Physical channel structure for sidelink (SL) in unlicensed spectrum

Abstract

A user equipment (UE) may operate in an unlicensed network for sidelink (SL) communications to generate a sidelink (SL) synchronization signal block (S-SSB) transmission in a new radio (NR) unlicensed band, where at least one physical resource block (PRB) may be added to satisfy temporary exemption of occupied channel bandwidth (OCB). The UE may transmit the S-SSB transmission in an SL channel of the unlicensed frequency band.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to wireless technologies including a sidelink (SL) physical channel structure in an unlicensed spectrum. Background Art

[0002] Mobile communications in the next generation wireless communication system, 5G or New Radio (NR) networks, provide ubiquitous connectivity and access to information and the ability to share data around the world. 5G networks and network slicing are unified, service-based frameworks that will target meeting common and sometimes conflicting performance standards to provide services to extremely diverse application domains ranging from enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) to massive machine type communications (mMTC), ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) and other communications. Generally speaking, NR will evolve based on the third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) advanced technology and additional enhanced radio access technologies (RATs) to achieve seamless and faster wireless connectivity solutions. Another type of mobile communication includes vehicle communications, in which vehicles transmit or exchange vehicle-related information. Vehicle communications may include vehicle-to-vehicle (V2X) devices or V2X user equipment (UE), including vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P), where direct communication without a base station may be employed, such as in side link (SL) communications.

[0003] In 3GPP, NR-based access to unlicensed spectrum has been initiated. However, the NR system is designed to operate on the licensed spectrum. NR-Unlicensed (NR-U), a short representation of NR-based access to unlicensed spectrum, is a technology that enables the operation of the NR system using unlicensed spectrum. Technologies for NR-Unlicensed can be classified into those that support carrier aggregation (CA), dual connectivity (DC) or sidelink (SL) communications, and independent network operation modes. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] Figure 1 An exemplary block diagram illustrating an example of a user equipment (UE) communicatively coupled with a network component as a peer device that can be used in conjunction with various embodiments (aspects) described herein.

[0005] Figure 2 An example system with SL communications including a sidelink (SL) synchronization signal block (S-SSB) configuration according to various aspects discussed herein is illustrated.

[0006] Figure 3 Another example of side link (SL) communication including an S-SSB configuration according to various aspects discussed herein is illustrated.

[0007] Figure 4 Another example of side link (SL) communication including an S-SSB configuration according to various aspects discussed herein is illustrated.

[0008] Figure 5 Another example of side link (SL) communication including an S-SSB configuration according to various aspects discussed herein is illustrated.

[0009] Figure 6 An example process flow for SL communications according to various aspects is illustrated.

[0010] Figure 7 Another example process flow for SL communication in accordance with various aspects is illustrated.

[0011] Figure 8 Example UE configurations for determining a transport block size (TBS) in SL communications according to various aspects are illustrated.

[0012] Fig. 9 Examples of SL feedback configurations for SL communication according to various aspects are illustrated.

[0013] Fig.10 Example resource exclusion in co-channel coexistence for SL communications according to various aspects are illustrated.

[0014] Fig.11 Example resource exclusion in co-channel coexistence for SL communications according to various aspects are illustrated.

[0015] Fig.12 An example process flow for SL communications according to various aspects is illustrated.

[0016] Fig.13 An exemplary block diagram illustrating an example of a UE that can be used in conjunction with various embodiments (aspects) described herein, the UE being communicatively coupled with a network component as a peer device via a network.

[0017] Fig.14 Another example process flow for SL communication in accordance with various aspects is illustrated.

[0018] Fig.15 Another example process flow for SL communication in accordance with various aspects is illustrated.

[0019] Fig.16 Another example process flow for SL communication in accordance with various aspects is illustrated. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0020] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numerals in different drawings may identify the same or similar features, elements, operations, etc. In addition, the present disclosure is not limited to the following description, as other specific implementations may be utilized and structural or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0021] Various aspects include a user equipment (UE) device operating in a sidelink (SL) communication. The UE device selects and configures resources to implement SL communication as described herein. The UE device may be a pedestrian UE (P-UE) device, a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) device, or other UE that may include vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) device communications, or other direct communications between UEs (which may include SL communications). When referred to herein, a UE may also include, for example, a roadside unit (RSU), a drone, other vehicle devices, an Internet of Things (I / O) device, or other user equipment device.

[0022] With respect to New Radio (NR) SL on unlicensed spectrum, various aspects are described including NR SL physical channel structure and procedures for operating on unlicensed spectrum in accordance with regulatory requirements. For example, for NR SL transmissions, consideration is being given to how to construct the NR SL physical channel configuration to meet the Occupied Channel Bandwidth (OCB) rule requirements, where a minimum of 2 MHz of transmissions are temporarily allowed as a temporary exemption. These OCB rules include, for example, that the OCB should be 80% to 100% of the nominal channel bandwidth (NCB), which is the bandwidth that contains 99% of the signal power. In some 5G NR instances, the nominal channel bandwidth (NCB) of a single operating channel is 20 MHz, so transmissions that comply with the OCB rules will typically occupy 16 MHz-20 MHz bandwidth. However, the OCB rules allow for temporary exemptions for transmissions in unlicensed spectrum, where the OCB is allowed to be less than 80% of the NCB, but with a minimum bandwidth of 2 MHz.

[0023] Therefore, the present disclosure describes whether or how to configure the sidelink synchronization signal block (S-SSB) transmission to meet the temporary exemption of the minimum 2MHz required by the OCB specification. In some instances, the S-SSB transmission for NR includes at least the physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), the sidelink primary synchronization signal block (S-PSS), and the sidelink secondary synchronization signal (S-SSS). In a traditional implementation, the S-SSB can occupy 11 PRBs with a subcarrier spacing of 15kHz. At 180kHz per PRB, the S-SSB transmission will occupy a bandwidth of 1.98MHz, which is still 20Hz less than the minimum 2MHz required to meet the temporary exemption. In various aspects, the UE can configure the S-SSB structure so that the temporary exemption of the minimum 2MHz is met, including adding at least one additional PRB.

[0024] When a dedicated sidelink (SL) channel between UEs (e.g., V2X / V-UE or other UEs) is configured in an out-of-coverage scenario or in an unlicensed NR network, the initiating / originating UE senses the SL channel to determine whether the SL channel is busy, and provides sidelink control information (SCI) in two levels after acquiring the SL channel communication. The first-level SCI can be carried on the physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) and includes information for implementing sensing operations on the acquired SL channel and information about resource allocation. The physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) transmits the second-level SCI and the SL shared transport channel. The second-level SCI carries information for implementing identification and decoding of the SL channel and control of the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process, thereby triggering channel state information (CSI) feedback or related information, including physical sidelink channel feedback (PSFCH). The physical SL shared channel (PSSCH) carries one or more data transport blocks (TBs) for SL transmission. The SCI includes information for correctly receiving the TBs. Thus, the various aspects described enable and ensure that data TBs in a SL transmission by a receiving UE in an unlicensed NR network are properly decoded and the associated SCI is correctly received in the SL communication.

[0025] For UEs receiving S-SSBs in SL communications on unlicensed NR networks, clear channel assessment (CCA) or listen-before-talk (LBT) operations may be performed to ensure fair and efficient channel coexistence. In addition to the initial S-SSB opportunity for S-SSB transmission in NR SL, additional candidate S-SSB opportunities for (re)transmission may be supported based on the resource pool for PSSCH / PSCCH transmission. UE behavior may be based on resource pool (pre)configuration. When the additional S-SSB opportunity does not belong to the resource pool for PSSCH / PSCCH transmission or is not supported by the resource pool for PSSCH / PSCCH transmission, transmission on PSSCH or PSCCH may not be enabled in the additional candidate S-SSB opportunity. When one or more additional S-SSB opportunities are indicated or belong to the resource pool for PSSCH / PSCCH transmission and the S-SSB is successfully received in the initial S-SSB opportunity, the receiving UE may not need to monitor the time slot to obtain additional candidate S-SSB opportunities for the additional S-SSB. In some instances, in an exemplary aspect, the time slots used for additional candidate S-SSB opportunities may be used for other PSSCH / PSCCH transmissions.

[0026] Various aspects also consider determining the transport block size (TBS) for data SL transmission when interleaving is used to satisfy the OCB rules in the SL. The SL interleaving may have different sizes or different numbers of physical resource blocks. Since the initial transmission and retransmission may have different numbers of physical resource blocks (PRBs) (e.g., 10 PRBs or 11 PRBs), the SL TBS may not be reliable enough and may cause potential inconsistencies in the UE's calculation of the TBS. Therefore, various aspects include uniformly configuring PRBs for reliability. The number of PRBs may, for example, be predefined, (pre)configured based on a resource pool for SL transmission, or dynamically indicated by control information SCI. Additionally or alternatively, an intra-cell guard band may be used for PSSCH / PSCCH transmission, where the PRBs in the intra-cell guard band may be calculated or not calculated in the TBS determination based on predefined rules or resource pool (pre)configuration (pre-configured or configured in operation / dynamically).

[0027] In some other aspects, the PSFCH transmission in the SL can also be configured to meet the OCB rule through one or more common PRBs, especially when each PSFCH transmission can occupy some dedicated PRBs and some common PRBs. Each UE can use the dedicated PRBs to send hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) confirmation (ACK) information accordingly. The common PRBs can correspond to the entire interlace, or be configured as a subset of the interlace for the associated PSSCH transmission. In addition, the dedicated PRBs or feedback transmissions can be (pre-)configured or dynamically indicated based on the resource pool used for SL transmission.

[0028] In addition, when the NR SL resource selection process occurs during the LTE resource reservation corresponding to the time slot for PSSCH, the resource selection in the SL communication for NR can take into account the same channel coexistence to avoid any automatic gain control (AGC) issues or potential conflicts in power. In particular, when the time slot of the NR feedback transmission overlaps with the subframe reserved for LTE SL transmission, signal interference may cause a transmission conflict, thereby interrupting the LTE SL transmission, especially when NR has a greater power gain in AGC. In one aspect, taking into account the LTE side link sensing results, the UE can operate to exclude certain resources, or exclude performing feedback transmission (e.g., PSFCH). Therefore, when the LTE reservation for the same resources is sensed, the UE can prevent causing feedback SL transmission.

[0029] In one aspect, a baseband processor or other processor of a UE may include a memory and a processing circuit communicatively coupled to the memory, the processing circuit implementing SL communication between UE devices in a new radio (NR) unlicensed network. The processor or processing circuit may be configured to generate an S-SSB transmission in an unlicensed band, wherein at least one PRB is added to satisfy a temporary exemption of an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB). The UE may then transmit the S-SSB transmission in a SL channel of the unlicensed band.

[0030] In another aspect, the UE may be configured to determine the interleaved sidelink transport block size (SL TBS) for initial data transmission and data retransmission based on the number of PRBs based on pre-definition, resource pool (pre) configuration, or dynamic indication in the first-level SL control information (SCI). The number of PRBs includes 10 PRBs or 11 PRBs. These and other aspects are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0031] Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating a system 100 for SL communication as direct communication through one or more UEs (such as pedestrian UEs, vehicle UEs, or other network devices). The system 100 facilitates SL communication by enhancing the reliability and accuracy of data during power saving processes such as resource selection processes, partial or reduced sensing operations, re-evaluation / preemption checks for transmissions in SL operations, and congestion control.

[0032] System 100 includes UE 110-1, transceiver 106 and participant device entity 120, which may represent a V-UE (e.g., UE 124) or any UE 110-2 operating on an unlicensed network or NR unlicensed network participating in SL communication as direct communication with other UEs or network devices. UE 110-1 includes, for example, transceiver 106, storage component 118 and control circuit or controller 104. Storage component 118 includes a memory, storage element or data storage configured to store information for UE 110-1. Controller 104 is configured to perform various operations associated with UE 110-1. Controller 104 may include logic components, components, circuits, one or more processors (baseband circuit processors or other processing circuits) for configuring SCI and SL communications. Transceiver 106 includes transmitter functionality and receiver functionality. UE 110 - 1 also includes one or more antennas 108 for SL communications of SL channel 114 , including emergency services broadcast communications with participant entity 120 and SCI.

[0033] The participant device entity 120 includes one or more other UEs 110-2, including infrastructure entities, vehicle entities, smart glass, etc. The communication between the UE 110-1 and the participant device entity 120 includes vehicle-to-everything (V2X) equipment, which also includes vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), and vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) and other vehicle components or equipment. The entity 120 may also include a roadside unit (RSU), which is an entity that supports V2I and is implemented in, for example, a base station (e.g., gNB or eNB) or a stationary / non-stationary UE / IoT.

[0034] Sidelink communications between UE 110-1 and participating device entity 120 may utilize cooperative sensing including information from other vehicles, sensors, etc. to process and share information to provide vehicle services such as collision warnings, autonomous driving, etc. SL communications may be conducted between UEs that may be served by an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network (E-UTRAN) or where at least one of the communicating UEs may be beyond the network coverage of Mode 2 SL communications, or operate in an NR unlicensed band.

[0035] Additionally or alternatively, the resource (re)selection process / operation may include resource exclusion, iterative formation of candidate resource sets, SL-Received Signal Strength Indication (SL-RSSI) averaging of the remaining resources, resource sorting, and random selection among the resources of the candidate resource set with the minimum received energy. This may then be followed / preceded by a sensing window / process and subsequently repeated sequentially with the sensing window / process to monitor the spectrum / medium / channel for communications by the UE and adjacent channels or communication devices detected according to aspects described herein.

[0036] In some aspects, for example, when a dedicated sidelink (SL) channel 114 between one or more UEs 110-2 (e.g., V2X / V-UE or other UE 124) is configured in an out-of-coverage scenario or in an unlicensed NR network, for example, UE 110-1 can operate as an initiator / initiator UE, for example, by sensing the SL channel 114 to determine whether the sensing SL channel is busy, and provide SCI when the SL channel communication is acquired. The first level SCI (level 1) can be carried on the PSCCH, which has information for implementing sensing operations on the acquired SL channel and information about resource allocation for feedback or PSFCH transmission. The PSSCH transmits the second level SCI and the SL shared transport channel. The second level SCI carries information or related information for implementing identification and decoding of the SL channel and control of the HARQ process and triggering CSI feedback, including PSFCH. The logic of NR SL is similar to LTE SL, however, some modifications are made at the PHY layer, especially in terms of physical channel design. Both UEs (e.g., UE 110-1 and UE 110-2) can send S-SSB, including PSBCH, S-PSS, and S-SSS for initiating SL communication, and both UEs can schedule, for example, their own physical layer data. The parameter set supported by SL communication can have a similar NR parameter set as shown below:

[0037] μ <![CDATA[Δf=2 μ [kHz]]]> Cyclic prefix 0 15 Normal 1 30 Normal 2 60 Normal, extended 1 120 Normal

[0038] The second level SCI of the PSCCH carries information or related information for identification and decoding of the SL channel and control of the HARQ process and triggering CSI feedback, including the PSFCH. The PSSCH carries TBs of data for SL transmission on the PSSCH. The SCI may include resource information of a resource pool for correct reception of the TBs. Therefore, the various aspects described implement and ensure that the data TBs in the SL transmission performed by the receiving UE in the unlicensed NR network are properly decoded and the associated SCI is correctly received in the SL communication.

[0039] Reference Figure 2 , illustrates an exemplary S-SSB structure 200 that satisfies the temporary OCB exemption according to various aspects. The S-SSB structure 200 may be a SL physical channel structure for NRSL unlicensed communications according to regulatory requirements for 15kHz SCS, 30kHz SCS, or both 15kHz and 30kHz SCS.

[0040] In particular, the OCB rule requirements may require that the power of the signal at 20MHz should be 80% or more of the NCB. For OCBs that are less than 80% of the NCB and a minimum of 2MHz, a temporary exemption may be adopted. However, the S-SSB transmission for NR includes 11 PRBs. When the SCS is 15kHz and each PRB is 180kHz, the S-SSB transmission is still 20Hz (at 1.98MHz) less than the minimum 2MHz that meets the temporary exemption.

[0041] In one aspect, the UE may configure the S-SSB structure with at least one additional PRB to satisfy the temporary exemption. For example, the S-SSB structure 200 may include a PSBCH 202 as one symbol, an S-PSS 204 as two symbols, an S-SSS 206 as two symbols, and a PBSCH symbol 208 for the remaining eleven symbols (e.g., 5 PBSCH symbols), wherein there may also be gap symbols (not shown).

[0042] In one example, to ensure that the S-SSB structure meets the temporary exemption of the OCB rule, an additional PRB 210 can be added in the frequency domain (vertical / y-axis plane), where the time domain can be the horizontal / x-axis plane and the frequency domain is vertical, as shown. In this way, an S-SSB 200 with 11 PRBs can be generated, where the additional PRB 210 is connected or adjacent to the existing 11 PRB S-SSBs along the frequency domain. Any actual illustrated gaps between symbol types as shown herein are for illustration purposes only and may not exist otherwise.

[0043] In one aspect, additional PRBs 210 may be added only on symbols PSBCH 202 and PSBCH 208 and empty at symbol 212, where a dashed line is used for symbols connected to S-PSS 204 and S-SSS 206, such that PRBs 210 span only PSBCH 202 and PSBCH 208. Alternatively or in addition, additional PRBs 210 may span all slots of the time domain of the S-SSB and include symbols 212 with dashed lines spanning S-PSS 204 and S-SSS 206. In other words, the symbols 212 with dashed lines corresponding to S-PSS204 and S-SSS208, respectively, may span both S-PSS204 and S-SSS206 in the time domain, and the additional PRB 210 spans the time domain of the S-SSB 200, including PSBCH 202, S-PSS203, S-SSS206, and PSBCH 206.

[0044] For example, the content of the additional PRB 210 may include the same content as the lowest or highest PRB of the legacy S-SSB, or the same content as the 11 PRBs to which the additional PRB 210 is added / connected in the frequency domain. Thus, for example, the S-SSB 200 may be configured by adding another version of the PRB with the same information. Thus, when the additional PRB 210 includes only symbols associated with the PSBCH 202 and the PSBCH 208, only one of these PRBs spanning the PSBCH 202 and the PSBCH 208 may be a copy (e.g., the highest PRB and the lowest PRB of the PSBCH 202 and the PSBCH 208 along the frequency domain, or other PRB copies that may not be the lowest or highest).

[0045] Alternatively or in addition, the content of the additional PRB 210 may be the same as the PRB (pre) configured in the resource pool in the traditional SSB. The additional PRB 210 may or may not span the entire time slot. The resource pool limits the radio resources used for PSCCH and PSSCH because they cannot be sent in all resource blocks (RBs) and time slots of NR, or even in the frequency span of NR SL. The resource pool may include resource unit size, time domain and frequency domain resources, and other resources for SL communication. The concept of resource pool can also be particularly applied to autonomous resource allocation of UE (e.g., mode 2 resource allocation), where resources are selected based on a sensing process for a specific resource pool. In the frequency domain, the resource pool is divided into subchannels, which are continuous and non-overlapping PRBs (e.g., where the number of PRBs is ≥ 10). The size of the resource pool can be configured by a higher layer or by signaling of the base station. The sending and receiving resource pools can also be configured separately in the UE.

[0046] Alternatively or in addition, the content of the additional PRB 210 may include dummy data. The dummy data may operate as a placeholder without very useful information, such as with zeros or other data. Alternatively or in addition, the content of the additional PRB 210 may include actual data of the virtual PSBCH. This means that the rate of the PSBCH information is matched to fill the additional PRB.

[0047] Figure 3 Another example of an S-SSB structure 300 that satisfies the temporary OCB exemption according to various aspects is illustrated. The S-SSB 300 may be similar to Figure 2S-SSB configuration of S-SSB 200 of . An additional PRB 310 may be configured at the edge of an RB set (e.g., a 20 MHz bandwidth) instead of generating the additional PRB 310 to be connected to the existing 11 PRB symbols in the frequency domain to satisfy the temporary OCB exemption for the transmission of the minimum 2 MHz. For example, if 11 PRBs (including PSBCH 202, S-PSS204, S-SSS205, PSBCH 208, etc.) are located at the beginning or end of the RB set, the additional PRB 310 may be separated or adjacent in the frequency domain, such as at the outer edge, instead of being adjacent to the 11 PRBs. For example, the edge may correspond to a subset of half of the RB set, or a portion of the RB set that is less than half of the RB set, and the subset of the content forms one side (e.g., such as 30% or less of the first half starting from the RB set or other portion, or the second half opposite to the RB set until completion).

[0048] The contents of the additional PRB 310 may be based on Figure 2 Aspects of the additional PRBs 210 are configured as discussed above. For example, the content of the additional PRBs 310 may be the same as the lowest or highest PRB in the traditional S-SSB, or the same as a copy of a PRB in the 11 PRBs, the same as the PRBs (pre)configured in the resource pool in the traditional S-SSB, or have dummy data. Similarly, the additional PRBs 310 may include dashed symbols 312 with S-PSS204 or S-SSS206 to span all or the entire time slot. Alternatively or in addition, the additional PRBs 310 may include only symbols of PSBCH 202 and PSBCH 208 so as not to affect S-PSS204 or S-SSS206 in any way.

[0049] Figure 4 Another example of an S-SSB structure 400 that satisfies the temporary OCB exemption according to various aspects is illustrated. Here, at least two PRBs may be added for SL communication. In addition to the PRBs added in the frequency domain connection or adjacent to the 11 PRBs Figure 2 In addition to the additional PRB 210, for example, another PRB 420 may be added on the other side of the frequency domain of the 11 PRBs or on the same frequency side as the additional PRB 210. For example, the content and structure of another PRB 420 may be similar to or the same as that of PRB 210.

[0050] Figure 5 Another example of an S-SSB structure 400 that satisfies the temporary OCB exemption according to various aspects is illustrated. Here, at least two PRBs can be added for SL communication. In addition to configuring at the edge of an RB set (e.g., 20 MHz) with 11 PRBs Figure 3In addition to the additional PRB 310 of the RB set, another PRB 520 may be added at another edge of the RB set. For example, the content and structure of the another PRB 520 may be similar or identical to that of the PRB 310.

[0051] Figure 2-Figure 5 Aspects of can depend on SCS or not. For example, Figure 2-Figure 5 Aspects of the invention may apply only to SCS at 15 kHz and not at 30 kHz, or, for example, to both 15 kHz and 30 kHz.

[0052] Figure 6 An example process flow 600 for S-SSB reception based on additional candidate opportunities for S-SSB that may be performed by a UE is illustrated. For a UE (e.g., UE 110-1 or UE 110-2) to receive S-SSB in SL communication on an unlicensed NR network, a resource pool based on PSSCH / PSCCH transmission may support additional candidate S-SSB opportunities for S-SSB transmission in addition to the initial S-SSB opportunity. The UE behavior may be based on a resource pool (pre) configuration according to one or more resource pool parameters of a synchronization signal used to initiate SL communication.

[0053] The process flow 600 begins at 610 by obtaining one or more S-SSB transmission opportunities from a resource pool (pre) configuration. At 620, the process flow 600 includes, for example, determining whether an S-SSB is received in an initial S-SSB opportunity for SL communication in an NR unlicensed band. At 630, in response to an S-SSB reception failure, wherein an S-SSB is not received in the initial S-SSB opportunity, or an S-SSB attachment opportunity does not belong to the resource pool or is not indicated by the resource pool, the UE avoids transmitting a PSCCH or a PSSCH in the S-SSB attachment candidate opportunity.

[0054] Figure 7 Another example process flow 700 that may be performed by a UE for S-SSB reception based on additional candidate S-SSB opportunities belonging to or indicated by a resource pool is illustrated. The process flow 700 is similar to Figure 6 The process flow 600 of 730 is continued until 730. At 730, the process flow 700 includes: in response to receiving the S-SSB in the initial S-SSB opportunity, the UE stops monitoring the S-SSB additional candidate opportunity. At 740, in response to the S-SSB additional candidate opportunity belonging to the resource pool or indicated by the resource pool, the UE can use the S-SSB additional candidate opportunity to send data (e.g., feedback, PSSCH, etc.).

[0055] Figure 8A block diagram of a UE device or another network device / component (e.g., V-UE / P-UE, IoT, base station (e.g., gNB, eNB, etc.) or other participating network entity / component) is illustrated, such as UE 110-1 or UE 110-2 for SL communication. The device 800 includes one or more processors 810 (e.g., one or more baseband processors), which include processing circuits, which may correspond to the controller 104, for example. The device 800 may also include associated interfaces, transceiver circuits 820 (e.g., including RF circuits, which may include transmitter circuits (e.g., associated with one or more transmit chains, such as transceiver / transmitter 106) and / or receiver circuits (e.g., associated with one or more receive chains), the transmitter circuits and receiver circuits may employ common circuit elements, different circuit elements, or a combination thereof) and a memory 830 (which may include any of a variety of storage media and may store instructions and / or data associated with one or more of the processors 810 or the transceiver circuits 820), wherein the memory is similar to Figure 1 The storage device 118 in the UE 800. The UE 800 may also represent the UE 110-1 or the UE 110-2, for example, and also include a transport block size (TBS) manager component 840.

[0056] Memory 830 (and other memory components discussed herein, e.g., memory, data storage, etc.) may include one or more machine-readable media containing instructions, which, when executed by a machine or component herein, cause the machine or other device to perform the actions of the method or device or system for communicating using a variety of communication technologies according to the aspects, embodiments, and examples described herein. It should be understood that the aspects described herein may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, the function may be stored as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium (e.g., a memory or other storage device described herein) or sent via a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, which include any media that facilitates transferring a computer program from one place to another. Storage media or computer-readable storage devices may be any available media that can be accessed by a general-purpose computer or a special-purpose computer. By way of example only and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage devices, magnetic disk storage devices or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible and / or non-transient media that can be used to carry or store desired information or executable instructions. Moreover, any connection may also be referred to as a computer-readable medium.

[0057] The memory 830 may include executable instructions and may be integrated into or communicatively coupled to the processor or processing circuit 810. The executable instructions of the memory 830 may cause the processing circuit 810 to receive or generate SCI in an NR unlicensed network. The SCI may include a first-level SCI on the PSCCH and a second-level SCI on the PSSCH. The first-level SCI or the second-level SCI may include a COT indication for sharing of an SL unlicensed channel acquired on the SL channel. For example, the second-level SCI may include multiple time slots of the PSSCH, the multiple time slots having different HARQ process identifiers (HARQ IDs) corresponding to the multiple time slots, respectively, or each time slot having the same HARQ process ID.

[0058] The TBS manager component 840 may be configured to calculate a transport block (TB) size (TBS) for sidelink data channel transmission. For example, an indication of the TBS size may then be communicated in the SCI to allow the receiving UE to determine the TBS for decoding SL communications. In the NR unlicensed spectrum, the interlace may be 10 PRBs or 11 PRBs, and the sizes between the interlaces are inconsistent. For example, for a 15kHz SCS, five interlaces may be used for SL transmission, wherein the five interlaces have different numbers of PRBs (e.g., 10 or 11). For example, four interlaces may have 10 PRBs and one interlace has 11 PRBs. These different sizes or different numbers of PRBs mean that in SL communications, the initial S-SSB transmission and retransmission may have different interlaces with different numbers of PRBs. Therefore, the UE 800 (110-1, 110-2) may not match in TBS size, which may lead to difficulties in decoding SL communications.

[0059] In one aspect, when an interlace is used for SL communication and the OCB rule is met (e.g., using 80% of the bandwidth), the SLTBS determination may not be completely reliable. Therefore, the TBS manager component 840 can determine the sidelink TBS based on a predefined number of PRBs in each interlace (e.g., 10 PRBs or 11 PRBs). For TBS calculation, the UE 800 (e.g., 110-1, 110-2) can assume that each interlace has a predefined number of 10 PRBs or 11 PRBs.

[0060] Alternatively or in addition, when interleaving is used for SL communication and OCB is satisfied, the TBS manager component 840 may determine the sidelink TBS based on the resource pool (pre) configuration. Here, when the resource pool is (pre) configured with 10 PRBs or 11 PRBs, the number of PRBs is used to calculate and determine the TBS.

[0061] Alternatively or additionally, the number of PRBs to be used for sidelink TBS determination (eg, 10 PRBs or 11 PRBs) may be dynamically indicated in the SCI.For example, SCI level 1 may be configured with a field to indicate the interlace size.

[0062] Alternatively or in addition, when the resource pool used for SL communication includes more than one RB set, the UE 800 can determine that the intra-cell guard band is being used for data or control transmissions (e.g., PSSCH or PSCCH) in the initial S-SSB transmission or additional SL retransmissions. In this case, for example, the initial transmission can utilize the intra-cell guard band without utilizing the retransmission, for example, this can prevent interference by utilizing unused portions or gaps to separate the radio frequency bands. Therefore, this may also result in different SL TB size determinations. In one aspect, the TBS manager component 840 can determine the TBS by utilizing the number of PRBs in the intra-cell guard band, as a supplement or alternative to the above aspects. The TBS manager component 840 can calculate the TBS according to or based on the number of PRBs in the intra-cell protection.

[0063] Alternatively or in addition, the TBS manager 840 may determine the sidelink TBS based on a resource pool (pre) configuration of whether an intra-cell guard band is used and how many PRBs are present in the intra-cell guard band. The resource pool (pre) configuration may indicate whether an intra-cell guard band is being used for SL communication and, if so, the number of PRBs used in the intra-cell guard band. This information may then be used to calculate the TBS.

[0064] Fig. 9 An example of PSFCH transmission 900 for SL communication according to various PSFCH transmission configurations 910 and 920 is illustrated. Each PSFCH transmission may occupy both a dedicated PRB 902 for a carrier cell and a common PRB as a shaded or dashed block corresponding to a similar interlace portion (1, 2, 3), respectively. For example, each interlace portion (1, 2, 3) may be two symbols in the time domain.

[0065] The PSFCH may, for example, use two symbols in one carrier cell to carry HARQ-ACK or NACK information. Thus, each PSFCH transmission example 910 and 920 may include two symbols in the time domain. One or more dedicated PRBs 902 as a set of PRBs may be used for actual PSFCH information transmission. For example, the dedicated PRBs may be indicated by a bitmap mapping their positions. The frequency domain resources used for actual PSFCH information transmission may be an integer multiple of the number of interleavings in the RB set (e.g., 20 MHz). Even when the resource pool includes multiple RB sets, the PSSCH transmission resources and the associated PSFCH resources may be in the same RB set.

[0066] Each UE can use a PRB in the dedicated PRB set 902 to send HARQ-ACK information. PSFCH transmission must meet the OCB and therefore must occupy 80% of the total resources. The dedicated PRB illustrated in the middle of the RB set can be located anywhere therein, not just, for example, in the middle part illustrated, and is used to send ACK / NACK information by including the common PRB with some additional information (such as dummy data or a copy of its information) in its associated interlace. Therefore, each UE uses one PRB in the dedicated PRB set to send the actual information, and then uses the interlace part (1, 2, 3) or the common PRB for transmission to meet the OCB according to various aspects.

[0067] The common PRBs of examples 910 and 920 may correspond to interlaces used for associated PSSCH transmissions with different interlace portions 1, 2, 3, without including portions corresponding to or including dedicated PRBs 902. In the exemplary PSFCH transmission 910, the receiving UE of the SL communication may use interlace portion 3 in the frequency domain to transmit the PSFCH and occupy the OCB, or as in the exemplary PSFCH transmission 920, may use only the edge portion of the PRB, without using the middle portion of the interlace portion for transmission, in order to occupy or meet the OCB requirement. Because the UE uses interlace portion 3 for transmission, for example, 80% of the total bandwidth of the OCB is met. The PSFCH transmission is not transmitted in the middle of the bandwidth, but here it is transmitted at the edge of the bandwidth to meet the OCB requirement, where the actual transmission of the feedback is performed in the dedicated PRB field 902. Therefore, the common PRB may correspond to an interlace used for the associated PSSCH transmission, or to a subset or portion of an interlace at the edge of the bandwidth used for the associated PSSCH transmission.

[0068] Alternatively or in addition, whether the time and frequency PSFCH resources are (pre)configured or dynamically indicated may be based on a resource pool (pre)configuration. For example, if the time and frequency PSFCH resources are indicated based on a resource pool (pre)configuration, the UE may apply the indicated PSFCH configuration scheme 910 or 920. If no dedicated time and frequency PSFCH resources are indicated based on a resource pool (pre)configuration, an interleaved transmission of a dynamic indication of the PSFCH may be sent as feedback.

[0069] Fig.10 An example of a resource selection operation 1000 is illustrated for co-channel coexistence in NR SL communications with unlicensed bands, licensed bands, or both by considering LTE SL sensing results. The resource selection operation 1000 may be configured for an NR SL resource pool with, for example, a 15kHz SCS or other SCS. Specifically, in the event that the NRPSFCH is configured, the UE may operate to avoid PSFCH transmissions in time slots that overlap with subframes being used or reserved for LTE transmissions. For example, avoiding PSFCH transmissions 1008 may be performed by a UE transmitting PSFCH 1008, a UE transmitting PSSCH 1006, or both UEs.

[0070] Specifically, in co-channel coexistence, LTE and NR SL share a resource pool. Due to NR SL operation, the feedback channel (PSFCH) is located at the end of each time slot, which may affect the LTE resource pool or LTE time slot because different automatic gain control (AGC) may cause power issues or transmission conflicts.

[0071] For example, the LTE reservation 1002 may reserve an LTE subframe 1004 corresponding to an NR timeslot for the NR PSFCH 1008. Therefore, if the NR SL provides feedback transmission, the LTE SL may be affected by a sudden increase in signal power even in an adjacent frequency domain or adjacent subchannel.

[0072] In one aspect, the UE (eg, 800, 110-1, 110-2) may avoid causing feedback transmission by not directly transmitting feedback 1008 when performing resource selection operation 1100, such as Fig.11As illustrated. Here, the data channel or PSSCH 1006 can be sent, but feedback is not sent because it can be determined that a conflict with the LTE transmission or some AGC problem may occur. Therefore, if co-channel coexistence is applied between LTE SL and NR SL, and the NR PSFCH transmission overlaps in time with the LTE SL transmission (whether from other UEs or not) in one time slot, then regardless of the priority of the NR SL PSFCH and the LTE sidelink PSSCH, the NR PSFCH will be excluded or skipped. Alternatively or in addition, if the priority of the NR PSFCH is higher than the priority of the LTE SLPSSCH, the NR PSFCH is sent; otherwise, the PSFCH is not sent.

[0073] Alternatively or additionally, if Fig.10 As illustrated, once the UE performs resource selection for a data channel corresponding to a PSFCH transmission in a subframe of an LTE transmission, the UE will not transmit data or PSSCH 1006 if it is determined that there may be overlap with subframe 1004, because doing so may cause some AGC issues for the LTE sidelink reservation 1002 at the LTE subframe 1004. Then, the corresponding PSFCH 1008 of the NR SL will not be transmitted. Accordingly, the UE avoids selecting resources of the NR SL for the PSSCH transmission 1006 for feedback in the subframe 1004, and the UE excludes this time slot in the resource selection for the NR SL.

[0074] Fig.12 An example process flow 1200 for SL communication that meets OCB rule requirements according to various aspects is illustrated. The process flow 1200 begins at 1210 by generating an S-SSB transmission in an unlicensed band (NR unlicensed band), wherein at least one PRB is added to meet a temporary exemption of OCB. At 1220, the process flow 1200 also includes: transmitting the S-SSB transmission in a SL channel of the unlicensed band.

[0075] Fig.13 13 is an example network 1300 according to one or more implementations described herein. The example network 1300 may include UE 110-1, UE 110-2, etc. (collectively referred to as "UE 110" and individually referred to as "UE 110"), a radio access network (RAN) 13320, a core network (CN) 1330, an application server 13340, and an external network 1350.

[0076] The systems and devices of the example network 1300 may operate in accordance with one or more communication standards, such as the 2nd Generation (2G), 3rd Generation (3G), 4th Generation (4G) (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE)), and / or 5th Generation (5G) (e.g., New Radio (NR)) communication standards of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the systems and devices of the example network 1300 may operate in accordance with other communication standards and protocols discussed herein, including future versions or generations of 3GPP standards (e.g., 6th Generation (6G) standards, 7th Generation (7G) standards, etc.), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards (e.g., Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMAN), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), etc.), and more.

[0077] As shown, UE 110 may include a smart phone (e.g., a handheld touch screen mobile computing device capable of connecting to one or more wireless communication networks). Additionally or alternatively, UE 110 may include other types of mobile or non-mobile computing devices capable of wireless communication, such as a personal data assistant (PDA), a pager, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a wireless handset, etc. In some specific implementations, UE 110 may include an Internet of Things (IoT) device (or IoT UE), which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. Additionally or alternatively, IoT UEs may utilize one or more types of technologies, such as machine-to-machine (M2M) communication or machine-type communication (MTC) (e.g., for exchanging data with an MTC server or other device via a public land mobile network (PLMN)), proximity services (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, IoT networks, etc. In addition, UE 110 may be an NTN UE capable of being communicatively coupled to a satellite in an NTN network.

[0078] UE 110 may communicate with and establish a connection (communicatively coupled) with RAN 13320, which may involve one or more radio channels 1314-1 and 1314-2, each of which may include a physical communication interface / layer. In some specific implementations, the UE may be configured with dual connectivity (DC) as a multi-radio access technology (multi-RAT) or multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), where a UE supporting multiple reception and transmission (Rx / Tx) may use resources provided by different network nodes (e.g., 13322-1 and 13322-2), which may be connected via a non-ideal backhaul (e.g., one of the network nodes provides NR access, while the other network node provides E-UTRA for LTE or NR access for 5G). In such a scenario, one network node may operate as a master node (MN) and the other node may operate as a secondary node (SN). MN and SN may be connected via a network interface, and at least MN may be connected to CN 1330. In addition, at least one of the MN or SN may operate via shared spectrum channel access, and the functionality specified for UE 110 may be used for an integrated access and backhaul mobile terminal (IAB-MT). Similar to UE 110, the IAB-MT may access the network using one network node or two different nodes using an enhanced dual connectivity (EN-DC) architecture, a new radio dual connectivity (NR-DC) architecture, or other direct connections such as a SL communication channel as a sidelink (SL) interface 1312.

[0079] In some implementations, a base station (as described herein) may be an example of a network node 1322. As shown, the UE 110 may additionally or alternatively be connected to an access point (AP) 1316 via a connection interface 1318, which may include an air interface that enables the UE 110 to communicatively couple with the AP 1316. The AP 1316 may include a wireless local area network (WLAN), a WLAN node, a WLAN endpoint, etc. The connection 1318 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 702.11 protocol, and the AP 1316 may include a wireless fidelity The AP 1316 may also be connected to another network (eg, the Internet) without being connected to the RAN 13320 or the CN 1330.

[0080] The RAN 13320 may also include one or more RAN nodes 13322-1 and 13322-2 (collectively referred to as RAN nodes 1322 and individually referred to as RAN nodes 1322), which enable channels 1314-1 and 1314-2 to be established between the UE 110 and the RAN 13320. The RAN node 1322 may include a network access point that is configured to provide a radio baseband function for data and / or voice connections between a user and a network based on one or more communication technologies described herein (e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, WiFi, etc.). Thus, as an example, the RAN node may be an E-UTRAN Node B (e.g., an enhanced Node B, eNodeB, eNB, 4G base station, etc.), a next generation base station (e.g., a 5G base station, an NR base station, a next generation eNB (gNB), etc.). The RAN node 1322 may include a roadside unit (RSU), a transmission reception point (TRxP or TRP), and one or more other types of ground stations (e.g., a ground access point). In some scenarios, the RAN node 1322 may be a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station or a low power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

[0081] Some or all of the RAN nodes 1322 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a centralized RAN (CRAN) and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these specific implementations, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functional splits, such as a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) split, where the radio resource control (RRC) and PDCP layers may be operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and other layer 2 (L2) protocol entities may be operated by individual RAN nodes 1322; a medium access control (MAC) / physical (PHY) layer split, where the RRC, PDCP, radio link control (RLC), and MAC layers may be operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer may be operated by individual RAN nodes 1322; or a "lower PHY" split, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layer, and upper portions of the PHY layer may be operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower portions of the PHY layer may be operated by individual RAN nodes 1322. The virtualization framework may allow idle processor cores of the RAN node 1322 to perform or execute other virtualized applications.

[0082] In some implementations, the individual RAN nodes 1322 may represent individual gNB distributed units (DUs) connected to a gNB control unit (CU) via respective F1 interfaces. In such implementations, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or radio frequency (RF) front end modules (RFEMs), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 13320 or by a server pool (e.g., a group of servers configured to share resources) in a manner similar to a CRAN / vBBUP. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 1322 may be next generation eNBs (i.e., gNBs) that may provide Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocol terminations to the UE 110 and may be connected to a 5G core network (5GC) 1330 via an NG interface.

[0083] Any of the RAN nodes 1322 may serve as an endpoint for an air interface protocol and may be a first point of contact for the UE 110. In some implementations, any of the RAN nodes 1322 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 13320, including but not limited to functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling and mobility management. The UE 110 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 1322 on a multi-carrier communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals according to various communication techniques, such as but not limited to OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink (SL) communications), but the scope of such implementations is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0084] In addition, the RAN node 1322 may be configured to wirelessly communicate with the UE 110 and / or each other over a licensed medium (also referred to as a "licensed spectrum" and / or a "licensed frequency band"), an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as an "unlicensed spectrum" and / or an "unlicensed frequency band"), or a combination thereof. The licensed spectrum may include channels operating within a frequency range (approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz or other ranges). In some areas, the unlicensed spectrum may include, for example, approximately a 5 GHz frequency band or other frequency bands. The licensed spectrum may correspond to a channel or frequency band that is selected, reserved, regulated, etc. for certain types of wireless activities (e.g., wireless telecommunications network activities), while the unlicensed spectrum may correspond to one or more frequency bands that are not restricted to certain types of wireless activities. Whether a particular frequency band corresponds to a licensed medium or an unlicensed medium may depend on one or more factors, such as frequency allocations determined by a public sector organization (e.g., a government agency, a regulatory agency, etc.) or frequency allocations determined by a private sector organization involved in developing wireless communication standards and protocols, etc.

[0085] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 110 and the RAN node 1322 may operate using licensed assisted access (LAA), eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 110 and the RAN node 1322 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol or a clear channel assessment (CCA).

[0086] The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher layer signaling to UE 110. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may carry information, inter alia, about transport formats and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel. The PDCCH may also inform UE 110 about transport formats, resource allocations, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information related to uplink shared channels. Typically, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UE 110-2 within a cell) may be performed on any of RAN nodes 1322 based on channel quality information fed back from any of UEs 110. Downlink resource allocation information may be sent on a PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each of UEs 110.

[0087] PDCCH uses control channel elements (CCE) to transmit control information, where multiple (e.g., 6, etc.) CCEs may be composed of resource element groups (REGs), where REGs are defined as physical resource blocks (PRBs) in OFDM symbols. For example, before being mapped to resource elements, PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quaternions, which may then be arranged using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. One or more of these CCEs may be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, referred to as REGs. Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and channel conditions, one or more CCEs may be used to transmit the PDCCH. Four or more different PDCCH formats may be defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, 8, or 16).

[0088] The RAN node 1322 or RAN 13320 may be configured to communicate with each other via an interface 13323. In a specific implementation where the system is an LTE system, the interface 13324 may be an X2 interface. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 1322 (e.g., two or more eNBs / gNBs or a combination thereof) connected to an evolved packet core (EPC) or CN 1330, or between two eNBs connected to the EPC. In some specific implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) 13326 and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C) 13328. The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted over the X2 interface, and may be used to transmit information about the delivery of user data between eNBs or gNBs. For example, X2-U may provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from a master eNB (MeNB) to a secondary eNB (SeNB); information about successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP packet data units (PDUs) from the SeNB to the UE 110 for user data; information about PDCP PDUs that are not delivered to the UE 110; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for sending user data to the UE; etc. X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functions (e.g., including context transfer from a source eNB to a target eNB, user plane transmission control, etc.), load management functions, and inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0089] Alternatively or in addition, the RAN 13320 may also be connected (e.g., communicatively coupled) to the CN 1330 via a next generation (NG) interface as interface 13324. The NG interface 13324 may be divided into two parts: a next generation (NG) user plane (NG-U) interface 13326, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 1322 and a user plane function (UPF); and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 13328, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 1322 and an access and mobility management function (AMF).

[0090] The CN 1330 may include a plurality of network elements 1332 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 110) connected to the CN 1330 via the RAN 13320. In some implementations, the CN 1330 may include an evolved packet core (EPC), a 5G CN, and / or one or more additional or alternative types of CNs. The components of the CN 1330 may be implemented in one physical node or in separate physical nodes, which include components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium).

[0091] As shown, CN 1330, application server 13340 and external network 1350 can be connected to each other through interfaces 1334, 1336 and 1338, which may include IP network interfaces. Application server 13340 may include one or more server devices or network elements (e.g., virtual network functions (VNFs)) that provide applications (e.g., universal mobile telecommunications system packet service (UMTS PS) domain, LTE-PS data services, etc.) that use IP bearer resources with CN 1330. Application server 13340 may also or alternatively be configured to support one or more communication services for UE 110 via CN 1330 (e.g., IP voice (VoIP sessions, push-to-talk (PTT) sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.). Similarly, external network 1350 may include one or more networks (including the Internet) of various networks, thereby providing access to various additional services, information, interconnectivity, and other network features to mobile communication networks and UE 110 of the network.

[0092] For example, various aspects of the present invention may include: UE 110-1 may communicate with a peer UE 110-2 in SL communication via a SL interface 1312 (or channel). In one aspect, UE 110-1 may communicate with UE 110-2 in SL communication via the SL interface 1312. The processing circuit of UE 110-1 may execute instructions to cause the UE to generate an S-SSB transmission (e.g., in an NR unlicensed band) in which at least one PRB is added to satisfy a temporary exemption for OCB. Then, the UE 110-1 may send the S-SSB transmission in the SL channel of the unlicensed band.

[0093] UE 110-1 or UE 110-2 is configured to process, execute, generate, communicate, or cause execution of the present invention or related to Figures 1 to 13 Any one or more combined aspects associated with.

[0094] Fig.14 An example is provided for use by a UE and Figure 8 An example process flow 1400 for determining an SL TBS by communicating SL data to a TBS manager 840 in the resource pool. The process flow starts at 1400: determining an interleaved SL TBS for initial data transmission and data retransmission based on a number of PRBs in a predefined, resource pool (pre) configuration, or dynamic indication in a primary sidelink (SL) control information (SCI). For example, the number of PRBs may include 10 PRBs or 11 PRBs. At 1420, the process flow 1400 may also include determining the TB size based on not calculating the number of PRBs for the intra-cell guard band when determining or based on an indication of whether to utilize the intra-cell guard band in the RB set of the resource and the number of PRBs for the intra-cell guard band set based on the resource pool (pre) configuration.

[0095] Fig.15 An example process flow 1500 for obtaining an OCB of 2 MHz for PSFCH transmission is illustrated. The process flow 1510 includes: transmitting PRBs in a dedicated PRB set including time-frequency resources to utilize at least one common PRB to transmit time-frequency resources for hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) acknowledgment (HACK-ACK) information, thereby obtaining an OCB of 2 MHz for physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) transmission. The at least one common PRB corresponds to an interlace or a subset of the interlace for associated PSSCH transmission. The interlace for the common PRB does not include a portion corresponding to the dedicated PRB set. The dedicated PRB set can be (pre)configured based on a resource pool or dynamically indicated to include the at least one common PRB.

[0096] Fig.16An example process flow 1600 for excluding resources in the event of perceived resource overlap from an LTE SL transmit reservation according to aspects described herein is illustrated. At 1600, in response to a timeslot overlap with resources reserved for an LTE sidelink, and based on a data priority value of the LTE sidelink reservation corresponding to a high priority or satisfying a priority threshold, or an RSRP measurement value of the LTE sidelink reservation being above a predefined threshold / resource pool (pre)configured threshold, resources in a timeslot of a PSSCH may be excluded from resource selection.

[0097] Although the method described in the present disclosure is shown and described as a series of actions or events in this article, it should be understood that the order of such actions or events shown should not be interpreted as having a limiting meaning. For example, some actions can occur simultaneously with other actions or events other than those shown and / or described herein in different orders. In addition, all the actions shown may not be required to realize one or more aspects or embodiments of this specification. In addition, one or more actions in the actions depicted herein may be performed in one or more separate actions and / or stages. For ease of description, reference may be made to the above-mentioned accompanying drawings. However, the method is not limited to any specific embodiment, aspect or example provided in the present disclosure, and can be applied to any one of the systems / devices / components disclosed herein.

[0098] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of the authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

[0099] The present disclosure is now described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein throughout the text, similar figure numbers are used to refer to similar elements, and the structures and devices shown therein need not be drawn to scale. As used herein, the terms "component", "system", "interface", etc. are intended to refer to entities, hardware, software (e.g., in execution) and / or firmware related to a computer. For example, a component can be a processor (e.g., a microprocessor, a controller or other processing device), a process running on a processor, a controller, an object, an executable file, a program, a storage device, a computer, a tablet computer and / or a user equipment (e.g., a mobile phone, etc.) with a processing device. In an illustrative manner, an application and a server running on a server can also be a component. One or more components can reside in a process, and a component can be located on a computer and / or distributed between two or more computers. This article can describe a set of elements or other component sets, wherein the term "set" can be interpreted as "one or more".

[0100] In addition, these components can be executed from various computer-readable storage media having various data structures stored thereon, such as using modules. Components can communicate via local and / or remote processes, such as according to signals having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacts with another component in a local system, a distributed system, and / or an entire network, such as the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, or a similar network with other systems via signals).

[0101] As another example, a component may be a device having a specific function, the specific function being provided by a mechanical component operated by an electrical or electronic circuit, wherein the electrical or electronic circuit may be operated by a software application or a firmware application executed by one or more processors. The one or more processors may be internal or external to the device and may execute at least a portion of the software application or the firmware application. As another example, a component may be a device that provides a specific function by electronic components without mechanical components; the electronic components may include one or more processors therein to execute at least a portion of the software and / or firmware that gives the electronic components their functions.

[0102] The use of the word "exemplary" is intended to present concepts in a specific way. As used in this application, the term "or" is intended to mean an inclusive "or" rather than an exclusive "or". That is, unless otherwise specified or clear from the context, "X adopts A or B" is intended to mean any natural inclusive arrangement of natural inclusive arrangements. That is, if X adopts A; X adopts B; or X adopts both A and B, then "X adopts A or B" is satisfied in any of the foregoing cases. In addition, the articles "one" and "an" used in this application and the appended claims should generally be interpreted as meaning "one or more" unless otherwise specified or clear from the context to point to a singular form. In addition, to the extent that the terms "including", "comprising", "having", "having", "with" or variations thereof are used in the specific embodiments and claims, such terms are intended to be included in a manner similar to the term "comprising". In addition, in the case of discussing one or more numbered items (e.g., "first X", "second X", etc.), generally, the one or more numbered items may be different or they may be the same, but in some cases, the context may indicate that they are different or that they are the same.

[0103] As used herein, the term "circuit" may refer to, may be a part of, or may include an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), electronic circuit, processor (shared, dedicated, or group), or associated memory (shared, dedicated, or group) operably coupled to the circuit that executes one or more software programs or firmware programs, combinational logic circuits, or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuit may be implemented in one or more software modules or firmware modules, or the functionality associated with the circuit may be implemented by one or more software modules or firmware modules. In some embodiments, the circuit may include logic that is at least partially operable in hardware.

[0104] As used in this specification, the term "processor" may refer to substantially any computing processing unit or device, including but not limited to single-core processors; single processors with software multithreaded execution capabilities; multi-core processors; multi-core processors with software multithreaded execution capabilities; multi-core processors with hardware multithreading technology; parallel platforms; and parallel platforms with distributed shared memory. In addition, a processor may refer to an integrated circuit, an application-specific integrated circuit, a digital signal processor, a field programmable gate array, a programmable logic controller, a complex programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions and / or processes described herein. The processor may utilize nanoscale architectures, such as, but not limited to, molecular and quantum dot-based transistors, switches, and gates, in order to optimize space usage or enhance the performance of a mobile device. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing processing units.

[0105] Examples (implementations) may include subject matter, such as methods, devices for performing actions or boxes of the method, and at least one machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a machine (e.g., a processor with memory, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.), cause the machine to perform actions of a method or device or system for concurrent communication using multiple communication technologies according to the embodiments and examples described herein.

[0106] In addition, various aspects or features described herein may be implemented as methods, devices or articles using standard programming and / or engineering techniques. As used herein, the term "article" is intended to cover computer programs accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier or medium. For example, computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to, magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic strips, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact disks (CDs), digital versatile disks (DVDs), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., EPROMs, cards, sticks, key drives, etc.). In addition, the various storage media described herein may represent one or more devices and / or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" may include, but is not limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing and / or carrying instructions and / or data. In addition, a computer program product may include a computer-readable medium having one or more instructions or codes that are operable to cause a computer to perform the functions described herein.

[0107] Communication media embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other structured or unstructured data in a data signal such as a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery or transmission media. The term "modulated data signal" or signal refers to a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in a manner that encodes information in one or more signals. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media include wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.

[0108] An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to a processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. In an alternative, the storage medium may be integrated with the processor. In addition, in some aspects, the processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In an alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in a user terminal as discrete components. In addition, in some aspects, the process and / or action of the method or algorithm may reside on a machine-readable medium and / or a computer-readable medium as one or any combination or set of codes and / or instructions, and may be incorporated into a computer program product.

[0109] In this regard, although the subject matter disclosed herein has been described in conjunction with various embodiments and corresponding drawings, it should be understood that other similar embodiments may be used or modifications and additions may be made to the described embodiments, where applicable, to perform the same, similar, alternative or alternative functions of the disclosed subject matter without departing from the described embodiments. Therefore, the disclosed subject matter should not be limited to any single embodiment described herein, but should be interpreted in accordance with the breadth and scope of the following claims.

[0110] In particular, with respect to the various functions performed by the above-mentioned components (assemblies, devices, circuits, systems, etc.), unless otherwise specified, the terms used to describe such components (including references to "means") are intended to correspond to any component or structure that performs the specified function of the component (e.g., functionally equivalent), even if not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure that performs the function in the exemplary implementation of the present disclosure shown herein. In addition, although specific features have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, for any given or specific application, such features may be combined with one or more other features of other implementations, which may be desirable and advantageous.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE), the user equipment (UE) comprising: Memory; a processing circuit coupled to the memory, the processing circuit being configured to, when executing instructions stored in the memory, cause the UE to: generating a sidelink (SL) synchronization signal block (S-SSB) transmission in an unlicensed band, wherein at least one physical resource block (PRB) is added to a conventional S-SSB configuration of the S-SSB to obtain a minimum occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) of 2 MHz; and The S-SSB transmission is sent in the SL channel of the unlicensed band.

2. The UE according to claim 1, wherein the at least one PRB is connected to the traditional S-SSB configuration in the frequency domain so that the S-SSB transmission includes 12 PRBs.

3. The UE according to claim 1, wherein the at least one PRB is located at one or more edges of a resource block (RB) set so that the S-SSB transmission includes 12 PRBs or 13 PRBs.

4. The UE according to claim 1, wherein the at least one PRB includes the lowest or highest PRB content in the frequency domain of a traditional S-SSB, the content of the resource pool (pre-) configuration based on the traditional S-SSB, or virtual data.

5. The UE according to claim 1, wherein the at least one PRB includes only symbols of a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) of the S-SSB transmission or an entire time slot including a sidelink primary synchronization signal (S-PSS), a sidelink secondary synchronization signal (S-SSS) and symbols of the PSBCH, and the generation of the S-SSB transmission is based on a subcarrier spacing (SCS) of 15 kHz or 15 kHz and 30 kHz.

6. The UE according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: Obtain one or more S-SSB transmission opportunities from the resource pool (pre) configuration; determining whether an S-SSB is received in an initial S-SSB opportunity; as well as in response to receiving the S-SSB in the initial S-SSB opportunity, stopping monitoring S-SSB additional candidate opportunities; as well as In response to the S-SSB additional candidate opportunity belonging to the resource pool (pre) configuration, data is sent using the S-SSB additional candidate opportunity.

7. The UE according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: Based on predefinition, resource pool (pre) configuration or dynamic indication in the primary sidelink (SL) control information (SCI), the interleaved sidelink transport block size (SL TBS) for initial data transmission and data retransmission is determined according to the number of PRBs, wherein the number of PRBs includes 10 PRBs or 11 PRBs.

8. The UE according to claim 7, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: The SL TBS is determined without calculating the number of PRBs of the intra-cell guard band or based on an indication of whether to use the intra-cell guard band and the number of PRBs of the intra-cell guard band according to a resource pool (pre-) configuration.

9. The UE according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: Send PRBs in a dedicated PRB set including time-frequency resources to use at least one common PRB to send hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) acknowledgment (HACK-ACK) information to obtain the 2MHz OCB for physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) transmission, wherein the at least one common PRB corresponds to an interlace or a subset of the interlace for associated PSSCH transmission, and wherein the interlace does not include a dedicated PRB set, and wherein the dedicated PRB set is based on a resource pool (pre) configuration or is dynamically indicated to include the at least one common PRB.

10. The UE according to claim 1, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to exclude resources in the time slot during resource selection in response to a resource reservation in a time slot of the PSSCH coming from a long term evolution (LTE) side link that shares a new radio (NR) PSFCH resource corresponding to the time slot, and in response to the resource reservation including a data priority value above a threshold or a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement value of the resource reservation satisfying an RSRP threshold.

11. A method comprising: generating, by processing circuitry, a sidelink (SL) synchronization signal block (S-SSB) transmission in an unlicensed frequency band, wherein at least one physical resource block (PRB) is added to the S-SSB to obtain a minimum occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) of 2 MHz; and The S-SSB transmission is sent in the SL channel of the unlicensed band.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the S-SSB comprises an S-SSB configuration having a subcarrier spacing (SCS) of 15 kHz or 30 kHz.

13. A method according to claim 11, wherein the at least one PRB is connected to the S-SSB configuration in the frequency domain for the S-SSB transmission, or is located at one or more edges of a resource block (RB) set, and wherein the at least one PRB includes only symbols of the physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) of the S-SSB transmission or an entire time slot including a sidelink primary synchronization signal (S-PSS), a sidelink secondary synchronization signal (S-SSS) and symbols of the PSBCH.

14. The method according to claim 11, further comprising: In response to S-SSB reception failure of an initial S-SSB opportunity and the S-SSB additional candidate opportunity not belonging to a resource pool for physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) transmission or physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) transmission, avoid sending the PSCCH or PSSCH in the S-SSB additional candidate opportunity.

15. The method according to claim 11, further comprising: Based on predefinition, resource pool (pre) configuration or dynamic indication in the primary sidelink (SL) control information (SCI), the interleaved sidelink transport block size (SL TBS) for initial data transmission and data retransmission is determined according to the number of PRBs, wherein the number of PRBs includes 10 PRBs or 11 PRBs, wherein the SL TBS is determined without calculating the number of PRBs for the guard band within the cell, or the SL TBS is determined based on an indication of whether to use the guard band within the cell and the number of PRBs for the guard band within the cell according to the resource pool (pre) configuration.

16. The method according to claim 11, further comprising: Hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) acknowledgment (HACK-ACK) information is sent in a dedicated PRB set for transmission together with at least one common PRB OCB for physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) transmission, wherein the at least one common PRB corresponds to an interlace or a subset of the interlace used for an associated PSSCH transmission.

17. The method according to claim 11, further comprising: In response to an LTE resource reservation including a data priority value above a threshold or a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement value of the resource reservation satisfying the RSRP threshold, resources in a time slot corresponding to the PSSCH are excluded from a resource selection process, wherein the LTE resource reservation is from a long term evolution (LTE) side link sharing a new radio (NR) PSFCH resource.

18. A baseband processor, comprising: Memory; a processing circuit, the processing circuit being communicatively coupled to the memory, the processing circuit being configured to, when executing instructions stored in the memory, cause the baseband processor to: generating a sidelink (SL) synchronization signal block (S-SSB) transmission in an unlicensed band, wherein at least one physical resource block (PRB) is added to a conventional S-SSB configuration to obtain a minimum occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) of 2 MHz; and The S-SSB transmission is sent in the SL channel of the unlicensed band.

19. A baseband processor according to claim 18, wherein the conventional S-SSB configuration comprises 11 PRBs in a subcarrier spacing (SCS) of 15 kHz or 30 kHz, and wherein the at least one PRB is connected to the S-SSB configuration in the frequency domain for the S-SSB transmission, or is located at one or more edges of a resource block (RB) set, and wherein the at least one PRB comprises only symbols of a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) of the S-SSB transmission or comprises an entire time slot having symbols of a sidelink primary synchronization signal (S-PSS), a sidelink secondary synchronization signal (S-SSS) and the PSBCH.

20. A baseband processor according to claim 18, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: determine the interleaved sidelink transport block size (SL TBS) for initial data transmission and data retransmission based on the number of PRBs based on predefinition, resource pool (pre) configuration or dynamic indication in the primary sidelink (SL) control information (SCI), wherein the number of PRBs includes 10 PRBs or 11 PRBs, wherein the SL TBS is determined without calculating the number of PRBs for the guard band within the cell, or the SL TBS is calculated based on the indication of whether to use the guard band within the cell and the number of PRBs for the guard band within the cell according to the resource pool (pre) configuration.

21. The baseband processor of claim 18, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: avoid NR physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) transmission in response to a long term evolution (LTE) sidelink transmission temporally overlapping with a new radio (NR) channel's NR sidelink timeslot and co-channel coexistence.

22. A baseband processor according to claim 21, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: avoid the NR PSFCH transmission based on the priority of the LTE sidelink transmission and the NR PSFCH transmission.

23. The baseband processor of claim 18, wherein the at least one PRB is connected to the traditional S-SSB configuration in the frequency domain so that the S-SSB transmission includes 12 PRBs or 13 PRBs, wherein the traditional S-SSB configuration includes 11 PRBs.

24. The baseband processor of claim 18, wherein the at least one PRB is located at one or more edges corresponding to a resource block (RB) set, so that the S-SSB transmission includes 12 PRBs or 13 PRBs.

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