SYSTEM, METHOD AND DEVICE FOR MAC LAYER INTER-UE COORDINATION (IUC) - Patent application

Abstract

Techniques described herein include solutions for enabling inter-user equipment (UE) coordination (IUC) using a media access control (MAC) control element (CE). A first UE may send an IUC request to a second UE, and the second UE may respond with a MAC CE that includes IUC information. The IUC information may indicate one or more wireless resources that the first UE may use to communicate with the second UE. The IUC information may also include time domain validity of the wireless resources, which may include one or more durations during which the wireless resources may be used for communication. The first UE may also implement a latency bound within which the second UE responds with the IUC information. In some implementations, discontinuous reception (DRX) may be used by the first UE and the second UE, and the DRX active time of the UE may be modified or configured to facilitate IUC.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to wireless communication networks, including techniques for enabling communication between devices. [Background technology]

[0002] As the number of mobile devices in wireless networks and the demand for mobile data traffic continues to increase, changes are being made to system requirements and architectures to better address current and anticipated demands. For example, some wireless communication networks may be developed to implement fifth generation (5G) or new radio (NR) technologies, sixth generation (6G) technologies, etc. One aspect of such technologies includes addressing how wireless devices communicate with each other, which may involve direct communication between user equipment (UE) devices.

[0003] The present disclosure will be readily understood and enabled by the detailed description and the accompanying drawing figures. Like reference numerals may indicate like features and structural elements. The figures and corresponding description are provided as non-limiting examples of the aspects, implementations, and the like of the present disclosure, and references to "an" or "one" aspect, implementation, and the like do not necessarily refer to the same aspect, implementation, and the like, but may mean at least one, one or more, and the like. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0004] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example process for media access control (MAC) layer inter-UE (user equipment) coordination (IUC).

[0005] [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example of network resource availability and IUC messaging.

[0006] [Diagram 3] FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example of discontinuous reception (DRX) and IUC messaging.

[0007] [Figure 4] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a network in accordance with one or more implementations described herein.

[0008] [Diagram 5] FIG. 13 is a diagram of an example of time domain validity according to one or more implementations described herein. [Figure 6] FIG. 13 is a diagram of an example of time domain validity according to one or more implementations described herein. [Figure 7] FIG. 13 is a diagram of an example of time domain validity according to one or more implementations described herein.

[0009] [Figure 8] FIG. 11 is a diagram of an example of IUC messaging using different periodicities, according to one or more implementations described herein. [Figure 9] FIG. 11 is a diagram of an example of IUC messaging using different periodicities, according to one or more implementations described herein. [Figure 10] FIG. 11 is a diagram of an example of IUC messaging using different periodicities, according to one or more implementations described herein.

[0010] [Figure 11] 1 is an example of a latency bound for IUC messaging according to one or more implementations described herein. [Figure 12] 1 is an example of a latency bound for IUC messaging according to one or more implementations described herein.

[0011] [Figure 13] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of IUC messaging and interaction involving DRX, according to one or more implementations described herein. [Figure 14] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of IUC messaging and interaction involving DRX, according to one or more implementations described herein.

[0012] [Figure 15] FIG. 13 is another example diagram of IUC messaging and interactions involving DRX, according to one or more implementations described herein.

[0013] [Figure 16] A diagram illustrating an example of components of a device according to one or more implementations described herein.

[0014] [Figure 17] FIG. 2 illustrates an example interface of a baseband circuit configuration in accordance with one or more implementations described herein.

[0015] [Figure 18] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example control plane protocol stack according to one or more implementations described herein.

[0016] [Figure 19] A block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) in accordance with one or more implementations described herein and performing any one or more of the methods described herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0017] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings, in which like illustrated numerals in different drawings may identify the same or similar features, elements, operations, etc. Additionally, the disclosure is not limited to the following description, as other implementations may be utilized and structural or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure.

[0018] A long-range communication network may include user equipment (UE) capable of communicating with base stations and other network nodes. In some implementations, a UE may also be capable of communicating directly with other UEs, which may be referred to as device-to-device (D2D) communication. This may include detecting nearby UEs, synchronizing with other UEs, establishing connections with other UEs, and using those connections to transmit and receive information. Depending on the scenario, a UE may be able to perform one or more of these functions with or without the assistance or involvement of a base station, a wireless router, or another type of network node.

[0019] To communicate with each other, UEs may perform one or more operations at a media access control (MAC) layer. One example of such an operation may include UEs transmitting and receiving MAC control elements (CEs) to ensure that messages and signaling between UEs, including processes for transmitting (Tx) and receiving (Rx) such messages, are properly coordinated with respect to time, frequency, periodicity, etc. This may generally be referred to as Inter-UE Coordination (IUC). As described herein, IUC may include coordination or combination of processes performed by UEs to support the transmission and reception of messages and signaling.

[0020] FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example process 100 for media access control (MAC) layer inter-UE (user equipment) coordination (IUC). As shown, process 100 may include UE 110-1 and UE 110-2. In some implementations, UE 110-2 may send (at 120) a MAC CE including a request (e.g., an IUC request) to UE 110-1. The request may be for information indicating wireless resources (e.g., time, frequency, periodicity, etc.) that UE 110-2 may later use to communicate with UE 110-1. In response, UE 110-1 may send (130) a MAC CE to UE 110-2, which may include the requested information (e.g., IUC information). UE 110-2 may use (at 140) the received information to continue communicating with UE 110-1. UE 110-1 may send IUC information to UE 110-2 in response to the request, although in some implementations UE 110-1 receiving such a request may be optional, such that UE 110-1 may be configured or alternatively configured to send IUC information without receiving an explicit request to do so.

[0021] 2 is a diagram of examples 210 and 220 of network resource availability and IUC messaging. Example 210 includes a table with time represented along the horizontal axis and frequency represented along the vertical axis. The table also includes example resources A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, etc. Each resource is indicated as available or available. In such a scenario, the IUC information transmitted by UE 110-1 to UE 110-2 may include a subset of resources for UE-to-UE coordination. For example, the IUC information may include a subset of available resources (e.g., A3, B2, and C4) or a subset of unavailable resources (e.g., A1, A2, A4, B1, B3, B4, C1, C2, and C3).

[0022] Providing such information may enable UE 110-2 to communicate with UE 110-1 using wireless resources preferred or selected by UE 110-1, thereby facilitating or enabling coordination between the devices. For purposes of illustrating FIG. 2, assume that UE 110-1 receives a MAC CE IUC request, selects resources B2 and A3 for communicating with UE 110-2, and transmits the IUC information to UE 110-2. B2 may include a periodicity of 20 milliseconds (ms) and A3 may have a periodicity of 100 ms. UE 110-2 may then communicate with each other thereafter using resources B2 and A3. When resource reservation intervals (or periodicity) are not used in the resource selection, the selected resources are for one-time use. When resource reservation intervals are taken into account, the resources are good for repeated use in the reservation intervals. Thus, when UE 110-2 receives an indication from UE 110-1 of a preferred resource(s) that corresponds to a particular interval (eg, 20 ms, 100 ms, etc.), the resources should be periodic.

[0023] However, currently available IUC techniques do not provide a way to define or convey a time domain for resources indicated in the IUC information, which may be referred to herein as a validity period or validity window and may include a duration during which resources selected by the UE for IUC may be used. Currently available IUC techniques also fail to provide a way for IUC organization for different reservation periodicities to be organized. Further problems with currently available IUC techniques are described below with reference to FIG. 3.

[0024] FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example of discontinuous reception (DRX) and IUC messaging. As shown, in some implementations, UEs may implement DRX communication over a sidelink (SL) interface between UEs. This may include unidirectional communication, whereby the Tx UE determines the transmission time based on the DRC active state (e.g., onDuration) of the RX UE. Thus, when UE 110-2 communicates an IUC request to UE 110-1, the request may be transmitted according to UE 110-1's onDuration according to the DRC. However, the IUC request may have a time or latency boundary during which IUC information may be received, which may not match UE 110-2's onDuration. If UE 110-1 transmits IUC information according to UE 110-1's next DRX onDuration, the IUC information may be transmitted too late (e.g., after the latency boundary associated with the IUC request) and thus may be invalid. Thus, currently available IUC techniques are unable to adequately resolve potential conflicts between IUC communications and DRX procedures.

[0025] Techniques described herein include solutions for enabling IUC using MAC CE. For example, a first UE may send an IUC request to a second UE, and the second UE may respond with a MAC CE that includes IUC information. The IUC information may indicate one or more wireless resources that the first UE may use to communicate with the second UE. The IUC information may also include time-domain validity of the wireless resources, which may include an indication for a single or one-time use of the wireless resources, a period during which the wireless resources may be used, or multiple periods or windows during which the wireless resources may be used.

[0026] In some implementations, the first UE may send multiple IUC requests to the second UE, and the second UE may respond to the requests using a single MAC CE including multiple IUC information messages, a single MAC Packet Data Unit (PDU) or a single Transport Block (TB) with multiple MAC CEs, or one MAC CE and IUC information message collectively per request. The first UE may also implement a latency bound within which the second UE responds with the IUC information, which may be configured based on signal latency and / or processing gaps relative to resource availability (e.g., resource selection window) to ensure that the IUC information message arrives at the first UE in time. In some implementations, discontinuous reception (DRX) may be used by the first UE and the second UE, and the DRX active time (e.g., the time of onDuration for the UE) is configured and / or extended to ensure that bounded IUC requests and IUC information messages are transmitted and received according to the DRX active time of each UE.

[0027] 4 is an example network 400 according to one or more implementations described herein. The example network 400 may include UEs 410-1, 410-2, etc. (collectively referred to as "UEs 410" and individually referred to as "UEs 410"), a radio access network (RAN) 420, a core network (CN) 430, an application server 440, an external network 450, and satellites 460-1, 460-2, etc. (collectively referred to as "satellites 460" and individually referred to as "satellites 460"). As shown, the network 400 may include a non-terrestrial network (NTN) comprising one or more satellites 460 (e.g., of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS)) in communication with the UEs 410 and the RAN 420.

[0028] The systems and devices of the exemplary network 400 may operate in accordance with one or more communication standards, such as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) second generation (2G), third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G) (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE)), and / or fifth generation (5G) (e.g., New Radio (NR)) communication standards. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the systems and devices of the exemplary network 400 may operate in accordance with other communication standards and protocols described herein, including future versions or generations of 3GPP standards (e.g., sixth generation (6G) standards, seventh generation (7G) standards, etc.), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards (e.g., Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), etc.), and the like.

[0029] As shown, the UE 410 may include a smartphone (e.g., a handheld touchscreen mobile computing device capable of connecting to one or more wireless communications networks). Additionally or alternatively, the UE 410 may include other types of mobile or non-mobile computing devices capable of wireless communications, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a wireless handset, etc. In some implementations, the UE 410 may include an Internet of Things (IoT) device (or IoT UE) that may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-lived UE connections. Additionally or alternatively, the IoT UE may utilize one or more types of technologies, such as Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications or Machine-Type Communication (MTC) (e.g., for exchanging data with an MTC server or other devices over a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN)), Proximity-based Service (ProSe) or Device-to-Device (D2D) communications, sensor networks, IoT networks, etc. Depending on the scenario, the M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange, and the IoT network may include interconnecting IoT UEs (which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. In some scenarios, the IoT UEs may run background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0030] The UE 410 may communicate with and establish connections with one or more other UEs 410 via one or more wireless channels 412, each of which may comprise a physical communication interface / layer. The connections may include M2M connections, MTC connections, D2D connections, etc. In some implementations, the UEs 410 may be configured to discover each other, negotiate wireless resources between each other, and establish connections between each other without intervention or communication involving a RAN node 422 or another type of network node. In some implementations, discovery, authentication, resource negotiation, registration, etc. may involve communication with a RAN node 422 or another type of network node.

[0031] The UE 410 may communicate with and establish a connection (e.g., communicatively coupled to) the RAN 420, which may include one or more wireless channels 414-1 and 414-2, each of which may comprise a physical communication interface / layer. In some implementations, the UE may be configured with Dual Connectivity (DC) as a multi-Radio Access Technology (multi-RAT) or Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC), where multiple Receive and Transmit (Rx / Tx) capable UEs can use resources provided by different network nodes (e.g., 422-1 and 422-2) that may be connected via a non-ideal backhaul (e.g., one network node provides NR access and the other network node provides either E-UTRA for LTE or NR for 5G). In such a scenario, one network node may function as a Master Node (MN) and the other network node may function as a Secondary Node (SN). The MN and SN may be connected via a network interface, and at least the MN may be connected to the CN 430. Furthermore, at least one of the MN or SN may operate with shared spectrum channel access, and functions designated for the UE 410 may be used for integrated access and backhaul mobile termination (IAB-MT). Similarly in the case of the UE 401, the IAB-MT may access the network using one network node or using either two different nodes having an ENhanced Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) architecture, a New Radio Dual Connectivity (NR-DC) architecture, or the like. In some implementations, a base station (described herein) may be an example of a network node 422.

[0032] As shown, the UE 410 may also or alternatively connect to an access point (AP) 416 via a connection interface 418, which may include an air interface that allows the UE 410 to communicatively couple with the AP 416. The AP 416 may comprise a wireless local area network (WLAN), a WLAN node, a WLAN termination point, or the like. The connection 4207 may comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection conforming to any IEEE 702.11 protocol, and the AP 416 may comprise a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) router or another AP. Although not explicitly shown in FIG. 4, the AP 416 may be connected to another network (e.g., the Internet) without connecting to the RAN 420 or the CN 430. In some scenarios, the UE 410, the RAN 420, and the AP 416 may be configured to utilize LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) techniques or LTE-WLAN radio level integration (LWIP) operation with IPsec tunneling. LWA may involve the UE 410 in RRC_CONNECTED being configured by the RAN 420 to utilize LTE and WLAN radio resources. LWIP may involve the UE 410 using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection interface 418) via IPsec protocol tunneling to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., Internet Protocol (IP) packets) communicated over the connection interface 418. IPsec tunneling may involve encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the IP packet's original header.

[0033] The RAN 420 may include one or more RAN nodes 422-1 and 422-2 (collectively referred to as RAN nodes 422 and individually referred to as RAN node 422) that enable the channels 414-1 and 414-2 to be established between the UE 410 and the RAN 420. The RAN nodes 422 may include network access points configured to provide wireless baseband functionality for data and / or voice connectivity between users and a network based on one or more of the communication technologies described herein (e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, WiFi, etc.). Thus, by way of example, the RAN nodes may be E-UTRAN Node Bs (e.g., enhanced Node Bs, eNode Bs, eNBs, 4G base stations, etc.), next generation base stations (e.g., 5G base stations, NR base stations, next generation eNBs (gNBs), etc.). The RAN nodes 422 may include roadside units (RSUs), transmit / receive points (TRxPs or TRPs), and one or more other types of ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points). In some scenarios, the RAN nodes 422 may be dedicated physical devices such as macrocell base stations and / or low power (LP) base stations for providing femtocells, picocells, etc. having a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or wider bandwidth compared to a macrocell. As described below, in some implementations, a satellite 460 may operate as a base station (e.g., a RAN node 422) with respect to a UE 410. Thus, references herein to base stations, RAN nodes 422, etc. may also include implementations in which the base stations, RAN nodes 422, etc. are terrestrial network nodes, and implementations in which the base stations, RAN nodes 422, etc. are non-terrestrial network nodes (e.g., satellites 460).

[0034] Some or all of the RAN nodes 422, or portions thereof, may be implemented as one or more software entities executing 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 implementations, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement a RAN functionality split, such as a PDCP split, where the Radio Resource Control (RRC) and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP and other Layer 2 (L2) protocol entities may be operated by individual RAN nodes 422, a MAC / PHY layer split, where the RRC, PDCP, Radio Link Control (RLC), and Media Access Control (MAC) layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP and the physical (PHY) layer may be operated by individual RAN nodes 422, or a "lower PHY" split, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers, and upper parts of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP and lower parts of the PHY layer may be operated by individual RAN nodes 422. This virtualized framework may free up processor cores in the RAN node 422, allowing them to run other virtualized applications.

[0035] In some implementations, the individual RAN nodes 422 may represent individual gNB distributed units (DUs) connected to a gNB control unit (CU) via individual F1 or other interfaces. In such implementations, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remote radio heads or radio frequency (RF) front end modules (RFEMs), and the gNB-CUs may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 420 or by a server pool (e.g., a group of servers configured to share resources) in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 422 may be next generation eNBs (i.e., gNBs), which may provide Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocol terminations for the UE 410 and may be connected to a 5G Core Network (5GC) 430 via an NG interface.

[0036] Any of the RAN nodes 422 may terminate air interface protocols and may be the first point of contact for the UE 410. In some implementations, any of the RAN nodes 422 may perform various logical functions for the RAN 420, which may include radio network controller (RNC) functions such as, but not limited to, radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. The UEs 410 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 422 using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals over multi-carrier communication channels according to various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or single carrier frequency-division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink (SL) communications), although the scope of such implementations is not necessarily limited in this respect. The OFDM signals may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0037] In some implementations, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 422 to the UE 410, and uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid (e.g., resource grid or time-frequency resource grid) that represents the downlink physical resources in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, making the allocation of radio resources intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit of the resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid includes resource blocks, which represent the mapping of a particular physical channel to the resource elements. Each resource block may include a collection of resource elements (REs), which in the frequency domain may represent the smallest amount of resources that can currently be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

[0038] Additionally, the RAN nodes 422 may be configured to wirelessly communicate with the UEs 410 or with each other via licensed media (also referred to as “licensed spectrum” and / or “licensed bands”), unlicensed shared media (also referred to as “unlicensed spectrum” and / or “unlicensed bands”), and / or combinations thereof. In one example, the licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range from about 400 MHz to about 3.8 GHz, and the unlicensed spectrum may include the 5 GHz band. The licensed spectrum may correspond to channels or frequency bands that are selected, reserved, regulated, etc. for some type of wireless activity (e.g., wireless long range communication network activity), and the unlicensed spectrum may correspond to one or more frequency bands that are not restricted for a particular type of wireless activity. Whether a particular frequency band corresponds to a licensed or 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 body, etc.) or frequency allocations determined by a private sector organization responsible for developing wireless communication standards and protocols.

[0039] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 410 and the RAN node 422 may operate using Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 410 and the RAN node 422 may perform one or more known medium sensing or carrier sensing operations before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum to determine if one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

[0040] The LAA mechanism may be built on the Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a Component Carrier (CC). In some cases, each CC may have a different bandwidth than other CCs. In a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC may be the same for DL ​​and UL. CA also includes individual serving cells that provide each CC. For example, CCs in different frequency bands are supposed to experience different path losses, so the coverage of the serving cells may be different. A primary serving cell or PCell may provide a Primary Component Carrier (PCC) for both UL and DL, and handle RRC and non-access stratum (NAS) related activities. The other serving cells are called SCells, and each SCell may provide a separate Secondary Component Carrier (SCC) for both UL and DL. SCCs may be added and removed as needed, while changing the PCC may require the UE 410 to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in unlicensed bands (referred to as "LAA SCells"), where the LAA SCells are backed by PCells operating in licensed bands. If the UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions within the same subframe. To operate in an unlicensed spectrum, the UE 410 and the RAN node 422 may also operate using standalone unlicensed operation, where the UE may be configured with a PCell in addition to any SCells in the unlicensed spectrum.

[0041] The PDSCH may carry user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 410. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may carry, among other things, information regarding transport format and resource allocation for the PDSCH channel. The PDCCH may inform the UE 410 about the transport format, resource allocation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information for the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (e.g., allocating control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 410-2 in the cell) may be performed in any of the RAN nodes 422 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 410. The downlink resource allocation information may be transmitted in the PDCCH used (e.g., assigned) for each of the UEs 410.

[0042] The PDCCH carries control information using Control Channel Elements (CCEs), and the number of CCEs (e.g., six) can be set in Resource Element Groups (REGs), where a REG is defined as a physical resource block (PRB) within an OFDM symbol. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized, for example, into quadruplets and then permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, and each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as REGs. Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more CCEs depending on the size of the DCI and the channel conditions. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, 8 or 46).

[0043] Some implementations may use a concept of resource allocation for control channel information that is an extension of the concept above. For example, some implementations may utilize an Extended (E) PDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. An EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more ECCEs. As above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as EREGs. An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

[0044] The RAN nodes 422 may be configured to communicate with each other via an interface 423. In an implementation where the system is an LTE system, the interface 423 may be an X2 interface. In an NR system, the interface 423 may be an Xn interface. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 422 (e.g., two or more eNBs / gNBs or a combination thereof) that connect to an evolved packet core (EPC) or CN 430, and / or between two eNBs that connect to an EPC. In some implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2 User, X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2 Control, X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user data packets transferred over the X2 interface and may be used to communicate information regarding the distribution of user data between eNBs or gNBs. For example, X2-U can provide specific sequence number information of user data transferred from a Master eNB (MeNB) to a Secondary eNB (SeNB), information on successful sequence delivery of PDCP Packet Data Units (PDUs) for user data from the SeNB to the UE 410, information on PDCP PDUs that were not provided to the UE 410, information on the current minimum desired buffer size in the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE, etc. X2-C can provide intra-LTE access mobility functionality (including, for example, context transfer from source eNB to destination eNB, user plane transport control, etc.), load management functionality, and inter-cell interference coordination functionality.

[0045] As shown, the RAN 420 may be connected (e.g., communicatively coupled) to the CN 430. The CN 430 may comprise a number of network elements 432 configured to provide various data and long range communication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 410) connected to the CN 430 via the RAN 420. In some implementations, the CN 430 may include an evolved packet core (EPC), a 5G CN, and / or one or more additional or alternative types of CN. The components of the CN 430 may be implemented in a single physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some implementations, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the roles or functions of the network nodes described above via executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instantiation of CN 430 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of CN 430 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. Using network function virtualization (NFV) architectures and infrastructures, one or more network functions that are instead performed by dedicated hardware may be virtualized onto physical resources including a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches. In other words, an NFV system may be used to execute a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0046] As shown, the CN 430, the application server 440, and the external network 450 may be connected to each other via interfaces 434, 436, and 438, which may include IP network interfaces. The application server 440 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 at the CM 430. The application server 440 may also or alternatively be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., voice over IP (VoIP sessions, push-to-talk (PTT) sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UE 410 via the CN 430. Similarly, the external network 450 may include one or more of a variety of networks, including the Internet, thereby providing the mobile communication network and the UE 410 of the network with access to various additional services, information, interconnectivity, and other network functions.

[0047] As shown, the example network 400 may include an NTN that may comprise one or more satellites 460-1 and 460-2 (collectively, “satellites 460”). The satellites 460 may communicate with the UE 410 via a service link or wireless interface 462 and / or with the RAN 420 via a feeder link or wireless interface 464 (individually shown as 464-1 and 464). In some implementations, the satellites 460 may operate as passive or transparent network relay nodes with respect to communications between the UE 410 and a terrestrial network (e.g., the RAN 420). In some implementations, the satellites 460 may operate as active or regenerative network nodes with respect to communications between the UE 410 and the RAN 420 such that the satellites 460 may operate as base stations for the UE 410 (e.g., as gNBs for the RAN 420). In some implementations, satellites 460 may communicate with each other via a direct wireless interface (eg, 466) or an indirect wireless interface (eg, via RAN 420 using interfaces 464-1 and 464-2).

[0048] Additionally or alternatively, the satellite 460 may include a GEO satellite, a LEO satellite, or another type of satellite. The satellite 460 may also or alternatively relate to one or more satellite systems or architectures, such as a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), a Global Positioning System (GPS), a Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), a BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), etc. In some implementations, the satellite 460 may operate as a base station (e.g., a RAN node 422) with respect to the UE 410. Thus, references herein to a base station, RAN node 422, etc., may include implementations in which the base station, RAN node 422, etc., is a terrestrial network node and implementations in which the base station, RAN node 422, etc., is a non-terrestrial network node (e.g., a satellite 460). As described herein, the UE 410 and the base station 422 may communicate with each other via the interface 414 to enable enhanced power saving techniques.

[0049] 5-7 are diagrams of time domain validity examples 500, 600, and 700 according to one or more implementations described herein. FIG. 5 may include an example of a single-use validity window for one or more resources. The UE 410 may be configured to communicate a MAC CE message with an IUC request or IUC information, and the resource(s) indicated in the message (e.g., A3, B2, etc.) may not include periodicity. This may indicate that the resource is selected as a single-use resource or a one-time use resource. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the single-use validity period for an A3 resource may extend from the time an IUC message (e.g., an IUC request message or an IUC information message) is received to the end of the next A3 resource. Similarly, the single-use validity period for a B2 resource may extend from the time an IUC message (e.g., an IUC request message or an IUC information message) is received to the end of the next B2 resource.

[0050] FIG. 6 may include an example of a validity period for one or more resources. The UE 410 may be configured to communicate an IUC request or a MAC CE message with IUC information, and the resource(s) (e.g., A3, B2, etc.) indicated in the message may include a validity period. The validity period may include a duration during which the resource may be used for IUC communication between the UEs 410. The validity period may include a start time and an end time. Additionally or alternatively, the validity period may start upon receipt of the IUC message and extend to an end time (e.g., an upper limit) indicated in the message. As shown in FIG. 6, the IUC message may indicate resources A3 and B2 and may include a validity period that includes several A3 resources and multiple B2 resources, each with their own periodicity. In some implementations, when the validity time or period includes only one instance of a resource (e.g., one instance of B2 and / or A3), the time or period may have an effect similar to a single-use validity period.

[0051] FIG. 7 may include an example of a validity window for one or more resources. The UE 410 may be configured to communicate a MAC CE message with an IUC request or IUC information, and the resource(s) (e.g., A3, B2, etc.) indicated in the message may include one or more validity windows. The validity window may include a duration during which the resource may be used for IUC communication between the UEs 410. The validity window may include a start time and an end time, and the IUC message may indicate multiple validity windows. As shown in FIG. 6, the IUC message may indicate resources A3 and B2 and may include two different validity windows, each including resources A3 and B2. In some implementations, the IUC message may specifically indicate each validity window. In some implementations, the IUC message may indicate the validity window duration, the periodicity of the validity window, and the amount of validity window interaction. In some implementations, the IUC message may indicate that the validity window is periodic or aperiodic. In some implementations, when the validity window includes only one instance of a resource (eg, one instance of B2 and / or A3), the validity window may have an effect similar to a single-use validity window.

[0052] In some implementations, the validity time or window indicated in the IUC message may be different for different resources. In some implementations, the IUC request from the UE may include a desired or preferred validity time. In some implementations, the validity time or window may be configured in whole or in part by RRC messaging over the Uu interface (e.g., in a SIB or another pre-configured message). When a validity time or window is explicitly given by a SL MAC CE or RRC message, the UE 410 may filter the indicated resources using the known validity period when generating the IUC information message.

[0053] In some implementations, when a validity time is not introduced or configured, the IUC information message may default to a single-use scenario (e.g., discarded when the transmitting UE 410 uses the corresponding resource). In such a scenario, the IUC information message may provide valid candidate resources (e.g., preferred resources) of a periodic sequence, and the receiving UE 410 may use one or more of the candidate resources, except that the "first" candidate resource is used as a single-use resource. In some implementations, the IUC information message may be valid until new IUC information is received from the same UE 410, regardless of the content (e.g., whether the new content conflicts with the content of the previous IUC information message). In some implementations, an IUC information message containing resource and / or validity information of a particular periodicity may be valid until a new IUC information message with the same periodicity is received. In some implementations, the information in the IUC information message may be valid until it is explicitly canceled in another MAC-CE signal or message.

[0054] In some implementations, when two validity periods or windows overlap with each other, the most recently received validity period or window may be used per resource period (e.g., for the resource and instance where the overlap occurs). In some implementations, when the UE 410 knows that a validity window received in a previous IUC information message is still valid, the UE 410 may be prevented from using a validity window in another IUC information message unless specifically requested to do so in an IUC request message.

[0055] The validity time (e.g., validity period or window(s)) may be expressed as a start time plus a validity period. In some implementations, the start time may be the first occurrence of a resource in a periodic sequence, such that resources with different time slots may expire at different times. In some implementations, the start time may be when the IUC information message is received, regardless of the periodicity of the individual resources. In some implementations, the validity time may be explicitly indicated by a window (e.g., a start time and an end time), and only resources within the window(s) may be valid. In some implementations, the validity time may be expressed as an integer value of "how many periods of the resource sequence may extend". For example, each resource may be valid for 10 periods, such that if the period is 100 ms, the validity time may be 1 second,

[0056] 8-10 are diagrams of example IUC messaging using different periodicities 800, 900, 1000, according to one or more implementations described herein. As shown in FIG. 8, the UE 410-2 may be configured to send (at 810 and 820) multiple MAC CE IUC request messages of different periodicities to the UE 410-1, which may multiplex (at 830) the MAC CE IUC request messages into a single MAC CE IUC information message. As shown in FIG. 9, the UE 410-2 may be configured to send (at 920 and 930) multiple MAC CE IUC request messages of different periodicities to the UE 410-1, which may put (at 930) IUC information of different periodicities into different MAC CEs, but may multiplex the MAC CEs in the same MAC packet data unit (PDU) transport block (TB). As shown in Figure 10, UE 410-2 may be configured to send different periodicity MAC CE IUC request messages to UE 410-1 (at 1010 and 1030), and UE 410-1 may respond to each request using a MAC CE with different periodicity IUC information individually (at 1020 and 1040). UE 410-2 may not be allowed to send another IUC request until the response of the first request received or the IUC request time boundary expires. Communications 810, 820, 910, 920, 1010, and 1030 are shown in Figures 8-10 as being optional, as 410-1 may be configured to send communications 830, 930, 1020, and 1040 without receiving a request from UE 410-2.

[0057] 11-12 are diagrams of example latency bounds for IUC messaging according to one or more implementations described herein. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of latency bounds for IUC messages. As described herein, IUC request messages and IUC response messages (sometimes referred to herein as "IUC information messages") may be coupled or dependent on one another, such that, for example, an IUC information message responding to an IUC request message is sent and received within a specified duration. An IUC information message received after the specified duration is invalid.

[0058] The IUC request message may include a resource selection window in which the UE 410-2 may select resources for communicating with the UE 410-1 based on the IUC information message. As shown, the resource selection window may include a start time (Time_A) and an end time (Time_B). In some implementations, the UE 410-2 and / or the UE 410-1 may determine a latency boundary or latency point endpoint based on the earliest value of the resource selection window (e.g., Time_A). In some implementations, the latency boundary may be configured by RRC signaling. When the latency is already configured via RRC and the resource selection window is available, the UE 410-2 and / or the UE 410-1 may determine a latency boundary or latency endpoint based on the duration of the configured latency measured from Time_0 and / or the start time of the selection window, depending on which is earlier or later. In some implementations, the UE 410-1 may be configured to select the earlier of Time_A and Time_0 as the latency bound such that the UE may ensure that the resources included in the IUC information message are received by the UE 410-2 by the time the resource selection window begins. In some other implementations, the UE 410-1 may be configured to select the later of Time_A and Time_0 as the latency bound to allow the UE 410-1 to have enough time to generate accurate IUC information based on sufficient sensing history, which may involve waiting a maximum tolerable latency for transmitting the IUC information message.

[0059] 12 is an illustration of an example of latency bounds for IUC messages, including processing gaps. As described herein, IUC request messages and IUC response messages (sometimes referred to herein as "IUC information messages") may be coupled or dependent on one another, such that, for example, an IUC information message responding to an IUC request message is sent and received within a specified duration. An IUC information message received after the specified duration is invalid.

[0060] The processing gap may include the duration required by the request for the UE 410-2 to receive and process the IUC information message, as described herein. In addition to one or more of the latency bounding techniques described above, the latency bound may include the start time of the resource window (Time_A) minus the processing gap. This may help ensure that the requesting UE 410-2 can receive and process the IUC information message before the resource selection window.

[0061] 13-14 are diagrams of example IUC messaging and interactions 1300 and 1400 with DRX, according to one or more implementations described herein. As shown in FIG. 13, UE 410-2 may communicate (at 1310) a MAC CE IUC request to UE 410-1. If SL DRX is used at UE 410-2 to transmit the IUC request to UE 410-1, receipt of the IUC request may implement additional active time for UE 410-2. The additional active time may be from the time UE 410-1 receives the IUC request (T_0) to the expiration of the IUC boundary (e.g., T_0+IUC_BOUND). Thus, since UE 410-2 is assumed to be active during the IUC boundary, UE 410-1 may transmit (at 1320) a MAC CE IUC information message within the IUC delay boundary. Upon receiving the MAC CE IUC information, the UE 410-2 may transition to DRX inactive for the remainder of the IUC delay bound.

[0062] Referring now to FIG. 14, the UE 410-2 may communicate (at 1410) a MAC CE IUC request to the UE 410-1. If SL DRX is used at the UE 410-2 to transmit the IUC request to the UE 410-1, upon receipt of the IUC request, an additional active time may be implemented by the UE 410-2. The additional active time may be from the time (T_0) that the UE 410-1 receives the IUC request to the expiration of the IUC boundary (e.g., T_0+IUC_BOUND). Thus, since the UE 410-2 is assumed to be active during the IUC boundary, the UE 410-1 may transmit (at 1420) a MAC CE IUC information message within the IUC delay boundary. As shown in FIG. 14, the IUC information may be transmitted along with the SL DATA. Receiving the SL DATA may cause the UE 410-2 to remain in the SL active state, as the SL DATA may cause the UE 410-2 to subsequently start a SL-DRX inactivity timer.

[0063] In a scenario where SL DRX is used at the UE 410-2 for autonomous transmission of IUC information to the UE 410-2 (e.g., without a request from the UE 410-2), the UE 410-1 may do so when the UE 410-2 is in a DRX active state (e.g., without an extended DRX active state as described above with reference to Figures 13-14). Other factors such as a high channel busy ratio (CBR) or a high link packet error rate (PER) may also determine if / when the UE 410-1 uses autonomous transmission to transmit the IUC information. Additionally or alternatively, when the IUC information does not indicate periodicity, the UE 410-1 may assume a single use indicator or a one-time indicator of the resources. Additionally or alternatively, the UE 410-1 may only indicate preferred resource slots that are within the DRX active time of the UE 410-2 (e.g., when the onDuration timer is running).

[0064] In a scenario where SL DRX is used in the UE 410-1 for transmission from the UE 410-2 to the UE 410-2, the UE 410-1 may share (indicate preferred resources) only resources that are within the DRX active time of the UE 410-1 (e.g., when the onDuration timer is running). In such an implementation, the UE 410-1 may only consider its active time for the peer UE 410-2 in the SL-DRX unicast configuration (e.g., for transmission only to the UE 410-2 instead of one or more other UEs). A unicast scenario may include a UE transmitting a message or signal to a specific UE, as opposed to multiple UEs. Alternatively, when it cannot find preferred resources in this DRX configuration or the resources are insufficient, the UE 410-1 may include resources (e.g., resources that can be used to transmit to multiple UEs) that are within the active time of the UE 410-1's SL DRX configuration for other peer UEs and / or the UE 410-1 for broadcast / groupcast traffic.

[0065] FIG. 15 is a diagram of an example 1500 of IUC messaging and interaction with DRX, according to one or more implementations described herein. To enable one or more techniques described herein, Mode 1 UE 410-1 support for requesting SL grants from a gNB may be considered. Mode 1 SL may include scenarios in which a base station may allocate resources for SL communication. The UE 410-1 may add an additional DRX "active time" based on the time boundary of the IUC request message for the UE 410-2's DRX active time, and the UE 410-1's serving base station 422 may not be aware of the change in the UE 410-2's DRX active time. Thus, the base station 422 may still allocate a "late" SL grant to match the UE 410-2's old DRX active time. The example 1500 includes techniques to address this issue and scenarios, including a SL Buffer Status Report (BSR) mechanism.

[0066] As shown, the base station 422 may provide (at 1510) an RRC configuration to the UE 410-1 indicating that a logical channel group (LCG) (e.g., an LCG with an ID of “X”) is DRX exempt. This may mean that the LCG may be used to override the base station 422’s DRX mechanism for mode 1 resource allocation. The UE 410-1 may receive (at 1520) a MAC CE IUC request from the UE 410-2. The UE 410-1 may send (at 1530) a SL BSR to the base station 422 indicating the LCG ID along with an appropriate buffer size (e.g., buffer size N). The buffer size may correspond to at least the amount of data to be transmitted in the sidelink associated with the logical channel ID used by the IUC MAC CE. The base station 422 may then respond (at 1540) to the UE 410-1 with a Mode 1 PDCCH: SL Grant Assignment message. This may be done without considering the SL destination DRX configuration since the LCG ID is designated for "DRX exemption". The LCG ID may be configured to include the SL logical channel (LCH) priority for the SL MAC CE. Additionally or alternatively, once the SL grant is received, the UE 410-1 may proceed by providing (at 1550) a MAC CE IUC information message to the UE 410-2 according to the boundary delay of the IUC request message. In some implementations, the technique described in FIG. 15 may be used for any Mode 1 SL grant issuance when the base station 422 is unable to track the DRX active time of the SL destination, which may not be limited to the IUC procedure.

[0067] 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of components of a device according to one or more implementations described herein. In some implementations, the device 1600 may include application circuitry 1602, baseband circuitry 1604, RF circuitry 1606, Front-End Module (FEM) circuitry 1608, one or more antennas 1610, and Power Management Circuitry (PMC) 1612 coupled together as at least shown. The components of the device 1600 shown may be included in a UE or a RAN node. In some implementations, the device 1600 may include fewer elements (e.g., a RAN node may not utilize application circuitry 1602 and instead include a processor / controller to process IP data received from a CN, such as a 5GC 130 or an evolved packet core (EPC)). In some implementations, device 1600 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory / storage, a display, a camera, sensors (including one or more temperature sensors, such as a single temperature sensor, multiple temperature sensors at different locations within device 1600, etc.), or input / output (I / O) interfaces. In other implementations, the components described below may be included in two or more devices (e.g., the circuitry described above may be included separately in two or more devices in a Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementation).

[0068] The application circuitry 1602 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 1602 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor may be coupled to or may include memory / storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 1600. In some implementations, the processor of the application circuitry 1602 may process IP data packets received from an EPC.

[0069] The baseband circuitry 1604 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 1604 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1606 and generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1606. The baseband circuitry 1604 may interface with the application circuitry 1602 for generating and processing baseband signals and controlling the operation of the RF circuitry 1606. For example, in some implementations, the baseband circuitry 1604 may include a 3G baseband processor 1604A, a 4G baseband processor 1604B, a 5G baseband processor 1604C, or another baseband processor(s) 1604D for other existing, developing, or future generations (e.g., 2G, 6G, etc.). The baseband circuitry 1604 (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors 1604A-D) can handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more wireless networks via the RF circuitry 1606. In another implementation, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 1604A-D can be included in modules stored in the memory 1604G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 1604E. The radio control functions can include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some implementations, the modulation / demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1604 can include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functionality. In some implementations, the encoding / decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1604 may include convolutional, tail-biting convolutional, turbo, Viterbi, or Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functionality.The implementation of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functionality is not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in alternative implementations.

[0070] In some implementations, the baseband circuitry 1604 may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 1604F. The audio DSP(s) 1604F may include elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and in other implementations may include other suitable processing elements. The components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or in some implementations may be located on the same circuit board. In some implementations, some or all of the components of the baseband circuitry 1604 and the application circuitry 1602 may be implemented together, such as on a System On a Chip (SOC).

[0071] In some implementations, the baseband circuitry 1604 can provide communications compatible with one or more wireless technologies. For example, in some implementations, the baseband circuitry 1604 can support communications with NG-RAN, Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wireless personal area networks (WPANs), etc. Implementations in which the baseband circuitry 1604 is configured to support wireless communications of two or more wireless protocols can be referred to as multimode baseband circuitry.

[0072] The RF circuitry 1606 can enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation over a non-solid medium. In various implementations, the RF circuitry 1606 can include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuitry 1606 can include a receive signal path that can include circuitry to downconvert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1608 and provide a baseband signal to the baseband circuitry 1604. The RF circuitry 1606 can also include a transmit signal path that can include circuitry to upconvert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 1604 and provide an RF output signal to the FEM circuitry 1608 for transmission.

[0073] In some implementations, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1606 can include mixer circuitry 1606A, amplifier circuitry 1606B, and filter circuitry 1606C. In some implementations, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1606 can include filter circuitry 1606C and mixer circuitry 1606A. The RF circuitry 1606 can also include combiner circuitry 1606D that combines frequencies used by the mixer circuitry 1606A of the receive and transmit signal paths. In some implementations, the mixer circuitry 1606A of the receive signal path can be configured to downconvert the RF signal received from the FEM circuitry 1608 based on a combined frequency provided by the combiner circuitry 1606D. The amplifier circuitry 1606B can be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and the filter circuitry 1606C may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal can be provided to the baseband circuitry 1604 for further processing. In some implementations, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, although this is not a requirement. In some implementations, the mixer circuitry 1606A of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, although the scope of the implementation is not limited in this respect.

[0074] In some implementations, the mixer circuitry 1606A of the transmit signal path can be configured to upconvert an input baseband signal based on a synthesis frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1606D to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuitry 1608. The baseband signal may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1604 and may be filtered by the filter circuitry 1606C.

[0075] In some implementations, the mixer circuitry 1606A in the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1606A in the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and quadrature up-conversion, respectively. In some implementations, the mixer circuitry 1606A in the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1606A in the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some implementations, the mixer circuitry 1606A in the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 2006A may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some implementations, the mixer circuitry 1606A in the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1606A in the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0076] In some implementations, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of implementations is not limited in this respect. In some alternative implementations, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative implementations, the RF circuitry 1606 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and the baseband circuitry 1604 may include a digital baseband interface for communicating with the RF circuitry 1606.

[0077] In some dual mode implementations, separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals in each spectrum, although the scope of implementations is not limited in this respect.

[0078] In some implementations, the synthesizer circuitry 1606D may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of implementations is not limited in this respect, as other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuitry 1606D may be a synthesizer that includes a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0079] The combiner circuitry 1606D can be configured to combine, based on a frequency input and a divider control input, an output frequency used by the mixer circuitry 1606A of the RF circuitry 1606. In some implementations, the combiner circuitry 1606D may be a fractional N / N+1 combiner.

[0080] In some implementations, the frequency input may be provided by a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), although this is not a requirement. The divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 1604 or the application circuitry 1602, depending on the desired output frequency. In some implementations, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by the application circuitry 1602.

[0081] The synthesizer circuitry 1606D of the RF circuitry 1606 may include a divider, a Delay-Locked Loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some implementations, the divider may be a Dual Modulus Divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a Digital Phase Accumulator (DPA). In some implementations, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on the implementation) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example implementations, the DLL may include a set of cascaded tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these implementations, the delay elements may be configured to divide the VCO period into Nd equal-phase packets, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0082] In some implementations, the synthesizer circuitry 1606D can be configured to generate the carrier frequency as an output frequency, while in other implementations the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and can be used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases relative to each other. In some implementations, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some implementations, the RF circuitry 1606 can include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0083] The FEM circuitry 1608 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 1610, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1606 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 1608 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 1606, transmitted by one or more of the one or more antennas 1610. In various implementations, amplification through the transmit or receive signal path may occur only in the RF circuitry 1606, only in the FEM circuitry 1608, or in both the RF circuitry 1606 and the FEM circuitry 1608.

[0084] In some implementations, the FEM circuitry 1608 may include a TX / RX switch for switching between transmit and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include an LNA that amplifies a received RF signal and provides the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1606). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 1608 may include a power amplifier (PA) that amplifies an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuitry 1606) and one or more filters that generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 1610).

[0085] In some implementations, the PMC 1612 can manage the power provided to the baseband circuitry 1604. In particular, the PMC 1612 can control power source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. When the device 1600 can be powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE, the PMC 1612 can often be included. The PMC 1612 can increase power conversion efficiency while providing desirable packaging size and heat dissipation characteristics.

[0086] 16 shows the PMC 1612 coupled only to the baseband circuitry 1604. However, in other implementations, the PMC 1612 may be additionally or alternatively coupled to other components, including but not limited to the application circuitry 1602, the RF circuitry 1606, or the FEM circuitry 1608, to perform similar power management operations.

[0087] In some implementations, the PMC 1612 can control or otherwise be a part of various power saving mechanisms of the device 1600. For example, if the device 1600 is in an RRC_Connected state where it is still connected to a RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, after a period of inactivity the device can enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state the device 1600 can save power by powering down for short intervals of time.

[0088] If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the device 1600 can transition to an RRC_Idle state, where it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 1600 enters a very low power state and periodically wakes up to listen to the network and perform paging, then powers down again. The device 1600 cannot receive data in this state. It can transition back to the RRC_Connected state to receive data.

[0089] In an additional power saving mode, the device may be allowed to be unavailable from the network for periods longer than the paging interval (which can range from a few seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is unable to reach the network and may power down completely. Any data transmitted during this time will be significantly delayed, but the delay is deemed acceptable.

[0090] The processor of the application circuitry 1602 and the processor of the baseband circuitry 1604 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuitry 1604 may be used alone or in combination to execute layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functionality, and the processor of the baseband circuitry 1604 may further execute layer 4 functionality (e.g., a Transmission Communication Protocol (TCP) layer and a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) layer) utilizing data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers. As described herein above, layer 3 may include an RRC layer, which is described in more detail below. As described herein above, layer 2 may include a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, which are described in more detail below. As mentioned herein above, Layer 1 may include the Physical (PHY) layer of the UE / RAN node, which is described in more detail below.

[0091] 17 is a diagram of an example interface of a baseband circuitry according to one or more implementations described herein. As described above, the baseband circuitry 1604 of FIG. 16 may include processors 1604A-1604E and a memory 1604G utilized by these processors. Each of the processors 1604A-1604E may include a memory interface 1704A-1704E, respectively, that transmits / receives data to / from the memory 1604G.

[0092] The baseband circuitry 1604 may further include one or more interfaces for communicatively coupling with other circuits / devices, such as a memory interface 1712 (e.g., an interface for sending / receiving data to / from memory external to the baseband circuitry 1604), an application circuitry interface 1714 (e.g., an interface for sending / receiving data to / from the application circuitry 1602 of FIG. 16), an RF circuitry interface 1716 (e.g., an interface for sending / receiving data to / from the RF circuitry 1606 of FIG. 16), a wireless hardware connection interface 1718 (e.g., an interface for sending / receiving data to / from near field communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components), and a power management interface 1720 (e.g., an interface for sending / receiving power or control signals to / from the PMC 1612).

[0093] 18 is a diagram of a control plane protocol stack, according to some embodiments. In this embodiment, a control plane 1800 is shown as a communications protocol stack between network devices or entities.

[0094] The PHY layer 1801 may transmit or receive information used by the MAC layer 1802 over one or more air interfaces. The PHY layer 1801 may further perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers such as the RRC layer 1805. The PHY layer 1801 may also perform error detection on transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of transport channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels, and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna processing.

[0095] The MAC layer 1802 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC service data units (SDUs) from one or more logical channels onto a transport block (TB) delivered to the PHY via the transport channel, demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from a transport block (TB) delivered to the PHY via the transport channel onto one or more logical channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction with hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), and logical channel prioritization.

[0096] The RLC layer 1803 may operate in multiple operating modes, including Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and / or Acknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC layer 1803 may perform upper layer protocol data unit (PDU) transfer, automatic repeat request (ARQ) error correction for AM data transfer, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfer. The RLC layer 1803 may also perform resegmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transfer, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfer, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transfer, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfer, detect protocol errors for AM data transfer, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0097] The PDCP layer 1804 may perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SN), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs upon lower layer re-establishment, remove duplicate lower layer SDUs upon lower layer re-establishment for radio bearers mapped onto RLC AM, cipher and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-based discarding of data, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0098] The main services and functions of the RRC layer 1805 may include broadcasting of system information (e.g., contained in a Master Information Block (MIB) or System Information Block (SIB) for the non-access stratum (NAS)), broadcasting of system information for the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of RRC connections (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, inter-Radio Access Technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reports. The MIB and SIB may include one or more information elements (IEs), which may each include individual data fields or data structures.

[0099] The UE and RAN nodes may exchange control plane data using a Uu interface (e.g., an NR interface) via a protocol stack including a PHY layer 1801, a MAC layer 1802, an RLC layer 1803, a PDCP layer 1804, and an RRC layer 1805.

[0100] Non-Access Stratum (NAS) protocols 1806 form the highest layer of the control plane between the UE and the Core Network (CN). The NAS protocols 1806 may support UE mobility and session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE and the network.

[0101] 19 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods described herein, according to some example implementations. Specifically, FIG. 19 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1900, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1910, one or more memory / storage devices 1920, and one or more communication resources 1930, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1940. In implementations in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1902 may execute to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices for utilizing the hardware resources 1900.

[0102] Processor 1910 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, processor 1912 and processor 1914.

[0103] The memory / storage device 1920 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 1920 may include any type of volatile or non-random access, such as, but not limited to, dynamic volatile memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0104] Communications resources 1930 may include interconnect or network interface components or other suitable devices for communicating with one or more peripherals 1904 or one or more databases 1906 over network 1908. For example, communications resources 1930 may include wired communications components (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communications components, NFC components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communications components.

[0105] The instructions 1950 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code for causing at least one of the processors 1910 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1950 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 1910 (e.g., within a processor's cache memory), within the memory / storage device 1920, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 1950 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1900 from any combination of the peripherals 1904 or the database 1906. Thus, the memory of the processor 1910, the memory / storage device 1920, the peripherals 1904, and the database 1906 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0106] Examples of the present specification may include subject matter such as a method, means for performing actions or blocks of the method, and at least one machine-readable medium including executable instructions that, when executed by a machine (e.g., a processor with memory (e.g., a processor), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), etc.), cause the machine to perform the actions of a method or apparatus or system for simultaneous communication using multiple communication techniques according to the described implementations and examples.

[0107] In example 1, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, a baseband processor of a user equipment (UE) may comprise one or more processors configured to communicate a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) to other UEs via a sidelink (SL) transmission, the MAC CE including an inter-UE coordination (IUC) information message associated with a time domain validity and indicating at least one wireless resource that other UEs are permitted to use to communicate with the UE.

[0108] In Example 2, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the IUC information message is transmitted in response to receiving a MAC CE IUC request message from another UE. In Example 3, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the time domain validity includes an indication of a one-time resource by not including a periodicity of the wireless resource. In Example 4, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the time domain validity includes a duration during which at least one wireless resource is valid for communicating with the UE.

[0109] In example 5, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the time domain validity includes a plurality of validity windows, each validity window of the plurality of validity windows includes a duration during which the at least one wireless resource is valid for communicating with the UE. In example 6, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the at least one wireless resource includes a plurality of wireless resources, each wireless resource of the plurality of wireless resources having a different periodicity and a same time domain validity. In example 6, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the at least one wireless resource includes a plurality of wireless resources, each wireless resource of the plurality of wireless resources having a different periodicity and associated with a different time domain validity.

[0110] In example 8, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the time domain validity corresponds to a request for a time domain duration indicated in an IUC request message from another UE. In example 9, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the time domain validity is configured by a base station communicating with the UE. In example 10, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the time domain validity is configured by the other UE via PC5 radio resource control (RRC) signaling. In example 11, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the at least one wireless resource includes a plurality of wireless resources included in the MAC CE, and each wireless resource of the plurality of wireless resources has a different periodicity.

[0111] In example 12, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the at least one wireless resource includes a plurality of wireless resources included in different MAC CEs. In example 13, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the IUC information message is communicated to the other UE within a latency boundary during which the other UE is configured to receive the IUC information message, the latency boundary including a time requirement for responding to an IUC request message including a resource selection window from the other UE. In example 14, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the latency boundary is determined using a configured time value in a Uu RRC by the base station or a PC5-RRC by the other UE.

[0112] In example 15, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the latency boundary is determined by comparing a configured time value to a resource selection window. In example 16, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the latency boundary includes a processing gap corresponding to a duration for other UEs to process the IUC information message. In example 17, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the processing gap is configured by the base station. In example 18, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the latency boundary includes an extended discontinuous reception (DRX) active time of the other UEs.

[0113] In example 19, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, at least one wireless resource is selected based on the active DRX time of the other UE to communicate the MAC CE. In example 20, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, the MAC CE is communicated based on a sidelink (SL) grant from the base station.

[0114] In example 21, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, a user equipment (UE) includes a memory device including instructions and one or more processors, which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to communicate a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) to other UEs via a sidelink (SL) transmission, the MAC CE including an inter-UE coordination (IUC) information message indicating at least one wireless resource associated with a time domain validity that the other UE is permitted to use to communicate with the UE. In example 22, which may also include one or more of the examples described herein, a method performed by the user equipment (UE) may include communicating a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) to other UEs via a sidelink (SL) transmission, the MAC CE including an inter-UE coordination (IUC) information message indicating at least one wireless resource associated with a time domain validity that the other UE is permitted to use to communicate with the UE.

[0115] The above description of illustrated examples, implementations, aspects, etc. of the disclosed subject matter, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosed aspects to the precise forms disclosed. While specific examples, implementations, aspects, etc. have been described herein for purposes of illustration, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various modifications are possible that are considered to be within the scope of such examples, implementations, aspects, etc.

[0116] In this regard, although the disclosed subject matter has been described in conjunction with various examples, implementations, aspects, etc. and corresponding drawings, it should be understood that other similar aspects can be used, or modifications and additions can be made to the disclosed subject matter, to perform the same, similar, alternative, or substitute function of the subject matter without departing from the disclosed subject matter. Thus, the disclosed subject matter should not be limited to any single example, implementation, aspect described herein, but rather should be construed according to the breadth and scope of the following appended claims.

[0117] In particular, with respect to the various functions performed by the above-described components or structures (assemblies, devices, circuits, systems, etc.), the terms used to describe such components (including those related to "means") are intended, unless otherwise specified, to correspond to (e.g., be functionally equivalent to) any component or structure that performs the particular function of the described component, even if it is not structurally equivalent to a disclosed structure that performs the function of the exemplary implementations of the invention illustrated herein. Moreover, while a particular feature may be disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of other implementations as may be desirable and advantageous for any given application or particular application.

[0118] The term "or" as used herein is intended to mean an inclusive "or" rather than an exclusive "or". That is, unless otherwise specified or clear from the context, "X uses A or B" is intended to mean any of all possible permutations. That is, "X uses A", "X uses B", or "X uses both A and B", each of the above cases satisfies "X uses A or B". In addition, the articles "a" and "an" used in this application and the appended claims should generally be interpreted to mean "one or more" unless otherwise specified or clear from the context to refer to the singular form. Furthermore, when "including", "includes", "having", "has", "with", or variations thereof are used in either the detailed description and the claims, these terms are intended to be inclusive in the same manner as the term "comprising". Further, in situations where one or more numbered items are described (e.g., "first X," "second X," etc.), generally these one or more numbered items may be separate or identical, although in some situations the context may indicate that one or more numbered items are separate or identical.

[0119] It is well understood that use of personal information should comply with privacy policies and practices generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining user privacy. In particular, personal information data should be managed and handled in a manner that minimizes the risk of unintended or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized uses should be clearly indicated to users.

Claims

1. 1. A baseband processor for a user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more processors, the one or more processors configured to communicate a Medium Access Control (MAC) control element (CE) to other UEs via a Side Link (SL) transmission; The MAC CE includes an Inter-UE Coordination (IUC) information message indicating at least one wireless resource associated with a time domain validity that the other UE is permitted to use to communicate with the UE.

2. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein the IUC information message is transmitted in response to receiving a MAC CE IUC request message from the other UE.

3. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein the time domain validity includes an indication of one-time resources by not including a periodicity of the wireless resource.

4. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein the time domain validity comprises a duration during which the at least one wireless resource is valid for communication with the UE.

5. 2. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the time domain validity comprises a plurality of validity windows, each validity window of the plurality of validity windows including a duration during which the at least one wireless resource is valid for communicating with the UE.

6. the at least one wireless resource includes a plurality of wireless resources, each wireless resource of the plurality of wireless resources having a different periodicity and a same time domain validity. The baseband processor of claim 1 .

7. 10. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the at least one wireless resource comprises a plurality of wireless resources, each wireless resource of the plurality of wireless resources having a different periodicity and associated with a different time domain validity.

8. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein the time domain validity corresponds to a request for the time domain duration indicated in an IUC request message from the other UE.

9. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein the time domain validity is configured by a base station in communication with the UE.

10. 2. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the time domain validity is configured by other UEs via PC5 Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

11. the at least one wireless resource includes a plurality of wireless resources included in the MAC CE, and each wireless resource of the plurality of wireless resources has a different periodicity; The baseband processor of claim 1 .

12. The at least one wireless resource includes a plurality of wireless resources included in different MAC CEs. The baseband processor of claim 1 .

13. 2. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the IUC information message is communicated to the other UE within a latency boundary within which the other UE is configured to receive the IUC information message, the latency boundary including a time requirement for responding to an IUC request message including a resource selection window from the other UE.

14. The baseband processor of claim 13, wherein the latency bound is determined using the configured time value in Uu RRC by a base station or PC5-RRC by the other UE.

15. The baseband processor of claim 14 , wherein the latency bound is determined by comparing the configured time value to the resource selection window.

16. The baseband processor of claim 13 , wherein the latency bound comprises a processing gap corresponding to a duration for the other UE to process the IUC information message.

17. The baseband processor of claim 16 , wherein the processing gap is configured by the base station.

18. The baseband processor of claim 13 , wherein the latency bound comprises an extended discontinuous reception (DRX) active time of the other UE.

19. The at least one wireless resource is selected and the MAC CE is communicated based on an active DRX time of the other UE. The baseband processor of claim 1 .

20. 16. The baseband processor of claim 15, wherein the MAC CE is communicated based on a sidelink (SL) grant from a base station.

21. A user equipment (UE), a memory device containing instructions; and one or more processors that execute the instructions, the instructions causing the one or more processors to: communicating a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) to other UEs via a sidelink (SL) transmission; The UE, wherein the MAC CE includes an Inter-UE Coordination (IUC) information message indicating at least one wireless resource associated with a time domain validity that the other UE is permitted to use to communicate with the UE.

22. 22. The UE of claim 21, wherein the IUC information message is sent in response to receiving a MAC CE IUC request message from the other UE.

23. 22. The UE of claim 21, wherein the time domain validity comprises a plurality of validity windows, each validity window of the plurality of validity windows including a duration during which the at least one wireless resource is valid for communication with the UE.

24. 1. A method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

1. A method comprising: communicating a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) to another UE via a sidelink (SL) transmission, the MAC CE comprising an Inter-UE Coordination (IUC) information message indicating at least one wireless resource associated with a time domain validity that the other UE is authorized to use to communicate with the UE.

25. 25. The method of claim 24, wherein the IUC information message is sent in response to receiving a MAC CE IUC request message from the other UE.

26. 25. The method of claim 24, wherein the time domain validity comprises a plurality of validity windows, each validity window of the plurality of validity windows including a duration during which the at least one wireless resource is valid for communication with the UE.

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