Channel occupancy sharing conditions for beam-based channel access

Abstract

This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for channel occupancy sharing conditions for beam-based channel access. In some aspects, one or more wireless devices may support a beam-based channel access procedure, according to which one or more conditions associated with a transmission from a first wireless device are satisfied, if one or more conditions associated with the transmission from the first wireless device are satisfied. If so, the first wireless device may share a channel occupancy time (COT) of the second wireless device without performing a listen before talk (LBT) procedure. Such conditions may be associated with whether a directional beam used by the first wireless device satisfies a narrow beam condition, a time slot between transmissions from the second wireless device and transmissions from the first wireless device, or a duration of consecutive transmissions from the first wireless device, or any combination thereof.

Description

[0001] Cross-references

[0002] This patent application claims priority to U.S. patent application No. 17 / 878,752, filed by HIRZALLAH et al. on August 1, 2022, entitled “CHANNELOCCUPANCY SHARING CONDITIONS FOR BEAM-BASED CHANNEL ACCESS,” which is assigned to the assignee of this application and is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates to wireless communications, including channel occupancy sharing conditions for beam-based channel access. Background Art

[0004] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content, such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and the like. These systems may be able to support communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources, such as time, frequency, and power. Examples of such multiple access systems include fourth generation (4G) systems (such as long term evolution (LTE) systems, advanced LTE (LTE-A) systems, or LTE-A Pro systems) and fifth generation (5G) systems (which may be referred to as new radio (NR) systems). These systems may employ techniques such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), or discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM). A wireless multiple access communication system may include one or more base stations (BSs) or one or more network access nodes, each of which simultaneously supports communication for multiple communication devices, which may be further referred to as user equipment (UE). Summary of the Invention

[0005] The systems, methods, and devices of the disclosure each have several innovative aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for the desirable attributes disclosed herein.

[0006] One innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a method for wireless communication at a first device. The method may include: receiving a first message using a shared wireless channel and during a channel occupancy time (COT) associated with communication between the first device and the second device; and transmitting a second message using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device via a directional beam, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0007] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure can be implemented in an apparatus for wireless communication at a first device. The apparatus may include one or more interfaces and a processing system. The one or more interfaces may be configured to: obtain a first message using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device; and output a second message via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0008] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in an apparatus for wireless communication at a first device. The apparatus may include a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, and instructions stored in the memory. The instructions are executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: receive a first message using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first and second devices; and transmit a second message via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first and second devices, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first and second messages or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0009] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in another apparatus for wireless communication at a first device. The apparatus may include: means for receiving a first message using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first and second devices; and means for transmitting a second message via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with communication between the first and second devices, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first and second messages or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0010] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure can be implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication at a first device. The code may include instructions executable by a processor to: receive a first message using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first and second devices; and transmit a second message via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first and second devices, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first and second messages or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0011] Some specific implementations of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, components, or instructions for receiving an indication of one or both of the time slot or the upper limit transmission duration of the second message from the second device, wherein both the time slot and the upper limit transmission duration of the second message may be associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0012] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a method for wireless communication. The method may include: sending a first message from the second device to the first device using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first and second devices; and receiving a second message from the first device via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first and second devices, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first and second messages or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0013] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus may include one or more interfaces and a processing system. The one or more interfaces may be configured to: output a first message from the second device to the first device using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device; and obtain a second message from the first device via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0014] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus may include a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, and instructions stored in the memory. The instructions are executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: send a first message from the second device to the first device using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first and second devices; and receive a second message from the first device via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first and second devices, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first and second messages or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0015] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus may include: means for transmitting a first message from a first device to a first device using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device; and means for receiving a second message from the first device via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0016] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication. The code may include instructions executable by a processor to: transmit a first message from the second device to the first device using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first and second devices; and receive a second message from the first device via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with communication between the first and second devices, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first and second messages or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0017] Some specific implementations of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, components, or instructions for sending an indication of one or both of the time slot or the upper limit send duration of the second message to the first device, where both the time slot and the upper limit send duration of the second message may be associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0018] The details of one or more specific implementations of the subject matter described in this disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the following description. Other features, aspects, and advantages will become apparent from the description, drawings, and claims. Note that relative dimensions in the drawings may not be drawn to scale. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] Figure 1 An example wireless communication system supporting a channel occupancy sharing scenario for beam-based channel access is illustrated.

[0020] Figure 2 An example signaling diagram supporting a channel occupancy sharing scenario for beam-based channel access is shown.

[0021] Figure 3 and Figure 4 An example communication timeline supporting a channel occupancy sharing condition for beam-based channel access is shown.

[0022] Figure 5 An example process flow is shown to support a channel occupancy sharing scenario for beam-based channel access.

[0023] Figure 6 and Figure 7 A block diagram of an example device supporting a channel occupancy sharing scenario for beam-based channel access is shown.

[0024] Figure 8 and Figure 9 A flow chart illustrating an example method for supporting a channel occupancy sharing condition for beam-based channel access is shown.

[0025] The same reference numbers and names in different drawings represent the same elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] For the purpose of describing the innovative aspects of the present disclosure, the following description refers to some specific implementations. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that the teachings herein can be applied in many different ways. The described specific implementations can be implemented in any device, system, or network capable of transmitting and receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in accordance with any one of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 16.11 standards or any of the following: IEEE 802.11 standards, Standard, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), GSM or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA), Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA), Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO), 1xEV-DO, EV-DO Rev A, EV-DO Rev B, High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA), High Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High Speed ​​Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), Evolved High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA+), Long Term Evolution (LTE), AMPS, or other known signals for communicating within a wireless, cellular or Internet of Things (IoT) network, such as a system utilizing third generation (3G) technology, fourth generation (4G) technology, or fifth generation (5G) technology, or another specific implementation thereof.

[0027] In some wireless communication systems, wireless devices may communicate using unlicensed radio frequency bands and may also employ one or more collision avoidance mechanisms to avoid or mitigate interference between different transmissions. For example, a wireless device may perform a listen-before-talk (LBT) or long-term (LT) sensing procedure to measure whether any other nearby wireless devices are transmitting. If the wireless device measures that the channel is available, it may initiate and transmit during the channel occupation time (COT). In some operating scenarios, the wireless device may refrain from performing an LBT or LT sensing procedure to access the channel. For example, the wireless device may support coexistence techniques (such as beam-based coexistence techniques) according to which, if the wireless device meets narrow beam conditions, the wireless device may access the channel without performing an LBT procedure. While some types of wireless devices (such as network entities) may use directional beams that relatively frequently meet narrow beam conditions, some other types of wireless devices (such as user equipment (UE)) may use relatively wide directional beams that generally do not meet narrow beam conditions. Therefore, some types of wireless devices may often be constrained to perform LBT or LT sensing procedures before transmitting, which may be restrictive for some service types (such as Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) service types).

[0028] In some implementations, one or more wireless devices may support a beam-based channel access procedure, according to which a first wireless device may share the COT of a second wireless device without performing an LBT or LT sensing procedure based on one or more conditions associated with transmissions from the first wireless device. Such conditions may be associated with whether the directional beam used by the first wireless device meets the narrow beam condition, the time gap between transmissions from the second wireless device and transmissions from the first wireless device, or the duration of consecutive transmissions from the first wireless device, or any combination thereof. In some implementations, the time gap or transmission duration may be limited (e.g., may be associated with a finite upper limit or maximum value) or may be unrestricted (e.g., may be any value) based on whether the directional beam used by the first wireless device meets the narrow beam condition, based on various system deployments, or both. For example, if the directional beam used by the first wireless device fails to meet the narrow beam condition, the first wireless device may still transmit during the COT of the second wireless device if the first wireless device uses a threshold time gap between transmissions, if the transmission to be performed by the first wireless device is less than a threshold time duration, or both.

[0029] Certain implementations of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented to achieve one or more of the following potential advantages. For example, by enabling a first wireless device to transmit during the COT of a second wireless device when the first wireless device fails to meet narrow beam conditions but meets one or more other conditions, the first wireless device can achieve lower latency and higher data rates without causing significant interference contribution to other signaling in the system. As a result, the first wireless device can support one or more latency-critical service types, such as URLLC service types. Furthermore, based on this COT sharing process that utilizes narrow beam conditions and timing aspects associated with a given transmission, the wireless devices can experience greater medium access (such as a greater likelihood of obtaining channel access) and greater coexistence, which can further support higher data rates, greater system capacity, and greater spectral efficiency, among other benefits. Additionally, based on enabling the first wireless device to share the COT of a second wireless device without performing LBT or LT sensing processes, the first wireless device can achieve reduced circuit complexity, lower power consumption, and longer battery life. For example, by enabling the first wireless device to share the COT of the second wireless device without performing LBT or LT sensing procedures, the first wireless device can reduce the amount of power used to perform LBT or LT sensing procedures and the circuit complexity associated with performing LBT or LT sensing procedures.

[0030] Figure 1An example wireless communication system 100 supporting a channel occupancy sharing scenario for beam-based channel access is shown. The wireless communication system 100 may include one or more network entities 105, one or more UEs 115, and a core network 130. In some implementations, the wireless communication system 100 may be a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network, an LTE-A Pro network, a New Radio (NR) network, or a network operating according to other systems and radio technologies (including future systems and radio technologies not explicitly mentioned herein).

[0031] The network entities 105 may be dispersed throughout a geographic area to form the wireless communication system 100 and may include devices in different forms or with different capabilities. In various examples, the network entities 105 may be referred to as network elements, mobility elements, radio access network (RAN) nodes, or network equipment, among other nomenclatures. In some implementations, the network entities 105 and the UEs 115 may communicate wirelessly via one or more communication links 125, such as radio frequency (RF) access links. For example, the network entities 105 may support a coverage area 110, such as a geographic coverage area, over which the UEs 115 and the network entities 105 may establish one or more communication links 125. The coverage area 110 may be an example of a geographic area over which the network entities 105 and the UEs 115 may support signal communication based on one or more radio access technologies (RATs).

[0032] The UEs 115 may be dispersed throughout the coverage area 110 of the wireless communication system 100, and each UE 115 may be stationary or mobile, or stationary and mobile at different times. The UEs 115 may be devices that take different forms or have different capabilities. Figure 1 Some example UEs 115 are shown in FIG. The UEs 115 described herein may be capable of supporting communication with various types of devices, such as Figure 1 105 or other UEs 115 or network entities 105 as shown.

[0033] As described herein, a node of the wireless communication system 100 (which may be referred to as a network node or wireless node) may be a network entity 105 (such as any network entity described herein), a UE 115 (such as any UE described herein), a network controller, an apparatus, a device, a computing system, one or more components, or another suitable processing entity configured to perform any of the techniques described herein. For example, the node may be a UE 115. As another example, the node may be a network entity 105. As another example, a first node may be configured to communicate with a second node or a third node. In one aspect of this example, the first node may be a UE 115, the second node may be a network entity 105, and the third node may be a UE 115. In another aspect of this example, the first node may be a UE 115, the second node may be a network entity 105, and the third node may be a network entity 105. In other aspects of this example, the first node, the second node, and the third node may be different relative to these examples. Similarly, references to UE 115, network entity 105, apparatus, device, computing system, etc. may include disclosure of UE 115, network entity 105, apparatus, device, computing system, etc. as nodes. For example, a disclosure that UE 115 is configured to receive information from network entity 105 also discloses that the first node is configured to receive information from a second node.

[0034] In some implementations, the network entities 105 can communicate with the core network 130, with each other, or both. For example, the network entities 105 can communicate with the core network 130 via one or more backhaul communication links 120 (such as according to an S1, N2, N3, or other interface protocol). In some implementations, the network entities 105 can communicate with each other via the backhaul communication links 120 (such as according to an X2, Xn, or other interface protocol), either directly (such as directly between the network entities 105) or indirectly (such as via the core network 130). In some implementations, the network entities 105 can communicate with each other via midhaul communication links 162 (such as according to a midhaul interface protocol) or fronthaul communication links 168 (such as according to a fronthaul interface protocol), or any combination thereof. The backhaul communication links 120, midhaul communication links 162, or fronthaul communication links 168 can be or include one or more wired links (such as electrical links, fiber optic links), one or more wireless links (such as radio links, wireless optical links), as well as other examples or various combinations thereof. UE 115 may communicate with core network 130 via communication link 155 .

[0035] One or more of the network entities 105 described herein may include or may be referred to as a base station (BS) 140 (such as a transceiver base station, a radio BS, an NR BS, an access point, a radio transceiver, a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNB), a next-generation Node B, or a giga-Node B (any of which may be referred to as a gNB), a 5G NB, a next-generation eNB (ng-eNB), a Home Node B, a Home evolved Node B, or other suitable terminology). In some implementations, the network entity 105 (such as the BS 140) may be implemented in a converged (such as a monolithic, standalone) BS architecture that may be configured to utilize a protocol stack physically or logically integrated within a single network entity 105 (such as a single RAN node, such as the BS 140).

[0036] In some implementations, the network entity 105 can be implemented in a disaggregated architecture (such as a disaggregated BS architecture, a disaggregated RAN architecture), which can be configured to utilize protocol stacks that are physically or logically distributed between two or more network entities 105, such as an integrated access backhaul (IAB) network, an open RAN (O-RAN) (such as a network configuration sponsored by the O-RAN Alliance), or a virtualized RAN (vRAN) (such as a cloud RAN (C-RAN)). For example, the network entity 105 can include one or more of the following: a central unit (CU) 160, a distributed unit (DU) 165, a radio unit (RU) 170, a RAN intelligent controller (RIC) 175 (such as a near real-time RIC (near RT RIC), a non-real-time RIC (non-RT RIC)), a service management and orchestration (SMO) 180 system, or any combination thereof. The RU 170 can also be referred to as a radio head, an intelligent radio head, a remote radio head (RRH), a remote radio unit (RRU), or a transmit receive point (TRP). One or more components of the network entity 105 in the disaggregated RAN architecture may be co-located, or one or more components of the network entity 105 may be located in distributed locations (such as separate physical locations). In some implementations, one or more network entities 105 of the disaggregated RAN architecture may be implemented as virtual units (such as virtual CU (VCU), virtual DU (VDU), virtual RU (VRU)).

[0037] The functional split between the CU 160, DU 165, and RU 170 is flexible and can support different functionalities depending on which functions (such as network layer functions, protocol layer functions, baseband functions, RF functions, and any combination thereof) are performed at the CU 160, DU 165, and RU 170. For example, a functional split of the protocol stack can be employed between the CU 160 and DU 165, such that the CU 160 can support one or more layers of the protocol stack and the DU 165 can support one or more different layers of the protocol stack. In some implementations, the CU 160 can host higher protocol layer (such as Layer 3 (L3), Layer 2 (L2)) functionality and signaling (such as Radio Resource Control (RRC), Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)). The CU 160 may be connected to one or more DUs 165 or RUs 170, and the one or more DUs 165 or RUs 170 may host lower protocol layers, such as Layer 1 (L1) (such as the physical (PHY) layer) or L2 (such as the radio link control (RLC) layer, the medium access control (MAC) layer) functionality and signaling, and may all be at least partially controlled by the CU 160. Additionally or alternatively, a functional split of the protocol stack may be employed between the DU 165 and the RU 170, such that the DU 165 may support one or more layers of the protocol stack and the RU 170 may support one or more different layers of the protocol stack. The DU 165 may support one or more different cells (such as via one or more RUs 170). In some implementations, the functional split between the CU 160 and the DU 165 or between the DU 165 and the RU 170 can be within the protocol layer (e.g., some functions of the protocol layer can be performed by one of the CU 160, DU 165, or RU 170, while other functions of the protocol layer can be performed by a different one of the CU 160, DU 165, or RU 170). The CU 160 can be further functionally split into CU control plane (CU-CP) functions and CU user plane (CU-UP) functions. The CU 160 can be connected to one or more DUs 165 via midhaul communication links 162 (e.g., F1, F1-c, F1-u), and the DU 165 can be connected to one or more RUs 170 via fronthaul communication links 168 (e.g., an open fronthaul (FH) interface). In some implementations, the midhaul communication link 162 or the fronthaul communication link 168 can be implemented based on an interface (such as a channel) between layers of a protocol stack supported by respective network entities 105 that communicate via such communication links.

[0038] In some wireless communication systems (such as wireless communication system 100), the infrastructure and spectrum resources used for radio access may support wireless backhaul link capabilities to supplement wired backhaul connections, thereby providing an IAB network architecture (such as to core network 130). In some implementations, in an IAB network, one or more network entities 105 (such as IAB nodes 104) may be partially controlled by each other. One or more IAB nodes 104 may be referred to as host entities or IAB hosts. One or more DUs 165 or one or more RUs 170 may be partially controlled by one or more CUs 160 associated with a donor network entity 105 (such as donor BS 140). One or more donor network entities 105 (such as an IAB donor) may communicate with one or more additional network entities 105 (such as IAB nodes 104) via supported access and backhaul links (such as backhaul communication link 120). An IAB node 104 may include an IAB mobile termination (IAB-MT) that is controlled (such as scheduled) by a coupled IAB donor's DU 165. The IAB-MT may include an independent set of antennas for relaying communications with the UE 115, or may share the same antennas of the IAB node 104 (such as the RU 170) for access via the DU 165 of the IAB node 104 (such as referred to as a virtual IAB-MT (vIAB-MT)). In some implementations, the IAB node 104 may include a DU 165 that supports communication links with additional entities (such as the IAB node 104, the UE 115) within a relay chain or configuration (such as downstream) of the access network. In such implementations, one or more components of the disaggregated RAN architecture (such as one or more IAB nodes 104 or components of the IAB node 104) may be configured to operate according to the techniques described herein.

[0039] In a specific implementation where the techniques described herein are applied to a disaggregated RAN architecture, one or more components of the disaggregated RAN architecture may be configured to support the channel occupancy sharing scenario for beam-based channel access as described herein. For example, some operations described as being performed by a UE 115 or a network entity 105 (such as a BS 140) may additionally or alternatively be performed by one or more components of the disaggregated RAN architecture (such as an IAB node 104, a DU 165, a CU 160, a RU 170, a RIC 175, or an SMO 180).

[0040] The UE 115 may include or may be referred to as a mobile device, a wireless device, a remote device, a handheld device, or a user device, or some other appropriate terminology, where a "device" may also be referred to as a unit, a station, a terminal, or a client, among other examples. The UE 115 may also include or may be referred to as a personal electronic device, such as a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a tablet computer, a laptop computer, or a personal computer. In some specific implementations, the UE 115 may include or may be referred to as a wireless local loop (WLL) station, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, an Internet of Everything (IoE) device, or a machine type communication (MTC) device, among others, which may be implemented in various objects, such as appliances or vehicles, meters, and the like.

[0041] like Figure 1 As shown, the UE 115 described herein may be capable of communicating with various types of devices, such as other UEs 115, which may sometimes act as relays, as well as network entities 105 and network equipment, including macro eNBs or gNBs, small cell eNBs or gNBs, or relay BSs, etc.

[0042] The UE 115 and the network entity 105 can wirelessly communicate with each other via one or more communication links 125 (such as access links) using resources associated with one or more carriers. The term "carrier" may refer to a collection of RF spectrum resources having a defined physical layer structure for supporting the communication link 125. For example, a carrier used for the communication link 125 may include a portion of an RF spectrum band (such as a bandwidth portion (BWP)) that operates according to one or more physical layer channels for a given radio access technology (such as LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, NR). Each physical layer channel may carry acquisition signaling (such as synchronization signals, system information), control signaling for coordinating carrier operation, user data, or other signaling. The wireless communication system 100 may support communications with the UE 115 using carrier aggregation or multi-carrier operation. Depending on the carrier aggregation configuration, the UE 115 may be configured with multiple downlink component carriers and one or more uplink component carriers. Carrier aggregation may be used for both frequency division duplex (FDD) component carriers and time division duplex (TDD) component carriers. Communication between the network entity 105 and other devices may refer to communication between these devices and any part (such as an entity, a sub-entity) of the network entity 105. For example, the terms "send," "receive," or "communicate" when referring to the network entity 105 may refer to any part of the network entity 105 (such as the BS 140, the CU 160, the DU 165, the RU 170) of the RAN communicating with another device (such as directly or via one or more other network entities 105).

[0043] The signal waveform transmitted via the carrier wave may be composed of multiple subcarriers (such as using multicarrier modulation (MCM) techniques such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) or discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM)). In systems employing MCM techniques, a resource element may refer to a resource of one symbol period (such as the duration of one modulation symbol) and one subcarrier, for which the symbol period and subcarrier spacing may be inversely related. The number of bits carried by each resource element may depend on the modulation scheme (such as the order of the modulation scheme, the coding rate of the modulation scheme, or both), such that a relatively high number of resource elements (such as in a transmission duration) and a relatively high-order modulation scheme may correspond to a relatively high communication rate. Wireless communication resources may refer to a combination of RF spectrum resources, time resources, and spatial resources (such as spatial layers or beams), and the use of multiple spatial resources may improve the data rate or data integrity of communications with UE 115.

[0044] The time interval for the network entity 105 or the UE 115 can be expressed as a multiple of a basic time unit, which in some implementations may be a sampling period T s =1 / (Δf max ·N f ) seconds, where Δf max It can represent the supported subcarrier spacing, and N f The supported discrete Fourier transform (DFT) sizes may be indicated. Time intervals for communication resources may be organized according to radio frames, each having a specific duration, such as 10 milliseconds (ms). Each radio frame may be identified by a system frame number (SFN), such as in the range 0 to 1023.

[0045] Each frame may include a plurality of consecutively numbered subframes or time slots, and each subframe or time slot may have the same duration. In some implementations, a frame may be divided into subframes (such as in the time domain), and each subframe may be further divided into a certain number of time slots. Alternatively, each frame may include a variable number of time slots, and the number of time slots may depend on the subcarrier spacing. Each time slot may include a certain number of symbol periods (e.g., depending on the length of a cyclic prefix added in front of each symbol period). In some wireless communication systems 100, a time slot may be further divided into a plurality of mini-slots associated with one or more symbols. Excluding the cyclic prefix, each symbol period may be associated with one or more (such as N f The duration of a symbol period may depend on the subcarrier spacing or the operating frequency band.

[0046] A subframe, slot, mini-slot, or symbol may be the smallest scheduling unit (such as in the time domain) of the wireless communication system 100 and may be referred to as a Transmit Time Interval (TTI). In some implementations, the TTI duration (such as the number of symbol periods in a TTI) may be variable. Additionally or alternatively, the smallest scheduling unit of the wireless communication system 100 may be dynamically selected (such as in bursts of shortened TTIs (sTTIs)).

[0047] Physical channels may be multiplexed using carriers for communication according to various techniques. For example, physical control channels and physical data channels may be multiplexed for signaling via downlink carriers using one or more of time division multiplexing (TDM), frequency division multiplexing (FDM), or hybrid TDM-FDM techniques. A control region for physical control channels, such as a control resource set (CORESET), may be defined by a set of symbol periods and may extend across the system bandwidth of a carrier or a subset of the system bandwidth. One or more control regions, such as CORESETs, may be configured for a set of UEs 115. For example, one or more of these UEs 115 may monitor or search the control region for control information according to one or more search space sets, and each search space set may include one or more control channel candidates in one or more aggregation levels arranged in a cascaded manner. The aggregation level of a control channel candidate may refer to the number of control channel resources, such as control channel elements (CCEs), associated with coded information for a control information format having a given payload size. The search space sets may include a common search space set configured for transmitting control information to multiple UEs 115 and a UE-specific search space set for transmitting control information to a specific UE 115 .

[0048] In some implementations, network entities 105 (such as BS 140, RU 170) can be mobile and, therefore, provide communication coverage for mobile coverage areas 110. In some implementations, different coverage areas 110 associated with different technologies can overlap, but can be supported by the same network entity 105. In some other examples, overlapping coverage areas 110 associated with different technologies can be supported by different network entities 105. The wireless communication system 100 can include, for example, a heterogeneous network in which different types of network entities 105 provide coverage for various coverage areas 110 using the same or different radio access technologies.

[0049] The wireless communication system 100 can be configured to support ultra-reliable communication or low-latency communication or various combinations thereof. For example, the wireless communication system 100 can be configured to support ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC). The UE 115 can be designed to support ultra-reliable or low-latency or critical functions. Ultra-reliable communication may include private communication or group communication and may be supported by one or more services (such as push-to-talk, video or data). Support for ultra-reliable, low-latency functions may include prioritization of services, and such services may be used for public safety applications or general commercial applications. The terms ultra-reliable, low-latency and ultra-reliable low-latency are used interchangeably in this article.

[0050] In some implementations, a UE 115 can be configured to support communication directly with other UEs 115 via a device-to-device (D2D) communication link 135 (such as according to a peer-to-peer (P2P), D2D, or sidelink protocol). In some implementations, one or more UEs 115 in a group performing D2D communication can be within a coverage area 110 of a network entity 105 (such as a BS 140, a RU 170), which can support aspects of such D2D communication configured (such as scheduled) by the network entity 105. In some implementations, one or more UEs 115 in such a group can be outside the coverage area 110 of the network entity 105 or can otherwise be unable or not configured to receive transmissions from the network entity 105. In some implementations, a group of UEs 115 communicating via D2D communication can support a one-to-many (1:M) system, in which each UE 115 transmits to each other UE 115 in the group. In some implementations, the network entity 105 may facilitate scheduling of resources for D2D communication. In some other examples, D2D communication may occur between UEs 115 without involving the network entity 105.

[0051] The core network 130 may provide user authentication, access authorization, tracking, Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity, and other access, routing, or mobility functions. The core network 130 may be an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC), which may include at least one control plane entity (such as a mobility management entity (MME), an access and mobility management function (AMF)) that manages access and mobility, and at least one user plane entity (such as a serving gateway (S-GW), a packet data network (PDN) gateway (P-GW), or a user plane function (UPF)) that routes packets or interconnects to external networks. The control plane entity may manage non-access stratum (NAS) functions such as mobility, authentication, and bearer management for UEs 115 served by network entities 105 (such as BS 140) associated with the core network 130. User IP packets may be delivered through the user plane entity, which may provide IP address allocation and other functions. The user plane entity may be connected to IP services 150 for one or more network operators. IP services 150 may include access to the Internet, an intranet, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), or packet-switched streaming services.

[0052] The wireless communication system 100 can operate using one or more frequency bands that can range from 300 megahertz (MHz) to 300 gigahertz (GHz). Often, the region from 300 MHz to 3 GHz is referred to as the ultra-high frequency (UHF) region or decimeter band because the wavelength range is approximately one decimeter to one meter. UHF waves can be blocked or redirected by buildings and environmental features (which can be referred to as clusters), but these waves can penetrate structures sufficiently for a macrocell to provide service to a UE 115 located indoors. Communications using UHF waves can be associated with smaller antennas and a shorter range (such as less than 100 kilometers) than communications using the smaller frequencies and longer wavelengths of the high frequency (HF) or very high frequency (VHF) portions of the spectrum below 300 MHz.

[0053] The wireless communication system 100 may also operate in the ultra-high frequency (SHF) region (also known as the centimeter band) using spectrum in the range of 3 GHz to 30 GHz or in the extremely high frequency (EHF) region (such as 30 GHz to 300 GHz) (also known as the millimeter band). In some implementations, the wireless communication system 100 may support millimeter wave (mmW) communications between the UE 115 and the network entity 105 (such as the BS 140, the RU 170), and the EHF antennas of the corresponding devices may be smaller and closer together than the UHF antennas. In some implementations, such technology may facilitate the use of antenna arrays within the device. However, the propagation of EHF transmissions may be subject to even greater attenuation and shorter distances than SHF or UHF transmissions. The technology disclosed herein may be employed across transmissions using one or more different frequency regions, and the use of frequency bands specified across these frequency regions may vary by country or regulatory agency.

[0054] The wireless communication system 100 may utilize both licensed and unlicensed RF spectrum bands. For example, the wireless communication system 100 may employ licensed assisted access (LAA), LTE unlicensed (LTE-U) radio access technology, or NR technology using unlicensed bands, such as the 5 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band. When operating using unlicensed RF spectrum bands, devices such as the network entity 105 and the UE 115 may employ carrier sensing for conflict detection and avoidance. In some implementations, operations using unlicensed bands may be based on a carrier aggregation configuration combined with component carriers operating using licensed bands, such as LAA. Operations using the unlicensed spectrum may include downlink transmissions, uplink transmissions, P2P transmissions, or D2D transmissions, among others.

[0055] A network entity 105 (such as a BS 140 or RU 170) or a UE 115 may be equipped with multiple antennas that can be used to employ techniques such as transmit diversity, receive diversity, multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) communications, or beamforming. The antennas of the network entity 105 or UE 115 may be located within one or more antenna arrays or antenna panels that can support MIMO operations or transmit or receive beamforming. For example, one or more BS antennas or antenna arrays may be co-located at an antenna assembly (such as an antenna tower). In some implementations, the antennas or antenna arrays associated with the network entity 105 may be located at different geographical locations. The network entity 105 may include an antenna array having a set of rows and columns of antenna ports that the network entity 105 can use to support beamforming for communications with the UE 115. Similarly, the UE 115 may include one or more antenna arrays that can support various MIMO or beamforming operations. Additionally or alternatively, the antenna panels may support RF beamforming for signals transmitted via the antenna ports.

[0056] Beamforming (which may also be referred to as spatial filtering, directional transmission, or directional reception) is a signal processing technique that can be used at a transmitting device or a receiving device (such as a network entity 105 or a UE 115) to shape or steer an antenna beam (such as a transmit beam or a receive beam) along a spatial path between the transmitting device and the receiving device. Beamforming can be achieved by combining signals conveyed via antenna elements of an antenna array so that some signals propagating along a particular orientation relative to the antenna array experience constructive interference, while other signals experience destructive interference. Adjustments to signals conveyed via antenna elements can include the transmitting device or the receiving device applying an amplitude offset, a phase offset, or both to signals carried via antenna elements associated with the device. Adjustments associated with each antenna element can be defined by a set of beamforming weights associated with a particular orientation (such as relative to the antenna array of the transmitting device or the receiving device, or relative to some other orientation).

[0057] In some wireless communication systems (such as wireless communication system 100), wireless devices (such as one or more UEs 115 or one or more network entities 105, or any combination thereof) may communicate using unlicensed radio frequency bands, which may be equivalently referred to as unlicensed spectrum bands. For example, some wireless devices may communicate using mmW or sub-terahertz (THz) frequencies, which may provide sufficient (such as a relatively large amount) of unlicensed spectrum bands that wireless devices may use to send or receive signaling. In some aspects, wireless devices may perform transmission and reception via such unlicensed spectrum bands using directional communication (such as using a configuration for directional communication, such as a directional communication beam).

[0058] Due to the focused nature of beamformed transmissions, directional communications may result in or otherwise support an interference-limited wireless environment. In some operating scenarios, and based on potentially limiting interference via beamforming, wireless devices may refrain from performing LBT or LT sensing procedures. In other words, some systems may generally specify that each wireless device in the system will perform an LBT or LT sensing procedure before transmitting, but if some wireless devices use directional beams that meet one or more conditions, such wireless devices may be allowed or enabled to transmit without any requirement to perform an LBT or LT sensing procedure before transmitting. For example, to resolve or avoid potential beam conflicts in unlicensed spectrum bands (such as conflicts or interference between two or more wireless, beamformed transmissions), LBT and LT sensing procedures may be combined with beam-based coexistence techniques to enable selective or conditional use of LBT or LT sensing procedures when one or more conditions associated with the coexistence techniques are met.

[0059] Coexistence techniques may take various forms, each of which may be associated with a manner in which one or more wireless devices avoid or mitigate interference with other transmissions in the system. In some aspects, coexistence techniques may be associated with narrow beam conditions, which may enable wireless devices to access and transmit using a channel without performing LBT or LT sensing procedures, depending on the narrowness (such as focus, sharpness, accuracy, or lobe angle, size, or strength) of a directional beam used for transmission. Furthermore, the "narrowness" of a beam may refer to any feature or characteristic of a beam that affects the level of interference associated with (such as caused by) the beam, and thus "narrowness" may not be limited or constrained to refer only to the geometry of the beam.

[0060] According to the narrow beam condition-based coexistence technique, if the wireless device meets the narrow beam condition, the wireless device can access the channel without performing the LBT or LT sensing process. However, in some aspects, some types of wireless devices (such as UE 115) may often fail to meet the narrow beam condition and may therefore be constrained to perform the LBT or LT sensing process before each transmission, which may be expensive in terms of latency and power consumption. Therefore, in some implementations, one or more wireless devices may support one or more conditions for sharing the COT of another wireless device for narrow beam-based channel access, where the strictness or flexibility of such conditions may depend on whether the wireless device meets the narrow beam condition.

[0061] The one or more conditions may include one or both of a time gap between two consecutive transmissions or an upper limit transmission duration for transmissions from a wireless device attempting to share the COT of another wireless device. For example, if the time duration between a first message and a second message satisfies the time gap and if the transmission duration of the second message satisfies the upper limit transmission duration, a first wireless device (such as UE 115) may receive the first message from the second wireless device (such as network entity 105) during the COT of the second wireless device, and the first wireless device may transmit the second message during the COT of the second wireless device (and without performing an LBT or LT sensing process). The respective values ​​of one or both of the time gap or the upper limit transmission duration may be associated with the width of the directional beam used by the first wireless device (such as whether the directional beam satisfies the narrow beam condition). The example implementations described herein may be applied to COT sharing between downlink and uplink communications, or between sidelink communications, or any combination thereof.

[0062] Figure 2 An example signaling diagram 200 is shown to support a channel occupancy sharing condition for beam-based channel access. The signaling diagram 200 may be implemented or implemented to implement aspects of the wireless communication system 100. For example, the signaling diagram 200 illustrates communication between a first wireless device 205 and a second wireless device 210 via a communication link 215 (which may be an example of a communication link associated with an unlicensed radio frequency band or spectrum band). The first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210 may each be, for example, Figure 1 Examples of UE 115 or network entity 105 are illustrated and described with reference thereto. A first wireless device 205 can use a directional beam 220 for communication (such as transmission or reception, or both), and a second wireless device 210 can use a directional beam 225 for communication (such as transmission or reception, or both), and in some implementations, the first wireless device 205 can share the COT of the second wireless device 210 according to one or more conditions and depending on whether the width of the directional beam 220 satisfies the narrow beam condition.

[0063] In some systems, LBT, LT sensing, and narrow beam channel access modes may be key elements for supporting overall system performance and avoiding or mitigating the amount of interference experienced by various devices within the system. For example, for unlicensed or shared frequency bands, such as for mmW unlicensed or shared frequency bands (such as for 60 GHz channel access), wireless devices may support LBT, LT sensing, and narrow beam channel access modes. In addition, various wireless devices may support one or more operating modes that may be associated with the frequency band used for communication.

[0064] For example, the operation modes of a frequency band (such as the 60 GHz frequency band) may include three different operation modes that a wireless device can use when communicating using that frequency band. The first operation mode (which may be referred to as "C1") may be applicable to mobile or fixed wireless devices and may specify that LBT is to be performed at the initiating device (such as the wireless device initiating a transmission). The second operation mode (which may be referred to as "C2") may be applicable to mobile or fixed devices and may specify how LBT can be skipped on the transmit side or receive side when one or more conditions associated with a minimum antenna gain are met, where some interference mitigation techniques may be employed in the absence of sufficient antenna gain. The third operation mode (which may be referred to as "C3") may be applicable to fixed networks (such as devices communicating via a backhaul link) and may be associated with automatic transmit power control and link adaptation.

[0065] In some operation modes (such as the second operation mode), the LBT or LT sensing process may be skipped based on the satisfaction of narrow beam conditions. Narrow beam-based channel access may involve one or more metrics or conditions for enabling narrow beam-based channel access. In some aspects, the narrowness aspect of a beam may be associated with spherical effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) measurements. For example, one or more metrics may be defined based on the statistics of EIRP measurements around a wireless device (such as around a wireless device in a test environment, such as where a link antenna may be used for beam control and a measurement antenna may be used for on-center or off-center beam measurements). Based on such statistical EIRP measurements, the wireless device may plot a cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the measured energy associated with the spherical EIRP measurements.

[0066] For example, consider the subtraction of a constant b from the EIRP measurements at different percentiles of the distribution of radiated power measured on a sphere (such as a global sphere or an approximate global sphere) around a transmitter configured to use beam j (such as at the k 1st percentile, k 2nd percentile, and k 3rd percentile, where k3 < k1 and k2 < k1). The wireless device may measure or calculate values M j,1 and value M j,2 . M j,1 and M j,2 may be defined according to equations 1 and 2, respectively, as shown below.

[0067] M j,1 = k 1st .tile({EIRP i :i ∈ E j ) - k 2nd .tile({EIRP i :i ∈ E j ) (1)

[0068] M j,2 =k 3rd .tile({EIRP i -b:i∈E j}) (2)

[0069] As shown in Equations 1 and 2, E j may be the set of EIRPs captured in the spherical measurement of beam j, and b may be a constant (such as an upper limit transmit power, such as P max ). M j,1 It can be the difference between the EIRP measurements at two different percentiles. For example, a given beam can be compared to the EIRP at the first percentile (such as k 1st percentile) and a second percentile (such as at k 2nd percentile) is associated with the second EIRP measurement, and M j,1 M may represent or indicate the difference between the first EIRP measurement and the second EIRP measurement. j,1 Can be a differential value. M j,2 The antenna gain of the transmitter may be represented or indicated, which may be correlated to an EIRP measurement for a given beam at a given percentile.

[0070] Thus, in an operating mode in which the wireless device may skip the LBT or LT sensing process if the narrow beam condition is satisfied, the wireless device may use one or more criteria associated with indicating whether the narrow beam condition is satisfied. For example, the first wireless device 205 may perform narrow beam condition detection 265 associated with the directional beam 220 to identify, select, ascertain, or otherwise determine whether the directional beam 220 satisfies the narrow beam condition based on a criterion. The first criterion may indicate that if the total transmit power is less than a threshold transmit power (such as a threshold transmit power Y), the first wireless device 205 passes the narrow beam condition of the directional beam 220. The second criterion may indicate that if M j,1 The value is greater than the threshold M j,1 Value (such as threshold M j,1 value X), the first wireless device 205 passes the narrow beam condition of the directional beam 220. The third criterion may indicate that if M j,1 The value is greater than the threshold M j,1 Value (such as threshold M j,1 value X) or if M j,2 The value is less than the threshold M j,2 Value (such as threshold M j,2If the first wireless device 205 or the directional beam 220 satisfies any one or more criteria (such that passing can correspond to satisfying at least one criterion, passing at least two criteria, passing two specific criteria, or passing all three criteria), then the first wireless device 205 may pass the narrow beam condition. The various thresholds associated with the criteria may be stored at the first wireless device 205 (such as according to a specification), may be configured at the first wireless device 205, or may be indicated to the first wireless device 205 (such as from the second wireless device 210).

[0071] In some systems, a first wireless device 205 (such as UE 115) and a second wireless device 210 (such as network entity 105) can exchange data and control information back and forth in a timely manner, which may be hindered if one or both of the wireless devices fail to meet the narrow beam condition (and therefore may be constrained to perform LBT or LT sensing procedures before transmitting). For example, while network entity 105 may have a sharp narrow beam (such that the beam used by network entity 105 may relatively frequently pass through the narrow beam condition), UE 115 may have a relatively wide beam and relatively frequently fail to pass the narrow beam free LBT channel access condition. For example, as illustrated in signaling diagram 200, first wireless device 205 may use a directional beam 225 that is relatively wider (in terms of geometry or the amount of interference potentially contributed from transmissions associated with directional beam 220) than the directional beam 220 used by second wireless device 210. Thus, the second wireless device 210 can achieve lower latency based on narrow beam LBT-free channel access, while the first wireless device 205 can experience difficulty in satisfying conditions associated with narrow beam LBT-free channel access. Therefore, the first wireless device 205 can perform or execute an LBT procedure before commencing a transmission (such as an uplink transmission) to avoid interfering with other devices sharing the wireless medium, which can adversely affect or limit some service types (such as URLLC service types).

[0072] Thus, in some implementations, the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210 can support one or more timing-dependent COT sharing conditions 270, according to which the first wireless device 205 can share the COT of the second wireless device 210 and access a channel, wherein the COT sharing condition 270 can depend on whether the directional beam 220 of the first wireless device 205 satisfies the narrow beam condition. In other words, the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210 can support a channel access and COT sharing mechanism according to which the first wireless device 205 can share the COT of the second wireless device 210 without performing or executing an LBT or LT sensing process even if the directional beam 220 fails to satisfy the narrow beam condition. In some aspects, the COT sharing condition 270 can include one or both of a time gap between consecutive transmissions (such as a minimum or lower limit time gap) or an upper limit transmission duration for transmissions from the first wireless device 205. Therefore, in a scenario where the first wireless device 205 is the UE 115 and the second wireless device 210 is the network entity 105, when the wireless devices (UE 115 and network entity 105) share the COT and access the channel according to the narrow beam channel condition, the wireless devices can support the downlink-to-uplink gap constraint and the UE maximum transmission duration.

[0073] For example, and as illustrated by signaling diagram 200, second wireless device 210 can send message 230 to first wireless device 205 during the COT of second wireless device 210, and first wireless device 205 can send message 235 to second wireless device 210 during the COT of second wireless device 210. First wireless device 205 can send message 235 according to a time gap 250 between message 230 and message 235, and message 235 can be associated with a transmit duration 255, and in some implementations, one or both of time gap 250 and transmit duration 255 can be associated with a width of directional beam 220 (such as whether directional beam 220 satisfies a narrow beam condition).

[0074] In addition, the second wireless device 210 may send a message 240 (potentially without a time gap between the message 235 and the message 240) and the first wireless device 205 may send a message 245 during the COT of the second wireless device 210. The first wireless device 205 may send the message 245 according to the time gap 250 between the message 240 and the message 245, and the message 245 may be associated with a transmit duration 260, and in some implementations, one or both of the time gap 250 and the transmit duration 260 may be associated with the width of the directional beam 220. For example, the time gap 250 and the upper limit transmit duration (where both the transmit duration 255 and the transmit duration 260 are less than or equal to the upper limit transmit duration) may enable the first wireless device 205 to share the COT of the second wireless device 210, and the strictness or flexibility of the time gap 250 or the upper limit transmit duration may depend on the width of the directional beam 220 (such as whether the directional beam meets the narrow beam condition). Thus, even if the directional beam 220 does not reach a narrow beam condition, the first wireless device 205 can access the channel without performing LBT or LT sensing procedures while not causing much interference (such as less than a threshold amount of interference) to other devices in the system.

[0075] Additional details regarding various conditional limitations associated with the time gap between transmissions from the second wireless device 210 and transmissions from the first wireless device 205, and the upper limit duration of transmissions from the first wireless device 205 are provided by Figure 3 and Figure 4 In addition, although reference is made to Figure 3 and Figure 4 Example timing-related aspects are described, but the implementations described herein are applicable to any time unit, including seconds, milliseconds, symbols, time slots, frames, or TTIs. In the example of signaling diagram 200, the duration of messages 230 and 240 may be set to T A or (As an example, it may be 8 milliseconds), the time interval 250 may be referred to as T g , and the duration of message 235 and message 245 may be set to T B or (As an example, it may be 2 milliseconds.) Generally speaking, the transmission from the first wireless device 205 may be carried out with a transmission duration of T B and the transmission from the second wireless device 210 may be associated with the transmission duration T A associated.

[0076] Figure 3Example communication timelines 300 and 301 supporting a channel occupancy sharing scenario for beam-based channel access are shown. The communication timelines 300 and 301 may be implemented or implemented to implement aspects of the wireless communication system 100 or the signaling diagram 200. For example, a first wireless device 205 and a second wireless device 210 (e.g., Figure 2 301) can send and receive signaling according to the communication timeline 300 or the communication timeline 301. In some implementations, the communication timelines 300 and 301 illustrate a scenario in which the directional beam 220 used by the first wireless device 205 satisfies the narrow beam condition and the second wireless device 210 is a COT initiating device and satisfies the narrow beam condition (such that both the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210 use narrow beams). In other words, the communication timelines 300 and 301 illustrate an alternative COT sharing condition 270 that the first wireless device 205 satisfies to share the COT with the second wireless device 210 in an implementation in which the directional beam 220 satisfies the narrow beam condition.

[0077] As illustrated by the communication timeline 300, if the first wireless device 205 meets the narrow beam condition, the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210 can share the COT without any time gaps (such as any downlink-to-uplink time gaps) constraining or limiting the maximum or upper limit continuous transmission duration of the first wireless device 205. For example, the second wireless device 210 can transmit a message 305-a, and the first wireless device 205 can transmit the message 310-a during the COT of the second wireless device 210 without any time gaps or limitations on the transmission duration of the message 310-a. Additionally, the second wireless device 210 can transmit a message 305-b, and the first wireless device 205 can transmit the message 310-b during the COT of the second wireless device 210 without any time gaps or limitations on the transmission duration of the message 310-b. As examples, message 305-a may have a send duration 315-a of 8 milliseconds, message 310-a may have a send duration 320-a of 12 milliseconds, message 305-b may have a send duration 315-b of 6 milliseconds, and message 310-b may have a send duration 320-b of 4 milliseconds.

[0078] As illustrated in the communication timeline 301, if the first wireless device 205 meets the narrow beam condition, the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210 may communicate with each other in a relatively small time gap 345 (which may be represented by T gThe COT is shared by the first wireless device 205 (denoted as "COT"). The COT is shared by the first wireless device 205 (denoted as "COT"). The COT is shared by the first wireless device 205 (denoted as "COT") to satisfy the processing capability of the first wireless device 205 without having a limit on the maximum or upper limit continuous transmission duration of the first wireless device 205. In other words, based on the directional beam 220 of the first wireless device 205 satisfying the narrow beam condition, the time slot 345 can be associated with the processing capability of the first wireless device 205 (and can not be supplemented, extended, or increased therefrom).

[0079] For example, the second wireless device 210 may transmit a message 325-a, and the first wireless device 205 may transmit a message 330-a during the COT of the second wireless device 210, with a time gap 345 between the message 325-a and the message 330-a, and without any restrictions on the duration of transmission of the message 330-a. Furthermore, the second wireless device 210 may transmit a message 325-b, and the first wireless device 205 may transmit a message 330-b during the COT of the second wireless device 210, with a time gap 345 between the message 325-b and the message 330-b, and without any restrictions on the duration of transmission of the message 330-b. As an example, the message 325-a may have a transmission duration 335-a of 8 milliseconds, the message 330-a may have a transmission duration 340-a of 12 milliseconds, the message 325-b may have a transmission duration 335-b of 6 milliseconds, and the message 330-b may have a transmission duration 340-b of 4 milliseconds. For further example, the relatively small time gap 345 may have a duration T of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, or 4 milliseconds. g .

[0080] Figure 4 Example communication timelines 400, 401, and 402 are shown to support a channel occupancy sharing scenario for beam-based channel access. The communication timelines 400, 401, and 402 may be implemented or implemented to implement aspects of the wireless communication system 100 or the signaling diagram 200. For example, a first wireless device 205 and a second wireless device 210 (e.g., Figure 2 4 (illustrated and described with reference thereto) can send and receive signaling according to communication timeline 400, communication timeline 401, or communication timeline 402. In some implementations, communication timelines 400, 401, and 402 illustrate scenarios in which the directional beam 220 used by the first wireless device 205 fails to meet the narrow beam condition and the second wireless device 210 is a COT initiating device. In other words, communication timelines 400, 401, and 402 illustrate an alternative COT sharing condition 270 that the first wireless device 205 meets to share the COT with the second wireless device 210 in implementations in which the directional beam 220 fails to meet the narrow beam condition.

[0081] As illustrated in the communication timeline 400, if the first wireless device 205 fails to meet the narrow beam condition, then if the continuous transmission duration of the first wireless device 205 meets (such as is less than or equal to) the upper limit transmission duration T B,max , then the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210 may share the COT without any time gap (such as a downlink to uplink time gap). In other words, the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210 may not support gap constraints but support COT restrictions. As an example, the upper limit transmission duration T B,max Thus, the first wireless device 205 may be able to send (e.g., transmit back) one or more delay-sensitive or critical messages to the second wireless device 210. Such delay-sensitive or critical messages may include acknowledgement (ACK) or negative ACK (NACK) feedback or control messages.

[0082] For example, the second wireless device 210 may transmit message 405-a, and the first wireless device 205 may transmit message 410-a during the COT of the second wireless device 210 without any time gap and for a transmission duration according to the upper limit. In addition, the second wireless device 210 may transmit message 405-b, and the first wireless device 205 may transmit message 410-b during the COT of the second wireless device 210 without any time gap and for a transmission duration according to the upper limit. As an example, message 405-a may have a transmission duration 415-a of 8 milliseconds, message 410-a may have a transmission duration 420-a of 0.5 milliseconds, message 405-b may have a transmission duration 415-b of 12 milliseconds, and message 410-b may have a transmission duration 420-b of 0.25 milliseconds.

[0083] As illustrated by the communication timeline 401, if the first wireless device 205 fails to meet the narrow beam condition, the first wireless device 205 may wait for at least the fixed gap duration before starting transmission back to the second wireless device 210. And the transmission may be performed so that the continuous transmission duration of the first wireless device 205 satisfies (such as is less than or equal to) the upper limit transmission duration T B，max In other words, the first wireless

[0084] Device 205 and second wireless device 210 support fixed gap constraints and COT limits. In some implementations, the fixed gap duration The transmission duration T of the first wireless device 205 may be independent of the transmission duration T of the first wireless device 205. B , and when the first wireless device 205 stops transmitting, the first wireless device 205 may start a transmission with a fixed gap duration For example, according to the second wireless device 210 using the directional beam 225 that meets the narrow beam condition, the fixed gap duration is may overlap with the transmission of the second wireless device 210. In some aspects, T B,max Fixed gap duration For example, the upper limit of sending duration T B,max It can be 4 milliseconds. In some aspects, the time gap The introduction of can reduce interference to devices from other cells or radio access technologies (RATs) and give such devices more opportunities to use the channel.

[0085] For example, the second wireless device 210 may send a message 425-a and, according to the time gap 445 (which may be the same as the fixed gap duration), 445 (associated with the message 430-a) and the upper limit send duration, the first wireless device 205 may send a message 430-a during the COT of the second wireless device 210. Based on sending the message 430-a, the first wireless device 205 may start a timer associated with the time slot 445 (so that the time slot 445 may continue to run while the second wireless device 210 is transmitting). The second wireless device 210 may send the message 425-b (such as during the time slot 445), and based on the time slot 445 (measured from the message 430-a) and the upper limit send duration, the first wireless device 205 may send the message 430-b during the COT of the second wireless device 210. The first wireless device may (re)start the timer associated with the time slot 445 based on sending the message 430-b, and in some implementations, based on the time slot 445 (measured from the message 430-b) and the upper limit send duration, may send the message 430-c during the COT of the second wireless device 210.

[0086] As an example, message 425-a may be associated with a transmit duration 435-a of 8 milliseconds, message 430-a may be associated with a transmit duration 440-a of 2 milliseconds, message 425-b may be associated with a transmit duration 435-b of 12 milliseconds, message 430-a may be associated with a transmit duration 440-b of 4 milliseconds, and message 430-c may be associated with a transmit duration 440-c of 4 milliseconds. ) may be 12 milliseconds. Thus, and according to the time gap 445 running when the second wireless device 210 is able to transmit, the time gap 450 (which may be represented as T) between the message 425-a and the message 430-a may be 12 milliseconds. g ) can be 4 milliseconds.

[0087] As illustrated by the communication timeline 402, if the first wireless device 205 fails to meet the narrow beam condition, the first wireless device 205 may wait for at least the variable gap duration before commencing transmission back to the second wireless device 210. In some implementations, the variable gap duration The continuous transmission duration T of the first wireless device 205 may be B For example, the variable gap duration can be defined such that where α B Is the multiplier value. According to the use of variable gap duration Using a fixed gap duration Compared with the specific implementation, the upper limit of the sending duration T B,max It can be relatively loose. For example, the upper limit of sending duration T B,max =10 milliseconds. Therefore, the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210 support variable gap constraints and COT limits. In addition, according to the use of variable gap duration The first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210 can balance channel utilization and reduce interference to devices from other cells or RATs. In some implementations, the variable gap duration is set to 0 based on the directional beam 225 used by the second wireless device 210 meeting the narrow beam condition. May overlap with the transmission from the second wireless device 210 .

[0088] For example, the second wireless device 210 may send a message 455-a and, according to a time gap 475-a (which may be the same as the variable gap duration), 475-b) and the upper limit send duration, the first wireless device 205 may send a message 460-a during the COT of the second wireless device 210. Based on sending the message 460-a, the first wireless device 205 may start a timer associated with another variable gap duration, which the first wireless device 205 may calculate based on the send duration 470-b of the message 460-b (the next or subsequent message to be sent from the first wireless device 205). The second wireless device 210 may send the message 455-b, and based on the time gap 475-b and the upper limit send duration, the first wireless device 205 may send the message 460-b during the COT of the second wireless device 210. In some implementations, the first wireless device 205 (and the second wireless device 210) may calculate the duration of the time gap 475-a based on the send duration 470-a of the message 460-a, and may calculate the duration of the time gap 475-b based on the send duration 470-b of the message 460-b.

[0089] As an example, message 455-a may be associated with a transmit duration 465-a of 8 milliseconds, message 460-a may be associated with a transmit duration 470-a of 3 milliseconds, message 455-b may be associated with a transmit duration 465-b of 12 milliseconds, and message 460-b may be associated with a transmit duration 470-b of 6 milliseconds. Accordingly, if the multiplier value αB If msg = 3, time gap 475-a may have a duration of 9 milliseconds and time gap 475-b may have a duration of 18 milliseconds. Thus, time gap 480-a between message 455-a and message 460-a may be 1 millisecond, and time gap 480-b between message 455-b and message 460-b may be 6 milliseconds.

[0090] In some implementations, the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210 can support one or more configuration- or signaling-based mechanisms associated with obtaining various parameters or metrics associated with the COT sharing status 270, according to which the first wireless device 205 can share the COT of the second wireless device 210. For example, the first wireless device 205 can store (such as according to management or network specifications) a fixed gap duration. The value of the upper limit of the sending duration T B,max The value or multiplier value α B Additionally or alternatively, the first wireless device 205 may receive (such as via control signaling from the second wireless device 210) a request for a fixed gap duration. The value of the upper limit of the sending duration T B,max The value or multiplier value α B Such control signaling that the first wireless device 205 may receive from the second wireless device 210 may include any one or more of RRC signaling, downlink control information (DCI), or a MAC control element (MAC-CE).

[0091] Figure 5 An example process flow 500 is shown for supporting a channel occupancy sharing condition for beam-based channel access. The process flow 500 can be implemented or implemented to implement aspects of the wireless communication system 100, the signaling diagram 200, one or more of the communication timelines 300 and 301, or one or more of the communication timelines 400, 401, and 402. For example, the process flow 500 illustrates communication between the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210, as shown in FIG. Figures 1 to 4 In some implementations, the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210 can support one or more COT sharing conditions for narrow beam-based directional channel access, which can be applied to scenarios where the directional beam meets the narrow beam condition and scenarios where the directional beam fails to meet the narrow beam condition.

[0092] In the following description of process flow 500, operations (such as reporting or providing) may be performed in a different order than shown, or operations performed by the example device may be performed in a different order or at different times. For example, certain operations may be omitted from process flow 500, or other operations may be added to process flow 500. Furthermore, although some operations or signaling are shown as occurring at different times for discussion purposes, these operations may actually occur simultaneously.

[0093] At 505, the first wireless device 205 can receive control signaling from the second wireless device 210, the control signaling indicating one or more parameters or metrics associated with one or more COT sharing conditions related to the width of the directional beam 220 used by the first wireless device 205. In some implementations, the control signaling can indicate a fixed gap duration. The value of the upper limit of the sending duration T B,max The value of, or the multiplier value α B Such control signaling may be transmitted via one or more of RRC signaling, DCI, or MAC-CE.

[0094] At 510, the first wireless device 205 may utilize a shared wireless channel and receive a first message from the second wireless device 210 during a COT associated with communication between the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210. The first message may be a control message, a data message, or any other signaling associated with or indicating that the second wireless device 210 has initiated a COT for communication between the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210.

[0095] At 515, the first wireless device 205 may use the shared wireless channel and transmit a second message to the second wireless device 210 during a COT associated with communication between the first wireless device 205 and the second wireless device 210. The first wireless device 205 may use a directional beam (such as Figure 2 The first wireless device 205 may transmit a second message to the second wireless device 210 using the directional beam 220 illustrated and described with reference thereto, and in some implementations, one or both of the time gap between the first message and the second message or the upper limit transmission duration of the second message (such as the upper limit continuous transmission duration) may be associated with the width of the directional beam. In other words, one or both of the time gap or the upper limit transmission duration may be associated with whether the directional beam of the first wireless device 205 satisfies the narrow beam condition. Additional details on potential time gaps and upper limit transmission durations are provided by Figures 2 to 4 exemplified and described with reference thereto.

[0096] Figure 6A block diagram 600 of an example device 605 supporting a channel occupancy sharing scenario for beam-based channel access is shown. The device 605 can communicate (e.g., wirelessly) with one or more network entities (e.g., one or more components of one or more network entities 105), one or more UEs 115, or any combination thereof. The device 605 can include components for two-way voice and data communications, including components for sending and receiving communications, such as a communication manager 620, an input / output (I / O) controller 610, a transceiver 615, an antenna 625, a memory 630, code 635, and a processor 640. These components can be in electronic communication or otherwise coupled (e.g., operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, electrically) via one or more buses (e.g., bus 645).

[0097] I / O controller 610 can manage input and output signals for device 605. I / O controller 610 can also manage peripheral devices that are not integrated into device 605. In some implementations, I / O controller 610 can represent a physical connection or port to an external peripheral device. In some implementations, I / O controller 610 can utilize an operating system, such as or another known operating system. Additionally or alternatively, the I / O controller 610 can represent or interact with a modem, keyboard, mouse, touch screen, or similar device. In some implementations, the I / O controller 610 can be implemented as part of a processor or processing system (such as the processor 640). In some implementations, a user can interact with the device 605 via the I / O controller 610 or via hardware components controlled by the I / O controller 610.

[0098] In some implementations, the device 605 may include a single antenna 625. However, in some other implementations, the device 605 may have more than one antenna 625 capable of concurrently transmitting or receiving multiple wireless transmissions. The transceiver 615 may communicate bidirectionally via one or more antennas 625, a wired link, or a wireless link as described herein. For example, the transceiver 615 may represent a wireless transceiver and may communicate bidirectionally with another wireless transceiver. The transceiver 615 may also include a modem for modulating packets, providing the modulated packets to the one or more antennas 625 for transmission, and demodulating packets received from the one or more antennas 625. In some implementations, the transceiver 615 may include one or more interfaces, such as one or more interfaces coupled to one or more antennas 625 configured to support various receive or obtain operations, one or more interfaces coupled to one or more antennas 625 configured to support various transmit or output operations, or a combination thereof. In some implementations, the transceiver 615 may include or be configured to be coupled to one or more processors or memory components that are operable to perform the following operations: perform or support operations based on received or obtained information or signals; or generate information or other signals for transmission or other output, or any combination thereof. In some implementations, the transceiver 615, or the transceiver 615 and one or more antennas 625, or the transceiver 615 and one or more antennas 625 and one or more processors or memory components (such as the processor 640, or the memory 630, or both) may be included in a chip or chip component installed in the device 605.

[0099] The memory 630 may include random access memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM). The memory 630 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code 635 including instructions that, when executed by the processor 640, cause the device 605 to perform the various functions described herein. The code 635 may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium (such as system memory or another type of memory). In some implementations, the code 635 may not be directly executable by the processor 640, but may cause a computer (such as when compiled and executed) to perform the functions described herein. In some implementations, the memory 630 may include, among other things, a basic I / O system (BIOS) that may control basic hardware or software operations, such as interaction with peripheral components or devices.

[0100] The processor 640 may include an intelligent hardware device (such as a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a central processing unit (CPU), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a microcontroller, a programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof). In some implementations, the processor 640 may be configured to operate a memory array using a memory controller. In some implementations, the memory controller may be integrated into the processor 640. The processor 640 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory (such as the memory 630) to cause the device 605 to perform various functions (such as functions or tasks that support channel occupancy sharing conditions for beam-based channel access). For example, the device 605 or a component of the device 605 may include the processor 640 and the memory 630 coupled to the processor 640, and the processor 640 and the memory 630 are configured to perform the various functions described herein. The processor 640 may be an example of a cloud computing platform (such as one or more physical nodes and supporting software such as an operating system, virtual machine, or container instance) that can host functionality (such as by executing code 635) to perform the functions of the device 605. The processor 640 may be any one or more suitable processors capable of executing scripts or instructions of one or more software programs stored in the device 605 (such as within the memory 630). In some specific implementations, the processor 640 may be a component of a processing system. A processing system may generally refer to a system or series of machines or components that receives inputs and processes these inputs to produce a set of outputs (which may be passed to other systems or components (e.g., the device 605)). For example, the processing system of the device 605 may refer to a system that includes various other components or subcomponents of the device 605, such as the processor 640, or the transceiver 615, or the communication manager 620, or other components or combinations of components of the device 605.

[0101] The processing system of device 605 can interface with other components of device 605 and can process information (such as input or signals) received from other components or output information to other components. For example, the chip or modem of device 605 may include a processing system and one or more interfaces for outputting information or for obtaining information, or both. One or more interfaces may be implemented as or otherwise include a first interface configured to output information and a second interface configured to obtain information, or the same interface configured to output information and obtain information, as well as other specific implementations. In some specific implementations, one or more interfaces may refer to an interface between the processing system of the chip or modem and a transmitter, so that device 605 can transmit information output from the chip or modem. Additionally or alternatively, in some specific implementations, one or more interfaces may refer to an interface between the processing system of the chip or modem and a receiver, so that device 605 can obtain information or signal input, and the information can be passed to the processing system. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize that the first interface may also obtain information or signal input, and the second interface may also output information or signal output.

[0102] The communication manager 620 can support wireless communication at the first device according to the examples disclosed herein. For example, the communication manager 620 can be configured to or otherwise support components for receiving a first message using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device. The communication manager 620 can be configured to or otherwise support components for sending a second message via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0103] In some embodiments, the communication manager 620 may be configured as or otherwise support components for receiving an indication of one or both of the time slot or the upper limit transmission duration of the second message from the second device, where both the time slot and the upper limit transmission duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0104] In some embodiments, to support sending the second message, the communication manager 620 may be configured to or otherwise support a component for setting the time gap to any duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, wherein the sending duration of the second message is not limited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0105] In some specific implementations, to support sending the second message, the communication manager 620 may be configured as or otherwise support a component for setting the time gap to a non-zero duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, wherein the non-zero duration is associated with the processing capability of the first device, and wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0106] In some implementations, to support sending the second message, the communication manager 620 can be configured or otherwise support components for setting the time gap to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy a narrow beam condition.

[0107] In some implementations, based on the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

[0108] In some implementations, the first duration is a non-zero duration. In some implementations, based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0109] In some implementations, the first duration is proportional to a sending duration of the second message. In some implementations, based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0110] In some implementations, the communications manager 620 may be configured to or otherwise support components for receiving an indication of a multiplier value associated with the first duration from the second device, where the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0111] In some implementations, a multiplier value associated with the first duration is stored at the first device. In some implementations, the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0112] In some implementations, one or both of the time gap or the upper limit transmission duration of the second message are stored at the first device. In some implementations, both the time gap and the upper limit transmission duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0113] In some implementations, the width of the directional beam fails to meet a narrow beam condition. In some implementations, the time gap between the first message and the second message, the upper limit transmission duration of the second message, or both enable the first device to share the COT with the second device without channel sensing.

[0114] In some implementations, the communication manager 620 can be configured to use the transceiver 615, one or more antennas 625, or any combination thereof, or otherwise cooperate with them to perform various operations (such as receiving, monitoring, and transmitting). Although the communication manager 620 is shown as a separate component, in some implementations, one or more functions described with reference to the communication manager 620 can be supported or performed by the processor 640, the memory 630, the code 635, or any combination thereof. For example, the code 635 can include instructions executable by the processor 640 to cause the device 605 to perform various aspects of the channel occupancy sharing conditions for beam-based channel access as described herein, or the processor 640 and the memory 630 can be otherwise configured to perform or support such operations.

[0115] Figure 7 A block diagram 700 of an example device 705 supporting a channel occupancy sharing scenario for beam-based channel access is shown. The device 705 can communicate with one or more network entities (such as one or more components of one or more network entities 105), one or more UEs 115, or any combination thereof, which communication may include communication through one or more wired interfaces, through one or more wireless interfaces, or any combination thereof. The device 705 may include components that support output and receipt of communications, such as a communication manager 720, a transceiver 710, an antenna 715, a memory 725, code 730, and a processor 735. These components may be in electronic communication or otherwise coupled (such as operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, or electrically) via one or more buses (such as a bus 740).

[0116] The transceiver 710 may support bidirectional communication via a wired link, a wireless link, or both as described herein. In some implementations, the transceiver 710 may include a wired transceiver and may communicate bidirectionally with another wired transceiver. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the transceiver 710 may include a wireless transceiver and may communicate bidirectionally with another wireless transceiver. In some implementations, the device 705 may include one or more antennas 715 that may be capable of sending or receiving wireless transmissions (such as concurrently). The transceiver 710 may also include a modem for modulating a signal, providing the modulated signal for transmission (such as through one or more antennas 715, through a wired transmitter), receiving the modulated signal (such as from one or more antennas 715, from a wired receiver), and demodulating the signal.

[0117] In some implementations, the transceiver 710 may include one or more interfaces, such as one or more interfaces coupled to one or more antennas 715 configured to support various receive or obtain operations, or one or more interfaces coupled to one or more antennas 715 configured to support various transmit or output operations, or a combination thereof. In some implementations, the transceiver 710 may include or be configured to be coupled to one or more processors or memory components operable to: perform or support operations based on received or obtained information or signals; or generate information or other signals for transmission or other output, or any combination thereof. In some implementations, the transceiver 710, or the transceiver 710 and one or more antennas 715, or the transceiver 710 and one or more antennas 715 and one or more processors or memory components (such as the processor 735, the memory 725, or both) may be included in a chip or chip assembly installed in the device 705. In some implementations, the transceiver is operable to support communications via one or more communication links, such as communication link 125 , backhaul communication link 120 , midhaul communication link 162 , and fronthaul communication link 168 .

[0118] The memory 725 may include RAM and ROM. The memory 725 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code 730 including instructions that, when executed by the processor 735, cause the device 705 to perform the various functions described herein. The code 730 may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium (such as system memory or another type of memory). In some implementations, the code 730 may not be directly executable by the processor 735, but may cause a computer (such as when compiled and executed) to perform the functions described herein. In some implementations, the memory 725 may include, among other things, a BIOS that may control basic hardware or software operations, such as interaction with peripheral components or devices.

[0119] The processor 735 may include an intelligent hardware device (such as a general-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, a CPU, an FPGA, a microcontroller, a programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic components, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof). In some implementations, the processor 735 may be configured to operate a memory array using a memory controller. In some implementations, the memory controller may be integrated into the processor 735. The processor 735 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory (such as memory 725) to cause the device 705 to perform various functions (such as functions or tasks that support channel occupancy sharing conditions for beam-based channel access). For example, the device 705 or a component of the device 705 may include the processor 735 and the memory 725 coupled to the processor 735, the processor 735 and the memory 725 being configured to perform the various functions described herein. The processor 735 may be an example of a cloud computing platform (such as one or more physical nodes and supporting software such as an operating system, a virtual machine, or a container instance) that can host functions (such as by executing code 730) to perform the functions of the device 705. The processor 735 can be any one or more suitable processors capable of executing scripts or instructions of one or more software programs stored in the device 705 (such as in the memory 725). In some specific implementations, the processor 735 can be a component of a processing system. A processing system generally refers to a system or a series of machines or components that receives inputs and processes these inputs to produce a set of outputs (which can be passed to other systems or components (e.g., the device 705)). For example, the processing system of the device 705 can refer to a system that includes various other components or subcomponents of the device 705, such as the processor 735, or the transceiver 710, or the communication manager 720, or other components or combinations of components of the device 705. The processing system of the device 705 can interface with other components of the device 705 and can process information (such as inputs or signals) received from other components or output information to other components. For example, a chip or modem of the device 705 may include a processing system and one or more interfaces for outputting information or for obtaining information or both.

[0120] The one or more interfaces may be implemented as or otherwise include a first interface configured to output information and a second interface configured to obtain information, or the same interface configured to output information and obtain information, among other implementations. In some implementations, the one or more interfaces may refer to an interface between a processing system of a chip or modem and a transmitter, such that the device 705 can transmit information output from the chip or modem. Additionally or alternatively, in some implementations, the one or more interfaces may refer to an interface between a processing system of a chip or modem and a receiver, such that the device 705 can obtain information or signal input, and the information can be passed to the processing system. One of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that the first interface may also obtain information or signal input, and the second interface may also output information or signal output.

[0121] In some implementations, the bus 740 can support communications within (such as within) a protocol layer of a protocol stack. In some implementations, the bus 740 can support communications associated with logical channels of a protocol stack (such as between (such as between) protocol layers of a protocol stack), which can include communications performed within a component of the device 705 or between different components of the device 705 that can be co-located or located in different locations (e.g., where the device 705 can refer to a system in which one or more of the communication manager 720, transceiver 710, memory 725, code 730, and processor 735 can be located in one of these different components or divided between different components).

[0122] In some implementations, the communication manager 720 can manage various aspects of communications with the core network 130, such as via one or more wired or wireless backhaul links. For example, the communication manager 720 can manage the delivery of data communications for client devices, such as one or more UEs 115. In some implementations, the communication manager 720 can manage communications with other network entities 105 and can include a controller or scheduler for controlling communications with the UEs 115 in coordination with the other network entities 105. In some implementations, the communication manager 720 can support an X2 interface within an LTE / LTE-A wireless communication network technology to provide communications between network entities 105.

[0123] According to examples disclosed herein, the communication manager 720 can support wireless communications. For example, the communication manager 720 can be configured to or otherwise support components for sending a first message from the second device to the first device using a shared wireless channel during a COT associated with communication between the first and second devices. The communication manager 720 can be configured to or otherwise support components for receiving a second message from the first device via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel during the COT associated with communication between the first and second devices, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first and second messages or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0124] In some embodiments, the communication manager 720 may be configured as or otherwise support components for sending an indication of one or both of the time slot or the upper limit send duration of the second message to the first device, where both the time slot and the upper limit send duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0125] In some embodiments, to support receiving the second message, the communication manager 720 may be configured to or otherwise support a component for setting the time gap to any value based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0126] In some specific implementations, to support receiving the second message, the communication manager 720 may be configured as or otherwise support a component for setting the time gap to a non-zero duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, wherein the non-zero duration is associated with the processing capability of the first device, and wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0127] In some implementations, to support receiving the second message, the communication manager 720 can be configured or otherwise support means for setting the time gap to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy a narrow beam condition.

[0128] In some implementations, based on the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

[0129] In some implementations, the first duration is a non-zero duration. In some implementations, based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0130] In some implementations, the first duration is proportional to a sending duration of the second message. In some implementations, based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0131] In some implementations, the communications manager 720 can be configured to or otherwise support components for sending an indication of a multiplier value associated with the first duration to the first device, where the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0132] In some implementations, a multiplier value associated with the first duration is stored at the second device. In some implementations, the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0133] In some implementations, one or both of the time gap or the upper limit transmission duration of the second message are stored at the second device. In some implementations, both the time gap and the upper limit transmission duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0134] In some implementations, the width of the directional beam fails to meet a narrow beam condition. In some implementations, the time gap between the first message and the second message, the upper limit transmission duration of the second message, or both enable the first device to share the COT with the second device without channel sensing.

[0135] In some implementations, the communication manager 720 can be configured to use or otherwise cooperate with the transceiver 710, one or more antennas 715 (such as where applicable), or any combination thereof to perform various operations (such as receiving, obtaining, monitoring, outputting, transmitting). Although the communication manager 720 is illustrated as a separate component, in some examples, one or more functions described with reference to the communication manager 720 can be supported or performed by the processor 735, the memory 725, the code 730, the transceiver 710, or any combination thereof. For example, the code 730 can include instructions executable by the processor 735 to cause the device 705 to perform various aspects of the channel occupancy sharing conditions for beam-based channel access as described herein, or the processor 735 and the memory 725 can be otherwise configured to perform or support such operations.

[0136] Figure 8 A flow chart illustrating an example method 800 for supporting a channel occupancy sharing condition for beam-based channel access is shown. The operations of the method 800 may be implemented by a UE or a component thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of the method 800 may be implemented by a UE or a component thereof as described herein. Figures 1 to 6The described functions may be performed by the UE 115. In some implementations, the UE may execute an instruction set to control the functional elements of the UE to perform the described functions. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may use dedicated hardware to perform various aspects of the described functions.

[0137] At 805, the method may include using a shared wireless channel and receiving a first message during a COT associated with communication between a first device and a second device. The operations of 805 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein.

[0138] At 810, the method may include transmitting a second message via a directional beam using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam. The operations of 810 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein.

[0139] Figure 9 A flow chart illustrating an example method 900 for supporting a channel occupancy sharing condition for beam-based channel access is shown. The operations of the method 900 may be implemented by a network entity or component thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of the method 900 may be implemented by a network entity or component thereof as described herein. Figures 1 to 5 and Figure 7 In some implementations, the network entity may execute a set of instructions to control the functional elements of the network entity to perform the described functions. Additionally or alternatively, the network entity may use dedicated hardware to perform various aspects of the described functions.

[0140] At 905, the method may include using a shared wireless channel and sending a first message to the first device during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device. The operations of 905 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein.

[0141] At 910, the method may include receiving a second message from the first device via a directional beam using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam. The operations of 910 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein.

[0142] The following provides an overview of some aspects of the disclosure:

[0143] Aspect 1: A method for wireless communication at a first device, the method comprising: receiving a first message using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and a second device; and sending a second message via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit sending duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0144] Aspect 2: The method according to Aspect 1 further includes: receiving an indication of one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message from the second device, wherein both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0145] Aspect 3: A method according to any one of Aspects 1 to 2, wherein sending the second message includes setting the time gap to any duration based on whether the width of the directional beam satisfies the narrow beam condition, wherein the sending duration of the second message is not limited based on whether the width of the directional beam satisfies the narrow beam condition.

[0146] Aspect 4: A method according to any one of Aspects 1 to 2, wherein sending the second message includes: setting the time gap to a non-zero duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying a narrow beam condition, wherein the non-zero duration is associated with the processing capability of the first device, and wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0147] Aspect 5: The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 2, wherein sending the second message comprises setting the time gap to a first duration according to the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy a narrow beam condition.

[0148] Aspect 6: The method according to aspect 5, wherein according to the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

[0149] Aspect 7: The method according to aspect 5, wherein the first duration is a non-zero duration, and according to the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0150] Aspect 8: The method according to Aspect 5, wherein the first duration is proportional to the sending duration of the second message, and based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0151] Aspect 9: The method of aspect 8, further comprising: receiving an indication of a multiplier value associated with the first duration from the second device, wherein the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0152] Aspect 10: The method of any one of aspects 8 to 9, wherein a multiplier value associated with the first duration is stored at the first device, and the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0153] Aspect 11: A method according to any one of Aspects 1 to 10, wherein one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message are stored at the first device, and both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0154] Aspect 12: A method according to any one of Aspects 1 to 11, wherein the width of the directional beam fails to meet the narrow beam condition, and the time gap between the first message and the second message or the upper limit sending duration of the second message or both enable the first device to share the COT with the second device without channel sensing.

[0155] Aspect 13: A method for wireless communication, comprising: sending a first message from the second device to the first device using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device; and receiving a second message from the first device via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit sending duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0156] Aspect 14: The method according to Aspect 13 further includes: sending an indication of one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message to the first device, wherein both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0157] Aspect 15: A method according to any one of Aspects 13 to 14, wherein receiving the second message includes: setting the time gap to any value based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0158] Aspect 16: A method according to any one of Aspects 13 to 14, wherein receiving the second message includes: setting the time gap to a non-zero duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying a narrow beam condition, wherein the non-zero duration is associated with the processing capability of the first device, and wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0159] Aspect 17: The method according to any one of aspects 13 to 14, wherein receiving the second message comprises setting the time gap to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy a narrow beam condition.

[0160] Aspect 18: The method according to aspect 17, wherein according to the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

[0161] Aspect 19: The method according to aspect 17, wherein the first duration is a non-zero duration, and according to the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0162] Aspect 20: A method according to Aspect 17, wherein the first duration is proportional to the sending duration of the second message, and based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0163] Aspect 21: The method of aspect 20, further comprising sending an indication of a multiplier value associated with the first duration to the first device, wherein the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0164] Aspect 22: The method of any one of aspects 20 to 21, wherein a multiplier value associated with the first duration is stored at the second device, and the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0165] Aspect 23: A method according to any one of Aspects 13 to 22, wherein one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message are stored at the second device, and both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0166] Aspect 24: A method according to any one of Aspects 13 to 23, wherein the width of the directional beam fails to meet the narrow beam condition, and the time gap between the first message and the second message or the upper limit sending duration of the second message or both enable the first device to share the COT with the second device without channel sensing.

[0167] Aspect 25: An apparatus for wireless communication at a first device, comprising: one or more interfaces, wherein the one or more interfaces are configured to: obtain a first message using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device; and output a second message via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit sending duration of the second message is associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0168] Aspect 26: An apparatus according to Aspect 25, wherein the one or more interfaces are further configured to: obtain an indication of one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message from the second device, wherein both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0169] Aspect 27: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 25 to 26, wherein, in order to output the second message, the processing system is configured to: set the time gap to any duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, wherein the sending duration of the second message is not limited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0170] Aspect 28: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 25 to 26, wherein, in order to output the second message, the processing system is configured to: set the time gap to a non-zero duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying a narrow beam condition, wherein the non-zero duration is associated with the processing capability of the first device, and wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0171] Aspect 29: The apparatus according to any one of aspects 25 to 26, wherein, to output the second message, the processing system is configured to: set the time gap to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet a narrow beam condition.

[0172] Aspect 30: The apparatus according to aspect 29, wherein according to the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

[0173] Aspect 31: The apparatus according to aspect 29, wherein the first duration is a non-zero duration, and according to the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the transmission duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit transmission duration.

[0174] Aspect 32: An apparatus according to Aspect 29, wherein the first duration is proportional to a sending duration of a second message, and based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0175] Aspect 33: An apparatus according to Aspect 32, wherein the one or more interfaces are further configured to: obtain an indication of a multiplier value associated with the first duration from the second device, wherein the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0176] Aspect 34: An apparatus according to any one of aspects 32 to 33, wherein a multiplier value associated with the first duration is stored at the first device, and the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0177] Aspect 35: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 25 to 34, wherein one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message are stored at the first device, and both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0178] Aspect 36: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 25 to 35, wherein the width of the directional beam fails to satisfy a narrow beam condition, and the time gap between the first message and the second message or the upper limit sending duration of the second message or both enable the first device to share the COT with the second device without channel sensing.

[0179] Aspect 37: An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: one or more interfaces, wherein the one or more interfaces are configured to: output a first message from the second device to the first device using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device; and obtain a second message from the first device via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit sending duration of the second message is associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0180] Aspect 38: An apparatus according to Aspect 37, wherein the one or more interfaces are further configured to: output to the first device an indication of one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message, wherein both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0181] Aspect 39: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 37 to 38, wherein, in order to obtain the second message, the processing system is configured to: set the time gap to any value based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0182] Aspect 40: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 37 to 38, wherein, in order to obtain the second message, the processing system is configured to: set the time gap to a non-zero duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, wherein the non-zero duration is associated with the processing capability of the first device, and wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0183] Aspect 41: The apparatus according to any one of aspects 37 to 38, wherein, to obtain the second message, the processing system is configured to: set the time gap to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition.

[0184] Aspect 42: The apparatus according to aspect 41, wherein according to the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

[0185] Aspect 43: The apparatus according to aspect 41, wherein the first duration is a non-zero duration, and according to the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the transmission duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit transmission duration.

[0186] Aspect 44: An apparatus according to Aspect 41, wherein the first duration is proportional to a sending duration of a second message, and based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0187] Aspect 45: An apparatus according to Aspect 44, wherein the one or more interfaces are further configured to: output an indication of a multiplier value associated with the first duration to the first device, wherein the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0188] Aspect 46: An apparatus according to any one of aspects 44 to 45, wherein a multiplier value associated with the first duration is stored at the second device, and the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0189] Aspect 47: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 37 to 46, wherein one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message are stored at the second device, and both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0190] Aspect 48: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 37 to 47, wherein the width of the directional beam fails to satisfy a narrow beam condition, and the time gap between the first message and the second message or the upper limit sending duration of the second message or both enable the first device to share the COT with the second device without channel sensing.

[0191] Aspect 49: An apparatus for wireless communication at a first device, comprising: a component for receiving a first message using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device; and a component for sending a second message via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit sending duration of the second message is associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0192] Aspect 50: The apparatus according to Aspect 49 further includes: a component for receiving an indication of one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message from the second device, wherein both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0193] Aspect 51: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 49 to 50, wherein the component for sending the second message includes: a component for setting the time gap to any duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, wherein the sending duration of the second message is not limited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0194] Aspect 52: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 49 to 50, wherein the component for sending the second message includes: a component for setting the time gap to a non-zero duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying a narrow beam condition, wherein the non-zero duration is associated with the processing capability of the first device, and wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0195] Aspect 53: An apparatus according to any one of aspects 49 to 50, wherein the means for sending the second message includes: means for setting the time gap to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition.

[0196] Aspect 54: The apparatus according to Aspect 53, wherein according to the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

[0197] Aspect 55: The apparatus according to aspect 53, wherein the first duration is a non-zero duration, and according to the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the transmission duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit transmission duration.

[0198] Aspect 56: An apparatus according to Aspect 53, wherein the first duration is proportional to a sending duration of a second message, and based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0199] Aspect 57: The apparatus according to aspect 56 further comprising: means for the second device to receive an indication of a multiplier value associated with the first duration, wherein the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0200] Aspect 58: An apparatus according to any one of aspects 56 to 57, wherein a multiplier value associated with the first duration is stored at the first device, and the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0201] Aspect 59: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 49 to 58, wherein one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message are stored at the first device, and both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0202] Aspect 60: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 49 to 59, wherein the width of the directional beam fails to satisfy a narrow beam condition, and the time gap between the first message and the second message or the upper limit sending duration of the second message or both enable the first device to share the COT with the second device without channel sensing.

[0203] Aspect 61: An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: a component for sending a first message from the second device to the first device using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device; and a component for receiving a second message from the first device via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit sending duration of the second message is associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0204] Aspect 62: The apparatus according to Aspect 61 further includes: a component for sending an indication of one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message to the first device, wherein both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0205] Aspect 63: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 61 to 62, wherein the component for receiving the second message includes: a component for setting the time gap to any value based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0206] Aspect 64: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 61 to 62, wherein the component for receiving the second message includes: a component for setting the time gap to a non-zero duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying a narrow beam condition, wherein the non-zero duration is associated with the processing capability of the first device, and wherein the sending duration of the second message is unrestricted based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0207] Aspect 65: An apparatus according to any one of aspects 61 to 62, wherein the means for receiving the second message includes: means for setting the time gap to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition.

[0208] Aspect 66: The apparatus according to aspect 65, wherein according to the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

[0209] Aspect 67: The apparatus according to aspect 65, wherein the first duration is a non-zero duration, and according to the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the transmission duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit transmission duration.

[0210] Aspect 68: An apparatus according to Aspect 65, wherein the first duration is proportional to the sending duration of the second message, and based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0211] Aspect 69: The apparatus according to aspect 68 further comprising: means for sending an indication of a multiplier value associated with the first duration to the first device, wherein the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0212] Aspect 70: An apparatus according to any one of aspects 68 to 69, wherein a multiplier value associated with the first duration is stored at the second device, and the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0213] Aspect 71: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 61 to 70, wherein one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message are stored at the second device, and both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0214] Aspect 72: An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 61 to 71, wherein the width of the directional beam fails to satisfy a narrow beam condition, and the time gap between the first message and the second message or the upper limit sending duration of the second message or both enable the first device to share the COT with the second device without channel sensing.

[0215] Aspect 73: A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication at a first device, the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to: receive a first message using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device; and send a second message via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit sending duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0216] Aspect 74: Non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Aspect 73, wherein the instructions are capable of being further executed by the processor to: receive an indication of one or both of the time slot or the upper limit sending duration of the second message from the second device, wherein both the time slot and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0217] Aspect 75: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 73 to 74, wherein the instructions for sending the second message are executable by the processor to: set the time gap to any duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0218] Aspect 76: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 73 to 74, wherein the instructions for sending the second message are executable by the processor to: set the time gap to a non-zero duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying a narrow beam condition, wherein the non-zero duration is associated with the processing capability of the first device, and wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0219] Aspect 77: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 73 to 74, wherein the instructions for sending the second message are executable by the processor to: set the time gap to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition.

[0220] Aspect 78: The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to aspect 77, wherein according to the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

[0221] Aspect 79: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to aspect 77, wherein the first duration is a non-zero duration, and based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0222] Aspect 80: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Aspect 77, wherein the first duration is proportional to the sending duration of the second message, and based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0223] Aspect 81: Non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Aspect 80, wherein the instructions are capable of being further executed by the processor to: receive an indication of a multiplier value associated with the first duration from the second device, wherein the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0224] Aspect 82: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of aspects 80 to 81, wherein a multiplier value associated with the first duration is stored at the first device, and the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0225] Aspect 83: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 73 to 82, wherein one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message are stored at the first device, and both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0226] Aspect 84: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 73 to 83, wherein the width of the directional beam fails to satisfy a narrow beam condition, and the time gap between the first message and the second message or the upper limit sending duration of the second message or both enable the first device to share the COT with the second device without channel sensing.

[0227] Aspect 85: A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication, the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to: send a first message from the second device to the first device using a shared wireless channel and during a COT associated with communication between the first device and the second device; and receive a second message from the first device via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit transmission duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

[0228] Aspect 86: Non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Aspect 85, wherein the instructions are capable of being further executed by the processor to: send an indication of one or both of the time slot or the upper limit sending duration of the second message to the first device, wherein both the time slot and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0229] Aspect 87: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 85 to 86, wherein the instructions for receiving the second message are executable by the processor to: set the time gap to any value based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0230] Aspect 88: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 85 to 86, wherein the instructions for receiving the second message are executable by the processor to: set the time gap to a non-zero duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying a narrow beam condition, wherein the non-zero duration is associated with the processing capability of the first device, and wherein the sending duration of the second message is unlimited based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition.

[0231] Aspect 89: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 85 to 86, wherein the instructions for receiving the second message are executable by the processor to: set the time gap to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition.

[0232] Aspect 90: The non-transitory computer-readable medium of aspect 89, wherein according to the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

[0233] Aspect 91: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to aspect 89, wherein the first duration is a non-zero duration, and based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition, the transmission duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit transmission duration.

[0234] Aspect 92: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Aspect 89, wherein the first duration is proportional to the sending duration of the second message, and based on the width of the directional beam failing to meet the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

[0235] Aspect 93: Non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Aspect 92, wherein the instructions are capable of being further executed by the processor to: send an indication of a multiplier value associated with the first duration to the first device, wherein the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0236] Aspect 94: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 92 to 93, wherein a multiplier value associated with the first duration is stored at the second device, and the first duration is equal to the product of the multiplier value and the sending duration of the second message.

[0237] Aspect 95: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 85 to 94, wherein one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message are stored at the second device, and both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

[0238] Aspect 96: A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 85 to 95, wherein the width of the directional beam fails to satisfy a narrow beam condition, and the time gap between the first message and the second message or the upper limit sending duration of the second message or both enable the first device to share the COT with the second device without channel sensing.

[0239] As used herein, the terms "determine" or "determine" encompass a wide variety of actions, and thus, "determining" may include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, searching (such as by searching in a table, database, or other data structure), reasoning, ascertaining, and similar actions. Additionally, "determining" may include receiving (such as receiving information), accessing (such as accessing data stored in a memory), and similar actions. Additionally, "determining" may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, and other such similar actions.

[0240] As used herein, a phrase referring to "at least one of" a list of items refers to any combination of those items (including single members). As an example, "at least one of a, b, or c" is intended to encompass: a, b, c, ab, ac, bc, and abc.

[0241] The various illustrative logical components, logic blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithmic processes described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of both. The interchangeability of hardware and software has been generally described in terms of functionality and illustrated in the various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and processes described above. Whether such functionality is implemented using hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system.

[0242] The hardware and data processing apparatus for implementing the various illustrative logic elements, logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or executed using a general-purpose single-chip or multi-chip processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, or any processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in combination with a DSP core, or any other such configuration. In some implementations, particular processes and methods may be performed by circuits specific to a given function.

[0243] In one or more aspects, the functionality described may be implemented using hardware, digital electronic circuitry, computer software, firmware (including the structures disclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents), or any combination thereof. Implementations of the subject matter described in this specification may also be implemented as one or more computer programs, such as one or more modules of computer program instructions encoded on computer storage media for execution by data processing apparatus or for controlling the operation of data processing apparatus.

[0244] If implemented in software, the function may be stored on a computer-readable medium or sent using one or more instructions or codes of a computer-readable medium. The process of the method or algorithm disclosed herein may be implemented in a processor-executable software module that may reside on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, and the communication media include any media that can be implemented to transfer a computer program from one location to another. The storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can access. By way of example 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 any other medium that can be used to store the desired program code in the form of an instruction or data structure and that can be accessed by a computer. In addition, any connection may be appropriately referred to as a computer-readable medium. Disks and optical disks as used herein may include compact discs (CDs), laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs (DVDs), floppy disks, and Blu-ray discs. Disks can reproduce data magnetically, and optical discs can reproduce data optically by lasers. The above combinations should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media. Additionally, the operations of a method or algorithm may reside as one or any combination or set of codes and instructions on a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium, which may be incorporated into a computer program product.

[0245] Various modifications to the specific implementations described in this disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other specific implementations without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the specific implementations shown herein, but are to be accorded the widest scope consistent with this disclosure, the principles and features disclosed herein.

[0246] Additionally, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that the terms "upper" and "lower" are sometimes used for ease of describing the drawings and indicate relative positions corresponding to the orientation of the drawings on a correctly oriented page and may not reflect the correct orientation of any device as implemented.

[0247] Certain features described in this specification in the context of a single implementation may also be implemented in combination in that single implementation. Conversely, various features described in the context of a single implementation may also be implemented in multiple implementations individually or in any suitable subcombination. Furthermore, while features may be described above as functioning in some combination and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination may be removed from that combination, and a claimed combination may involve subcombinations or variations of subcombinations.

[0248] Similarly, although operations are depicted in a particular order in the figures, this should not be understood as requiring such operations to be performed in the particular order shown or in a sequential order, or to perform all illustrated operations to achieve the desired result. In addition, the figures may schematically depict one or more example processes in the form of flow charts. However, other operations not depicted may be incorporated into the schematically illustrated example processes. For example, one or more additional operations may be performed before, after, simultaneously with, or between any of the illustrated operations. In some environments, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. In addition, the separation of the various system components in the specific implementations described above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all specific implementations, but rather it should be understood that the described program components and systems can generally be integrated together in a single software product, or packaged into multiple software products. In addition, other specific implementations are within the scope of the following claims. In some specific implementations, the actions recited in the claims can be performed in different orders and still achieve the desired result.

Claims

1. An apparatus for wireless communication at a first device, the apparatus comprising: One or more interfaces, the one or more interfaces being configured to: obtaining a first message using a shared wireless channel and during a channel occupancy time (COT) associated with communication between the first device and the second device; as well as A second message is output via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with a width of the directional beam.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more interfaces are further configured to: An indication of one or both of the time slot or the upper limit send duration of the second message is obtained from the second device, wherein both the time slot and the upper limit send duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in order to output the second message, the processing system is configured to: The time gap is set to any duration according to the width of the directional beam satisfying a narrow beam condition, wherein according to the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, a transmission duration of the second message is not limited.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in order to output the second message, the processing system is configured to: The time gap is set to a non-zero duration based on the width of the directional beam satisfying a narrow beam condition, wherein the non-zero duration is associated with a processing capability of the first device, and wherein based on the width of the directional beam satisfying the narrow beam condition, a sending duration of the second message is unrestricted.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in order to output the second message, the processing system is configured to: The time gap is set to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy a narrow beam condition. 6 . The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein according to the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

7. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the first duration is a non-zero duration, and wherein according to the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

8. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the first duration is proportional to a sending duration of a second message, and wherein based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the one or more interfaces are further configured to: An indication of a multiplier value associated with the first duration is obtained from the second device, wherein the first duration is equal to a product of the multiplier value and the send duration of the second message.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein a multiplier value associated with the first duration is stored at the first device, and wherein the first duration is equal to a product of the multiplier value and the send duration of the second message.

11. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein one or both of the time gap or the upper limit sending duration of the second message are stored at the first device, and wherein both the time gap and the upper limit sending duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

12. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the width of the directional beam fails to satisfy a narrow beam condition, and wherein the time gap between the first message and the second message or the upper limit sending duration of the second message or both enable the first device to share the COT with the second device without channel sensing.

13. An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising: One or more interfaces, the one or more interfaces being configured to: outputting a first message from the first device to the first device using a shared wireless channel and during a channel occupation time (COT) associated with communication between the first device and the second device; as well as A second message is obtained from the first device via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit sending duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the one or more interfaces are further configured to: An indication of one or both of the time slot or the upper limit send duration of the second message is output to the first device, wherein both the time slot and the upper limit send duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

15. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein in order to obtain the second message, the processing system is configured to: The time gap is set to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy a narrow beam condition.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein according to the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first duration is a non-zero duration, and wherein based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, a sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

18. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the first duration is proportional to a sending duration of a second message, and wherein the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition.

19. A method for wireless communication at a first device, the method comprising: receiving a first message using a shared wireless channel and during a channel occupation time (COT) associated with communication between the first device and the second device; as well as A second message is sent via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit sending duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

20. The method according to claim 19, further comprising: An indication of one or both of the time slot or the upper limit send duration of the second message is received from the second device, wherein both the time slot and the upper limit send duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein sending the second message comprises: The time gap is set to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy a narrow beam condition.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein according to the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the first duration is a non-zero duration, and wherein based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, a sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the first duration is proportional to a sending duration of a second message, and wherein based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

25. A method for wireless communication, the method comprising: sending a first message from the first device to the first device using a shared wireless channel and during a channel occupation time (COT) associated with communication between the first device and the second device; as well as A second message is received from the first device via a directional beam using the shared wireless channel and during the COT associated with the communication between the first device and the second device, wherein one or both of a time gap between the first message and the second message or an upper limit sending duration of the second message is associated with a width of the directional beam.

26. The method according to claim 25, further comprising: An indication of one or both of the time slot or the upper limit send duration of the second message is sent to the first device, wherein both the time slot and the upper limit send duration of the second message are associated with the width of the directional beam.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein receiving the second message comprises: The time gap is set to a first duration based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy a narrow beam condition.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein according to the sending duration of the second message being less than the upper limit sending duration, the first duration is any value.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the first duration is a non-zero duration, and wherein based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, a sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the first duration is proportional to a sending duration of a second message, and wherein based on the width of the directional beam failing to satisfy the narrow beam condition, the sending duration of the second message is less than or equal to the upper limit sending duration.

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