Signaling for sidelink positioning reference signal frequency hopping for specified devices

Abstract

Aspects presented herein may improve the overall performance and reliability for sidelink positioning that involves a UE that is just capable of operating in a subset of subchannels (or sub-bands) of a sidelink resource pool. In one aspect, a UE obtains a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning. The UE operates in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning. The UE transmits, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, sidelink control information (SCI) to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of sidelink (SL)-positioning reference signal (PRS) (SL-PRS), where the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands.

Description

SIGNALING FOR SIDELINK POSITIONING REFERENCE SIGNAL FREQUENCY HOPPING FOR SPECIFIED DEVICES CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims the benefit of Greece Patent Application Serial No. 20240100066, entitled “SIGNALING FOR SIDELINK POSITIONING REFERENCE SIGNAL FREQUENCY HOPPING FOR SPECIFIED DEVICES” and filed on February 1, 2024, which is expressly incorporated by reference here in its entirety.TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to wireless communication involving sidelink (SL) communication.INTRODUCTION

[0003] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.

[0004] These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. An example telecommunication standard is 5G New Radio (NR). 5G NR is part of a continuous mobile broadband evolution promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP) to meet new requirements associated with latency, reliability, security, scalability (e.g., with Internet of Things (IoT)), and other requirements. 5G NR includes services associated with enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massivemachine type communications (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC). Some aspects of 5G NR may be based on the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. There exists a need for further improvements in 5G NR technology. These improvements may also be applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies.BRIEF SUMMARY

[0005] The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects in order to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects. This summary neither identifies key or critical elements of all aspects nor delineates the scope of any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

[0006] In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus obtains a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning. The apparatus operates in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning. The apparatus transmits, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, sidelink control information (SCI) to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of sidelink (SL)-positioningreference signal (PRS) (SL-PRS), where the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second subband in the subset of sub-bands.

[0007] In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus obtains a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning. The apparatus operates in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning. The apparatus receives, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, SCI related to a reservation of at least one resource for a transmission of SL-PRS by a second user equipment (UE), where the at least one resource comprises (1 ) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands.

[0008] To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or more aspects may include the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the drawings set forth in detail certainillustrative features of the one or more aspects. These features are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of various aspects may be employed.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] FIG. l is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communications system and an access network.

[0010] FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating an example of a first frame, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0011] FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating an example of downlink (DL) channels within a subframe, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0012] FIG. 2C is a diagram illustrating an example of a second frame, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0013] FIG. 2D is a diagram illustrating an example of uplink (UL) channels within a subframe, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0014] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a base station and user equipment (UE) in an access network.

[0015] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a UE positioning based on reference signal measurements.

[0016] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of sidelink communication between devices.

[0017] FIG. 6 is a diagram illustration an example sidelink resource pool in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0018] FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a resource reservation process in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0019] FIG. 8 is a diagram illustration an example of a reduced capability (RedCap) UE potentially causing a resource collision with another UE in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0020] FIG. 9 is a diagram illustration an example of a dedicated resource pool structure in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0021] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustration an example of a shared sidelink resource pool structure in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0022] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustration an example of a staircase frequency hopping pattern in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0023] FIG. 12 is a diagram illustration an example of a dedicated resource pool for positioning and sidelink control information (SCI) for a sidelink (SL) RedCap UE in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0024] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustration an example of a dedicated resource pool for positioning and SCI for a SL RedCap UE in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0025] FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of a UE performing retuning for frequency hopping in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0026] FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of a processing delay associated with frequency hopping in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0027] FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of a transmitting UE performing frequency hopping based on the processing delay associated with a receiving UE in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0028] FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an example of a staircase frequency hopping sequence in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0029] FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wrapped staircasefrequency hopping sequence in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0030] FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example SCI-based explicit signaling of a first subchannel / sub-band a UE is expected to perform the frequency hopping in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0031] FIG. 20 is a communicationflowillustratingan example communication between two UEs with at least the transmitting UE being specified to operate in just sub- band(s) / subchannel(s) of a sidelink resource pool in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0032] FIG. 21 is a communicationflowillustratingan example communication between two UEs with at least the receiving UE being specified to operate in just sub- band(s) / subchannel(s) of a sidelink resource pool in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0033] FIG. 22 is a flowchart of a method of wireless communication.

[0034] FIG. 23 is a flowchart of a method of wireless communication.

[0035] FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an example apparatus and / or network entity.

[0036] FIG. 25 is a flowchart of a method of wireless communication.

[0037] FIG. 26 is a flowchart of a method of wireless communication.

[0038] FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an example apparatus and / or network entity.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0039] Aspects presented herein may improve the overall performance and reliability for sidelink communications that involve UE(s) that are just capable of operating in a subset of subchannels (or sub-bands) of a sidelink resource pool (e.g., reduced capability (RedCap) UE(s), specified types of UE(s), etc.). Aspects presented herein provide various mechanisms for scheduling SL-PRS and configuring SL-PRS frequency hopping for a UE that operates in a subset of subchannels of a sidelink resource pool. Aspects presented herein are also capable of avoiding resource collisions (for sidelink communications among multiple UEs) when there is at least one UE that is just able to receive PSCCH (e.g., SCI) in a specific subset of subchannels (e.g., when there is at least one RedCap UE).

[0040] In one aspect of the present disclosure, a UE may transmit a single-stage SCI which picks an SL-PRS resource (e.g., based on a 1-to-l mapping or a 1-to-many mapping between subchannels and SL-PRS resources). This may be done for scheduling hopping for future slots with time resource assignments for future reservations and / or SL-PRS resources for future X reservations. In another aspect of the present disclosure, SCI may be configured to schedule the next hop in a slot that is at least a processing delay away from the first slot, where the minimum processing time may be specified to be reported in a UE capability. In another aspect of the present disclosure, there may be a resource-pool-level configuration of how specific subbands are expected to be hopping. In another aspect of the present disclosure, SCI may indicate which sub-band a UE is switching to.

[0041] The detailed description set forth below in connection with the drawings describes various configurations and does not represent the only configurations in which the concepts described hereinmay be practiced. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of various concepts.However, these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well known structures and components are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring such concepts.

[0042] Several aspects of telecommunication systems are presented with ref erenceto various apparatus and methods. These apparatus and methods are described in the following detailed description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings by various blocks, components, circuits, processes, algorithms, etc. (collectively referred to as “elements”). These elements may be implemented using electronic hardware, computer software, or any combination thereof. Whether such elements are implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system.

[0043] By way of example, an element, or any portion of an element, or any combination of elements may be implemented as a “processing system” that includes one or more processors. When multiple processors are implemented, the multiple processors may perform the functions individually or in combination. Examplesof processors include microprocessors, microcontrollers, graphics processing units (GPUs), central processing units (CPUs), application processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, systems on a chip (SoC), baseband processors, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines, gated logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functionality described throughout this disclosure. One or more processors in the processing system may execute software. Software, whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise, shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software components, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, or any combination thereof.

[0044] Accordingly, in one or more example aspects, implementations, and / or use cases, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or encoded as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes computer storage media. Storage media may be any available mediathat can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, such computer-readable media can include a random-access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage, other magnetic storage devices, combinations of the types of computer- readable media, or any other medium that can be used to store computer executable code in the form of instructions or data structures that can be accessed by a computer.

[0045] While aspects, implementations, and / or use cases are describedin this application by illustration to some examples, additional or different aspects, implementations and / or use cases may come about in many different arrangements and scenarios. Aspects, implementations, and / oruse cases described herein may be implemented across many differingplatform types, devices, systems, shapes, sizes, and packaging arrangements. For example, aspects, implementations, and / or use cases may come about via integrated chip implementations and other non-module-component based devices (e.g., end-user devices, vehicles, communication devices, computing devices, industrial equipment, retail / purchasing devices, medical devices, artificial intelligence (Al)-enabled devices, etc.). While some examples may or may not be specifically directed to use cases or applications, a wide assortment of applicability of described examples may occur. Aspects, implementations, and / oruse cases may range a spectrum from chip-level or modular components to non-modular, non-chip- level implementations and further to aggregate, distributed, or original equipment manufacturer (OEM) devices or systems incorporating one or more techniques herein. In some practical settings, devices incorporating described aspects and features may also include additional components and features for implementation and practice of claimed and described aspect. For example, transmission and reception of wireless signals necessarily includes a number of components for analog and digital purposes (e.g., hardware components including antenna, RF-chains, power amplifiers, modulators, buffer, processor(s), interleaver, adders / summers, etc.). Techniques described herein may be practiced in a wide variety of devices, chip-level components, systems, distributed arrangements, aggregated or disaggregated components, end-user devices, etc. of varying sizes, shapes, and constitution.

[0046] Deployment of communication systems, such as 5GNR systems, may be arranged in multiple manners with various components or constituent parts. In a 5G NR system, or network, a network node, a network entity, a mobility element of a network, a radioaccess network (RAN) node, a core network node, a network element, or a network equipment, such as a base station (BS), or one or more units (or one or more components) performing base station functionality, may be implemented in an aggregated or disaggregated architecture. For example, a BS (such as a Node B (NB), evolved NB (eNB), NR BS, 5GNB, access point (AP), a transmission reception point (TRP), or a cell, etc.) may be implemented as an aggregated base station (also known as a standalone BS or a monolithic BS) or a disaggregated base station.

[0047] An aggregated base station may be configured to utilize a radio protocol stack that is physically or logically integrated within a single RAN node. A disaggregated base station may be configured to utilize a protocol stack that is physically or logically distributed among two or more units (such as one or more central or centralized units (CUs), one or more distributed units (DUs), or one or more radio units (RUs)). In some aspects, a CU may be implemented within a RAN node, and one or more DUs may be co-located with the CU, or alternatively, may be geographically or virtually distributed throughout one or multiple other RAN nodes. The DUs may be implemented to communicate with one or more RUs. Each of the CU, DU and RU can be implemented as virtual units, i.e., a virtual central unit (VCU), a virtual distributed unit (VDU), or a virtual radio unit (VRU).

[0048] Base station operation or network design may consider aggregation characteristics of base station functionality. For example, disaggregated base stations may be utilized in an integrated access backhaul (IAB) network, an open radio access network (O- RAN (such as the network configuration sponsored by the O-RAN Alliance)), or a virtualized radio access network (vRAN, also known as a cloud radio access network (C-RAN)). Disaggregation may include distributing functionality across two or more units at various physical locations, as well as distributing functionality for at least one unit virtually, which can enable flexibility in network design. The various units of the disaggregated base station, or disaggregated RAN architecture, can be configured for wired or wireless communication with at least one other unit.

[0049] FIG. 1 is a diagram 100 illustrating an example of a wireless communications system and an access network. The illustrated wireless communications system includes a disaggregated base station architecture. The disaggregated base station architecture may include one or more CUs 110 that can communicate directly with a core network 120 via a backhaul link, or indirectly with the core network 120 through one or moredisaggregated base station units (such as a Near-Real Time (Near-RT) RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) 125 via an E2 link, or a Non-Real Time (Non-RT) RIC 115 associated with a Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) Framework 105, or both). A CU 110 may communicate with one or more DUs 130 via respective midhaul links, such as an Fl interface. The DUs 130 may communicate with one or more RUs 140 via respective fronthaul links. The RUs 140 may communicate with respective UEs 104 via one or more radio frequency (RF) access links. In some implementations, the UE 104 may be simultaneously served by multiple RUs 140.

[0050] Each of the units, i.e., the CUs 110, the DUs 130, the RUs 140, as well as the Near- RT RICs 125, the Non-RT RICs 115, and the SMO Framework 105, may include one or more interfaces or be coupled to one or more interfaces configured to receive or to transmit signals, data, or information (collectively, signals) via a wired or wireless transmission medium. Each of the units, or an associated processor or controller providing instructions to the communication interfaces of the units, can be configured to communicate with one or more of the other units via the transmission medium. For example, the units can include a wired interface configured to receive or to transmit signals over a wired transmission medium to one or more of the other units. Additionally, the units can include a wireless interface, which may include a receiver, a transmitter, or a transceiver (such as an RF transceiver), configured to receive or to transmit signals, or both, over a wireless transmission medium to one or more of the other units.

[0051] In some aspects, the CU 110 may host one or more higher layer control functions. Such control functions can include radio resource control (RRC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), service data adaptation protocol (SDAP), or the like. Each control function can be implemented with an interface configured to communicate signals with other control functions hosted by the CU 110. The CU 110 may be configured to handle user plane functionality (i.e., Central Unit - User Plane (CU-UP)), control plane functionality (i.e., Central Unit - Control Plane (CU-CP)), or a combination thereof. In some implementations, the CU 110 can be logically split into one or more CU-UP units and one or more CU-CP units. The CU-UP unit can communicate bidirectionally with the CU-CP unit via an interface, such as an El interface when implemented in an O-RAN configuration. The CU 110 can beimplemented to communicate with the DU 130, as necessary, for network control and signaling.

[0052] The DU 130 may correspond to a logical unit that includes one or more base station functions to control the operation of one or more RUs 140. In some aspects, the DU 130 may host one or more of a radio link control (RLC) layer, a medium access control (MAC) layer, and one or more high physical (PHY) layers (such as modules for forward error correction (FEC) encoding and decoding, scrambling, modulation, demodulation, or the like) depending, at least in part, on a functional split, such as those defined by 3 GPP. In some aspects, the DU 130 may further host one or more low PHY layers. Each layer (or module) can be implemented with an interface configured to communicate signals with other layers (and modules) hosted by the DU 130, or with the control functions hosted by the CU 110.

[0053] Lower-layer functionality can be implemented by one or more RUs 140. In some deployments, an RU 140, controlled by a DU 130, may correspond to a logical node that hosts RF processing functions, or low-PHY layer functions (such as performing fast Fourier transform (FFT), inverse FFT (iFFT), digital beamforming, physical random access channel (PRACH) extraction and filtering, or the like), or both, based at least in part on the functional split, such as a lower layer functional split. In such an architecture, the RU(s) 140 can be implemented to handle over the air (OTA) communication with one or more UEs 104. In some implementations, real-time and non-real-time aspects of control and user plane communication with the RU(s) 140 can be controlled by the corresponding DU 130. In some scenarios, this configuration can enable the DU(s) 130 and the CU 110 to be implemented in a cloud-based RAN architecture, such as a vRAN architecture.

[0054] The SMO Framework 105 may be configured to support RAN deployment and provisioning of non-virtualizedandvirtualizednetwork elements. Fornon-virtualized network elements, the SMO Framework 105 may be configured to support the deployment of dedicated physical resources for RAN coverage requirements that may be managed via an operations and maintenance interface (such as an 01 interface). For virtualized network elements, the SMO Framework 105 may be configured to interact with a cloud computing platform (such as an open cloud (O-Cloud) 190) to perform network element life cycle management (such as to instantiate virtualized network elements) via a cloud computing platform interface (such as an 02 interface).Such virtualized network elements can include, but are not limited to, CUs 110, DUs 130, RUs 140 andNear-RTRICs 125. In some implementations, the SMO Framework 105 can communicate with a hardware aspect of a 4G RAN, such as an open eNB (O- eNB) 111, via an 01 interface. Additionally, in some implementations, the SMO Framework 105 can communicate directly with one or more RUs 140 via an 01 interface. The SMO Framework 105 also may include a Non-RT RIC 115 configured to support functionality of the SMO Framework 105.

[0055] The Non-RT RIC 115 may be configured to include a logical function that enables non-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources, artificial intelligence (Al) / machine learning (ML) (AI / ML) workflows including model training and updates, or policy-based guidance of applications / features in the Near- RT RIC 125. The Non-RT RIC 115 may be coupled to or communicate with (such as via an Al interface) the Near-RT RIC 125. The Near-RT RIC 125 may be configured to include a logical function that enables near-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources via data collection and actions over an interface (such as via an E2 interface) connecting one or more CUs 110, one or more DUs 130, or both, as well as an O-eNB, with the Near-RT RIC 125.

[0056] In some implementations, to generate AI / ML models to be deployed in the Near-RT RIC 125, the Non-RT RIC 115 may receive parameters or external enrichment information from external servers. Such information may be utilized by the Near-RT RIC 125 and may be received at the SMO Framework 105 or the Non-RT RIC 115 from non-network data sources or from network functions. In some examples, the Non-RT RIC 115 or the Near-RT RIC 125 may be configured to tune RAN behavior or performance. For example, the Non-RT RIC 115 may monitor long-term trends and patterns for performanceand employ AI / ML models to perform corrective actions through the SMO Framework 105 (such as reconfiguration via 01) or via creation of RAN management policies (such as Al policies).

[0057] At least one of the CU 110, the DU 130, and the RU 140 maybe referred to as a base station 102. Accordingly, a base station 102 may include one or more of the CU 110, the DU 130, and the RU 140 (each component indicated with dotted lines to signify that each component may or may not be included in the base station 102). The base station 102 provides an access point to the core network 120 for a UE 104. The base station 102 may include macrocells (high power cellular base station) and / or smallcells (low power cellular base station). The small cells include femtocells, picocells, and microcells. A network that includes both small cell and macrocells may be known as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include Home Evolved Node Bs (eNBs) (HeNBs), which may provide service to a restricted group known as a closed subscriber group (CSG). The communication links between the RUs 140 and the UEs 104 may include uplink (UL) (also referred to as reverse link) transmissions from a UE 104 to an RU 140 and / or downlink (DL) (also referred to as forward link) transmissions from an RU 140 to a UE 104. The communication links may use multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication links may be through one or more carriers. The base station 102 / UEs 104 may use spectrum up to FMHz (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20, 100, 400, etc. MHz) bandwidth per carrier allocated in a carrier aggregation of up to a total of Ex MHz (x component carriers) used for transmission in each direction. The carriers may or may not be adjacent to each other. Allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respecttoDL andUL (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated for DL than for UL). The component carriers may include a primary component carrier and one or more secondary component carriers. A primary component carrier may be referred to as a primary cell (PCell) and a secondary component carrier may be referred to as a secondary cell (SCell).

[0058] Certain UEs 104 may communicate with each other using device-to-device (D2D) communication link 158. The D2D communication link 158 may use the DL / UL wireless wide area network (WWAN) spectrum. The D2D communication link 158 may use one or more sidelink channels, such as a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), and a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH). D2D communication may be through a variety of wireless D2D communications systems, such as for example, Bluetooth™ (Bluetooth is a trademark of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)), Wi-Fi™ (is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance) based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard, LTE, orNR.

[0059] The wireless communications system may further include a Wi-Fi AP 150 in communication with UEs 104 (also referred to as Wi-Fi stations (STAs)) via communication link 154, e.g., in a 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum orthe like. When communicating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the UEs 104 / AP 150may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) prior to communicating in order to determine whether the channel is available.

[0060] The electromagnetic spectrum is often subdivided, based on frequency / wavelength, into various classes, bands, channels, etc. In 5GNR, two initial operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR1 (410 MHz - 7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 GHz - 52.6 GHz). Although a portion of FR1 is greater than 6 GHz, FR1 is often referred to (interchangeably) as a “sub-6 GHz” band in various documents and articles. A similar nomenclature issue sometimes occurs with regard to FR2, which is often referred to (interchangeably) as a “millimeter wave” bandin documents and articles, despite being different from the extremely high frequency (EHF) band (30 GHz - 300 GHz) which is identified by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as a “millimeter wave” band.

[0061] The frequencies between FR1 andFR2 are often referred to as mid-band frequencies. Recent 5G NR studies have identified an operating band for these mid-band frequencies as frequency range designation FR3 (7.125 GHz - 24.25 GHz). Frequency bands falling within FR3 may inherit FR1 characteristics and / or FR2 characteristics, and thus may effectively extend features of FR1 and / or FR2 into midband frequencies. In addition, higher frequency bands are currently being explored to extend 5GNRoperationbeyond 52.6GHz. For example, three higher op erating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR2-2 (52.6 GHz - 71 GHz), FR4 (71 GHz- 114.25 GHz), andFR5 (114.25 GHz- 300 GHz). Each of these hi^ier frequency bands falls within the EHF band.

[0062] With the above aspects in mind, unless specifically stated otherwise, the term “sub-6 GHz” or the like if used herein may broadly represent frequencies that may be less than 6 GHz, may be within FR1 , or may include mid-band frequencies. Further, unless specifically stated otherwise, the term “millimeter wave” or the like if used herein may broadly represent frequencies that may include mid-band frequencies, may be within FR2, FR4, FR2-2, and / or FR5, or may be within the EHF band.

[0063] The base station 102 and the UE 104 may each include a plurality of antennas, such as antenna elements, antenna panels, and / or antenna arrays to facilitate beamforming The base station 102 may transmit a beamformed signal 182 to the UE 104 in one or more transmit directions. The UE 104 may receive the beamformed signal from the base station 102 in one or more receive directions. The UE 104 may also transmit abeamform ed signal 184 to the base station 102 in one or more transmit directions. The base station 102 may receive the beamformed signal from the UE 104 in one or more receive directions. The base station 102 / UE 104 may perform beam training to determine the best receive and transmit directions for each of the base station 102 / UE 104. The transmit and receive directions for the base station 102 may or may not be the same. The transmit and receive directions for the UE 104 may or may not be the same.

[0064] The base station 102 may include and / or be referred to as a gNB, Node B, eNB, an access point, a base transceiver station, a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), a TRP, network node, network entity, network equipment, or some other suitable terminology. The base station 102 can be implemented as an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, a relay node, a sidelink node, an aggregated (monolithic) base station with a baseband unit (BBU) (including a CU and a DU) and an RU, or as a disaggregated base station including one or more of a CU, a DU, and / or an RU. The set of base stations, which may include disaggregated base stations and / or aggregated base stations, may be referred to as next generation (NG) RAN (NG-RAN).

[0065] The core network 120 may include an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 161, a Session Management Function (SMF) 162, a User Plane Function (UPF) 163, a Unified Data Management (UDM) 164, one or more location servers 168, and other functional entities. The AMF 161 is the control node that processes the signaling between the UEs 104 and the core network 120. The AMF 161 supports registration management, connection management, mobility management, and other functions. The SMF 162 supports session management and other functions. The UPF 163 supports packet routing, packet forwarding, and other functions. The UDM 164 supports the generation of authentication and key agreement (AKA) credentials, user identification handling, access authorization, and subscription management. The one or more location servers 168 are illustrated as including a Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) 165 and a Location Management Function (LMF) 166. However, generally, the one or more location servers 168 may include one or more location / positioning servers, which may include one or more of the GMLC 165, the LMF 166, a position determination entity (PDE), a serving mobile location center (SMLC), a mobile positioning center (MPC), or the like. The GMLC 165 and theLMF 166 support UE location services. The GMLC 165 provides an interface for clients / applications (e.g., emergency services) for accessing UE positioning information. The LMF 166 receives measurements and assistance information from the NG-RAN and the UE 104 via the AMF 161 to compute the position of the UE 104. The NG-RAN may utilize one or more positioning methods in order to determine the position of the UE 104. Positioningthe UE 104 may involve signal measurements, a position estimate, and an optional velocity computation based on the measurements. The signal measurements may be made by the UE 104 and / or the base station 102 serving the UE 104. The signals measured may be based on one or more of a satellite positioning system (SPS) 170 (e.g., one or more of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), global position system (GPS), non-terrestrial network (NTN), or other satellite position / location system), LTE signals, wireless local area network (WLAN) signals, Bluetooth signals, a terrestrial beacon system (TBS), sensor-based information (e.g., barometric pressure sensor, motion sensor), NR enhanced cell ID (NRE-CID) methods, NRsignals (e.g., multi-round trip time (Multi-RTT), DL angle- of-departure (DL-AoD), DL time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), UL time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA), and UL angle-of-arrival (UL-AoA) positioning), and / or other systems / signals / sensors.

[0066] Examples of UEs 104 include a cellular phone, a smart phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a satellite radio, a global positioning system, a multimedia device, a video device, a digital audio player (e.g., MP3 player), a camera, a game console, a tablet, a smart device, a wearable device, a vehicle, an electric meter, a gas pump, a large or small kitchen appliance, a healthcare device, an implant, a sensor / actuator, a display, or any other similar functioning device. Some of the UEs 104 may be referred to as loT devices (e.g, parking meter, gas pump, toaster, vehicles, heart monitor, etc.). TheUE 104 may also be referred to as a station, a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communications device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology. In some scenarios, the term UE may also apply to one or more companion devices such as ina device constellation arrangement. One or more of these devices may collectively access the network and / or individually access the network.

[0067] Referring again to FIG. 1, in certain aspects, the UE 104 may have a SL communication component 198 that may be configured to obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning; operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning; and transmit, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, SCI to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of SL-PRS, where the at least one resource comprises (l) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands. In certain aspects, the SL communication component 198 that may be configured to obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning; operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of subbands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning; and receive, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, SCI related to a reservation of at least one resource for a transmission of SL-PRS by a second UE, where the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands. In certain aspects, the base station 102 or the one or more location servers 168 may have an SL communication configuration component 199 that may be configured to provide (pre-)configuration(s) related to SL positioning and / or SL communication for the UE 104.

[0068] FIG. 2 A is a diagram 200 illustrating an example of a first subframe within a 5GNR frame structure. FIG. 2B is a diagram 230 illustrating an example of DL channels within a 5G NR subframe. FIG. 2C is a diagram 250 illustrating an example of a second subframe within a 5G NR frame structure. FIG. 2D is a diagram 280 illustrating an example of UL channels within a 5 G NR subframe. The 5 G NR frame structure may be frequency division duplexed (FDD) in which for a particular set of subcarriers (carrier system bandwidth), subframes within the set of subcarriers are dedicated for either DL or UL, or may be time division duplexed (TDD) in which for a particular set of subcarriers (carrier system bandwidth), subframes within the set of subcarriers are dedicated for both DL andUL. In the examples provided by FIGs. 2A, 2C, the 5G NR frame structure is assumed to be TDD, with subframe 4 being configured with slot format 28 (with mostly DL), where D is DL, U is UL, and F is flexible for use between DL / UL, and subframe 3 being configured with slot format 1(with all UL). While subframes 3, 4 are shown with slot formats 1, 28, respectively, any particular subframe may be configured with any of the various available slot formats 0-61 . Slot formats 0, 1 are all DL, UL, respectively. Other slot formats 2-61 include a mix of DL, UL, and flexible symbols. UEs are configured with the slot format (dynamically through DL control information (DCI), or semi- statically / statically through radio resource control (RRC) signaling) through a received slot format indicator (SFI). Note that the description infra applies also to a 5G NR frame structure that is TDD.

[0069] FIGs. 2 A-2D illustrate a frame structure, and the aspects of the present disclosure may be applicable to other wireless communication technologies, which may have a different frame structure and / or different channels. A frame (10 ms) may be divided into 10 equally sized subframes (1 ms). Each subframe may include one or more time slots. Subframes may also include mini-slots, which may include 7, 4, or 2 symbols. Each slot may include 14 or 12 symbols, depending on whether the cyclic prefix (CP) is normal or extended. For normal CP, each slot may include 14 symbols, and for extended CP, each slot may include 12 symbols. The symbols on DL may be CP orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) (CP-OFDM) symbols. The symbols on UL may be CP-OFDM symbols (for high throughput scenarios) or discrete Fourier transform (DFT) spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) symbols (for power limited scenarios; limited to a single stream transmission). The number of slots within a subframe is based on the CP and the numerology. The numerology defines the subcarrier spacing (SCS) (see Table 1). The symbol length / duration may scale with 1 / SCS.Table 1: Numerology, SCS, and CP

[0070] For normal CP (14 symbols / slot), different numerologies p 0 to 4 allow for 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 slots, respectively, per subframe. For extended CP, the numerology 2 allows for 4 slots per subframe. Accordingly, for normal CP and numerology p, there are 14 symbols / slot and 2.Llsi ots / sub frame. The subcarrier spacing may be equal to 2^ * 15 kHz , where g is the numerology 0 to 4. As such, the numerology p=0 has a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz and the numerology p=4 has a subcarrier spacing of 240 kHz. The symbol length / durationis inversely related to the subcarrier spacing. FIGs. 2A-2D provide an example of normal CP with 14 symbols per slot and numerology p=2 with 4 slots per subframe. The slot duration is 0.25 ms, the subcarrier spacing is 60 kHz, and the symbol duration is approximately 16.67 ps. Within a set of frames, there may be one or more different bandwidth parts (BWPs) (see FIG. 2B) that are frequency division multiplexed. Each BWP may have a particular numerology and CP (normal or extended).

[0071] A resource grid may be used to represent the frame structure. Each time slot includes a resource block (RB) (also referred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) that extends 12 consecutive subcarriers. The resource grid is divided into multiple resource elements (REs). The number of bits carried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

[0072] As illustrated in FIG. 2 A, some of the REs carry reference (pilot) signals (RS) for the UE. The RS may include demodulation RS (DM-RS) (indicated as Rfor one particular configuration, but other DM-RS configurations are possible) and channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS) for channel estimation attheUE. The RS mayalso include beam measurement RS (BRS), beam refinement RS (BRRS), and phase tracking RS (PT-RS).

[0073] FIG. 2B illustrates an example of various DL channels within a subframe of a frame. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries DCI within one or more control channel elements (CCEs) (e.g., 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 CCEs), each CCE including six RE groups (REGs), each REG including 12 consecutive REs in an OFDM symbol of an RB. A PDCCH within one BWP may be referred to as a control resource set (CORESET). A UE is configured to monitor PDCCH candidates in a PDCCH search space (e.g., common search space, UE-specific search space) during PDCCH monitoring occasions on the CORESET, where the PDCCH candidates have different DCI formats and different aggregation levels. Additional BWPs may be located at greater and / or lower frequencies across the channel bandwidth. A primary synchronization signal (PSS) may be within symbol 2 of particular subframes of a frame. The PSS is used by a UE 104 to determine subframe / symbol timing and a physical layer identity. A secondary synchronization signal (SSS) may be within symbol 4 of particular subframes of a frame. The SSS is used by a UE to determine a physical layer cell identity group number and radio frame timing. Based on the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identity group number, the UE can determine a physical cell identifier (PCI). Based on the PCI, the UE can determine the locations of the DM-RS. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH), which carries a master information block (MIB), may be logically grouped with the PSS and SSS to form a synchronization signal (SS) / PBCH block (also referred to as SS block (SSB)). The MIB provides a number of RBs in the system bandwidth and a system frame number (SFN). The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries user data, broadcast system information not transmitted through the PBCH such as system information blocks (SIBs), and paging messages.

[0074] As illustrated in FIG. 2C, some of the REs carry DM-RS (indicated as R for one particular configuration, but other DM-RS configurations are possible) for channel estimation at the base station. The UE may transmit DM-RS for the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and DM-RS for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The PUSCH DM-RS may be transmitted in the first one or two symbols of the PUSCH. The PUCCH DM-RS may be transmitted in different configurations depending on whether short or long PUCCHs are transmitted and depending on theparticular PUCCH format used. The UE may transmit sounding reference signals (SRS). The SRS may be transmitted in the last symbol of a subframe. The SRS may have a comb structure, and a UE may transmit SRS on one of the combs. The SRS may be used by a base station for channel quality estimation to enable frequencydependent scheduling on the UL.

[0075] FIG. 2D illustrates an example of various UL channels within a subframe of a frame. The PUCCH may be located as indicated in one configuration. The PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI), such as scheduling requests, a channel quality indicator (CQI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), a rank indicator (RI), and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgment (ACK) (HARQ-ACK) feedback (i.e., one or more HARQ ACK bits indicating one or more ACK and / or negative ACK (NACK)). The PUSCH carries data, and may additionally be used to carry a buffer status report (BSR), a power headroom report (PHR), and / or UCI.

[0076] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a base station 310 in communication with a UE 350 in an access network. In the DL, Internet protocol (IP) packets may be provided to a controller / processor 375. The controller / processor 375 implements layer 3 and layer 2 functionality. Layer 3 includes a radio resource control (RRC) layer, and layer 2 includes a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a medium access control (MAC) layer. The controller / processor 375 provides RRC layer functionality associated with broadcasting of system information (e.g., MIB, SIBs), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter radio access technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression, security (ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functionality associated with the transfer of upper layer packet data units (PDUs), error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks (TBs),demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through HARQ, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0077] The transmit (TX) processors 16 and the receive (RX) processor 370 implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. Layer 1, which includes a physical (PHY) layer, may include error detection on the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding of the transport channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physical channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, andMIMO antenna processing The TX processor 316 handles mapping to signal constellations based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase-shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), M-phase-shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be split into parallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to an OFDM subcarrier, multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., pilot) in the time and / or frequency domain, and then combined together using an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carryingatime domain OFDMsymbol stream. The OFDM stream is spatially precoded to produce multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator 374 may be used to determine the coding and modulation scheme, as well as for spatial processing. The channel estimate may be derived from a reference signal and / or channel condition feedback transmitted by the UE 350. Each spatial stream may then be provided to a different antenna 320 via a separate transmitter 318Tx. Each transmitter 318Tx may modulate a radio frequency (RF) carrier with a respective spatial stream for transmission.

[0078] At the UE 350, each receiver 354Rx receives a signal through its respective antenna 352. Each receiver 354Rx recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to the receive (RX) processor 356. The TX processor 368 and the RX processor 356 implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. The RX processor 356 may perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial streams destined for the UE 350. If multiple spatial streams are destined for the UE 350, they may be combined by the RX processor 356 into a single OFDM symbol stream. The RX processor 356 then converts the OFDM symbol stream from the time-domain to the frequency domain using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal includes aseparate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols on each subcarrier, and the reference signal, are recovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation points transmitted by the base station 310. These soft decisions may b e based on channel estimates computed by the channel estimator 358. The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signals that were originally transmitted by the base station 310 on the physical channel. The data and control signals are then provided to the controller / processor 359, which implements layer 3 and layer 2 functionality.

[0079] The controller / processor 359 can be associated with at least one memory 360 that stores program codes and data. The at least one memory 360 may be referred to as a computer-readable medium. In the UL, the controller / processor 359 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets. The controller / processor 359 is also responsible for error detection using an ACK and / or NACK protocol to support HARQ operations.

[0080] Similar to the functionality described in connection with the DL transmission by the base station 310, the controller / processor 359 provides RRC layer functionality associated with system information (e.g., MIB, SIBs) acquisition, RRC connections, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression, and security (ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionality associated with the transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs, re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto TBs, demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through HARQ, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0081] Channel estimates derived by a channel estimator 358 from a reference signal or feedback transmitted by the base station 310 may be used by the TX processor 368 to select the appropriate coding and modulation schemes, and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the TX processor 368 may be provided to different antenna 352 via separate transmitters 354Tx. Each transmitter 354 Tx may modulate an RF carrier with a respective spatial stream for transmission.

[0082] The UL transmission is processed at the base station 310 in a manner similar to that described in connection with the receiver function attheUE 350. Each receiver 318Rx receives a signal through its respective antenna 320. Each receiver 318Rx recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to a RX processor 370.

[0083] The controller / processor 375 can be associated with at least one memory 376 that stores program codes and data. The at least one memory 376 may be referred to as a computer-readable medium. In the UL, the controller / processor 375 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets. The controller / processor 375 is also responsible for error detection using an ACK and / or NACK protocol to support HARQ operations.

[0084] At least one of the TX processor 368, the RX processor 356, and the controller / processor 359 may be configured to perform aspects in connection with the SL communication component 198 of FIG. 1.

[0085] At least one of the TX processor 316, the RX processor 370, and the controller / processor 375 may be configured to perform aspects in connection with the SL communication configuration component 199 of FIG. 1.

[0086] FIG. 4 is a diagram 400 illustrating an example of a UE positioningbased on reference signal measurements (which may also be referred to as “network-based positioning”) in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure . The UE 404 may transmit UL SRS 412 at time TSRS_TX and receive DL positioning reference signals (PRS) (DL PRS) 410 at time TPRS Rx- The TRP 406 may receive the UL SRS 412 at time TSRS_RX and transmit the DL PRS 410 at time TPRS_TX- The UE 404 may receive the DL PRS 410 before transmitting the UL SRS 412, or may transmit the UL SRS 412 before receiving the DL PRS 410. In both cases, a positioning server (e.g., location servers) 168) or the UE 404 may determine the RTT 414 based on ||TSRS RX - TPRS_TX| - |TsRs TX - TPRS_RX||. Accordingly, multi-RTT positioning may make use of the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurements (i.e., |TSRs TX - TPRS_RX|) and DL PRS reference signal received power (RSRP) (DL PRS-RSRP) of downlink signals received from multiple TRPs 402, 406 and measured by the UE 404, and the measured TRP Rx-Tx time difference measurements (i.e., |TSRs RX - TPRSTX|) and UL SRS-RSRP at multiple TRPs 402, 406 of uplink signals transmitted from UE 404. The UE 404measures the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurements (and / or DL PRS-RSRP of the received signals) using assistance data received from the positioning server, and the TRPs 402, 406 measure the gNB Rx-Tx time difference measurements (and / or UL SRS-RSRP of the received signals) using assistance data received from the positioning server. The measurements may be used atthe positioning server or the UE 404 to determine the RTT, which is used to estimate the location of theUE 404. Other methods are possible for determining the RTT, such as for example using DL-TDOA and / or UL-TDOA measurements.

[0087] PRSs may be defined for network-based positioning (e.g., NR positioning) to enable UEs to detect and measure more neighbor transmission and reception points (TRPs), where multiple configurations are supported to enable a variety of deployments (e.g, indoor, outdoor, sub-6, mmW, etc.). To support PRS beam operation, beam sweeping may also be configured for PRS. The UL positioning reference signal may be based on sounding reference signals (SRSs) with enhancements / adjustments for positioning purposes. In some examples, UL-PRS may be referred to as “SRS for positioning” and a new Information Element (IE) may be configured for SRS for positioning in RRC signaling.

[0088] DL PRS-RSRP may be defined as the linear average over the power contributions (in [W]) of the resource elements of the antenna port(s) that carry DL PRS reference signals configured for RSRP measurements within the considered measurement frequency bandwidth. In some examples, for FR1, the referencepointfortheDL PRS- RSRP may be the antenna connector of the UE. For FR2, DL PRS-RSRP may be measured based on the combined signal from antenna elements corresponding to a given receiver branch. ForFRl and FR2, if receiver diversity is in use by the UE, the reported DL PRS-RSRP value may not be lower than the corresponding DL PRS- RSRP of any of the individual receiver branches. Similarly, UL SRS-RSRP may be defined as linear average of the power contributions (in [W]) of the resource elements carrying sounding reference signals (SRS). UL SRS-RSRP may be measured over the configured resource elements within the considered measurement frequency bandwidth in the configured measurement time occasions. In some examples, for FR1, the reference point for the UL SRS-RSRP may be the antenna connector of the base station (e.g., gNB). For FR2, UL SRS-RSRP may be measured based on the combined signal from antenna elements correspondingto a given receiver branch. ForFR1 and FR2, if receiver diversity is in use by the base station, the reported UL SRS- RSRP value may not be lower than the corresponding UL SRS-RSRP of any of the individual receiver branches.

[0089] PRS-path RSRP (PRS-RSRPP) may be defined as the power of the linear average of the channel response at the i-th path delay of the resource elements that carry DL PRS signal configured for the measurement, where DL PRS-RSRPP for the 1 st path delay is the power contribution corresponding to the first detected path in time. In some examples, PRS path Phase measurement may refer to the phase associated with an i- th path of the channel derived using a PRS resource.

[0090] DL-AoD positioning may make use of the measured DL PRS-RSRP of downlink signals received from multiple TRPs 402, 406 at the UE 404. The UE 404 measures the DL PRS-RSRP of the received signals using assistance data received from the positioning server, and the resulting measurements are used along with the azimuth angle of departure (A-AoD), the zenith angle of departure (Z-AoD), and other configuration information to locate the UE 404 in relation to the neighboring TRPs 402, 406.

[0091] DL-TDOA positioning may make use of the DL reference signal time difference (RSTD) (and / or DL PRS-RSRP) of downlink signals received from multiple TRPs 402, 406 at the UE 404. The UE 404 measures the DL RSTD (and / or DL PRS-RSRP) of the received signals using assistance data received from the positioning server, and the resulting measurements are used along with other configuration information to locate the UE 404 in relation to the neighboring TRPs 402, 406.

[0092] UL-TDOA positioning may make use of the UL relative time of arrival (RTOA) (and / or UL SRS-RSRP) at multiple TRPs 402, 406 of uplink signals transmitted from UE 404. The TRPs 402, 406 measure the UL-RTOA (and / or UL SRS-RSRP) of the received signals using assistance data received from the positioning server, and the resulting measurements are used along with other configuration information to estimate the location of the UE 404.

[0093] UL-AoApositioningmay make use of the measured azimuth angle of arrival (A-AoA) and zenith angle of arrival (Z-AoA) at multiple TRPs 402, 406 of uplink signals transmitted from the UE 404. The TRPs 402, 406 measure the A-AoA and the Z-AoA of the received signals using assistance data received from the positioning server, and the resulting measurements are used along with other configuration information toestimate the location of the UE 404. For purposes of the present disclosure, a positioning operation in which measurements are provided by a UE to a base station / positioning entity / serverto be used in the computation of the UE’s position may be described as “UE-assisted,” “UE-assisted positioning,” and / or “UE-assisted position calculation,” while a positioning operation in which a UE measures and computes its own position maybe described as“UE-based,” “UE-based positioning,” and / or “UE-based position calculation.”

[0094] Additional positioning methods may be used for estimating the location of the UE 404, such as for example, UE-side UL-AoD and / or DL-AoA. Note that data / measurements from various technologies may be combined in various ways to increase accuracy, to determine and / or to enhance certainty, to supplement / complement measurements, and / or to substitute / provide for missing information.

[0095] Note that the terms “positioning reference signal” and “PRS” generally refer to specific reference signals that are used for positioning in NR and LTE systems. However, as used herein, the terms “positioning reference signal” and “PRS” may also refer to any type of reference signal that can be used for positioning, such as but not limited to, PRS as defined in LTE and NR, TRS, PTRS, CRS, CSLRS, DMRS, PSS, SSS, SSB, SRS, UL-PRS, etc. In addition, the terms “positioning reference signal” and “PRS” may refer to downlink or uplink positioning reference signals, unless otherwise indicated by the context. To further distinguish the type of PRS, a downlink positioning reference signal may be referred to as a “DL PRS,” and an uplink positioning reference signal (e.g., an SRS-for-positioning, PTRS) may be referred to as an “UL-PRS.” In addition, for signals that may be transmitted in both the uplink and downlink (e.g., DMRS, PTRS), the signals may be prepended with “UL” or “DL” to distinguish the direction. For example, “UL-DMRS” may be differentiated from “DL-DMRS.” In addition, the term “location” and “position” may be used interchangeably throughout the specification, which may referto a particular geographical or a relative place.

[0096] FIG. 5 illustrates an example 500 of sidelink communication between devices. The communication may be based on a slot structure similar to aspects described in connection with FIGs. 2A to 2D. For example, a UE 502 may transmit a sidelink (SL) transmission 514, e.g., including a control channel (e.g., a physical sidelink controlchannel (PSCCH)) and / or a corresponding data channel (e.g., a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH)), that may be received by UEs 504, 506, and 508. A control channel may include information (e.g., sidelink control information (SCI)) for decoding a data channel including reservation information, such as information about time and / or frequency resources that are reserved for the data channel transmission. For example, the SCI may indicate a number of transmission time intervals (TTIs), as well as the resource blocks (RBs) that may be occupied by the data transmission. The SCI may be used by receiving devices to avoid interference by refraining from transmitting on the reserved resources. The UEs 502, 504, 506, and 508 may each be capable of sidelink transmission in addition to sidelink reception. Thus, UEs 504, 506, and 508 are illustrated as transmitting sidelink transmissions 513, 515, 516, and 520. The sidelink transmissions 513, 514, 515, 516, and 520 may be unicast, broadcast, or multicastto nearby devices. For example, UE 504 may transmit sidelink transmissions 513 and 515 intended for receipt by other UEs within a range 501 of UE 504, and UE 506 may transmit sidelink transmission 516 to a specified UE. Additionally, or alternatively, a roadside unit (RSU) 507 may be configured to receive communication from and / or transmit communication 518 to UEs 502, 504, 506, and 508.

[0097] Sidelink communication may be based on one or more transmission modes. In one transmission mode for a first radio access technologies (RAT) (which may be referred to herein as "Mode 4" of a first RAT), a wireless device may autonomously select resources for transmission. A network entity may allocate one or more sub-channels for wireless devices to transmit one or more transport blocks (TB) using the one or more channels. A wireless device may randomly reserve an allocated resource for one-shot transmissions. A wireless device may use a sensing-based semi-persistent transmission scheme, or semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) mode, to select a reserved resource for transmission. For example, before selecting a resource for data transmission, a wireless device may first determine whether resources have been reserved by another wireless device. Semi-persistent transmission allows a wireless device to take advantage of semi-periodic traffic arrival by using historical interference patterns to predict future interference patterns. The wireless device may sense at least one of priority information, energy sensing information, or PSCCH decoding information to optimize resource selection. In one aspect, a wireless device may avoid selecting resources for a transmission that are scheduled to be used for ahigher priority packet transmission. In another aspect, a wireless device may rank resources according to how much energy is received, and may pick the lowest energy resources. In another aspect, a wireless device may avoid resources for whom control is decoded or for which the received energy may be above a threshold.

[0098] A network entity may configure the periodicity of the reserved sub-channels using DCI transmitted over a PDCCH. The period of a semi-persistent transmission resource may be, for example, 20, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, or 1000 milliseconds (ms). Such a periodicity may be referred to as a resource reservation period (RSVP). In alternative embodiments, the periodicity may be referred to as a resource reservation interval (RRI). A network entity may limit the possible values for the periodicity of the transmission resource. A wireless device, such as a UE, may select a transmission resource based on the periodicity of an arrival packet. A countermay be usedto trigger periodic reselections. For example, awireless device may randomly select a counter between 5 and 15, and may reserve a resource based on the counter (e.g., 10 * counter resource reservation periods, a number of medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU) transmissions equal to the counter). After every transmission, or after a reservation period passes, the counter may be decremented until it hits zero. For example, where a reservation period is 100 ms and a counter is 10, every 100 ms the counter may decrement until one second (s) passes, upon which the wireless device may then reselect a sidelink resource. In one aspect, the wireless device may reselect the sidelink resource based on a re-selection probability value. For example, in response to the counter decrementing to zero, the wireless device may reselect the sidelink resource an x% of the time, and may not reselect the sidelink resource (1-x) % of the time, where x < 1 . The wireless device may then resetthe counter and repeatthe process whenthe counter decrements to zero again. A wireless device may measure a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurement for each slot of 100 ms, and may then calculate the RSSI of the frequency band resource as an average of each of the 10 RSSI measurements taken overthe period of one second. Awireless device may select a suitable frequency band resource as a resource that is in one of the bottom 20% of ranked RSSI calculated resourcesfor a wireless device. In some aspects, the counter maybe decremented after every MAC PDU transmission. A wireless device may be configured to reselect asidelink resource after a counter expires (i.e., reaches zero), and a MAC PDU is received.

[0099] Sidelink communication for other RATs may be based on different types or modes of resource allocation mechanisms. In another resource allocation mode for a second RAT (which may be referred to herein as "Mode 1" of a second RAT), centralized resource allocation may be provided by a network entity. For example, a network entity may determine resources for sidelink communication and may allocate resources to different wireless devices to use for sidelink transmissions. In this first mode, a wireless device may receive an allocation of sidelink resources from a base station or a network entity. In a second resource allocation mode (which may be referred to herein as "Mode 2"), distributed resource allocation may be provided. In Mode 2, each wireless device may autonomously determine resources to use for sidelink transmission. In order to coordinate the selection of sidelink resources by individual wireless devices, each wireless device may use a sensing technique to monitor for resource reservations by other sidelink wireless devices and may select resources for sidelink transmissions from unreserved resources. Devices communicating based on sidelink, may determine one or more radio resources in the time and frequency domain that are used by other devices in order to select transmission resources that avoid collisions with other devices.

[0100] The sidelink transmission and / or the resource reservation may be periodic or aperiodic, where a wireless device may reserve resources for transmissionin a current slot and up to two future slots (discussed below). Thus, in the second mode (e.g, Mode 2), individual wireless devices may autonomously select resources for sidelink transmission, e.g., without a central entity such as a base station indicating the resources for the device. A first wireless device may reserve the selected resources in order to inform other wireless devices about the resources thatthe first wireless device intends to use for sidelink transmission(s).

[0101] In some examples, the resource selection for sidelink communication may be based on a sensing-based mechanism. For instance, before selecting a resource for a data transmission, a wireless device may previously determine whether resources have been reserved by other wireless devices. For example, as part of a sensing mechanism for a resource allocation mode 2 of a second RAT, a wireless device may determine (e.g., sense) whether a selected sidelink resource has been reserved by other wirelessdevice(s) before selecting a sidelink resource for a data transmission. If the wireless device determines that the sidelink resource has not been reserved by other wireless devices, the wireless device may use the selected sidelink resource for transmitting the data, e.g., in a PSSCH transmission. The wireless device may estimate or determine which radio resources (e.g., sidelink resources) may be in-use and / or reserved by others by detecting and decoding SCI transmitted by other wireless devices. The wireless device may use a sensing-based resource selection algorithm to estimate or determine which radio resources are in-use and / or reserved by others. The wireless device may receive SCI from another wireless device that may include reservation information based on a resource reservation field in the SCI. The wireless device may continuously monitor for (e.g., sense) and decode SCI from peer wireless devices. The SCI may include reservation information, e.g., indicating slots and RBs that a particular wireless device has selected for a future transmission. The wireless device may exclude resources that are used and / or reserved by other wireless devices from a set of candidate resourcesfor sidelink transmission by the wireless device, and the wireless device may select / reserve resources for a sidelink transmission from the resources that are unused and therefore form the set of candidate resources. A wireless device may continuously perform sensing for SCI with resource reservations in order to maintain a set of candidate resources from which the wireless device may select one or more resources for a sidelink transmission. Once the wireless device selects a candidate resource, the wireless device may transmit SCI indicating its own reservation of the resource for a sidelink transmission. The number of resources (e.g, sub-channels per subframe) reserved by the wireless device may depend on the size of data to be transmitted by the wireless device. Although the example is described for a wireless device receiving reservations from another wireless device, the reservations may be received from an RSU or other device communicating based on sidelink.

[0102] In some examples, communications from a vehicle to one or more entities within a range of the vehicle (typically via sidelink (SL) or a mobile network) may be referred to as a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) or cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) communication or technology. For example, V2X / C-V2X communication or technology may include sensors, cameras, and / or wireless connectivity that enable vehicles (e.g., UEs 502, 504, 506, 508, etc.) to share real-time information with theirdrivers, other vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians, vulnerable road users (VRUs), mobile networks, and / or roadway infrastructure like roadside units (RSUs) and traffic lights, etc. In addition, C-V2X may utilize available networks (e.g., PC5 channel(s)) to establish direct and / or indirect communication links, allowing vehicles to exchange information in real-time. In some implementations, C-V2X may operate in two modes: a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) mode and a vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I). In the V2V mode, vehicles may communicate with each other, sharing data such as position, speed, acceleration, and other relevant information. This may enable cooperative driving, collision avoidance, and traffic efficiency improvements.

[0103] Sidelink communication may be useful for reduced capability (RedCap) UE power saving at least in two senses based on the assistance from a non-RedCap UE (e.g., a regular UE, a premium UE, a smart phone, etc.): (1) the non-RedCap UE serves as a relay between the RedCap UE and a base station, and (2) the non-RedCap UE serves as a server to process the raw data of the RedCap UE. For purposes of the present disclosure, a RedCap UE may refer to a type of UE (or a group of UEs) with lower processing / communication capabilities (e.g., with reduced antenna number / size, reduced processor speed, reduced communication bandwidth, reduced memory, and / or reduced battery power, etc.) compared to a regular / non-RedCap UE (which may just be referred to as the “UE” hereafter). For example, RedCapUEs may include wearables (e.g., smart watches, wearable medical devices, augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) goggles, etc.), industrial wireless sensors, and / or video surveillance, etc. In some implementations, there may also be an enhanced RedCap (eRedCap) UE, which have lower processing / communication capabilities compared to a RedCap UE. For ease of illustration, RedCap UE(s) and eRedCap UE(s) may collectively be referred to as RedCap UE(s) and / or specified UE(s) / device(s).

[0104] As discussed in connection with FIG. 5, there may be two resource allocation modes for sidelink communications, where a first mode (Mode 1) may be referred to as the centralized mode which enables a base station to allocate resources for sidelink UEs / devices (e.g., time and frequency resources for transmitting / receiving sidelink transmissions), and a second mode (Mode 2) may be referred to as the distributed mode which enables a transmitter UE (e.g., a transmitting sidelink UE / device) to autonomously determine resource allocations for sidelink transmissions. However, depending on the implementations, RedCap UEs may encounter certainproblems / issues when they are configured to operate under the second mode (Mode 2), which may be typical cases due to coverage loss by reduced antenna number or size (e.g., the Red Cap UEs). For example, frequent channel sensing and resource reservation operations (discussed below) may consume significant amount of power for RedCap UEs. Also, due to reduced bandwidth, RedCap UEs may not be able to detect the reservation signaling (e.g., sidelink control information (SCI)) for a sidelink data transmission by other UEs all the time. Besides the sidelink communication between a RedCap UE and an associated premium UE, the RedCap UE may be optimized to reduce signaling overhead and throughput impact to the premium UE.

[0105] As described above, when operating using Mode 2 (e.g., in a distributed manner), a transmitting UE may determine the resources to use for a sidelink transmission from a sidelink resource pool. A sidelink resource pool may refer to a collection of time and / or frequency resources on which sidelink communication may occur.

[0106] FIG. 6 is a diagram 600 illustration an example sidelink resource pool in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. A sidelink resource pool may be either preconfigured (e.g., preloaded on a UE), configured by a base station, or determined by the UE. In some examples, a transmitting UEmay be configuredto randomly select resources from a resource pool for a sidelink transmission, and a receiving UE may be configured to continuously monitor candidate resources to receive the sidelink transmission from the transmitting UE (or to receive sidelink communications from other / nearby UEs). However, when two nearby UEs randomly select the same resource for a sidelink transmission, a collision or an interference may occur between their sidelink transmissions. As such, a UE may be configured to discover which resource(s) are available (e.g., not reserved) for sidelink transmission prior to selecting a resource for a sidelink transmission, which may be referred to as the “sidelink sensing, ” a“sensingoperation,”orjustthe“sensing,” etc. In addition, atime duration in which the UE may performed the sensing a specific set of resources (e.g, resources within a selection window) may be referred to as a “sensing window.”

[0107] In one example, as shown at 610, a first UE (“UE 1 ”) may reserve a sub-channel (SC)(e.g., SC 4) in a current slot (e.g., slot 1) for its initial sidelink transmission (e.g., using resources 602), and may reserve additional future slots within a defined window (which may be referred to as a “resource selection window”) for future sidelink transmissions or retransmissions. For example, UE 1 may reserve resources 604 and606 (e.g., SC 2 at slots 3 and SC 3 at slot 4, respectively) for future sidelink transmissions / retransmissions. Then, UE 1 may transmitinformationregardingwhich resources are used / reserved by UE 1 to other UE(s), such as by including this reservation information in a reservation resource field of the SCI. Depending on the implementations, a UE may use the SCI to reserve up to two future slots (or a UE may reserve up to three transmissions within a resource selection window). In addition, a maximum number of reservation allowed for a UE may also be pre-configured for the UE. Similarly, a second UE (“UE 2”) may also reserve resources for sidelink transmissions (e.g., using resource 608), and UE 2 may also reserve resources for future transmissions (e.g., resources 610 and 612) Then, UE 2 may also transmit the reservation information to other UE(s), such as using the reservation resource field in SCI.

[0108] FIG. 7 is a diagram 700 illustrating an example of a resource reservation process in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. When a UE (e.g., a transmitting UE) is using a first reserved resource 702 for transmission at slot i in a period (such as a period 652 illustrated at 620 of FIG. 6), the UE may reserve two more resources within the same period, such as resource 704 at slot i+x and resource 706 at slot z +y. Each of the reserved resources 702, 704, and 706 may have number z of sub-channels. For example, if the period has 32 slots with slot index 0 to 31 , the UE may transmit the first reserved resource 702 at slot 0 with z sub-channels, and may reserve a second resource 704 with z sub-channels at slot z + x, where x is 0 < x < 31, and may further reserve a third resource 706 with z sub-channels at slot z + y, where is x < y < 31. Table 2 below is an example reservations signaled by the SCI of the UE in slot z corresponding to FIG.7.Table 2The UE may use the resource 704 and resource 706 for retransmission of the resource 702, such as when the transmission of the resource 702 fails, or the UE may use the reserved resources 704 and / or 706 for other purposes.

[0109] The sidelink resource reservation may be periodic or aperiodic. For example, a UE may reserve periodic resources, such as by indicating a reservation period in an SCI. For example, a period, with configurable values between 0 ms and 1000 ms, may be signaled in SCI by a transmitting UE. Periodic resource reservation and signaling may also be disabled by (pre)configuration. When the periodic resource reservation is enabled, the reservations in the SCI may be repeated with the signaled period.

[0110] FIG. 8 is a diagram 800 illustration an example of a RedCap UE potentially causing a resource collision with another UE in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. As discussed above, a RedCap UE, which may also be referred to as a “specified type of UE” for purposes of the disclosure, may be configured to operate with a reduced bandwidth. For example, as shown at 806, a RedCap UE 802 may be configured to operate with just one sub-channel (e.g., SC 2) out of four sub-channels (e.g., SC 1 to SC 4), whichmeansthattheRedCapUE802 mayjustbe abletoperform sidelink sensing, transmission(s) and / or reception(s) within this sub-channel. Thus, as shown at 808, if a UE 804 (e.g., a non-RedCap UE) transmits SCI via another subchannel (e.g., SC 4) to reserve a resource 810 that overlaps with the sub-channel operated by the RedCap UE 802 (e.g., SC 2), the RedCap UE 802 may not be able to discover that the resource 810 has been reserved. As such, if the RedCap UE 802 makes a transmission at the same slot as the resource 810, a resource collision may occur between the RedCap UE 802 and the UE 804. In other words, due to reduced bandwidth, although a RedCap UE may not detect the resource reservation of another UE, it may still collide with the other UE(s)’ sidelink transmission(s).

[0111] FIG. 9 is a diagram 900 illustration an example of a dedicated resource pool structure in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. In some implementations, a sidelink resource pool may be configured to follow certain dedicated resource pool structure. In one example, as shown at 902, each sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) in a dedicated sidelink resource pool may be configured to be immediately preceded by an automatic gain control (AGC) symbol, and a last SL-PRS may be immediately followed by a gap symbol. In addition, the physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) and SL-PRS may just be time division multiplexed (TDMed), and the dedicated sidelink resource pool may support just the single-stage SCI (e.g., SCI-1B). As shown at 904, different comb size (N) and SL- PRS duration (M) may be supported in the same resource pool, where one set ofsymbols (e.g., OFDM symbols) may be configured to have just a single (M, N) combination. The maximum number of TDM occasions in a slot may be four (4).

[0112] As shown at 906, PSCCH(s) may be mapped to the first sidelink symbols in a slot, and may have same demodulation reference signal (DMRS) as sidelink physical shared channel (SL PSSCH) in communications. The number of symbols may be (pre-)configuredto be 2 or 3, and the number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) may be (pre-)configured using SL communications values and may be within a subchannel. For purposes of the present disclosure, the term “subchannel(s)” may be used interchangeably with the term “sub-band(s),” which may refer to a set / subset of smaller frequency bands within a larger frequency band.

[0113] The dedicated sidelink resource pool may also include a direct one-to-one mapping between SL-PRS resource ID and PSCCH sub-channel index. For example, as shown at 908, if a PSCCH is transmitted via a sub-channel (e.g., the first sub-channel (SC 1 )) with sub-channel index one (1 ), that PSCCH may map to a specific set of SL-PRS (e.g., a set of SL-PRS with the samePRS resource ID such as “SL-PRS (l)”)as shown at 910. As such, if a UE transmits an SCI via the PSCCH in SC 1, the UE may reserve and use corresponding SL-PRS resources that map to the PSCCH (e.g., SL-PRS (1)). Similarly, if the PSCCH is transmitted via a sub-channel with sub-channel index two (2), that PSCCH may map to another set of SL-PRS as shown at 912, and if the PSCCH is transmitted via a sub -channel with sub -channel index three (3), that PSCCH may map to another set of SL-PRS as shown at 914, etc.

[0114] In some examples, SCI (e.g., SCI-1B) transmitted in a dedicated resource pool may include the followings: (1) an SL-PRS priority (e.g., 3 bits), (2) a source ID (e.g., up to resource pool (pre-)configuration 12 or 24 bits), (3) a destination ID (e.g., 24 bits), (4) a cast type, (5) a resource reservation period (e.g., up to 16 values), (6) a time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations, (7) SL-PRS resource ID(s) for the future 1 or 2 reservations, (8) an SL-PRS request bit, and / or (9) reserved bits (e.g, up to (pre-)configuration).

[0115] FIG. 10 is a diagram 1000 illustration an example of a shared sidelink resource pool structure in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. In some implementations, a sidelink resource pool may be configured to follow certain shared resource pool structures. In one example, as shown at 1002 and 1004, a shared sidelink resource pool may specify that PSCCH / PSSCH and SL-PRS are TDMed, and themaximum comb size supported by the shared sidelink resource pool may be four (4). Under the shared sidelink resource pool, a PSSCH may carry both SCI-2 (which may also be referred to as a second stage SCI) and sidelink shared channel (SL-SCH) (e.g., an SCI-2D format may be implemented). A transmitting UE using the shared sidelink resource pool may be configured to apply the same transmit power for SL-PRS as the PSSCH. This may also imply that per-resource element (RE) power boosting may be applied for the comb size of 2 and 4. In one example, as shown at 1002 and 1004, an SL-PRS may be configured to be mapped to the last suitable, consecutive M symbols in a slot. In addition, the SL-PRS may be configured to be mapped after the last symbol with second stage SCI, and the SL-PRS is mapped to contiguous symbols either between or after PSSCH DMRS symbols. When PSSCH and SL-PRS are multiplexed in the same slot, they may be configured to share the same source ID, destination ID, and cast type fields, etc.

[0116] FIG. 11 is a diagram 1100 illustration an example of a staircase frequency hopping pattern in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. In some implementations, a transmitting device may be configured apply frequency hopping (or a frequency hopping pattern) to its transmission(s). Frequency hopping may refer to a method / mechanism of transmitting signals by changing the carrier frequency / band among many frequencies / bands occupying a large spectral band. The changes may be based on a pattern known to both the transmitting device and the receiving device.

[0117] As shown by the diagram 1100, a UE may be configured to transmit sounding reference signal (SRS) based on a staircase frequency hopping pattern (“staircase pattern” hereafter), which may include a wrapped staircase pattern. A staircase pattern may refer to a specific pattern or sequence in which the frequency changes occur. Instead of randomlyjumping between frequencies, a transmitting device may follow a predetermined sequencethatresembles a staircase pattern. For example, the UE may transmit a transmission “ 1” using a first frequency / frequency band at a first symbol, using (e.g., hops to) a second and sub sequent frequency / frequency band at a second symbol, and using (e.g., hops to) a third and subsequent frequency / frequency band at a third symbol, etc. The staircase frequency hopping pattern may be more deterministic than completely random frequency hopping, which may be advantageous in certain scenarios. For example, it can simplify the synchronizationprocess and make it easier to manage the frequency hopping pattern within the communication system.

[0118] In one example, the UE may receive (e.g., from a base station or a network entity) a configuration for the SRS transmission (Tx) hopping, where the configuration may include at least one of : (1) the starting physical resource block (PRB) of the first hop, (2) a hop bandwidth common to all hops, (3 ) a single overlap value may be configured for all hops for the SRS resource, (4) the starting slot offset and starting symbol for the SRS resource with Tx hopping (e.g., the first hop), (5) the starting slot offset and symbol for each of the hops following the first hop, (6) the number of consecutive symbols in a hop common to all hops, and / or (7) the number of hops, etc. The UE may not expect to be configured for any hops across slot boundaries, e.g., the starting position and duration of a hop may not exceed a slot duration.

[0119] Referring back to FIG. 9, in some implementations, single stage SCI used in association with a dedicated resource pool may be referred to as “SCI-1B,” and may include one or more of the following fields (e.g., information elements (IEs)): (1) SL- PRS priority - 3 bits, (2) source ID - up to resource pool (pre-)configuration 12 or 24 bits, (3) destination ID - 24 bits, (4) cast type, (5) resource reservation period - up to 16 values, (6) time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations, (7) SL-PRS resource ID (s) forthe future 1 or 2 reservations, (8) SL-PRS request bit, and / or (9) reserved bits - up to (pre-)configuration, etc.

[0120] Aspects presented herein may improve the overall performance and reliability for sidelink communications that involve UEs that are just capable of operating in a subset of subchannels (or sub-bands) of a sidelink resource pool (e.g., reduced capability (RedCap) UEs, specified types of UEs, etc.). Aspects presented herein provide various mechanisms for scheduling SL-PRS and configuring SL-PRS frequency hopping for a UE that operates in a subset of subchannels of a sidelink resource pool. Aspects presented herein are also capable of avoiding resource collisions (for sidelink communications among multiple UEs) when there is at least one UE that is just able to receive PSCCH (e.g., SCI) in a specific subset of subchannels (e.g., when there is at least one RedCap UE).

[0121] In one aspect of the present disclosure, a UE may transmit a single-stage SCI which picks an SL-PRS resource (e.g., based on a 1-to-l mapping or a 1-to-many mapping between subchannels and SL-PRS resources). This may be done for schedulinghopping for future slots with time resource assignments for future reservations and / or SL-PRS resources for future X reservations. In another aspect of the present disclosure, SCI may be configured to schedule the next hop in a slot that is at least a processing delay away from the first slot, where the minimum processing time may be specified to be reported in a UE capability. In another aspect of the present disclosure, there may be a resource-pool-level configuration of how specific subbands are expected to be hopping. In another aspect of the present disclosure, SCI may indicate which sub-band a UE is switching to.

[0122] FIG. 12 is a diagram 1200 illustration an example of a dedicated resource pool for positioning and SCI for a SL RedCap UE in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. In one aspect of the present disclosure, a UE that is operating in a subset of the subchannels of a dedicated resource pool for positioning may be configured to transmit SCI (e.g., single-stage SCI) that picks an SL-PRS resource based on a direct one-to-one mapping between an i-th subchannel and an i-th SL-PRS resource (e.g., as described in connection with FIG. 9). In such configuration(s), the UE may schedule just a subset of SL-PRS resources (e.g., ones within the subchannels / sub-bands supported by the UE 1202).

[0123] For example, as shown at 1210, a UE 1202 (e.g., a RedCap UE, an eRedCap UE) may be configured to (or just capable of) operate in subchannels four (SC 4) and five (SC 5) of a dedicated resource pool that includes five subchannels (e.g., SC 1 to SC 5). This dedicated resource pool may include a direct one-to-one mapping between an i- th subchannel and an i-th SL-PRS resource (e.g., SL-PRS resource(s) associated with a specific / i-th SL-PRS resource ID). For example, as shown at 1212, a PSCCHthat is transmitted within the SC 4 (e.g., referring to as the “PSCCH (4)”) may map to a specific set of SL-PRS (e.g., SL-PRS (4), SL-PRS resources corresponding to SL- PRS resource ID (4), etc.), and a PSCCH that is transmitted within the SC 5 (e.g., referring to as the “PSCCH (5)”) may map to another specific set of SL-PRS (e.g., SL-PRS (5), SL-PRS resources correspondingto SL-PRS resource ID (5), etc.). Thus, as shown at 1214, if the UE 1202 transmits a PSCCH within the SC 4, the UE 1202 may schedule at least one SL-PRS resource that is mapped to the SC 4 and is within the subchannels (e.g., SC 4 and / or SC 5) supported by the UE 1202. Similarly, if the UE 1202 transmits a PSCCH within the SC 5, the UE 1202 may schedule at least one SL-PRS resource that is mapped to the SC 5 and is within the subchannels (e.g., SC4 and / or SC 5) supported by the UE 1202. In other words, when an i-th subchannel of the sidelink resource pool is used by the UE 1202 for transmitting the PSCCH, the i- th SL-PRS resource is triggered.

[0124] FIG. 13 is a diagram 1300 illustration an example of a dedicated resource pool for positioning and SCI for a SL RedCap UE in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. In another aspect of the present disclosure, a UE (e.g., a RedCap UE, an eRedCap UE) that is operating in a subset of the subchannels of a dedicated resource pool for positioning may be configured to transmit SCI (e.g., single-stage SCI) that picks an SL-PRS resource based on a (new) direct one-to-one (or one-to- many) mappingbetween an i-th subchannel and aj-th SL-PRS resource. For example, when aUE uses an i-th subchannel of the sidelink resourcepool to transmit a PSCCH, which corresponds to aj-th subchannel inside the subchannels the UE is operating in, the UE may use SL-PRS resources that are associated with the j-th subchannel (e.g, based on a one-to-one (or one-to-many) mappingbetween the j-th subchannel and a SL PRS resource ID. An example case may be a UE operates just on the i-th subchannel of a sidelink resource pool may be configured to just transmit the j-th SU PRS resources.

[0125] For example, as shown at 1310, when the UE 1202 is configured to (or just capable of) operate in subchannels four (SC 4) and five (SC 5) (e.g., the i-th subchannel) of a dedicated resource pool that includes five subchannels (e.g., SC 1 to SC 5), the subchannels operatedby the UE 1202 may be “indexed” or “re-indexed” as the first subchannel (SC 1) and the second subchannel (SC 2) (e.g., the j-th subchannel). As such, this dedicated resource pool may include a direct one-to-one or one-to-many mapping between the i-th subchannel and the j-th SL-PRS resource (e.g., SL-PRS resource(s) associated with a specific / j-th SL-PRS resource ID). For example, as shown at 1312, a PSCCH that is transmitted within the SC 1 may map to a specific set of SL-PRS (e.g., SL-PRS (1), SL-PRS resources corresponding to SL-PRS resource ID (1), etc.), and a PSCCH that is transmitted within the SC 2 (e.g., referring to as the “PSCCH (5)”) may map to another specific set of SL-PRS (e.g., SL-PRS (2), SL-PRS resources corresponding to SL-PRS resource ID (2), etc.). Thus, as shown at 1314, if the UE 1202 transmits a PSCCH within the SC 4 which has been (re-)indexed as the SC 1 , the UE 1202 may schedule at least one SL-PRS resource that is mapped to the SC 1 and is within the subchannels (e.g., SC 4 and / or SC 5) supported by theUE 1202. Similarly, if the UE 1202 transmits a PSCCH within the SC 5 which has been (re-)indexed as the SC 2, the UE 1202 may schedule at least one SL-PRS resource that is mapped to the SC 2 and is within the subchannels (e.g., SC 4 and / or SC 5) supported by the UE 1202. As such, there may be a one-to-one or a one-to- many mapping between the first subchannel (SC 1) and a first set of PRS resources (e.g., PRS resources {1, 2, 3, 4}) and between the second subchannel (SC 2) and a second set of PRS resources (e.g., PRS resources {5}), etc. In some implementations, the UE 1202 may indicate in the SCI which SL-PRS resource(s) are selected by the UE 1202. For example, a 2-bits field in the SCI may be introduced for a UE to pick between the multiple / many associated PRS resources.

[0126] FIG. 14 is a diagram 1400 illustrating an example of a UE performing retuning for frequency hopping in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. As discussed in connection with FIG. 11 , in some scenarios, a UE may be configured to transmit communications based on frequency hopping. For example, a UE may transmit a first transmission (which may be referred to as “hop 1”) via a first subchannel (SC 1) (e.g., at slot X) as shown at 1402, transmit a second transmission (which may be referred to as “hop 2”) via a third subchannel (SC 3) (e.g., at slotX+1) as shown at 1404, and transmit a third transmission (which may be referred to as “hop 3”) via a second subchannel (SC 2) (e.g., at slot X+2) as shown at 1406. During frequency hopping transmissions, the UE may be specified to retune (e.g., switch) its operating frequencies or frequency bands. For example, as shown at 1408, after transmitting hop 1 via the first subchannel, the UE may be specified to retune / switch its operating frequency to the third subchannel for transmitting hop 2. Similarly, as shown at 1410, after transmitting hop 2 via the third subchannel, the UE may be specified to retune / switch its operating frequency to the second subchannel for transmitting hop 3.

[0127] In one aspect of the present disclosure, a UE operating in a subset of the subchannels of a dedicated resource pool for positioning (e.g., a RedCap UE, an eRedCap UE, the UE 1202, etc.) may be configured to transmit SCI (e.g., single-stage SCI) that uses the following fields for the purpose of scheduling the hopping in future slots: (1 ) time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations and / or (2) SL-PRS resource ID(s) for the future 1 or 2 reservations. For example, assuming that for frequency hopping the same SL-PRS resource is expected to be scheduled (e.g., SL-PRS resource withthe same SL-PRS ID), the bits available in the second field (e.g., SL-PRS resource ID(s) for the future 1 or 2 reservations) may be reconfigured / repurposed for picking a frequency hopping ID.

[0128] For example, as shown at 1412, a PSCCH carrying future reservations may be configured to carry reservation for future hops (e.g., hop 2 and hop 3). In some examples, the hopping (or reservation(s) for the future hop(s)) may also be based on a mapping. For example, an i-th reservation may be configured to map to an i-th hop of the indicated SL-PRS resource (e.g., the first reservation is mapped to a first hop, the second reservation is mapped to a second hop, etc.). In another example, an i-th reservation may be configured to map to a j-th hop accordingto a configuration of sequence of hops. For example, for a sequence of hops with hopping IDs [2, 3, 4, 1, 5], the first reservation (e.g., for hop 1) may be transmitted with hop ID 2, the second reservation (e.g., for hop 2) may be transmitted with hop ID 3, and the third reservation (e.g., for hop 3) may be transmitted with hop ID 4, etc.

[0129] In some implementations, in the second resource allocation mode for sidelink (e.g, the Mode 2), the choice of the slots that is being picked by a UE for transmission (after performing sensing and identifying potential resource(s)) may be configured to be random. Also, there may be additional constraint(s) on which slot(s) the UE may choose for the purpose of SL-PRS resource hopping. For example, as discussed in connection with FIG. 14, a UE may be specified to retune after each hop (e.g., may be up to the UE capability regarding the amount of hopping the UE may perform). In some implementations, the UE may also be specified to use consecutive slots for the frequency hopping to make sure that the hopping is happening as fast as possible in time.

[0130] FIG. 15 is a diagram 1500 illustrating an example of a processing delay associated with frequency hopping in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. In some scenarios, if a first UE is configured to transmit SL-PRS with frequency hopping using consecutive slots (e.g., so that the channel does not age significantly across the hops), as a second UE receiving SCI may specify sometime to process the SCI, this processing delay at the second UE may cause potential resource collision if the second UE reserves / uses the same slot(s) and subchannel(s) for transmission as the slot(s) and subchannel(s) used by the first UE for frequency hopping.

[0131] For example, referring back to FIG. 14, a first UE may transmit SCI using a first PSCCH shown at 1412 (e.g., at slot X) that schedules two consecutive slots (e.g., slots X+l and X+2) using SC 3 and SC 2, respectively, for frequency hopping (e.g., as shown at 1404 and 1406). If a second UE receives the SCI from the first UE (e.g., based on sensing), the second UE may specify some processing time (e.g., 2.5 slots) before determining the content of the SCI. As such, the second UE may not be able to determine / know that SC 3 at slot X+l and / or SC 2 at slot X+2 has been reserved by the first UE for frequency hopping. Thus, if the second UE uses at least one of these slots for a current transmission or a future transmission, there may be a resource collision between transmissions of the first UE and the second UE. In other words, after the second UE receives SCI (e.g., via the first PSCCH) transmitted by the first UE, the second UE may specify some processing time before determining the content of the SCI. If this SCI schedules consecutive slots for frequency hopping (e.g., N back-to-back slots with each slot carrying one or multiple hops), as the second UE may still be specified to process the SCI during these N slots (e.g., the second SCI from the second PSCCH, the third SCI from the third PSCCH, etc.), it may be too late for the second UE to avoid these slots.

[0132] Referring back to FIG. 15, in one aspect of the present disclosure, to avoid the aforementioned resource collision, a first UE (e.g., a RedCap UE, etc.) that is configured to transmit SL-PRS based on frequency hopping may be configured to use the first SCI to schedule a subsequent or a second hop in a slot that is at least “processing delay” away from the slot in which the first SCI is transmitted (e.g., the first slot). For example, as shown at 1502, if the first UE uses the PSCCH at slot 1 to reserve additional consecutive slots for frequency hopping transmissions (e.g., for transmitting hop 2 at slot N and hop 3 at slot N+1 as shown at 1504 and 1506), the first UE may be configured to reserve hop 2 (assuming hop 1 is transmitted in the same slot as the PSCCH at slot 1) based on the processing delay of another UE (e.g, a second UE, a RedCap UE, etc.). For example, if the second UE specifies 3 slots to determine the content of SCI, the first UE may be configured to transmit hop 2 at slot 4 (e.g.,N = 1 + 3 = 4) ortransmitthe set of hops (e.g., hop 2, hop 3, and so on) starting at slot 4. In other words, the additional slots that carry the remaining hops are configured to be consecutive to the slot for the second hop.

[0133] However, if the first UE does not transmit the first hop (hop 1) in the same slot as the PSCCH schedulingthe slots for frequency hopping at 1502 (e.g., the first UE does not transmit hop 1 at slot 1), then the first UE may be configured to reserve hop 1 based on the processing delay of another UE (e.g., a second UE). For example, as shown by a diagram 1600 of FIG. 16, if the second UE specifies 2 slots to determine the content of SCI, the first UE may be configured to transmit hop 1 at slot 3 (e.g., N = 1 + 2 = 3) or transmit the set of hops (e.g., hop 1, hop 2, hop 3, and so on) starting at slot 3 such as shown at 1602. In other words, the first SCI may not schedule a hop in that slot, but the first hop is configured to start after the minimum processing time.

[0134] According, in another aspect of the present disclosure, for a UE (e.g., the first UE) to become aware of the SCI processing time of another UE (e.g., the second UE), a UE (e.g., the second UE) may be configured to report / broadcast its minimum SCI processing time to other UEs), such as via SCI as a UE capability (e.g., as part of a UE capability indication). As a RedCap UE may typically specify a longer SCI processing time compared to anon-RedCapUE, such configuration may reduce / avoid resource collision in a sidelink resource pool when at least one RedCap UE is communicating using the sidelink resource pool.

[0135] FIG. 17 is a diagram 1700 illustrating an example of a staircase frequency hopping (e.g., sub-band, hop, subchannel, group of subchannels) sequence in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. In another aspect of the present disclosure, for a receiving / monitoringUEto determine which sub channel / sub -band to tune into for receiving frequency hopping communication(s) from a transmitting UE (e.g., know the receiving / monitoringUE may tune into a subchannel / sub-band to check if there is a given UE that has started to do the hop), a sidelink resource pool may be configured to be associated with a resource-pool-level configuration of the sequence of howthe subchannels / sub-bandsare expectedto be hopped. This sequencemay also be configured to be associated with a given start slot offset. Thus, a receiving / monitoringUE may be able to tune into a specified sub sub-band to check if there is a given UE that has started to do the hop.

[0136] For example, as shown by the diagram 1700 (and also discussed in connection with FIG. 11), a sidelink resource pool (with four subchannels (SC 1 to SC 4)) may be configured to be associated with a hopping sequence based on a staircase pattern or a wrapped staircase pattern (discussed below by FIG. 18), which may be referred to as“staircase hopping sequence” and “wrapped staircase hopping sequence,” respectively. If a UE (e.g., the UE 1202, a RedCap UE, etc.) that is configured to transmit SL-PRS with frequency hopping using this sidelink resource pool, the UE may be specified to transmitthe hops for the frequency hoppingbased on the staircase pattern. In addition, this staircase hopping sequence or wrapped staircase hopping sequence may also be configured to be associated with a given start slot offset

[0137] For example, as shown at 1702, if the UE is configured to transmit the first hop (hop 1) at slot N, the UE may be specified to use SC 4, and transmit the subsequent hops in subsequent slots consecutively (e.g., slotN+1, slotN+2, and slot N+3) using SC 3, SC 2, and SC 1 as shown at 1704, 1706, and 1708. The UE may be configured to repeat this sequence for subsequent hops. For example, the UE may transmit a fifth hop (hop 5) using SC 4 at slot N+4, a sixth hop (hop 6) using SC 3 at slot N+5, a seventh hop (hop 7) using SC 2 at slot N+6, and so on. Under such configuration, a transmitting UE may notbe specified to provide an explicit dynamic (e.g., SCI-based) indication of the hopping index / frequency subchannel / sub-bandto other UEs, which may reduce the signaling overhead for sidelink communications and also avoid resource collision (e.g., as the UEs may determine which slots and subchannels are used / reserved for frequency hopping).

[0138] FIG. 18 is a diagram 1800 illustrating an example of a wrapped staircase frequency hopping sequence in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. Under the wrapped staircase frequency hopping sequence, a UE may be configured to transmit hops starting from any subchannel and repeat the staircase pattern. For example, if the UE is configured to transmitthe first hop (hop 1) using SC 2 at slot N as shown at 1802, the UE may be specified to transmitthe second hop (hop 2) using SC 1 at slotN+1 (as shown at 1804), transmitthe third hop (hop 3) using SC 4 at slot N+2 (as shown at 1806), transmit the fourth hop (hop 4) using SC 2 at slot N+3 (as shown at 1808), and so on.

[0139] In another aspect of the present disclosure, a transmitting UE (e.g., the UE 1202, a RedCap UE, etc.) may be configured to provide SCI-based explicit signaling of which subchannel / sub-band the UE is switching to (e.g., for transmitting next hopping). For example, referring back to FIG. 18, the UE may use the PSCCH at slot N to indicate the subchannel / sub-band the UE is switching to for the next hop (e.g., SC 2 at slot N+l), and use the PSCCH at slot N+1 to indicate the subchannel / sub-band the UE isswitching to for the hop after that (e.g., SC 4 at slotN+2). In some examples, a (new) single-stage SCI may be configured for signaling which subchannel / sub -band the UE is switching to for the subsequent hop. In some examples, the UE may also be configured to reuse the reserved bits of the available single-stage SCI.

[0140] In another aspect of the present disclosure, a transmitting UE (e.g., the UE 1202, a RedCap UE, etc.) may be configured to provide SCI-based explicit signaling of the first subchannel / sub-bandthe UE is expected to perform the frequency hopping (e.g, to transmit hop 1), and the remaining subchannels / sub-bands may be determined based on a configured / specified sequence (e.g., a staircase pattern or a wrapped staircase pattern).

[0141] FIG. 19 is a diagram 1900 illustrating an example SCI-based explicit signaling of a first subchannel / sub-band a UE is expected to perform the frequency hopping in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. A sidelink resource pool may be configured to be associated with a configured / specified sequence, such as a staircase pattern, a wrapped staircase pattern, or a pattern that follows the hopping IDs [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], etc. As shown at 1902, for a transmitting UE (e.g., the UE 1202, a RedCap UE, etc.) to transmit SL-PRS based on frequency hopping, the transmitting UE may be configured to transmit / broadcast, via SCI, the first subchannel / sub-band the transmitting UE is expected to perform the frequency hopping (e.g., to transmit the first hop (n hop = 0)). Based on this information, other UEs receiving this information (e.g., via the SCI transmitted by the transmitting UE) may be able to determine the time and frequency (e.g., subchannels / sub-bands) for the subsequent hops of the transmitting UE as shown at 1904.

[0142] FIG. 20 is a communication flow 2000 illustrating an example communication between two UEs with at least the transmitting UE being specified to operate in just sub-band(s) / subchannel(s) of a sidelink resource pool in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. The numberings associated with the communication flow 2000 do not specify a particular temporal order and are merely used as references for the communication flow 2000.

[0143] At 2010, a first UE 2002 (e.g., the UE 1202, a RedCap UE, an eRedCap UE, etc.) may obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool (e.g., SC 1 to SC 4 / SC 5 as described in connection with FIGs. 12 to 18) related to sidelink positioning. In some examples, the configuration may be pre-configured / defined at the first UE 2002(e.g., programmed / hardcoded at the first UE 2002). In some examples, the configuration may be indicated / transmitted to the first UE 2002, such as from a network entity 2006 (e.g., a location server, a location management function (LMF), a base station, etc.), such as shown at 2012.

[0144] At 2014, the first UE 2002 may be configured to operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands (e.g., just SCI and SC 2 within SC 1 to SC 5, just SC 3 and SC 4 within SC 1 to SC 4, etc.) for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning.

[0145] At 2016, the first UE 2002 may transmit (e.g., broadcast, unicast, groupcast, etc.), via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, sidelink control information (SCI) to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of sidelink (SL)-positioning reference signal (PRS) (SL-PRS), where the at least one resource may include (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, such as described in connection with FIGs. 12 and 13. For example, the first UE 2002 may transmit SCI to a second UE 2004 (e.g., a receiving UE, a non-RedCap UE, a RedCap UE, an eRedCap UE, etc.) via a first subchannel (SC 1) to reserve atleast one resource within the first subchannel for transmittingthe PRS, or the first UE 2002 may transmit SCI via a fourth subchannel (SC 4) to reserve at least one resource within another subchannel (e.g., SC 5) for transmitting the PRS.

[0146] In some implementations, as shown at 2018, the first UE 2002 may transmit, such as to the second UE 2004 and / or the network entity 2006, an indication of its capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type. For example, the first UE 2002 may indicate to the second UE 2004 and / or the network entity 2006 that it is a RedCap UE or an eRedCap UE (collectively as “(e)RedCap UE” hereafter). In some examples, the first UE 2002 may receive the configuration for the set of subbands for the resource pool (e.g., at 2012) from the network entity 2006 based on transmitting the capability indication to the network entity 2006.

[0147] At 2020, the first UE 2002 may transmit, based on the SCI transmitted at 2016, a set of SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning. The first UE2002 may transmit the SL-PRS to one or more UEs (e.g., UEs that are participating in the sidelink positioning), which may include the second UE 2004 as shown at 2022.

[0148] In some implementations, as shown at 2024 and described in connection with FIG.13, the first UE 2002 may be configured to index (or re-index) the subset of sub-bands, and identify a set of available resources for a reservation of the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands.

[0149] In some implementations, as described in connection with FIGs. 14 to 19, the first UE 2002 may include in the SCI (e.g., transmitted at 2016) an indication to apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS using the time resource assignment field for SL-PRS future reservations or using the SL-PRS resource identifiers (IDs) field for a firstfuturereservation or a secondfuture reservation. Then, based on the indication, the first UE 2002 may transmit the SL-PRS using the frequency hopping pattern. As described in connection with FIGs. 11 and 17-19, the frequency hopping pattern may be configured to be a staircase pattern or a wrapped staircase pattern.

[0150] In some examples, a shown at 2026, the first UE 2002 may receive, from another UE such as the second UE 2004, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI (e.g., the time it takes for the second UE 2004 to determine / decode information in the SCI), such as described in connection with FIGs. 15 and 16. Then, the first UE 2002 may apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the transmission of the SCI. As illustrated by FIGs. 15 and 16, the frequency hopping pattern may apply to a set of consecutive slots after the future slot.

[0151] In some implementations, as described in connection with FIG. 14, the resource pool or the set of sub-bands may be associated with a frequency hopping pattern, and the first UE 2002 may be configured to transmit, based on the association of the resource pool or the set of sub-bands, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern. As described in connection with FIG. 19, the configuration may include a starting slot offset for the frequency hopping pattern.

[0152] In some implementations, as described in connection with FIG. 14, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands to which the first UE 2002 is switching next if the first UE 2002 is configured to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0153] In some implementations, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands in which the first UE 2002 starts to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping. In addition, the SCI may be configured to be a single-stage SCI (SCI-1).

[0154] FIG. 21 is a communication flow 2100 illustrating an example communication between two UEs with at least the receiving UE being specified to operate in just sub- band(s) / subchannel(s) of a sidelink resource pool in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. The numberings associated with the communication flow 2100 do not specify a particular temporal order and are merely used as references for the communication flow 2100.

[0155] At 2110, afirstUE 2102 (e.g., the UE 1212, aRedCapUE, an eRedCap UE, etc.) may obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool (e.g., SC 1 to SC 4 / SC 5 as described in connection with FIGs. 12 to 18) related to sidelink positioning. In some examples, the configuration may be pre-configured / defined atthe first UE 2102 (e.g., programmed / hardcoded at the first UE 2102). In some examples, the configuration may be indicated / transmitted to the first UE 2102, such as from a network entity 2106 (e.g., a location server, a location management function (LMF), a base station, etc.), such as shown at 2112.

[0156] At 2114, the first UE 2102 may be configured to operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands (e.g., just SCI and SC 2 within SC 1 to SC 5, just SC 3 and SC 4 within SC 1 to SC 4, etc.) for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning.

[0157] At 2116, the first UE 2102 may receive, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, SCI related to a reservation of at least one resource for a transmission of SL-PRS by a second UE 2104, where the at least one resource may include (1) the first sub -band or (2) at least one second sub -band in the subset of sub -bands, such as described in connection with FIGs. 12 and 13. For example, the first UE 2102 may receive the SCI from the second UE 2104 (e.g., a receivingUE, a non-RedCap UE, a RedCap UE, an eRedCap UE, etc.) via a first subchannel (SC 1), where the second UE 2104 reserves at least one resource within the first subchannel for transmitting the PRS, or the first UE 2102 may receive the SCI via a fourth subchannel (SC 4), where the second UE 2104 reserves at least one resource within another subchannel (e.g, SC 5) for transmitting the PRS.

[0158] In some implementations, as shown at 2118, the first UE 2102 may transmit, such as to the second UE 2104 and / or the network entity 2106, an indication of its capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type. For example, the first UE 2102 may indicate to the second UE 2104 and / or the network entity 2106 that it is a RedCap UE or an eRedCap UE (collectively as “(e)RedCap UE” hereafter). Insome examples, the first UE 2102 may receive the configuration for the set of subbands for the resource pool (e.g., at 2112) from the network entity 2106 based on transmitting the capability indication to the network entity 2106.

[0159] At 2120, the first UE 2102 may receive, from the second UE 2104 based on the SCI received at 2116, a set of SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning.

[0160] In some implementations, as shown at 2124 and described in connection with FIG. 13, the first UE 2102 may be configured to index (or re-index) the subset of subbands, and identify the atleast one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands.

[0161] In some implementations, as described in connection with FIGs. 14 to 19, the second UE 2104 may include in the SCI (e.g., received at 2116) an indication to apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS using the time resource assignment field for SL-PRS future reservations or using the SL-PRS resource identifiers (IDs) field for a firstfuturereservation or a secondfuture reservation. Then, based on the indication, the first UE 2102 may receive the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern. As described in connection with FIGs. 11 and 17-19, the frequency hopping pattern may be configured to be a staircase pattern or a wrapped staircase pattern.

[0162] In some examples, a shown at 2126, the first UE 2102 may transmit, to the second UE 2104, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI (e.g., the time it takes for the first UE 2102 to determine / decode information in the SCI), such as described in connection with FIGs. 15 and 16. Then, the firstUE 2102 may receive, from the second UE 2104, the SL-PRS with a frequency hopping pattern starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the reception of the SCI. As illustrated by FIGs. 15 and 16, the frequency hopping pattern may apply to a set of consecutive slots after the future slot.

[0163] In some implementations, as described in connection with FIG. 14, the resource pool or the set of sub-bands may be associated with a frequency hopping pattern, and the firstUE 2102 may be configured to receive, based on the association of the resource pool or the set of sub-bands, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern. As described in connection with FIG. 19, the configuration may include a starting slot offset for the frequency hopping pattern.

[0164] In some implementations, as described in connection with FIG. 14, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands to which the second UE 2104 is switching next if the second UE 2104 is configured to transmit the SL- PRS with frequency hopping.

[0165] In some implementations, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands in which the second UE 2104 starts to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping. In addition, the SCI may be configured to be a single-stage SCI (SCI-1).

[0166] Aspects presented herein may improve the overall performance and reliability for sidelink communications that involve UEs that are just capable of operating in a subset of subchannels (or sub-bands) of a sidelink resource pool (e.g., reduced capability (RedCap) UEs, specified types of UEs, etc.). Aspects presented herein provide various mechanisms for scheduling SL-PRS and configuring SL-PRS frequency hopping for a UE that operates in a subset of subchannels of a sidelink resource pool. Aspects presented herein are also capable of avoiding resource collisions (for sidelink communications among multiple UEs) when there is at least one UE that is just able to receive PSCCH (e.g., SCI) in a specific subset of subchannels (e.g., when there is at least one RedCap UE).

[0167] In one aspect of the present disclosure, a UE may transmit a single-stage SCI which picks an SL-PRS resource (e.g., based on a 1-to-l mapping or a 1-to-many mapping between subchannels and SL-PRS resources). This may be done for scheduling hopping for future slots with time resource assignments for future reservations and / or SL-PRS resources for future X reservations. In another aspect of the present disclosure, SCI may be configured to schedule the next hop in a slot that is at least a processing delay away from the first slot, where the minimum processing time may be specified to be reported in a UE capability. In another aspect of the present disclosure, there may be a resource-pool-level configuration of how specific subbands are expected to be hopping. In another aspect of the present disclosure, SCI may indicate which sub-band a UE is switching to.

[0168] FIG. 22 is a flowchart 2200 of a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE). The method maybe performed by a UE (e.g., the UE 104, 404, 502, 504, 506, 508, 1202; the RedCap UE 802; the firstUE 2002; the apparatus 2404). The method may improve the overall performance and reliability for sidelink positioningwhen the UE is configured to or just capable of operating in a subset of subchannels (or sub-bands) of a sidelink resource pool.

[0169] At 2204, the UE may obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2010 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning. The obtainment of the configuration may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24.

[0170] At 2206, the UE may operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning, such as describedin connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2014 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may be configuredto operate in a subset of sub-bandsof the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning. The operation may be performedby, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24.

[0171] At 2210, the UE may transmit, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of subbands, SCI to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of SL-PRS, where the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second subband in the subset of sub-bands, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2016 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may transmit (e.g., broadcast, unicast, groupcast, etc.), via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, SCI to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of SL- PRS, where the at least one resource may include (1) the first sub -band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands. The transmission of the SCI may be performedby, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24.

[0172] In one example, the UE may transmit an indication of a capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type, where the obtainment of the configuration is based on the indication, such as described in connection with FIGs.5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2018 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may transmit, such as to the second UE 2004 and / or the network entity 2006, an indication of its capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type. The transmission of the indication may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24.

[0173] In another example, the UE may index the subset of sub-bands, and identify a set of available resources for a reservation of the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2024 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may be configured to index (or re-index) the sub set of sub-bands, and identify a set of available resources for a reservation ofthe atleast one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands. The indexing of the sub set of sub -b an ds and / or the identification of the set of available resources may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24.

[0174] In another example, the UE may transmit, based on the SCI, the SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2020 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may transmit, based on the SCI transmitted at 2016, a set of SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning. The transmission of the SL-PRS may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24.

[0175] In another example, the UE may receive, from a second UE, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI, and apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the transmission of the SCI, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2026 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may receive, from another UE such as the second UE 2004, aUE capability related to a minimum processingtime forthe SCI (e.g., the time it takes forthe second UE 2004 to determine / decode information in the SCI). Then,the first UE 2002 may apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the transmission of the SCI. The reception of the UE capability and / or the application of the frequency hopping pattern may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24. In some implementations, the frequency hopping pattern may apply to a set of consecutive slots after the future slot.

[0176] In another example, the SCI may include an indication to apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS based on at least one of : a first field for a time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations, or a second field for SL- PRS resource IDs for a first future reservation or a second future reservation. In some implementations, the UE may transmit, based on the indication, the SL-PRS using the frequency hopping pattern. In some implementations, the frequency hopping pattern may be a staircase pattern or a wrapped staircase pattern.

[0177] In another example, the resource pool or the set of sub-bands may be associated with a frequency hopping pattern, and the UE may transmit, based on the association of the resource pool or the set of sub-bands, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern. In some implementations, the configuration may include a starting slot offset for the frequency hopping pattern.

[0178] In another example, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands to which the UE is switching next if the UE is configured to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0179] In another example, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands in which the UE starts to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0180] In another example, the SCI may be single-stage SCI (SCL1).

[0181] FIG. 23 is a flowchart 2300 of a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE). The method maybe performed by a UE (e.g., the UE 104, 404, 502, 504, 506, 508, 1202; the RedCap UE 802; the firstUE 2002; the apparatus 2404). The method may improve the overall performance and reliability for sidelink positioning when the UE is configured to or just capable of operating in a subset of subchannels (or sub-bands) of a sidelink resource pool.

[0182] At 2304, the UE may obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2010 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning. The obtainment of the configuration may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24.

[0183] At 2306, the UE may operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning, such as describedin connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2014 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may be configuredto operate in a subset of sub-bandsof the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning. The operation may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24.

[0184] At 2310, the UE may transmit, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of subbands, SCI to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of SL-PRS, where the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second subband in the subset of sub-bands, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2016 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may transmit (e.g., broadcast, unicast, groupcast, etc.), via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, SCI to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of SL- PRS, where the at least one resource may include (1 ) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands. The transmission of the SCI may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24.

[0185] In one example, as shown at 2302, the UE may transmit an indication of a capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type, where the obtainment of the configuration is based on the indication, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2018 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may transmit, such as to the second UE 2004 and / or thenetwork entity 2006, an indication of its capability of operating in the subset of subbands or being a specified UE type. The transmission of the indication may be performedby, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24.

[0186] In another example, as shown at 2308, the UE may index the subset of sub-bands, and identify a set of available resources for a reservation of the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2024 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may be configured to index (or re-index) the subset of sub-bands, and identify a set of available resources for a reservation of the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands. The indexing of the subset of sub-bands and / or the identification of the set of available resources may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24.

[0187] In another example, as shown at 2312, the UE may transmit, based on the SCI, theSL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussed in connection with 2020 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may transmit, based on the SCI transmitted at 2016, a set of SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning. The transmission of the SL-PRS may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24.

[0188] In another example, as shown at 2314, the UE may receive, from a second UE, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI, and apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS starting at a future slotthat exceeds the minimum processingtime from a current slotforthe transmission of the SCI, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5 to 20. For example, as discussedin connection with 2026 of FIG. 20, the first UE 2002 may receive, from another UE such as the second UE 2004, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI (e.g., the time it takes for the second UE 2004 to determine / decode information in the SCI). Then, the first UE 2002 may apply a frequency hopping pattern to thetransmission of the SL-PRS starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the transmission of the SCI. The reception of the UE capability and / or the application of the frequency hopping pattern may be performedby, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2422, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, and / or the application processor(s) 2406 of the apparatus 2404 in FIG. 24. In some implementations, the frequency hopping pattern may apply to a set of consecutive slots after the future slot.

[0189] In another example, the SCI may include an indication to apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS based on at least one of : a first field for a time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations, or a second field for SL- PRS resource IDs for a first future reservation or a second future reservation. In some implementations, the UE may transmit, based on the indication, the SL-PRS using the frequency hopping pattern. In some implementations, the frequency hopping pattern may be a staircase pattern or a wrapped staircase pattern.

[0190] In another example, the resource pool or the set of sub-bands may be associated with a frequency hopping pattern, and the UE may transmit, based on the association of the resource pool or the set of sub-bands, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern. In some implementations, the configuration may include a starting slot offset for the frequency hopping pattern.

[0191] In another example, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands to which the UE is switching next if the UE is configured to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0192] In another example, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands in which the UE starts to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0193] In another example, the SCI may be single-stage SCI (SCL1).

[0194] FIG. 24 is a diagram 2400 illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an apparatus 2404. The apparatus 2404 may be a UE, a component of a UE, or may implement UE functionality. In some aspects, the apparatus 2404 may include at least one cellular baseband processor 2424 (also referred to as a modem) coupled to one or more transceivers 2422 (e.g., cellular RF transceiver). The cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 may include at least one on-chip memory 2424'. In some aspects, the apparatus 2404 may further include one or more subscriber identity modules (SIM) cards 2420 and at least one application processor 2406 coupled to a securedigital (SD) card 2408 and a screen 2410. The application processor(s) 2406 may include on-chip memory 2406'. In some aspects, the apparatus 2404 may further include a Bluetooth module 2412, a WLAN module 2414, an ultrawide band (UWB) module 2438, an SPS module 2416 (e.g., GNSS module), one or more sensors 2418 (e.g., barometric pressure sensor / altimeter; motion sensor such as inertial measurement unit (IMU), gyroscope, and / or accelerometer(s); light detection and ranging (LIDAR), radio assisted detection and ranging (RADAR), sound navigation and ranging (SONAR), magnetometer, audio and / or other technologies used for positioning), additional memory modules 2426, a power supply 2430, and / or a camera 2432. The Bluetooth module 2412, the UWB module 2438, the WLAN module 2414, and the SPS module 2416 may include an on-chip transceiver (TRX) (or in some cases, just a receiver (RX)). The Bluetooth module 2412, the WLAN module 2414, and the SPS module 2416 may include their own dedicated antennas and / or utilize the antennas 2480 for communication. The cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 communicates through the transceiver(s) 2422 via one or more antennas 2480 with the UE 104 and / or with an RU associated with a network entity 2402. The cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 and the application processor(s) 2406 may each include a computer-readable medium / memory 2424', 2406', respectively. The additional memory modules 2426 may also be considered a computer-readable medium / memory. Each computer-readable medium / memory 2424', 2406', 2426 may benon- transitory. The cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 and the application processors) 2406 are each responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium / memory. The software, when executed by the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 / application processor(s) 2406, causes the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 / application processor(s) 2406 to perform the various functions described supra. The cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 and the application processor(s) 2406 are configured to perform the various functions described supra based at least in part of the information stored in the memory. That is, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 and the application processor(s) 2406 may be configured to perform a first subset of the various functions described supra without information stored in the memory and may be configured to perform a second subset of the various functions described supra based on the information stored in the memory. The computer-readable medium / memory may also be used for storing datathat is manipulated by the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 / application processor(s) 2406 when executing software. The cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 / application processor(s) 2406 may be a component of the UE 350 and may include the at least one memory 360 and / or at least one of the TX processor 368, the RX processor 356, and the controller / processor 359. In one configuration, the apparatus 2404 may be at least one processor chip (modem and / or application) and include just the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 and / or the application processor(s) 2406, and in another configuration, the apparatus 2404 may be the entire UE (e.g., see UE 350 of FIG. 3) and include the additional modules of the apparatus 2404.

[0195] As discussed supra, the SL communication component 198 may be configured to obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning. The SL communication component 198 may also be configured to operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning. The SL communication component 198 may also be configured to transmit, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, SCI to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of SL-PRS, where the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands. The SL communication component 198 may be within the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424, the application processor(s) 2406, or both the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 and the application processor(s) 2406. The SL communication component 198 may be one or more hardware components specifically configured to carry out the stated processes / algorithm, implemented by one or more processors configured to perform the stated processes / algorithm, stored within a computer-readable medium for implementation by one or more processors, or some combination thereof. When multiple processors are implemented, the multiple processors may perform the stated processes / algorithm individually or in combination. As shown, the apparatus 2404 may include a variety of components configured for various functions. In one configuration, the apparatus 2404, and in particular the cellular baseband processor(s) 2424 and / or the application processors) 2406, may include means for obtaining a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning. The apparatus 2404 may further include means for operating in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning. The apparatus 2404 may further includemeans for transmitting, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, SCI to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of SL-PRS, where the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands.

[0196] In one configuration, the apparatus 2404 may further include means for transmitting an indication of a capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type, where the obtainment of the configuration is based on the indication.

[0197] In another configuration, the apparatus 2404 may further include means for indexing the subset of sub-bands, and means for identifying a set of available resources for a reservation of the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands.

[0198] In another configuration, the apparatus 2404 may further include means for transmitting, based on the SCI, the SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning.

[0199] In another configuration, the apparatus 2404 may further include means for receiving from a second UE, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI, and means for applying a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL- PRS starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the transmission of the SCI. In some implementations, the frequency hopping pattern may apply to a set of consecutive slots after the future slot.

[0200] In another configuration, the SCI may include an indication to apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS based on at least one of: a first field for a time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations, or a second field for SL-PRS resource IDs for a first future reservation or a second future reservation. In some implementations, the apparatus 2404 may further include means for transmitting, based on the indication, the SL-PRS using the frequency hopping pattern. In some implementations, the frequency hopping pattern may be a staircase pattern or a wrapped staircase pattern.

[0201] In another configuration, the resource pool or the set of sub-bands may be associated with a frequency hopping pattern, and the apparatus 2404 may further include means for transmitting, based on the association of the resource pool or the set of sub-bands, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern. In some implementations, the configuration may include a starting slot offset for the frequency hopping pattern.

[0202] In another configuration, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-bandin the subset of sub-bands to which the apparatus 2404 is switching next if the apparatus 2404 is configured to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0203] In another configuration, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-bandin the subset of sub-bands in which the apparatus 2404 starts to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0204] In another configuration, the SCI may be single-stage SCI (SCI-1).

[0205] The means may be the SL communication component 198 of the apparatus 2404 configured to perform the functions recited by the means. As described supra, the apparatus 2404 may include the TX processor 368, the RX processor 356, and the controller / processor 359. As such, in one configuration, the means may be the TX processor 368, the RX processor 356, and / or the controller / processor 359 configured to perform the functions recited by the means.

[0206] FIG. 25 is a flowchart 2500 of a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE). The method may be performed by a UE (e.g., the UE 104, 404, 502, 504, 506, 508, 1202; the RedCap UE 802; the first UE 2102;the apparatus2704). The method may improve the overall performance and reliability for sidelink positioning when the UE is configured to or just capable of operating in a subset of subchannels (or sub-bands) of a sidelink resource pool.

[0207] At 2504, the UE may obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2110 of FIG. 21, the first UE 2102 may obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bandsforaresourcepool related to sidelink positioning. The obtainment of the configuration may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / orthe application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27.

[0208] At 2506, the UE may operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning, such as describedin connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2114 of FIG. 21, the first UE 2102 may be configured to operate in a sub set of sub-bands of the set of subbands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning. The operation may be performedby, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722,the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / or the application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27.

[0209] At 2510, the UE may receive, via at least one first sub -band in the subset of sub -bands,SCI related to a reservation of at least one resource for a transmission of SL-PRS by a second UE, where the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2116 of FIG. 21, the first UE 2102 may receive, via at least one first sub-bandin the subset of subbands, SCI related to a reservation of at least one resource for a transmission of SL- PRS by a second UE 2104, where the at least one resource may include (1) the first sub-band or(2) atleast one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands. The reception of the SCI may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / or the application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27.

[0210] In one example, the UE may transmit an indication of a capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type, where the obtainment of the configuration is based on the indication, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2118 of FIG. 21, the first UE 2102 may transmit, such as to the second UE 2104 and / or the network entity 2106, an indication of its capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type. The transmission of the indication may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / orthe application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27.

[0211] In another example, the UE may index the subset of sub-bands, and identify the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2124 of FIG. 21 , the first UE 2102 may be configured to index (or re-index) the subset of sub-bands, and identify the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands. The indexing of the subset of sub-bands and / or the identification of the at least one resource may be performedby, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / or the application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27.

[0212] In another example, the UE may receive, based on the received SCI, the SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning, such as describedin connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2120 of FIG. 21 , the first UE 2102 may receive, based on the SCI received at 2116, a set of SL- PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning. The reception of the SL- PRS may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / or the application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27.

[0213] In another example, the UE may transmit, to the second UE, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI, and receive, from the second UE, the SL- PRS with a frequency hopping pattern starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the reception of the SCI, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2126 of FIG. 21 , the first UE 2102 may transmit, to the second UE 2104, a UE capability related to a minimum processingtime forthe SCI (e.g., the time it takes forthe first UE 2102 to determine / decode information in the SCI), such as described in connection with FIGs. 15 and 16. Then, the first UE 2102 may receive, from the second UE 2104, the SL-PRS with a frequency hopping pattern starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the reception of the SCI. The transmission of the UE capability and / or the reception of the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / orthe application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27. In some implementations, the frequency hopping pattern may apply to a set of consecutive slots after the future slot.

[0214] In another example, the SCI may include an indication to apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS based on at least one of : a first field for a time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations, or a second field for SL- PRS resource IDs for a first future reservation or a second future reservation. In some implementations, the UE may receive, based on the indication, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern.

[0215] In another example, the resource pool or the set of sub-bands may be associated with a frequency hopping pattern, and the UE may receive, based on the association of theresource pool orthe set of sub-bands, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern. In some implementations, the configuration may include a starting slot offset for the frequency hopping pattern.

[0216] In another example, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands to which the second UE is switching next if the second UE is configured to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0217] In another example, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands in which the second UE starts to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0218] In another example, the SCI may be single-stage SCI (SCL1).

[0219] FIG. 26 is a flowchart 2600 of a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE). The method may be performed by a UE (e.g., the UE 104, 404, 502, 504, 506, 508, 1202; the RedCap UE 802; the firstUE 2102; the apparatus 2704). The method may improve the overall performance and reliability for sidelink positioning when the UE is configured to or just capable of operating in a subset of subchannels (or sub-bands) of a sidelink resource pool.

[0220] At 2604, the UE may obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2110 of FIG. 21 , the first UE 2102 may obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning. The obtainment of the configuration may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / orthe application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27.

[0221] At 2606, the UE may operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning, such as describedin connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2114 of FIG. 21, the first UE 2102 may be configured to operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of subbands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning. The operation may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / orthe application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27.

[0222] At 2610, the UE may receive, via at least one first sub -b and in the sub set of sub -bands,SCI related to a reservation of at least one resource for a transmission of SL-PRS by a second UE, where the at least one resource comprises (1 ) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2116 of FIG. 21, the first UE 2102 may receive, via at least one first sub-bandin the subset of subbands, SCI related to a reservation of at least one resource for a transmission of SL- PRS by a second UE 2104, where the at least one resource may include (1) the first sub-band or(2) atleast one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands. The reception of the SCI may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / or the application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27.

[0223] In one example, as shown at 2602, the UE may transmit an indication of a capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type, where the obtainment of the configuration is based on the indication, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2118 of FIG. 21, the first UE 2102 may transmit, such as to the second UE 2104 and / or the network entity 2106, an indication of its capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type. The transmission of the indication may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceivers) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / or the application processors) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27.

[0224] In another example, as shown at 2608, the UE may index the subset of sub-bands, and identify the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2124 of FIG. 21, the first UE 2102 may be configured to index (or re-index) the subset of sub-bands, and identify the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands. The indexing of the subset of sub-bands and / or the identification of the at least one resource may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / orthe application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27.

[0225] In another example, as shown at 2612, the UE may receive, based on the received SCI, the SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2120 of FIG. 21, the first UE 2102 may receive, based on the SCI received at 2116, a set of SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning. The reception of the SL-PRS may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / or the application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27.

[0226] In another example, as shown at 2614, the UE may transmit, to the second UE, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI, and receive, from the second UE, the SL-PRS with a frequency hopping pattern starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot forthe reception of the SCI, such as described in connection with FIGs. 5-19 and 21. For example, as discussed in connection with 2126 of FIG. 21, the first UE 2102 may transmit, to the second UE 2104, aUE capability related to a minimum processingtime forthe SCI (e.g., the time it takes forthe first UE 2102 to determine / decode information in the SCI), such as described in connection with FIGs. 15 and 16. Then, the first UE 2102 may receive, from the second UE 2104, the SL-PRS with a frequency hopping pattern starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the reception of the SCI. The transmission of the UE capability and / or the reception of the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern may be performed by, e.g., the SL communication component 198, the transceiver(s) 2722, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, and / orthe application processor(s) 2706 of the apparatus 2704 in FIG. 27. In some implementations, the frequency hopping pattern may apply to a set of consecutive slots after the future slot.

[0227] In another example, the SCI may include an indication to apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS based on at least one of: a first field for a time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations, or a second field for SL- PRS resource IDs for a first future reservation or a second future reservation. In some implementations, the UE may receive, based on the indication, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern.

[0228] In another example, the resource pool or the set of sub-bands may be associated with a frequency hopping pattern, and the UE may receive, based on the association of the resource pool orthe set of sub-bands, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern. In some implementations, the configuration may include a starting slot offset for the frequency hopping pattern.

[0229] In another example, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands to which the second UE is switching next if the second UE is configured to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0230] In another example, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands in which the second UE starts to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0231] In another example, the SCI may be single-stage SCI (SCL1).

[0232] FIG. 27 is a diagram 2700 illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an apparatus 2704. The apparatus 2704 may be a UE, a component of a UE, or may implement UE functionality. In some aspects, the apparatus 2704 may include atleast one cellular baseband processor 2724 (also referred to as a modem) coupled to one or more transceivers 2722 (e.g., cellular RF transceiver). The cellular baseband processor(s) 2724 may include at least one on-chip memory 2724'. In some aspects, the apparatus 2704 may further include one or more subscriber identity modules (SIM) cards 2720 and at least one application processor 2706 coupled to a secure digital (SD) card 2708 and a screen 2710. The application processor(s) 2706 may include on-chip memory 2706'. In some aspects, the apparatus 2704 may further include a Bluetooth module 2712, a WLAN module 2714, an ultrawide band (UWB) module 2738, an SPS module 2716 (e.g., GNSS module), one or more sensors 2718 (e.g., barometric pressure sensor / altimeter; motion sensor such as inertial measurement unit (IMU), gyroscope, and / or accelerometer(s); light detection and ranging (LIDAR), radio assisted detection and ranging (RADAR), sound navigation and ranging (SONAR), magnetometer, audio and / or other technologies used for positioning), additional memory modules 2726, a power supply 2730, and / or a camera 2732. The Bluetooth module 2712, the UWB module 2738, the WLAN module 2714, and the SPS module 2716 may include an on-chip transceiver (TRX) (or in some cases, just a receiver (RX)). The Bluetooth module 2712, the WLAN module 2714, and the SPS module 2716 may include their own dedicated antennas and / or utilize theantennas 2780 for communication. The cellular baseband processor(s) 2724 communicates through the transceiver(s) 2722 via one or more antennas 2780 with the UE 104 and / or with an RU associated with a network entity 2702. The cellular baseband processor(s) 2724 and the application processor(s) 2706 may each include a computer-readable medium / memory 2724', 2706', respectively. The additional memory modules 2726 may also be considered a computer-readable medium / memory. Each computer-readable medium / memory 2724', 2706', 2726 may benon- transitory. The cellular baseband processor(s) 2724 and the application processors) 2706 are each responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium / memory. The software, when executed by the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724 / application processor(s) 2706, causes the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724 / application processor(s) 2706 to perform the various functions described supra. The cellular baseband processor(s) 2724 and the application processor(s) 2706 are configured to perform the various functions described supra based at least in part of the information stored in the memory. That is, the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724 and the application processor(s) 2706 may be configured to perform a first subset of the various functions described supra without information stored in the memory and may be configured to perform a second subset of the various functions described supra based on the information stored in the memory. The computer-readable medium / memory may also be used for storing data that is manipulated by the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724 / application processor(s) 2706 when executing software. The cellular baseband processor(s) 2724 / application processor(s) 2706 may be a component of the UE 350 and may include the at least one memory 360 and / or at least one of the TX processor 368, the RX processor 356, and the controller / processor 359. In one configuration, the apparatus 2704 may be at least one processor chip (modem and / or application) and include just the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724 and / or the application processor(s) 2706, and in another configuration, the apparatus 2704 may be the entire UE (e.g., see UE 350 of FIG. 3) and include the additional modules of the apparatus 2704.

[0233] As discussed supra, the SL communication component 198 may be configured to obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning. The SL communication component 198 may also be configured to operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool relatedto the sidelink positioning. The SL communication component 198 may also be configured to receive, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, SCI related to a reservation of at least one resource for a transmission of SL-PRS by a second UE, where the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands. The SL communication component 198 may be within the cellular baseband processor(s) 2724, the application processor(s) 2706, or both the cellularbaseband processor(s) 2724 and the application processor(s) 2706. The SL communication component 198 may be one or more hardware components specifically configured to carry out the stated processes / algorithm, implemented by one or more processors configured to perform the stated processes / algorithm, stored within a computer-readable medium for implementation by one or more processors, or some combination thereof. When multiple processors are implemented, the multiple processors may perform the stated processes / algorithm individually or in combination. As shown, the apparatus 2704 may include a variety of components configured for various functions. In one configuration, the apparatus 2704, and in particular the cellularbaseband processors) 2724 and / or the application processor(s) 2706, may include means for obtaining a configuration of a set of sub -bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning The apparatus 2704 may further include means for operating in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning. The apparatus 2704 may further include means for receiving, via at least one first subband in the subset of sub -bands, SCI related to a reservation of at least one resource for a transmission of SL-PRS by a second UE, where the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands.

[0234] In one configuration, the apparatus 2704 may further include means for transmitting an indication of a capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type, where the obtainment of the configuration is based on the indication.

[0235] In another configuration, the apparatus 2704 may further include means for indexing the subset of sub-bands, and means for identifying the atleast one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands.

[0236] In another configuration, the apparatus 2704 may further include means for receiving based on the received SCI, the SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning.

[0237] In another configuration, the apparatus 2704 may further include means for transmitting, to the second UE, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI, and means for receiving, from the second UE, the SL-PRS with a frequency hopping pattern starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the reception of the SCI. In some implementations, the frequency hopping pattern may apply to a set of consecutive slots after the future slot.

[0238] In another configuration, the SCI may include an indication to apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS based on at least one of: a first field for a time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations, or a second field for SL-PRS resource IDs for a first future reservation or a second future reservation. In some implementations, the apparatus 2704 may further include means for receiving, based on the indication, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern. In some implementations, the frequency hopping pattern may be a staircase pattern or a wrapped staircase pattern.

[0239] In another configuration, the resource pool or the set of sub-bands may be associated with a frequency hopping pattern, and the apparatus 2704 may further include means for receiving, based on the association of the resource pool or the set of sub-bands, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern. In some implementations, the configuration may include a starting slot offset for the frequency hopping pattern.

[0240] In another configuration, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-bandin the subset of sub-bands to which the second UE is switching next if the second UE is configured to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0241] In another configuration, the SCI may include an indication of a sub-bandin the subset of sub-bands in which the second UE starts to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0242] In another configuration, the SCI may be single-stage SCI (SCI-1).

[0243] The means may be the SL communication component 198 of the apparatus 2704 configured to perform the functions recited by the means. As described supra, the apparatus 2704 may include the TX processor 368, the RX processor 356, and thecontroller / processor 359. As such, in one configuration, the means may be the TX processor 368, the RX processor 356, and / or the controller / processor 359 configured to perform the functions recited by the means.

[0244] It is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of blocks in the processes / flowcharts disclosed is an illustration of example approaches. Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of blocks in the processes / flowcharts maybe rearranged. Further, some blocks may be combined or omitted. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various blocks in a sample order, and are not limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

[0245] The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Thus, the claims are not limited to the aspects described herein, but are to be accorded the full scope consistent with the language claims. Reference to an element in the singular does not mean “one and only one” unless specifically so stated, but rather “one or more.” Terms such as “if,” “when,” and “while” do not imply an immediate temporal relationship or reaction. That is, these phrases, e.g., “when,” do notimply an immediate action in response to or during the occurrence of an action, but simply imply that if a condition is met then an action will occur, butwithoutrequiringa specific or immediate time constraint for the action to occur. The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. Combinations such as “at least one of A, B, or C,” “one or more of A, B, or C,” “at least one of A, B, and C,” “one or more of A, B, and C,” and “A, B, C, or any combination thereof’ include any combination of A, B, and / or C, and may include multiples of A, multiples of B, or multiples of C. Specifically, combinations such as “at least one of A, B, or C,” “one or more of A, B, or C,” “at least one of A, B, and C,” “one or more of A, B, and C,” and “A, B, C, or any combination thereof’ may be A only, B only, C only, A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C, where any such combinations may contain one or more member or members of A, B, orC. Sets should be interpreted as a set of elements where the elements number one or more. Accordingly, for a setof X, X would include one or more elements. When at least one processor is configured to perform a set of functions, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to perform the set of functions. Accordingly, each processor of the at least one processor may be configured to perform a particular subset of the set of functions, where the subset is the full set, a proper subset of the set, or an empty subset of the set. A processor may be referred to as processor circuitry. A memory / memory module may be referred to as memory circuitry. If a first apparatus receives data from or transmits data to a second apparatus, the data may be received / transmitted directly between the first and second apparatuses, or indirectly between the first and second apparatuses through a set of apparatuses. A device configured to “output” data or “provide” data, such as a transmission, signal, or message, may transmit the data, for example with a transceiver, or may send the data to a device that transmits the data. A device configured to “obtain” data, such as a transmission, signal, or message, may receive, for example with a transceiver, or may obtain the data from a device that receives the data. Information stored in a memory includes instructions and / or data. All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are encompassed by the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. The words “module,” “mechanism,” “element,” “device,” and the like may not be a substitute for the word “means.” As such, no claim element is to be construed as a means plus function unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for.”

[0246] As used herein, the phrase “based on” shall not be construed as a reference to a closed set of information, one or more conditions, one or more factors, or the like. In other words, the phrase “based on A” (where “A” may be information, a condition, a factor, or the like) shall be construed as “based at least on A” unless specifically recited differently.

[0247] The following aspects are illustrative only and may be combined with other aspects or teachings described herein, without limitation.

[0248] Aspect 1 is a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: obtaininga configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool relatedto sidelink positioning; operating in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning; and transmitting, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, sidelink control information (SCI) to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of sidelink (SL)-positioning reference signal (PRS) (SL-PRS), wherein the at least one resource comprises (1 ) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands.

[0249] Aspect 2 is the method of aspect 1 , further comprising: transmitting an indication of a capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type, wherein the obtainment of the configuration is based on the indication.

[0250] Aspects is the method of aspect 1 or aspect2, further comprising: transmitting, based on the SCI, the SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning.

[0251] Aspect4 is the method of any of aspects 1 to 3, furthercomprising: indexingthe subset of sub-bands; and identifying a set of available resources for a reservation of the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands.

[0252] Aspect 5 is the method of any of aspects 1 to 4, wherein the SCI includes an indication to apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS based on at least one of: a first field for a time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations, or a second field for SL-PRS resource identifiers (IDs) for a first future reservation or a second future reservation.

[0253] Aspect 6 is the method of any of aspects 1 to 5, further comprising: transmitting, based on the indication, the SL-PRS using the frequency hopping pattern.

[0254] Aspect? is the method of any of aspects 1 to 6, wherein the frequency hopping pattern is a staircase pattern or a wrapped staircase pattern.

[0255] Aspect 8 is the method of any of aspects 1 to 7, further comprising: receiving from a second UE, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI; and applying a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the transmission of the SCI.

[0256] Aspect 9 is the method of any of aspects 1 to 8, wherein the frequency hoppingpattem applies to a set of consecutive slots after the future slot.

[0257] Aspect 10 is the method of any of aspects 1 to 9, wherein the resource pool or the set of sub -bands is associated with a frequency hopping pattern, the method furthercomprising: transmitting, based on the association of the resource pool or the set of sub-bands, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern.

[0258] Aspect 11 is the method of any of aspects 1 to 10, wherein the configuration includes a starting slot offset for the frequency hopping pattern.

[0259] Aspect 12 is the method of any of aspects 1 to 11, wherein the SCI includes an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands to which the UE is switching next if the UE is configured to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0260] Aspect 13 is the method of any of aspects 1 to 12, wherein the SCI includes an indication of a sub-bandin the subset of sub-bandsin which the UE starts to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0261] Aspect 14 is the method of any of aspects 1 to 13, wherein the SCI is single-stage SCI (SCI-1).

[0262] Aspect 15 is an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), including: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to implement any of aspects 1 to 14.

[0263] Aspect 16 is the apparatus of aspect 15, further including at least one transceiver or at least one antenna coupled to the at least one processor, wherein to transmit, via the at least one first sub-band, the SCI, the at least one processor is configured to transmit, via the at least one first sub-band and further via the at least one transceiver or the at least one antenna, the SCI.

[0264] Aspect 17 is an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), including means for implementing any of aspects 1 to 14.

[0265] Aspect 18 is a computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable medium) storing computer executable code, where the code when executed by a processor causes the processor to implement any of aspects 1 to 14.

[0266] Aspect 19 is a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: obtaininga configuration ofa set of sub-bandsforaresource pool related to sidelink positioning; operating in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning; and receiving, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, sidelink control information (SCI) related to a reservation of at least one resource for a transmission of sidelink(SL)-positioningreference signal (PRS) (SL-PRS) by a second UE, wherein the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands.

[0267] Aspect 20 is the method of aspect 19, further comprising: transmitting an indication of a capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UEtype, wherein the obtainment of the configuration is based on the indication.

[0268] Aspect21 is the method of aspect 19 or aspect20, further comprising: receiving, based on the received SCI, the SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning.

[0269] Aspect 22 is the method of any of aspects 19 to 21 , further comprising: indexing the subset of sub-bands; and identifying the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands.

[0270] Aspect 23 is the method of any of aspects 19 to 22, wherein the SCI includes an indication to apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS based on at least one of: a first field for a time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations, or a second field for SL-PRS resource identifiers (IDs) for a first future reservation or a second future reservation.

[0271] Aspect 24 is the method of any of aspects 19 to 23, further comprising: receiving based on the indication, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern.

[0272] Aspect 25 is the method of any of aspects 19 to 24, wherein the frequency hopping pattern is a staircase pattern or a wrapped staircase pattern.

[0273] Aspect 26 is the method of any of aspects 19 to 25, further comprising: transmitting to the second UE, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI; and receiving, from the second UE, the SL-PRS with a frequency hopping pattern starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the reception of the SCI.

[0274] Aspect 27 is the method of any of aspects 19 to 26, wherein the frequency hopping pattern applies to a set of consecutive slots after the future slot.

[0275] Aspect 28 is the method of any of aspects 19 to 27, wherein the resource pool or the set of sub-bands is associated with a frequency hopping pattern, the method further comprising: receiving, based on the association of the resource pool or the set of subbands, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern.

[0276] Aspect29 is the method of any of aspects 19 to 28, wherein the configuration includes a starting slot offset for the frequency hopping pattern.

[0277] Aspect 30 is the method of any of aspects 19 to 29, wherein the SCI includes an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands to which the second UE is switching next if the second UE is configured to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0278] Aspect 31 is the method of any of aspects 19 to 30, wherein the SCI includes an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands in which the second UE starts to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

[0279] Aspect 32 is the method of any of aspects 19 to 31, wherein the SCI is single-stage SCI (SCI-1).

[0280] Aspect 33 is an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), including: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to implement any of aspects 19 to 32.

[0281] Aspect 34 is the apparatus of aspect 33, further including at least one transceiver or at least one antenna coupled to the at least one processor, wherein to receive, via the at least one first sub-band, the SCI, the at least one processor is configured to receive, via the at least one first sub-band and further via the at least one transceiver or the at least one antenna, the SCI.

[0282] Aspect 35 is an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), including means for implementing any of aspects 19 to 32.

[0283] Aspect 36 is a computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable medium) storing computer executable code, where the code when executed by a processor causes the processor to implement any of aspects 19 to 32.

Claims

CLAIMSWHAT IS CLAIMED IS:1 . An apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to: obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning; operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning; and transmit, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, sidelink control information (SCI) to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of sidelink (SL)-positioning reference signal (PRS) (SL-PRS), wherein the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: transmit an indication of a capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type, wherein the obtainment of the configuration is based on the indication.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: transmit, based on the SCI, the SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: index the subset of sub-bands; and identify a set of available resources for a reservation of the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the SCI includes an indication to apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS based on at least one of: a first field for a time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations, or a second field for SL-PRS resource identifiers (IDs) for a first future reservation or a second future reservation.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: transmit, based on the indication, the SL-PRS using the frequency hopping pattern.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the frequency hopping pattern is a staircase pattern or a wrapped staircase pattern.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: receive, from a second UE, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI; and apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the transmission of the SCI.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the frequency hopping pattern applies to a set of consecutive slots after the future slot.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the resource pool or the set of sub-bands is associated with a frequency hopping pattern, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: transmit, based on the association of the resource pool or the set of sub-bands, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern.11 . The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the configuration includes a starting slot offset for the frequency hopping pattern.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the SCI includes an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands to which the UE is switching next if the UE is configured to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the SCI includes an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands in which the UE starts to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the SCI is single-stage SCI (SCL1), further comprising at least one transceiver or at least one antenna coupled to the at least one processor, wherein to transmit, via the at least one first sub-band, the SCI, the at least one processor is configured to transmit, via the at least one first sub-band and further via the at least one transceiver or the at least one antenna, the SCI.

15. A method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: obtaining a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning; operating in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning; and transmitting, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, sidelink control information (SCI) to reserve at least one resource for a transmission of sidelink (SL)-positioning reference signal (PRS) (SL-PRS), wherein the at least one resource comprises (l) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-bandin the subset of subbands.

16. An apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to:obtain a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning; operate in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning; and receive, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub -bands, sidelink control information (SCI) related to a reservation of at least one resource for a transmission of sidelink (SL)-positioning reference signal (PRS) (SL-PRS) by a second UE, wherein the at least one resource comprises (1) the first subband or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: transmit an indication of a capability of operating in the subset of sub-bands or being a specified UE type, wherein the obtainment of the configuration is based on the indication.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: receive, based on the received SCI, the SL-PRS via the at least one resource for the sidelink positioning.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: index the subset of sub -bands; and identify the at least one resource based on the indexed subset of sub-bands.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the SCI includes an indication to apply a frequency hopping pattern to the transmission of the SL-PRS based on at least one of: a first field for a time resource assignment for SL-PRS future reservations, or a second field for SL-PRS resource identifiers (IDs) for a first future reservation or a second future reservation.21 . The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: receive, based on the indication, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the frequency hopping pattern is a staircase pattern or a wrapped staircase pattern.

23. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: transmit, to the second UE, a UE capability related to a minimum processing time for the SCI; and receive, from the second UE, the SL-PRS with a frequency hopping pattern starting at a future slot that exceeds the minimum processing time from a current slot for the reception of the SCI.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the frequency hopping pattern applies to a set of consecutive slots after the future slot.

25. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the resource pool or the set of sub-bands is associated with a frequency hopping pattern, the apparatus wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: receive, based on the association of the resource pool or the set of sub-bands, the SL-PRS with the frequency hopping pattern.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the configuration includes a starting slot offset for the frequency hopping pattern.

27. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the SCI includes an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub -bands to which the second UE is switching next if the second UE is configured to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

28. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the SCI includes an indication of a sub-band in the subset of sub-bands in which the second UE starts to transmit the SL-PRS with frequency hopping.

29. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the SCI is single-stage SCI (SCI-1), further comprising at least one transceiver or at least one antenna coupled to the at least one processor, wherein to receive, via the at least one first sub-band, the SCI, the at least one processor is configured to receive, via the at least one first sub-band and further via the at least one transceiver or the at least one antenna, the SCI.

30. A method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: obtaining a configuration of a set of sub-bands for a resource pool related to sidelink positioning; operating in a subset of sub-bands of the set of sub-bands for the resource pool related to the sidelink positioning; and receiving, via at least one first sub-band in the subset of sub-bands, sidelink control information (SCI) related to a reservation of at least one resource for a transmission of sidelink (SL)-positioning reference signal (PRS) (SL-PRS) by a second UE, wherein the at least one resource comprises (1) the first sub-band or (2) at least one second sub-band in the subset of sub-bands.

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