Method, architecture, apparatus and system for transmission and reception in multi-path sidechain relay

Abstract

Processes, methods, architectures, apparatuses, systems, apparatuses, and computer program products for flexible transmissions in multipath side chain relays. A wireless transmit-receive unit (WTRU) may be configured with bearers configured for multipath. Such a bearer may have a common Uu PDCP layer, but have two separate RLC entities associated therewith, a Uu RLC entity for transmission / reception directly on Uu and an SL RLC entity for transmission / reception via SL and WTRU-to-NW relays. Data on a multipath bearer may be transmitted via a Uu path, an SL path, or both, repetitions. Where the WTRU is configured for repetition or decides to enable repetition for multipath bearers (repetitive bearers), the WTRU may transmit PDCP PDUs on both the Uu path and the SL path.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 359,980, filed on July 11, 2022, which is incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0002] The present disclosure relates generally to the fields of communications, software, and coding, including, for example, methods, architectures, devices, and systems related to transmission and reception in multipath sidelink relays. Background Art

[0003] 3GPP specifications have introduced layer 2 user equipment (UE) (or wireless receive-transmit unit (WTRU)) to network (NW) relay (U2N relay). The main use case considered in these specifications is the case of remote UE / WTRU out of coverage. It would be desirable to provide a solution for multipath. Summary of the invention

[0004] Method embodiments are disclosed as described below and as claimed in the accompanying claims.

[0005] WTRU embodiments are disclosed as described below and as claimed in the accompanying claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] A more detailed understanding can be obtained from the following detailed description given as an example in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Like the detailed description, each figure in such drawings is an example. Thus, the figures (figures) and the detailed description should not be considered as limiting, and other equally effective examples are possible and desirable. In addition, like reference numerals ("reference") in the drawings indicate like elements, and wherein: Figure 1A is a system diagram illustrating an example communication system; Figure 1B This diagram shows the Figure 1A A system diagram of an example wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU) for use within a communication system illustrated in; Figure 1C This diagram shows the Figure 1A A system diagram of an example radio access network (RAN) and an example core network (CN) used within a communication system illustrated in FIG. Figure 1D This diagram shows the Figure 1A A system diagram of a further example RAN and a further example CN used within the communication system illustrated in FIG. Figure 2 It is the user plane protocol stack for L2U2N relay; Figure 3 It is the control plane protocol stack for L2U2N relay; Figure 4 is a flow chart of a method according to an embodiment. Figure 5 is a flow chart of a method according to an embodiment. Figure 6a and 6b An embodiment is illustrated. Figure 7 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a method implemented by a wireless transmit-receive unit. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0007] In the following detailed description, many specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments and / or examples disclosed herein. However, it will be understood that such embodiments and examples can be practiced without some or all of the specific details set forth herein. In other examples, well-known methods, processes, components and circuits have not yet been described in detail to avoid blurring the following description. Further, embodiments and examples not specifically described herein can be practiced in place of or in conjunction with embodiments and other examples described herein, disclosed or otherwise explicitly, implicitly and / or inherently provided (collectively referred to as "providing"). Although various embodiments in which devices, systems, equipment, etc. and / or any of its elements implement operations, processes, algorithms, functions, etc. and / or any part thereof are described and / or claimed herein, it should be understood that any embodiment described and / or claimed herein specifies that any device, system, equipment, etc. and / or any of its elements are configured to implement any operation, process, algorithm, function, etc. and / or any part thereof.

[0008] Example Communication System The methods, devices, and systems provided herein are well suited for communications involving both wired and wireless networks. Figures 1A-1D To provide an overview of various types of wireless devices and infrastructure, wherein various elements of the network can utilize the methods, apparatuses, and systems provided herein, perform the methods, apparatuses, and systems provided herein, are arranged according to the methods, apparatuses, and systems provided herein, and / or are adapted and / or configured for the methods, apparatuses, and systems provided herein.

[0009] Figure 1A1 is a system diagram illustrating an example communication system 100 in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented. The communication system 100 may be a multiple access system that provides content (such as voice, data, video, messaging, broadcast, etc.) to multiple wireless users. The communication system 100 may enable multiple wireless users to access such content by sharing system resources (including wireless bandwidth). For example, the communication system 100 may employ one or more channel access methods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), zero tail (ZT) unique word (UW) discrete Fourier transform (DFT) spread OFDM (ZT UW DTS-s OFDM), unique word OFDM (UW-OFDM), resource block filtered OFDM, filter bank multi-carrier (FBMC), etc.

[0010] like Figure 1A As shown in , the communication system 100 may include wireless transmit / receive units (WTRUs) 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, a radio access network (RAN) 104 / 113, a core network (CN) 106 / 115, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, the Internet 110 and other networks 112, although it will be appreciated that the disclosed embodiments contemplate any number of WTRUs, base stations, networks, and / or network elements. Each of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may be any type of device configured to operate and / or communicate in a wireless environment. By way of example, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d (any of which may be referred to as a “station” and / or “STA”) may be configured to transmit and / or receive wireless signals and may include (or be) a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a subscription-based unit, a pager, a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smart phone, a laptop, a netbook, a personal computer, a wireless sensor, a hotspot or Mi-Fi device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a watch or other wearable device, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, medical devices and applications (e.g., remote surgery), industrial devices and applications (e.g., robots and / or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and / or automated process chain context), a consumer electronic device, a device operating on a commercial and / or industrial wireless network, etc. Any of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and 102d may be interchangeably referred to as a UE.

[0011] The communication system 100 may also include a base station 114a and / or a base station 114b. Each of the base stations 114a, 114b may be any type of device that is configured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, for example, to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the CN 106 / 115, the Internet 110, and / or the network 112. By way of example, the base stations 114a, 114b may be any of a base transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B (NB), an eNode-B (eNB), a home Node-B (HNB), a home eNode-B (HeNB), a gNode-B (gNB), a NR Node-B (NR NB), a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless router, and the like. Although the base stations 114a, 114b are each depicted as a single element, it will be appreciated that the base stations 114a, 114b may include any number of interconnected base stations and / or network elements.

[0012] The base station 114a may be part of the RAN 104 / 113, which may also include other base stations and / or network elements (not shown), such as a base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller (RNC), a relay node, etc. The base station 114a and / or the base station 114b may be configured to transmit and / or receive wireless signals on one or more carrier frequencies, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown). These frequencies may be in a licensed spectrum, an unlicensed spectrum, or a combination of a licensed spectrum and an unlicensed spectrum. A cell may provide coverage for a specific geographic area for a wireless service, which may be relatively fixed or may change over time. A cell may be further divided into cell sectors. For example, a cell associated with the base station 114a may be divided into three sectors. Therefore, in one embodiment, the base station 114a may include three transceivers, i.e., one transceiver for each sector of the cell. In one embodiment, the base station 114a may employ multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology, and multiple transceivers may be used for each or any sector of the cell. For example, beamforming may be used to transmit and / or receive signals in a desired spatial direction.

[0013] The base stations 114a, 114b may communicate with one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d over an air interface 116, which may be any suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF), microwave, centimeter wave, millimeter wave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, etc.). The air interface 116 may be established using any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

[0014] More specifically, as noted above, the communication system 100 may be a multiple-access system and may employ one or more channel access schemes such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, etc. For example, the base station 114a in the RAN 104 / 113, and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), which may use Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) to establish the air interface 116. WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA) and / or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may include High Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and / or High Speed ​​Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA).

[0015] In one embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), which may establish the air interface 116 using Long Term Evolution (LTE) and / or Advanced LTE (LTE-A) and / or Advanced LTE Pro (LTE-APro).

[0016] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as NR radio access, which may establish the air interface 116 using New Radio (NR).

[0017] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement multiple radio access technologies. For example, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may together implement LTE radio access and NR radio access, for example, using dual connectivity (DC) principles. Thus, the air interface utilized by the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be characterized by multiple types of radio access technologies and / or transmissions sent to / from multiple types of base stations (e.g., eNBs and gNBs).

[0018] In one embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement radio technologies such as IEEE 802.11 (i.e., Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi)), IEEE 802.16 (i.e., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1X, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), Interim Standard 856 (IS-856), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), etc.

[0019] Figure 1A The base station 114b in the example may be, for example, a wireless router, a home Node-B, a home eNode-B, or an access point, and may utilize any suitable RAT to facilitate wireless connectivity in a local area, such as a business location, a home, a vehicle, a campus, an industrial facility, an air corridor (e.g., for use by drones), a road, and the like. In one embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.11 to establish a wireless local area network (WLAN). In one embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.15 to establish a wireless personal area network (WPAN). In one embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may utilize a cellular-based RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, NR, etc.) to establish any of a small cell, a pico cell, or a femto cell. Figure 1A As shown in FIG, base station 114b may have a direct connection to Internet 110. Therefore, base station 114b may not be required to access Internet 110 via CN 106 / 115.

[0020] The RAN 104 / 113 may communicate with the CN 106 / 115, which may be any type of network configured to provide voice, data, applications and / or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d. The data may have different quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as different throughput requirements, latency requirements, error tolerance requirements, reliability requirements, data throughput requirements, mobility requirements, etc. The CN 106 / 115 may provide call control, billing services, mobile location-based services, prepaid calls, Internet connectivity, video distribution, etc. and / or perform advanced security functions, such as user authentication. Although Figure 1A Not shown, but it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 / 113 and / or the CN 106 / 115 may be in direct or indirect communication with other RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 / 113 or a different RAT. For example, in addition to being connected to the RAN 104 / 113, which may utilize NR radio technology, the CN 106 / 115 may also be in communication with another RAN (not shown) that may employ any of GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, WiMAX, E-UTRA, or Wi-Fi radio technologies.

[0021] The CN 106 / 115 may also act as a gateway for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 110, and / or other networks 112. The PSTN 108 may include a circuit-switched telephone network that provides plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks and devices that use common communication protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and / or the Internet Protocol (IP) in the TCP / IP Internet protocol suite. The networks 112 may include wired and / or wireless communication networks owned and / or operated by other service providers. For example, the networks 112 may include another CN connected to one or more RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 / 114 or a different RAT.

[0022] Some or all of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d in the communication system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities (e.g., the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may include multiple transceivers for communicating with different wireless networks via different wireless links). Figure 1A The WTRU 102c shown in FIG. 1 may be configured to communicate with the base station 114a, which may employ a cellular-based radio technology, and the base station 114b, which may employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

[0023] Figure 1B is a system diagram illustrating an example WTRU 102. Figure 1B As shown in FIG. 1 , the WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120, a transmit / receive element 122, a speaker / microphone 124, a keypad 126, a display / touchpad 128, non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132, a power source 134, a global positioning system (GPS) chipset 136, and / or other elements / peripherals 138, etc. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the above elements while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

[0024] The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors associated with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine, etc. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input / output processing, and / or any other functionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wireless environment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120, which may be coupled to the transmit / receive element 122. Although Figure 1B The processor 118 and the transceiver 120 are depicted as separate components, but it will be appreciated that the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 may be integrated together, such as in an electronic package or chip.

[0025] The transmit / receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signals to a base station (e.g., base station 114a) or receive signals from the base station via the air interface 116. For example, in one embodiment, the transmit / receive element 122 may be an antenna configured to transmit and / or receive RF signals. In one embodiment, the transmit / receive element 122 may be a transmitter / detector configured to transmit and / or receive, for example, IR, UV, or visible light signals. In one embodiment, the transmit / receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and / or receive both RF and light signals. It will be appreciated that the transmit / receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and / or receive any combination of wireless signals.

[0026] Although the transmit / receive element 122 is Figure 1B 102 as a single element, but the WTRU 102 may include any number of transmit / receive elements 122. For example, the WTRU 102 may employ MIMO technology. Thus, in an embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include two or more transmit / receive elements 122 (e.g., multiple antennas) for transmitting and receiving wireless signals over the air interface 116.

[0027] The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate signals to be transmitted by the transmit / receive element 122, and to demodulate signals received by the transmit / receive element 122. As noted above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, for example, the transceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU 102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as NR and IEEE 802.11.

[0028] The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to a speaker / microphone 124, a keypad 126, and / or a display / touchpad 128 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) display unit or an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display unit), and may receive user input data therefrom. The processor 118 may also output user data to the speaker / microphone 124, the keypad 126, and / or the display / touchpad 128. In addition, the processor 118 may access information from and store data in any type of suitable memory, such as a non-removable memory 130 and / or a removable memory 132. The non-removable memory 130 may include a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, or any other type of memory storage device. The removable memory 132 may include a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a memory stick, a secure digital (SD) memory card, or the like. In other embodiments, the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, memory that is not physically located on the WTRU 102, such as on a server or a home computer (not shown).

[0029] The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134, and may be configured to distribute and / or control power to other components in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitable device for powering the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 may include one or more dry cell batteries (e.g., nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel-zinc (NiZn), nickel-metal hydride (NiMH), lithium-ion (Li-ion), etc.), solar cells, fuel cells, etc.

[0030] The processor 118 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset 136, which may be configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude and latitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 102. The WTRU 102 may receive location information from a base station (e.g., base stations 114a, 114b) over the air interface 116 and / or determine its location based on the timing of signals received from two or more nearby base stations in addition to or in lieu of the information from the GPS chipset 136. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may acquire location information by any suitable location-determination method while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

[0031] The processor 118 may be further coupled to other components / peripherals 138, which may include one or more software and / or hardware modules / units that provide additional features, functionality, and / or wired or wireless connectivity. For example, the components / peripherals 138 may include an accelerometer, an electronic compass, a satellite transceiver, a digital camera (e.g., for photos and / or videos), a universal serial bus (USB) port, a vibration device, a television transceiver, a hands-free headset, a Bluetooth module, a frequency modulation (FM) radio unit, a digital music player, a media player, a video game player module, an Internet browser, a virtual reality and / or augmented reality (VR / AR) device, an activity tracker, etc. Component / peripheral 138 may include one or more sensors, which may be one or more of the following: a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a Hall effect sensor, a magnetometer, an orientation sensor, a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor, a time sensor, a geolocation sensor, an altimeter, a light sensor, a touch sensor, a magnetometer, a barometer, a gesture sensor, a biometric sensor, and / or a humidity sensor.

[0032] The WTRU 102 may include a full-duplex radio for which transmission and reception of some or all signals (e.g., associated with specific subframes for both uplink (e.g., for transmission) and downlink (e.g., for reception)) may be concurrent and / or simultaneous. The full-duplex radio may include an interference management unit to reduce and / or substantially eliminate self-interference via hardware (e.g., choke) or via signal processing performed by a processor (e.g., a separate processor (not shown) or via the processor 118). In an embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include a half-duplex radio for which transmission and reception of some or all signals (e.g., associated with specific subframes for both uplink (e.g., for transmission) or ...

[0033] Figure 1C 1 is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 104 and the CN 106 in accordance with an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 104 may employ an E-UTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 104 may also be in communication with the CN 106.

[0034] The RAN 104 may include eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c, although it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 may include any number of eNode-Bs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In an embodiment, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, the eNode-B 160a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to, and receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102a.

[0035] Each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, and 160c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the uplink (UL) and / or downlink (DL), etc. Figure 1C As shown in FIG. , the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may communicate with each other via an X2 interface.

[0036] Figure 1C The CN 106 shown in FIG. 1 may include a mobility management entity (MME) 162, a serving gateway (SGW) 164, and a packet data network (PDN) gateway (PGW) 166. Although each of the foregoing elements is depicted as part of the CN 106, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and / or operated by entities other than the CN operator.

[0037] The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, and 160c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may serve as a control node. For example, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, bearer activation / deactivation, selecting a particular serving gateway during an initial attach of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, etc. The MME 162 may provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as GSM and / or WCDMA.

[0038] The SGW 164 may be connected to each of the eNode Bs 160a, 160b, 160c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface. The SGW 164 may generally route and forward user data packets to / from the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. The SGW 164 may perform other functions, such as anchoring the user plane during inter-eNode B handovers, triggering paging when DL data is available for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, managing and storing the contexts of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like.

[0039] The SGW 164 may be connected to the PGW 166, which may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices.

[0040] The CN 106 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and traditional land-line communications devices. For example, the CN 106 may include or may be in communication with an IP gateway (e.g., an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) server) that acts as an interface between the CN 106 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to other networks 112, which may include other wired and / or wireless networks owned and / or operated by other service providers.

[0041] Although the WTRU Figures 1A to 1D Although described as a wireless terminal, it is contemplated that in certain representative embodiments such a terminal may use (eg, temporarily or permanently) a wired communications interface with a communications network.

[0042] In a representative embodiment, other network 112 may be a WLAN.

[0043] A WLAN in infrastructure basic service set (BSS) mode may have an access point (AP) for a BSS and one or more stations (STAs) associated with the AP. The AP may have access or an interface to a distribution system (DS) or another type of wired / wireless network that carries traffic into the BSS and / or carries traffic out of the BSS. Traffic originating from outside the BSS to a STA may arrive through the AP and may be delivered to the STA. Traffic from a STA to a destination outside the BSS may be sent to the AP so as to be delivered to the corresponding destination. Traffic between STAs within the BSS may be sent through the AP, for example, where the source STA may send traffic to the AP, and the AP may deliver traffic to the destination STA. Traffic between STAs within the BSS may be considered and / or referred to as peer traffic. Peer traffic may be sent between the source and destination STAs (e.g., directly between them) using a direct link setup (DLS). In certain representative embodiments, the DLS may use 802.11e DLS or 802.11z tunnel DLS (TDLS). A WLAN using an independent BSS (IBSS) mode may not have an AP, and STAs (eg, all STAs) within or using the IBSS may communicate directly with each other. The IBSS communication mode may sometimes be referred to herein as an "ad hoc" communication mode.

[0044] When using the 802.11ac infrastructure mode of operation or a similar mode of operation, the AP may transmit beacons on a fixed channel, such as a primary channel. The primary channel may be a fixed width (e.g., a 20 MHz wide bandwidth) or a width dynamically set via signaling. The primary channel may be an operating channel of the BSS and may be used by the STA to establish a connection with the AP. In certain representative embodiments, carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA / CA) may be implemented, for example, in an 802.11 system. For CSMA / CA, a STA (e.g., each STA) including the AP may sense the primary channel. If the primary channel is sensed / detected and / or determined to be busy by a particular STA, the particular STA may back off. One STA (e.g., only one station) may transmit at any given time in a given BSS.

[0045] A high throughput (HT) STA may communicate using a 40 MHz wide channel, for example, via a combination of a primary 20 MHz channel and an adjacent or non-adjacent 20 MHz channel to form a 40 MHz wide channel.

[0046] Very high throughput (VHT) STA can support 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz and / or 160MHz wide channels. 40MHz and / or 80MHz channels can be formed by combining continuous 20MHz channels. 160MHz channels can be formed by combining 8 continuous 20MHz channels or by combining two non-continuous 80MHz channels (which can be referred to as 80+80 configurations). For 80+80 configurations, after channel coding, data can be passed through a segment parser that can divide the data into two streams. Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) processing and time domain processing can be done separately on each stream. The stream can be mapped to two 80MHz channels, and the data can be transmitted by the transmitting STA. At the receiver of the receiving STA, the above operations for the 80+80 configuration can be reversed, and the combined data can be sent to a media access control (MAC) layer, entity, etc.

[0047] The operation mode below 1 GHz is supported by 802.11af and 802.11ah. The channel operation bandwidth and carrier are reduced in 802.11af and 802.11ah relative to the channel operation bandwidth and carrier used in 802.11n and 802.11ac. 802.11af supports 5MHz bandwidth, 10MHz bandwidth and 20MHz bandwidth in the TV white space (TVWS) spectrum, and 802.11ah supports 1MHz bandwidth, 2MHz bandwidth, 4MHz bandwidth, 8MHz bandwidth and 16MHz bandwidth using non-TVWS spectrum. According to a representative embodiment, 802.11ah can support meter type control / machine type communication (MTC), such as MTC devices in macro coverage areas. MTC devices may have certain capabilities, for example, limited capabilities, including support for (e.g., only support for) certain and / or limited bandwidths. MTC devices may include batteries whose battery life is above a threshold (e.g., to maintain very long battery life).

[0048] A WLAN system that can support multiple channels and channel bandwidths (such as 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11af, and 802.11ah) includes a channel that can be designated as a primary channel. The primary channel may have a bandwidth equal to the maximum common operating bandwidth supported by all STAs in the BSS. The bandwidth of the primary channel may be set and / or limited by the STA that supports the minimum bandwidth operating mode among all STAs operating in the BSS. In the example of 802.11ah, for STAs (e.g., MTC type devices) that support (e.g., only support) a 1MHz mode, the primary channel may be 1MHz wide, even if the AP and other STAs in the BSS support 2MHz, 4MHz, 8MHz, 16MHz, and / or other channel bandwidth operating modes. Carrier sensing and / or network allocation vector (NAV) settings may depend on the state of the primary channel. If the primary channel is busy, for example, due to a STA (which only supports a 1MHz operating mode) transmitting to the AP, the entire available band may be considered busy, even if most of the band is still idle and may be available.

[0049] In the United States, the available frequency band that 802.11ah can use is from 902MHz to 928MHz. In South Korea, the available frequency band is from 917.5MHz to 923.5MHz. In Japan, the available frequency band is from 916.5MHz to 927.5MHz. Depending on the country code, the total bandwidth available for 802.11ah is 6MHz to 26MHz.

[0050] Figure 1D 1 is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 113 and the CN 115 in accordance with an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 113 may employ NR radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 113 may also be in communication with the CN 115.

[0051] The RAN 113 may include gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c, although it will be appreciated that the RAN 113 may include any number of gNBs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In an embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement MIMO technology. For example, the gNBs 180a, 180b may utilize beamforming to transmit signals to and / or receive signals from the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. Thus, the gNB 180a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to and / or receive wireless signals from the WTRU 102a. In one embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement carrier aggregation techniques. For example, the gNB 180a may transmit multiple component carriers to the WTRU 102a (not shown). A subset of these component carriers may be on an unlicensed spectrum, while the remaining component carriers may be on a licensed spectrum. In one embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement coordinated multi-point (CoMP) techniques. For example, the WTRU 102a may receive coordinated transmissions from the gNB 180a and gNB 180b (and / or gNB 180c).

[0052] The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using transmissions associated with scalable numerology. For example, OFDM symbol spacing and / or OFDM subcarrier spacing may vary for different transmissions, different cells, and / or different portions of the wireless transmission spectrum. The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using subframes or transmission time intervals (TTIs) of various or scalable lengths (e.g., including different numbers of OFDM symbols and / or lasting different lengths of absolute time) .

[0053] The gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may be configured to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c in a standalone configuration and / or a non-standalone configuration. In a standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c without also accessing other RANs (e.g., such as, for example, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c). In a standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may utilize one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c as mobility anchors. In a standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using signals in an unlicensed band. In a non-standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate / connect to the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c while also communicating / connecting to another RAN, such as the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c. For example, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement the DC principle to communicate with one or more gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c and one or more eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c substantially simultaneously. In a non-standalone configuration, the eNode-B 160a, 160b, 160c may act as a mobility anchor for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and the gNB 180a, 180b, 180c may provide additional coverage and / or throughput to serve the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c.

[0054] Each of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may be associated with a specific cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in UL and / or DL, support of network slicing, dual connectivity, interworking between NR and E-UTRA, routing of user plane data towards a user plane function (UPF) 184a, 184b, routing of control plane information towards an access and mobility management function (AMF) 182a, 182b, etc. Figure 1D As shown in , gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c can communicate with each other via the Xn interface.

[0055] Figure 1DThe CN 115 shown in FIG. 1 may include at least one AMF 182a, 182b, at least one UPF 184a, 184b, at least one session management function (SMF) 183a, 183b, and at least one data network (DN) 185a, 185b. Although each of the aforementioned elements is depicted as part of the CN 115, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and / or operated by entities other than the CN operator.

[0056] The AMF 182a, 182b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 113 via the N2 interface and may act as a control node. For example, the AMF 182a, 182b may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRU 102a, 102b, 102c, supporting network slicing (e.g., handling different protocol data unit (PDU) sessions with different requirements), selecting a specific SMF 183a, 183b, managing registration areas, terminating NAS signaling, mobility management, etc. Network slicing may be used by the AMF 182a, 182b, for example, to customize CN support for the WTRU 102a, 102b, 102c based on the type of service utilized by the WTRU 102a, 102b, 102c. For example, different network slices may be established for different use cases, such as services relying on ultra-reliable low latency (URLLC) access, services relying on enhanced massive mobile broadband (eMBB) access, services for MTC access, etc. The AMF 162 may provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 113 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, and / or non-3GPP access technologies, such as Wi-Fi.

[0057] The SMF 183a, 183b may be connected to the AMF 182a, 182b in the CN 115 via the N11 interface. The SMF 183a, 183b may also be connected to the UPF 184a, 184b in the CN 115 via the N4 interface. The SMF 183a, 183b may select and control the UPF 184a, 184b and configure traffic routing through the UPF 184a, 184b. The SMF 183a, 183b may perform other functions such as managing and allocating UE IP addresses, managing PDU sessions, controlling policy enforcement and QoS, providing downlink data notification, etc. The PDU session type may be IP-based, non-IP-based, Ethernet-based, etc.

[0058] The UPF 184a, 184b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 113 via the N3 interface, which may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, for example, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices. The UPF 184a, 184b may perform other functions, such as routing and forwarding packets, enforcing user plane policies, supporting multi-homed PDU sessions, handling user plane QoS, buffering downlink packets, providing mobility anchoring, etc.

[0059] The CN 115 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the CN 115 may include or may communicate with an IP gateway (e.g., an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) server) that acts as an interface between the CN 115 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 115 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to other networks 112, which may include other wired and / or wireless networks owned and / or operated by other service providers. In an embodiment, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be connected to a local data network (DN) 185a, 185b through the UPF 184a, 184b via an N3 interface to the UPF 184a, 184b and an N6 interface between the UPF 184a, 184b and the DN 185a, 185b.

[0060] Given that Figures 1A to 1D as well as Figures 1A to 1D , one or more or all of the functions described herein with respect to any of the following items may be performed by one or more simulation elements / devices (not shown) to perform one or more or all of the functions described herein with respect to any of the following items: WTRU 102a-d, base station 114a-b, eNode-B 160a-c, MME 162, SGW 164, PGW 166, gNB 180a-c, AMF 182a-b, UPF 184a-b, SMF 183a-b, DN 185a-b and / or any other element / device (one or more) described herein. The simulation device may be one or more devices configured to simulate one or more or all of the functions described herein. For example, the simulation device may be used to test other devices and / or simulate network and / or WTRU functions.

[0061] The simulation device can be designed to implement one or more tests of other devices in a laboratory environment and / or in an operator network environment. For example, the one or more simulation devices can perform one or more or all functions while being fully or partially implemented and / or deployed as part of a wired and / or wireless communication network to test other devices within the communication network. The one or more simulation devices can perform one or more or all functions while being temporarily implemented / deployed as part of a wired and / or wireless communication network. The simulation device can be directly coupled to another device for testing purposes and / or can use over-the-air wireless communications to perform testing.

[0062] The one or more simulation devices can perform one or more (including all) functions without being implemented / deployed as a part of a wired and / or wireless communication network. For example, the simulation device can be used in a test scenario in a test laboratory and / or in a non-deployed (e.g., test) wired and / or wireless communication network to achieve the test of one or more components. The one or more simulation devices can be test equipment. Direct RF coupling and / or wireless communication carried out via RF circuits (e.g., which can include one or more antennas) can be used by the simulation device to transmit and / or receive data.

[0063] introduce 3GPP specifications have specified SL-based WTRU-to-network relay. Sidelink relay is introduced to support 5G ProSe WTRU-to-network relay (or UE-to-network relay, i.e., U2N relay or WTRU2NW relay) functionality to provide connectivity to the network for (one or more) U2N remote WTRUs. Both L2 and L3 U2N relay architectures are supported. The L3 U2N relay architecture is transparent to the serving RAN of the U2N relay WTRU, except for controlling the sidelink resources.

[0064] The U2N relay WTRU is in RRC_CONNECTED to perform relaying of unicast data.

[0065] For L2 U2N relay operation, the following radio resource control (RRC) state combinations are supported: - Both the U2N relay WTRU and the U2N remote WTRU are in RRC CONNECTED to perform transmission / reception of relayed unicast data; and - A U2N relay WTRU may be in RRC_IDLE, RRC_INACTIVE or RRC_CONNECTED state as long as all U2N remote WTRUs connected to the U2N relay WTRU are in RRC_INACTIVE or in RRC_IDLE state.

[0066] For L2 U2N relay, the U2N remote WTRU may only be configured to use resource allocation mode 2 for data to be relayed.

[0067] A single unicast link is established between one L2 U2N relay WTRU and one L2 U2N remote WTRU.The traffic of the U2N remote WTRU and the traffic of the U2N relay WTRU via a given U2N relay WTRU should be separated in different Uu radio link control (RLC) channels over Uu.

[0068] Overview The protocol stacks of the user plane (UP) and control plane (CP) for the L2 U2N relay architecture are presented in Figures 1 and 2, where Figure 2 is a user plane protocol stack for L2 U2N relay (211), and Figure 3 It is the control plane protocol stack for L2 U2N relay (311). Sidelink Relay Adaptation Protocol (SRAP) sublayer (in Figure 2 (201) and Figure 3 (emphasized in (301)) is a layer introduced for relays to help relays perform packet routing. The SRAP sublayer is placed above the RLC sublayer (202, 302) for both CP and UP at both the PC5 interface and the Uu interface. The Uu Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) (203, 303), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) (204, 304) and RRC are terminated between the L2 U2N Remote WTRU (210, 310) and the gNB (212, 312), while the SRAP, RLC, MAC (205, 305) and PHY (physical layer) (206, 306) are terminated in each hop (i.e., the link between the L2 U2N Remote WTRU and the L2 U2N Relay WTRU and the link between the L2 U2N Relay WTRU and the gNB).

[0069] For L2 U2N relay, the SRAP sublayer on the PC5 hop is for bearer mapping purposes only. The SRAP sublayer is not present on the PC5 hop for relaying messages for the L2 U2N remote WTRU on the Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) and the Paging Control Channel (PCCH). For messages for the L2 U2N remote WTRU on Signaling Radio Bearer 0 (SRB0), the SRAP sublayer is not present on the PCS hop, but is present on the Uu hop for both DL and UL.

[0070] For L2 U2N trunking, for uplink: - The Uu SRAP sublayer supports UL bearer mapping between the ingress PC5 relay RLC channel for relaying and the egress Uu relay RLC channel on the L2 U2N relay WTRU Uu interface. For uplink relay traffic, different end-to-end RBs (SRBs or DRBs) of the same remote WTRU and / or different remote UEs may be multiplexed on the same Uu relay RLC channel; - The Uu SRAP sublayer supports L2 U2N Remote WTRU identification for UL traffic. The identity information of the L2 U2N Remote WTRU Uu radio bearer and the local Remote WTRU ID are included in the Uu SRAP header at the UL to enable the gNB to correlate the received packets for the specific PDCP entity associated with the correct Uu radio bearer of the Remote WTRU; - L2 U2N The PC5 SRAP sublayer at the remote WTRU supports UL bearer mapping between the remote WTRU Uu radio bearers and the egress PC5 relay RLC channels.

[0071] For L2 U2N relay, for downlink: - The Uu SRAP sublayer supports DL bearer mapping at the gNB to map the end-to-end radio bearers (Signaling Radio Bearers (SRBs), Data Radio Bearers (DRBs)) of the remote WTRU into the Uu relay RLC channel on the relay WTRU Uu interface. The Uu SRAP sublayer supports DL bearer mapping and data multiplexing between multiple end-to-end radio bearers (SRBs or DRBs) of L2 U2N remote WTRUs and / or different L2 U2N remote UEs and one Uu relay RLC channel on the relay WTRU Uu interface; - The Uu SRAP sublayer supports remote WTRU identification for DL ​​traffic. The identity information of the remote WTRU Uu radio bearer and the local remote WTRU ID are included in the Uu SRAP header by the gNB at DL to enable the relay WTRU to map packets received from the remote WTRU Uu radio bearer to its associated PC5 relay RLC channel; - The PC5 SRAP sublayer at the relay WTRU supports DL bearer mapping between the ingress Uu relay RLC channel and the egress PC5 relay RLC channel; - The PC5 SRAP sublayer at the remote WTRU correlates the received packets for the specific PDCP entity associated with the correct Uu radio bearer of the remote WTRU based on the identity information included in the Uu SRAP header.

[0072] The Local Remote WTRU ID is included in both the PC5 SRAP header and the Uu SRAP header. The L2 U2N relay WTRU is configured by the gNB with a Local Remote WTRU Identifier (ID) to be used in the SRAP header. The Remote WTRU obtains the Local Remote ID from the gNB via Uu RRC messages including RRCSetup, RRCReconfiguration, RRCResume, and RRCReestablishment. The Uu DRB(s) and Uu SRB(s) are mapped to different PC5 relay RLC channels and Uu relay RLC channels in both the PC5 hop and the Uu hop.

[0073] It is the responsibility of the gNB to avoid conflicts in the use of the Local Remote WTRU ID. The gNB may update the Local Remote WTRU ID by sending the updated Local Remote ID to the relay WTRU via an RRCReconfiguration message. The serving gNB may perform the Local Remote WTRU ID update independently of the PC5 unicast link L2 ID update procedure.

[0074] multipath 3GPP specifications have introduced Layer 2 WTRUs to NW relays. The primary use case considered is the case where the remote WTRU is out of coverage. Specifications for multipath are expected; in multipath, the remote WTRU is assumed to be in coverage and can therefore utilize the Uu path, the SL (relay) path, or both.

[0075] Scheduling in Sidechains The sidelink supports two scheduling modes (scheduling is the process of allocating resources for transmitting data) - referred to as (resource allocation-, scheduling-) "Mode 1" and "Mode 2". For WTRUs in coverage, the gNB can control whether the WTRU uses Mode 1 or Mode 2 for transmission.

[0076] In Mode 1 scheduling, which may be used for sidelink WTRUs in RRC_CONNECTED, the WTRU receives a SL grant directly from the network in a DCI (Downlink Control Information). In this case, the WTRU reports the buffer status for SL data grouped by destination index (where the destination index corresponds to a unique L2 destination ID or a pair of source / destination L2 IDs). If a SL grant is not available for the transmission of pending data, the WTRU may report a SL SR (Scheduling Request).

[0077] In Mode 2 scheduling, which can be used by a WTRU in any RRC state or a WTRU out of coverage, the WTRU is configured with a resource pool from which it performs autonomous resource selection and scheduling. The resources are selected by the WTRU based on information (i.e., sensing results) in previous sidelink control information (SCI) transmissions by other WTRUs.

[0078] Multipath allows the WTRU to save power by using a relay path while maintaining the possibility of using the Uu path for robustness. In the case of static configuration of the UL path (controlled by the network), there may be a loss of low latency packets when a switch from one path to another is needed. Similarly, static configuration depending on duplication may result in packet loss due to the need to send NW signaling via the relay path, which may be time consuming. Finally, there may be temporary situations where one of the two links used for duplication cannot be used, which will reduce the reliability provided by the duplication.

[0079] According to the present principles, a WTRU may be configured with a bearer configured for multipath. Such a bearer may have a common (Uu) PDCP layer but have two separate RLC entities associated with it - a Uu RLC entity for transmitting / receiving directly on the Uu and a SL RLC entity for transmitting / receiving via the SL (with WTRU to NW relay). Data on the multipath bearer may be transmitted via the Uu path, the SL path, or both (i.e., repetition). In the event that the WTRU is configured for repetition or decides to enable repetition for a multipath bearer (repetition bearer), the WTRU may transmit the PDCP PDU on both the Uu path and the SL path.

[0080] The remote WTRU autonomously enables repeated According to an embodiment, the remote WTRU may be configured with conditions in which it enables / disables repetition on multipath bearers. Such conditions may depend on any one or a combination of the following factors: - Uu quality measurements (e.g., Uu Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP)); - SL quality measurements (e.g., SLRSRP of relays, SL channel busy ratio (CBR)); -SL scheduling mode (mode 1 versus mode 2); - buffer status associated with the multipath bearer; -SL channel occupancy ratio (CR); - Priority; - Flow control indications / metrics received from the relay WTRU; - Availability of SL or Uu resources; o For example, whether there is authorization for the data to be transmitted.

[0081] According to an embodiment, the remote WTRU may be configured with conditions on SL RSRP and / or UuRSRP where repetition may be enabled. Such configuration may be received via an RRC message. For example, if the measured Uu RSRP is below a first threshold and the measured SL RSRP is below a second threshold, the remote WTRU may enable repetition for a multipath bearer. The remote WTRU may further be configured with separate Uu RSRP and / or SLRSRP thresholds per bearer, per priority, or per flow control metric received from the remote WTRU.

[0082] According to an embodiment, the remote WTRU may enable repetition if the Uu quality and the sidelink quality are within a threshold difference / offset from each other.

[0083] According to an embodiment, the remote WTRU may enable repetition if the SL CBR is below a first threshold, the SL RSRP is below a second threshold, and the UuRSRP is below a third threshold.

[0084] According to an embodiment, the remote WTRU may enable repetition based on certain conditions only if the SL priority and Uu priority configured for the multipath bearer are above a threshold priority.

[0085] A remote WTRU may compensate its transmission on one path based on events on another path According to an embodiment, a remote WTRU configured in multipath may compensate its transmission on one path (Uu or SL) based on events occurring on another path (SL or Uu). Figure 6a and 6b In FIG. 600, 600 is a network node, such as a gNB; 601 and 602 are WTRUs, where 602 is a relay WTRU; 610 and 611 are duplicate bearers, i.e., 610 is Uu and 611 is a side link (SL); 612 is a link between the relay WTRU 602 and the network node 600; 620 is a configured grant, and 630 is the coverage area of ​​the network node 600. Figure 6a In , WTRU 601 is within the coverage area of ​​network node 600; in Figure 6b In the example, WTRU 601 is outside the coverage area of ​​network node 600. The concept of being inside / outside the coverage of a network node is determined, for example, by the RSRP at WTRU 601, which is, for example, Figure 6a High Uu RSRP at WTRU 601 and Figure 6b Low UuRSRP at the WTRU 601 in, where high and low are, for example, based on a threshold.

[0086] According to an embodiment where a remote WTRU configured in multipath may compensate its transmission on one path (Uu or SL) based on events occurring on another path (SL or Uu), the compensation of the transmission may consist of any of the following: - Increase the priority of the launch: o This may consist, for example, of changing the LCH priority of a logical channel (LCH) associated with a repeating SL and / or Uu or a priority value of a transmission potentially related to any of the operations on that link for a temporary period of time: ■ For example, the remote WTRU may consider the transmit priority to be increased when performing UL / SL prioritization decisions; ■ For example, the remote WTRU may consider the transmit priority to be increased when performing logical channel prioritization (LCP); ■ For example, the remote WTRU may raise / lower the priority of a transmission compared to other transmissions when performing sensing or preemption decisions. Specifically, a transmission that would normally be preemptible (due to its priority) may not be preempted. o For example, this may consist of increasing / decreasing the packet delay budget (PDB) for transmissions on the SL when operating on Mode 2: ■ For example, the remote WTRU may be configured with a first and a second PDB to be used for transmissions associated with the relay SL LCH. If the WTRU detects a problem on the Uu link, the remote WTRU may change from using the first PDB to using the second PDB. -Apply / Not apply LCP constraint: o For example, a WTRU may be allowed to use a grant for an LCH on one link when it detects a problem on another link (e.g., a transmit problem, a receive problem, a channel quality problem, etc.). Specifically, a WTRU may be configured with LCP constraints that apply to a specific logical channel. Such constraints may be temporarily applied or relaxed when the WTRU detects a problem on another link of a multipath link (e.g., a transmit problem, a receive problem, a channel quality problem, etc.); o For example, the WTRU may include only repeated data in the grant (on SL or Uu) when it detects a problem on the other link (eg, transmission problem, reception problem, channel quality problem, etc.). - Request and / or initiate a change in resource allocation mode: o For example, the WTRU may request initiation of Mode 1 operation on the SL when it detects a problem on the SL (e.g., transmission problem, reception problem, channel quality problem, etc.); o For example, the WTRU may fall back (revert, return) to Mode 2 operation on the SL when it detects a problem with the Uu link (eg, transmission problem, reception problem, channel quality problem, etc.). - Enable SL Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback: ○ For example, the SL LCH may be configured to enable SL HARQ feedback only when certain conditions associated with the events described herein are met. Specifically, the LCH is configured with SL HARQ feedback disabled under normal circumstances, and when conditions associated with the events are met, the LCH is configured with SL HARQ feedback enabled. - Enable / disable different sensing mechanisms or sensing features: o This may consist, for example, of performing resource selection without sensing the result or using partial sensing; o For example, this may consist of requesting Inter-WTRU Coordination (IUC) to obtain sensing results.

[0087] The above transmissions may be constrained to transmissions associated with multipath only.The above transmissions may be constrained to transmissions associated with logical channels mapped to bearers in which repetition is enabled.

[0088] A path-dependent event that may result in compensation on another path may consist of any of the following: - Detection of Uu Radio Link Failure (RLF) or SLRLF; - Failure to acquire a shared channel (e.g., Listen Before Talk (LBT) failure); - Reception of multiple Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) negative acknowledgements (NACKs) or HARQ Discontinuous Transmission (DTX): ○ For example, multiple consecutive HARQ NACKs, multiple HARQ NACKs in a configured time window, etc. - Measurement results of links above / below a certain threshold (e.g., RSRP, channel quality indicator (CQI), CBR); - Transmission to path not possible due to discontinuous reception (DRX): o For example, during DRX off period for the link. -Mobility indication received from the relay WTRU: ○ Specifically, in the SL information message on PC5-RRC. - Uu RLF indication received from the relay WTRU: ○ Specifically, in the SL information message on PC5-RRC. - Receipt of an indication from the network or from a relay WTRU (e.g., a MAC Control Element (CE) indicating a problem with a link); - A flow control indication from the relay WTRU that meets certain criteria (i.e., it indicates a certain level of congestion at the relay); - Preemption of launch on SL: o For example, after preemption of a scheduled transmission by a remote WTRU operating in Mode 2. - detection of one or more emissions on the SL may be performed after the configured PDB; -Buffer status for multipath bearer: o For example, when the buffer status for a multipath bearer exceeds a threshold (eg, a split bearer threshold).

[0089] In one embodiment, a WTRU configured with multipath (i.e., one path via direct Uu and a second path via SL to WTRU to NW relay) may increase the priority of SL transmissions with respect to UL / SL prioritization when the measured Uu RSRP is below a threshold. Alternatively, the increase in priority may occur when the Uu RSRP is below a threshold and the SL RSRP of the relay WTRU is above a second threshold. The WTRU may further perform this operation only when considering SL transmissions associated with SL LCHs for multipath bearers and / or bearers configured with multipath repetition. The advantage of this solution is that it increases the priority of the SL path considering that the SL path has better performance.

[0090] In another embodiment, the WTRU may be configured with a Uu grant (e.g., a Type 1 or Type 2 configured grant, such as 620) which may be used in the case of SL issues / failures. Specifically, the remote WTRU may not generally be allowed to multiplex the Uu LCH associated with the multipath onto such a Uu grant. The remote WTRU may relax such LCP constraints and may multiplex data from the Uu LCH associated with the multipath upon detection of the event herein, such as after receiving a flow control message from the relay WTRU indicating congestion at the relay (e.g., a measure of congestion above a threshold). The remote WTRU may continue to use the Uu grant(s) until a subsequent flow control message from the relay indicating that the congestion situation has been resolved (e.g., a measure of congestion below a threshold).

[0091] In another embodiment, the WTRU may be configured with a Uu grant with an LCP constraint that does not allow data from the Uu LCH associated with a multipath bearer. The WTRU may temporarily multiplex data from the bearer in the grant during periods where the relay WTRU is in SL DRX (i.e., SLDRX off periods).

[0092] In another embodiment, the WTRU may be configured with SL LCP constraints associated with a specific grant.The WTRU may enable usage of such a grant for transmission of data from the SL LCP from a multipath bearer when the buffer status associated with the multipath bearer exceeds a threshold.

[0093] In another embodiment, the WTRU may be configured with SL LCP restrictions associated with a specific grant. When the WTRU detects a Uu RLF, the WTRU may enable the use of such grant for transmission of data from the SL LCH from a multipath bearer.

[0094] In another embodiment, after multiple consecutive SL HARQ failures, the WTRU may relax the Uu LCP constraints (i.e., allow data from the Uu LCH into the grant on Uu). In addition, the WTRU may enable Uu LCH data that may be associated with the UuSL LCH (i.e., corresponding to the same multipath bearer) that experienced the SL HARQ failure.

[0095] The relay WTRU receives an indication that downlink repetition is enabled / disabled In one embodiment, a relay WTRU may receive an indication to enable / disable downlink repetition for a specific Uu LCH. Specifically, the network may perform repetition for a multipath bearer in the downlink, and when initiating the repetition, the relay WTRU may be notified that the Uu LCH that is part of the multipath bearer is being repeated via a direct link. Alternatively, when repetition of the Uu LCH is being enabled, the WTRU may also receive an indication from the network indicating that repetition in the Uu LCH is disabled. The relay WTRU may receive such an indication in an RRC message (e.g., together with the configuration of the LCH) or in a MAC CE. The relay WTRU may perform the specific actions described herein after receiving such an indication.

[0096] The relay WTRU enables certain Uu / SL behavior for duplicate data According to an embodiment, a relay WTRU may enable certain Uu / SL behavior associated with the data being relayed. Such data may represent data being repeated by a remote WTRU on SL and Uu. The relay WTRU may determine whether to perform such behavior based on an indication from the remote WTRU and / or the network of the presence of data that may be relayed. Alternatively, the relay WTRU may be configured to enable such behavior based on the configuration of the LCH associated with the multipath bearer. Alternatively, the relay WTRU may enable such behavior based on similar events described herein for performing actions at the remote WTRU. Such behavior may include any of the following: - Relax / enable LCP constraints associated with UL grant to relay WTRU over Uu: o For example, the relay WTRU may receive an indication (from the remote WTRU or from the network) that one or more SL LCHs received by the relay WTRU are associated with multipath / duplication at the remote WTRU. Based on this indication, the relay WTRU may allow the use of a Uu grant (e.g., a Type 1 or Type 2 CG associated with an LCP constraint) for the transmission of a Uu LCH to which the SL LCH has been mapped by the adaptation layer. - A dedicated SR is triggered when data is received from a remote WTRU: o For example, a relay WTRU may be configured with a dedicated SR for low latency transmissions (e.g., for URLLC, a dedicated SR for repetitive data). If the data available for transmission is associated with one or more SL LCHs that are indicated (e.g., by a remote WTRU or by a gNB) as carrying repetitive / multipath data, the relay WTRU may transmit the SR using the dedicated SR resources. - Transmitting data on SL with HARQ enabled: o For example, a relay WTRU may receive an indication by the network to initiate repetition on a multipath bearer and may enable SL HARQ for the associated mapped LCH on the SL.

[0097] Relay / Remote WTRU Enables LCP Constraints Associated with Repeat / Non-Repeat Data According to one embodiment, a relay WTRU or a remote WTRU may be configured with an LCP constraint to include only repeat / multipath data or non-repeat / non-multipath data into a SL or Uu grant. Specifically, when the WTRU selects an LCH for a grant associated with repeat / multipath data, the WTRU may only continue to multiplex the LCH associated with the repeat / multipath data. The WTRU may be indicated in the grant that such a grant is to be used for only repeat / multipath data. Alternatively, the WTRU may perform such behavior on any grant. The WTRU may further enable / disable such LCP constraints based on the events described herein.

[0098] For example, the remote WTRU may be configured with a configured grant of type 1 / 2 on the SL (e.g., 620). For example, such a configured grant may have timing that enables repeated transmissions on Uu and SL to arrive at the network at similar times. The remote WTRU may apply LCP constraints to ensure that only repeated data is included in such a grant.

[0099] According to an embodiment, LCP constraints may be implicitly applied when receiving a grant over Uu. Specifically, a remote WTRU may receive a Uu grant and may use it to transmit repetitive data. The WTRU may thereafter apply LCP constraints to a SL grant that occurs within the time window of the Uu grant in order to use it for transmission of only repetitive data.

[0100] According to an embodiment, the remote WTRU may perform resource selection whereby the resource selection window is determined by the timing of the Uu grant. Specifically, the remote WTRU may use the Uu grant and the SL grant for the transmission of repetitive data and may be configured with a maximum time difference between the two grants for use with resource selection.

[0101] Relay / Remote WTRU May Handle Duplicate Data Differently in UL / SL Prioritization According to an embodiment, a relay or remote WTRU may handle data associated with multipath / duplicates differently from Uu / SL data not associated with multipath duplications.

[0102] According to an embodiment, the WTRU may prioritize a link (e.g., Uu) if the SL contains duplicate data and the Uu quality is good (e.g., Uu RSRP is above a threshold). The WTRU may prioritize Uu in this case even when the UL / SL prioritization rules indicate to prioritize SL. For example, the WTRU may apply a priority offset to determine whether to prioritize the UL or the SL.

[0103] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU may receive an indication that the PDU was successfully transmitted on the direct path and may discard the duplicate PDU or de-prioritize it with respect to UL / SL prioritization.

[0104] According to an embodiment, a method implemented by a WTRU is disclosed, see Figure 4 The method may include: -Configuring 400 the WTRU for multipath bearer splitting on both the Uu link and the side link (SL) according to the received configuration information; - using 401 a sidelink associated with a sidelink relay WTRU for multiplexing data from a Uu logical channel (LCH) associated with a multipath bearer; - based on at least one condition at the sidelink relay WTRU, receiving 402 a Uu grant indicated for temporary use and configuring the WTRU with at least one Uu LCH that is allowed to use (e.g., high priority) the Uu grant; - receiving 403 a first flow control message from the sidelink relay WTRU indicating at least one condition at the sidelink relay WTRU, and temporarily multiplexing data from the Uu LCH associated with the multipath bearer onto the received Uu grant until a second flow control message is received from the sidelink relay WTRU indicating the absence of the at least one condition at the sidelink relay WTRU; and - Reuse 404 a sidelink associated with a sidelink relay WTRU for multiplexing data from a UuLCH associated with a multipath bearer.

[0105] According to further embodiments of the method implemented by the WTRU, at least one condition at the sidelink relay WTRU may be any one of the following: - Congestion at the sidelink relay WTRU; - The sidelink relay WTRU is in a discontinuous reception (DRX) off period.

[0106] According to an embodiment, a method implemented by a WTRU is disclosed, see Figure 5 The method may include: - configuring 500 the WTRU for multipath bearer splitting of the WTRU's transmissions on both a direct path to the network node via a Uu link and an indirect path to the network node via a side link (SL) associated with a side link relay WTRU according to the received configuration information; and - Compensating 501 for transmissions made by the WTRU on the direct path or the indirect path based on events occurring on the indirect path or the direct path.

[0107] According to further embodiments of the method, compensating for transmissions performed by the WTRU may include any of the following: - Increase the priority of the launch; - Apply or not apply Logical Channel Prioritization (LCP) decision; - Request a change in resource allocation mode; - Enable SL Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback; - Enable or disable different sensing mechanisms or sensing features.

[0108] According to a further embodiment, increasing the priority of the transmission may include changing the logical channel priority.

[0109] According to a further embodiment, applying or not applying the LCP decision may include: using the authorization for LCH on SL when a problem is detected on the Uu link; or using the authorization for LCH on Uu link when a problem is detected on the SL.

[0110] According to further embodiments, requesting a change in the resource allocation mode may include any of the following: - Request initiation of Mode 1 on SL when a problem is detected on SL; - Fall back from Mode 1 to Mode 2 operation on the SL when a problem is detected on the Uu link.

[0111] According to further embodiments, the event that occurs may be any of the following: - Detection of Radio Link Failure (RLF) on the Uu link or on the SL; - Failure to acquire a shared channel on the Uu link or on the SL due to Listen Before Talk (LBT) failure; - Reception of a threshold number of Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) negative acknowledgements (NACKs) or HARQ Discontinuous Transmissions (DTXs) ​​on the Uu link or on the SL; - The measurement result on the Uu link or SL is below the threshold, where the measurement result is any one of the reference signal received power (RSRP), channel quality indicator (CQI), and channel busy ratio (CBR); - no transmission is possible on the Uu link or on the SL due to discontinuous reception (DRX) switching off for the Uu link or for the SL; - A flow control indication for the SL from the sidelink relay WTRU indicating congestion at the sidelink relay WTRU; - Preemption of launch on SL; - detection of at least one transmission on the SL is to be performed after the configured packet delay budget; - The buffer status for one of the multipath bearers exceeds a threshold.

[0112] According to an embodiment, a WTRU is disclosed that includes at least one processor that may be configured to: -Configuring the WTRU for multipath bearer splitting on both the Uu link and the sidelink (SL) according to the received configuration information; - Using a sidelink associated with a sidelink relay WTRU for multiplexing data from a Uu logical channel (LCH) associated with a multipath bearer; - based on at least one condition at the sidelink relay WTRU, receiving a Uu grant indicated for temporary use and configuring the WTRU with at least one Uu LCH that is allowed to use (e.g., high priority) the Uu grant; - receiving a first flow control message from the sidelink relay WTRU indicating at least one condition at the sidelink relay WTRU and temporarily multiplexing data from the Uu LCH associated with the multipath bearer onto the received Uu grant until a second flow control message is received from the sidelink relay WTRU indicating the absence of the at least one condition at the sidelink relay WTRU; and - Reuse of a sidelink associated with a sidelink relay WTRU for multiplexing data from the UuLCH associated with a multipath bearer.

[0113] According to further embodiments of the WTRU, at least one condition at the sidelink relay WTRU may be any one of the following: - Congestion at the sidelink relay WTRU; - The sidelink relay WTRU is in a discontinuous reception (DRX) off period.

[0114] According to an embodiment, a WTRU is disclosed that includes at least one processor that may be configured to: - configuring the WTRU for multipath bearer splitting of the WTRU's transmissions on both a direct path to the network node via a Uu link and an indirect path to the network node via a side link (SL) associated with a side link relay WTRU according to the received configuration information; - Compensating for transmissions made by the WTRU on the direct path or the indirect path based on events occurring on the indirect path or the direct path.

[0115] According to further embodiments of the WTRU, compensating for transmissions performed by the WTRU may include any of the following: - Increase the priority of the launch; - Apply or not apply Logical Channel Prioritization (LCP) decision; - Request a change in resource allocation mode; - Enable SL Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback; - Enable or disable different sensing mechanisms or sensing features.

[0116] According to a further embodiment of the WTRU, increasing the priority of a transmission may consist of changing the logical channel priority.

[0117] According to a further embodiment of the WTRU, applying or not applying the LCP decision may include: using authorization for LCH on SL when a problem is detected on the Uu link; or using authorization for LCH on Uu link when a problem is detected on the SL.

[0118] According to further embodiments of the WTRU, requesting a change in the resource allocation mode may include any of the following: - Request initiation of Mode 1 on SL when a problem is detected on SL; - Fall back from Mode 1 to Mode 2 operation on the SL when a problem is detected on the Uu link.

[0119] According to further embodiments of the WTRU, the event that occurs may be any of the following: - Detection of Radio Link Failure (RLF) on the Uu link or on the SL; - Failure to acquire a shared channel on the Uu link or on the SL due to Listen Before Talk (LBT) failure; - Reception of a threshold number of Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) negative acknowledgements (NACKs) or HARQ Discontinuous Transmissions (DTXs) ​​on the Uu link or on the SL; - The measurement result on the Uu link or SL is below the threshold, where the measurement result is any one of the reference signal received power (RSRP), channel quality indicator (CQI), and channel busy ratio (CBR); - no transmission is possible on the Uu link or on the SL due to discontinuous reception (DRX) switching off for the Uu link or for the SL; - A flow control indication for the SL from the sidelink relay WTRU indicating congestion at the sidelink relay WTRU; - Preemption of launch on SL; - detection of at least one transmission on the SL is to be performed after the configured packet delay budget; - The buffer status for one of the multipath bearers exceeds a threshold.

[0120] exist Figure 7 An embodiment of a method implemented by a WTRU is shown in FIG. Figure 6a -b WTRU 601.

[0121] The method includes: in 700, receiving configuration information for configuring by a WTRU (e.g., 601) multipath repetition on both a direct path via a first link (e.g., 610) with a network node (e.g., 600) and an indirect path via a second link (e.g., 611), the second link being a side link associated with a side link relay WTRU (e.g., 602).

[0122] The method comprises, in 701, transmitting, by a WTRU, multipath data to a network node on both a direct path via a first link and an indirect path via a second link.

[0123] The method includes: in 702, a sidelink authorization (e.g., configured authorization 620) is received by the WTRU for transmission of multipath data in sidelink transmission resources by the WTRU to be used under a first condition occurring at a direct path via a first link or under a second condition occurring at an indirect path via a second link, the first and second conditions being included in the received configuration information.

[0124] The method includes: in 703, based on a first condition occurring at a direct path via a first link or a second condition occurring at an indirect path via a second link, transmitting multipath data in a sidelink transmission resource on an indirect path via a second link using a received sidelink grant.

[0125] According to an embodiment of the method, the first condition occurring at the direct path via the first link is determined based on comparing a measured reference signal received power on the first link with a reference signal received power value included in the received configuration information.

[0126] According to an embodiment of the method, the first condition occurring at the direct path via the first link is that the measured reference signal received power on the first link is lower than the reference signal received power value included in the received configuration information. Figure 6a and 6b 601 is shown inside or outside of circle 630. Figure 6a , the WTRU 601 is, for example, within a “good reception range” or “coverage area” of the network node 600 (e.g., the measured reference signal received power on the first link is equal to or higher than (or, for example, higher than) the reference signal received power value included in the received configuration information), while Figure 6b , the WTRU 602 is, for example, not within a "good reception range" or "coverage area" of the network node 600 (e.g., the measured reference signal received power on the first link is lower than (or, for example, equal to or lower than) the reference signal received power value included in the received configuration information).

[0127] According to an embodiment of the method, the second condition occurring at the indirect path via the second link is determined based on receiving a message from the sidelink relay WTRU indicating congestion at the sidelink relay WTRU.

[0128] According to an embodiment of the method, the message indicates that congestion at the sidelink relay WTRU is above a threshold.

[0129] Also disclosed is a wireless transmit-receive unit (eg, 601) WTRU comprising at least one processor.

[0130] The at least one processor is configured to receive configuration information for configuring multipath repetition on both a direct path via a first link with a network node and an indirect path via a second link, the second link being a sidelink associated with a sidelink relay WTRU.

[0131] The at least one processor is configured to transmit multipath data to the network node over both a direct path via the first link and an indirect path via the second link.

[0132] The at least one processor is configured to receive a sidelink grant for transmission of multipath data by the WTRU in a sidelink transmit resource to be used under a first condition occurring at a direct path via a first link or under a second condition occurring at an indirect path via a second link, the first and second conditions being included in the received configuration information.

[0133] The at least one processor is configured to transmit multipath data in the sidelink transmission resource using the received sidelink grant on an indirect path via the second link based on a first condition occurring at a direct path via the first link or a second condition occurring at an indirect path via the second link.

[0134] According to an embodiment, the first condition occurring at the direct path via the first link is determined based on comparing, by the at least one processor, a measured reference signal received power on the first link with a reference signal received power value included in the received configuration information.

[0135] According to an embodiment, the first condition occurring at the direct path via the first link is that a measured reference signal received power on the first link is lower than a reference signal received power value included in the received configuration information.

[0136] According to an embodiment, the second condition occurring at the indirect path via the second link is determined by the at least one processor based on receiving a message from the sidelink relay WTRU indicating congestion at the sidelink relay WTRU.

[0137] According to an embodiment, the message indicates that congestion at the sidelink relay WTRU is above a threshold.

[0138] in conclusion Although features and elements are provided in specific combinations above, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that each feature or element can be used alone or in any combination with other features and elements. The present disclosure is not limited in terms of the specific embodiments described in the present application, which are intended to be illustrations of various aspects. Without departing from its spirit and scope, many modifications and variations can be made, which will be obvious to those skilled in the art. The elements, actions or instructions used in the specification of the present application should not be understood as being essential or indispensable to the present invention unless so explicitly specified. In addition to those listed herein, from the above description, the functionally equivalent methods and devices within the scope of the present disclosure will be obvious to those skilled in the art. Such modifications and variations are intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims. The present disclosure is limited only by the items of the appended claims and the full scope of the equivalents enjoyed by such claims. It should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to a particular method or system.

[0139] For simplicity, the above embodiments are discussed with respect to the terminology and structure of infrared-enabled devices (i.e., infrared transmitters and receivers). However, the embodiments discussed are not limited to these systems, but can be applied to other systems using other forms of electromagnetic waves or non-electromagnetic waves (such as sound waves).

[0140] It should also be understood that the terms used herein are used only to describe specific embodiments and are not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the term "video" or the term "imagery" may mean any of a snapshot, a single image, and / or a plurality of images displayed on a time basis. As another example, when referred to herein, the term "user equipment" and its abbreviation "UE", the term "remote" and / or the term "head-mounted display" or its abbreviation "HMD" may mean or include (i) a wireless transmit and / or receive unit (WTRU); (ii) any of many embodiments of a WTRU; (iii) a wirelessly-enabled and / or wiredly-enabled device (e.g., shareable via a mobile phone) configured with, among other things, some or all of the structure and functionality of a WTRU; (iii) a wirelessly-enabled and / or wiredly-enabled device configured with less than all of the structure and functionality of a WTRU; (iv) and the like. This document is about Figures 1A to 1D Details of an example WTRU are provided that may represent any WTRU described herein. As another example, various disclosed embodiments are described above and below herein as utilizing a head mounted display. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that devices other than a head mounted display may be utilized and that some or all of the present disclosure and various disclosed embodiments may be modified accordingly without undue experimentation. Examples of such other devices may include drones or other devices configured to flow information to provide an adapted reality experience.

[0141] In addition, the method provided herein can be implemented in a computer program, software or firmware incorporated into a computer-readable medium for execution by a computer or processor. Examples of computer-readable media include electronic signals (transmitted by wired or wireless connection) and computer-readable storage media. Examples of computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), registers, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media (such as, internal hard disk and removable disk), magnetic-optical media and optical media (such as, CD-ROM disk and digital versatile disk (DVD)). A processor associated with software can be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for a WTRU, UE, terminal, base station, RNC or any host computer.

[0142] Variations of the methods, devices, and systems provided above are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. In view of the various embodiments that can be applied, it should be understood that the illustrated embodiments are merely examples and should not be considered to limit the scope of the appended claims. For example, the embodiments provided herein include handheld devices that can include or be used with any suitable voltage source (such as, batteries, etc.) to provide any suitable voltage.

[0143] In addition, in the embodiments provided above, processing platforms, computing systems, controllers and other devices including processors are mentioned. These devices may include at least one central processing unit ("CPU") and memory. According to the practice of those skilled in the art of computer programming, references to symbolic representations of actions and operations or instructions may be performed by various CPUs and memories. Such actions and operations or instructions may be referred to as "being executed", "being executed by a computer" or "being executed by a CPU".

[0144] Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that actions and symbolically represented operations or instructions include manipulation of electrical signals by the CPU. The electrical system represents data bits, which can cause the resulting transformation or reduction of electrical signals, and maintain the data bits at memory locations in the memory system, thereby reconfiguring or otherwise changing the operation of the CPU, as well as other processing of signals. The memory location where the data bits are maintained is a physical location with specific electrical, magnetic, optical or organic properties corresponding to or representing the data bits. It should be understood that the embodiments are not limited to the above-mentioned platforms or CPUs, and other platforms and CPUs can support the provided methods.

[0145] The data bits may also be maintained on a computer-readable medium, including magnetic disks, optical disks, and any other volatile (e.g., random access memory (RAM)) or non-volatile (e.g., read-only memory (ROM)) mass storage system that can be read by a CPU. The computer-readable medium may include cooperating or interconnected computer-readable media that reside exclusively on a processing system or are distributed among multiple interconnected processing systems that may be local or remote to the processing system. It should be understood that the embodiments are not limited to the memories mentioned above, and other platforms and memories may support the provided methods.

[0146] In an illustrative embodiment, any operations, processes, etc. described herein may be implemented as computer-readable instructions stored on a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable instructions may be executed by a processor of a mobile unit, a network element, and / or any other computing device.

[0147] There is little distinction between hardware and software implementations of aspects of the system. The use of hardware or software is typically (but not always, as the choice between hardware and software may become important in certain contexts) a design choice that represents a cost versus efficiency tradeoff. There may be a variety of vehicles by which the processes and / or systems and / or other technologies (e.g., hardware, software, and / or firmware) described herein may be implemented, and the preferred vehicle may vary depending on the context in which the processes and / or systems and / or other technologies are deployed. For example, if the implementer determines that speed and accuracy are most important, the implementer may select a vehicle that is primarily hardware and / or firmware. If flexibility is most important, the implementer may select a primarily software implementation. Alternatively, the implementer may select some combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware.

[0148] The above detailed description has been described various embodiments of the device and / or process by using block diagrams, flow charts and / or examples. Since such block diagrams, flow charts and / or examples include one or more functions and / or operations, those skilled in the art will understand that each function and / or operation within such block diagrams, flow charts or examples can be implemented individually and / or collectively by a variety of hardware, software, firmware or almost any combination thereof. In one embodiment, several parts of the subject matter described herein can be implemented via application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors (DSPs) and / or other integrated formats. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein can be equivalently implemented in whole or in part in an integrated circuit as one or more computer programs running on one or more computers (e.g., implemented as one or more programs running on one or more computer systems), implemented as one or more programs running on one or more processors (e.g., implemented as one or more programs running on one or more microprocessors), implemented as firmware or almost any combination thereof, and in view of the present disclosure, designing circuits and / or writing code for software and / or firmware will be well within the skills of those skilled in the art. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the mechanisms of the subject matter described herein may be distributed as a variety of forms of program products, and that the illustrative embodiments of the subject matter described herein apply regardless of the particular type of signal-bearing medium used to actually implement the distribution. Examples of signal-bearing media include, but are not limited to, the following: recordable media such as floppy disks, hard drives, CDs, DVDs, digital tapes, computer memory, etc.; and transmission-type media such as digital and / or analog communication media (e.g., fiber optic cables, waveguides, wired communication links, wireless communication links, etc.).

[0149] Those skilled in the art will recognize that it is common in the art to describe devices and / or processes in the manner set forth herein, and then use engineering practices to integrate such described devices and / or processes into data processing systems. That is, at least a portion of the devices and / or processes described herein can be integrated into data processing systems via a reasonable amount of experimentation. Those skilled in the art will recognize that a typical data processing system can typically include one or more of the following: a system unit housing, a video display device, a memory (such as, volatile and non-volatile memory), a processor (such as, a microprocessor and a digital signal processor), a computing entity (such as, an operating system, a driver, a graphical user interface, and an application), one or more interactive devices (such as, a touchpad or screen) and / or a control system including a feedback loop and a control motor (e.g., a feedback for sensing position and / or speed, a control motor for moving and / or adjusting components and / or quantities). A typical data processing system can be implemented using any suitable commercially available components, such as those components typically found in data computing / communication and / or network computing / communication systems.

[0150] The subject matter described herein sometimes illustrates different components that are included in or connected to different other components.It should be understood that this depicted architecture is only an example, and in fact, many other architectures that realize the same function can be realized.In the sense of concept, any arrangement of components that realize the same function is effectively "associated" so that the desired function can be realized.Therefore, any two components that are combined to realize a specific function herein can be regarded as "associated" with each other so that the desired function is realized, regardless of the architecture or intermediate components.Similarly, any two components so associated can also be regarded as "operably connected" or "operably coupled" to each other to realize the desired function, and any two components that can be so associated can also be regarded as "operably coupled" to each other to realize the desired function.Specific examples of operably coupling include but are not limited to components that can be physically paired and / or physically interacted and / or components that can be wirelessly interacted and / or wirelessly interacted and / or components that can interact logically and / or components that can interact logically.

[0151] With respect to the use of substantially any plural and / or singular terms herein, those skilled in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and / or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and / or application. For purposes of clarity, various singular / plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein.

[0152] Those skilled in the art will understand that, in general, the terms used herein and particularly in the appended claims (e.g., the bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended to be "open" terms (e.g., the term "including" should be interpreted as "including but not limited to", the term "having" should be interpreted as "having at least", the term "comprising" should be interpreted as "including but not limited to", etc.). Those skilled in the art will further understand that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such intent will be expressly recorded in the claim, and if no such recording is made, such intent does not exist. For example, where only one item is intended, the term "single" or similar language may be used. As an aid to understanding, the appended claims and / or the description herein may include the use of the introductory phrases "at least one" and "one or more" to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be understood to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite article "a" or "an" will include any particular claim of such introduced claim recitation limited to embodiments including only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases "one or more" or "at least one" and an indefinite article such as "a" or "an" (e.g., "a" and / or "an" should be interpreted as meaning "at least one" or "one or more"). The same applies to the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if specific numbers of introduced claim recitations are explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted as meaning at least the recited numbers (e.g., the unmodified recitation of "two recitations" without other modifiers means at least two recitations or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention similar to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, generally speaking, such construction is intended in the sense that one skilled in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include, but is not limited to, a system having only A, a system having only B, a system having only C, a system having A and B together, a system having A and C together, a system having B and C together, and / or a system having A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention similar to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, generally speaking, such construction is intended in the sense that one skilled in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include, but is not limited to, a system having only A, a system having only B, a system having only C, a system having A and B together, a system having A and C together, a system having B and C together, and / or a system having A, B, and C together, etc.).Those skilled in the art will further understand that, whether in the specification, claims or drawings, almost any alternative words and / or phrases presenting two or more replaceable terms should be understood to consider the possibility of including one of the terms, any one of the two terms or all of the two terms. For example, the phrase "A or B" will be understood to include the possibility of "A" or "B" or "A and B". Further, as used herein, the term "any of..." followed by a list of multiple items and / or multiple categories of items is intended to include "any one", "any combination", "any multiple" and / or "any combination of multiple" in the items and / or categories, either alone or in combination with other items and / or other categories of items. In addition, as used herein, the term "set" is intended to include any number of items, including zero. Additionally, as used herein, the term "number" is intended to include any number, including zero. Moreover, as used herein, the term "multiple" is intended to be synonymous with "plurality".

[0153] In addition, where features or aspects of the disclosure are described in terms of Markush groups, those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosure is also thereby described in terms of any individual member or subgroup of members of the Markush group.

[0154] As will be understood by those skilled in the art, for any and all purposes, such as, in providing a written description, all ranges disclosed herein also encompass any and all possible sub-ranges and combinations of sub-ranges thereof. Any listed range can be easily identified as fully describing the same range and enabling the same range to be decomposed into at least equal half, one-third, one-quarter, one-fifth, one-tenth, etc. As a non-limiting example, each range discussed herein can be easily decomposed into a lower third, a middle third, and an upper third, etc. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, all languages ​​such as "up to", "at least", "greater than", "less than", etc. include the recorded numbers, and refer to the ranges that can be subsequently decomposed into sub-ranges as discussed above. Finally, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, the range includes each individual member. Therefore, for example, a group with 1 to 3 units refers to a group with 1, 2 or 3 units. Similarly, a group with 1 to 5 units refers to a group with 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 units, and the like.

[0155] Furthermore, the claims should not be read as limited to the order or elements provided unless so stated. In addition, the use of the term "means for..." in any claim is intended to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112, 6 or “means-plus-function” claim format, and any claim without the term “means for…” is not intended to be so.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a wireless transmit-receive unit WTRU, the method comprising: receiving configuration information for configuring, by the WTRU, multipath repetition on both a direct path via a first link with a network node and an indirect path via a second link, the second link being a sidelink associated with a sidelink relay WTRU; transmitting multipath data to a network node over both a direct path via a first link and an indirect path via a second link; receiving a sidelink grant for transmission of multipath data by the WTRU in sidelink transmit resources to be used under a first condition occurring at a direct path via a first link or under a second condition occurring at an indirect path via a second link, the first and second conditions being included in the received configuration information; as well as Multipath data is transmitted in the sidelink transmission resource using the received sidelink grant over the indirect path via the second link based on a first condition occurring at the direct path via the first link or a second condition occurring at the indirect path via the second link.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first condition occurring at the direct path via the first link is determined based on comparing a measured reference signal received power on the first link with a reference signal received power value included in the received configuration information. 3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the first condition occurring at the direct path via the first link is that a measured reference signal received power on the first link is lower than a reference signal received power value included in the received configuration information.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the second condition occurring at the indirect path via the second link is determined based on receiving a message from the sidelink relay WTRU indicating congestion at the sidelink relay WTRU.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the message indicates that congestion at the sidelink relay WTRU is above a threshold.

6. A wireless transmit-receive unit WTRU, comprising at least one processor configured to: receiving configuration information for configuring multipath repetition on both a direct path via a first link with a network node and an indirect path via a second link, the second link being a sidelink associated with a sidelink relay WTRU; transmitting multipath data to a network node over both a direct path via a first link and an indirect path via a second link; receiving a sidelink grant for transmission of multipath data by the WTRU in sidelink transmit resources to be used under a first condition occurring at a direct path via a first link or under a second condition occurring at an indirect path via a second link, the first and second conditions being included in the received configuration information; as well as Multipath data is transmitted in the sidelink transmission resource using the received sidelink grant over the indirect path via the second link based on a first condition occurring at the direct path via the first link or a second condition occurring at the indirect path via the second link.

7. A WTRU according to claim 6, wherein the first condition occurring at the direct path via the first link is determined based on the at least one processor comparing the measured reference signal received power on the first link with the reference signal received power value included in the received configuration information.

8. The WTRU of claim 7, wherein the first condition occurring at the direct path via the first link is that a measured reference signal received power on the first link is lower than a reference signal received power value included in the received configuration information.

9. A WTRU according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the second condition occurring at the indirect path via the second link is determined by the at least one processor based on receiving a message from the sidelink relay WTRU indicating congestion at the sidelink relay WTRU.

10. The WTRU of claim 9, wherein the message indicates that congestion at the sidelink relay WTRU is above a threshold.

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