Sidelink Physical Layer Procedures

Abstract

The method determines the number of physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) symbols and the number of PSSCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) symbols occurring within a time slot used for scheduling. The PSSCH DMRS positions within the time slot are derived based on applying the PSSCH DMRS symbols and the PSSCH DMRS symbols to a lookup table. The number of PSSCH DMRS resource elements (REs) is calculated based on the PSSCH DMRS positions and the scheduled number of PSSCH subchannels. This number of PSSCH DMRS REs is used to determine the transport block size (TBS) to be included in the transmission via the sidelink channel.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates generally to wireless technologies, and more specifically to sidelink physical layer procedures. [Background technology]

[0002] Fifth generation mobile network (5G) is a wireless standard that aims to improve data transmission speeds, reliability, availability, etc. The standard, which is still under development, includes many details regarding various aspects of wireless communications, e.g., device-to-device (sidelink) communications. Summary of the Invention

[0003] While some agreements have been reached regarding communication protocols in a 5G environment, other issues remain unresolved. For example, this disclosure recognizes that for sidelink TBS calculation, the system (e.g., UE) can determine how to count the number of REs for PSSCH DMRS. Similarly, the system should properly prioritize uplink transmissions including sidelink HARQ and URLLC UCI. If an uplink transmission for a sidelink HARQ report to a gNB has time overlap with a URLLC UCI, one of them will be dropped since multiplexing is not supported. The decision on which one will be dropped depends on the prioritization between uplink transmissions for sidelink HARQ and URLLC UCI. Furthermore, the system should determine how to prioritize UL and SL transmissions when the UL transmission is a MsgA PUSCH or a PUSCH with sidelink HARQ. Finally, the system should properly determine the lower bound on the number of simultaneous PSFCH transmissions.

[0004] A method or apparatus is described that addresses the above problems, according to some embodiments, including those described in the preceding figures, e.g., Figures 6-9. The method may be performed by a device, e.g., user equipment (UE), that communicates with other UEs and / or base stations (e.g., gNBs).

[0005] A method and apparatus for a device that determines a physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource for a user equipment device and a base station are described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device selects a plurality of component carriers from a pool of available component carriers associated with a wireless link established between the user equipment device and the base station. In addition, the device selects a virtual component carrier from the plurality of component carriers. Furthermore, the device determines the physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource based on at least the virtual component carrier.

[0006] In a further embodiment, a non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions for causing one or more processing units to execute a method for determining physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for a user equipment device and a base station is described. In this embodiment, the method includes selecting a plurality of component carriers from a pool of available component carriers associated with a wireless link established between the user equipment device and the base station. Further, the method includes forming a virtual component channel from the plurality of component carriers. Further, the method includes determining the physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources based on at least the virtual component carriers.

[0007] In some other embodiments, the pool of available component carriers includes at least one component carrier from a licensed band and at least one component carrier from an unlicensed band. The method further comprises grouping the pool of available component carriers into a plurality of groups of component carriers and selecting one of the plurality of groups of component carriers as the plurality of component carriers. The method further comprises selecting one of the plurality of groups of component carriers using higher layer signaling.

[0008] In some embodiments, the method selects one of a plurality of groups of component carriers based at least on a medium access control (MAC) control element. Further, the MAC control element can be identified by a MAC protocol data unit subheader having a dedicated logical channel. The MAC control element can be either a fixed size or a plurality of groups of data. Further, the method can select one of a plurality of groups of component carriers based at least on a component carrier selection field transmitted to the user equipment device.

[0009] In a further embodiment, the method forms a virtual component carrier by aggregating bandwidths of multiple component carriers, the aggregating can use at least a frequency domain resource allocation field, the frequency domain resource allocation field being of variable size.

[0010] In some embodiments, a method is described for determining a physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource for a user equipment device and a base station. In some embodiments, the method selects a plurality of component carriers from a pool of available component carriers associated with a wireless link established between the user equipment device and the base station. Further, the method forms a virtual component carrier from the plurality of component carriers. Further, the method determines the physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource based on at least the virtual component carrier.

[0011] In some other embodiments, the pool of available component carriers includes at least one component carrier from a licensed band and at least one component carrier from an unlicensed band. The method further comprises grouping the pool of available component carriers into a plurality of groups of component carriers and selecting one of the plurality of groups of component carriers as the plurality of component carriers. In a further embodiment, the method forms a virtual component carrier by aggregating bandwidth of the plurality of component carriers.

[0012] In some embodiments, a user equipment device is described that includes at least one antenna and one radio. The at least one radio performs cellular communications using a radio access technology that establishes a wireless link with a base station. The user equipment device further includes at least one or more processors for selecting a plurality of component carriers from a pool of available component carriers associated with the wireless link established between the user equipment device and the base station, forming a virtual component carrier from the plurality of component carriers, and determining physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources based on at least the virtual component carrier. Additionally, the pool of available component carriers includes at least one component carrier from a licensed band and at least one component carrier from an unlicensed band. Furthermore, the one or more processors select the plurality of component carriers by grouping the pool of available component carriers into a plurality of groups of component carriers and selecting one of the plurality of groups of component carriers as the plurality of component carriers.

[0013] Other methods and devices are also described.

[0014] The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals indicate similar elements and in which: [Brief description of the drawings]

[0015] [Figure 1] 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system according to some embodiments. [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 illustrates uplink and sidelink communications according to some embodiments. [Diagram 3] 1 is an example block diagram of a UE according to some embodiments. [Figure 4] 1 is an example block diagram of a BS according to some embodiments. [Diagram 5] 1 is an example block diagram of a cellular communication circuit according to some embodiments. [Figure 6] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for determining a transport block size according to some embodiments. [Figure 7] FIG. 1 illustrates an example prioritization of sidelink capabilities in an uplink transmission according to some embodiments. [Figure 8] FIG. 1 illustrates an example prioritization of sidelink and uplink transmissions according to some embodiments. [Figure 9] 1 illustrates an exemplary determination of a lower bound for transmission according to some embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0016] A method and apparatus for a device that determines physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for a user equipment device and a base station is described. In the following description, numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough description of the embodiments of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present invention can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known components, structures and techniques are not shown in detail so as not to obscure the understanding of the present description.

[0017] Reference herein to "some embodiments" or "embodiments" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase "in some embodiments" in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiments.

[0018] In the following description and claims, the terms "coupled" and "connected," along with their derivatives, may be used. It should be understood that these terms are not intended as synonyms for each other. "Coupled" is used to indicate that two or more elements, which may or may not be in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, co-operate or interact with each other. "Connected" is used to indicate the establishment of communication between two or more elements that are coupled to each other.

[0019] The processes illustrated in the following figures are performed by processing logic that may include hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (such as that executed on a general-purpose computer system or dedicated machine), or a combination of both. Although the processes are described below in terms of some sequential operations, it should be understood that some of the operations described may be performed in different orders. Furthermore, some operations may be performed in parallel rather than sequentially.

[0020] The terms "server," "client," and "device" are intended to refer to data processing systems generally, rather than to any particular form factor of a server, client, and / or device.

[0021] A method and apparatus for a device that determines physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for a user equipment device and a base station are described. In some embodiments, the device is a user equipment device having a wireless link with the base station. In some embodiments, the wireless link is a fifth generation (5G) link. The device further groups and selects component carriers (CCs) from the wireless link, and determines a virtual CC from the selected group of CCs. The device can further perform physical downlink resource mapping based on an aggregate resource matching pattern of the group of CCs.

[0022] Figure 1 illustrates a simplified exemplary wireless communication system according to some embodiments. It should be noted that the system of Figure 1 is merely one example of a possible system, and that the features of the present disclosure may be implemented in any of a variety of systems, as desired.

[0023] As shown in the figure, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a base station 102A that communicates over a transmission medium with one or more user devices 106A, 106B, etc. through 106N. Each of the user devices may be referred to herein as a "user equipment" (UE). Accordingly, the user devices 106 are referred to as UEs or UE devices.

[0024] The base station (BS) 102A may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or a cell site (cellular base station) and may include hardware that enables wireless communication with the UEs 106A-106N.

[0025] A communication area (or coverage area) of a base station may be referred to as a "cell." The base station 102A and the UE 106 may be configured to communicate over a transmission medium using any of a variety of Radio Access Technologies (RATs), also referred to as wireless communication technologies or telecommunication standards, such as GSM (e.g., associated with a WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interface), UMTS, LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), 5G New Radio (5G NR), HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), etc. It should be noted that if the base station 102A is implemented in the context of LTE, the base station 102A may alternatively be referred to as an "eNodeB" or "eNB." It should be noted that if the base station 102A is implemented in the context of 5G NR, the base station 102A may alternatively be referred to as a "gNodeB" or "gNB."

[0026] As shown in the figure, the base station 102A may also be equipped to communicate with a network 100 (e.g., a cellular service provider's core network, a telecommunications network such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and / or the Internet, among other possibilities). Thus, the base station 102A may facilitate communications between user devices and / or between the user devices and the network 100. In particular, the cellular base station 102A may provide various telecommunications capabilities to the UE 106, such as voice, SMS, and / or data services.

[0027] Base station 102A and other similar base stations (such as base stations 102B...102N) operating according to the same or different cellular communication standards may thus be provided as a network of cells that can provide continuous or near-continuous overlapping services to UEs 106A-106N and similar devices over a geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

[0028] Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, the base station 102A may function as a "serving cell" for the UEs 106A-106N, and each UE 106 may also receive signals from (where possible within range of) one or more other cells (which may be provided by the base stations 102B-102N and / or any other base stations), which may be referred to as "neighboring cells." Such cells may also facilitate communication between user devices and / or between the user devices and the network 100. Such cells may include "macro" cells, "micro" cells, "pico" cells, and / or cells providing various other granularity of service area size. For example, the base stations 102A-102B shown in FIG. 1 may be macro cells, and the base station 102N may be a micro cell. Other configurations are possible.

[0029] In some embodiments, the base station 102A may be a next generation base station, such as a 5G New Radio (5G NR) base station, or "gNB." In some embodiments, the gNB may be connected to a conventional Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network and / or an NR Core (NRC) network. In addition, a gNB cell may include one or more Transition and Reception Points (TRPs). In addition, a UE capable of operating according to 5G NR may be connected to one or more TRPs in one or more gNBs.

[0030] It should be noted that the UE 106 may be capable of communicating using multiple wireless communication standards. For example, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate using at least one cellular communication protocol (e.g., GSM, UMTS (e.g., associated with a WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interface), LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR, HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), etc.) in addition to wireless networking (e.g., Wi-Fi) and / or peer-to-peer wireless communication protocols (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi peer-to-peer, etc.). The UE 106 may additionally or alternatively be configured to communicate using one or more Global Navigational Satellite Systems (GNSS, e.g., GPS or GLONASS), one or more mobile television broadcast standards (e.g., ATSC-M / H or DVB-H), and / or any other wireless communication protocols, if desired. Other combinations of wireless communication standards (including three or more wireless communication standards) are also possible.

[0031] 2 illustrates user equipments 106A and 106B that can communicate directly with each other (also known as device-to-device or sidelink). Sidelink communication can utilize dedicated sidelink channels and sidelink protocols to facilitate direct communication between the devices. For example, a sidelink control channel (PSCCH) can be used for actual data transmission between the devices, a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) can be used to carry sidelink control information (SCI), a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) can be used for HARQ feedback information, and a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) can be used for synchronization. Further details are discussed in other sections.

[0032] According to some embodiments, the UE 106A may also communicate with the base station 102 via uplink and downlink communications. Each UE may be a device with cellular communication capabilities, such as a mobile phone, a handheld device, a computer, or a tablet, or virtually any type of wireless device.

[0033] Each of the UEs may include a processor configured to execute program instructions stored in memory. The UEs may perform any of the method embodiments described herein by executing such stored instructions. Alternatively or in addition, the UEs may include a programmable hardware element, such as a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), configured to perform any of the method embodiments described herein, or any portion of any of the method embodiments described herein.

[0034] A UE may include one or more antennas for communicating using one or more wireless communication protocols or technologies. In some embodiments, the UE may be configured to communicate, for example, using CDMA2000 (1xRTT / 1xEV-DO / HRPD / eHRPD) or LTE using a single shared radio, and / or using GSM or LTE using a single shared radio. The shared radio may be coupled to a single antenna or to multiple antennas (e.g., for MIMO) to perform wireless communication. In general, a radio may include any combination of a baseband processor, analog RF signal processing circuitry (e.g., including filters, mixers, oscillators, amplifiers, etc.), or digital processing circuitry (e.g., for digital modulation and other digital processing). Similarly, a radio may implement one or more receive and transmit chains using the hardware described above. For example, the UE 106 may share one or more portions of the receive and / or transmit chains between multiple wireless communication technologies, such as those described above.

[0035] In some embodiments, the UE may include a separate transmit and / or receive chain (e.g., including separate antennas and other radio components) for each wireless communication protocol that the UE is configured to communicate using. As a further possibility, the UE may include one or more radios that are shared among multiple wireless communication protocols and one or more radios that are used only by a single wireless communication protocol. For example, the UE may include a shared radio for communicating using either LTE or 5G NR (or LTE or 1xRTT, or LTE or GSM), and a separate radio for communicating using each of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Other configurations are possible.

[0036] FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary simplified block diagram of a communication device 106, according to some embodiments. It should be noted that the communication device block diagram of FIG. 3 is merely one example of a possible communication device. According to an embodiment, the communication device 106 may be a UE device, a mobile device or station, a wireless device or station, a desktop computer or computing device, a mobile computing device (e.g., a laptop, notebook, or portable computing device), a tablet, and / or a combination of devices, among other devices. As shown in the figure, the communication device 106 may include a set of components 300 configured to perform a core function. For example, the set of components may be implemented as a System On Chip (SOC) that may include portions for various purposes. Alternatively, the set of components 300 may be implemented as separate components or groups of components for various purposes. The set of components 300 may be (e.g., communicatively coupled, directly or indirectly) to various other circuits of the communication device 106.

[0037] For example, communication device 106 may include various types of memory (including, for example, NAND flash 310), input / output interfaces such as connector I / F 320 (e.g., for connecting to a computer system, a dock, a charging station, input devices such as a microphone, a camera, a keyboard, output devices such as a speaker, etc.), a display 360 that may be integrated with communication device 106 or may be external to communication device 106, cellular communication circuitry 330 for 5G NR, LTE, GSM, etc., and near-medium range wireless communication circuitry 329 (e.g., Bluetooth and WLAN circuitry). In some embodiments, communication device 106 may include wired communication circuitry (not shown), such as a network interface card for Ethernet.

[0038] The cellular communication circuitry 330 may be communicatively coupled (e.g., directly or indirectly) to one or more antennas, such as antennas 335 and 336, as shown. The near-medium range wireless communication circuitry 329 may also be communicatively coupled (e.g., directly or indirectly) to one or more antennas, such as antennas 337 and 338, as shown. Alternatively, the near-medium range wireless communication circuitry 329 may be communicatively coupled (e.g., directly or indirectly) to antennas 335 and 336 in addition to or instead of being communicatively coupled (e.g., directly or indirectly) to antennas 337 and 338. The near-medium range wireless communication circuitry 329 and / or the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include multiple receive chains and / or multiple transmit chains for receiving and / or transmitting multiple spatial streams, such as in a Multiple-Input Multiple Output (MIMO) configuration.

[0039] In some embodiments, as described further below, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include (e.g., communicatively include and / or are directly or indirectly coupled to dedicated processors and / or radios) dedicated receive chains for multiple RATs (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR). Additionally, in some embodiments, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include a single transmit chain that may be switched between radios dedicated to a particular RAT. For example, a first radio may be dedicated to a first RAT, e.g., LTE, and may communicate with a dedicated receive chain and a transmit chain shared with an additional radio, e.g., a second radio, which may be dedicated to a second RAT, e.g., 5G NR, and may communicate with a dedicated receive chain and a shared transmit chain.

[0040] Communications device 106 may also include and / or be configured for use with one or more user interface elements, which may include any of a variety of elements, such as a display 360 (which may be a touchscreen display), a keyboard (which may be a separate keyboard or may be implemented as part of the touchscreen display), a mouse, a microphone and / or speaker, one or more cameras, one or more buttons, and / or any of a variety of other elements capable of providing information to a user and / or receiving or interpreting user input.

[0041] The communication device 106 may further include one or more smart cards 345 that include Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) functionality, such as one or more UICC(s) (Universal Integrated Circuit Card(s)) cards 345.

[0042] As shown, the SOC 300 may include a processor(s) 302 that may execute program instructions for the communication device 106, and a display circuit 304 that may perform graphic processing and provide display signals to a display 360. The processor(s) 302 may be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 340 that may be configured to receive addresses from the processor(s) 302 and translate those addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 306, read only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310) and / or other circuits or devices, such as the display circuit 304, the near field communication circuit 229, the cellular communication circuit 330, the connector I / F 320, and / or the display 360. The MMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protection and page table translation or setup. In some embodiments, the MMU 340 may be included as part of the processor(s) 302 .

[0043] As mentioned above, the communication device 106 may be configured to communicate using wireless and / or wired communication circuitry. The communication device 106 may also be configured to determine physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for the user equipment device and the base station. Furthermore, the communication device 106 may be configured to group and select CCs from the wireless link and determine a virtual CC from the selected group of CCs. The wireless device may also be configured to perform physical downlink resource mapping based on an aggregate resource matching pattern of the group of CCs.

[0044] As described herein, the communication device 106 may include hardware and software components for implementing the above features for determining physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for the communication device 106 and the base station. The processor 302 of the communication device 106 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored in a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 302 of the communication device 106 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein in conjunction with any one or more of the other components 300, 304, 306, 310, 320, 329, 330, 340, 345, 350, 360.

[0045] Additionally, as described herein, the processor 302 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, the processor 302 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the processor 302. Additionally, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the processor(s) 302.

[0046] Further, as described herein, the cellular communication circuitry 330 and the near field communication circuitry 329 may each include one or more processing elements. In other words, one or more processing elements may be included in the cellular communication circuitry 330, and similarly, one or more processing elements may be included in the near field communication circuitry 329. Thus, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the cellular communication circuitry 330. In addition, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the cellular communication circuitry 230. Similarly, the near field communication circuitry 329 may include one or more ICs configured to perform the functions of the near field communication circuitry 32. In addition, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the near field communication circuitry 329.

[0047] 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a base station 102 according to some embodiments. It should be noted that the base station of FIG. 4 is merely one example of a possible base station. As shown, the base station 102 may include a processor(s) 404 that may execute program instructions for the base station 102. The processor(s) 404 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 440 that may be configured to receive addresses from the processor(s) 404 and translate those addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read-only memory (ROM) 450) or other circuits or devices.

[0048] The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. The network port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network and provide access to the telephone network to multiple devices, such as the UE devices 106, as described above in Figures 1 and 2.

[0049] Network port 470 (or additional network ports) may also or alternatively be configured to couple to a cellular network, such as, for example, a core network of a cellular service provider. The core network may provide mobility-related services and / or other services to multiple devices, such as UE device 106. In some cases, network port 470 may be coupled to a telephone network via the core network and / or the core network may provide telephone services (e.g., among other UE devices serviced by the cellular service provider).

[0050] In some embodiments, the base station 102 may be a next generation base station, e.g., a 5G New Radio (5G NR) base station, or "gNB." In such embodiments, the base station 102 may be connected to a conventional evolved packet core (EPC) network and / or an NR core (NRC) network. In addition, the base station 102 may be considered a 5G NR cell and may include one or more transition and reception points (TRPs). In addition, a UE capable of operating according to 5G NR may be connected to one or more TRPs in one or more gNBs.

[0051] The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434, and possibly multiple antennas. The at least one antenna 434 may be configured to operate as a wireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate with the UE device 106 via the radio 430. The antenna 434 communicates with the radio 430 via a communication chain 432. The communication chain 432 may be a receive chain, a transmit chain, or both. The radio 430 may be configured to communicate via various wireless communication standards, including, but not limited to, 5G NR, LTE, LTE-A, GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, Wi-Fi, etc.

[0052] The base station 102 may be configured to communicate wirelessly using multiple wireless communication standards. In some cases, the base station 102 may include multiple radios that may enable the base station 102 to communicate according to multiple wireless communication technologies. For example, in one possibility, the base station 102 may include an LTE radio for performing communications according to LTE and a 5G NR radio for performing communications according to 5G NR. In such a case, the base station 102 may be capable of operating as both an LTE base station and a 5G NR base station. In another possibility, the base station 102 may include a multimode radio that may perform communications according to any of multiple wireless communication technologies (e.g., 5G NR and Wi-Fi, LTE and Wi-Fi, LTE and UMTS, LTE and CDMA2000, UMTS and GSM, etc.).

[0053] As described further herein below, the BS 102 may include hardware and software components for implementing or supporting the implementation of the features described herein. The processor 404 of the base station 102 may be configured to implement or support some or all of the methods described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored in a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively, the processor 404 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or as a combination thereof. Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 404 of the BS 102 may be configured to implement or support some or all of the features described herein together with one or more of the other components 430, 432, 434, 440, 450, 460, 470.

[0054] Additionally, as described herein, the processor(s) 404 may be comprised of one or more processing elements. In other words, one or more processing elements may be included within the processor(s) 404. Thus, the processor(s) 404 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the processor(s) 404. Additionally, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the processor(s) 404.

[0055] Further, as described herein, the radio 430 may be comprised of one or more processing elements. In other words, the one or more processing elements may be included within the radio 430. Thus, the radio 430 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the radio 430. In addition, each integrated circuit may include circuitry (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the radio 430.

[0056] FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary simplified block diagram of cellular communication circuitry according to some embodiments. It should be noted that the block diagram of the cellular communication circuitry in FIG. 5 is merely one example of possible cellular communication circuitry. According to an embodiment, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may be included in a communication device, such as the communication device 106 described above. As noted above, the communication device 106 may be a user equipment (UE) device, a mobile device or mobile station, a wireless device or wireless base station, a desktop computer or computing device, a mobile computing device (e.g., a laptop, notebook, or portable computing device), a tablet, and / or a combination of devices, among other devices.

[0057] The cellular communication circuitry 330 may be (e.g., communicatively coupled, directly or indirectly) to one or more antennas, such as antennas 335a-b and 336, as shown (in FIG. 3). In some embodiments, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include dedicated receive chains (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR) for multiple RATs (e.g., including a dedicated processor and / or radio and / or communicatively coupled, directly or indirectly, to a dedicated processor and / or radio). For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include a modem 510 and a modem 520. The modem 510 may be configured for communication according to a first RAT, such as LTE or LTE-A, and the modem 520 may be configured for communication according to a second RAT, such as 5G NR.

[0058] As shown, the modem 510 may include one or more processors 512 and memory 516 in communication with the processor 512. The modem 510 may be in communication with a Radio Frequency (RF) front end 530. The RF front end 530 may include circuitry for transmitting and receiving wireless signals. For example, the RF front end 530 may include receive circuitry (RX) 532 and transmit circuitry (TX) 534. In some embodiments, the receive circuitry 532 may be in communication with a downlink (DL) front end 550, which may include circuitry for receiving wireless signals via an antenna 335a.

[0059] Similarly, the modem 520 may include one or more processors 522 and a memory 526 in communication with the processor 522. The modem 520 may be in communication with an RF front end 540. The RF front end 540 may include circuitry for transmitting and receiving wireless signals. For example, the RF front end 540 may include receive circuitry 542 and transmit circuitry 544. In some embodiments, the receive circuitry 542 may be in communication with a DL front end 560, which may include circuitry for receiving wireless signals via the antenna 335b.

[0060] In some embodiments, the switch 570 may couple the transmit circuitry 534 to an uplink (UL) front end 572. Additionally, the switch 570 may couple the transmit circuitry 544 to the UL front end 572. The UL front end 572 may include circuitry for transmitting wireless signals via the antenna 336. Thus, when the cellular communication circuitry 330 receives an instruction to transmit according to a first RAT (e.g., as supported via the modem 510), the switch 570 may be switched to a first state that enables the modem 510 to transmit signals according to the first RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain that includes the transmit circuitry 534 and the UL front end 572). Similarly, when the cellular communication circuitry 330 receives an instruction to transmit according to a second RAT (e.g., as supported via the modem 520), the switch 570 may be switched to a second state that enables the modem 520 to transmit signals according to the second RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain that includes the transmit circuitry 544 and the UL front end 572).

[0061] As described herein, the modem 510 may include hardware and software components that implement the above features or various other techniques described herein for determining physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for user equipment devices and base stations. The processor 512 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored in a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 512 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 512 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein in conjunction with one or more of the other components 530, 532, 534, 550, 570, 572, 335, and 336.

[0062] Additionally, as described herein, the processor 512 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, the processor 512 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the processor 512. Additionally, each integrated circuit may include circuitry (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the processor 512.

[0063] As described herein, the modem 520 may include hardware and software components that implement the above features for determining physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for user equipment devices and base stations, as well as various other techniques described herein. The processor 522 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored in a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 522 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 522 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein in conjunction with one or more of the other components 540, 542, 544, 550, 570, 572, 335, and 336.

[0064] Additionally, as described herein, processor 522 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, processor 522 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of processor 522. Additionally, each integrated circuit may include circuitry (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of processor 522.

[0065] The transport block size (TBS) can be determined based on different factors, for example, depending on what messages are in the payload. For the second SCI overhead in the TBS determination, the actual number of resource elements (RE) occupied by the second SCI is used. In the physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) and physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) design, a two-stage SCI with a first and a second stage SCI is used.

[0066] For physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) overhead in TBS determination, the number of PSFCH symbols indicated by the SCI can be used to determine the PSFCH overhead. For physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) demodulation reference signals (DMRS) overhead in TBS determination, the reference number of REs occupied by the PSSCH DMRS can be used, where the reference number of REs is the average number of DMRS REs in the (pre-)configured pattern. For channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) and phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) overhead in TBS determination, a new higher layer parameter, e.g., sl-xOverhead, is introduced for each resource pool.

[0067] In NR V2X Release 16, certain communication protocols have been agreed upon. For example, there is no support for multiplexing sidelink (SL) Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) and Uu uplink control information (UCI) on the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). However, it is open as to what the user equipment (UE) should do if a SL HARQ report to the gNB has a time overlap with the Uu UCI.

[0068] For prioritization between sidelink transmissions (SL TX), e.g. PSFCH or synchronization sideband (S-SSB), and uplink transmissions (UL TX), it has been agreed that the priority of PSFCH TX is the highest priority of the associated PSCCH / PSSCH, and the priority of S-SSB is equal to the pre-configured priority introduced for in-device coexistence.

[0069] Furthermore, if there is an overlap of UL TX other than PUCCH carrying SL HARQ report, if UL TX is associated with DCI indicating "high" in "priority field" or configured by higher layers with "high priority" (i.e. in case of URLLC) and SL threshold in case of ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) is configured, LTE rules are used. LTE rules specify that if the priority value of SL-TX is smaller than SL threshold, UL TX is down-prioritized, otherwise it is prioritized. If SL threshold for URLLC is not configured, UT TX is prioritized.

[0070] If there is an overlap of UL TX other than PUCCH carrying SL HARQ reports and the UL TX is not associated with a DCI indicating "high" in the "priority field" or is not configured with "high priority" by higher layers, the LTE rules are used with a different SL threshold configured for the non-URLLC case.

[0071] Furthermore, regardless of how UL TX overlaps with SL TX, the physical random access channel (PRACH) and PUSCH scheduled by the random access response (RAR) UL grant always take priority. If a PUCCH carrying a SL HARQ report overlaps with a SL TX, the message with the higher priority (either PUCCH or ST TX) is transmitted. The priority of the PUCCH carrying a SL HARQ report is the highest priority of the associated PSFCH.

[0072] Furthermore, the UE may transmit up to N max,PSFCH (maximum number of simultaneous PSFCH opportunities) and the UE will transmit on a given PSFCH TX opportunity. req,PSFCH It is agreed that if we have (required number of PSFCH opportunities), then the UE shall select N PSFCH opportunities for actual transmission. An ascending order of priority for the PSFCH TX opportunities is agreed for different situations.

[0073] In the first case, N req ≦N max,psfch and preconfigured, N req If the sum of the N PSFCHs is less than or equal to the sum determined for the N PSFCH transmissions, then N is equal to N. However, in this first case, if the sum of the N PSFCHs is greater, then N is determined based on the UE implementation under the proposition that N≧X≧1.

[0074] In the second case, N req >N max,psfch and pre-configured, the UE first selects N max,psfch Select N PSFCHs. max,psfch The total number of PSFCHs is N max,psfch If N is less than or equal to the determined total for the PSFCH transmissions, then N=N max,psfchOtherwise, N is determined based on the UE implementation under the proposition N≧X≧1. The determination of X (down selection) can be done in various ways. For example, X=max{1, the maximum value that does not result in a power-limited case}, or X=1. Other alternatives for determining X are not excluded.

[0075] 6 illustrates a method 600 for calculating a sidelink transport block size (TBS) based on PSSCH DMRS overhead according to some embodiments. In order to establish or maintain sidelink communication, the sidelink TBS should be determined, which gives rise to the need to calculate the overhead of the PSSCH DMRS. The TBS can be expressed as a number of resource elements RE.

[0076] Sidelink, as is well understood, refers to device-to-device (UE-to-UE) communication. Sidelink can operate in different modes as specified for 5G. In mode 1, the UE is assisted by the eNB or gNB and uses dedicated radio resources for data transmission. In mode 2, the UE randomly selects radio resources from a resource pool previously configured by the eNB or gNB or from a preconfigured resource pool. Both modes can share the same resource allocation structure where the transmission of data is scheduled within a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) period. The PSCCH includes an SCI, also known as a scheduling assignment (SA), which can be used by the receiver to know the occupancy of the PSSCH radio resources. In both modes, the SCI can be configured in both the first stage SCI and the second stage SCI. In NR V2X, the PSCCH and PSSCH are transmitted in the same slot.

[0077] As mentioned above, some protocol features have been agreed upon. For example, the PSSCH DMRS overhead used to determine the TBS can be determined based on the number of REs occupied by the PSSCH. However, it is necessary to determine how the REs of the PSSCH DMRS should be counted, which is addressed in Figure 6.

[0078] In block 601, the method includes determining a number of PSSCH symbols. This number may be determined based on the total number of symbols included in a timeslot minus the number of physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) symbols. For example, the number of PSSCH symbols may be equal to the total number of sidelink symbols included in a timeslot, known simply as a "slot", (typically 14), minus the number of PSFCH symbols present in the timeslot, minus 2 to account for one automatic gain control (AGC) symbol and one GAP symbol. This calculation assumes that the PSSCH and PSFCH exclusively share the timeslot.

[0079] The symbols may be Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. Five separate OFDM numerologies are defined in 5G to support radio operation in both FR1 and FR2 in Phase 1. Specifically, the parameter SubcarrierSpacing index (μ) can have five possible values ​​in 5G Phase 1 as specified in 3 GPP TS 38.211 [2]. Each value of μ is expressed as follows in Equation 2: μ*15 kHz is used to map to a specific subcarrier spacing value. For example, μ values ​​ranging from 0 to 4 are translated to inter-subcarrier spacings of 15, 30, 60, 120, and 240 kHz, respectively. In OFDM, the useful symbol time Tu and the subcarrier spacing Δf are related by the formula: Tu=1 / Δf. 5G NR defines five Δf values ​​in Phase 1 (15, 30, 60, 120, and 240 kHz), so that when the Δf value is doubled, the OFDM useful symbol time Tu is halved. In other words, the Tu values ​​corresponding to the Δf values ​​supported in 5G NR are Tu, 0.5Tu, 0.25Tu, 0.125Tu, and 0.0625Tu, where Tu=66.67 microseconds.

[0080] 5G NR defines a frame and slot structure to support different Tu values, which differs from 4G LTE. 5G NR defines a frame to be 10 milliseconds (ms) in duration, as in 4G LTE. Each frame is divided into 10 subframes of 1 ms each. The 1 ms subframes are then divided into one or more slots in 5G. The slot size is defined based on the Tu value. The number of OFDM symbols per slot is 14 for a configuration using a normal cyclic prefix. For an extended cyclic prefix, the number of OFDM symbols per slot is 12. In 5G NR, the slot can be considered as the basis for scheduling, but different scheduling intervals are supported.

[0081] The number of PSFCH symbols can be preconfigured. Preconfigured means that parameters, values, or symbols are specified, e.g., can be hard-coded or stored in memory on the UE as a configurable setting. These values ​​can be accessed without communication to the network. The preconfigured number of PSFCH symbols can only be applied to a PSFCH periodicity of 0 or 1 slot. For example, if the periodicity is 0, this means that there are no occurrences, and therefore all of the slots can be utilized by the PSFCH. Similarly, if the periodicity is 1, a certain portion of all slots (minus the GAP and AGC symbols) is utilized by the PSFCH symbols. For example, if the number of symbols used for the PSFCH is 3, the last three symbol indexes (not including the GAP) in all slots are taken by the PSFCH. Thus, if the PSFCH periodicity is 2 or 4, an algorithm can be applied in which the preconfigured reference number is dynamically selected to determine the reference number of PSFCH symbols in a slot.

[0082] For example, the reference number may be selected from a set including the values ​​{0,1,2,3}. The SCI may indicate one of two preconfigured numbers with a bit. For example, a first reference number (selected from the set {0,1,2,3}) is "0" and a second reference number (also selected from this set) is "2". If a bit in the SCI has a value "0", this may indicate that the first reference number "0" is used as the number of PSFCH symbols, while if the bit has a value "1", this indicates that the second reference number "2" is used as the number of PSFCH symbols in the slot. This number of PSFCH symbols may be considered as a proxy or "reference" number used to determine the reference number of PSSCH symbols in block 601. The reference number of PSFCH symbols may or may not be equal to the actual number of PSFCH symbols in the sidelink transmission. The reference number of PSSCH symbols may or may not be equal to the actual number of PSSCH symbols in the sidelink transmission.

[0083] At block 602, the method includes determining a reference number of PSSCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) symbols, where the reference number may be defined as a minimum, average, median, or mean of a configured DMRS pattern. The DMRS pattern refers to the number and / or location of PSSCH DMRS symbols per slot. The reference number of PSSCH DMRS symbols may or may not be equal to the actual number of PSSCH DMRS symbols in the sidelink transmission.

[0084] In block 603, the method includes deriving reference PSSCH DMRS positions, where the positions refer to symbol index positions within a slot. These positions can be derived by referencing table 605 (e.g., existing tables TS 38.211). For example, based on the existing tables in TS 38.211, the number of PSCCH symbols, the reference number of PSSCH symbols (determined in block 601), and the reference number of PSSCH DMRS symbols (determined in block 602) can be used to extract the DMRS time domain position within the slot. This ensures that the initial transmission and the retransmission have the same reference PSSCH DMRS position.

[0085] For example, if the reference number of PSSCH symbols determined in block 601 is 8, this number is expressed as "l d " in the left column of table 605 labeled "PSSCH DMRS symbol number." In this example, assuming the reference number of PSSCH DMRS symbols determined in block 602 is two, the index positions of the PSSCH DMRS symbols can be extracted based on cross-referencing the number of PSSCH symbols with the number of PSSCH DMRS symbols. In this case, the positions are 1 and 5 of the 14 positions in the slot.

[0086] At block 604, the method includes calculating a number of PSSCH DMRS resource elements (REs) from a reference PSSCH DMRS location and a scheduled number of PSSCH subchannels. The scheduled number of PSSCH subchannels varies depending on the size of the data. A first data transmission in the PSSCH may use a first number of subchannels in the frequency domain, and a second data transmission in the PSSCH may use a second number of subchannels in the frequency domain. The number of PSSCH DMRS REs per PSSCH DMRS symbol increases in proportion to the number of subchannels used for PSSCH transmission. The total number of PSSCH DMRS REs is the sum of the number of PSSCH DMRS REs per PSSCH DMRS symbol (or location) across all PSSCH DMRS symbols (or locations). Here, the number of PSSCH DMRS REs is calculated in a two-dimensional system, where the PSSCH DMRS symbol (or location) represents the time domain dimension, and the number of PSSCH DMRS REs per PSSCH DMRS symbol represents the frequency domain dimension.

[0087] The number of PSSCH DMRS REs can be used to determine the TBS. The TBS is the number of information bits of raw data. The calculation of the TBS is linked to the number of REs used for (coded and modulated) data transmission. For example, to derive the number of REs used for data transmission, one can subtract 1) REs used for PSSCH DMRS, 2) REs used for the second SCI, 3) REs used for PSFCH, and 4) REs used for PT-RS, CSI-RS from the total number of REs used for sidelink transmission. The TBS calculation is performed separately in the transmitting UE and the receiving UE. However, their calculation results should be the same. Instead of the Tx UE informing the Rx UE of the exact TBS value, the Tx UE can indicate some parameters in the SCI to the Rx UE so that the Rx UE can calculate a TBS that is consistent with the Tx UE's calculation.

[0088] In some embodiments, the number of REs of the second stage sidelink control information (SCI) may be calculated based on the PSSCH DMRS position (e.g., determined in block 603), the payload size of the second stage SCI format, the scheduled target coding rate, the number of PSSCH layers, and the beta offset of the second stage SCI. The payload size of the second stage SCI format, the scheduled target coding rate, the number of PSSCH layers, and the beta offset of the second stage SCI are unchanged between the initial transmission and the retransmission of the second stage SCI to maintain the same number of REs from one transmission to another. The number of REs of the SCI may be obtained by the following formula:

number

[0089] As explained, the following parameters in the above equations remain constant between transmissions (e.g., initial transmission and retransmissions): SCI2 is the payload size associated with a particular second stage SCI format (e.g., format A specifying an amount of X bits, or format B specifying an amount of Y bits); R is the scheduled target coding rate.

number

[0090]

number

number

[0091] L SCI2 Q is the bit length (e.g., 24 bits to allow for CRC). Assuming that the number of REs should be a multiple of 12 (since each resource block holds 12 REs), then γ is the value that, when added to the rest of the left-hand side of the equation, gives a value that is a multiple of 12. m is the modulation order of the second stage SCI, e.g., order 2 for QPSK.

[0092] It should be understood that the values ​​determined in blocks 601, 602, and 603 (e.g., the number of PSSCH symbols, the number of PSSCH DMRS symbols, and the PSSCH DMRS positions) may be proxies or reference numbers determined for other purposes, such as, for example, calculating the number of PSSCH DMRS REs and the number of second stage SCI REs. In other words, the reference numbers can be used as proxies or estimates for determining decisions and values.

[0093] Figure 7 shows a method for prioritizing SL HARQ reports that addresses the issue when there is a time overlap. When there is a time overlap between sidelink HARQ reports to the gNB and URLLC UCI in uplink transmission, a problem may arise because the UE may not support multiplexing of these two messages. Therefore, either the HARQ report to the gNB or the URLLC UCI should be dropped. In this case, the UE should have a smart way to prioritize, so that messages with higher priority are transmitted and messages with lower priority are dropped.

[0094] The UE 106 can prioritize between sending uplink URLLC UCI or SL HARQ reports to the base station 102. The prioritization depends on both the priority of the URLLC UCI and the priority of the sidelink HARQ report (as indicated in the corresponding SCI). In block 701, the process begins when both Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) uplink control information (UCI) and sidelink hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) reports are to be transmitted over a shared uplink channel. The shared uplink channel may be, for example, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

[0095] This URLLC UCI transmission may include a URLLC downlink HARQ-ACK, a CSI report, or a scheduling request (SR). The priority of the uplink transmission may be indicated by DCI formats 1_1, 1_2 with a "priority indicator" field equal to 1.

[0096] In block 702, if a priority threshold (e.g., "sl-PriorityThresholdULURLLC") is configured, then the LTE V2X prioritization rules are applied along with the priority threshold and the method proceeds to block 703. In block 703, if the SL HARQ meets the configured priority threshold (e.g., the priority value corresponding to the SL HARQ is less than the configured priority threshold), this indicates that the SL HARQ report has a higher priority. In this case, the method proceeds to block 705 and the URLLC UCI is dropped. Otherwise, the method proceeds to block 704 and the SL HARQ report is dropped (not included in the uplink transmission).

[0097] However, if a priority threshold is not configured at block 702, the method proceeds from block 702 to block 704 where the SL HARQ report is dropped. In this case, the URLLC UCI is prioritized and included in the uplink transmission and the SL HARQ is not included.

[0098] Thus, if a priority threshold is configured and the priority associated with the sidelink HARQ report meets the configured priority threshold (e.g., the priority associated with the sidelink HARQ report is less than the configured priority threshold), the URLLC UCI is dropped. On the other hand, if a priority threshold is configured and the priority associated with the sidelink HARQ report does not meet the configured priority threshold (e.g., the priority associated with the sidelink HARQ report is equal to or greater than the configured priority threshold), the sidelink HARQ report is dropped. In some embodiments, the same priority threshold is also used for prioritization between the URLLC uplink and sidelink transmissions (e.g., the physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) or synchronization signal blocks (SSB or S-SSB), e.g., as described with respect to block 817 of FIG. 8 ).

[0099] FIG. 8 illustrates methods 800 and 810 of prioritization between sidelink transmission and uplink. Specifically, method 800 illustrates prioritization between sidelink transmission and uplink transmission with MsgA (e.g., MsgA PUSCH). MsgA is part of a two-stage contention-based random access procedure. The UE transmits MsgA to the gNB, which sends back a MsgB response to the UE. Method 810 illustrates prioritization between sidelink transmission and uplink carrying sidelink hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). Unlike FIG. 7, uplink and sidelink TX can share the UE's TX resources, e.g., processing power, transmission bandwidth, etc. A prioritized transmission (e.g., either uplink or sidelink transmission) can use more processing power or more transmission power.

[0100] Referring to method 800, the method may begin at block 801 when both MsgA uplink and sidelink TX transmissions are competing for resources, e.g., both are scheduled for transmission in a shared time window. If it is determined at block 802 that an uplink message carries MsgA, the method may proceed to block 803 and prioritize MsgA uplink over sidelink transmissions. The uplink MsgA may be a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission. The sidelink transmission may include a PSFCH, PSSCH / PSCCH, SSB, or S-SSB transmission. The uplink MsgA may be prioritized at both the MAC layer and the PHY layer. In some embodiments, method 800 may be combined with other methods, e.g., method 810.

[0101] Referring to method 810, this method describes prioritization between sidelink and uplink transmissions, similar to method 800. However, in this case, the uplink includes sidelink HARQ (e.g., sidelink HARQ reports, or other sidelink HARQ data), and optionally other uplink data. In some aspects, the uplink transmission is a PUSCH transmission.

[0102] The method starts in block 811 when a sidelink transmission and an uplink transmission carrying a sidelink Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) are both competing for TX resources, e.g., they are scheduled for transmission within a shared time window. The method proceeds to block 812, where a condition is checked and if a priority associated with the sidelink HARQ is deemed higher than a priority associated with the sidelink transmission, the method proceeds to block 813, where the higher priority is assigned to the uplink transmission. The priorities associated with the sidelink HARQ and the sidelink transmission can be provided in the sidelink control information (SCI) and / or they can be provided by other means, e.g., in a configurable memory, specified in a configuration, hard-coded, or provided in a message by the network or another UE, or a combination thereof.

[0103] Otherwise (sidelink HARQ priority is lower than the priority of the sidelink transmission), the method proceeds to block 814. In block 814, if the uplink transmission does not carry uplink data, the method proceeds to block 815, where higher priority is assigned to the sidelink transmission. However, if the uplink PUSCH transmission carries uplink data, the method proceeds to block 816, where it checks whether the UL data includes URLLC traffic.

[0104] If URLLC traffic is included at block 816, the method proceeds to block 817. The method may check for URLLC traffic based, for example, on whether a "priority indicator" field in the scheduling / grant downlink control information (DCI) is equal to 1. At block 817, if threshold A is configured (e.g., configurable memory, specified in a setting, hard-coded, or provided in a message by the network or other UE, or a combination thereof), the method proceeds to block 818 (LTE V2X prioritization rules apply) and a check is performed as to whether the priority associated with the sidelink transmission meets threshold A (e.g., "sl-PriorityThresholdULURLLC").

[0105] If the threshold is met at block 818 (e.g., the priority value of the sidelink transmission is less than threshold A), the method may proceed to block 815 and assign a higher priority to the sidelink transmission. However, if threshold A is not met (e.g., the priority value of the sidelink transmission is equal to or greater than threshold A), the method may proceed to block 813 and prioritize uplink transmission over sidelink transmission. Further, referring back to block 817, if threshold A is not configured, this may mean that a threshold was not configured for URLLC traffic, in which case the method may proceed to block 813 by default and prioritize uplink transmission.

[0106] Referring again to block 816, if URLLC traffic is not included (but other UL DATA is still included in the uplink transmission), the method may proceed to block 819 and check whether the sidelink priority satisfies a threshold B (e.g., "sl-PriorityThreshold"). In this way, if the uplink data includes URLLC traffic, a priority threshold (if configured) associated with the URLLC traffic may be compared to the sidelink priority, but more generally, if URLLC traffic is not included, a separate threshold may be applied to the sidelink priority.

[0107] The method 810 basically checks whether the sidelink HARQ included in the uplink transmission has a higher priority than the sidelink transmission. If the answer is yes, the uplink transmission is prioritized. If the answer is no, other factors related to other uplink data included in the uplink transmission are checked against the sidelink transmission for priority.

[0108] For purposes of this disclosure, it should be understood that a priority can be "considered higher" than another priority if the priority is greater or less than the other priority, depending on a given rule. Similarly, when discussing "meeting" a threshold, this can mean that the value is greater or less than the threshold, depending on the agreed upon rule. Various rules can be used to determine priority, based on a comparison of different priorities to each other or based on a comparison to a threshold, without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0109] 9 illustrates a method for determining a lower bound on the number of simultaneous PSFCH transmissions. In block 901, the method includes determining a reference power for the PSFCH. The reference power is P' PSFCH =P o,PSFCH +10log 10 (2 μ )+α PSFCHAs shown by the formula, in some aspects, the reference power may be determined by a) the nominal power of the PSFCH (P O,PSFCH ), b) 10log 10 (2 u ) where u is defined by the subcarrier spacing, and c) α PSFCH *PL(in the formula, α PSFCH is the path loss adaptation, and PL is the downlink path loss).

[0110] In operation 902, the maximum transmit power of the transmitting UE (P CMAX ) is potentially exceeded. For example, this can be done by PSFCH +10log 10 (min{N sch,TX ,N max,PSFCH})>P CMAX where the number of simultaneous PSFCH transmissions is given by N≧X, where X is a lower bound. sch,TX represents the number of scheduled transmissions, and N max,PSFCH represents the maximum number of PSFCH transmissions. The power of each PSFCH transmission is P PSFCH =min(P CMAX -10log 10 (N),P' PSFCH ) can be determined by

[0111] In operation 903, in response to the number of simultaneous PSFCH transmissions exceeding a maximum transmit power of the user equipment (e.g., in a single PSFCH opportunity), a lower bound on the number of simultaneous PSFCH transmissions is determined based on the maximum transmit power of the user equipment (UE) and a reference power (e.g., P′ PSFCH ) can be determined based on the reference power P' PSFCH can represent the upper bound of each PSFCH transmission power, and P CMAX This can be used to derive how many simultaneous PSFCH transmissions can potentially take place in addition to what is specified by

[0112] In some aspects, the lower bound is determined as the greater of a) 1, or b) 10, a lower or upper bound on a power of the difference between the UE's maximum transmit power and the reference power divided by 10. For example, a lower bound X having a lower bound may be

number

number

[0113] A UE may include in a transmission at least as many simultaneous PSFCH transmissions as a lower bound on the number of simultaneous PSFCH transmissions, but not more than a maximum transmit power of the user equipment (UE). For example, if the lower bound is 8 and the maximum number of PSFCH transmissions is 20, then the UE will transmit at least 8 simultaneous PSFCH transmissions, but not more than 20.

[0114] Portions of the above may be implemented in logic circuitry, such as special purpose logic circuitry, or in a microcontroller or other form of processing core executing program code instructions. Thus, the processes taught by the above discussion may be implemented in program code, such as machine executable instructions, that cause a machine executing those instructions to perform a particular function. In this context, a "machine" may be a machine that converts intermediate form (or "abstract") instructions into processor-specific instructions (e.g., abstract execution environments such as a "virtual machine" (e.g., Java Virtual Machine), an interpreter, a common language runtime, a high-level language virtual machine, etc.), and / or electronic circuitry (e.g., "logic circuitry" implemented with transistors) located on a semiconductor chip, designed to execute instructions, such as general-purpose processors and / or special purpose processors. The processes taught by the above discussion may also be implemented by (in place of or in combination with) electronic circuitry designed to execute those processes (or portions of the processes) without executing program code.

[0115] The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing the operations described herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes or may include a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as any type of disk, including but not limited to floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, read only memory (ROM), RAM, EPROM, EEPROM, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of medium suitable for storing electronic instructions, each of which is coupled to a computer system bus.

[0116] A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, machine-readable media include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, etc.

[0117] The article of manufacture can be used to store the program code. The article of manufacture storing the program code may be embodied as, but is not limited to, one or more memories (e.g., one or more flash memories, random access memories (static, dynamic, or other)), optical disks, CD-ROMs, DVD ROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or other types of machine-readable media suitable for storing electronic instructions. The program code can also be downloaded from a remote computer (e.g., a server) to a requesting computer (e.g., a client) by a data signal embodied in a propagation medium (e.g., via a communications link (e.g., a network connection)).

[0118] The foregoing Detailed Description is presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the tools used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. These operations require physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, primarily for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.

[0119] It should be noted, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise, and as will be apparent from the above discussion, discussions utilizing "selecting," "determining," "receiving," "forming," "grouping," "aggregating," "generating," "deleting," or similar terms throughout the description will be understood to refer to operations and processes of a computer system or similar electronic computing device that manipulates and converts data represented as physical (electronic) quantities in the computer system's registers or memory into other data similarly represented as physical quantities in the computer system's memory or registers, or other such information storage, transmission, or display devices.

[0120] The processes and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systems can be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the operations described. The required structure for a variety of these systems will be apparent from the description below. Moreover, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be understood that a variety of programming languages ​​can be used to implement the teachings of the present invention as described herein.

[0121] It is fully understood that use of personally identifiable information should comply with privacy policies and practices generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining user privacy. In particular, personally identifiable 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 permitted uses should be clearly indicated to users.

[0122] The foregoing description describes only some exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize from this discussion, the accompanying drawings, and the claims that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. 1. A method performed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), comprising: determining a reference number of Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH) symbols and a reference number of PSSCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) symbols occurring in a timeslot used for scheduling, comprising selecting the reference number of PSFCH symbols based on a selection from among a plurality of preconfigured values ​​indicated by values ​​in a Sidelink Control Information (SCI) in response to a Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel (PSFCH) periodicity being 2 or 4, and determining the reference number of PSSCH symbols based on the PSFCH symbols; deriving a reference PSSCH DMRS position within the time slot based on applying the reference number of PSSCH DMRS symbols and the reference number of PSSCH DMRS symbols to a lookup table; calculating a number of PSSCH DMRS resource elements (REs) to be used for determining a transport block size (TBS) of a TB included in a transmission via a sidelink channel to a second UE based on the reference PSSCH DMRS position and a scheduled number of PSSCH subchannels; A method comprising:

2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference number of PSSCH symbols is determined based on a total number of symbols included in the timeslot minus the reference number of Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel (PSFCH) symbols.

3. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference number of PSSCH DMRS symbols is calculated as a minimum, average, median, or mean of configured DMRS patterns.

4. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: calculating a number of REs for a second-stage sidelink control information (SCI) based on the reference PSSCH DMRS position, a payload size of a second-stage SCI format, a scheduled target coding rate, a number of PSSCH layers, and a beta offset for the second-stage SCI.

5. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the payload size of the second stage SCI format, the scheduled target coding rate, the number of PSSCH layers, and the beta offset of the second stage SCI are unchanged between an initial transmission and a retransmission of the second stage SCI.

6. At least one antenna; at least one radio for performing cellular communications using a radio access technology that establishes a radio link with a serving cell; One or more processors, determining a reference number of Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH) symbols and a reference number of PSSCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) symbols occurring within a timeslot of transmission via a sidelink channel to a second UE, comprising selecting the reference number of PSFCH symbols based on a selection from among a plurality of preconfigured values ​​indicated by a value in a sidelink control information (SCI) in response to a Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel (PSFCH) periodicity being 2 or 4, and determining the reference number of PSSCH symbols based on the PSFCH symbols; deriving a reference PSSCH DMRS position within the time slot based on applying the reference number of PSSCH DMRS symbols and the reference number of PSSCH DMRS symbols to a lookup table; calculating a number of PSSCH DMRS resource elements (REs) to be used for determining a transport block size (TBS) of a TB included in a transmission via the sidelink channel to the second UE based on the reference PSSCH DMRS position and a scheduled number of PSSCH subchannels; one or more processors configured to perform operations including:

13. A user equipment device comprising:

7. 7. The user equipment device of claim 6, wherein the reference number of PSSCH symbols is determined based on a total number of symbols included in the timeslot minus a reference number of Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel (PSFCH) symbols.

8. 7. The user equipment device of claim 6, wherein the reference number of PSSCH DMRS symbols is calculated as a minimum, average, median, or mean of configured DMRS patterns.

9. 7. The user equipment device of claim 6, wherein the operations further include calculating a number of REs for a second-stage sidelink control information (SCI) based on a payload size of a second-stage SCI format, a scheduled target coding rate, a number of PSSCH layers, and a beta offset for the second-stage SCI.

10. 10. The user equipment device of claim 9, wherein the payload size of the second stage SCI format, the scheduled target coding rate, the number of PSSCH layers, and the beta offset of the second stage SCI are unchanged between an initial transmission and a retransmission of the second stage SCI.

11. The operation, In response to the number of simultaneous PSFCH transmissions exceeding a maximum transmit power of a user equipment (UE), determining a lower bound on the number of simultaneous PSFCH transmissions based on the maximum transmit power of the user equipment (UE) and a reference power for PSFCH transmissions determined based on a nominal power of a PSFCH; including in the transmission at least as many simultaneous PSFCH transmissions as the lower bound of the number of simultaneous PSFCH transmissions, but not more than the maximum transmit power of the user equipment (UE); The user equipment device of claim 6 , further comprising:

12. The reference power is a) the nominal power of the PSFCH, b) 10 log 10 (2 u ), where u is defined by the subcarrier spacing; and c) α PSFCH *PL (in the formula, α PSFCH 12. The user equipment device of claim 11, wherein P is calculated as the sum of P(P)=P(P)+P(P)+P(P).

13. 13. The user equipment device of claim 12, wherein the lower bound is determined as the greater of: a) 1; or b) 10, a lower bound on a power of a difference between the maximum transmit power of the UE and the reference power divided by 10.

14. 13. The user equipment device of claim 12, wherein the lower bound is determined as the greater of: a) 1; or b) 10, an upper bound on a power of a difference between the maximum transmit power of the UE and the reference power divided by 10.

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