of the following:

[0364] - Information indicating at least one trigger indicating starting or stopping a specific action / behavior of a device;

[0365] - information indicating at least one event related to the communication scenario;

[0366] -Information indicating at least one condition, which describes a communication scenario, state value / message of a UE or other network device;

[0367] - Information indicating a combination or sequence of at least one of the following:

[0368] ○State, such as the state of a state machine;

[0369] ○ Status, such as the status of a report, action, confirmation, or response;

[0370] ○ During a period of time, a parameter is lower than / higher than a certain threshold or within a certain range, or a certain state / states are given / valid / invalid;

[0371] ○ Event;

[0372] ○ Requests for action, observation, and / or measurement;

[0373] o Reports of actions, observations, and / or measurements;

[0374] Actions, such as stopping a counter until something else happens;

[0375] ○ Procedures to:

[0376] ■Start / Pause / Continue / End;

[0377] ■ activation / deactivation; and / or,

[0378] ■Confirmation / response, such as confirmation / response to actions, reports, and status.

[0379] According to an embodiment, the configuration information includes information indicating an event or a trigger, wherein based on the processing, the control unit is configured to control the UE in response to the event or the trigger to at least one of:

[0380] - starting, stopping, resetting and / or pausing at least one timer and / or countdown timer;

[0381] - Capture, freeze, store, forward current and / or future (e.g., predicted) states and / or configurations;

[0382] - Automatically (re)configure network devices and / or their behavior upon triggers, events, and / or conditions;

[0383] - Start, pause, delay, restart and / or prepare to start a UE program or operating mode;

[0384] - changing from one program, routine or operating mode to another;

[0385] -determine or select an operating mode and / or transmission / reception strategy;

[0386] - Discover, observe, detect, monitor and / or track events and / or parameters related to any of the above configuration information and / or related operations, triggers, configuration variations. For example, a UE may observe the availability pattern of one or more beams based on RS or beam ID and determine or report future availability. Based on this, another device (such as a gNB or RIS) may be configured to enter / maintain a specific configuration state to meet the specific coverage / capacity requirements of a specific UE.

[0387] - Preparing to transmit and / or receive at least one of a report, a message, control data and user data in preparation for a future time (such as a subsequent or next connection availability time).

[0388] Although the terms "event," "condition / state," and "trigger" have related or even similar meanings, there are still differences in some embodiments. For example, in some scenarios, an "event" can be understood as something that happens, such as loss of service, loss of coverage, or a power failure. In contrast, a "condition" may be related to a specific state, such as the signal-to-noise ratio (SINR) being below a certain value, the reference signal received power (RSRP) / reference signal received quality (RSRQ) / received signal strength indication (RSSI) / round trip delay (RTD) being below / above a predefined value and / or within a certain value range, or similar situations. For example, a "trigger" can be understood as the result of a specific event occurring.

[0389] According to an embodiment, the UE is configured to obtain configuration information according to at least one of the following:

[0390] - as a preset or preconfigured configuration, such as a default configuration, a configuration according to factory settings, or a recently updated configuration;

[0391] - Based on past or last used, current or future operating modes or changes in operating modes, such as from Uu link to sidelink, from sidelink to Uu link, from Uu link to NTN, from NTN to Uu link, from SL to NTN or from NTN to SL;

[0392] - as information provided by a wireless communication system or network;

[0393] - information provided as a database, for example as a database physically connected to the RAN;

[0394] - as information provided via alternative RAN, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth;

[0395] - As information provided by the remote UE and / or the group leader UE.

[0396] According to an embodiment, the UE is configured to obtain configuration information as one of a plurality of configuration information.

[0397] According to an embodiment, the UE is configured to receive at least one of a plurality of configuration information by receiving and processing a wireless signal.

[0398] According to an embodiment, the UE is configured to obtain first configuration information so that the control unit controls the UE to enter an operating mode supported by a wireless communication system controller (such as a gNB), for example, through an RRC message; and the UE is also configured to obtain second configuration information so that the control unit controls the UE to enter one of different behaviors within the operating mode.

[0399] According to an embodiment, the UE is configured to receive at least part of the first configuration information by receiving an RRC message, wherein the UE is configured to obtain at least part of the second configuration information by receiving transmission control information (TCI).

[0400] According to an embodiment, the configuration information is first configuration information, wherein the control unit is configured to generate the first configuration information and / or generate the second configuration information, indicating a change in the availability of wireless communication system resources for different UEs of the wireless communication system, wherein the UE is configured to provide the first configuration information and / or the second configuration information to the wireless communication system and / or different UEs.

[0401] According to an embodiment, a UE configured to operate in a wireless communication system includes a control unit configured to process configuration information indicating a change in resource availability, wherein the control unit is configured to react to the change in availability by performing at least one of measurement, logging, reporting, confirmation, and a combination thereof associated with availability, and provide the result thereof to the wireless communication system.

[0402] According to one embodiment, a UE configured for communication in a wireless communication system includes a control unit configured to generate configuration information indicating changes in availability of resources of the wireless communication system for different UEs of the wireless communication system, wherein the UE is configured to provide the configuration information to the wireless communication system and / or the different UEs.

[0403] According to an embodiment, the UE is a user equipment configured to provide configuration information wirelessly using a radio interface of the UE.

[0404] According to an embodiment, the UE is a base station or gNB configured to provide configuration information wirelessly using a UEID radio interface.

[0405] According to an embodiment, the configuration information is first configuration information, wherein the resource is a first resource, wherein the UE is configured to communicate in the wireless communication system using the same or different second resource in the wireless communication system according to the configuration, and to communicate using a radio interface of the UE, wherein the control unit is configured to process second configuration information indicating a change in availability of the second resource, wherein the control unit is configured to adjust the configuration based on the second configuration information to react to the change in availability.

[0406] According to an embodiment, a wireless communication system is provided for providing wireless communication between different entities of the wireless communication system according to a configuration, the communication utilizing resources of the wireless communication system. The wireless communication system includes a first entity, such as a UE, a gNB, a database, or a data store, configured to provide configuration information indicating a change in the availability of resources of the wireless communication system to at least one member of the wireless communication system, and a second entity configured to adjust a configuration according to the configuration information to mitigate an impact of the availability change on the at least one entity of the wireless communication system.

[0407] According to an embodiment, the first entity is a UE according to the present invention, in particular a UE using the configuration information; and / or the second entity is a UE according to an embodiment, in particular a UE providing the configuration information.

[0408] According to an embodiment, a method for operating a UE configured for communication in a wireless communication system according to a configuration for using resources of the wireless communication system and communicating using a wireless interface of the UE includes: processing, by a control unit of the UE, configuration information indicating a change in resource availability, and adjusting the configuration according to the configuration information to react to the change in availability.

[0409] According to an embodiment, a method for operating a UE configured to operate in a wireless communication system includes: using a control unit of the UE to process configuration information indicating a change in resource availability, reacting to the availability change by performing at least one of measurement, recording, reporting, confirmation, and a combination thereof associated with availability, and providing the result thereof to the wireless communication system.

[0410] According to an embodiment, a method for operating a UE configured for communication in a wireless communication system includes: using a control unit of the UE to generate configuration information indicating changes in the availability of wireless communication system resources for different UEs in the wireless communication system, and providing the configuration information to the wireless communication system and / or the different UEs.

[0411] Figure 151 shows a schematic block diagram of a UE 170 according to an embodiment. The UE 170 is configured to communicate in a wireless communication system, for example, by transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals 172. The UE 170 may include a wireless interface 174, for example, having one or more antenna elements grouped into one or more antenna panels or antenna arrays. Optionally, but not necessarily, the UE 170 may be configured to implement beamforming techniques, for example, to transmit wireless signals 172 in a first direction at a higher transmit power than in a different direction, and / or to receive wireless signals in a first direction at a higher sensitivity than in a different direction.

[0412] According to embodiments that may be implemented in addition to the functionality described for UE 170, or that may provide an alternative embodiment of UE 170, UE 170 is configured to operate in a wireless communication system and includes a control unit 176 configured to process configuration information 1718 indicating a change in the availability of resources for communication. Control unit 176 is configured to react to the change in availability by performing at least one of measurement, logging, reporting, confirmation, and combinations thereof, associated with the availability, and to provide the result thereof to the wireless communication system. That is, the change may result in a reaction that includes measurement, logging, reporting, and / or confirmation.

[0413] Communications in a wireless communication system may be organized according to a configuration indicating the use of wireless communication system resources. The configuration may include or relate to at least one of transmission, reception, or a combination thereof provided by the UE as communication. Alternatively or in addition, the configuration may relate to measurements, logging, reporting, confirmation, and / or a combination thereof provided by the UE. Alternatively or in addition, the configuration may relate to the sending and / or reception of at least one pre-configuration information (such as a test signal), at least one configuration reference signal, and / or at least one configuration message (such as a test message). Alternatively or in addition, the configuration may relate to the transmission process of at least one signal and / or the reception process of at least one signal and its processing, such as beam scanning, performing frequency scanning, and the like. For example, the configuration may indicate, describe, or guide the UE to explain how to perform communication. For communication, the wireless communication system resources used may be related to time resources, frequency resources, code resources, but are not limited thereto. For example, resources may not only relate to resource elements in the time-frequency grid, but may also relate to the coverage of the wireless communication system, the services to be used or provided, and / or other available parts, etc.:

[0414] - Access link resources, transmission link resources, relay link resources and / or backhaul link resources;

[0415] - Time, spectrum, sequence (spreading sequence) and / or space communication resources;

[0416] - transport channels, positioning channels, control channels and / or data channels;

[0417] - Transmit / receive beams indicated by beam identification (ID), SSB, CSI-RS, beam sweep, and / or coordinated beam group;

[0418] - Propagation channel components, such as line-of-sight (LOS), non-line-of-sight (NLOS), obstructed line-of-sight (OLOS), dominant or specific multipath components (MPC);

[0419] - a service or connection provided by another network entity (e.g., gNB, core network, access network, transponder, RIS, or satellite);

[0420] -Quality of Service (QoS) related to communication metrics such as coverage, capacity, latency and / or jitter.

[0421] UE 170 includes a control unit 176, e.g., an adapted embodiment of processor 202 or a different processing unit. Control unit 176 is configured to process configuration information 1718 indicating a change in resource availability. Control unit 176 is configured to adjust the configuration based on the configuration information to respond to the change in availability. This change can occur currently or in the future. However, this does not preclude altering past events.

[0422] By processing the configuration information, the UE 170 can be aware of or anticipate unexpected changes in resource availability and adjust its behavior (i.e., configuration) accordingly. Embodiments of the present invention go beyond rejecting or confirming resource authorization or further communications. This adaptation of resource authorization is considered a straightforward solution and is not surprising to the UE because it knows how to respond positively or negatively to the request. Embodiments provide a solution, such as how to react in the event of availability or unavailability (e.g., a link or other resource suddenly becomes unavailable).

[0423] For example, a UE 170 implemented as a user equipment can be configured to adjust its configuration based on changes in resource availability to change its behavior within the wireless communication system. For example, if a communication is intended for or relayed through a UE that is not continuously available, such as a UE that is sometimes out of line of sight and other times in range or with a line of sight path, then by using the configuration information, the UE 170 can be aware of these circumstances and can, for example, accumulate information to be transmitted to that entity until it is available again, thereby (at least partially) avoiding unnecessary transmissions. On the other hand, requests for retransmissions or the like can be avoided because the UE 170 can be aware that, although it is expected to receive, the other entity is not able to transmit, and therefore requesting a retransmission may have little or no effect.

[0424] Embodiments of the present invention are particularly relevant to abnormal availability of resources and / or significant changes in availability. According to some embodiments, configuration information may cause abnormal changes in availability to become an expected condition for the UE. For example, abnormal availability may be related to at least one of the following:

[0425] - Time, such as or indicating a beginning, an end, a period of time, an interval, a duration and / or a change in state or trend, and / or relating to at least one of the following:

[0426] ○ Availability and / or unavailability of resources;

[0427] o The occurrence of a blocking event that results in at least partial obstruction of the communication link;

[0428] ○ Occurrence of communication interruption events and / or interruption periods;

[0429] ○ The occurrence of interference events and / or blocking events that affect communications; or,

[0430] ○ The occurrence of energy-related and / or power-related states of communication, such as: low battery state, charging time, estimated remaining energy, one or more transmission power limitations due to EIRP limitations, multi-band operation and / or interference limitations.

[0431] - Resources are limited by:

[0432] ○ At least one communication-related parameter falls below a threshold;

[0433] o At least one communication-related parameter increases above a threshold;

[0434] o At least one communication-related parameter value remains within or outside a range;

[0435] o The validity region or range of at least one communication-related parameter remains within or outside the validity region or range of a metric (e.g., coverage, capacity, data rate, reliability, and / or latency);

[0436] o A specific distribution of parameters and / or states over at least one parameter dimension (e.g., physical unit) related to using the resource for communication, such as time, frequency, space, direction, location, etc.

[0437] - Resource-related constraints must consider at least one of the following:

[0438] ○The amount of data provided;

[0439] ○ Allocated spectrum and / or resource blocks (RBs);

[0440] The modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used for communication;

[0441] ○ The block size used for communication;

[0442] ○ Message size, volume (e.g., amount of data or size of folder / file) and / or number of messages (e.g., per unit time and / or per unit opportunity);

[0443] ○ Any change in the above, such as status / value and / or trend of change (increase → decrease, decrease → increase) and / or rate of change; or,

[0444] ○Specific or recurring patterns, distributions, statistics, states, values ​​and / or trends of occurrence.

[0445] A specific, but not limiting, example of the present invention is that when a UE (e.g., in a canyon) communicates with a mobile satellite, the LoS connection with the satellite may be interrupted by the canyon structure, resulting in abnormal link degradation. By using configuration information, the UE and / or satellite can understand when the connection was interrupted and / or is likely to be interrupted in the future, thereby knowing when other entities are within their coverage area and adjusting their communications accordingly. This may include: not transmitting signals when other entities are unreachable, avoiding retransmissions or requests to the entity during this time period, and / or preparing for communication when communication is likely to occur, such as reserving resources and collecting data to be transmitted.

[0446] The configuration information may be stored or provided in the UE 170 and / or may be received using external signaling, e.g., using wireless signals, e.g., from a network coordinator or cell coordinator (e.g., a base station), from another peer device, e.g., using a side link, or by using a different interface (including a wired, optical, and / or wireless interface).

[0447] Known or state-of-the-art (SOTA) wireless communication systems are designed to first explore the availability of communication partners, such as the availability of cellular networks or Wi-Fi access points, then measure or test the propagation environment using training sequences (such as reference symbols transmitted by at least one communication partner), followed by communication access procedures, configuration / negotiation of link and network parameters, and finally transmission / exchange of control and user data over the wireless link using standardized communication procedures.

[0448] Because the propagation channel can vary in quality or availability to support the target or required wireless communication quality or reliability, many wireless systems incorporate link adaptation methods and signal the required or available link parameters (data rate, latency). These wireless systems typically rely on currently known characteristics of the communication channel and assume that these characteristics persist within the control delay of the link adaptation loop. This principle allows them to track slowly changing channel conditions and adjust the transmission scheme accordingly.

[0449] In the event of fluctuating channel characteristics, such as fast fading and sporadic or localized cross-link interference, various mitigation and compensation schemes have been introduced. These include diversity schemes such as time or frequency spreading, antenna diversity, as well as packet retransmission, packet replication, or channel coding, which are all state-of-the-art technologies for dealing with statistical fluctuations in channel characteristics. In other words, when such abnormal events occur, the configuration does not need to be adjusted, but rather the communication scheme is designed to tolerate such events, at least to a certain extent.

[0450] Nevertheless, the common basis of all these known schemes is that some minimum level of communication can be maintained.

[0451] When this minimum level of communication is lost, the wireless communication protocol starts a timer to wait and detect whether the link quality has been restored, or continues a predefined mode of operation to achieve other communications, such as by repeating k times or starting to scan other available communication resources with the communication partner (for example, when a link failure occurs on a specific transmit-receive beam pair). In the case of a pre-arranged alternative link option, an automatic link failure recovery procedure can be activated, which can restore the link faster due to the pre-knowledge of the alternative link option and the configuration of initiating the link failure recovery (LFR) procedure when specific conditions are met.

[0452] If none of the above methods are successful, devices operating in known systems typically conclude that coverage or service is unavailable and begin triggering a re-entry into network discovery mode. This situation can occur with any mobile phone used in an area with poor coverage, such as a mountainous area. In this example, after the device completes another network scan process (through which the device determines that a network is available), it can initiate a random access process. End-to-end encryption may have exceeded a predefined inactivity period, so the communication session must be (re)started from the beginning, depending on the duration between the loss of connection and the (re)establishment of another link or the determination of communication-related parameters (such as the session ID).

[0453] Compared to these known systems, the solutions provided by the disclosed embodiments can provide a method for handling communication interruptions and significantly reduce the time required to (re)establish communications, sessions, etc. This can be achieved by using configuration information associated with past, current, and / or future communication resource shortages / changes. The above-mentioned SOTA mechanisms have not yet successfully covered this information. This also includes solutions that collect corresponding information to generate such configuration information.

[0454] To address the problems associated with known systems, this embodiment provides a technical solution to address these deficiencies, particularly deficiencies related to communication loss, but is not limited thereto.

[0455] For example, when considering a wireless communication system (WCS) consisting of at least one UE, but preferably at least two UEs, with reference to the scenarios described in relation to known systems, three scenarios can be identified:

[0456]

[0457] Regarding scenarios A, B, and C, scenario A describes a WUS use case where at least two UEs are in both IC and IS of the RAN. This can be considered an ideal or reference scenario because in this mode of operation, configuration information related to communication resources is readily available not only under current conditions but also under anticipated, expected, or planned future conditions.

[0458] In contrast, scenario B describes a WUS use case where only one UE is in IS, even though both UEs are in IC. In state-of-the-art WUS, the out-of-service (OOS) UE has no knowledge of when, where, and how communication resources will become available or are expected to become available in the future. Consequently, the OOS UE may use its own resources in an unnecessary and / or inefficient manner. This can, at a minimum, reduce its battery capacity or cause interference to other users.

[0459] In scenario C, both UEs are in OOC and OOS, and the negative impact of the scenario is further aggravated, which may cause greater interference and reduce the service quality of other users.

[0460] The technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure attempts to mitigate the adverse effects described in scenarios B and C (referred to as abnormal changes in resource availability) by providing configuration information to the UE using one or more of the following methods or information sources:

[0461] - Preset or preconfigured (eg, default configuration, factory settings, recently updated), such as stored in internal or external memory.

[0462] - Based on the previous, e.g. last used, operating mode or operating mode or change of operating mode (e.g. from Uu link to sidelink, from sidelink to Uu link, from Uu link to NTN, from NTN to Uu link, from SL to NTN or from NTN to SL).

[0463] - provided by a network / wireless communication system, such as via wireless or wired signals or messages.

[0464] - provided by a database (e.g. connected as an entity to the RAN), providing information directly or indirectly (via other entities) via wireless or wired signals or messages.

[0465] - Delivered via alternative RAN such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

[0466] - Provided by the remote UE or the group leader UE or a different network entity.

[0467] For example, the configuration information may be provided in the form of Assistance Information Messages (AIMs), where one or more AIMs may include one or more of the following:

[0468] - Auxiliary information related to resource allocation, such as:

[0469] ○ Resource model;

[0470] ○ Resource pool;

[0471] ○ Available and / or excluded wireless resources;

[0472] o Information about specific frame structures, such as (pseudo)-TDD slot structure on an FDD band in one or more FDD bands or TDD bands used for SL communication, sub-band full duplex (SBFD) configuration, almost blank subframes (ABS);

[0473] ○ Sub-band full-duplex (SBFD) configuration indication,

[0474] - Link-related auxiliary information, such as:

[0475] ○ Timing of connection opportunities (current and future), availability / unavailability, readiness (e.g.

[0476] windows of opportunity in areas where satellites or satellite constellations are visible), resource scarcity or abundance,

[0477] -Time advance auxiliary information;

[0478] - Doppler assistance information;

[0479] - auxiliary information related to distance;

[0480] - auxiliary information related to the geographical area;

[0481] - auxiliary information related to the group;

[0482] -Assistance information related to the UE pair;

[0483] - auxiliary information related to relays / transponders;

[0484] - Capabilities of devices transmitting or receiving AIMs;

[0485] - Information requested by the device transmitting or receiving the AIM about the capability information that the UE will provide;

[0486] - Emergency message header with wake-up, configuration state activation trigger function or priority purpose (e.g., transmission of emergency message including emergency ID, requested action, location, UE-ID, etc.).

[0487] The above three scenarios A, B and C can be regarded as examples of connection states of two UEs in the same coverage area, preferably connected to the same RAN system via a satellite access link or a tandem satellite backhaul link (scenario A), for example.

[0488] While devices or entities such as UEs may connect to the network via the gNB, their configuration and resulting behavior may be configured and controlled within the configuration framework.

[0489] The term "configuration" can be understood at different levels. For example, at the first level, a device is configured to support specific functionality in response to a signal / message that will be received later; at the second level, a device is configured to a specific state that is valid within the functional framework. Examples of such configurations include, but are not limited to:

[0490] First level configuration: For example, configuring the device to the mode supported by the gNB / network. This can be done through RRC messaging, so the message size is usually large and the speed is relatively slow.

[0491] Second level configuration: For example, the relationship between reference information (RS), channels, etc. is configured through transmission control information (TCI), which uses a highly compressed self-reference message space.

[0492] Depending on the embodiment, a single level of configuration, two levels of configuration, or even multiple levels of configuration may be used to prompt the UE to adjust its configuration, for example, at least three levels, at least four levels, at least five levels, at least ten levels, or even more. Different levels of the multiple configuration information may include different granularity or precision regarding one or more parameters or parameter sequences. Alternatively or additionally, different levels of the multiple configuration information may include different priorities, i.e., higher-priority configuration information may result in adjustment, discarding, or abandonment of the configuration information, while lower-priority configuration information may be available for at least the same parameter, operation, or behavior. However, as another alternative or even additionally, the different levels of configuration information may be obtained, received, or processed from different sources. For example, different sources may be understood as being received or retrieved from the same entity at different times, such as by receiving different signals. This does not preclude obtaining first-level configuration information without receiving a signal, for example, from a content storage, and obtaining second-level configuration information with a higher priority from a different source, such as by receiving a wireless signal. If the second-level configuration information is unavailable, the UE may still rely on the first-level configuration information, which may be pre-configured.

[0493] For example, when a device / UE loses connection with the gNB / CU / access network or other network elements (such as other devices or the core network), it can still maintain connections with other devices in order to use further connections to obtain configuration information from or through devices belonging to the remaining connections.

[0494] In some embodiments related to the present invention, configuration information (CI) may include or may contain information about transmission / reception configuration related to a specific type of communication resource shortage (especially an abnormal shortage) and / or as for related information, the CI may be communicated / provided via any available / remaining communication link.

[0495] CI can refer to scarce / decreasing or abundant / sufficient / ample resources and their past, present and future availability / unavailability.

[0496] Configuration can refer to one or more of the following:

[0497] - transmission, reception, and combinations thereof, such as provided by a UE as part of a communication;

[0498] - Measurement / logging / reporting / acknowledgement and their combinations provided by the UE;

[0499] - Transmit and receive pre-configured (test or reference) signals / messages;

[0500] -Perform signal transmission and reception and processing procedures such as beam scanning and frequency scanning.

[0501] Resources related to the embodiment may include one or more of the following:

[0502] Access link resources, sidelink resources, or backhaul link resources;

[0503] Time, spectrum, and space communication resources;

[0504] Transmission channel, positioning channel, control channel and / or data channel;

[0505] Transmit beams (beam ID, beam scanning, coordinated beam groups);

[0506] Propagation channel components, such as line-of-sight (LOS), non-line-of-sight (NLOS), obstructed line-of-sight (OLOS), and dominant or specific multipath components (MPCs);

[0507] Services / connectivity provided by gNB, core network, access network, transponders, RIS, and satellite;

[0508] Quality of service (QoS) related to metrics such as coverage, capacity, latency, and jitter.

[0509] The indication of the availability of such a resource may refer to at least one of the following:

[0510] -Time refers to a beginning, end, period of time / interval / duration or change:

[0511] ○ Availability or unavailability of resources;

[0512] ○ Occurrence of blocking events;

[0513] ○ The occurrence of an interruption event and / or interruption period;

[0514] ○ Occurrence of interference events and / or blocking events;

[0515] ○ The occurrence of energy or power-related states, such as low battery state, charging time, estimated remaining energy, transmission power limitations due to EIRP limitations, multi-band operation, and interference limitations;

[0516] ○ Resources may be affected by:

[0517] ■The parameter drops below the threshold;

[0518] ■The parameter increases above the threshold;

[0519] ■Keep parameters within or outside of numerical ranges;

[0520] ■ Keeping parameters outside of valid ranges or regions related to metrics (e.g., coverage, capacity, data rate, reliability, latency); and

[0521] ■The specific distribution of resources in terms of time, frequency, space, direction, location, etc.

[0522] ○ Resources may be subject to the following constraints:

[0523] Data volume;

[0524] ■Allocated spectrum, resource blocks (RBs);

[0525] Modulation and coding scheme (MCS);

[0526] ■ block size; and

[0527] ■Message size / message volume / number of messages (per unit time or per unit opportunity).

[0528] o Availability can be related to changes in any of the above states / values ​​or trends (increase → decrease, decrease → increase).

[0529] ○ Usability can be related to specific or recurring patterns, distributions, statistics, states, values, or trends.

[0530] The above examples of availability are matched to the corresponding resources. That is, for example, the availability of an access link may be more related to availability or congestion events, while resource QoS may be more related to block size or MCS than to allocated spectrum, but such associations are not excluded.

[0531] As an alternative or supplement, the configuration information may further include at least one of the following:

[0532] -trigger;

[0533] -event;

[0534] -condition;

[0535] -A combination or sequence of any of the above (including combinations of multiple triggers, events, conditions) indicating one or more of the following:

[0536] ○ Status;

[0537] ○Multiple states;

[0538] ○ Time period;

[0539] ○ Event;

[0540] ○Request;

[0541] ○ Report;

[0542] Action

[0543] ○ Procedures to:

[0544] ■Start / Pause / Continue / End;

[0545] ■ Activation / deactivation; and

[0546] ■Confirm / Verify.

[0547] Actions / procedures requested or activated by, for example, triggers or events include:

[0548] - Start / stop / reset / pause counter or countdown timer;

[0549] - Capture, freeze, store, and forward current and future (expected) states and configurations;

[0550] - Automatic (re)configuration after a trigger / event occurs or a condition is met;

[0551] - Start / pause / delay / restart / prepare to start a program or operating mode;

[0552] - Switching from one procedure, routine or operating mode to another;

[0553] -Determine or select the operating mode, transmission / reception strategy;

[0554] - Discover / observe / detect / monitor / track events or parameters related to any of the above CIs and their associated actions, triggers, configuration variations (e.g., a UE observes the availability pattern of one or more beams based on RS or beam ID and determines or reports future availability, based on which another device (e.g., gNB or RIS) can be configured to enter / remain in a specific configuration state to meet the specific coverage / capacity requirements of a specific UE).

[0555] -Prepare for transmission / reception of reports / messages / control or user data so that they are ready for transmission / reception in the next / future event that a connection is available.

[0556] The above embodiments relate to a UE adjusting its configuration based on configuration information. These embodiments also relate to obtaining, collecting and / or providing such configuration information.

[0557] Figure 16 A schematic block diagram of a UE 180 according to an embodiment is shown. UE 180 is configured to communicate in a wireless communication system. UE 180 includes a control unit 182 configured to generate configuration information 184 indicating changes in wireless communication system resource availability for different network entities of the wireless communication system. Configuration information 184 may include at least a portion of configuration information 1718 and / or may include different configuration information described herein. UE 180 is configured to provide configuration information 184 to the wireless communication system and / or different network entities. According to an embodiment, UE 180 may use the configuration information for its own purposes, as described in conjunction with UE 170.

[0558] However, in contrast to UE 170, UE 180 providing configuration information does not necessarily need to communicate in the WCS using the RAN and / or communication scheme. For example, UE 180 may operate as a sensor or other measuring and / or recording device, for example, providing corresponding data or information based on its configuration or request. Configuration information 184 may be provided to other devices using wired, optical, and / or wireless (radio) interfaces and corresponding signals. For example, configuration information 184 may be provided to a memory using wired signals, and UE 170 may access the memory via the RAN, thereby enabling UE 180 to be implemented without a wireless interface (such as wireless interface 174).

[0559] According to a further embodiment, the assistance information message (AIM) may include one or more of the following:

[0560] - Auxiliary information related to resource allocation, such as:

[0561] ○ Resource model;

[0562] ○ Resource pool;

[0563] ○ Available and / or excluded wireless resources;

[0564] o Information about specific frame structures, such as (pseudo)TDD slot structure on an FDD band in one or more FDD bands or TDD bands used for SL communication, sub-band full duplex (SBFD) configuration, almost blank subframes (ABS);

[0565] ○ Sub-band full-duplex (SBFD) configuration indication.

[0566] - Link-related auxiliary information, such as:

[0567] o Timing of connectivity opportunities (current and future), availability / unavailability, readiness (e.g., window of opportunity to see a satellite or satellite constellation area), scarcity / abundance of resources.

[0568] -Timing advance assistance information;

[0569] - Doppler assistance information;

[0570] - auxiliary information related to distance;

[0571] - auxiliary information related to the geographical area;

[0572] - auxiliary information related to the group;

[0573] -Assistance information related to the UE pair;

[0574] - auxiliary information related to relays / transponders;

[0575] - Capabilities of devices transmitting or receiving AIMs;

[0576] - Information requested by the device transmitting or receiving the AIM regarding capability information to be provided by the UE; and

[0577] - Emergency message header with wake-up, configuration state activation trigger function or priority purpose (e.g., transmission of emergency message including emergency ID, requested action, location, UE-ID, etc.).

[0578] According to other embodiments, the configuration information and / or AIM mentioned above can be Figure 5 The SL-BC response method provided by the network entity described in is provided to the UE.

[0579] Overview

[0580] Although various aspects and specific embodiments of the method of the present invention have been described separately, it should be noted that each aspect / embodiment can be implemented independently of other aspects / embodiments, or some or all aspects / embodiments can be implemented in combination.

[0581] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user equipment includes one or more of the following: a power-limited UE; or a handheld UE, such as a UE used by pedestrians, referred to as a vulnerable road user (VRU) or a pedestrian UE (P-UE); or a body-worn or handheld UE used by public safety personnel and emergency personnel, referred to as a public safety UE (PS-UE); or an IoT UE, such as a sensor or actuator; or a UE provided in a campus network that performs repetitive tasks and requires regular input from a gateway node; or a mobile terminal; or a fixed terminal; or a cellular IoT-UE; or a vehicle-mounted UE; or a vehicle-mounted group leader GL-UE; or a sidelink relay; or an IoT or narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) device; or a wearable device, such as a smart watch, fitness tracker, or smart glasses; or a ground vehicle; or an air vehicle; or a drone; or a mobile base station; or a road test unit (RSU); or a building; or any other item or device with network connectivity that enables the item / device to communicate using a wireless communication network, such as a sensor or actuator; or any other item or device with network connectivity that enables the item / device to communicate using a sidelink, such as a sensor or actuator; or any network entity that supports a sidelink.

[0582] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the RAN network entity (such as gNB) includes one or more of the following: a macro cell base station; or a small cell base station; or a central unit of a base station; or a distributed unit of a base station; or a road side unit (RSU); or a remote radio head; or an AMF; or an MMF; or an SMF; or a core network entity; or a mobile edge computing (MEC) entity; or a network slice in the context of NR or 5G core; or any transmission reception point (TRP) that enables an item or device to communicate using a wireless communication network, and the item or device has network connection capability to communicate using the wireless communication network.

[0583] Although certain aspects of the concepts described are described in the context of an apparatus, it is clear that these aspects also represent a description of a corresponding method, wherein a module or device corresponds to a method step or a feature of a method step. Similarly, aspects described in the context of a method step also represent a description of a corresponding module or item or feature of a corresponding apparatus.

[0584] The various elements and features of the present invention may be implemented in hardware using analog and / or digital circuits, in software using one or more general or special purpose processors executing instructions, or as a combination of hardware and software. For example, embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in the context of a computer system or other processing system. Figure 16 An example of a computer system 600 is shown. The units or modules and the method steps performed by these units can be executed on one or more computer systems 600. The computer system 600 includes one or more processors 602, such as special-purpose processors or general-purpose digital signal processors. The processors 602 are connected to a communication infrastructure 604, such as a bus or network. The computer system 600 includes a main memory 606 (such as random access memory (RAM)) and a secondary memory 608 (such as a hard drive and / or a removable storage drive). The secondary memory 608 can load computer programs or other instructions into the computer system 600. The computer system 600 may also include a communication interface 610 to transfer software and data between the computer system 600 and external devices. The communication can be electronic, electromagnetic, optical, or other signals capable of being processed by the communication interface. The communication can use wires or cables, optical fibers, telephone lines, cellular phone links, RF links, and other communication channels 612.

[0585] The terms "computer program medium" and "computer-readable medium" generally refer to tangible storage media, such as a removable storage unit or a hard disk installed in a hard drive. These computer program products are a means of providing software to computer system 600. The computer program, also known as computer control logic, is stored in main memory 606 and / or secondary memory 608. The computer program may also be received via communication interface 610. When executed, the computer program causes computer system 600 to implement the present invention. In particular, when executed, the computer program causes processor 602 to implement the processes of the present invention, such as any of the methods described herein. Thus, such a computer program may represent a controller of computer system 600. When implementing the present invention using software, the software may be stored in a computer program product and loaded into computer system 600 via a removable storage drive or an interface, such as communication interface 610.

[0586] The hardware or software implementation can be performed using a digital storage medium (e.g., cloud storage, floppy disk, DVD, Blu-ray disc, CD, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, or FLASH memory) having electronically readable control signals stored thereon that can or can cooperate with a programmable computer system to perform the corresponding method. Therefore, the digital storage medium can be computer-readable.

[0587] Some embodiments according to the invention comprise a data carrier having electronically readable control signals thereon, which are capable of cooperating with a programmable computer system, such that one of the methods described herein is performed.

[0588] Generally, the embodiments of the present invention can be implemented as a computer program product with a program code, which can be used to perform one of the methods when the computer program product runs on a computer. For example, the program code can be stored on a machine-readable carrier.

[0589] Other embodiments comprise a computer program for performing one of the methods described herein, stored on a machine readable carrier. In other words, one embodiment of the inventive method is a computer program comprising a program code for performing one of the methods described herein, when the computer program runs on a computer.

[0590] Therefore, a further embodiment of the method of the present invention is a data carrier or a digital storage medium, or a computer-readable medium, on which a computer program for performing one of the methods described in the present invention is recorded. Therefore, another embodiment of the method of the present invention is a data stream or a signal sequence representing a computer program for performing one of the methods described in the present invention. For example, the data stream or signal sequence can be configured to be transmitted via a data communication connection (for example via the Internet). Another embodiment comprises a processing device, such as a computer or a programmable logic device, which is configured to or adapted to perform one of the methods described in the present invention. Another embodiment comprises a computer on which a computer program for performing one of the methods described in the present invention is installed.

[0591] In some embodiments, a programmable logic device (e.g., a field programmable gate array) can be used to perform some or all of the functions of the methods described herein. In some embodiments, the field programmable gate array can cooperate with a microprocessor to perform one of the methods described herein. Generally, these methods are preferably performed by any hardware device.

[0592] The above embodiments merely illustrate the principles of the present invention. It will be appreciated that modifications and variations of the arrangements and details described herein will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the present invention is intended to be limited solely by the scope of the appended claims and not by the specific details presented herein through the description and explanation of the embodiments.

Claims

1. A wireless communication network, comprising: One or more relay devices, wherein the relay device provides a first bidirectional link including a first relay resource and a second bidirectional link including a second relay resource, the first bidirectional link and the second bidirectional link communicating with a radio access network (RAN) of a wireless communication network using a first interface such as a Uu interface; and One or more user equipments (UEs), wherein the UEs are configured to perform direct communication with a network entity of a wireless communication network via a relay device using a second interface, such as a PC5 interface, for device-to-device (D2D) communication or sidelink (SL) communication in the wireless communication network on one or more first relay resources or on one or more relay resources of the first relay resource and the second relay resource.

2. The wireless communication network according to claim 1, wherein: - Network entities include RAN entities, such as base stations; - the UE is configured to perform communication with the relay device on the first relay resource using the second interface; and The relay device is configured to perform communication with the RAN entity on the second relay resource using the first interface or the second interface.

3. The wireless communication network according to claim 2, wherein: The UE is configured to perform communication with the relay device on the first relay resource using the second interface in response to one or more of the following: - Loss of connectivity between the UE and the RAN; -The connection between the UE and the RAN cannot be established; - The connection via the RAN cannot provide one or more of the required communication requirements, such as the desired quality of service (QoS), e.g., latency, bandwidth or capacity of the backhaul link or data rate, or end-to-end reliability may not be sufficient to achieve the desired QoS; - Signaling indicating one or more operating modes, the one or more operating modes being associated with a different usage of the first resource and / or the second resource and the first interface compared to a currently or previously used operating mode.

4. The wireless communication network according to claim 1, wherein: - the network entity includes another UE; - the UE is configured to perform communication with the relay device on the first relay resource using the second interface; and - the relay device is configured to perform a communication with the other relay resource using the first interface or the second interface. UE communication.

5. The wireless communication network according to claim 4, comprising: RAN entities, such as base stations; as well as another relay device, providing a third bidirectional link including a third relay resource between the another UE and the another relay station, and a fourth bidirectional link including a fourth relay resource between the another relay station and the RAN entity, the third bidirectional link and the fourth bidirectional link using the first interface, in, - the other UE is configured to perform communication with the other relay device on the third relay resource using the first interface or the second interface; and - the other relay device is configured to use the first interface or the second interface to perform the communication with the fourth relay resource. Communication of RAN entities.

6. The wireless communication network according to claim 4 or 5, wherein: The UE is configured to perform communication with the other UE on the first relay resource and the second relay resource using the first interface or the second interface in response to one or more of the following: - Loss of connectivity between the UE and the RAN; -The connection between the UE and the RAN cannot be established; - the connection via the RAN is unable to provide one or more of the required communication requirements, such as the desired QoS, for example, latency, bandwidth or capacity of the backhaul link or data rate, or end-to-end reliability may be insufficient to achieve the desired QoS; -Loss of connection between the relay device and the RAN; -The connection between the relay device and the RAN cannot be established; - the connection via the relay device cannot provide one or more of the required communication requirements, such as the desired QoS, for example, latency, bandwidth or capacity of the backhaul link or data rate, or end-to-end reliability may not be sufficient to achieve the desired QoS; - a sidelink connection between the UE and the other UE is lost, the sidelink connection being performed on a sidelink resource of the wireless communication network, the sidelink resource being different from the first relay resource and the second relay resource; - A connection between the UE and the other UE cannot be established; - a sidelink between the UE and the other UE cannot provide one or more required communication requirements, If the desired QoS, such as latency, bandwidth or capacity of the backhaul link or data rate, or end-to-end reliability may not be sufficient to achieve the desired QoS; and - signaling indicating one or more operating modes, the one or more operating modes being related to a different usage of the first resource and / or the second resource and the first interface compared to a currently or previously used operating mode.

7. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, comprising a base station, the base station serving a UE and providing indirect communication between the UE and a network entity via a relay device, wherein: If a connection between the UE and the network entity is established, the UE is configured to: - perform only direct communications with network entities; or, - In addition to indirect communication with network entities, direct communication with network entities is performed.

8. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The UE is aware of the availability or expected availability of the relay device and is configured to send message information to the relay device on a first relay resource via an uplink sidelink broadcast (SL-BC).

9. The wireless communication network according to claim 8, wherein: The relay device is configured to, in response to receiving the uplink SL-BC, forward at least the message information received in the uplink SL-BC to the network entity via the downlink SL-BC.

10. The wireless communication network according to claim 9, wherein: The network entity is configured to send a response message to the UE in response to receiving the downlink SL-BC.

11. The wireless communication network according to claim 10, wherein: - the network entity is configured to send a response to the relay device on the first relay resource or the second relay resource via another uplink sidelink broadcast (SL-BC); -The relay device is configured to, in response to receiving another uplink SL-BC, forward a response message received in the other uplink SL-BC to the UE entity on the first relay resource through another downlink SL-BC.

12. The wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, comprising a remote UE, wherein the UE and the remote UE are directly connected to each other, and the UE is configured to relay communications between the remote UE and the network entity.

13. The wireless communication network according to claim 12, wherein: The UE has multiple RAT capabilities, where the multiple RAT capabilities include: - First RAT capability for providing SL with a remote UE using sidelink resources of a wireless communication network connection, the sidelink resources being different from the first relay resources and the second relay resources, and the UE being used to relay communications to / from a remote UE; and -Second RAT capability, used to connect remote UEs, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

14. The wireless communication network according to claim 12, wherein: In addition to subscribing to the wireless communication network, the UE also subscribes to one or more additional networks, and wherein the UE is connected to a remote UE via: - a wireless communication network providing a SL connection between the UE and a remote UE using sidelink resources of the wireless communication network, the sidelink resources being different from the first relay resources and the second relay resources, and the UE being used to relay communications to / from the remote UE; and / or, - One or more additional networks, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

15. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the relay device: - includes at least a subset of base station functions, such as resource scheduling, resource allocation or mapping, or, - is intended to operate as an amplify and forward (AF) relay, such as an in-band relay or in-band repeater, or, - is intended to operate as an amplify, band-switch and forward (ABSF) relay, such as an out-of-band relay or an out-of-band repeater; or, - Used to operate as a decode and forward (DF) relay.

16. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The sidelink communication includes time division duplex (TDD) communication, or frequency division duplex (FDD) communication, or full duplex (FD) communication.

17. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The first relay resources and the second relay resources used by the UE for communicating with the network entity include unused or substantially unused radio resources allocated for communications using the first interface.

18. The wireless communication network according to claim 17, wherein: The unused or substantially unused relay resources include radio resources that include existing traffic that does not exceed a predetermined threshold or that do not have any existing traffic.

19. The wireless communication network according to claim 18, wherein the existing traffic comprises at least one of the following: - UL traffic and / or DL ​​traffic from / to one or more other network entities using the first interface on the first bidirectional link of the relay device; or, - UL traffic and / or DL ​​traffic from / to one or more other network entities using the first interface over the second bidirectional link of the relay device.

20. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The first relay resource and / or the second relay resource are configured to allocate a spectrum according to an FDD configuration, which defines a first frequency band or downlink (DL) frequency band for transmissions from the relay device and a second frequency band or uplink (UL) frequency band for transmissions to the relay device.

21. The wireless communication network according to claim 20, in, The DL frequency band and / or UL frequency band are subdivided into: - one or more first UL time slots for transmission from the BS to the relay device, and one or more second UL time slots for transmission from the UE to the relay device; and / or, - one or more first bandwidth parts (BWPs) for transmission from the BS to the relay device, and one or more second BWPs for transmission from the UE to the relay device, In the case where the DL frequency band or the UL frequency band is not subdivided, the DL frequency band or the UL frequency band is completely used for transmission to / from the relay device.

22. The wireless communication network according to claim 20 or 21, wherein: The UE is configured to synchronize communication with a relay device on a DL band and / or a UL band using one or more reference signals broadcast in the DL band and / or the UL band, wherein the one or more reference signals may be from the relay device such as a beacon signal or another network device operating in the corresponding frequency band.

23. The wireless communication network according to any one of claims 20 to 22, wherein: The relay device is used to transmit a DL control channel in the DL frequency band. The DL control channel includes additional information about the radio resources temporarily or semi-statically provided for direct communication or sidelink communication between the UE and the relay device, such as block waiting time (BWT), number of time slots, number of resource blocks (RBs), etc.

24. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The UE is configured to obtain a configuration for performing communications with a network entity using one or more of the following configurations: - preset or preconfigured configurations, such as default configurations, configurations based on factory settings, and recently updated configurations; - based on the last used configuration or the last used operating mode or a change of operating mode, such as from Uu link to sidelink, from sidelink to Uu link, from Uu link to trunk link, from trunk link to Uu link, from SL to trunk link or from trunk link to SL; -Configuration provided by the network; - configuration provided by a database, e.g. a database connected to the RAN as an entity; - configurations provided by alternative RAN, such as via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth; - configuration provided by the remote UE or group leader UE; and, - The following sidelink connections are provided: ○ directly from another UE connected to the UE via the SL; or, ○ Indirectly from another UE that is connected to the UE through the SL and via a relay device.

25. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The UE is configured to receive one or more assistance information messages (AIMs) from a network entity; The one or more AIMs may include one or more of the following: - Auxiliary information related to resource allocation, such as ○ Resource model; ○ Resource pool; ○ Available and / or excluded radio resources; o Information about specific frame structures, such as (pseudo) TDD slot structure on an FDD band in one or more FDD bands or TDD bands used for SL communication, sub-band full duplex (SBFD) configuration, almost Blank Subframes (ABS); and ○ Sub-band full-duplex (SBFD) configuration indication; - Link-related auxiliary information, such as ○ Timing of connection opportunities (current and future), availability / unavailability, readiness (e.g. the window of opportunity in the area where the satellite or satellite constellation is seen), scarcity / abundance of resources; -Timing advance assistance information; - Doppler assistance information; - auxiliary information related to distance; - auxiliary information related to the geographical area; - auxiliary information related to the group; -Assistance information related to the UE pair; - auxiliary information related to relays / transponders; - Capabilities of devices transmitting or receiving AIMs; - Information requested by the device transmitting or receiving the AIM regarding the capability information provided by the UE; and - Emergency message header with wake-up, configuration state activation trigger function or priority purpose (e.g., transmission of emergency message including emergency ID, requested action, location, UE-ID, etc.).

26. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: Relay resources and additional relay resources include one or more of the following: - one or more symbols; - one or more time slots or subframes or frames; - one or more frequencies or carriers or subchannels or groups of subchannels; -One or more subcarriers, for example, for transmitting IoT messages, such as NB-IoT, LoRA, etc.; - one or more interfaces; - one or more channels, such as a control channel, a user data channel or any other dedicated channel; - one or more resource block (RB) sets; - one or more frequency bands, such as unlicensed sub-bands; - one or more bandwidth portions; - one or more resource pools; - one or more LBT sub-bands; as well as -One or more spatial resources, for example using spatial multiplexing, directional beams, etc.

27. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The relay resource set and the additional relay resource set include one or more of the following: - one or more resources; - channel; - subchannel; - sub-band; -RB set; -interface; - Resource pools; and -Bandwidth Part (BWP).

28. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: Network entities include one or more of the following: - Another BS; -Roadside Unit (RSU); - Orbital Side Unit (OSU), which exchanges information with passing satellites or aircraft; - a mobile BS installed on a land vehicle or water vehicle such as a car, bus, train, ship or vessel, submarine, or a mobile BS installed on a container or any equipment installed or attached to a vehicle; - Mobile BS installed on non-terrestrial or aerial vehicles or equipment such as aircraft, UAVs, balloons, rockets, satellites or any other object or equipment that moves or floats in three-dimensional space and does not touch the surface of the Earth or liquids on the Earth such as lake or sea water; - another UE; -Customer Premises Equipment (CPE); -IoT devices; - broadcast towers, such as those used for digital audio (radio) or television (video) broadcasting; -Relay equipment; - another relay device; -Core network; - Functions located somewhere in the communication network, such as UPF, LMF, AMF, SMF, etc.; - Application servers connected to the core network; - Aggregation nodes, e.g., for storing, processing (fusion, decision making, computing outputs), or forwarding sensor data, messages, retransmissions, AIMs, measurement reports, configurations, etc.; -database.

29. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: Relay devices include one or more of the following: - Mobile or stationary road-based equipment, such as relays, transponders, vehicle-mounted relays or transponders, or reconfigurable reflecting surfaces (RIS); - mobile or stationary liquid-borne equipment, for example equipment on or in the water, such as a ship or submarine, such as a relay, a transponder, a vehicle-mounted relay or transponder, or a reconfigurable reflecting surface (RIS); - Mobile or stationary airborne equipment, such as drones, UAVs or aircraft; as well as - Mobile or stationary spaceborne equipment, such as low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites or geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites.

30. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: - the first interface comprises a Uu air interface for connection with the RAN; and - The second interface includes a PC5 interface for D2D connection or SL connection.

31. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The UE and / or relay device is used to send a signal of capability information.

32. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The first bidirectional link comprises an access link or a serving link, and the second bidirectional link comprises a backhaul link or a feeder link.

33. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: UE includes one or more of the following: power-limited UE; or handheld UEs, such as those used by pedestrians, known as vulnerable road users (VRUs) or pedestrian UEs (P-UEs); or body-worn or handheld UEs used by public safety personnel and first responders, known as public safety UEs (PS-UEs); or IoT UE, such as a sensor, actuator; or a UE provided in a campus network that performs repetitive tasks and requires periodic input from a gateway node; or a mobile terminal; or a fixed terminal; or a cellular IoT-UE; or a SLUE; or a vehicle-mounted UE; or a vehicle-mounted group leader (GL-UE); or a scheduling UE (S-UE); or an IoT or narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) device; or a ground vehicle; or an air vehicle; or a drone; or a mobile base station; or a water vehicle (ship, submarine); or a roadside unit (RSU); or a building; or a customer premises equipment (CPE); or any other item / device with network connectivity that enables the item / device to communicate using a wireless communication network, such as a sensor or actuator; or any other item / device with network connectivity that enables the item / device to communicate using a sidelink, such as a sensor or actuator; or any network entity that supports a sidelink; and A base station includes one or more of the following: a macrocell base station; or a small cell base station; or a central unit of a base station; or a distributed unit of a base station; or an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node; or a roadside unit (RSU); or a UE; or a SL UE; or a group leader UE (GL-UE); or a relay or remote radio head; or an AMF; or an SMF; or a core network entity; or a mobile edge computing (MEC) entity; or a network slice in the context of an NR or 5G core; or any transmission reception point (TRP) that enables an item / device to communicate using a wireless communication network, and the item / device has network connectivity to communicate using said wireless communication network.

34. A wireless communication network according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: Wireless communication networks include: - a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network; or, - Low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), such as LoRa networks or mioty networks; or, -Wi-Fi network.

35. A user equipment (UE) for a wireless communication network, the wireless communication network comprising one or more relay devices, wherein: The relay device provides a first bidirectional link including a first relay resource and a second bidirectional link including a second relay resource, the first bidirectional link and the second bidirectional link communicating with a radio access network (RAN) of a wireless communication network using a first interface such as a Uu interface; as well as The UE is used to perform direct communication with a network entity of the wireless communication network through a relay device using a second interface such as a PC5 interface for device-to-device (D2D) communication or sidelink (SL) communication in the wireless communication network on one or more first relay resources or on one or more relay resources of the first relay resource and the second relay resource.

36. A method of operating a wireless communication network, the wireless communication network comprising one or more relay devices, wherein: The relay device provides a first bidirectional link including a first relay resource and a second bidirectional link including a second relay resource, wherein the first bidirectional link and the second bidirectional link communicate with a radio access network (RAN) of a wireless communication network using a first interface such as a Uu interface. The method includes: One or more user equipments (UEs) perform direct communication with a network entity of a wireless communication network through a relay device using a second interface such as a PC5 interface for device-to-device (D2D) communication or sidelink (SL) communication in the wireless communication network on one or more first relay resources or on one or more relay resources of the first relay resource and the second relay resource.

37. A non-transitory computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium storing instructions, which, when executed on a computer, perform the method of claim 36.

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