Sidelink control information (SCI) in new air interface (NR) unlicenses

Abstract

A user equipment (UE) includes an Internet of Vehicles (V2X) device, a baseband processor, or other network device, the user equipment being operable in an unlicensed network to obtain a channel occupancy time (COT) for a sidelink (SL) transmission and provide sidelink control information (SCI), the sidelink control information has a first level SCI in a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) and a second level SCI in a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH). The first level SCI or the second level SCI may provide a COT indication to a receiving UE device that enables COT sharing in a sidelink unlicensed COT (SL-U COT) for SL communications.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 336,322, filed on April 29, 2022, entitled “SIDELINK CONTROL INFORMATION (SCI) IN NEW RADIO (NR) UNLICENSED,” the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates to wireless techniques including sidelink control information (SCI) in New Radio (NR) unlicensed networks. Background Art

[0004] Mobile communications in the next generation wireless communication system 5G or New Radio (NR) network will provide ubiquitous connectivity and access to information and the ability to share data around the world. 5G networks and network slices will be unified, service-based frameworks that will target common and sometimes conflicting performance standards to provide services to extremely diverse application domains ranging from enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) to massive machine type communications (mMTC), ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) and other communications. Generally speaking, NR will evolve based on the third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) advanced technology and additional enhanced radio access technology (RAT) to achieve seamless and faster wireless connection solutions. Another type of mobile communication includes vehicle communications, in which vehicles transmit or exchange vehicle-related information. Vehicle communications may include vehicle-to-vehicle (V2X) devices or V2X user equipment (UE), including vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P), in which direct communication without a base station may be adopted, such as in side link (SL) communications.

[0005] In some cases, the vehicle-related information is intended for a single vehicle or other entity. In other cases (such as emergency alerts), the vehicle-related information is intended for a large number of vehicles or other equipment or component entities. Emergency alerts may include collision warnings, loss of control warnings, etc. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] Figure 1 An exemplary block diagram illustrating an example of a user equipment (UE) that can be used in conjunction with various embodiments (aspects) described herein, the UE being communicatively coupled to a network component as a peer device via a network.

[0007] Figure 2Diagrams are shown that illustrate example components of devices that may be employed in accordance with various aspects discussed herein.

[0008] Figure 3 An example simplified block diagram of a user equipment (UE) wireless communication device or other network device / component (e.g., eNB, gNB) according to various aspects is shown.

[0009] Figure 4 Examples of sidelink (SL) communications for channel occupation time (COT) sharing in a New Radio (NR) unlicensed network in accordance with various aspects are shown.

[0010] Figure 5 Another example SL communication for COT sharing in an NR unlicensed network according to various aspects is shown.

[0011] Figure 6 is another example SL communication for COT sharing in NR unlicensed networks according to various aspects.

[0012] Figure 7 An example process flow for SL communications according to various aspects is shown.

[0013] Figure 8 Another example process flow for SL communications in accordance with various aspects is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same figure numbers in different drawings can identify the same or similar features, elements, operations, etc. In addition, the present disclosure is not limited to the following description, because other specific implementations can be utilized and structural changes or logical changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0015] This document describes various aspects of a user equipment (UE) device that operates in a sidelink (SL) communication and selects resources to implement SL communication. The UE device may be a pedestrian UE (P-UE) device, a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) device, or other UE that may include vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) device communication, or other direct communication between UEs (which may include SL communication); each transmitter and receiver may include a user equipment (UE) device. When referred to herein, the UE may also include, for example, a roadside unit (RSU), a drone, other vehicle devices, an Internet of Things (I / O) device, or other user equipment device.

[0016] Different types of communications are considered in new radio (NR)-V2X devices or V-UEs to meet the requirements of various use cases of vehicle networks, including operation in NR unlicensed networks. Use cases may involve different types of communication types, including V2V, V2I, V2P, V2N, etc. In addition, V2X communications for improving road safety, improving traffic efficiency or its infotainment may occur in any of the following network coverage scenarios: 1) In coverage, when a communication UE (e.g., P-UE or vehicle UE (V-UE)) on the SL is located with the coverage of a base station (e.g., new radio gNB); 2) Out of coverage, when all communication UEs are out of the coverage of any base station or gNB; and 3) Partial coverage, when at least one of the communication UEs is within the coverage and communicatively coupled to the base station or gNB.

[0017] In particular, when a dedicated sidelink (SL) channel between UEs (e.g., V2X / V-UE or other UEs) is configured in an out-of-coverage scenario or in an unlicensed NR network, the initiator / initiator V2X device (also referred to as UE in this article) senses the SL channel to determine whether it is occupied, and provides sidelink control information (SCI) in two levels after acquiring the SL channel communication. The first-level SCI is carried on the physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) and includes information for implementing sensing operations on the acquired SL channel and information about resource allocation. The physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) transmits the second-level SCI and the SL shared transport channel. The second-level SCI carries information for implementing identification and decoding of the SL channel, as well as control of the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process, thereby triggering channel state information (CSI) feedback or related information. The SL shared channel carries data transmission blocks (TBs) for transmission on the SL channel. The SCI includes information for correctly receiving the TBs. Thus, the various aspects described enable and ensure that data TBs in a SL transmission made by a receiving UE in an unlicensed NR network are properly decoded and the associated SCI is correctly received in the SL communication.

[0018] In one aspect, additional SCI information may be configured in the SCI for the initiating UE to be provided to the receiving UE for SL communication in an unlicensed NR network. For example, various clear channel assessment (CCA) related fields may be provided in the SCI so that when channel occupancy time (COT) sharing is signaled, the receiving UE performs a shorter CCA than a full / complete CCA (e.g., Category 4 (CCA)). For example, by performing a shorter CCA (such as a single / single CCA), SL communication between paired V2X devices or other UEs may be effectively maintained.

[0019] In one aspect, an initiating UE that senses and acquires a COT for SL communication with a receiving UE in an unlicensed NR network may provide COT-related signaling in a level 1 SCI, which enables the receiving UE to share COT resources with the initiating UE. To this end, when SL communication is configured for a V2X dedicated side link in an unlicensed network, the initiating UE may provide various additional SCI information to the first level SCI. The first level SCI may be configured with one or more COT indications, fields, or parameters, such as an indication of a channel access priority of the initiating UE for CAT 4 channel access. For receiving UEs sharing a side link unlicensed COT (SL-U COT), COT sharing may be allowed at the same or higher priority.

[0020] Alternatively or additionally, the one or more COT indicators may include a power indication of the power used by the CCA performed for COT sharing. Thus, for example, a shared COT transmission of a receiving UE may limit the transmission power by the CCA power.

[0021] Alternatively or additionally, the one or more COT indications may include an indication of a COT duration to be used for COT sharing.The PSSCH time allocation across multiple time slots may also be an indication of the one or more COT indications.

[0022] Alternatively or additionally, the second level SCI or level 2 SCI may include information of multi-slot scheduling associated with one or more HARQ identifiers (IDs).The second level SCI may be carried in the PSSCH.

[0023] In one aspect, a baseband processor or other processor may include a memory and a processing circuit communicatively coupled to the memory, the processing circuit implementing SL communication between UE devices in a new radio (NR) unlicensed network. The processor may be configured to generate an SCI in the NR unlicensed network for transmission to a receiving UE. The SCI includes a first-level SCI and a second-level SCI. The first-level SCI may include one or more COT indications for sharing of the SL unlicensed SL-U COT for SL transmission. For example, if the initiating UE only uses the acquired 2 milliseconds (ms) of COT and the total COT duration is 8ms, the receiving UE may utilize the remaining 6ms of shared COT to perform COT sharing in SL communication on the NR unlicensed network based on the COT indication provided to it by the initiating UE and the COT indication related to the SL-UCOT. The one or more COT indications may include one or more of the following: a channel access priority indication, a power indication, a COT duration, a clear channel assessment (CCA) type, a cyclic prefix (CP) extension, a PSSCH frequency domain resource allocation, or a periodic X indication indicating one or more time slots of a PSSCH including, for example, a second-level SCI, where X is an integer.

[0024] Figure 1 1 is an example network 100 according to one or more implementations described herein. Example network 100 may include UE 110-1, UE 110-2, etc. (collectively referred to as "UE 110" and individually referred to as "UE 110"), a radio access network (RAN) 120, a core network (CN) 130, an application server 140, an external network 150, or other components.

[0025] The systems and devices of the example network 100 may operate in accordance with one or more communication standards, such as the second generation (2G), third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G) (e.g., long term evolution (LTE)), and / or fifth generation (5G) (e.g., new radio (NR)) communication standards of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the systems and devices of the example network 100 may operate in accordance with other communication standards and protocols discussed herein, including future versions or generations of 3GPP standards (e.g., sixth generation (6G) standards, seventh generation (7G) standards, etc.), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards (e.g., wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), etc.), and more.

[0026] As shown, UE 110 may include a smart phone (e.g., a handheld touch screen mobile computing device that can be connected to one or more wireless communication networks). Additionally or alternatively, UE 110 may include other types of mobile or non-mobile computing devices capable of wireless communication, such as personal data assistants (PDAs), pagers, laptop computers, desktop computers, wireless phones, etc. In some specific implementations, UE 110 may include Internet of Things (IoT) devices (or IoT UEs), extended reality smart glasses (XR), and vehicle UEs or vehicle equipment entities, including vehicle-to-everything (V2X) devices, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), and vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) devices, etc. The vehicle equipment entity may also include a roadside unit (RSU), which is an entity that supports V2I and is implemented in an eNodeB or a stationary / non-stationary UE / IoT that includes any one or more components / circuits described herein. Such UEs may include a network access layer designed for low-power applications that utilize short-term UE connections. Additionally or alternatively, the IoT UE may utilize one or more types of technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) communication or machine-type communication (MTC) (e.g., to exchange data with an MTC server or other device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), proximity services (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, IoT networks, and more. Depending on the scenario, the M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange, and the IoT network may include IoT UEs (which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices within the Internet infrastructure) interconnected with ephemeral connections. In some scenarios, the IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0027] UE 110 may communicate and establish a connection (e.g., be communicatively coupled) with RAN 120, which may involve one or more radio channels 114-1 and 114-2, each of which may include a physical communication interface / layer. In some implementations, the UE may be configured with dual connectivity (DC) as a multi-radio access technology (multi-RAT) or multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), where a UE capable of multiple receptions and transmissions (Rx / Tx) may use resources provided by different network nodes (e.g., 122-1 and 122-2), which may be connected via a non-ideal backhaul (e.g., where one of the network nodes provides NR access and the other network node provides E-UTRA for LTE or NR access for 5G). In such a scenario, one network node may act as a master node (MN) and the other node may act as a secondary node (SN). The MN and the SN may be connected via a network interface, and at least the MN may be connected to CN 130. In addition, at least one of the MN or SN may operate with shared spectrum channel access, and the functionality specified for UE 110 may be used for an integrated access and backhaul mobile terminal (IAB-MT). Similar to UE 110, the IAB-MT may access the network using one network node or using two different nodes with an enhanced dual connectivity (EN-DC) architecture, a new air interface dual connectivity (NR-DC) architecture, or other direct connections such as a sidelink communication channel as SL interface 112.

[0028] The NR SL physical layer of the SL interface 112 may include multiple physical channels and signals. The SL physical channel is a set of resource elements that carry higher layer information of the protocol stack. The SL physical channel may include a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) that carries the SL-BCH transport channel, where the master information block (MIB) of the SL is transmitted periodically (every 160ms) and includes system information for UE-UE communication (e.g., SL TDD configuration, coverage range flag). The PSBCH is sent together with the sidelink primary synchronization signal / sidelink secondary synchronization signal (S-PSS / SSS) in the S-SSB. The SL physical channel may also include a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), which is used to send HARQ feedback from the receiver UE to the transmitter UE (or initiating UE) on the SL for unicast or multicast communication. The physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) and the physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) may be configured so that each PSSCH containing a transport block (i.e., user data traffic) is associated with the PSCCH. The PSCCH may be transmitted on the same time slot as the PSSCH and contains control information about the shared channel.

[0029] In some implementations, a base station (as described herein) may be an example of a network node 122. As shown, the UE 110 may also or alternatively be connected to an access point (AP) 116 via a connection interface 118, which may include an air interface that enables the UE 110 to communicatively couple with the AP 116. The AP 116 may include a wireless local area network (WLAN), a WLAN node, a WLAN termination point, etc. The connection 1207 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 702.11 protocol, and the AP 116 may include a wireless fidelity router or other AP. Figure 1 110 , but AP 116 may be connected to another network (e.g., the Internet) without being connected to RAN 120 or CN 130. In some scenarios, UE 110, RAN 120, and AP 116 may be configured to utilize LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) technology or LTE WLAN radio level technology integrated with IPsec tunnel (LWIP). LWA may involve UE 110 in RRC_CONNECTED state being configured by RAN 120 to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP may involve UE 110 using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection interface 118) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., Internet Protocol (IP) packets) communicated through connection interface 118. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0030] The RAN 120 may include one or more RAN nodes 122-1 and 122-2 (collectively, RAN nodes 122, and individually, RAN nodes 122) that enable establishment of channels 114-1 and 114-2 between the UE 110 and the RAN 120. The RAN node 122 may include a network access point configured to provide a radio baseband function for data and / or voice connections between a user and a network based on one or more of the communication technologies described herein (e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, WiFi, etc.). Thus, as an example, the RAN node may be an E-UTRAN Node B (e.g., an enhanced Node B, eNodeB, eNB, 4G base station, etc.), a next generation base station (e.g., a 5G base station, an NR base station, a next generation eNB (gNB), etc.). The RAN node 122 may include a roadside unit (RSU), a transmit receive point (TRxP or TRP), and one or more other types of ground stations (e.g., a ground access point). In some scenarios, the RAN node 122 may be a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station and / or a low power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

[0031] Any of the RAN nodes 122 may serve as an endpoint for an air interface protocol and may be a first point of contact for the UE 110. In some implementations, any of the RAN nodes 122 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 120, including but not limited to functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. The UE 110 may be configured to communicate with each other or any of the RAN nodes 122 over a multi-carrier communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals according to various communication techniques, such as but not limited to OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink (SL) communications), although the scope of such implementations may not be limited in this respect. An OFDM signal may include a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

[0032] In some implementations, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 122 to the UE 110, and similar techniques may be used for uplink transmissions. The grid may be a time-frequency grid (e.g., a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid) that represents the physical resources for the downlink in each time slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is common for OFDM systems, which makes radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block may include a set of resource elements (REs); in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0033] In addition, the RAN nodes 122 may be configured to wirelessly communicate with the UE 110 and / or each other over a licensed medium (also referred to as a "licensed spectrum" and / or a "licensed band"), an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as an "unlicensed spectrum" and / or an "unlicensed band"), or a combination thereof. For example, a licensed spectrum may include channels operating within a frequency range (e.g., approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, or other), while an unlicensed spectrum may include a 5 GHz band or higher. A licensed spectrum may correspond to a channel or frequency band that is selected, reserved, regulated, etc. for certain types of wireless activities (e.g., wireless telecommunications network activities), while an unlicensed spectrum may correspond to one or more frequency bands that are not restricted for certain types of wireless activities. Whether a particular frequency band corresponds to a licensed medium or an unlicensed medium may depend on one or more factors, such as frequency allocations determined by a public sector organization (e.g., a government agency, a regulatory agency, etc.) or by a private sector organization involved in developing wireless communication standards and protocols, etc.

[0034] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 110 and the RAN node 122 may operate using NR-Unlicensed (NR-U), License Assisted Access (LAA), eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 110 and the RAN node 122 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol or a Clear Channel Assessment (CCA).

[0035] In NR-U, channel access in both the downlink and uplink relies on LBT or CCA features. As part of the sensing operation discussed herein, the wireless device or base station first "senses" the communication channel to determine whether there is no communication before any transmission or whether the reservation of another UE is on a potential resource or candidate resource. When the communication channel is a wide bandwidth unlicensed carrier (e.g., several hundred MHz), the "channel sensing" process relies on detecting energy levels on multiple subbands of the communication channel. LBT / CCA parameters (such as type / duration, idle channel assessment parameters, etc.) are configured in the wireless device by the base station.

[0036] NR supports dynamic TDD, where uplink-downlink allocations can change over time to adapt to traffic conditions. To enable dynamic TDD, the wireless device determines when and where to send and receive based on an indication of the channel occupancy time or COT structure. The COT may include multiple time slots, and each time slot includes downlink resources, uplink resources, or flexible resources. The COT structure reduces power consumption and channel access latency.

[0037] The NR-U or LA mechanism may be built on the carrier aggregation (CA) technology of wireless or LTE Advanced systems, respectively. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a component carrier (CC). In some cases, each CC may have a different bandwidth from other CCs. In a time division duplex (TDD) system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC may be the same for DL ​​and UL. CA also includes individual service cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the service cells may be different, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary service cell or PCell may provide a primary component carrier (PCC) for both UL and DL, and may handle RRC and non-access stratum (NAS) related activities. Other service cells are referred to as SCells, and each SCell may provide a single secondary component carrier (SCC) for both UL and DL. SCCs may be added and removed as needed, and changing PCCs may require UE 110 to undergo switching. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and the LAA SCells are assisted by PCells operating in licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells, indicating different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe.

[0038] The PDSCH may carry user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 110. A physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may carry, among other things, information about a transport format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel. The PDCCH may also inform the UE 110 about transport formats, resource allocations, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information related to uplink shared channels. Typically, downlink scheduling (e.g., allocating control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 110-2 within the cell) may be performed on any of the RAN nodes 122 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 110. Downlink resource allocation information may be transmitted on the PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each of the UEs 110.

[0039] PDCCH uses control channel elements (CCEs) to convey control information, where many CCEs (e.g., 6, etc.) can be composed of resource element groups (REGs), where REGs are defined as physical resource blocks (PRBs) in OFDM symbols. Before being mapped to resource elements, PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quaternions, which may then be arranged, for example, using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be sent using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, referred to as REGs. Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and channel conditions, one or more CCEs may be used to send the PDCCH. Four or more different PDCCH formats may be defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, 8, or 16).

[0040] Some implementations may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some implementations may utilize an extended (E)-PDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more ECCEs may be used to send EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, referred to as EREGs. In some cases, an ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs.

[0041] The RAN nodes 122 may be configured to communicate with each other via an interface 123. In a specific implementation where the system is an LTE system, the interface 123 may be an X2 interface. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 122 (e.g., two or more eNBs / gNBs or a combination thereof) connected to an evolved packet core (EPC) or CN 130, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC. In some specific implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user data packets transmitted over the X2 interface, and may be used to transmit information about the delivery of user data between eNBs or gNBs. For example, X2-U may provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from a master eNB (MeNB) to a secondary eNB (SeNB); information about successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP packet data units (PDUs) from the SeNB to the UE 110 for user data; information about PDCP PDUs that are not delivered to the UE 110; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for sending user data to the UE; etc. X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functions (e.g., including context transfer from a source eNB to a target eNB, user plane transmission control, etc.), load management functions, and inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0042] As shown, RAN 120 may be connected to (e.g., communicatively coupled to) CN 130 via a next generation (NG) interface 124. NG interface 124 may be divided into two parts: a next generation (NG) user plane (NG-U) interface 128, which carries traffic data between RAN node 122 and user plane function (UPF); and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 126, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 122 and access and mobility management function (AMF). Core network CN 130 may also be a 5G core network (5GC) 220.

[0043] The CN 130 may include a plurality of network elements 132 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of the UE 110) connected to the CN 130 via the RAN 120. In some implementations, the CN 130 may include an evolved packet core (EPC), a 5G CN, and / or one or more additional or alternative types of CNs. The components of the CN 130 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some implementations, network function virtualization (NFV) may be used to virtualize any or all of the above-described network node roles or functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instance of the CN 130 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of the CN 130 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) architecture and infrastructure can be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources including a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system can be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0044] As shown, CN 130, application server 140 and external network 150 can be connected to each other through interfaces 134, 136 and 138, which may include IP network interfaces. Application server 140 may include one or more server devices or network elements (e.g., virtual network functions (VNFs) that provide applications that use IP bearer resources through CM 130 (e.g., universal mobile telecommunications system packet service (UMTS PS) domain, LTE PS data service, etc.). Application server 140 may also or alternatively be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., voice over IP (VoIP sessions, push-to-talk (PTT) sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.)) of UE 110 via CN 130. Similarly, external network 150 may include one or more of various networks, including the Internet, thereby providing network access to various additional services, information, interconnectivity and other network features to mobile communication networks and UE 110.

[0045] Figure 2Example components of a device 200 according to some aspects are shown. In some aspects, the device 200 may include an application circuit 202, a baseband circuit 204, a radio frequency (RF) circuit 206, a front-end module (FEM) circuit 208, one or more antennas 210, and a power management circuit (PMC) 212 (coupled together at least as shown). The components of the illustrated device 200 may be included in a UE or a RAN node. In some aspects, the device 200 may include fewer elements (e.g., the RAN node cannot utilize the application circuit 202, but includes a processor / controller to process IP data received from a CN such as a 5GC 120 or an evolved packet core (EPC)). In some aspects, the device 200 may include additional elements, such as, for example, a memory / storage device, a display, a camera, a sensor (including one or more temperature sensors, such as a single temperature sensor, multiple temperature sensors at different locations in the device 200, etc.) or an input / output (I / O) interface. In other aspects, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., the circuitry may be separately included in more than one device for a Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementation).

[0046] The application circuit 202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuit 202 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage device and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 200. In some aspects, the processor of the application circuit 202 may process IP data packets received from the EPC.

[0047] The baseband circuit 204 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuit 204 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic components to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 206 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 206. The baseband processing circuit 204 may interact with the application circuit 202 to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of the RF circuit 206. For example, in some aspects, the baseband circuit 204 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 204A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 204B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 204C, or other baseband processors 204D for other existing generations, generations in development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuit 204 (e.g., one or more baseband processors 204A-D) may handle various radio control functions that may communicate with one or more radio networks via the RF circuit 206. In other aspects, some or all of the functionality of the baseband processors 204A-D may be included in a module stored in the memory 204G and executed via the central processing unit 204E. The memory 204G may include executable components or instructions to cause one or more processors (e.g., the baseband circuit 204) to perform aspects, processes, or operations herein. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some aspects, the modulation / demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuit 204 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functions. In some aspects, the encoding / decoding circuitry of the baseband circuit 204 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functions. The aspects of modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions are not limited to these examples, and in other aspects may include other suitable functions.

[0048] In some aspects, the baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 204F. The audio DSPs 204F may include elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and in other aspects may include other suitable processing elements. In some aspects, the components of the baseband circuitry may be appropriately combined in a single chip, in a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In some aspects, some or all of the components of the baseband circuitry 204 and the application circuitry 202 may be implemented together, such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

[0049] In some aspects, the baseband circuitry 204 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some aspects, the baseband circuitry 204 may support communications with an NG-RAN, an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN), or other wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN), etc. Aspects in which the baseband circuitry 204 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

[0050] RF circuit 206 can communicate with a wireless network through a non-solid medium using modulated electromagnetic radiation. In various aspects, RF circuit 206 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with a wireless network. RF circuit 206 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuits that down-convert RF signals received from FEM circuit 208 and provide baseband signals to baseband circuit 204. RF circuit 206 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuits that up-convert baseband signals provided by baseband circuit 204 and provide RF output signals to FEM circuit 208 for transmission.

[0051] In some aspects, the receive signal path of the RF circuit 206 may include a mixer circuit 206a, an amplifier circuit 206b, and a filter circuit 206c. In some aspects, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 206 may include a filter circuit 206c and a mixer circuit 206a. The RF circuit 206 may also include a synthesizer circuit 206d for synthesizing the frequency used by the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some aspects, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 208 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 206d. The amplifier circuit 206b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 206c may be a low pass filter (LPF) or a band pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to the baseband circuit 204 for further processing. In some aspects, the output baseband signal can be a zero frequency baseband signal, although this is not required.In some aspects, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path can include a passive mixer, although the scope of the various aspects is not limited in this respect.

[0052] In some aspects, any one or more of the baseband processors 204A to 204F as processing circuits of the baseband circuit 204, together or integrated in combination, may be configured to process or generate SCI in a transmitting UE (e.g., 110-1) and for a receiving UE (e.g., 110-2). The RF receive circuit may further operate to send data from the baseband circuit to the antenna 210 and the FEM 208 (such as the SCI) or receive data from the antenna and the FEM. The SCI includes a first-level SCI and a second-level SCI, wherein at least one of the first-level SCI or the second-level SCI includes one or more COT indications that implement sharing of the SL-unlicensed SL-U COT. For example, in a SL transmission, the first-level SCI may be provided on the PSCCH and the second-level SCI may be provided on the PSSCH.

[0053] refer to Figure 3 , a block diagram of a user equipment (UE) device or another network device / component (e.g., V-UE / P-UE, IoT, base station (e.g., gNB, eNB, etc.) or other participating network entity / component) is shown. The UE device 300 includes: one or more processors 310 (e.g., one or more baseband processors), the one or more processors including processing circuits and associated interfaces; transceiver circuits 320 (e.g., including RF circuits, the RF circuits may include transmitter circuits (e.g., associated with one or more transmit chains) and / or receiver circuits (e.g., associated with one or more receive chains), the transmitter circuits and receiver circuits may use common circuit elements, different circuit elements, or a combination thereof); and a memory 330 (which may include any of a variety of storage media and may store instructions and / or data associated with one or more of the processors 310 or the transceiver circuits 320).

[0054] Memory 330 (and other memory components discussed herein, such as memory, data storage, etc.) may include one or more machine-readable media containing instructions, which, when executed by a machine or component herein, cause the machine or other device to perform the actions of the method or device or system for communicating using multiple communication technologies according to the aspects, embodiments, and examples described herein. It should be understood that the aspects described herein may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, the function may be stored as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium (e.g., a memory or other storage device described herein) or sent via a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, which include any media that facilitates transferring a computer program from one place to another. Storage media or computer-readable storage devices may be any available media that can be accessed by a general-purpose computer or a special-purpose computer. By way of example only and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage devices, magnetic disk storage devices or other magnetic storage devices or other tangible and / or non-transient media that can be used to carry or store desired information or executable instructions. Moreover, any connection may also be referred to as a computer-readable medium.

[0055] The memory 330 may include executable instructions and may be integrated into or communicatively coupled to the processor or processing circuit 310. The executable instructions of the memory 330 may cause the processing circuit 310 to receive or generate SCI in an NR unlicensed network. The SCI includes a first-level SCI on a physical shared control channel (PSCCH) and a second-level SCI on a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH). The first-level SCI or the second-level SCI may include a COT indication for implementing a shared SL unlicensed (SL-U COT) acquired on the SL channel. The second-level SCI may include multiple time slots of the PSSCH, the multiple time slots having different HARQ process identifiers (HARQ IDs) corresponding to the multiple time slots, respectively, or each time slot having the same HARQ process ID. The communication and transceiver circuit 320 may further send a SL transmission on the SL-U COT based on one or more COT indications.

[0056] In one aspect, the UE / gNB device 300 is operable to be configured in the following manner: based on unequal protection between different transport blocks (TBs) in a physical layer encapsulation (e.g., EPC packets, transmit opportunities, maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT), single transmit burst, TTI, or other encapsulation protocols or related encapsulation parameters used to encapsulate data from higher layers (e.g., MAC layer) into frames for over-the-air transmission), to process / generate / encode / decode physical (PHY) layer transmissions to / from higher layers including multiple different TBs. The physical (PHY) layer transmissions may be received, transmitted, or provided by the communication / transmitter circuit 320 to similarly process / generate physical layer transmissions with the spatial layer via a physical channel in an NR network or other network.

[0057] The processor 310 may be a component of an application / processing circuit or a processor of a baseband circuit that can be used to execute components or elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, the processor 310 of the baseband circuit, alone or in combination as a processing circuit, may be configured in one aspect to generate and send SCI in an NR unlicensed network. The SCI may include a first-level SCI (SCI level 1) and a second-level SCI (SCI level 2). The first-level SCI may include an indication for sharing the COT with the receiving UE so as to perform SL communication on a dedicated SL V2X channel through the NR unlicensed network. These indications may be one or more COT indications for sharing the SL unlicensed COT (SL-U COT) for SL transmission. The first-level SCI may be provided on the PSCCH, and the second-level SCI may be provided on the physical side link shared channel (PSSCH). The one or more COT indications may include one or more of the following: a channel access priority indication, a power indication, a COT duration, a clear channel assessment (CCA) type, a cyclic prefix (CP) extension, a PSSCH frequency domain resource allocation, or a periodic X indication indicating one or more time slots of the PSSCH including the second-level SCI.

[0058] refer to Figure 4, an example of a SL slot configured with an SCI (e.g., V2X SCI) for SL communication 400 in an NR unlicensed network between an initiating UE (e.g., 110-1) and a receiving UE (e.g., 110-2) according to various aspects is shown. As noted herein, SL communication refers to direct communication between two or more adjacent V2X devices or UEs without passing through a network node or base station. The SL slot 404 includes 14 symbols each including a resource block spanning a vertical axis of each subchannel 402. Some symbols include PSCCH 410 and PSSCH 420, wherein the PSSCH 420 may occupy up to 10 physical resource blocks (PRBs) 406, as shown, or alternatively occupy up to 12, 15, 20, 25 PRBs, etc.). The SL slot 404 includes resources with PSCCH 410 and PSSCH 420, as well as an automatic gain control (AGC) symbol and a gap symbol as a first symbol 408. SL slots 404 may be configured with more or fewer symbols and may be transmitted in smaller or larger time blocks, for example, in other applications.

[0059] The SL slot 404 includes a first symbol 408 including an AGC symbol 408 which may be a copy of a second symbol. Subsequent symbols include a first level SCI or level 1 SCI on a PSCCH 410 which contains information enabling sensing operations and information on resource allocations for the PSSCH. The SCI (e.g., SCI format 1A) may include a level 1 or first level SCI on the PSCCH 410, which has various information for sensing and resource mapping, which may include priority (including, for example, 3 bits), PSSCH frequency resource allocation, PSSCH time resource allocation, resource reservation period (including, for example, 0-4 bits), demodulation reference signal (DMRS) mode (including, for example, 0-2 bits), SCI level 2 format (including, for example, 2 bits), β_offset indicator (including, for example, 2 bits), DRMS ​​port number (including, for example, 1 bit), modulation and coding scheme (MCS) (including, for example, 5 bits), MCS table index (such as 0-2 bits), physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) overhead indication for power control (including, for example, 1 bit), and reserved bits (including, for example, 2-4 bits). The first level SCI may include a single level 1 format for each resource pool, whose content indicates control of signaling on the PSSCH 420.

[0060] In one aspect, the first level SCI is configured to include an indication (field or parameter) to implement COT sharing. COT sharing can be implemented on the SL-U COT when the initiating UE has acquired the SL channel and is able to share the remaining resources that are not used after the SL transmission with another receiving UE. The receiving UE then uses similar resources as indicated by the initiating UE to transmit on the SL channel for SL V2X dedicated communication on the NR unlicensed network.

[0061] The SL time slot 404 also includes a second-level SCI on the PSSCH 420 that can be multiplexed with the PSCCH 410. The second-level SCI carries information for the receiving UE to identify and decode the associated SL channel, as well as control of the HARQ process and triggering for CSI feedback, etc. The SL shared channel carries data TBs for transmission on the SL. When the HARQ-ACK information includes an acknowledgment (ACK) or a non-acknowledgment (NACK), when the HARQ-ACK information includes only a NACK, or when there is no feedback of the HARQ-ACK information, the second-level SCI (e.g., including SCI level 2 format 2-A) may be configured with HARQ operation. The second-level SCI on the PSSCH 420 may include a HARQ process number (including, for example, 4 bits), a new data indicator (including, for example, 1 bit), a redundancy version (including, for example, 2 bits), a source ID (including, for example, 8 bits), a destination ID (including, for example, 16 bits), a HARQ feedback enable / disable indicator (including, for example, 1 bit), a broadcast type indicator (including, for example, 2 bits), and a CSI request (including, for example, 1 bit).

[0062] When the HARQ-ACK information includes only NACK, or when there is no feedback of HARQ-ACK information, the second-level SCI (e.g., including SCI level 2 format 2-B) portion may include HARQ operations. The information may include the number of HARQ processes, a new data indicator (including, for example, 1 bit), a redundancy version (including, for example, 2 bits), a source ID (including, for example, 8 bits); a destination ID (including, for example, 16 bits), a HARQ feedback enable / disable indicator (including, for example, 1 bit), an area ID (including, for example, 12 bits), and a communication range requirement (including, for example, 4 bits). The resource mapping of the level 2 SCI carried on the PSSCH 420 can be configured with a frequency-first, time-second mapping.

[0063] The last symbol in SL slot 400 is a gap symbol 422, which is not sent by the transmitter. Gap symbol 422 may be used to allow some time for transmitter-to-receive (Tx-to-Rx) turnaround.

[0064] Figure 5An example SL communication environment according to various aspects of the present invention is shown. The initiating UE 110-1 and the receiving UE 110-2 may be V-UEs communicating in an NR unlicensed network via SL communication dedicated to V2X SL. The initiating UE 110-1 senses the SL channel by performing a completely clear channel assessment (CCA) or a category (CAT) 4 CCA 506 to acquire a COT 508 for SL communication. If the channel is not occupied, the initiating UE 110-1 acquires the COT and sends an SCI to provide a PSSCH time allocation with an associated CCA indication in the first-level SCI 502 to the receiving UE 110-2. When resources for sharing remain after the initiating UE 110-1 performs SL transmission, the SCI may include any COT indication for sharing the COT. When the COT 508 can be shared by the UE 110-1, such as when resources remain after the UE 110-1 initially acquires the COT, the SCI from the SCI 110-1 may be provided to the indication of the COT. Receiving UE 110-2 decodes the SCI and generates a SL transmission 504 on resources for SL communication on COT 508 based on the COT indication obtained using the decoded SCI.

[0065] The COT 508 may be used for SL communication between UEs 110-1 and 110-2 on the NR unlicensed network. Based on the COT indication for COT sharing, the COT 508 is used by the receiving UE 110-2 as the SL-U COT for SL communication. The COT indication may include fields or parameters for implementing COT sharing in the first-level SCI 502. These may include a channel access priority indication, a power indication, a COT duration, a clear channel assessment (CCA) type, a cyclic prefix (CP) extension, a PSSCH frequency domain resource allocation, or a periodic X indication indicating one or more time slots of the PSSCH including the second-level SCI.

[0066] Although the COT indication is shown and described as being generated / received, for example, as part of a first-level SCI, any one or more of the COT indications described herein may additionally or alternatively be generated / received in a second-level SCI.

[0067] In one aspect, the channel access priority indication includes a channel access priority for CAT 4 CCA 506 channel access. The initiating UE 110-1 provides an indication, such as a 2-bit indication, of which channel access priority the initiating UE 110-1 is using to acquire the SL-U COT 508 for SL transmission. In one example, the channel access priority may be based on a DL channel access priority level (DL CAPC) of the SL. Alternatively or additionally, the channel access priority may be used based on the UL CAPC.

[0068] For example, the initiating UE 110-1 may use the following table to obtain the SL-U COT 508 based on the DL CAPC.

[0069]

[0070] CW min,p ≤CW p ≤CW max,p Indicates the contention window size for a particular CAPC, starting with CW as the minimum contention window of 6 min,p To maximum size CW max,p , so that the SL channel can coexist in a fair manner between different devices that may want to send data on the SL channel with COT at the same time. T represents the time slot duration, followed by m p If the slot duration is idle, such as when the power level is detected to be less than the energy detection threshold (EDT), the initiating UE 110-1 may acquire the COT 508; otherwise, the SL channel is considered to be occupied and cannot be reserved for transmission, in which case the UE 110-1 may perform a random backoff procedure before performing another CCA to acquire the COT.

[0071] For CAPC with p=3 and p=4, if it can be guaranteed in the long term (eg, by regulatory levels) that there is no other technology sharing the carrier, then T cot,pm =10ms, otherwise, T cot,pm =8ms. Therefore, if the initiating UE 110-1 obtains a SL-U Cot 508 with 8ms based on the CAPC of 3 or 4 being used, and only uses a portion of the duration T (e.g., 2ms) for SL transmission, the remaining portion (e.g., 6ms) can be shared with the receiving UE 110-2 for performing SL transmission using similar resources of the COT.

[0072] In one aspect, CAPC may be configured differently or independently for UL and DL. For example, the following table may be used for UL CAPC, while the above table for DL ​​CAPC may be used for downlink signaling of channel access priority and determining EDT in an EDT adaptation process independent of UL and DL.

[0073]

[0074] In one aspect, if the initiating UE 110-1 is performing channel access according to the channel access priority (p), acquiring the COT 508, and enabling COT sharing, the UE 110-1 may indicate the priority (p) to the responding UE 110-2 to enable the receiving UE 110-2 to share the SL-UCOT independently with the same or higher priority as the channel access priority based on the DL CAPC, the UL CAPC, or both. The receiving UE 110-2 may utilize the shared COT, instead of performing a full or complete CAT 4 CCA, but performing a shorter CCA (such as, for example, a single CCA) or other CCA (e.g., a CAT 1 CCA or a CAT 2 CCA) for sensing.

[0075] Alternatively or additionally, receiving UE 110-2 may respond with traffic having the same priority or lower priority than the DL CAPC or UL CAPC indicated as the COT indication in the SCI. Thus, for example, when the COT is shared to responding UE 110-2, SL transmissions of receiving UE 110-2 may be limited to traffic having equal or lower priority (where 1 is the highest priority).

[0076] In one aspect, the one or more COT indications transmitted by UE 110-1 may be power indications, such as EDT, transmit power, or both. For EDT, UE 110-1 may dynamically determine unlicensed EDT as an energy detection threshold adaptation process, which may be based on a maximum transmit power (P H ) is performed by increasing the EDT or ED threshold level that is proportional to the transmission power. The EDT may be inversely proportional to the transmission power, such that the more power used for SL transmission, the less opportunity or CCA time is used to acquire a SL channel with a tighter threshold. In other words, as the transmission power increases, the EDT of the SL transmission decreases.

[0077] For a maximum transmission power P less than or equal to 13dBm H , EDT can be equal to -75dBm / MHz. For P between 13dBm and 23dBm H , EDT can be equal to -85dBm / MHz+(23dBm-P H ). For P greater than or equal to 23dBm H value, EDT may be equal to -85dBm / MHz.

[0078] In the example energy detection threshold adaptation process, EDT(X) can be determined independently for UL and DL Thresh ). EDT can be determined to be less than or equal to the maximum EDT (X Thresh_max). If there is a long-term guarantee (e.g., by regulatory levels) that there are no other technologies sharing the channel, then X can be determined according to the following expression: Thresh_max :

[0079] Where regulatory requirements are defined, X r is the maximum energy detection threshold in dBm defined by this class requirement; otherwise X r =T max +10db; otherwise:

[0080]

[0081] For sidelink transmissions including synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), T A 5dB, otherwise 10dB. H Can be equal to 23dBm. TX It can be the maximum output power in dBm set for the SL channel. And BWMHz is a single channel bandwidth in MHz.

[0082] The transmission power (P Tx ) can be based on the maximum transmission power P of V2X CMAX,f,c Alternatively, the maximum transmission power P of the non-V2X device may be CMAX,f,c To define the transmission power P Tx In another alternative, the maximum transmission power may be determined by UE 110-1 during device-to-device (D2D) discovery based on the path loss of one or more sidelink UE pairs used for SL communication. Thus, for example, the maximum transmission power P may be defined based on energy measurements of SL UE pairs discovered in the vicinity of UE 110-1. CMAX,f,c .

[0083] In one example, the maximum transmission power P CMAX,f,c The EDT may be signaled as a decibel or dB value in the first level SCI to facilitate or enable COT sharing of the receiving UE 110-2. Alternatively or additionally, the EDT may be signaled as a dB value (e.g., -72dBm, -68dBm, or other value). In one aspect, the initiating UE 110-1 utilizes the transmit power and EDT based on the parameters, values, or indications discussed herein and signals them in the COT indication so that the receiving UE 110-2 performs SL transmission with the same power limit as the initiating UE 110-1 or at least not at a higher power than that used to obtain the SL-U COT.

[0084] For the intra-network case, or in mode 1 SL communication where a base station (e.g., a gNB or an eNB) allocates available resources for direct communication between terminals (different UEs), the base station (e.g., RAN 120, etc.) may configure and provide UE-specific radio resource control (RRC) signaling. For example, the base station may provide a sidelink COT shared EDT, which may be provided as a UE-specific parameter or information element in an RRC configuration or an RRC configuration information element. In this regard, the initiating UE 110-1 may receive the EDT from the base station via RRC signaling instead of determining the EDT itself. In response to obtaining the EDT and acquiring the SL-U COT, the initiating UE 110-1 may provide the EDT as a COT indication in the first-level SCI on the PSCCH to the receiving / responding UE 110-2.

[0085] Alternatively or additionally, with sidelink COT sharing EDT, base station 120 may provide EDT for each sidelink pair for unicast signaling, or provide EDT for each sidelink group of V2X UEs for groupcast signaling. In these aspects, both UEs, i.e., UE 110-1 and 110-2, may receive EDT, and when signaling to share the acquired SL-UCOT for SL sidelink communication with UE 110-2, the initiating UE 110-1 does not need to perform a signaling of EDT in the COT indicator. For example, if the SL transmission is 10dBm and the RRC configuration with sidelink COT shared EDT uses 23dBm to calculate the EDT, then as long as the sidelink pair 110-1 and 110-2 transmit below 23dBm, the constraint is met and the initiating UE 110-1 does not necessarily need to dynamically signal the EDT to let the responding / receiving UE 110-2 know the specific energy level or EDT used by its sensing SL channel, thereby saving dynamic overhead signaling.

[0086] Compared to Mode 1 communication, Mode 2 communication is a method in which the UE selects available resources for direct communication as SL communication and can be used even when the terminal is out of coverage. Sensing is used to identify resources available for the side link so as to decode the PSCCH during a sensing window of a certain period before performing side link transmission. Regardless of whether it is an intra-network or extra-network communication, the initiating UE 110-1 that obtains the SL-U COT and is able to perform COT sharing in an NR unlicensed network operates to share the COT indication to the receiving UE 110-1 so that it responds accordingly in the SL communication with SL-UCOT.

[0087] In one aspect, the COT indication provided by the initiating UE 110-1 may also include a COT duration indication, which may include various COT duration indications. For example, UE 110-1 may signal one or more of a total COT duration, a multi-TTI SL PSCCH COT duration, or a remaining COT length so that the responding UE 110-2 communicates on the SL-U COT obtained by the initiating UE 110-1.

[0088] As described herein, the total COT duration may be determined or derived based on priority level signaling of UE 110-1. Otherwise, the MCOT may be signaled from initiating UE 110-1 to UE 110-2 without any priority level via one or more COT indications.

[0089] The multi-TTI SL PSSCH COT duration may be a time domain resource allocation (TDRA) indicating how long the SL transmission is occupied within the COT duration. The NR-U TDRA table may be used for multi-TTI allocations as a multi-TTI SL PSSCH COT duration. The NR-U TDRA table may be based on, for example, a NR-U TDRA table of Rel-16 or higher, which may indicate the number of repetitions or TTIs used for SL transmissions together with the SCI. SL transmissions between UE SL pairs may be continuous to avoid sharing an additional CCA for acquiring the SL-U COT. The total length of the multi-TTI SL PSSCH COT duration may indicate the number of slots in the initiating UE SL transmission or multi-slot transmission within the COT.

[0090] The remaining COT length indication may be used to indicate the COT length being shared and provided to the receiving UE 110-2. This is the time that the responding UE 110-1 can occupy in the SL transmission on the SL-U COT by the responding UE 110-2. In one aspect, the receiving UE 110-2 may derive the remaining COT length by subtracting the initiating transmission COT length from the MCOT. Therefore, if two of the COT indications related to the COT duration (e.g., MCOT, initiating SL transmission, SL transmission of the SCI, etc.) are obtained from the COT indication in the SCI, the responding UE 110-2 may derive the remaining COT length for the SL transmission. For example, if the MCOT is 8ms and the initiating UE 110-1 transmits 2ms, the responding UE 110-2 may transmit with a remaining COT length of 6ms. For example, all three parameters may be signaled as COT indications in a redundant SCI, or any two parameters may be signaled to derive the third parameter.

[0091] In one aspect, the COT indication may also include an indication of the CCA type and a frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA). The CCA indication may include a CCA type and a cyclic prefix (CP) extension to ensure that the receiving UE 110-2 is sharing the COT with the initiating UE 110-1. For example, the COT indication may include a CCA type (e.g., a single CCA (e.g., 24 microseconds) or other CCA) that the receiving UE 110-2 may use to sense the SL channel. The CCA and CP extension indications may notify the receiving UE 110-2 that the transmission time is within a certain time (e.g., 60 microseconds, etc.) of the end of the transmission of the initiating UE 110-1. In one example, a V2X UE (e.g., 110-1 and 110-2) in SL communication on an NR unlicensed network may use up to six bits in a table specified for CP extension and CCA sensing in joint signaling. For example, in an alternative, up to six bits in the first-level SCI may indicate different combinations of CCA and CP extensions so that the responding UE performs SL communication on the shared acquisition COT.

[0092] The COT indication may also include an FDRA indication indicating the interlace used for SL transmission. For example, the PSSCH FDRA bit field or bitmap may indicate that an interlace or interlace type is being used for sidelink communication. NR supports both continuous and interleaved uplink resource allocation. Interleaved resource allocation is the basic unit of resource allocation for NR unlicensed channels, for example, for 15KHz subcarrier spacing, an interleaved resource allocation may consist of ten equally spaced resource blocks within a 20MHz frequency bandwidth.

[0093] In other aspects, the second level SCI or level 2 SCI may be sent across multiple slots of the PSSCH. HARQ information may be provided for the level 2 SCI. When multiple slots of the PSSCH are configured, the HARQ ID or HARQ process ID for each slot may be signaled in the level 2 SCI. In one example, only the HARQ ID for the first slot may be signaled in the second level SCI, and the HARQ IDs for any subsequent slots may be derived from the HARQ ID for the first slot (e.g., plus +1, etc.). Alternatively or additionally, a new bit indicator may be used for each HARQ ID to identify the HARQ ID for each slot.

[0094] Regarding the redundancy version of each HARQ ID, 2 bits may be used per HARQ retransmission to identify the HARQ ID being retransmitted, regardless of whether a single TTI transmission or a multi-TTI transmission is being generated. For example, if the transmission is over one TTI, 2 bits may be added; if the transmission is over 2 TTIs, 4 bits may be used; if the transmission is over 3 TTIs, 6 bits may be used, and so on. Alternatively or additionally, two bits may be used for signaling at each single TTI, with one bit additionally used for multiple TTIs. For example, if one TTI is being signaled, 2 bits may be used to identify the redundancy version HARQ ID; if two TTIs are signaled, 2 bits (1 bit per HARQ) may be used; if three TTIs are signaled, 3 bits may be used, and so on. When one bit is being used, the redundancy version indication is indexed starting with 0 and 2. For example, when two bits are used, the redundancy indication may be 0, 1, 2, 4.

[0095] Alternatively or additionally, with an SCI configured with a multi-slot PSSCH, a second-level SCI may be sent in each slot and used to provide an indication of data in the corresponding slot. This may have higher reliability than sending PSSCH on more than one slot (e.g., an average of 4 slots or other number of slots) for the level 2 SCI. For repetition-based operation with repeated second-level SCI, the same HARQ process ID may be indicated for each slot. For multi-transport block (TB)-based operation, a different HARQ process ID may be indicated for each slot.

[0096] Alternatively or additionally, the second level SCI may be sent according to a periodicity X. For example, the second level SCI may be sent every X slots to support TBs over X slots, where the periodicity X may be indicated by the level 1 SCI as part of the COT indication or otherwise.

[0097] Figure 6 is a diagram illustrating a system 600 for sidelink communication as direct communication via one or more vehicle UEs or other network devices. The system 600 facilitates sidelink communication by enhancing reliability and accuracy of data during power saving procedures such as resource selection procedures, partial or reduced sensing operations, re-evaluation / preemption checks for non-periodic transmissions in SL operations, and congestion control. The system 600 may be employed at a UE or other network device (e.g., UE device 110) that facilitates Mode 2 SL communication with another UE (e.g., UE 626 or other UE device 624) to perform resource selection based on partial sensing procedures and UE behavior including re-evaluation / preemption checks and congestion control procedures in accordance with various aspects of the present invention.

[0098] The system 600 includes a UE 602, a transceiver 606, and a participant device entity 620, which may represent a V-UE or any UE operating on an unlicensed network or a NR unlicensed network that can participate in SL communication through direct communication with each other. The UE 602 includes, for example, a transceiver 606, a storage component 618, and a control circuit or controller 604. The storage component 618 includes a memory, a storage element, etc. and is configured to store information for the UE 602. The controller 604 is configured to perform various operations associated with the UE 602. The controller 604 may include logic components, components, circuits, one or more processors ( Figure 2 The V-UE 602 may include a baseband circuit processor 204A-E or other processing circuitry. The transceiver 606 includes transmitter functionality and receiver functionality. The V-UE 602 also includes one or more antennas 608 for communications 614, including emergency service broadcast communications with participant entities 620 and SCI.

[0099] The participant device entity 620 includes one or more other UEs 624, including infrastructure entities, vehicle entities, smart glass, etc. The communication between the V-UE 602 and the participant device entity 620 includes vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), and vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) and other vehicle components or equipment. The entity 620 may also include a roadside unit (RSU), which is an entity that supports V2I and is implemented in, for example, a base station or a stationary / non-stationary UE / IoT.

[0100] Sidelink communications between the V-UE 602 and the participating device entities 620 may utilize cooperative sensing including information from other vehicles, sensors, etc. to process and share information to provide vehicle services such as collision warnings, autonomous driving, etc.

[0101] V2V communication may be performed between V-UEs that may be served by an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network (E-UTRAN) or in a place where at least one of the communicating V-UEs may be beyond the network coverage of mode 2 SL communication. V2I communication includes application layer information sent to the RSU. The RSU transmits application layer information to a group of UEs. V2I also includes vehicle-to-network (V2N) communication, in which one party of the communication is a V / P-UE or UE, and the other party is a service entity, both of which support V2N applications. V2P can be SL communication between different UEs (including V / P-UEs and pedestrian-associated UEs, one of which is used for one). V2P communication includes V2P-related application information. This may include emergency service information communicated through V2X, and uses include but are not limited to forward collision warnings, control loss warnings, V2V emergency vehicle warnings, V2V emergency stop use cases, V2I emergency stop uses, wrong-way driving warnings, pre-collision sensing warnings, warnings to avoid pedestrian collisions, etc.

[0102] Additionally or alternatively, the resource (re)selection process / operation may include resource exclusion, iterative formation of candidate resource sets, SL-RSSI averaging of remaining resources, resource sorting, and random selection among resources in the candidate resource set with minimum received energy. This may then be followed / preceded by a sensing window / process and subsequently repeated sequentially with the sensing window / process to monitor the spectrum / medium / channel for communications by the UE and adjacent channels or communication devices detected according to aspects described herein.

[0103] In some aspects, the UE 602 may be configured for full sensing, e.g., as a CAT 4 CCA, rather than performing partial sensing. The UE 602 may also represent a sending UE 110-1 reporting to a receiver UE 620, e.g., as UE 110-2, in a mode 2 SL communication. The UE 620 may be configured to also perform partial sensing, wherein at least a minimum number of candidate time slots may be configured for partial sensing, e.g., partial sensing from RRC signaling or higher layers based on an SCI from the UE 602 having a COT indication 610 in a first level SCI or a second level SCI. For example, the COT indication 610 provided to the receiver UE 110-2 or 624 may be from the initiating UE 602 and be associated with the SL-UCOT for COT sharing in the SL communication. The one or more COT indications 610 may include one or more of the following: a channel access priority indication, a power indication, a COT duration, a clear channel assessment (CCA) type, a cyclic prefix (CP) extension, a PSSCH frequency domain resource allocation, or a periodic X indication indicating one or more time slots of a PSSCH including, for example, a second level SCI, where X is an integer, as described herein.

[0104] Although the method described in the present disclosure is shown and described as a series of actions or events in this article, it should be understood that the order of such actions or events shown should not be interpreted as having a limiting meaning. For example, some actions can occur simultaneously with other actions or events other than those shown and / or described herein in different orders. In addition, all the actions shown may not be required to realize one or more aspects or embodiments of this specification. In addition, one or more actions in the actions depicted herein may be performed in one or more separate actions and / or stages. For ease of description, reference may be made to the above-mentioned accompanying drawings. The method is not limited to any specific aspect or example provided in the present disclosure, and may be applied to any one of the systems / devices / components disclosed herein.

[0105] refer to Figure 7 , an example process flow 700 for SL communication between UEs on an NR unlicensed network according to various aspects is shown. The process flow 700 may begin at 710 by generating an SCI including a first level SCI and a second level SCI in the NR unlicensed network, wherein at least one of the first level SCI or the second level SCI includes one or more COT indications for sharing of SL-U COTs for SL transmission. At 720, the process flow 700 includes providing the first level SCI on the PSCCH and providing the second level SCI on the PSSCH in the SL transmission. The second level SCI may include multiple time slots of the PSSCH, the multiple time slots having different hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifiers (HARQ IDs) corresponding to the multiple time slots, respectively, or each time slot has the same HARQ process ID.

[0106] The UE may perform a CAT 4CCA operation to obtain access to the SL-U COT of the SL channel based on the channel access priority. For example, the COT indication may include a channel access priority indication of the channel access priority used by the CAT 4CCA operation to access the SL channel, and indicate to the receiving UE to perform a lower or shorter CCA to sense the SL channel for SL transmission returned to the initiating UE. For example, the channel access priority indication implements sharing of the SL-U COT based on a downlink (DL) CAPC or UL CAPC with the same priority as the channel access priority or a higher priority than the channel access priority. The receiving UE may perform a CCA shorter than a category (CAT) 4CCA, and the SL transmission of the receiving UE may be based on traffic with a priority equal to or lower than the DL CAPC or UL CAPC of the channel access priority indication.

[0107] The COT indication may additionally or alternatively include at least one of the following: an energy detection threshold (EDT) or a transmission power to be used by the receiving UE when sharing the SL-U COT. The initiating UE may operate to determine the EDT based on the power of the sensing operation performed on the SL channel. Alternatively, the initiating UE may receive the EDT or the transmission power in a UE-specific parameter of the radio resource control (RRC) signaling, and share the EDT or the transmission power with the receiver UE via the COT indication. Alternatively, the EDT is received in unicast or multicast signaling for paired UEs, and the UE does not necessarily include the power indication in the SCI and saves overhead signaling.

[0108] The COT indication may also include a COT duration indication indicating at least one of: a total COT duration based on a priority level indicated by a channel access priority, a maximum COT (MCOT), a multi-transmission time interval (multi-TTI) SL PSSCH COT duration, or a remaining COT length of a receiving V2X device or other UE.

[0109] Based on the number of bits including up to six bits, the COT indication may also include a clear channel assessment (CCA) type and a cyclic prefix (CP) extension. The COT indication may also include a PSSCH frequency domain resource allocation indicating an interleaving type or indicating the interleaving being used for SL transmission based on one or more bit fields or bitmaps.

[0110] refer to Figure 8 , an example process flow 800 for SL communication between UEs on an NR unlicensed network is shown in accordance with various aspects. The process flow 800 may begin at 810 by receiving an SCI in the NR unlicensed network, wherein the SCI includes a first level SCI on a PSCCH and a second level SCI on a PSSCH, wherein at least one of the first level SCI or the second level SCI includes one or more COT indications to enable sharing of a SL-U COT previously acquired on a SL channel. At 820, the process flow 800 includes sending a SL transmission on the SL-U COT based on the one or more COT indications.

[0111] The UE may be configured to perform CCA on the SL channel based on the channel access priority indication indicated by the COT. Based on the channel access priority indication, the CCA may be shorter than the CAT 4 CCA. The SL transmission may be based on traffic with a priority equal to or lower than the DL CAPC or UL CAPC indicated by the channel access priority.

[0112] The UE may further receive at least one of the following: an energy detection threshold (EDT) or a transmission power to be used for SL transmission from one or more COT indications, unicast signaling, or groupcast signaling. Then, the UE may generate a SL transmission based on at least one of the EDT or the transmission power, wherein the EDT is inversely proportional to the transmission power.

[0113] The COT indication may also include a COT duration indication indicating one or more of: a total COT duration, a maximum COT (MCOT), a multi-transmission time interval (multi-TTI) SL PSSCH COT duration, or a remaining COT length. The total COT duration may be based on a priority level of a channel access priority used by an initiating UE device that previously acquired the SL channel, and the remaining COT length may be based on the MCOT minus the initiating device sending COT duration.

[0114] The PSSCH may include multiple time slots, wherein the second-level SCI is repeated in one or more time slots of the multiple time slots. The one or more time slots may include the same HARQ ID or different HARQ process IDs, respectively. The second-level SCI may be configured in every X time slots of the multiple time slots, where X is a periodic integer indicated by the first-level SCI. For example, the SCI may be averaged or spanned every four time slots or other number of time slots, and repeated based on a periodicity (e.g., every four time slots or other number of time slots).

[0115] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of the authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

[0116] The present disclosure is now described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein throughout the text, similar figure numbers are used to refer to similar elements, and the structures and devices shown therein need not be drawn to scale. As used herein, the terms "component", "system", "interface", etc. are intended to refer to entities, hardware, software (e.g., in execution) and / or firmware related to a computer. For example, a component can be a processor (e.g., a microprocessor, a controller or other processing device), a process running on a processor, a controller, an object, an executable file, a program, a storage device, a computer, a tablet computer and / or a user equipment (e.g., a mobile phone, etc.) with a processing device. By way of example, an application and a server running on a server can also be a component. One or more components can reside in a process, and a component can be located on a computer and / or distributed between two or more computers. This article can describe a set of elements or other component sets, wherein the term "set" can be interpreted as "one or more".

[0117] In addition, these components can be executed from various computer-readable storage media having various data structures stored thereon, such as using modules. Components can communicate via local and / or remote processes, such as according to signals having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacts with another component in a local system, a distributed system, and / or an entire network, such as the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, or a similar network with other systems via signals).

[0118] As another example, a component may be a device having a specific function, the specific function being provided by a mechanical component operated by an electrical or electronic circuit, wherein the electrical or electronic circuit may be operated by a software application or a firmware application executed by one or more processors. The one or more processors may be internal or external to the device and may execute at least a portion of the software application or the firmware application. As another example, a component may be a device that provides a specific function by electronic components without mechanical components; the electronic components may include one or more processors therein to execute at least a portion of the software and / or firmware that gives the electronic components their functions.

[0119] The use of the word "exemplary" is intended to present concepts in a specific way. As used in this application, the term "or" is intended to mean an inclusive "or" rather than an exclusive "or". That is, unless otherwise specified or clear from the context, "X adopts A or B" is intended to mean any natural inclusive arrangement of natural inclusive arrangements. That is, if X adopts A; X adopts B; or X adopts both A and B, then "X adopts A or B" is satisfied in any of the aforementioned cases. In addition, the articles "one" and "an" used in this application and the appended claims should generally be interpreted as meaning "one or more" unless otherwise specified or clear from the context to point to a singular form. In addition, to the extent that the terms "including", "comprising", "having", "having", "with" or their variations are used in the specific embodiments and claims, such terms are intended to be included in a manner similar to the term "comprising". In addition, in the case of discussing one or more numbered items (e.g., "first X", "second X", etc.), generally, the one or more numbered items can be different or they can be the same, but in some cases, the context may indicate that they are different or that they are the same.

[0120] As used herein, the term "circuit" may refer to, may be a part of, or may include an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), electronic circuit, processor (shared, dedicated, or group), or associated memory (shared, dedicated, or group) operably coupled to the circuit that executes one or more software programs or firmware programs, combinational logic circuits, or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuit may be implemented in one or more software modules or firmware modules, or the functionality associated with the circuit may be implemented by one or more software modules or firmware modules. In some embodiments, the circuit may include logic that is at least partially operable in hardware.

[0121] As used in this specification, the term "processor" may refer to substantially any computing processing unit or device, including but not limited to single-core processors; single processors with software multithreaded execution capabilities; multi-core processors; multi-core processors with software multithreaded execution capabilities; multi-core processors with hardware multithreading technology; parallel platforms; and parallel platforms with distributed shared memory. In addition, a processor may refer to an integrated circuit, an application-specific integrated circuit, a digital signal processor, a field programmable gate array, a programmable logic controller, a complex programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions and / or processes described herein. The processor may utilize nanoscale architectures, such as, but not limited to, molecular and quantum dot-based transistors, switches, and gates, in order to optimize space usage or enhance the performance of a mobile device. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing processing units.

[0122] Examples (implementations) may include subject matter, such as methods, devices for performing actions or boxes of the method, and at least one machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a machine (e.g., a processor with memory, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.), cause the machine to perform actions of a method or device or system for concurrent communication using multiple communication technologies according to the embodiments and examples described herein.

[0123] In addition, various aspects or features described herein may be implemented as methods, devices or articles using standard programming and / or engineering techniques. As used herein, the term "article" is intended to cover computer programs accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier or medium. For example, computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to, magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic strips, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact disks (CDs), digital versatile disks (DVDs), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., EPROMs, cards, sticks, key drives, etc.). In addition, the various storage media described herein may represent one or more devices and / or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" may include, but is not limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing and / or carrying instructions and / or data. In addition, a computer program product may include a computer-readable medium having one or more instructions or codes that are operable to cause a computer to perform the functions described herein.

[0124] Communication media embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other structured or unstructured data in a data signal such as a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery or transmission media. The term "modulated data signal" or signal refers to a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in a manner that encodes information in one or more signals. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media include wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.

[0125] An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to a processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. In an alternative, the storage medium may be integrated with the processor. In addition, in some aspects, the processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In an alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in a user terminal as discrete components. In addition, in some aspects, the process and / or action of the method or algorithm may reside on a machine-readable medium and / or a computer-readable medium as one or any combination or set of codes and / or instructions, and may be incorporated into a computer program product.

[0126] In this regard, although the subject matter disclosed herein has been described in conjunction with various embodiments and corresponding drawings, it should be understood that other similar embodiments may be used or modifications and additions may be made to the described embodiments, where applicable, to perform the same, similar, alternative or alternative functions of the disclosed subject matter without departing from the described embodiments. Therefore, the disclosed subject matter should not be limited to any single aspect described herein, but should be interpreted in accordance with the breadth and scope of the claims appended hereto.

[0127] In particular, with respect to the various functions performed by the above-mentioned components (assemblies, devices, circuits, systems, etc.), unless otherwise specified, the terms used to describe such components (including references to "means") are intended to correspond to any component or structure that performs the specified function of the component (e.g., functionally equivalent), even if not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure that performs the function in the exemplary implementation of the present disclosure shown herein. In addition, although specific features have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, for any given or specific application, such features may be combined with one or more other features of other implementations, which may be desirable and advantageous.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Memory; a processing circuit coupled to the memory, the processing circuit being configured to, when executing instructions stored in the memory, cause the UE to: generating sidelink (SL) control information (SCI), wherein the SCI comprises a first level SCI and a second level SCI, and wherein at least one of the first level SCI or the second level SCI comprises one or more COT indications to enable sharing of a SL-unlicensed (SL-U) channel occupancy time (COT) of SL transmissions; as well as In the SL transmission, the first level SCI is transmitted on a physical shared control channel (PSCCH), and the second level SCI is transmitted on a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

2. The UE according to claim 1, wherein the second-level SCI includes multiple time slots of the PSSCH, the multiple time slots have different hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifiers (HARQIDs) corresponding to the multiple time slots respectively, or have the same HARQ process ID for each time slot.

3. The UE according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: performing a Category (CAT) 4 Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) operation to gain access to the SL channel based on the channel access priority, and The one or more COT indications include a channel access priority indication of the channel access priority for accessing the SL channel via the CAT 4 CCA operation.

4. The UE according to claim 3, wherein the channel access priority indication implements sharing of the SL-U COT based on a downlink (DL) channel access priority level (CAPC) or an uplink (UL) CAPC with the same priority as or a higher priority than the channel access priority.

5. The UE according to claim 1, wherein the one or more COT indications include at least one of the following: an energy detection threshold (EDT) or a transmission power of the SL-U COT to be used by a receiving device for sharing the SL transmission.

6. The UE according to claim 5, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: determining the EDT based on a power of a sensing operation performed on the SL channel, wherein the EDT and the transmission power indicated by the one or more COTs indicate the powers to be used by a receiving device to sense and transmit on the SL channel, respectively, in response to sharing the SL-U COT; or The EDT is received in a UE-specific parameter of radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

7. The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more COT indications include a COT duration indication indicating at least one of: a total COT duration based on a priority level of a channel access priority indication, a maximum COT (MCOT), a multi-transmission time interval (multi-TTI) SL PSSCH COT duration, or a remaining COT length for a receiving V2X device.

8. The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more COT indications include a clear channel assessment (CCA) type and a cyclic prefix (CP) extension based on a number of bits including at most six bits.

9. The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more COT indications include a PSSCH frequency domain resource allocation, and the PSSCH frequency domain resource allocation indicates the interleaving used for the SL transmission based on one or more bit fields or bitmaps.

10. A method comprising: Receiving, via processing circuitry, sidelink (SL) control information (SCI) in a New Radio (NR) unlicensed network, wherein the SCI comprises a first level SCI on a physical shared control channel (PSCCH) and a second level SCI on a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), wherein at least one of the first level SCI or the second level SCI comprises one or more COT indications enabling sharing of a SL-unlicensed (SL-U) channel occupancy time (COT) previously acquired on the SL channel; and Transmitting a SL transmission on the SL-U COT based on the one or more COT indications.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: Based on the channel access priority indication of the one or more COT indications, a clear channel assessment (CCA) is performed on the SL channel, wherein the CCA is shorter than Category (CAT) 4 CCA, and the SL transmission is based on traffic of a downlink (DL) channel access priority class (CAPC) or an uplink (UL) CAPC having a priority equal to or lower than the channel access priority indication.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: receiving at least one of: an energy detection threshold (EDT) or a transmission power to be used for the SL transmission from the one or more COT indications, unicast signaling, or multicast signaling; and The SL transmission is generated based on at least one of the EDT or the transmission power, wherein the EDT is inversely proportional to the transmission power.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more COT indications include a COT duration indication indicating at least one of: a total COT duration, a maximum COT (MCOT), a multi-transmission time interval (multi-TTI) SLPSSCH COT duration, or a remaining COT length, wherein the total COT duration is based on a priority level of a channel access priority used by an initiating vehicle-to-everything (V2X) device that previously acquired the SL channel, and the remaining COT length is based on the MCOT minus the initiating device transmission COT duration.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more COT indications include one or more indications of at least one of: a clear channel assessment (CCA) type, a cyclic prefix (CP) extension, or an indication of an interleaved PSSCH frequency domain resource allocation for the SL transmission.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the PSSCH comprises a plurality of time slots, wherein the second-level SCI is repeated in one or more time slots of the plurality of time slots, wherein the one or more time slots respectively comprise the same hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier (HARQ ID) or different HARQ process IDs, and wherein the second-level SCI is in every X time slots of the plurality of time slots, wherein X is a periodic integer indicated by the first-level SCI.

16. A baseband processor configured to enable a user equipment (UE): generating sidelink (SL) control information (SCI), wherein the SCI comprises a first level SCI and a second level SCI, and wherein at least one of the first level SCI or the second level SCI comprises one or more COT indications to enable sharing of a SL-unlicensed (SL-U) channel occupancy time (COT) for SL transmissions; and In the SL transmission, the first level SCI is provided on a physical shared control channel (PSCCH) and the second level SCI is provided on a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

17. The baseband processor of claim 16, wherein the one or more COT indications include at least one of: a channel access priority indication, a power indication, a COT duration, a clear channel assessment (CCA) type, a cyclic prefix (CP) extension, a PSSCH frequency domain resource allocation, or a periodic X indication indicating one or more time slots of the PSSCH.

18. The baseband processor according to claim 16, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to enable the UE to: During a device-to-device (D2D) discovery operation, determining an energy detection threshold (EDT) based on a sensing operation performed on a SL channel, and determining a transmission power based on non-V2X device parameters or based on a path loss of a sidelink paired device; and At least one of the EDT or the transmission power is provided as a power indication in the one or more COT indications according to a decibel level.

19. The baseband processor according to claim 16, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to cause the UE to: receiving an energy detection threshold (EDT) in radio resource control (RRC) signaling in UE-specific parameters, unicast for a sidelink pair, or multicast for a sidelink group; and In response to receiving the EDT in the UE-specific parameters, the EDT is provided in the one or more COT indications.

20. The baseband processor of claim 16, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to cause the UE to: The second-level SCI is transmitted in the first time slot, each time slot or periodic time slot of the PSSCH, wherein each time slot has the same HARQ process ID or a different HARQ process ID.

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