Frame-based channel access in wireless communications

Abstract

A wireless device uses a frame-based channel access mode to access a wireless spectrum for wireless communication. The wireless device may use transmitter-only channel sensing to determine whether the spectrum is idle. The frame-based channel access mode may use a fixed frame period including an initial sensing period for beam-based sensing and an idle period at the end of the frame to facilitate spectrum sharing.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to and the benefit of non-provisional patent application No. 17 / 172,000 filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office on February 9, 2021, and provisional patent application No. 62 / 975,101 filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office on February 11, 2020, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference as if the same applications were set forth in detail below in their entirety and for all applicable purposes. Technical Field

[0003] In general, the technology discussed below relates to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to channel access based on a transmitting-side sensing frame in wireless communication. Background Art

[0004] In fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) networks, wireless devices can communicate with each other using beamforming communications, which use directional transmission and reception techniques. In some examples, a transmitting device can communicate with a receiver using multiple beams in different directions. In some cases, a receiver can determine perceived interference and report interference levels and / or beam measurements back to the transmitting device. The receiver and transmitting device can then work together to prevent or avoid interference to improve communications using beamforming. However, in some cases, a receiver may not be able to detect interference that affects a transmitting device in all scenarios. Summary of the invention

[0005] A summary of one or more aspects of the present disclosure is provided below to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary is not an overview of the extension of all contemplated features of the present disclosure, and is intended to neither identify the key or critical elements of all aspects of the present disclosure, nor to delimit the scope of any or all aspects of the present disclosure. Its sole purpose is to provide some concepts of one or more aspects of the present disclosure in a simplified form as a preface to the specific embodiments provided later.

[0006] Aspects of the present disclosure provide a network, a wireless device, and a frame-based channel access method for wireless communications between wireless devices in the network. A transmitting device can use transmitter-only channel sensing to access the availability of a shared spectrum without relying on reports or feedback from a receiver that can communicate with the transmitting device. The frame-based channel access method can facilitate synchronized channel access. The frame-based channel access method also has application in the transmission of signals that do not require confirmation / feedback.

[0007] One aspect of the present disclosure provides a wireless communication method operable at a transmitting device in a wireless network. The transmitting device senses a spectrum on a plurality of first beams in a first frame of a plurality of frames. Each frame of the plurality of frames includes a sensing period for sensing the spectrum and an idle period for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network. The transmitting device selects one or more beams of the plurality of first beams based on a result of sensing the spectrum in the sensing period of the first frame. The transmitting device transmits a signal in the first frame using the one or more beams in a time interval between the sensing period and the idle period of the first frame.

[0008] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a device for wireless communication. The device includes: a communication interface configured to access a spectrum of a wireless network, a memory, and a processor operatively coupled to the communication interface and the memory. The processor and the memory are configured to sense the spectrum on multiple first beams in a first frame of multiple frames. Each frame of the multiple frames includes a sensing period for sensing the spectrum and an idle period for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network. The processor and the memory are further configured to select one or more beams of the multiple first beams based on the result of sensing the spectrum in the sensing period of the first frame. The processor and the memory are further configured to send a signal in the first frame using the one or more beams in a time interval between the sensing period and the idle period of the first frame.

[0009] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a wireless device for wireless communication in a wireless network. The wireless device includes: a unit for sensing a spectrum on a plurality of first beams in a first frame of a plurality of frames. Each frame of the plurality of frames includes a sensing period for sensing the spectrum and an idle period for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network. The wireless device further includes: a unit for selecting one or more beams of the plurality of first beams based on a result of sensing the spectrum in the sensing period of the first frame. The wireless device further includes: a unit for transmitting a signal in the first frame using the one or more beams in a time interval between the sensing period and the idle period of the first frame.

[0010] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer executable code at a device for wireless communication. The computer executable code includes instructions for causing the device to sense a spectrum on a plurality of first beams in a first frame of a plurality of frames. Each frame of the plurality of frames includes a sensing period for sensing the spectrum and an idle period for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network. The computer executable code further includes instructions for causing the device to select one or more beams of the plurality of first beams based on a result of sensing the spectrum in the sensing period of the first frame. The computer executable code further includes instructions for causing the device to send a signal in the first frame using the one or more beams in a time interval between the sensing period and the idle period of the first frame.

[0011] By reading the subsequent specific embodiments, these and other aspects of the present invention will become more fully understood. By reading the description of specific exemplary aspects in conjunction with the accompanying drawings below, other aspects, features and examples will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Although features can be discussed below with respect to specific embodiments and figures, all examples can include one or more features in the advantageous features discussed herein. In other words, although one or more examples can be discussed as having specific advantageous features, one or more features in such features can also be used according to the various examples discussed herein. In a similar manner, although exemplary examples can be discussed below as device, system or method examples, it should be understood that such exemplary examples can be implemented in various devices, systems and methods. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of a wireless communication system according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0013] Figure 2 is an illustration of an example of a wireless access network in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0014] Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating one example of a wireless communication system configured to support beamforming communications.

[0015] Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating communications between a base station and a user equipment using beamformed signals according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0016] Figure 5 is a schematic illustration of the organization of radio resources in an air interface utilizing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0017] Figure 6 is a block diagram illustrating one example of a hardware implementation of an apparatus according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0018] Figure 7 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary frame structure for using a frame-based channel access mode with transmit (Tx)-only side sensing.

[0019] Figure 8 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method for determining a beam sensing order for a frame-based channel access mode according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0020] Fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating a first exemplary spectrum sensing process according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0021] Fig.10 is a diagram illustrating a second exemplary spectrum sensing process according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0022] Fig.11 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary beam-based idle period operation according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0023] Fig.12 is a diagram illustrating exemplary beam-based communications between a base station and a user equipment using a frame-based channel access mode according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0024] Fig.13 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process for frame-based channel access using Tx sensing according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0025] Fig.14 is a diagram illustrating a clear channel assessment (CCA) process according to one aspect of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] The specific embodiments described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings are intended as descriptions of various configurations and are not intended to represent the only configurations by which the concepts described herein may be practiced. The specific embodiments include specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of the various concepts. However, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some cases, well-known structures and components are shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuring such concepts.

[0027] Although aspects and examples are described in this application by describing some examples, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that additional implementations and use cases can occur in many different arrangements and scenarios. The innovation described herein can be implemented across many different platform types, devices, systems, shapes, sizes, and packaging arrangements. For example, examples and / or uses can occur via integrated chip examples and other devices based on non-module components (e.g., end-user devices, vehicles, communication devices, computing devices, industrial equipment, retail / shopping devices, medical devices, AI-enabled devices, etc.). Although some examples may or may not specifically relate to use cases or applications, a variety of applicability of the described innovations can occur. The scope of implementations can cover the spectrum from chip-level or modular components to non-modular, non-chip-level implementations and further to aggregated, distributed or OEM devices or systems that incorporate one or more aspects of the described innovations. In some realistic environments, the device that incorporates the described aspects and features may also necessarily include additional components and features for implementing and practicing the claimed and described examples. For example, the transmission and reception of wireless signals necessarily include multiple components for analog and digital purposes (e.g., hardware components including antennas, RF chains, power amplifiers, modulators, buffers, processors, interleavers, adders / summers, etc.). It is expected that the innovations described herein can be practiced in a variety of devices, chip-level components, systems, distributed arrangements, end-user devices, etc., having different sizes, shapes, and configurations.

[0028] The electromagnetic spectrum is typically subdivided into various levels, bands, channels, etc. based on frequency / wavelength. In 5G New Radio (NR), two initial operating bands have been identified with the frequency range names FR1 (410 MHz-7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 GHz-52.6 GHz). It should be understood that FR1 is often (interchangeably) referred to as the "sub-6 GHz" band in various documents and articles, even though a portion of FR1 is greater than 6 GHz. A similar naming issue sometimes arises for FR2, which is often (interchangeably) referred to as the "millimeter wave" band in documents and articles, even though it is different from the extremely high frequency (EHF) band (30 GHz-300 GHz) identified as the "millimeter wave" band by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

[0029] The frequency between FR1 and FR2 is generally referred to as the intermediate band frequency. Recent 5G NR research has identified the operating band for these intermediate band frequencies as the frequency range name FR3 (7.125GHz-24.25GHz). The frequency band falling within FR3 can inherit the FR1 characteristics and / or FR2 characteristics, and therefore the characteristics of FR1 and / or FR2 can be effectively extended to the intermediate band frequency. In addition, higher frequency bands are currently being explored to extend 5G new radio (NR) operation to more than 52.6GHz. For example, three higher operating frequency bands have been identified as frequency range names FR4-a or FR4-1 (52.6GHz-71GHz), FR4 (52.6GHz-114.25GHz) and FR5 (114.25GHz-300GHz). Each of these higher frequency bands falls within the EHF band.

[0030] In consideration of the above aspects, unless otherwise specifically stated, it should be understood that the term "sub-6 GHz" and the like, if used herein, may broadly refer to frequencies that may be less than 6 GHz, may fall within FR1, or may include intermediate band frequencies. Further, unless otherwise specifically stated, it should be understood that the term "millimeter wave" and the like, if used herein, may broadly refer to frequencies that may include intermediate band frequencies, may fall within FR2, FR4, FR4-a or FR4-1 and / or FR5, or may fall within the EHF band.

[0031] The fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) network (or simply 5G or NR network) can be deployed using various frequency bands defined in the NR specification. Transmissions using higher frequencies (e.g., FR2 or above) have higher attenuation or path loss than transmissions using lower frequencies (e.g., FR1). The transmitting device can overcome the attenuation or path loss using directional transmission techniques such as beamforming, which transmits signals in one or more highly focused beams to overcome propagation losses. A beam is a directional signal that can be generated by combining elements in an antenna array in such a way that signals at specific angles experience constructive interference and other signals experience destructive interference. The transmitting device can control the phase and relative amplitude of the signal at each transmitter (e.g., antenna) to create a pattern of constructive and destructive interference in the wavefront. In general, the receiver can detect and measure any interference to the beam better than the transmitting device. The receiver can report interference (if any) back to the transmitting device to facilitate cooperative or receiver (Rx) assisted interference management (e.g., interference mitigation) with the transmitting device. However, in some cases, the receiver may not be able to detect interference due to, for example, the directional nature of beamforming communications using higher frequencies (eg, FR2).

[0032] One aspect of the present disclosure provides a method for accessing a channel in wireless communication. By using the method, a device selects multiple first beams for performing a spectrum sensing process in order to access a spectrum. The spectrum can be shared with other devices from different networks. The device performs a spectrum sensing process on multiple first beams in a sensing period of a first frame period. The first beam can be a millimeter wave (mmW) beam. The device selects one or more transmit beams from the multiple first beams for accessing the spectrum based on the result of the spectrum sensing process. Then, the device uses the one or more selected transmit beams to send a signal in the first frame period. The device can use the signal to reserve the spectrum in the selected beam.

[0033] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a device for wireless communication. The device includes: a communication interface configured to access a spectrum, a memory, and a processor operatively coupled to the communication interface and the memory. The processor and the memory are configured to select a plurality of first beams for performing a spectrum sensing process in order to access the spectrum. The processor and the memory are further configured to perform a spectrum sensing process on the plurality of first beams in a sensing period of a first frame period. The processor and the memory are further configured to select one or more transmit beams from the plurality of first beams for accessing the spectrum based on the result of the spectrum sensing process. The processor and the memory are further configured to send a signal in the first frame period via the communication interface using one or more selected transmit beams. The device may use the signal to reserve a spectrum in the selected beam.

[0034] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus for wireless communication using frame-based channel access. The apparatus includes: a unit for selecting a plurality of first beams for performing a spectrum sensing process in order to access a spectrum. The apparatus further includes: a unit for performing a spectrum sensing process on the plurality of first beams in a sensing period of a first frame period. The apparatus further includes: a unit for selecting one or more transmit beams from the plurality of first beams for accessing the spectrum based on a result of the spectrum sensing process. The apparatus further includes: a unit for transmitting a signal in the first frame period using the one or more selected transmit beams. The apparatus may reserve a spectrum in the selected beam using the signal.

[0035] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer executable code at a device for wireless communication using frame-based channel access. The computer executable code causes a processor to perform various operations. The processor selects a plurality of first beams for performing a spectrum sensing process in order to access a spectrum. The processor performs a spectrum sensing process on the plurality of first beams in a sensing period of a first frame period. The processor selects one or more transmit beams from the plurality of first beams for accessing the spectrum based on a result of the spectrum sensing process. The processor transmits a signal in the first frame period using the one or more selected transmit beams. The device may reserve a spectrum in the selected beam using the signal.

[0036] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a wireless communication method operable at a transmitting device. The transmitting device senses a spectrum in a plurality of first beams in a first frame period in a plurality of frame periods, and each of the plurality of first beams is configured for communication in different respective directions. The transmitting device selects one or more beams from the plurality of first beams that are idle when sensing the spectrum in the first frame period. The transmitting device then transmits a signal in the first frame period using the selected one or more beams.

[0037] To select one or more beams, the transmitting device may detect signal energy of the one or more beams, and determine that the one or more beams are idle when the detected signal energy is less than a predetermined threshold. The first frame period may include a plurality of sensing time slots and a time interval for transmitting a signal after the plurality of sensing time slots. To sense the spectrum, the transmitting device may use different beams of the plurality of first beams in different respective sensing time slots of the plurality of sensing time slots to sense the spectrum.

[0038] The transmitting device may sense the spectrum using a plurality of second beams in a second frame period of the plurality of frame periods. The plurality of second beams may include at least one beam different from the plurality of first beams.

[0039] The transmitting device may sense spectrum in the plurality of first beams in a second frame period in the plurality of frame periods. The sensing of the plurality of first beams follows a first order of the plurality of first beams in the first frame period, and follows a second order of the plurality of first beams in the second frame period. The first order is different from the second order. The second order may be derived from the first order based on a round-robin algorithm.

[0040] Each frame period in the plurality of frame periods may further include an idle period configured to prevent transmission of signals associated with a predetermined beam or beam group. To transmit a signal, the transmitting device may transmit a reservation message in a first frame period to reserve one or more beams for communication in the first frame period. To select one or more beams, the transmitting device may determine that the one or more beams are available for communication without receiving feedback from a wireless device on the one or more beams.

[0041] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus includes: a communication interface configured to access a spectrum, a memory, and a processor operatively coupled to the communication interface and the memory. The processor and the memory are configured to sense the spectrum in a plurality of first beams in a first frame period in a plurality of frame periods, and each of the plurality of first beams is configured for communication in different respective directions. The processor and the memory are further configured to select one or more beams in the plurality of first beams that are idle when the spectrum is sensed in the first frame period. The processor and the memory are further configured to send a signal in the first frame period using the selected one or more beams.

[0042] Aspects of the present disclosure provide a frame-based channel access method in a wireless communication network using only transmit-side channel sensing. By utilizing only transmitter-side (Tx-side) channel sensing, a transmitting device can determine whether the spectrum is idle on one or more beams without using beam feedback or measurements from other network nodes (e.g., receivers) that can communicate with the transmitting device using one or more beams. In some aspects, a transmitting device may use a frame-based channel access mode with only Tx-side sensing in a network using an unlicensed or shared spectrum. The frame-based channel access mode described herein may use a fixed frame period, which includes an initial sensing period for beam-based signal sensing and an idle period at the end of the frame for facilitating spectrum sharing. In some aspects, the transmitting device may be a 5G New Radio (NR) network node that uses various frequency bands that may include FR2 or higher frequency bands for beam-based communications.

[0043] The various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may be implemented across a variety of telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards. Figure 1 , various aspects of the present disclosure are described with reference to a wireless communication system 100 as an illustrative example and not as a limitation. The wireless communication system 100 includes three interacting domains: a core network 102, a radio access network (RAN) 104, and a user equipment (UE) 106. With the wireless communication system 100, the UE 106 may be enabled to achieve data communication with an external data network 110 (such as (but not limited to) the Internet).

[0044] The RAN 104 may implement any one or more suitable wireless communication technologies for providing wireless access for the UE 106. As an example, the RAN 104 may operate according to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) specification, commonly referred to as 5G or NR. As another example, the RAN 104 may operate according to a hybrid of 5G NR and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (eUTRAN) standards, commonly referred to as LTE. 3GPP refers to such a hybrid RAN as the Next Generation RAN or NG-RAN. Of course, many other examples may be used within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0045] As illustrated, the RAN 104 includes a plurality of base stations 108. Broadly speaking, a base station is a network element in a radio access network that is responsible for wireless transmission and reception in one or more cells to or from a UE. In different technologies, standards, or contexts, a base station may be referred to as a base transceiver station (BTS), a wireless base station, a wireless transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), an access point (AP), a node B (NB), an e-node B (eNB), a g-node B (gNB), a transmit receive point (TRP), or some other suitable terminology by those skilled in the art. In some examples, a base station may include two or more TRPs, which may be co-located or non-co-located. Each TRP may communicate on the same or different carrier frequencies within the same or different frequency bands.

[0046] A radio access network 104 supporting wireless communications for multiple mobile devices is further illustrated. A mobile device may be referred to as a user equipment (UE) in the 3GPP standard, but may also be referred to as a mobile station (MS), a user station, a mobile unit, a user unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communication device, a remote device, a mobile user station, an access terminal (AT), a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a terminal, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology by those skilled in the art. A UE may be a device (e.g., a mobile device) that provides access to network services for a user. A UE may communicate with the RAN 104 using a variety of licensed or unlicensed frequencies.

[0047] Within this document, a "mobile" device need not necessarily have the capability to move, and may be fixed. The term mobile device or mobile device broadly refers to a wide variety of devices and technologies. A UE may include some hardware structured components that are sized, shaped, and arranged to assist in communications; such components may include antennas, antenna arrays, RF chains, amplifiers, one or more processors, etc. that are electrically coupled to each other. For example, some non-limiting examples of mobile devices include mobile phones, cellular (cell) phones, smart phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, laptops, personal computers (PCs), notebooks, netbooks, smartbooks, tablet devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and a wide variety of embedded systems (e.g., corresponding to the "Internet of Things" (IoT)). The mobile device may additionally be a car or other vehicle, a remote sensor or actuator, a robot or robotic device, a satellite radio, a global positioning system (GPS) device, a target tracking device, a drone, a multicopter, a quadcopter, a remote control device, a consumer and / or wearable device (such as glasses, a wearable camera, a virtual reality device, a smart watch, a health or fitness tracker, a digital audio player (e.g., an MP3 player), a camera, a game console, etc.). The mobile device may additionally be a digital home or smart home device (such as home audio, video and / or multimedia devices, home appliances, vending machines, smart lighting, home security systems, smart meters, etc.). The mobile device may additionally be a smart energy device, a security device, a solar panel or solar array, an urban infrastructure device that controls power (e.g., a smart grid), lighting, water, etc.; industrial automation and enterprise devices; logistics controllers; agricultural equipment, etc. Still further, the mobile device may provide connected medical or telemedicine support (e.g., health care at a distance). Remote health devices may include remote health monitoring devices and remote health management devices, whose communications may be given preferential treatment or prioritized access over other types of information (e.g., in terms of prioritized access to transmission of critical service data and / or associated QoS for transmission of critical service data).

[0048] Wireless communication between RAN 104 and UE 106 can be described as utilizing an air interface. Transmissions over the air interface from a base station (e.g., base station 108) to one or more UEs (e.g., UE 106) can be referred to as downlink (DL) transmissions. According to certain aspects of the present disclosure, the term downlink can refer to point-to-multipoint transmissions originating from a scheduling entity (described further below; e.g., base station 108). Another way to describe this scheme can be to use the term broadcast channel multiplexing. Transmissions from a UE (e.g., UE 106) to a base station (e.g., base station 108) can be referred to as uplink (UL) transmissions. According to further aspects of the present disclosure, the term uplink can refer to point-to-point transmissions originating from a scheduled entity (described further below; e.g., UE 106).

[0049] In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, wherein a scheduling entity (e.g., a base station 108) allocates resources for communication between some or all devices and equipment within its service area or cell. Within the present disclosure, as discussed further below, a scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, allocating, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more scheduled entities. That is, for scheduled communications, a UE 106 (which may be a scheduled entity) may utilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity 108. In some aspects, a scheduling entity may allocate resources for communication using a frame-based access mode. A frame-based access mode will be described in detail below.

[0050] Base station 108 is not the only entity that can act as a scheduling entity. That is, in some examples, a UE can act as a scheduling entity, scheduling resources for one or more scheduled entities (e.g., one or more other UEs).

[0051] As in Figure 1 As described in , the scheduling entity 108 can broadcast downlink traffic 112 to one or more scheduled entities 106. Broadly speaking, the scheduling entity 108 is a node or device responsible for scheduling traffic in the wireless communication network, including downlink traffic 112, and in some examples, uplink traffic 116 from one or more scheduled entities 106 to the scheduling entity 108. On the other hand, the scheduled entity 106 is a node or device that receives downlink control information 114, including but not limited to scheduling information (e.g., grants), synchronization or timing information, or other control information from another entity in the wireless communication network such as the scheduling entity 108.

[0052] In general terms, the base stations 108 may include a backhaul interface for communicating with a backhaul portion 120 of the wireless communication system. The backhaul 120 may provide a link between the base stations 108 and the core network 102. Further, in some examples, the backhaul network may provide interconnections between the respective base stations 108. Various types of backhaul interfaces may be used, such as a direct physical connection using any suitable transport network, a virtual network, etc.

[0053] The core network 102 may be part of the wireless communication system 100 and may be independent of the radio access technology used in the RAN 104. In some examples, the core network 102 may be configured according to 5G standards (e.g., 5GC). In other examples, the core network 102 may be configured according to 4G Evolved Packet Core (EPC) or any other suitable standard or configuration.

[0054] Figure 2 is an illustration of an example of a radio access network (RAN) 200 according to some aspects of the present disclosure. In some examples, the RAN 200 may be similar to that described above and Figure 1 The geographic area covered by the RAN 200 may be divided into cellular areas (cells) that may be uniquely identified by a user equipment (UE) based on an identity broadcast from an access point or base station. Figure 2 Macro cells 202, 204, and 206 and small cells 208 are illustrated, each of which may include one or more sectors (not shown). A sector is a sub-area of ​​a cell. All sectors within a cell are served by the same base station. A radio link within a sector can be identified by a single logical identifier belonging to the sector. In a cell divided into sectors, multiple sectors within a cell can be formed by groups of antennas, where each antenna is responsible for communication with a UE in a portion of the cell.

[0055] exist Figure 2, two exemplary base stations 210 and 212 in cells 202 and 204 are shown; and a third exemplary base station 214 controlling a remote radio head (RRH) 216 in cell 206 is shown. That is, the base station may have an integrated antenna, or may be connected to the antenna or RRH by a feeder cable. In the illustrated example, cells 202, 204, and 126 may be referred to as macro cells because base stations 210, 212, and 214 support cells with large sizes. Further, a base station 218 in a small cell 208 (e.g., a micro cell, a micro cell, a femto cell, a home base station, a home node B, a home e-node B, etc.) that may overlap with one or more macro cells is shown. In this example, cell 208 may be referred to as a small cell because base station 218 supports a cell with a relatively small size. Cell size determination may be accomplished based on system design and component constraints.

[0056] It should be understood that the wireless access network 200 may include any number of wireless base stations and cells. Further, relay nodes may be deployed to extend the size or coverage area of ​​a given cell. Base stations 210, 212, 214, 218 provide wireless access points to a core network (e.g., core network 102) for any number of mobile devices. In some examples, base stations 210, 212, 214, and / or 218 may be similar to those described above and in Figure 1 The same as the base station / scheduling entity 108 described in .

[0057] Figure 2 Further included is a quadcopter or drone 220 that can be configured to act as a base station. That is, in some examples, the cell may not necessarily be fixed, and the geographic area of ​​the cell may move according to the location of a mobile base station such as a quadcopter 220.

[0058] Within the RAN 200, cells may include UEs that may communicate with one or more sectors of each cell. Further, each base station 210, 212, 214, 218, and 220 may be configured to provide services to the core network 102 (see FIG. 1 ) for all UEs in the respective cell. Figure 1 ) access point. For example, UEs 222 and 224 may communicate with base station 210; UEs 226 and 228 may communicate with base station 212; UEs 230 and 232 may communicate with base station 214 via RRH 216; UE 234 may communicate with base station 218; and UE 236 may communicate with mobile base station 220. In some examples, UEs 222, 224, 226, 228, 230, 232, 234, 236, 238, 240, and / or 242 may be the same as those described above and Figure 1The UE / scheduled entity 106 is the same as that described in the foregoing. The UE may communicate with the base station using one or more beams at, for example, FR1 and / or FR2 frequencies.

[0059] In some examples, a mobile network node (e.g., quadcopter 220) can be configured to act as a UE. For example, quadcopter 220 can operate within cell 202 by communicating with base station 210.

[0060] In a further aspect of RAN 200, sidelink signals can be used between UEs without necessarily relying on scheduling or control information from a base station. For example, two or more UEs (e.g., UE 238, 240, and 242) can use peer-to-peer (P2P) or sidelink signals 237 to communicate with each other without relaying the communication through a base station. In some examples, UE 238, 240, and 242 can each act as a scheduling entity or a sending sidelink device and / or a scheduled entity or a receiving sidelink device to schedule resources and transmit sidelink signals 237 therebetween without relying on scheduling or control information from a base station. In other examples, two or more UEs (e.g., UE 226 and 228) within the coverage area of ​​a base station (e.g., base station 212) can also transmit sidelink signals 227 via a direct link (sidelink) without transmitting the communication through base station 212. In this example, base station 212 can allocate resources for sidelink communication to UE 226 and 228. In either case, such sidelink signaling 227 and 237 may be implemented in a P2P network, a device-to-device (D2D) network, a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) network, a vehicle-to-everything (V2X), a mesh network, or other suitable direct link network.

[0061] In the radio access network 200, the ability of a UE to communicate while moving independently of its location is called mobility. In general, in the access and mobility management function (AMF, not illustrated, Figure 1 Various physical channels between the UE and the radio access network are established, maintained and released under the control of the core network 102 in the core network 102), and the access and mobility management functions may include a security context management function (SCMF) that manages the security context of both the control plane and the user plane functions and a security anchor function (SEAF) that performs authentication.

[0062] In various aspects of the present disclosure, the wireless access network 200 can utilize DL-based mobility or UL-based mobility to implement mobility and switching (i.e., the transfer of a UE's connection from one wireless channel to another wireless channel). In a network configured for DL-based mobility, during a call using a scheduling entity, or at any other time, the UE can monitor various parameters of the signal from its serving cell and various parameters of neighboring cells. Depending on the quality of these parameters, the UE can maintain communication with one or more of the neighboring cells. During this time, if the UE moves from one cell to another, or if the signal quality from the neighboring cell exceeds the signal quality from the serving cell for a given amount of time, the UE can undertake a handover or switch from the serving cell to the neighboring (target) cell. For example, a UE 224 (illustrated as a vehicle, although any suitable form of UE can be used) can move from a geographic area corresponding to its serving cell 202 to a geographic area corresponding to a neighboring cell 206. When the signal strength or quality from a neighbor cell 206 exceeds the signal strength or quality of its serving cell 202 for a given amount of time, the UE 224 may send a report message indicating this condition to its serving base station 210. In response, the UE 224 may receive a handover command, and the UE may undergo a handover to the cell 206.

[0063] In a network configured for UL-based mobility, the UL reference signal from each UE can be used by the network to select a serving cell for each UE. In some examples, base stations 210, 212, and 214 / 216 can broadcast a unified synchronization signal (e.g., a unified primary synchronization signal (PSS), a unified secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and a unified physical broadcast channel (PBCH)). UE 222, 224, 226, 228, 230, and 232 can receive a unified synchronization signal, derive a carrier frequency and a time slot timing from the synchronization signal, and send an uplink pilot or reference signal in response to the derived timing. The uplink pilot signal sent by a UE (e.g., UE 224) can be received concurrently by two or more cells (e.g., base stations 210 and 214 / 216) within the wireless access network 200. Each of these cells may measure the strength of the pilot signal, and the radio access network (e.g., one or more of base stations 210 and 214 / 216 and / or a central node within a core network) may determine a serving cell for UE 224. As UE 224 moves through radio access network 200, the network may continue to monitor the uplink pilot signals sent by UE 224. When the signal strength or quality of the pilot signal measured by a neighboring cell exceeds the signal strength or quality measured by the serving cell, network 200 may handover UE 224 from the serving cell to a neighboring cell with or without notifying UE 224.

[0064] Although the synchronization signals sent by base stations 210, 212 and 214 / 216 may be unified, the synchronization signals may not identify a specific cell, but may instead identify a zone of multiple cells operating on the same frequency and / or having the same timing. The use of zones in a 5G network or other next generation communication network implements an uplink-based mobility framework and improves the efficiency of both the UE and the network because the number of mobility messages that need to be exchanged between the UE and the network may be reduced.

[0065] In various implementations, the air interface in the radio access network 200 may utilize a licensed spectrum, an unlicensed spectrum, or a shared spectrum. The spectrum may include one or more frequency bands that may be used for wireless communications. The licensed spectrum generally provides exclusive use of a portion of the spectrum by means of a mobile network operator purchasing a license from a government regulator. The unlicensed spectrum provides shared use of a portion of the spectrum without requiring a license authorized by the government. Although in general, some technical rules still need to be met in order to access the unlicensed spectrum, in general, any operator or device can obtain access. The shared spectrum may fall between the licensed and unlicensed spectrum, where technical rules or restrictions may be required to access the spectrum, but the spectrum can still be shared by multiple operators and / or multiple RATs. For example, the holder of a license for a portion of the licensed spectrum may provide a licensed shared access (LSA) to share the spectrum with other parties (e.g., with appropriate conditions determined by the licensee for obtaining access).

[0066] In some aspects of the present disclosure, a network node (e.g., a base station or UE) may use a spectrum sensing process to obtain access to a shared or licensed spectrum in a synchronous network (e.g., RAN 200). In a synchronous network, a network device sends and receives signals based on synchronous timing, for example, using frame-based access. In one example, the spectrum sensing process may use a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure or process, which may be a non-scheduled, contention-based multiple access technology in which a device monitors or senses a carrier or spectrum before sending a signal through the spectrum (e.g., on one or more beams). Some LBT techniques utilize signaling such as request to send (RTS) and clear to send (CTS) to reserve a channel for a given duration. In some examples, a transmitting device may send a reservation message to reserve a beam for communication with another device or network node (e.g., UE) after determining that the spectrum is idle or available without receiving any beam measurements or feedback from the other device or network node.

[0067] The air interface in the wireless access network 200 may utilize one or more duplex algorithms. Duplex refers to a point-to-point communication link in which both endpoints can communicate with each other in both directions. Full-duplex means that both endpoints can communicate with each other simultaneously. Half-duplex means that only one endpoint can send information to the other endpoint at a time. Time division duplex (TDD) is often used to implement half-duplex emulation for wireless links. In TDD, transmissions in different directions on a given channel are separated from each other using time division multiplexing. That is, at some times, the channel is dedicated to transmissions in one direction, while at other times, the channel is dedicated to transmissions in another direction, where this direction can be changed very quickly (e.g., several times per time slot). In wireless links, in general, full-duplex channels rely on physical isolation of transmitters and receivers and appropriate interference cancellation techniques. Full-duplex emulation is often implemented for wireless links by using frequency division duplex (FDD) or space division duplex (SDD). In FDD, transmissions in different directions may operate at different carrier frequencies (e.g., within a paired spectrum). In SDD, transmissions in different directions on a given channel are separated from each other using spatial division multiplexing (SDM). In other examples, full-duplex communication may be implemented within a non-paired spectrum (e.g., within a single carrier bandwidth), where transmissions in different directions occur within different sub-bands of the carrier bandwidth. This type of full-duplex communication may be referred to herein as sub-band full-duplex (SBFD), also known as flexible duplex.

[0068] In some aspects of the present disclosure, the scheduling entity and / or the scheduled entity may be configured for beamforming and / or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques. Figure 3 An example of a wireless communication system 300 supporting MIMO is illustrated. In a MIMO system, a transmitter 302 includes multiple transmit antennas 304 (e.g., N transmit antennas), and a receiver 306 includes multiple receive antennas 308 (e.g., M receive antennas). Thus, there are N×M signal paths 310 from the transmit antennas 304 to the receive antennas 308. Each of the transmitter 302 and the receiver 306 may be implemented, for example, within the scheduling entity 108, the scheduled entity 106, or any other suitable wireless communication device.

[0069] The use of such multi-antenna technology enables wireless communication systems to exploit the spatial domain to support spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and transmit diversity. Spatial multiplexing can be used to send different data streams (also called layers) on the same time-frequency resources at the same time. Data streams can be sent to a single UE to increase the data rate, or to multiple UEs to increase the total system capacity, the latter of which is called multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO). This is achieved by spatially precoding each data stream (i.e., multiplying the data stream by different weights and phase shifts) and then sending each spatially precoded stream through multiple transmit antennas on the downlink. The spatially precoded data streams arrive at the UE with different spatial signatures, which enables each of the UEs to recover one or more data streams intended for the UE. On the uplink, each UE sends a spatially precoded data stream, which enables the base station to identify the source of each spatially precoded data stream.

[0070] The number of data streams or layers corresponds to the rank of the transmission. In general, the rank of the MIMO system 300 is limited by the number of transmit or receive antennas 304 or 308 (calculated as the lower of the two). In addition, the channel conditions at the UE and other considerations such as the available resources at the base station can also affect the transmission rank. For example, the rank (and therefore the number of data streams) assigned to a specific UE on the downlink can be determined based on a rank indicator (RI) sent from the UE to the base station. The RI can be determined based on the antenna configuration (e.g., the number of transmit and receive antennas) and the measured signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) on each receive antenna in the receive antenna. The RI can indicate, for example, the number of layers that can be supported under the current channel conditions. The base station can use the RI and resource information (e.g., the available resources and the amount of data to be scheduled to the UE) to allocate a transmission rank to the UE.

[0071] In a time division duplex (TDD) system, UL and DL are reciprocal because each uses different time slots of the same frequency bandwidth. Therefore, in a TDD system, the base station can assign ranks to DL MIMO transmissions based on UL SINR measurements (e.g., based on a sounding reference signal (SRS) or other pilot signal sent from the UE). Based on the assigned rank, the base station can then send a CSI-RS with a separate C-RS sequence for each layer to provide multi-layer channel estimation. From the CSI-RS, the UE can measure the channel quality across layers and resource blocks, and feed back an RI and a channel quality indicator (CQI) indicating the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) to be used for transmissions to the UE to the base station for use in updating the rank and allocating REs for future downlink transmissions.

[0072] In the simplest case, as in Figure 3, a rank-2 spatial multiplexing transmission on a 2x2 MIMO antenna configuration will transmit one data stream from each transmit antenna 304. Each data stream arrives at each receive antenna 308 along a different signal path 310. The receiver 306 can then reconstruct the data stream using the received signal from each receive antenna 308.

[0073] Beamforming is a signal processing technique that can be used at a transmitter 302 or a receiver 306 to shape or steer an antenna beam (e.g., a transmit beam or a receive beam) along a spatial path between the transmitter 302 and the receiver 306. Beamforming can be achieved by combining signals transmitted via antennas 304 or 308 (e.g., antenna elements of an antenna array module) so that some of the signals experience constructive interference and other signals experience destructive interference. In order to create the desired constructive / destructive interference, the transmitter 302 or the receiver 306 can apply an amplitude and / or phase offset to the signal transmitted or received from each of the antennas 304 or 308 associated with the transmitter 302 or the receiver 306.

[0074] In a 5G New Radio (NR) system, specifically, for an NR system using FR2 or higher frequency bands, beamforming signals may be used for most downlink channels including a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). In addition, broadcast control information such as a synchronization signal block (SSB), a slot format indicator (SFI), and paging information may be transmitted in a beam scanning manner to enable all scheduled entities (UEs) in the coverage area of ​​a transmit receive point (TRP) (e.g., a gNB) to receive the broadcast control information. In addition, for a UE configured with a beamforming antenna array, beamforming signals may also be used for uplink channels including a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). However, it should be understood that beamforming signals may also be used by an enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) gNB for sub-6 GHz systems (e.g., FR1). In addition, beamforming signals may further be used in D2D systems such as NR sidelink (SL) or V2X utilizing FR2.

[0075] Figure 4 4 is a diagram illustrating communication between a base station 404 and a UE 402 using beamforming signals according to some aspects. The base station 404 may be a Figure 1 and / or any of the base stations (e.g., gNBs) or scheduling entities described in 2, and UE 402 may be in Figure 1and / or any of the UEs or scheduled entities described in 2. In some aspects, the base station 404 can communicate with the UE 402 using the frame-based access mode described herein.

[0076] In summary, the base station 404 may be capable of communicating with the UE 402 using one or more transmit beams, and the UE 402 may further be capable of communicating with the base station 404 using one or more receive beams. As used herein, the term transmit beam refers to a beam on the base station 404 that may be used for downlink or uplink communication with the UE 402. Additionally, the term receive beam refers to a beam on the UE 402 that may be used for downlink or uplink communication with the base station 404.

[0077] exist Figure 4 In the example shown in , the base station 404 is configured to generate multiple transmit beams 406a-406h, each associated with a different spatial direction. In addition, the UE 402 is configured to generate multiple receive beams 408a-408e, each associated with a different spatial direction. It should be noted that although some beams are described as being adjacent to each other, such an arrangement may be different in different aspects. For example, the transmit beams 406a-406h transmitted during the same symbol may not be adjacent to each other. In some examples, the base station 404 and the UE 402 may each transmit more or fewer beams distributed in all directions (e.g., 360 degrees) and in three dimensions. In addition, the transmit beams 406a-406h may include beams with different beam widths. For example, the base station 404 may transmit a specific signal (e.g., SSB) on a wider beam and other signals (e.g., CSI-RS) on a narrower beam.

[0078] The base station 404 and the UE 402 may use a beam management process to select one or more transmit beams 406a-406h on the base station 404 and one or more receive beams 408a-408e on the UE 402 for communication of uplink and downlink signals therebetween. In one example, during initial cell acquisition, the UE 402 may perform a P1 beam management process on multiple receive beams 408a-408e to scan multiple transmit beams 406a-406h in order to select a beam pair link (e.g., one transmit beam in the transmit beams 406a-406h and one receive beam in the receive beams 408a-408e) for a physical random access channel (PRACH) process for initial access to the cell. For example, periodic SSB beam scanning may be implemented at a specific interval (e.g., based on an SSB period rate) on the base station 404. Thus, the base station 404 may be configured to scan or transmit an SSB on each of the plurality of wider transmit beams 406a-406h during a beam scanning interval. The UE may measure a reference signal received power (RSRP) of each of the SSB transmit beams on each of the receive beams of the UE and select transmit and receive beams based on the measured RSRP. In one example, the selected receive beam may be the receive beam on which the highest RSRP was measured, and the selected transmit beam may have the highest RSRP as measured on the selected receive beam.

[0079] After completing the PRACH process, the base station 404 and the UE 402 may perform a P2 beam management process for beam improvement at the base station 404. For example, the base station 404 may be configured to scan or transmit CSI-RS on each of a plurality of narrower transmit beams 406a-406h. Each of the narrower CSI-RS beams may be a sub-beam of a selected SSB transmit beam (e.g., located within a spatial direction of the SSB transmit beam). The transmission of the CSI-RS transmit beam may occur periodically (e.g., as configured by the gNB via radio resource control (RRC) signaling), semi-persistently (e.g., as configured by the gNB via RRC signaling and activated / destroyed via medium access control-control element (MAC-CE) signaling), or aperiodically (e.g., as triggered by the gNB via downlink control information (DCI)). The UE 402 is configured to scan multiple CSI-RS transmit beams 406a-406h across multiple receive beams 408a-408e. The UE 402 then performs beam measurements (e.g., RSRP, SINR, etc.) on the received CSI-RS on each of the receive beams 408a-408e to determine the respective beam quality of each of the CSI-RS transmit beams 406a-406h as measured on each of the receive beams 408a-408e.

[0080] UE 402 may then generate and send a layer 1 (L1) measurement report to base station 404, the L1 measurement report including respective beam indices (e.g., CSI-RS resource indicators (CRIs)) of one or more of CSI-RS transmit beams 406a-406h and beam measurements (e.g., RSRP or SINR) thereof made on one or more of receive beams 408a-408e. Base station 404 may then select one or more CSI-RS transmit beams on which to transmit downlink and / or uplink control and / or data with UE 402. In some examples, the selected CSI-RS transmit beam has the highest RSRP from the L1 measurement report. The sending of L1 measurement reports may occur periodically (e.g., as configured by the gNB via RRC signaling), semi-persistently (e.g., as configured by the gNB via RRC signaling and activated / destroyed via MAC-CE signaling), or aperiodically (e.g., as triggered by the gNB via DCI).

[0081] UE 402 may further select a corresponding receive beam on UE 402 for each selected serving CSI-RS transmit beam so as to form a separate beam pair link (BPL) for each selected serving CSI-RS transmit beam. For example, UE 402 may utilize beam measurements acquired during a P2 process or perform a P3 beam management process to acquire new beam measurements for the selected CSI-RS transmit beam so as to select a corresponding receive beam for each selected transmit beam. In some examples, the selected receive beam for pairing with a specific CSI-RS transmit beam may be the receive beam on which the highest RSRP of the specific CSI-RS transmit beam is measured.

[0082] In some examples, in addition to performing CSI-RS beam measurements, base station 404 can configure UE 402 to perform SSB beam measurements and provide an L1 measurement report containing beam measurements for SSB transmit beams 406a-406h. For example, base station 404 can configure UE 402 to perform SSB beam measurements and / or CSI-RS beam measurements for beam failure detection (BRD), beam failure recovery (BFR), cell reselection, beam tracking (e.g., for a mobile UE 402 and / or base station 404), or other beam optimization purposes.

[0083] In addition, when the channel is reciprocal, an uplink beam management scheme may be used to select transmit and receive beams. In one example, the UE 402 may be configured to scan or transmit on each of a plurality of receive beams 408a-408e. For example, the UE 402 may transmit an SRS on each beam in a different beam direction. In addition, the base station 404 may be configured to receive uplink beam reference signals on a plurality of transmit beams 406a-406h. The base station 404 then performs beam measurements (e.g., RSRP, SINR, etc.) on the beam reference signals on each of the transmit beams 406a-406h to determine the respective beam qualities of each of the receive beams 408a-408e as measured on each of the transmit beams 406a-406h.

[0084] The base station 404 may then select one or more transmit beams on which to transmit downlink and / or uplink control and / or data with the UE 402. In some examples, the selected transmit beam has the highest RSRP. The UE 402 may then select a corresponding receive beam for each selected serving transmit beam, e.g., using the P3 beam management process as described above, to form a separate beam pair link (BPL) for each selected serving transmit beam.

[0085] In one example, a single CSI-RS transmit beam (e.g., beam 406d) on the base station 404 and a single receive beam (e.g., beam 408c) on the UE may form a single BPL for communication between the base station 404 and the UE 402. In another example, multiple CSI-RS transmit beams (e.g., beams 406c, 406d, and 406e) on the base station 404 and a single receive beam (e.g., beam 408c) on the UE 402 may form separate BPLs for communication between the base station 404 and the UE 402. In another example, multiple CSI-RS transmit beams (e.g., beams 406c, 406d, and 406e) on the base station 404 and multiple receive beams (e.g., beams 408c and 408d) on the UE 402 may form multiple BPLs for communication between the base station 404 and the UE 402. In this example, the first BPL may include the transmit beam 406c and the receive beam 408c, the second BPL may include the transmit beam 406d and the receive beam 408c, and the third BPL may include the transmit beam 406e and the receive beam 408d.

[0086] You can refer to Figure 5 Various aspects of the present disclosure are described with reference to OFDM waveforms schematically illustrated in FIG. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various aspects of the present disclosure may be applied to SC-FDMA waveforms in substantially the same manner as described herein below. That is, although some examples of the present disclosure may focus on OFDM links for clarity, it will be appreciated that the same principles may also be applied to SC-FDMA waveforms.

[0087] Reference now Figure 5 , illustrates an expanded view of an exemplary subframe 502 (e.g., DL subframe) showing an OFDM resource grid 504. However, as those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, the PHY transmission structure for any particular application may differ from the examples described herein depending on any number of factors. Here, time is in units of OFDM symbols in the horizontal direction; and frequency is in units of subcarriers or tones of a carrier in the vertical direction.

[0088] Resource grid 504 can be used to schematically represent the time-frequency resources for a given antenna port. That is, in a MIMO implementation with multiple available antenna ports, corresponding multiple resource grids 504 can be available for communication. Resource grid 504 is divided into multiple resource elements (REs) 506. For example, RE as 1 subcarrier × 1 symbol is the smallest discrete part of the time-frequency grid and contains a single complex value representing data from a physical channel or signal. Depending on the modulation used in the specific implementation, each RE can represent one or more bits of information. In some examples, a block of REs can be referred to as a physical resource block (PRB) or simply a resource block (RB) 508, which contains any suitable number of consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain. In one example, an RB can include 12 (independent of the number of digital sciences used) subcarriers. In some examples, depending on digital sciences, an RB can include any suitable number of consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain. In the present disclosure, it is assumed that a single RB (such as RB 508) corresponds entirely to a single communication direction (transmission or reception of a given device).

[0089] Scheduling a scheduled entity (e.g., UE) for downlink, uplink, or sidelink transmissions typically involves scheduling one or more resource elements 506 within one or more subbands or bandwidth parts (BWPs). Thus, a UE generally utilizes only a subset of the resource grid 504. In some examples, a RB may be the smallest unit of resources that may be allocated to a UE. Thus, the more RBs scheduled for a UE, and the higher the modulation scheme selected for the air interface, the higher the data rate for the UE. The RBs may be scheduled by a base station (e.g., gNB, eNB, etc.), or may be self-scheduled by a UE implementing D2D sidelink communication.

[0090] In this illustration, RB 508 is shown as occupying less than the entire bandwidth of subframe 502, with some subcarriers being illustrated as being located above and below RB 508. In a given implementation, subframe 502 may have a bandwidth corresponding to any number of one or more RBs 508. Further, in this illustration, RB 508 is shown as occupying less than the entire duration of subframe 502, although this is merely one possible example.

[0091] Each subframe 502 (eg, a 1 ms subframe) may be composed of one or more adjacent time slots. Figure 5In the example shown in , as an illustrative example, a subframe 502 includes four time slots 510. In some examples, time slots can be defined according to a specified number of OFDM symbols with a given cyclic prefix (CP) length. For example, a time slot can include 7 or 14 OFDM symbols with a nominal CP. Additional examples may include mini-slots with shorter durations (e.g., 1 to 3 OFDM symbols), sometimes also referred to as shortened transmission time intervals (TTIs). In some cases, these mini-slots or shortened transmission time intervals (TTIs) that occupy resources scheduled for ongoing time slot transmissions of the same or different UEs may be sent. Any number of resource blocks may be utilized within a subframe or time slot.

[0092] An expanded view of one of the time slots 510 illustrates the time slot 510 including a control interval 512 and a data interval 514. In general, the control interval 512 may carry a control channel (e.g., PDCCH), and the data interval 514 may carry a data channel (e.g., PDSCH or PUSCH). Of course, a time slot may contain all DL, all UL, or at least one DL portion and at least one UL portion. Figure 5 The structure illustrated in is merely exemplary in nature, and different slot structures may be utilized and may include one or more control intervals or data intervals in each of the control intervals and the data intervals.

[0093] Although not in Figure 5 However, various REs 506 in RB 508 may be scheduled to carry one or more physical channels, including control channels, shared channels, data channels, etc. Other REs 506 in RB 508 may also carry pilot or reference signals. These pilot or reference signals may provide a receiving device with channel estimation for corresponding channels, and such channel estimation may implement coherent demodulation / detection of control and / or data channels in RB 508.

[0094] In some examples, time slot 510 may be used for broadcast, multicast, groupcast, or unicast communications. For example, broadcast, multicast, or groupcast communications may refer to point-to-multipoint transmissions made by one device (e.g., a base station, UE, or other similar device) to other devices. Here, broadcast communications are distributed to all devices, while multicast communications are distributed to multiple intended receiving devices, and groupcast communications are distributed to a group of intended receiving devices. Unicast communications may refer to point-to-point transmissions made by one device to a single other device.

[0095] In one example of cellular communication based on a cellular carrier via a Uu interface, for DL ​​transmission, a scheduling entity (e.g., a base station) may allocate (e.g., within a control interval 512) one or more REs 506 to carry DL control information including one or more DL control channels, such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to one or more scheduled entities (e.g., UEs). The PDCCH carries downlink control information (DCI) including, but not limited to, power control commands (e.g., one or more open-loop power control parameters and / or one or more closed-loop power control parameters), scheduling information, grants, and / or allocations of REs for DL ​​and UL transmissions. The PDCCH may further carry HARQ feedback transmissions such as acknowledgements (ACKs) or negative acknowledgements (NACKs). HARQ is a technique well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, wherein the integrity of a packet transmission may be checked for accuracy at the receiving side, for example, using any suitable integrity check mechanism, such as a checksum or a cyclic redundancy check (CRC). If the integrity of the transmission is confirmed, an ACK may be sent, and if not, a NACK may be sent. In response to the NACK, the transmitting device may send a HARQ retransmission, which may enable append combining, incremental redundancy, and the like.

[0096] The base station may further allocate (e.g., in the control interval 512 or the data interval 514) one or more REs 506 for carrying other DL signals, such as a demodulation reference signal (DMRS); a phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS); a channel state information (CSI) reference signal (CSI-RS); and a synchronization signal block (SSB). The SSB may be broadcast at regular intervals based on a time period rate (e.g., 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, or 160 ms). The SSB includes a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and a physical broadcast control channel (PBCH). The UE may use the PSS and SSS to achieve radio frame, subframe, time slot, and symbol synchronization in the time domain, identify the center of the channel (system) bandwidth in the frequency domain, and identify the physical cell identity (PCI) of the cell.

[0097] The PBCH in the SSB may further include a master information block (MIB), which includes various system information and parameters for decoding a system information block (SIB). The SIB may be, for example, SystemInformationType1 (SIB1), which may include various additional system information. Examples of system information sent in the MIB may include, but are not limited to, subcarrier spacing, system frame number, configuration of a PDCCH control resource set (CORESET) (e.g., PDCCH CORESET0), and a search space for SIB1. Examples of additional system information sent in SIB1 may include, but are not limited to, random access search space, downlink configuration information, and uplink configuration information. The MIB and SIB1 together provide minimum system information (SI) for initial access.

[0098] In an UL transmission, a scheduled entity (e.g., a UE) may utilize one or more REs 506 to carry UL control information (UCI) including one or more UL control channels such as a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) to a scheduling entity. The UCI may include multiple packet types and categories, including pilots, reference signals, and information configured to enable or assist in decoding uplink data transmissions. In some examples, the UCI may include a scheduling request (SR), i.e., a request to a scheduling entity to schedule an uplink transmission. Here, in response to the SR sent in the UCI, the scheduling entity may send downlink control information (DCI), which may schedule resources for uplink packet transmissions. The UCI may also include HARQ feedback, channel state feedback (CSF) such as a CSI report, or any other suitable UCI.

[0099] In addition to control information, one or more REs 506 (e.g., within the data interval 514) may be allocated to data traffic. Such data traffic may be carried on one or more traffic channels (such as, for DL ​​transmission, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); or for UL transmission, a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)). In some examples, one or more REs 506 within the data interval 514 may be configured to carry other signals, such as, one or more SIBs and DMRS.

[0100] In an example of sidelink communication via a sidelink carrier via a PC5 interface, a control interval 512 of a time slot 510 may include a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), which includes sidelink control information (SCI) sent by an initiating (transmitting) sidelink device (e.g., a V2X or other sidelink device) to a set of one or more other receiving sidelink devices. A data interval 514 of the time slot 510 may include a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), which includes sidelink data services sent by an initiating (transmitting) sidelink device in resources reserved by the transmitting sidelink device via the SCI on the sidelink carrier. Other information may be further sent via various REs 506 within the time slot 510. For example, HARQ feedback information may be sent from a receiving sidelink device to a transmitting sidelink device in a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) within the time slot 510. In addition, one or more reference signals such as sidelink SSB and / or sidelink CSI-RS may be sent within time slot 510 .

[0101] Described above and in Figure 1 , 2 The channels or carriers illustrated in , 4 and 5 are not necessarily all of the channels or carriers that may be used between the scheduling entity 108 and the scheduled entity 106, and one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that other channels or carriers (such as other traffic, control and feedback channels) in addition to those illustrated may be utilized.

[0102] In summary, these physical channels described above are multiplexed and mapped to transport channels for handling at the medium access control (MAC) layer. The transport channel carries information blocks called transport blocks (TBs). The transport block size (TBS), which may correspond to the number of bits of information, may be a parameter controlled based on the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and the number of RBs in a given transmission.

[0103] Figure 6 is a block diagram illustrating one example of a hardware implementation of an apparatus 600 using a processing system 614. For example, the apparatus 600 may be as described in Figure 1 , 2 , 4 and / or 12. In another example, the apparatus 600 may be a user equipment (UE) as shown in any one or more of the figures. Figure 1 , 2 , 4 and / or 12, or any one or more of the base stations illustrated in the figures.

[0104] The apparatus 600 may be implemented using a processing system 614 including one or more processors 604. Examples of processor 604 include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines, gate logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functions described throughout this disclosure. In various examples, the apparatus 600 may be configured to perform any one or more of the functions described herein. That is, the processor 604 as used in the apparatus 600 may be used to implement the functions described below and in Figure 7-14 Any one or more of the procedures and processes described in .

[0105] In this example, the processing system 614 can be implemented using a bus architecture generally represented by bus 602. Depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system 614, the bus 602 may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges. The bus 602 communicatively couples various circuits including one or more processors (generally represented by processor 604), memory 605, and computer-readable media (generally represented by computer-readable media 606). The bus 602 may also link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and therefore will not be described any further. The bus interface 608 provides an interface between the bus 602 and the transceiver 610. The transceiver 610 provides a communication interface or unit for communicating with various other devices through a transmission medium using one or more antenna arrays 611. An antenna array is a collection of connected antenna elements that can act together as a single antenna for sending or receiving radio waves using one or more beams. Depending on the nature of the apparatus, a user interface 612 (eg, keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick) may also be provided. Of course, such a user interface 612 is optional and may be omitted in some examples such as a base station.

[0106] In some aspects of the present disclosure, the processor 604 may include circuits configured for various functions, including, for example, frame-based spectrum access using Tx-side sensing. For example, the circuits may be configured to implement the following: Figure 7-14 The circuits may include beamforming circuitry 640 , spectrum sensing circuitry 642 , and communication circuitry 644 .

[0107] The beamforming circuit 640 may be configured to perform various operations described herein for beamforming used in wireless communications. For example, the device may use the beamforming circuit 640 to select multiple beams for accessing a spectrum using a spectrum sensing process via the transceiver 610 and the antenna array 611. The spectrum sensing circuit 642 may be configured to perform various operations used to sense the spectrum to determine whether the spectrum is idle or available. For example, the device may use the spectrum sensing circuit 642 to perform a spectrum sensing process on multiple beams to sense the spectrum. The device may use a timer 607 (e.g., a countdown timer) to keep track of the time interval used during spectrum sensing.

[0108] The communication circuit 644 may be configured to perform various operations described herein for wireless communications (e.g., UL and DL communications). For example, the device may use the communication circuit 644 to select one or more transmit beams for accessing a spectrum based on the results of a spectrum sensing process, and to send a signal (e.g., a reservation message) using the selected beam or beam direction. The results may include a confirmation that the spectrum is idle on one or more beams.

[0109] The processor 604 is responsible for managing the bus 602 and general processing, which includes executing software stored on the computer-readable medium 606. The software, when executed by the processor 604, causes the processing system 614 to perform the various functions described below for any particular device. The computer-readable medium 606 and memory 605 may also be used to store data that is manipulated by the processor 604 when executing the software.

[0110] One or more processors 604 in the processing system can execute software. Software should be broadly interpreted as representing instructions, instruction sets, codes, code segments, program codes, programs, subroutines, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executable files, threads of execution, processes, functions, etc., whether it is called software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language or other things. Software can reside on computer-readable medium 606. Computer-readable medium 606 can be non-temporary computer-readable medium. As an example, non-temporary computer-readable medium includes magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic strips), optical disks (e.g., compact disks (CDs) or digital versatile disks (DVDs)), smart cards, flash memory devices (e.g., cards, sticks or key drives), random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), registers, removable disks and any other suitable medium for storing software and / or instructions that can be accessed and read by a computer. Computer readable medium 606 may reside in processing system 614, be external to processing system 614, or be distributed among multiple entities including processing system 614. Computer readable medium 606 may be embodied in a computer program product. As an example, a computer program product may include a computer readable medium in packaging materials. Those skilled in the art will recognize how to best implement the described functionality presented throughout this disclosure depending on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the overall system.

[0111] In one or more examples, the computer-readable storage medium 606 may include software configured for various functions, including, for example, frame-based spectrum access using Tx-side sensing. For example, the software may be configured to implement the following Figure 7-14 The software may include beamforming instructions 652 , spectrum sensing instructions 654 , and communication instructions 656 .

[0112] The beamforming instructions 652 may cause the device to perform various operations described herein for beamforming. For example, the beamforming instructions 652 may cause the device to select multiple beams for accessing a spectrum using a spectrum sensing process. The spectrum sensing instructions 654 may cause the device to perform various spectrum sensing operations described herein. In one example, the spectrum sensing instructions 654 may cause the device to sense a spectrum in multiple beams using LBT techniques, etc. The communication instructions 656 may cause the device to perform various operations described herein for wireless communications. For example, the communication instructions 656 may cause the device to select one or more transmit beams for accessing a spectrum based on the results of the spectrum sensing process described herein, and to send a signal, such as for reserving a spectrum, using the selected transmit beam.

[0113] In some aspects, a network device may access a wireless network (eg, RAN 200) using a frame-based channel access mode, wherein access to the network is synchronized based on frame timing. Figure 7 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary frame structure for a frame-based channel access mode that utilizes transmit-side (Tx-side)-only sensing. A transmitting device (e.g., a gNB or a UE) may use a spectrum sensing process (e.g., LBT technology) to obtain channel access to a shared or unlicensed spectrum. To this end, the transmitting device may sense the spectrum in different beams or beam directions in each frame period to determine whether the spectrum is idle (e.g., available, free, or otherwise not in use by other transmitting devices). Figure 7 Two exemplary frame periods 702 and 704 are shown in FIG. 1 to illustrate the frame-based access mode. Each frame period may have a fixed or predetermined duration. Each frame period includes a sensing period 706 (sensing interval) at the beginning of the frame and an idle period 708 at the end of the frame. If the transmitting device successfully obtains access to the spectrum through spectrum sensing, the transmitting device may send a signal to the receiver in the time interval 710 between the sensing period 706 and the idle period 708.

[0114] The idle period 708 is a time period during which all or at least some network nodes or entities avoid transmitting so that devices of another wireless network or RAN sharing the spectrum can obtain access to the shared spectrum. In one aspect of the present disclosure, all network nodes avoid transmitting in the idle period for all beams. In another aspect of the present disclosure, the idle period can be applied based on beams or beam groups. In this case, during the idle period, the transmitting device can transmit on one or more beams without transmitting on one or more other beams.

[0115] In some aspects of the present disclosure, the sensing period 706 may include multiple sensing slots in the time domain providing multiple sensing opportunities on different beams in a time division multiplexing (TDM), space division multiplexing (SDM), or frequency division multiplexing (FDM) manner. Figure 7 An example of a sensing period using TDM is illustrated. A sensing slot is a predetermined time interval for sensing a spectrum to determine whether the spectrum is being used by other transmitting devices (e.g., UE or base station). A transmitting device may use the sensing slot to sense the spectrum on different beams. In the first frame period 702, the transmitting device may sense or detect transmissions or beams from other devices (e.g., other UE or base station) to determine whether the spectrum is idle or available. In this example, the sensing period 706 has three sensing slots. The transmitting device may use the first sensing slot to sense the spectrum on the first beam B1, the second sensing slot to sense the spectrum on the second beam B2, and the third sensing slot to sense the spectrum on the third beam B3. In the second frame period 704, the transmitting device may use the sensing period 712 to sense the same beam used in the first frame period 702 or to sense one or more different beams. In one example, the transmitting device may sense the same beams B1 and B2 in both sensing periods, but sense beam B3 in the first sensing period 706 and beam B4 in the second sensing period 712.

[0116] In some examples, the network may configure an upper limit on the number of sensing slots (T) that may be included in a frame period. A transmitting device may sense up to K beams per antenna panel or array per time instance (e.g., sensing slot). An antenna panel may detect or sense a predetermined beam or beam direction. A transmitting device (e.g., a gNB or UE) that needs to access the spectrum may select up to K*T beams for channel sensing.

[0117] Figure 8 8 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method 800 for determining a beam sensing order according to some aspects of the present disclosure. In some examples, a transmitting device (e.g., a gNB or a UE) may use the method described above. Figure 7 The method is implemented in the frame-based channel access mode described in the embodiment of the present invention. At block 802, a transmitting device senses spectrum on a plurality of beams (eg, Tx beams or Rx beams) in a first frame period. For example, the first frame period may be the same as Figure 7 The first frame period 702 of the transmitting device may be the same as the first frame period 702 of the transmitting device. In one example, the transmitting device may use the sensing period 706 of the first frame period to sense the spectrum on multiple beams (e.g., beams B1, B2, and B3). During the sensing, the transmitting device may determine the signal strength or energy (if detected) of the beams in their respective sensing time slots in the sensing period.

[0118] At decision block 804, the transmitting device may determine whether to use the same beam sensing spectrum in a second frame period following the first frame period. For example, the second frame period may be Figure 7 The second frame period 704 of is the same. If the transmitting device determines to sense the same beam, the method proceeds to block 806; otherwise, if the transmitting device determines to sense one or more different beams, the method proceeds to block 808.

[0119] At block 806, the transmitting device senses the same beams (e.g., B1, B2, and B3) again in a second frame period. In one aspect of the disclosure, the transmitting device may sense the same beams B1, B2, and B3 in the second frame period using the same sensing order as used in the first frame period (e.g., sensing B1 in sensing time slot 1, sensing B2 in sensing time slot 2, and then sensing B3 in sensing time slot 3). In some aspects of the disclosure, the transmitting device may sense the same beams using different beam sensing orders or patterns in different frame periods.

[0120] In one aspect, the transmitting device may change the beam sensing order based on a cyclic pattern or algorithm. For example, the sensing order of the beams of a particular frame period may be derived from the sensing order of the same beams in an earlier frame period. In one example, the transmitting device may use the beam order B1, B2, and B3 in a first frame period; use the beam order B2, B3, and B1 in a second frame period after the first frame period; and use the beam order B3, B1, and B2 in a third frame period after the second frame period.

[0121] In one aspect, the transmitting device may randomize the order of beam sensing in each frame period so that the order of beam sensing between frame periods does not have any specific sensing order or pattern. Randomizing or randomly changing the beam sensing order or pattern may enable the transmitting device to detect and / or avoid periodic interference sources that share the same spectrum and may use one or more specific beams.

[0122] At block 808, the transmitting device senses the spectrum using different beams in the second frame period. The transmitting device may select a set of beams that is different from the set of beams sensed in the first frame period. For example, the transmitting device may be capable of wireless communication using X beams (e.g., beams B1, B2, B3, and B4). The transmitting device may sense the spectrum using a first subset of the X beams (e.g., beams B1, B2, and B3) in the first frame period, and sense a second subset of the X beams (e.g., beams B1, B2, and B4) in the second frame period. The first subset and the second subset have at least one different beam.

[0123] Fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary spectrum sensing process according to some aspects of the present disclosure. In one example, a transmitting device (e.g., a gNB or a UE) may perform a spectrum sensing process or procedure in each sensing slot of a sensing period to determine whether a channel is idle or a beam is available. In some examples, the spectrum sensing process may include a listen before talk (LBT) process that may or may not use random backoff when contention is detected. Fig. 9 Three exemplary sensing time slots 902, 904, and 906 are illustrated in FIG. In one example, these sensing time slots may be Figure 7 706 or 712 described in the sensing time slot. In each sensing time slot, the transmitting device may perform a spectrum sensing process to determine whether the beam associated with the sensing time slot is silent or not being used by other transmitting devices (e.g., UE or gNB) that may or may not belong to the same network. For example, the spectrum sensing process may include a clear channel assessment (CCA) of the channel. During the CCA, the transmitting device may listen to or detect the signal energy of any signal or beam transmitted from other devices (e.g., network nodes of different networks sharing the same spectrum).

[0124] At block 910, the transmitting device may detect signal energy within a specific beam associated with the current sensing time slot. For example, the transmitting device may use an antenna panel or array configured to detect wireless signal energy of a specific beam. At decision block 912, the transmitting device determines whether the signal energy is greater than a predetermined threshold. At block 914, if the detected signal energy (e.g., a received signal strength indicator (RSSI)) is greater than a predetermined threshold, the spectrum (e.g., a channel or beam) is considered to be idle or available. However, at block 916, if the detected signal energy (e.g., RSSI) is not greater than a predetermined threshold, the spectrum is considered to be busy or not available.

[0125] In one aspect, the transmitting device may use a countdown timer during the spectrum sensing process to determine whether the spectrum or beam is idle. Fig. 9In the example shown in , the countdown timer can count down from 3 to 0 (corresponding to the predetermined duration). In other examples, the countdown timer can be configured to use any desired duration. If the detected signal strength stays below the energy threshold throughout the countdown, the transmitting device considers that the sensed channel or beam is idle, and a reservation message or signal 920 can be sent to reserve the sensed channel or beam. In some aspects, the reservation message 920 can be any predetermined message or signal designed to notify the receiving device that the channel is reserved by the transmitting device. For example, the reservation message can be a transmission or message on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or a physical sidelink control channel (PSSCH). The transmitting device can repeat the spectrum sensing process described above in each sensing slot (sensing slots 904 and 906) for different beams. In some aspects, the energy threshold can be the same for all beams. In some aspects, the transmitting device can use different thresholds for different beams.

[0126] Fig.10 is a diagram illustrating another exemplary spectrum sensing process according to some aspects of the present disclosure. In one example, for example, to access a communication channel between a transmitting device and a receiving device, a transmitting device (e.g., a gNB or a UE) may perform a spectrum sensing process or procedure in each sensing slot of a sensing period to determine whether a beam is idle or freely accessible. Fig.10 , three exemplary sensing time slots 1002, 1004, and 1006 are illustrated. In this example, the transmitting device may sense the spectrum on beams B1, B2, and B3 in sensing time slots 1, 2, and 3, respectively. If the transmitting device determines that any of beams B1, B2, and B3 are available, the transmitting device sends a corresponding reservation message 908 (in Fig.10 In the figure, the beams are reserved as Tx B1, Tx B2, and Tx B3. Fig. 9 Unlike the described example, the transmitting device completes sensing in all sensing time slots before sending a reservation message 1008 across idle beams to reserve spectrum. Fig. 9 Similar to the example of , the transmitting device can use the countdown counter 1010 to determine whether the beam or channel is silent or idle during a predetermined duration in each sensing slot.

[0127] Fig.11 FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an exemplary beam-based idle period operation. Fig.11 Three exemplary frame periods are described in Figure 7The frame periods described are the same. Each frame period has a sensing period 1102 and an idle period 1104. During the sensing period 1102, the transmitting device (e.g., gNB or UE) can sense the spectrum on one or more beams, for example using the LBT technique described above. In one aspect, no transmission is allowed in the idle period 1104 to facilitate spectrum sharing with other networks. In some aspects, the idle period 1104 can operate on a per-beam or beam group basis. When the idle period operates on a per-beam basis, no transmission is allowed for a predetermined beam among all supported beams, and different idle periods can prohibit transmissions for different beams. In the example of each beam, no transmission is allowed for the first beam (e.g., B1) in the idle period 1106 of frame 1, no transmission is allowed for the second beam (e.g., B2) in the idle period 1108 of frame 2, and no transmission is allowed for the third beam (e.g., B3) in the idle period 1110 of frame 3.

[0128] In some aspects, idle periods may be operated on a beam group basis. In one example, a beam group may include a beam carrying a synchronization signal block (SSB) and other beams that are quasi-colocated with the SSB beam. Two beams are quasi-colocated when the beams exhibit similar channel conditions. Therefore, channel information estimated to detect one beam may also help detect other beams. SSB carries a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and a PBCH. In each idle period, the transmitting device may not transmit in a predetermined beam group, but may transmit in other beam groups. Different idle periods may prohibit transmissions in different beam groups. The application of idle periods on a per-beam or beam group basis may promote more efficient use of spectrum for beam-based transmissions. Due to the directional nature of beam-based transmissions, interference sources may still gain spectrum access during idle periods. In some aspects of the present disclosure, idle periods for specific beams may be configured in multiple consecutive frame periods (e.g., two or more frame periods). For example, referring to Fig.11 , the transmitting device cannot transmit on the same beam in the idle periods 1106 and 1108 in two consecutive frame periods.

[0129] Fig.12 1 is a diagram illustrating exemplary beam-based communications between a base station 1202 and a user equipment (UE) according to some aspects of the present disclosure. The base station 1202 may be a base station 1202 configured as described above. Figure 1-4 UE 1204 may be any of the base stations or scheduling entities described above. Figure 1-4Any UE or scheduled entity described in the description. The base station 1202 as a transmitting device can use the frame-based access mode described above to obtain access to a wireless spectrum (e.g., FR4 spectrum) that can be shared with another wireless network. For example, the base station 1202 can determine that three beams (e.g., beams B1, B2, and B3) are idle or free during the sensing period of the frame. Therefore, the base station 1202 can use the frame-based channel access mode to send a reservation signal or message on each beam to reserve the corresponding Tx beam for the current frame. For example, the base station 1202 sends a first beam reservation message 1206 (beam 1 Msg) on ​​beam B1, a second beam reservation message 1208 (beam 2 Msg) on ​​the second beam B2, and a third beam reservation message 1210 (beam 3 Msg) on ​​beam B3. These beam reservation messages inform other network nodes (e.g., UE 1204) that the base station is reserving these beams for the frame period.

[0130] If the UE 1204 receives the reservation message on the Tx beam from the base station 1202, the UE may communicate with the base station 1202 using a receive (Rx) beam corresponding to the Tx beam. For example, if the UE 1204 receives Tx beam B3 from the base station 1202, the UE may transmit to the base station 1202 using Rx beam B3 having a beam direction corresponding to Tx beam B3. In this case, the Tx beam and the Rx beam may form a beam pair link (BPL). In some examples, the UE 1204 may transmit a scheduling request (SR), a buffer status report (BSR), a sounding reference signal (SRS), a PUCCH, a PUSCH, etc. using the Rx beam. If the UE does not receive the reservation message from the base station (e.g., at least within the first X slots / symbols of a communication frame or slot), the UE may assume that no beam is available for communication with the base station.

[0131] In some aspects, the UE may transmit to the base station without first receiving a Tx beam reservation message from the base station. In some cases or exceptions, the UE may transmit signals or channels related to some key functions of the UE (e.g., beam management, link establishment, maintenance, etc.). In one aspect of the present disclosure, exceptions may be defined for physical channels or signals such as the physical random access channel (PRACH) used in initial access procedures such as the random access procedure (RACH). In another aspect of the present disclosure, exceptions may be defined for specific functions such as BSR reporting and SR transmission. In another example, an exception may be defined for beam management SRS transmission that does not include SRS for channel state information (CSI) reporting.

[0132] In some aspects of the present disclosure, if a transmitting device (e.g., a base station or UE) detects interference during spectrum sensing, the transmitting device can share this information with other network nodes to facilitate beam management across the network. In some aspects of the present disclosure, when a persistent source of interference is detected using the frame-based access mode described above, the transmitting device can switch to another spectrum access mode such as Rx-assisted spectrum access, in which the receiver can report back to the transmitting device about the interference detected by the receiver.

[0133] Fig.13 1 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process 1300 for frame-based channel access using Tx-only sensing according to some aspects of the present disclosure. As described below, some or all of the illustrated features may be omitted in specific implementations within the scope of the present disclosure, and some of the illustrated features may not be required for all example implementations. In some examples, the process 1300 may be performed by Figure 6 In some examples, the process 1300 can be implemented by any suitable device or unit for implementing the functions or algorithms described below.

[0134] At block 1302, the apparatus selects a plurality of first beams for performing a spectrum sensing process to access a spectrum. In some aspects, the first beams may be beams using FR2 frequencies. For example, the beamforming circuit 640 (see Figure 6 ) may provide for selecting a first beam (eg, Figure 7 The device may select a subset of the beams supported by the device to perform a spectrum sensing process in a frame period. In one example, the first beam may include a beam directed in one or more predetermined directions. The device may select a beam based on known, estimated, and / or predicted locations of other devices or network nodes that may communicate with the device.

[0135] At block 1304, the apparatus performs a spectrum sensing process on a plurality of first beams in a sensing period of a first frame period. In one aspect, the spectrum sensing process may include performing the spectrum sensing process on the plurality of first beams in a sensing period of a first frame period. Fig. 9 and 10 For example, the spectrum sensing circuit 642 may provide a sensing period 706 (see FIG. Figure 7 ) is a unit for performing a spectrum sensing process in the sensing period 706. The sensing period 706 has a plurality of sensing time slots, and the device may perform a spectrum sensing process for each beam in a corresponding sensing time slot.

[0136] During spectrum sensing, the device may perform spectrum sensing in multiple frames (e.g., Figure 7The first frame of the plurality of frames includes a sensing period (e.g., Figure 7 sensing periods 706 and 712) and an idle period (e.g., idle period 708) for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network.

[0137] In some aspects, a device may determine that a particular beam direction or channel or spectrum on a beam is available based on the results of a clear channel assessment (CCA) process. Fig.14 1406, if the signal energy is not greater than the threshold, the device determines that the channel is idle or available in the direction of the beam.

[0138] Return to reference Fig.13 At block 1306, the device selects one or more transmit beams for accessing the spectrum based on the result of the spectrum sensing process. The device may sense the spectrum in a sensing period of a first frame (e.g., first frame period 702). In some examples, the transmit beam may be a beam using FR2 frequency. The communication circuit 344 and / or the beamforming circuit 340 may provide a unit for selecting a transmit beam. The result of the spectrum sensing process may indicate one or more beams that are idle, or one or more beams that are available. For example, as described above, Fig.14 As described, a beam is idle or available when the device cannot detect a signal having an energy greater than a predetermined threshold on the beam.

[0139] At block 1308, the device transmits a signal in a first frame period using the one or more selected transmit beams. The device may transmit a signal between a sensing period (e.g., sensing period 706) and an idle period (e.g., idle period 708) of a frame (e.g., frame period 702). For example, the communication circuit 344 may provide a means for transmitting a signal on one or more beams via the transceiver 310.

[0140] In one configuration, the apparatus 600 for wireless communication includes a method for performing Figure 7-14 In one aspect, the aforementioned units may be units configured to perform the functions recorded by the aforementioned units. Figure 6The processor 604 shown in FIG. In another aspect, the aforementioned means may be a circuit or any device configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means.

[0141] Of course, in the above example, the circuit included in the processor 604 is provided only as an example, and other units for implementing the described functions may be included in various aspects of the present disclosure, including but not limited to instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium 606 or any other computer-readable storage medium. Figure 1-4 and / or any one of Figures 12 and using, for example, in this document Figure 7-14 Suitable means or units for the described processes and / or algorithms.

[0142] Several aspects of a wireless communication network have been presented with reference to an exemplary implementation. Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the various aspects described throughout this disclosure may be extended to other telecommunication systems, network architectures and communication standards.

[0143] Certain aspects of the disclosure are described below.

[0144] In a first aspect, a wireless communication method is operable at a transmitting device in a wireless network. The method includes: sensing spectrum on a plurality of first beams in a first frame of a plurality of frames, each frame of the plurality of frames including a sensing period for sensing the spectrum and an idle period for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network; selecting one or more beams of the plurality of first beams based on a result of sensing the spectrum in the sensing period of the first frame; and transmitting a signal in the first frame using the one or more beams in a time interval between the sensing period and the idle period of the first frame.

[0145] In a second aspect, either alone or in combination with the first aspect, the method further comprises: sensing the spectrum on a plurality of second beams in a second frame of the plurality of frames, wherein the plurality of second beams comprises at least one beam other than the plurality of first beams.

[0146] In a third aspect, alone or in combination with any one of the first to second aspects, the method further includes: sensing the spectrum on the multiple first beams in a second frame of the multiple frames, wherein the sensing of the multiple first beams follows a first order of the multiple first beams in the first frame and follows a second order of the multiple first beams in the second frame, the first order being different from the second order.

[0147] In a fourth aspect, alone or in combination with the third aspect, the method further includes: determining the first order by randomly selecting a sensing order of the multiple first beams in the first frame; and determining the second order by randomly selecting a sensing order of the multiple first beams in the second frame.

[0148] In a fifth aspect, alone or in combination with the third aspect, the method further comprises: deriving the second order from the first order based on a round-robin algorithm.

[0149] In a sixth aspect, alone or in combination with any one of the first to fifth aspects, wherein: the sensing period includes multiple sensing time slots; and the sensing the spectrum includes: sensing the spectrum using different beams of the multiple first beams in different respective sensing time slots of the multiple sensing time slots.

[0150] In the seventh aspect, alone or in combination with the sixth aspect, the method also includes: sending one or more reservation messages in the multiple sensing time slots to reserve the one or more beams for communication in the first frame; or sending one or more reservation messages after the multiple sensing time slots to reserve the one or more beams for communication in the first frame.

[0151] In an eighth aspect, alone or in combination with any one of the first to seventh aspects, the method further comprises: avoiding sending a signal associated with a predetermined beam or beam group of the wireless network during the idle period.

[0152] In a ninth aspect, alone or in combination with the eighth aspect, the method further comprises: transmitting a signal using at least one different beam other than the predetermined beam or beam group during the idle period.

[0153] In a tenth aspect, alone or in combination with any one of the first to ninth aspects, wherein the selecting the one or more beams comprises: selecting the one or more beams without receiving feedback from another network node on the one or more beams.

[0154] In an eleventh aspect, an apparatus for wireless communication includes: a communication interface configured to access a spectrum of a wireless network; a memory; and a processor operatively coupled to the communication interface and the memory. The processor and the memory are configured to perform the following operations: sensing the spectrum on a plurality of first beams in a first frame of a plurality of frames, each of the plurality of frames including a sensing period for sensing the spectrum and an idle period for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network; selecting one or more beams of the plurality of first beams based on a result of sensing the spectrum in the sensing period of the first frame; and transmitting a signal in the first frame using the one or more beams in a time interval between the sensing period and the idle period of the first frame.

[0155] In a twelfth aspect, alone or in combination with the eleventh aspect, the processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: sensing the spectrum on a plurality of second beams in a second frame of the plurality of frames, wherein the plurality of second beams include at least one beam other than the plurality of first beams.

[0156] In a thirteenth aspect, alone or in combination with any one of the eleventh to twelfth aspects, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: sensing the spectrum on the multiple first beams in a second frame of the multiple frames, wherein the sensing of the multiple first beams follows a first order of the multiple first beams in the first frame and follows a second order of the multiple first beams in the second frame, the first order being different from the second order.

[0157] In the fourteenth aspect, alone or in combination with the thirteenth aspect, the processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: determine the first order by randomly selecting a sensing order of the multiple first beams in the first frame; and determine the second order by randomly selecting a sensing order of the multiple first beams in the second frame.

[0158] In a fifteenth aspect, alone or in combination with the thirteenth aspect, the processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: derive the second order from the first order based on a round-robin algorithm.

[0159] In a sixteenth aspect, alone or in combination with any one of the eleventh to fifteenth aspects, the processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: sensing the spectrum using different beams of the multiple first beams in different respective sensing time slots of the multiple sensing time slots in the sensing period.

[0160] In the seventeenth aspect, alone or in combination with the sixteenth aspect, the processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: sending one or more reservation messages in the multiple sensing time slots to reserve the one or more beams for communication in the first frame; or sending one or more reservation messages after the multiple sensing time slots to reserve the one or more beams for communication in the first frame.

[0161] In an eighteenth aspect, alone or in combination with any one of aspects eleven to seventeen, the processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: avoid sending a signal associated with a predetermined beam or beam group of the wireless network during the idle period.

[0162] In a nineteenth aspect, alone or in combination with the eighteenth aspect, the processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: sending a signal using at least one different beam other than the predetermined beam or beam group during the idle period.

[0163] In the twentieth aspect, alone or in combination with any one of the eleventh to nineteenth aspects, the processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: selecting the one or more beams without receiving feedback from another network node on the one or more beams.

[0164] In a twenty-first aspect, a wireless device for wireless communication in a wireless network includes: a unit for sensing a spectrum on a plurality of first beams in a first frame of a plurality of frames, each frame of the plurality of frames including a sensing period for sensing the spectrum and an idle period for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network; a unit for selecting one or more of the plurality of first beams based on a result of sensing the spectrum in the sensing period of the first frame; and a unit for sending a signal in the first frame using the one or more beams in a time interval between the sensing period and the idle period of the first frame.

[0165] In the twenty-second aspect, alone or in combination with the twenty-first aspect, the wireless device also includes: a unit for sensing the spectrum on multiple second beams in a second frame of the multiple frames, wherein the multiple second beams include at least one beam other than the multiple first beams.

[0166] In a twenty-third aspect, alone or in combination with any one of aspects twenty-first to twenty-second, the wireless device further comprises: a unit for sensing the spectrum on the plurality of first beams in a second frame of the plurality of frames, wherein the sensing of the plurality of first beams follows a first order of the plurality of first beams in the first frame and follows a second order of the plurality of first beams in the second frame, the first order being different from the second order.

[0167] In the twenty-fourth aspect, alone or in combination with the twenty-third aspect, the wireless device also includes: a unit for determining the first order by randomly selecting a sensing order of the multiple first beams in the first frame; and a unit for determining the second order by randomly selecting a sensing order of the multiple first beams in the second frame.

[0168] In a twenty-fifth aspect, either alone or in combination with the twenty-third aspect, the wireless device further comprises: a unit for deriving the second order from the first order based on a round-robin algorithm.

[0169] In the twenty-sixth aspect, alone or in combination with any one of the twenty-first to twenty-fifth aspects, wherein: the sensing period includes a plurality of sensing time slots; and the unit for sensing the spectrum is configured to sense the spectrum using different beams of the plurality of first beams in different respective sensing time slots of the plurality of sensing time slots.

[0170] In the twenty-seventh aspect, alone or in combination with the twenty-sixth aspect, the wireless device also includes: a unit for sending one or more reservation messages in the multiple sensing time slots to reserve the one or more beams as communications in the first frame; or a unit for sending one or more reservation messages after the multiple sensing time slots to reserve the one or more beams as communications in the first frame.

[0171] In aspect 28, alone or in combination with any one of aspects 21 to 27, the wireless device further includes: a unit for avoiding sending a signal associated with a predetermined beam or beam group of the wireless network during the idle period; and a unit for sending a signal using at least one different beam other than the predetermined beam or beam group during the idle period.

[0172] In aspect 29, alone or in combination with any one of aspects 21 to 28, the unit for selecting the one or more beams is configured to perform the following operations: select the one or more beams without receiving feedback from another network node on the one or more beams.

[0173] In a thirtieth aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores computer-executable code at an apparatus for wireless communication. The computer-readable medium includes instructions for causing the apparatus to: sense spectrum on a plurality of first beams in a first frame of a plurality of frames, each frame of the plurality of frames including a sensing period for sensing the spectrum and an idle period for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network; select one or more beams of the plurality of first beams based on a result of sensing the spectrum in the sensing period of the first frame; and transmit a signal in the first frame using the one or more beams in a time interval between the sensing period and the idle period of the first frame.

[0174] In the thirty-first aspect, the computer-readable medium includes instructions for causing the device to perform the method of any one of the first to tenth aspects above.

[0175] As an example, various aspects may be implemented within other systems defined by 3GPP, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), Evolved Packet System (EPS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and / or Global System for Mobile (GSM). Various aspects may also be extended to systems defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), such as CDMA2000 and / or Evolution Data Optimized (EV-DO). Other examples may be implemented within systems using IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Ultra Wideband (UWB), Bluetooth, and / or other suitable systems. The actual telecommunication standard, network architecture, and / or communication standard used will depend on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system.

[0176] Within the present disclosure, the term "exemplary" is used to mean "serving as an example, instance or illustration". Any implementation or aspect described in this article as "exemplary" is not necessarily interpreted as being preferred or advantageous over other aspects of the present disclosure. Similarly, the term "aspect" does not require that all aspects of the present disclosure include the discussed features, advantages or modes of operation. The term "coupled" is used herein to refer to a direct or indirect coupling between two objects. For example, if object A physically contacts object B, and object B contacts object C, objects A and C can still be considered to be coupled to each other - even if they are not directly physically in contact with each other. For example, even if the first object never directly physically contacts the second object, the first object can be coupled to the second object. The terms "circuit" and "circuitry" are used broadly and are intended to include both hardware implementations of electrical devices and conductors that, when connected and configured, enable performing the functions described in the present disclosure (without limitation as to the type of electronic circuitry) and software implementations of information and instructions that, when executed by a processor, enable performing the functions described in the present disclosure.

[0177] Figure 1-14 One or more of the components, steps, features, and / or functions described herein may be rearranged and / or combined into a single component, step, feature, or function, or may be embodied in several components, steps, or functions. Additional elements, components, steps, and / or functions may also be added without departing from the novel features disclosed herein. Figure 1-14 The apparatus, device and / or component described in the invention may be configured to perform one or more of the methods, features or steps described herein. The novel algorithms described herein may also be efficiently implemented in software and / or embedded in hardware.

[0178] It should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the disclosed methods is an illustration of exemplary processes. It should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in these methods can be rearranged based on design preferences. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in a sample order and are not limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented unless specifically recited therein.

[0179] The previous description is provided to enable those skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. The various modifications made to these aspects will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein can be applied to other aspects. Therefore, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but will conform to the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein, unless specifically so indicated, the reference to the element in the singular form is not intended to represent "one and only one", but rather "one or more". Unless specifically otherwise indicated, the term "some" refers to one or more. The phrase "at least one of" the list of items mentioned refers to any combination of those items including a single member. As an example, "at least one of a, b or c" is intended to cover: a; b; c; a and b; a and c; b and c; and a, b and c. All structural and functional equivalents of the elements of the various aspects described throughout the present disclosure that are known or become known later to those skilled in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference, and are intended to be included by the claims. In addition, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to disclosure, regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recorded in the claims.

Claims

1. A wireless communication method operable at a transmitting device in a wireless network, comprising: sensing spectrum on a plurality of first beams in a first frame of a plurality of frames following a first order of the plurality of first beams, each frame of the plurality of frames comprising a sensing period for sensing the spectrum and an idle period for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network and configured to inhibit transmission of a different beam; selecting one or more beams of the plurality of first beams based on a result of sensing the spectrum in the sensing period of the first frame; transmitting a signal in the first frame using the one or more beams in a time interval between the sensing period and the idle period of the first frame; as well as The spectrum is sensed on the plurality of first beams in a second frame of the plurality of frames following a second order of the same plurality of first beams, the second order being derived from the first order and different from the first order.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: The spectrum is sensed on a plurality of second beams in a second frame of the plurality of frames, wherein the plurality of second beams includes at least one beam other than the plurality of first beams.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: The first order is determined by randomly selecting a sensing order of the plurality of first beams in the first frame.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: The second order is derived from the first order based on a round-robin algorithm.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The sensing period includes a plurality of sensing time slots; and The sensing the spectrum includes sensing the spectrum using different ones of the plurality of first beams in different respective ones of the plurality of sensing time slots.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising: One or more reservation messages are sent in the plurality of sensing slots to reserve the one or more beams for communication in the first frame.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: Transmitting a signal associated with a predetermined beam or beam group of the wireless network during the idle period is avoided.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising: A signal is transmitted using at least one different beam other than the predetermined beam or beam group during the idle period.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The selecting the one or more beams comprises: The one or more beams are selected without receiving feedback from another network node on the one or more beams.

10. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: a communication interface configured to access a frequency spectrum of a wireless network; Memory; as well as a processor operatively coupled to the communication interface and the memory, The processor and the memory are configured to perform the following operations: sensing the spectrum on the plurality of first beams in a first frame of a plurality of frames following a first order of the plurality of first beams, each frame of the plurality of frames comprising a sensing period for sensing the spectrum and an idle period for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network and configured to inhibit transmission of a different beam; selecting one or more beams of the plurality of first beams based on a result of sensing the spectrum in the sensing period of the first frame; transmitting a signal in the first frame using the one or more beams in a time interval between the sensing period and the idle period of the first frame; and The spectrum is sensed on the plurality of first beams in a second frame of the plurality of frames following a second order of the same plurality of first beams, the second order being derived from the first order and different from the first order.

11. The device according to claim 10, wherein: The processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: The spectrum is sensed on a plurality of second beams in a second frame of the plurality of frames, wherein the plurality of second beams includes at least one beam other than the plurality of first beams.

12. The device according to claim 10, wherein: The processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: The first order is determined by randomly selecting a sensing order of the plurality of first beams in the first frame.

13. The device according to claim 10, wherein: The processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: The second order is derived from the first order based on a round-robin algorithm.

14. The device according to claim 10, wherein: The processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: The spectrum is sensed using different ones of the plurality of first beams in different respective ones of a plurality of sensing time slots in the sensing period.

15. The device according to claim 14, wherein: The processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: One or more reservation messages are sent in the plurality of sensing slots to reserve the one or more beams for communication in the first frame.

16. The device according to claim 10, wherein: The processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: Transmitting a signal associated with a predetermined beam or beam group of the wireless network during the idle period is avoided.

17. The device according to claim 16, wherein: The processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: A signal is transmitted using at least one different beam other than the predetermined beam or beam group during the idle period.

18. The device according to claim 10, wherein: The processor and the memory are further configured to perform the following operations: The one or more beams are selected without receiving feedback from another network node on the one or more beams.

19. A wireless device for wireless communication in a wireless network, comprising: means for sensing spectrum on a plurality of first beams following a first order of the plurality of first beams in a first frame of a plurality of frames, each frame of the plurality of frames comprising a sensing period for sensing the spectrum and an idle period for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network and configured to inhibit transmission of a different beam; means for selecting one or more of the plurality of first beams based on a result of sensing the spectrum in the sensing period of the first frame; means for transmitting a signal in the first frame using the one or more beams in a time interval between the sensing period and the idle period of the first frame; as well as means for sensing the spectrum across the plurality of first beams in a second frame of the plurality of frames following a second order of the same plurality of first beams, the second order being derived from the first order and different from the first order.

20. The wireless device of claim 19, further comprising: Means for sensing the spectrum on a second plurality of beams in a second frame of the plurality of frames, wherein the second plurality of beams includes at least one beam other than the plurality of first beams.

21. The wireless device of claim 19, further comprising: means for determining the first order by randomly selecting a sensing order of the plurality of first beams in the first frame.

22. The wireless device of claim 19, further comprising: Means for deriving said second order from said first order based on a round-robin algorithm.

23. The wireless device of claim 19, wherein: The sensing period includes a plurality of sensing time slots; and The means for sensing the spectrum is configured to sense the spectrum using different ones of the plurality of first beams in different respective ones of the plurality of sensing time slots.

24. The wireless device of claim 23, further comprising: Means for sending one or more reservation messages in the plurality of sensing slots to reserve the one or more beams for communication in the first frame.

25. The wireless device of claim 19, further comprising: means for refraining from transmitting a signal associated with a predetermined beam or set of beams of the wireless network during the idle period; as well as Means for transmitting a signal using at least one different beam other than the predetermined beam or beam group during the idle period.

26. The wireless device of claim 19, wherein: The means for selecting the one or more beams is configured to perform the following operations: The one or more beams are selected without receiving feedback from another network node on the one or more beams.

27. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable code at an apparatus for wireless communication, comprising instructions for causing the apparatus to: sensing spectrum on a plurality of first beams in a first frame of a plurality of frames following a first order of the plurality of first beams, each frame of the plurality of frames comprising a sensing period for sensing the spectrum and an idle period for facilitating spectrum sharing with another wireless network and configured to inhibit transmission of a different beam; selecting one or more beams of the plurality of first beams based on a result of sensing the spectrum in the sensing period of the first frame; transmitting a signal in the first frame using the one or more beams in a time interval between the sensing period and the idle period of the first frame; as well as The spectrum is sensed on the plurality of first beams in a second frame of the plurality of frames following a second order of the same plurality of first beams, the second order being derived from the first order and different from the first order.

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