WO2018064477A1

WO2018064477A1 - Systems and methods for discontinuous reception in device-to-device communication

Info

Publication number: WO2018064477A1
Application number: PCT/US2017/054300
Authority: WO
Inventors: Kyeongin Jeong; Sangeetha Bangolae; Youn Hyoung Heo; Richard Burbidge
Original assignee: Intel IP Corporation
Priority date: 2016-09-30
Filing date: 2017-09-29
Publication date: 2018-04-05

Abstract

The present disclosure provides for systems and methods for discontinuous reception in device-to-device communication. Resources of a relay user equipment (UE) and a remote UE may be coordinated to facilitate device-to-device communication. An eNB may coordinate resources (or coordinated DRX timing information) for the relay UE and the remote UE. The relay UE may directly configure dedicated Rx resources (or DRX timing information) of the remote UE. The relay UE and remote UE may determine DRX timing information implicitly based on a defined set of rules.

Description

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DISCONTINUOUS RECEPTION IN DEVICE-TO- DEVICE COMMUNICATION

Related Applications

[0001] This application claims the benefit of United States provisional patent Application No. 62/402,972, filed September 30, 2016, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Technical Field

[0002] This disclosure relates to wireless communication networks. Specifically, this disclosure relates to discontinuous reception on a sidelink interface.

Background

[0003] Wireless mobile communication technology uses various standards and protocols to transmit data between a base station and a wireless mobile device. Wireless communication system standards and protocols can include the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE); the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard, which is commonly known to industry groups as worldwide interoperability for microwave access

(WiMAX); and the IEEE 802.1 1 standard for wireless local area networks (WLANs), which is commonly known to industry groups as Wi-Fi. In 3GPP radio access networks (RANs) in LTE systems, the base station can include a RAN Node such as an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (also commonly denoted as evolved Node B, enhanced Node B, eNodeB, or eNB) and/or Radio Network Controller (RNC) in an E-UTRAN, which communicates with a wireless communication device, known as user equipment (UE). In fifth generation (5G) wireless RANs, RAN Nodes can include a 5G Node (e.g., 5G eNB or gNB). As used herein, a gNB or other access point in a wireless network may be referred to as a Transmission Reception Point (TRP).

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0004] FIG. 1 illustrates discontinuous reception (DRX) operation for a user equipment (UE) during both a radio resource control (RRC) connected mode and an idle mode.

[0005] FIG. 2 illustrates DRX operation on a sidelink of a remote UE. [0006] FIG. 3 illustrates a wireless communication system applying DRX to a sidelink in accordance with some embodiments.

[0007] FIG. 4 illustrates a wireless communication system applying DRX to a sidelink using a periodical system information signal in accordance with some embodiments.

[0008] FIG. 5 illustrates a wireless network with multiple remote using DRX in sidelink communication with a single relay UE.

[0009] FIG. 6 illustrates an architecture of a system of a network in accordance with some embodiments.

[0010] FIG. 7 illustrates example components of a device in accordance with some embodiments.

[0011] FIG. 8 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments.

[0012] FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments

[0013] In some wireless networks, discontinuous reception (DRX) is used to increase battery life of a user equipment (UE). A UE may use a set of resources (e.g., time, frequency) for downlink from the wireless network. Without DRX, a UE would actively monitor for a signal from the wireless network with the entire set of resources. DRX allows a UE to monitor for a signal from the wireless network with a subset of the resources. For example, DRX may follow a DRX cycle where for a first period of time the UE is in an active state to monitor for a scheduling signal from the wireless network, and during the remainder of the DRX cycle the UE may enter into a sleep state if a scheduling message is not received. Thus, the UE can skip downlink channels from the wireless network to improve battery performance.

[0014] While standards like 3GPP LTE support DRX for a UE in direct

communication with an evolved node B (eNB), there are no such power saving mechanisms for device-to-device communication. Embodiments herein relate to power efficiency for evolved remote UE (e.g., wearable devices) by implementing DRX mechanisms for device-to-device communication between a relay UE and a remote UE. [0015] In typical sidelink between UEs, according to certain LTE implementations, only the dedicated transmission resource pool is configured in a UE dedicated manner (only for connected mode UE) and from the reception point of view, a UE monitors all possible reception resource pools. The continual monitoring may not be desirable for power efficiency. In order to reduce the power consumption used to monitor a sidelink, DRX mechanisms for sidelink may be implemented. Note device- to-device communication (for both transmission and reception) over sidelink may be done in LTE uplink frequency bands.

[0016] Sidelinks (PC5) are the logical direct interface between devices (e.g., UEs). Embodiments herein disclose mechanisms to support DRX for sidelinks. In some embodiments, an eNB configures coordinated resources (or coordinated DRX timing information) for a relay UE and a wearable (or remote UE). In some

embodiments, the relay UE directly configures dedicated Rx resources (or DRX timing information) to the wearable and informs that configuration to the eNB. In other embodiments, the relay UE and wearable may determine DRX timing information for the wearable implicitly based on a defined set of rules (e.g., using wearable UE id).

[0017] A remote UE includes a UE whose data and/or control information is communicated, at least in part, with the associated Layer 2 (L2) relay UE. For example, a remote UE may include a wearable device or other device configured to communicate with a relay UE such as a cellular device. Herein, wearable devices are assumed to act as a remote UE so wearable and remote UE may be used interchangeably.

[0018] An L2 relay UE (relay UE) is a UE who relays the data and/or control information for an associated remote UE with the eNB. For instance, the data and/or control information flow can be remote UE→ relay UE→ eNB (in direction to the network) or eNB→ relay UE→ remote UE (in direction to the remote UE).

[0019] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various

embodiments with unnecessary detail.

[0020] FIG. 1 illustrates DRX operation for a UE in 3GPP LTE during both a radio resource control (RRC) connected mode 100 and an idle mode 101 . In 3GPP LTE, DRX mechanisms are supported for both the RRC connected mode 100 and the idle mode 101 for power saving.

[0021] For RRC connected mode 100, a UE enters an active state 1 10 to monitor 102 a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) during an on duration period 104. If the UE does not receive any scheduling information during the on duration period 104, the UE can enter a sleep state 1 12 during a remaining DRX cycle 1 18. If the UE receives a scheduling information, an inactivity timer (re)starts. The UE can enter a sleep state during any period remaining in the DRX cycle after the inactivity timer ends.

[0022] For a UE in RRC idle mode 101 , the UE enters an active state 1 14 to attempt to receive paging 106 in a subframe 108 corresponding to paging frame (PF) and paging occasion (PO) calculated defined by the rule. Normally the idle UE also performs measurement during the active state 1 14 and can enter a sleep state 1 16 in a remaining paging cycle 120.

[0023] FIG. 2 illustrates DRX operation on a sidelink 200 of a remote UE.

Resources of a remote UE may include resources in both a frequency-domain 212 and a time-domain 214. For example, in the time-domain 214, the resources of a remote UE may be segmented into periods of time or subframes 202. Embodiments herein apply some form of DRX mechanisms to the sidelink 200 so that the remote UE can monitor the resources during a limited subset of monitoring resources 210 (e.g., monitoring resources 204 and 206). The example embodiment shown in FIG. 2 illustrates a DRX mechanism implemented to conserve the time-domain 214 resources. In other embodiments DRX mechanisms may conserve the frequency- domain 212 resources in addition to or instead of the time-domain 214 resources

[0024] Each sidelink may include a dedicated reception (Rx) resource pool for a sidelink comprising the monitoring resources 210 and non-monitoring resources 208. The remote UE may monitor for a signal on the sidelink using the monitoring resources 210 in an active state and enter a sleep state during the non-monitoring resources 208. The monitoring periods or resources (204, and 206) may be configured by either a relay UE or a eNB (see FIG. 2 for more details of the configuration). A dedicated Rx resource pool includes part of whole Rx resource pools. Since a resource pool means the resources in both time-domain and frequency-domain, if the dedicated Rx resource pool is made of discontinuous resources in time-domain, naturally the dedicated Rx resource pool will give DRX operation to the wearable.

[0025] As shown, the remote UE monitors part of a whole dedicated Rx resource pool. For example, in some embodiments, only a few subframes in the time-domain may be monitored, allowing the remote UE to enter a sleep state during the remaining subframes. In FIG. 2, the whole Rx resource pool for device-to-device communication includes time periods or subframes designated as the monitoring resources 210 and non-monitoring resources 208. The monitoring resources 210 in reference to FIG. 2 indicate periods of times where the remote UE monitors (e.g., does reception operation) on the sidelink interface. Non-monitoring resources 208 are subframes in which the UE may enter a sleep state or receive additional data based on a scheduling signal received during the monitoring resources 210.

[0026] The dedicated Rx resource pool may be specific for a sidelink between a relay UE and the remote UE. Additionally, as shown, the resources may be discontinuous. Accordingly, the relay UE transmits information using a corresponding dedicated transmit (TX) resource pool specific to the sidelink. For example, a corresponding dedicated TX resource pool may include a starting subframe to transmit data through the sidelink to the remote UE during the monitoring resources 210.

[0027] FIG. 3 illustrates a wireless communication system 300 applying DRX to a sidelink in accordance with some embodiments. To apply DRX operation for a remote UE 302 or wearable device, procedures with various options and

alternatives, as explained in more detail below, may be used to synchronize resources for a specific sidelink including transmission resources of a relay UE 306 and DRX resources of the remote UE 302.

[0028] As shown, an eNB 308 may assign the dedicated Rx resource pool or otherwise provide specific DRX configuration to the remote UE 302 for the sidelink with the relay UE 306. Since the relay UE 306 and the remote UE 302 may be synchronized for the relay UE 306 to send the remote UE's data and/or control information in resources where the remote UE actually monitors. In that sense, DRX for the remote UE 302 plays a kind role of DTX (Discontinuous Transmission) to the associated relay UE 306. The eNB also assigns resources to the associated relay UE 306 as the dedicated Tx resource pool for that remote UE 302. Alternatively, the eNB 308 informs the relay UE 306 of what part of whole Rx resource pool is dedicated to the remote UE 302.

[0029] Before synchronization can occur, the remote UE 302 attempts to find a relay UE which the remote UE can register/associate/pair with. In some

embodiments, the relay UE 306 may seek for a remote UE 302. The discovery process can be done based on either a device-to-device communication feature or device-to-device discovery feature defined in 3GPP. For example, the relay UE 306 and the remote UE 302 may directly transmit and/or receive discovery signals to find potential pairings. In other embodiments, an eNB may assist in the discovery process.

[0030] When the remote UE 302 finds the relay UE 306, the remote UE 302 and the relay UE 306 do a registration/association/pairing procedure 310 to setup linkage (a sidelink interface) between the remote UE 302 and the relay UE 306. Some information can be exchanged during the registration/association/pairing procedure 310. For instance, the relay UE 306 may transmit identification and capability information to the remote UE including an L2 relay UE id, a relay UE registered Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) id, a serving cell id, a capability of L2 relay operation, etc. The remote UE 302 may transmit information to the relay UE 306 including a remote UE id, a registered/associated PLMN id of the remote UE 302, a serving cell id, an indication of whether the remote UE 302 wants L2 relay operation, etc. The above information can be used to determine whether to accept

registration/association/ pairing. For example, in some embodiments, if the registered/associated PLMN id is same between two, the

registration/association/pairing can be accepted. In some embodiments, if the serving cell id is same between two, the registration/association/ pairing can be accepted. In some embodiments if the remote UE 302 wants L2 relay operation and the relay UE 306 provides that capability, the registration/association/pairing can be accepted.

[0031] As shown in the illustrated embodiment, once the registration/association/ pairing procedure 310 is finished, the relay UE 306 transmits a pairing information signal 312 to inform the eNB 308 of the linkage. The pairing information signal 312 can include information about the remote UE 302. For example, the pairing information signal 312 may include the remote UE id, an indication of whether the remote UE 302 is a wearable device, an indication of whether the remote UE 302 wants to have relay operation, etc.

[0032] The registration/association/pairing procedure 310 and the pairing information signal 312 may be replaced or supplementing with alternative

procedures not shown in the figure. For instance, in some embodiments the remote UE 302 may connect to the eNB 308 directly and provides information about the relay UE 306 (e.g., L2 relay UE id, etc.) derived from the discovery procedure to the eNB 308. In some embodiments, the remote UE 302 may also send its own information to the eNB 308 (e.g., remote UE id, etc.). Then if the eNB 308 has a context for the indicated relay UE 306, it signals to the relay UE 306 to perform or accept registration/association/pairing procedure with that remote UE 302. The signal may be sent to the relay UE by a UE dedicated RRC message. The signal may include remote UE information (e.g., remote UE id) to identify which remote UE 302 the relay UE 306 is to perform or accept registration/association/pairing procedure with.

[0033] The eNB 308 transmits a configuration signal 314 to assist in

synchronizing sidelink resources of the relay UE 306 and the remote UE 302 to enable discontinuous reception at the remote UE 302 for data transmitted on the sidelink from the relay UE 302. In some embodiments, the configuration signal 314 may be sent as a dedicated message or as part of a system information block.

Further, the configuration signal 314 may assign specific resources or provide DRX information.

[0034] In some embodiments, the configuration signal 314 from the eNB 308 assigns specific resources of the relay UE 306 to be used for transmission to the remote UE 302 using the sidelink. For example, the eNB 308 may send a UE dedicated message to the relay UE 306 assigning the relay UE 306 resources to specific Tx dedicated resource for communicating with the remote UE 302. The assignment may dedicate time and/or frequency resources of the relay UE 306 to the sidelink between the relay UE 306 and the remote UE 302. The assigned Tx dedicated resources correspond to the Rx dedicated resource assigned to the remote UE 302. [0035] In some embodiments, the configuration signal 314 from the eNB provides information to the relay UE 306 of a DRX configuration of the remote UE 302. For example, the configuration signal 314 may include a DRX cycle, an offset to calculate a starting frame & subframe (or starting frame & subframe information directly), a wake-up duration within DRX cycle, and a number of paging occasions per DRX cycle (nB). In some embodiments, the configuration signal 314 may also indicate if DRX information is to be sent or Rx dedicated resources assigned to the remote UE 302 by the relay UE 306 or the eNB.

[0036] After the relay UE 306 receives the configuration signal 314, the relay UE 306 sends an acknowledge message 316 to the eNB 308. In some embodiments, after the configuration signal 314 and the acknowledge message 316, the relay UE 306 begins sending data and/or control information for the remote UE 302 in the assigned remote UE specific Tx resources if the remote UE specific Tx dedicated resources are assigned by the configuration signal 314. If the DRX configuration of the remote UE 302 is sent by the configuration signal 314, the relay UE 306 may start sending data and/or control information for that remote UE 302 in the Tx resources that belong to the active time which the remote UE is awake, or in an active state, to monitor the sidelink interface.

[0037] In some embodiments, the eNB 308 additionally sends a second configuration signal 318 directly to the remote UE 302 for configuration the remote UE 302. For example, the eNB 308 may assign specific resources of the remote UE 302 to be used for reception from the relay UE 306 using the sidelink. The eNB 308 may send a UE dedicated message to the remote UE 302 indicating specific Rx resources to dedicate to the sidelink. The resources may include time and/or frequency resources. The second configuration signal 318 may indicate a DRX configuration. The DRX configuration may include a DRX cycle, an offset to calculate a starting frame & subframe (or starting frame & subframe information directly), a wake-up duration within DRX cycle, and a number of paging occasions per DRX cycle (nB).

[0038] After the remote UE 302 receives the second configuration signal 318, the remote UE 302 sends an acknowledge message 322 to the eNB 308. After the second configuration signal 318 is received and the acknowledge message 322 is sent, the remote UE 302 may start monitoring the sidelink to receive data and/or control information in the assigned remote UE dedicated Rx resource pool if the remote UE 302 Rx dedicated resources are assigned by the second configuration signal 318. If the DRX configuration is included in the second configuration signal 318, the remote UE 302 can start monitoring the sidelink to receive data and/or control information in the Rx resources that belong to the active time which the remote UE 302 is awake to monitor the sidelink.

[0039] In some embodiments, active time of the remote UE 302 may be

configured from the starting frame & subframe (which is derived either from offset or direct information starting frame & subframe). The remote UE 302 is active within a wake-up duration. In some embodiments, the active time of the remote UE 302 may be configured after a DRX cycle from the previous starting frame & subframe, and remain in an active state within wake-up duration.

[0040] As an alternative to the direct eNB 308 communication to send the second configuration signal 318 and the acknowledge message 322, the remote UE 302 may communicate with the relay UE 306. The relay UE 306 may directly inform the remote UE 302 of the DRX configuration using the sidelink. The relay UE 306 may send DRX indication, DRX cycle, wake-up duration, or assigned dedicated

resources. This information can be sent via a sidelink control information (SCI) signal 324 during a subframe where the remote UE 302 receives the SCI signal 324. The subframe where the DRX configuration is received may be a starting subframe for DRX cycle. In some embodiments, as an alternative to SCI, the DRX configuration information may be sent via a light-weight PC5 RRC. The light-weight PC5 RRC may use a control protocol layer on the sidelink. If PC5 RRC is used, offset or starting frame & subframe information can be also signaled.

[0041] The remote UE 302 may send an acknowledge message 326 to the relay UE 306 indicating that the second configuration signal 318 was received. In some embodiments, the acknowledge message 326 may not be used. As other alternative to SCI or PC5 RRC, a sidelink signaling protocol option can be used to exchange the DRX configuration. The sidelink signaling protocol is upper layer protocol used in device-to-device communication.

[0042] Once configuration is done for both the remote UE 302 and relay UE 306, the remote UE 306 monitors the assigned dedicated Rx resources specific to the associated relay UE 306. If the remote UE 302 does not receive any data and/or SCI indicating scheduling information to assign the resources of the sidelink, the remote UE 302 can enter a sleep state until the next assigned Rx resource. If the relay UE 306 received data to be relayed from the eNB 308 to the remote UE, the relay UE 306 sends data over the Rx resource pool that is assigned to the remote UE 302. From the relay UE 306 point of view, the relay UE 306 is assigned a Tx resource pool specific to the remote UE 302. If the relay UE 306 has data and/or control information for that remote UE 302, the L2 relay 306 sends the data over the Tx resource pool specific to the remote UE 302.

[0043] In some embodiments, rather than use an offset or direct information on starting frame & subframe, a remote UE id (e.g., S-TMSI) may be signaled and used. In these embodiments, the remote UE 302 and relay UE 306 can calculate the staring frame & subframe in the similar manner as paging subframe and occasion. In that case, the number of paging subframes used for paging within a paging frame (Ns) can be signaled or configured as a fixed value (e.g., Ns=l).

[0044] In some embodiments, the relay UE 306 may configure the DRX

parameters of the remote UE 302 by itself. In these embodiments, communication from the eNB 308 may not be used. Instead, the relay UE 306 may transmit a signal to inform the eNB 308 of the DRX configuration of the remote UE 302.

[0045] FIG. 4 illustrates a wireless communication system 400 applying DRX to a sidelink using a periodical system information signal 410 in accordance with some embodiments. As described with reference to FIG. 3, a remote UE 402 and a relay UE 406 find each other through a discovery process and register, pair, or otherwise associate with each other. As shown in the illustrated embodiment, once

registration/association/pairing is finished, the relay UE 406 transmits a pairing information signal 414 to inform a eNB 408 of the linkage. The pairing information signal 414 can include information about the remote UE 402. For example, the pairing information signal 414 may include the remote UE id, an indication of whether the remote UE 402 is a wearable device, an indication of whether the remote UE 402 wants to have relay operation, etc.

[0046] The remote UE sends an identification signal 412 to inform the

associated/paired relay UE 406 of the UE id of the remote UE 402 (e.g., S-TMSI, or other UE id which is used for its paging frame and occasion calculation). This information may be used to calculate a DRX configuration of the remote UE 402. The relay UE 406 may calculate a paging frame and occasion by using the remote UE id and some additional information configured by system information (e.g., default paging cycle, nB, etc.) in the same manner as the remote UE 402. The additional information may be sent by the eNB on the periodical system information signal 410 such as a system information block (SIB). The periodical system information signal 410 may include an offset to calculate a starting frame & subframe, a default paging cycle, a nB, a wake-up duration. Alternative to remote UE id, since remote UE id may be considered private information, some other form of virtual id (or random value with the same size) can be signaled and used instead of remote UE id.

[0047] Once paging frame and occasion is derived, the relay UE 406 may consider that corresponding subframe (which is the subframe to monitor paging) is an active time that the remote UE 402 will monitor the sidelink interface to receive its data and/or control information. The relay UE 406 can send data for that remote UE 402 in the active subframe.

[0048] From the remote UE 402 point of view, when the PF and PO is derived by using the remote UE id and some additional information configured by system information (e.g., default paging cycle, nB, etc.), the remote UE 402 considers the corresponding subframe (which is the subframe to monitor paging) is also active for sidelink communication. So, the remote UE 402 may monitor the sidelink in the subframe to monitor paging. The remote UE 402 and the relay UE 406 may use the default paging cycle in calculation of active time for the sidelink.

[0049] If the remote UE 402 has a UE specific paging cycle, the UE specific paging cycle may be used in paging frame and occasion calculation for real paging reception from downlink and in paging frame and occasion calculation for sidelink active time (or sidelink DRX). The remote UE 402 may use a default paging cycle signaled by the periodical system information signal 410. In addition, system information on the periodical system information signal 410 can signal wake-up duration information. The remote UE 402 and the relay UE 406 may consider active time the subframes in which the remote UE 402 monitors the sidelink to receive data and/or control information during that period from the subframe. The active

subframe(s) may correspond to a subframe for the remote UE 402 to monitor paging. After sidelink communication has begun, the relay UE 406 and remote UE 402 may change the DRX cycle to not overlap with the paging cycle.

[0050] Additionally, the relay UE 406 can activate or deactivate sidelink DRX using SCI. The SCI may include DRX ON/OFF information. If the remote UE 402 receives a sidelink DRX on indication 416 by the SCI, DRX is used on the sidelink. If the remote UE 402 receives a sidelink DRX off indication 418 by the SCI, the remote

UE 402 is configured to continuously monitor the sidelink.

[0051] FIG. 5 illustrates a wireless network 500 with multiple remote UEs (e.g.,

506, 508) using DRX in sidelink communication with a single relay UE 504. The processes described with reference to FIGS. 3-4 may be used to configure the DRX communication between the relay UE 504 and each remote UE.

[0052] As shown, an eNB 502 may communicate directly with the relay UE 504 via interface 514. The communication may be done using a dedicated RRC message or an SIB. Each remote UE 506, and 508 may optionally communicate with the eNB

502 via interfaces 526 and 528 respectively.

[0053] The relay UE 504 may be in communication with the remote UE 506 and remote UE 508 via sidelink interfaces 516 and 518 respectively. The sidelink interfaces 516 and 518 use dedicated resource pools that are different from each other. For example, the relay UE 504 may connect with the remote UE 506 using a first resource pool dedicated specifically to the sidelink interface 516. And, relay UE 504 may connect with the remote UE 508 using a second resource pool dedicated specifically to the sidelink interface 518. Additional remote UEs may be connected to the relay UE 504 in a similar manner.

[0054] Some example embodiments of DRX used for device-to-device direct communication in a wireless network are described below.

[0055] Example A may include the discontinuous reception operation in a device- to-device direct communication in a wireless network is comprising of; radio access network node assigns pairing information indicating the dedicated transmission resource pool associated with the second UE to the first UE and assigns the dedicated reception resource pool to the second UE; and the first UE sends the data that destined to the second UE only in the paired dedicated transmission resource pool among the whole transmission resources configured for device-to-device direct communication; and the second UE monitors device-to-device link only in the dedicated reception resource pool among whole reception resources configured for device-to-device direct communication.

[0056] Example B may include the discontinuous reception operation in a device- to-device direct communication in a wireless network is comprising of; radio access network node assigns pairing information indicating discontinuous active time in time-domain with the second UE to the first UE and second UE; and the first UE sends the data that destined to the second UE only in the transmission resource that is within the active time among the whole transmission resources configured for device-to-device direct communication; and the second UE monitors device-to- device link only in the reception resource pool that is within the active time among whole reception resources configured for device-to-device direct communication.

[0057] Example C may include the discontinuous reception operation in a device- to-device direct communication in a wireless network is comprising of; the first UE sends pairing information indicating discontinuous active time in time-domain to the second UE over device-to-device link; and the first UE sends the data that destined to the second UE only in the transmission resource that is within the active time among the whole transmission resources configured for device-to-device direct communication; and the second UE monitors device-to-device link only in the reception resource pool that is within the active time among whole reception resources configured for device-to-device direct communication.

[0058] Example D may include the method of example C and/or some other example herein, wherein the paring information is sent by device-to-device link control information.

[0059] Example E may include the discontinuous reception operation in a device- to-device direct communication in a wireless network is comprising of; the second UE sends its id information to the first UE; and the first UE and second UE calculate active time by defined rule using the id and the assistance information provided by the system information; and the first UE sends the data that destined to the second UE only in the transmission resource that is within the active time among the whole transmission resources configured for device-to-device direct communication once discontinuous reception for the second UE is activated; and the second UE monitors device-to-device link only in the reception resource pool that is within the active time among whole reception resources configured for device-to-device direct

communication once discontinuous reception for the second UE is activated.

[0060] Example F may include the method of example E and/or some other example herein, wherein the activation and deactivation of discontinuous reception is sent by device-to-device link control information.

[0061] Example G may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples A-F, or any other method or process described herein. [0062] Example H may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples A-F, or any other method or process described herein.

[0063] Example I may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples A-F, or any other method or process described herein.

[0064] Example J may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples A-F, or portions or parts thereof.

[0065] Example K may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples A-F, or portions thereof.

[0066] Example L may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0067] Example M may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0068] Example N may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0069] FIG. 6 illustrates an architecture of a system 600 of a network in

accordance with some embodiments. The system 600 is shown to include a user equipment (UE) 601 and a UE 602. The UEs 601 and 602 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), pagers, laptop computers, desktop computers, wireless handsets, or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.

[0070] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 601 and 602 can comprise an Internet of Things (loT) UE, which can comprise a network access layer designed for low-power loT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An loT UE can utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type

communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to- device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or loT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An loT network describes interconnecting loT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The loT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the loT network.

[0071] The UEs 601 and 602 may be configured to connect, e.g.,

communicatively couple, with a radio access network (RAN) 610. The RAN 610 may be, for example, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN (NG RAN), or some other type of RAN. The UEs 601 and 602 utilize connections 603 and 604, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below); in this example, the connections 603 and 604 are illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth generation (5G) protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, and the like.

[0072] In this embodiment, the UEs 601 and 602 may further directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 605. The ProSe interface 605 may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface comprising one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery

Channel (PSDCH), and a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

[0073] The UE 602 is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP) 606 via connection 607. The connection 607 can comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.1 1 protocol, wherein the AP 606 would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi®) router. In this example, the AP 606 is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). [0074] The RAN 610 can include one or more access nodes that enable the connections 603 and 604. These access nodes (ANs) can be referred to as base stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next Generation NodeBs (gNB), RAN nodes, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). The RAN 610 may include one or more RAN nodes for providing macrocells, e.g., macro RAN node 61 1 , and one or more RAN nodes for providing femtocells or picocells (e.g., cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells), e.g., low power (LP) RAN node 612.

[0075] Any of the RAN nodes 61 1 and 612 can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 601 and 602. In some

embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 61 1 and 612 can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN 610 including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0076] In accordance with some embodiments, the UEs 601 and 602 can be configured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing

(OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 61 1 and 612 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance various

communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an Orthogonal Frequency- Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communication technique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

[0077] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 61 1 and 612 to the UEs 601 and 602, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time- frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid

corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

[0078] The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 601 and 602. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It may also inform the UEs 601 and 602 about the transport format, resource allocation, and H-ARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 602 within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 61 1 and 612 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 601 and 602. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 601 and 602.

[0079] The PDCCH may use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the downlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=1 , 2, 4, or 8).

[0080] Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for control channel information that are an extension of the above-described concepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more enhanced the control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

[0081] The RAN 610 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 620—via an S1 interface 613. In embodiments, the CN 620 may be an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or some other type of CN. In this embodiment the S1 interface 613 is split into two parts: the S1 -U interface 614, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 61 1 and 612 and a serving gateway (S-GW) 622, and an S1 -mobility management entity (MME) interface 615, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 61 1 and 612 and MMEs 621.

[0082] In this embodiment, the CN 620 comprises the MMEs 621 , the S-GW 622, a Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 623, and a home subscriber server (HSS) 624. The MMEs 621 may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Nodes (SGSN). The MMEs 621 may manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 624 may comprise a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of communication sessions. The CN 620 may comprise one or several HSSs 624, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 624 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc.

[0083] The S-GW 622 may terminate the S1 interface 613 towards the RAN 610, and routes data packets between the RAN 610 and the CN 620. In addition, the S- GW 622 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0084] The P-GW 623 may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN. The P-GW 623 may route data packets between the CN 620 (e.g., an EPC network) and external networks such as a network including the application server 630

(alternatively referred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface 625. Generally, an application server 630 may be an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). In this embodiment, the P-GW 623 is shown to be communicatively coupled to an application server 630 via an IP communications interface 625. The application server 630 can also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs 601 and 602 via the CN 620.

[0085] The P-GW 623 may further be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. A Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCRF) 626 is the policy and charging control element of the CN 620. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a UE's Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE's IP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within a HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF 626 may be communicatively coupled to the application server 630 via the P-GW 623. The application server 630 may signal the PCRF 626 to indicate a new service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) and charging parameters. The PCRF 626 may provision this rule into a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with the appropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier (QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by the application server 630.

[0086] FIG. 7 illustrates example components of a device 700 in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, the device 700 may include application circuitry 702, baseband circuitry 704, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 706, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 708, one or more antennas 710, and power management circuitry (PMC) 712 coupled together at least as shown. The components of the illustrated device 700 may be included in a UE or a RAN node. In some

embodiments, the device 700 may include fewer elements (e.g., a RAN node may not utilize application circuitry 702, and instead include a processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device 700 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the

components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device for Cloud-RAN (C- RAN) implementations).

[0087] The application circuitry 702 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 702 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The

processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors

and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 700. In some embodiments, processors of application circuitry 702 may process IP data packets received from an EPC.

[0088] The baseband circuitry 704 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 704 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 706 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 706. Baseband processing circuity 704 may interface with the application circuitry 702 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 706. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 704 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 704A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 704B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 704C, or other baseband processor(s) 704D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 704 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 704A-D) may handle various radio control functions that

enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 706. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 704A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 704G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 704E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio

frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 704 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 704 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC)

encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

[0089] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 704 may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 704F. The audio DSP(s) 704F may be include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 704 and the application circuitry 702 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

[0090] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 704 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 704 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), or a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 704 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

[0091] RF circuitry 706 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 706 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. The RF circuitry 706 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 708 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 704. RF circuitry 706 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 704 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 708 for transmission.

[0092] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 706 may include mixer circuitry 706A, amplifier circuitry 706B and filter circuitry 706C. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 706 may include filter circuitry 706C and mixer circuitry 706A. RF circuitry 706 may also include

synthesizer circuitry 706D for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 706A of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 706A of the receive signal path may be configured to down- convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 708 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 706D. The amplifier circuitry 706B may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 706C may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals.

Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 704 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero- frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some

embodiments, the mixer circuitry 706A of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0093] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 706A of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 706D to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 708. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 704 and may be filtered by the filter circuitry 706C.

[0094] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 706A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 706A of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 706A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 706A of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 706A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 706A may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 706A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 706A of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

[0095] In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry 706 may include analog-to- digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 704 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 706.

[0096] In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0097] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 706D may be a fractional- N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the

embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 706D may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0098] The synthesizer circuitry 706D may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 706A of the RF circuitry 706 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 706D may be a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer.

[0099] In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 704 or the application circuitry 702 (such as an applications processor) depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on a channel indicated by the application circuitry 702.

[00100] Synthesizer circuitry 706D of the RF circuitry 706 may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some

embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[00101] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 706D may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 706 may include an IQ/polar converter.

[00102] FEM circuitry 708 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 710, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 706 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 708 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 706 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 710. In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 706, solely in the FEM circuitry 708, or in both the RF circuitry 706 and the FEM circuitry 708.

[00103] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 708 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry 708 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 708 may include an LNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 706). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 708 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by the RF circuitry 706), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 710).

[0100] In some embodiments, the PMC 712 may manage power provided to the baseband circuitry 704. In particular, the PMC 712 may control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. The PMC 712 may often be included when the device 700 is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device 700 is included in a UE. The PMC 712 may increase the power conversion efficiency while providing desirable implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

[0101] FIG. 7 shows the PMC 712 coupled only with the baseband circuitry 704. However, in other embodiments, the PMC 712 may be additionally or alternatively coupled with, and perform similar power management operations for, other components such as, but not limited to, the application circuitry 702, the RF circuitry 706, or the FEM circuitry 708.

[0102] In some embodiments, the PMC 712 may control, or otherwise be part of, various power saving mechanisms of the device 700. For example, if the device 700 is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected to the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it may enter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device 700 may power down for brief intervals of time and thus save power.

[0103] If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, then the device 700 may transition off to an RRCJdle state, where it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 700 goes into a very low power state and it performs paging where again it periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. The device 700 may not receive data in this state, and in order to receive data, it transitions back to an RRC_Connected state.

[0104] An additional power saving mode may allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and may power down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable.

[0105] Processors of the application circuitry 702 and processors of the baseband circuitry 704 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry 704, alone or in combination, may be used to execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry 702 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g.,

transmission communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a radio resource control (RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

[0106] FIG. 8 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the baseband circuitry 704 of FIG. 7 may comprise processors 704A-704E and a memory 704G utilized by said

processors. Each of the processors 704A-704E may include a memory interface, 804A-804E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory 704G.

[0107] The baseband circuitry 704 may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memory interface 812 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry 704), an application circuitry interface 814 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry 702 of FIG. 7), an RF circuitry interface 816 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 706 of FIG. 7), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 818 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication

components), and a power management interface 820 (e.g., an interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMC 712.

[0108] FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

Specifically, FIG. 9 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 900 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 910, one or more

memory/storage devices 920, and one or more communication resources 930, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 940. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 902 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 900.

[0109] The processors 910 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 912 and a processor 914.

[0110] The memory/storage devices 920 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 920 may include, but are not limited to any type of volatile or non-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0111] The communication resources 930 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 904 or one or more databases 906 via a network 908. For example, the communication resources 930 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular

communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication

components.

[0112] Instructions 950 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 910 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 950 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 910 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 920, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 950 may be transferred to the hardware resources 900 from any combination of the peripheral devices 904 or the databases 906. Accordingly, the memory of processors 910, the memory/storage devices 920, the peripheral devices 904, and the databases 906 are examples of computer-readable and machine- readable media.

[0113] The following examples pertain to further embodiments.

[0114] Example 1 is an apparatus for a relay user equipment (UE), comprising a memory interface and a baseband processor. The memory interface to store or retrieve, to or from a memory device, a sidelink resource message from an evolved node B (eNB). The baseband processor to: decode the sidelink resource message to obtain sidelink resource information specific to a first sidelink between the relay UE and a first remote UE; determine, based on the sidelink resource information, a subset of sidelink resources to form a dedicated transmit resource pool specific to the first sidelink; determine discontinuous subframes of the dedicated transmit resource pool to transmit data though the first sidelink to the first remote UE; and prepare data to be transmitted through the first sidelink to the first remote UE in the discontinuous subframes.

[0115] Example 2 is the apparatus of Example 1 , wherein the baseband process is to determine the discontinuous subframes based on subframes where the first remote UE is configured to monitor a discontinuous dedicated reception pool specific to the first sidelink.

[0116] Example 3 is the apparatus of Example 1 , wherein the sidelink resource message from the eNB assigns time and frequency resources of the relay UE specific to the first remote UE.

[0117] Example 4 is the apparatus of any of Examples 1 -3, wherein the sidelink resource message is a dedicated resource control (RRC) message.

[0118] Example 5 is the apparatus of any of Examples 1 -3, wherein the sidelink resource message is included in a system information block (SIB).

[0119] Example 6 is the apparatus of any of Examples 1 -3, wherein the baseband processor is further to prepare a sidelink radio resource control (RRC) message to inform the first remote UE of sidelink resource information specific to the first sidelink.

[0120] Example 7 is the apparatus of any of Examples 1 -3, wherein the baseband processor is further to prepare a sidelink control information (SCI) comprising sidelink resource information specific to the first sidelink.

[0121] Example 8 is the apparatus of Example 7, wherein the relay UE can activate or deactivate discontinuous reception on the first sidelink via the SCI.

[0122] Example 9 is the apparatus of any of Examples 1 -3, wherein the baseband processor is further to: decode the sidelink resource message to obtain a

discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration specific to a second sidelink between the relay UE and a second remote UE; and determine, based on the DRX

configuration, a DRX cycle to transmit data through the second sidelink to the second remote UE, wherein the second sidelink uses different resources than those of the dedicated transmit resource pool specific to the first sidelink. [0123] Example 10 is a machine readable storage medium including machine- readable instructions, when executed by one or more processors of an evolved node B (eNB), to: process a signal from a first user equipment (UE), the signal comprising sidelink communication information for a first UE and a second UE; determine a pairing between the first UE and the second UE based on the sidelink

communication information; and prepare a message to be transmitted to assist in synchronizing sidelink resources of the first UE and the second UE to enable discontinuous reception at the second UE for data transmitted on the sidelink from the first UE.

[0124] Example 1 1 is the machine readable storage medium of Example 10, wherein the message assigns resources comprising a specific discontinuous reception resource pool of the second UE and a specific transmission resource pool of the first UE.

[0125] Example 12 is the machine readable storage medium of Example 10, wherein the message comprises discontinuous reception (DRX) parameters of the second UE.

[0126] Example 13 is the machine readable storage medium of Example 12, wherein the DRX parameters of the second UE comprise a DRX cycle, an offset, and a wake-up duration.

[0127] Example 14 is the machine readable storage medium of any of Examples 10-13, wherein preparing a message comprises preparing a dedicated radio resource control (RRC) message for the first UE.

[0128] Example 15 is the machine readable storage medium of Example 14, wherein preparing a message further comprises preparing a dedicated RRC message for the second UE.

[0129] Example 16 is the machine readable storage medium of Example 10, wherein preparing a message comprises preparing a system information block (SIB) with default DRX parameters for sidelink communication.

[0130] Example 17 is an apparatus for a remote user equipment (UE), comprising a memory interface and a baseband processor. The memory interface to store or retrieve, from a memory device, discontinuous reception (DRX) resource information. The baseband processor to: configure the remote UE to communicate with a relay UE; determine DRX parameters, based on the DRX information, that are specific to a sidelink between the remote UE and the relay UE; configure the remote UE to enter an active state during a portion of a DRX cycle specific to the sidelink between the remote UE and the relay UE to monitor for data from the relay UE through the sidelink; configure the remote UE to enter a sleep state during a remainder of the DRX cycle.

[0131] Example 18 is the apparatus of Example 17, further comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive a signal comprising DRX resource information from the relay UE.

[0132] Example 19 is the apparatus of Example 17, further comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive a signal comprising DRX resource information from an evolved node B (eNB).

[0133] Example 20 is the apparatus of Example 17, wherein to configure the remote UE to communicate with a relay UE, the baseband processor prepares a message to the relay UE comprising a remote UE identification, and wherein a starting frame of the active state is specific to the remote UE identification.

[0134] Example 21 is a machine readable storage medium including machine- readable instructions, when executed by one or more processors of a relay user equipment (UE), to: decode the sidelink resource message to obtain sidelink resource information specific to a first sidelink between the relay UE and a first remote UE; determine, based on the sidelink resource information, a subset of sidelink resources to form a dedicated transmit resource pool specific to the first sidelink; determine discontinuous subframes of the dedicated transmit resource pool to transmit data though the first sidelink to the first remote UE; and prepare data to be transmitted through the first sidelink to the first remote UE in the discontinuous subframes.

[0135] Example 22 is the machine readable storage medium of Example 21 , wherein the machine-readable instructions are further to determine the discontinuous subframes based on subframes where the first remote UE is configured to monitor a discontinuous dedicated reception pool specific to the first sidelink.

[0136] Example 23 is the machine readable storage medium of Example 21 , wherein the sidelink resource message from the eNB assigns time and frequency resources of the relay UE specific to the first remote UE.

[0137] Example 24 is the machine readable storage medium of any of Examples 21 -23, wherein the sidelink resource message is a dedicated resource control (RRC) message. [0138] Example 25 is the machine readable storage medium of any of Examples 21 -23, wherein the sidelink resource message is included in a system information block (SIB).

[0139] Example 26 is the machine readable storage medium of any of Examples 21 -23, wherein the machine-readable instructions are further to prepare a sidelink radio resource control (RRC) message to inform the first remote UE of sidelink resource information specific to the first sidelink.

[0140] Example 27 is the machine readable storage medium of any of Examples 21 -23, wherein the machine-readable instructions are further to prepare a sidelink control information (SCI) comprising sidelink resource information specific to the first sidelink.

[0141] Example 28 is the machine readable storage medium of Example 27, wherein the machine-readable instructions are further to activate or deactivate discontinuous reception on the first sidelink via the SCI.

[0142] Example 29 is the machine readable storage medium of any of Examples 21 -23, wherein the machine-readable instructions are further to: decode the sidelink resource message to obtain a discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration specific to a second sidelink between the relay UE and a second remote UE; and determine, based on the DRX configuration, a DRX cycle to transmit data through the second sidelink to the second remote UE, wherein the second sidelink uses different resources than those of the dedicated transmit resource pool specific to the first sidelink.

[0143] Example 30 is an apparatus for an evolved node B (eNB), comprising a memory interface and a baseband processor. The memory interface to store or retrieve, to or from a memory device, information from a first user equipment (UE). The a baseband processor to: decode the information to obtain sidelink

communication information for a first UE and a second UE; determine a pairing between the first UE and the second UE based on the sidelink communication information; and prepare a message to be transmitted to assist in synchronizing sidelink resources of the first UE and the second UE to enable discontinuous reception at the second UE for data transmitted on the sidelink from the first UE.

[0144] Example 31 is the apparatus of Example 30, wherein the message assigns resources comprising a specific discontinuous reception resource pool of the second UE and a specific transmission resource pool of the first UE. [0145] Example 32 is the apparatus of Example 30, wherein the message comprises discontinuous reception (DRX) parameters of the second UE.

[0146] Example 33 is the apparatus of Example 32, wherein the DRX parameters of the second UE comprise a DRX cycle, an offset, and a wake-up duration.

[0147] Example 34 is the apparatus of any of Examples 30-33, wherein preparing a message comprises preparing a dedicated radio resource control (RRC) message for the first UE.

[0148] Example 35 is the apparatus of Example 34, wherein preparing a message further comprises preparing a dedicated RRC message for the second UE.

[0149] Example 36 is the apparatus of Example 30, wherein preparing a message comprises preparing a system information block (SIB) with default DRX parameters for sidelink communication.

[0150] Example 37 is a method for discontinuous reception in device-to-device communication for a remote user equipment (UE), the method comprising: storing or retrieving, from a memory device, discontinuous reception (DRX) resource information; and configuring the remote UE to communicate with a relay UE;

determining DRX parameters, based on the DRX information, that are specific to a sidelink between the remote UE and the relay UE; configuring the remote UE to enter an active state during a portion of a DRX cycle specific to the sidelink between the remote UE and the relay UE to monitor for data from the relay UE through the sidelink; configuring the remote UE to enter a sleep state during a remainder of the DRX cycle.

[0151] Example 38 is the method of Example 37, further comprising receiving, via radio frequency (RF), a signal comprising DRX resource information from the relay UE.

[0152] Example 39 is the method of Example 37, further comprising receiving, via radio frequency (RF), a signal comprising DRX resource information from an evolved node B (eNB).

[0153] Example 40 is the method of Example 37, wherein configuring the remote UE to communicate with a relay UE comprises preparing a message to the relay UE comprising a remote UE identification, and wherein a starting frame of the active state is specific to the remote UE identification.

[0154] Example 41 is a method for initiating discontinuous reception in device-to- device communication using an evolved node B (eNB), the method comprising: processing a signal from a first user equipment (UE), the signal comprising sidelink communication information for a first UE and a second UE; determining a pairing between the first UE and the second UE based on the sidelink communication information; and preparing a message to be transmitted to assist in synchronizing sidelink resources of the first UE and the second UE to enable discontinuous reception at the second UE for data transmitted on the sidelink from the first UE.

[0155] Example 42 is the method of Example 41 , wherein the message assigns resources comprising a specific discontinuous reception resource pool of the second UE and a specific transmission resource pool of the first UE.

[0156] Example 43 is the method of Example 41 , wherein the message comprises discontinuous reception (DRX) parameters of the second UE.

[0157] Example 44 is the method of Example 43, wherein the DRX parameters of the second UE comprise a DRX cycle, an offset, and a wake-up duration.

[0158] Example 45 is the method of any of Examples 41 -44, wherein preparing a message comprises preparing a dedicated radio resource control (RRC) message for the first UE.

[0159] Example 46 is the method of Example 45, wherein preparing a message further comprises preparing a dedicated RRC message for the second UE.

[0160] Example 47 is the method of Example 41 , wherein preparing a message comprises preparing a system information block (SIB) with default DRX parameters for sidelink communication.

[0161] Example 48 is an apparatus comprising means to perform a method as exemplified in any of Examples 37-47.

[0162] Example 49 is a machine readable medium including code, when executed, to cause a machine to perform the method of any one of Examples 37-47.

[0163] It will be understood by those having skill in the art that many changes may be made to the details of the above-described embodiments without departing from the underlying principles of the disclosure. The scope of the present invention should, therefore, be determined only by the following claims.

Claims

1 . An apparatus for a relay user equipment (UE), comprising:

a memory interface to store or retrieve, to or from a memory device, a sidelink resource message from an evolved node B (eNB); and

a baseband processor to:

decode the sidelink resource message to obtain sidelink resource information specific to a first sidelink between the relay UE and a first remote UE;

determine, based on the sidelink resource information, a subset of sidelink resources to form a dedicated transmit resource pool specific to the first sidelink;

determine discontinuous subframes of the dedicated transmit resource pool to transmit data though the first sidelink to the first remote UE; and

prepare data to be transmitted through the first sidelink to the first remote UE in the discontinuous subframes.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the baseband process is to determine the discontinuous subframes based on subframes where the first remote UE is configured to monitor a discontinuous dedicated reception pool specific to the first sidelink.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sidelink resource message from the eNB assigns time and frequency resources of the relay UE specific to the first remote UE.

4. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -3 wherein the sidelink resource message is a dedicated resource control (RRC) message.

5. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -3, wherein the sidelink resource message is included in a system information block (SIB).

6. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -3, wherein the baseband processor is further to prepare a sidelink radio resource control (RRC) message to inform the first remote UE of sidelink resource information specific to the first sidelink.

7. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -3, wherein the baseband processor is further to prepare a sidelink control information (SCI) comprising sidelink resource information specific to the first sidelink.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the relay UE can activate or deactivate discontinuous reception on the first sidelink via the SCI.

9. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -3, wherein the baseband processor is further to:

decode the sidelink resource message to obtain a discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration specific to a second sidelink between the relay UE and a second remote UE; and

determine, based on the DRX configuration, a DRX cycle to transmit data through the second sidelink to the second remote UE, wherein the second sidelink uses different resources than those of the dedicated transmit resource pool specific to the first sidelink.

10. A machine readable storage medium including machine-readable instructions, when executed by one or more processors of an evolved node B (eNB), to:

process a signal from a first user equipment (UE), the signal comprising sidelink communication information for a first UE and a second UE;

determine a pairing between the first UE and the second UE based on the sidelink communication information; and

prepare a message to be transmitted to assist in synchronizing sidelink resources of the first UE and the second UE to enable discontinuous reception at the second UE for data transmitted on the sidelink from the first UE.

1 1 . The machine readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the message assigns resources comprising a specific discontinuous reception resource pool of the second UE and a specific transmission resource pool of the first UE.

12. The machine readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the message comprises discontinuous reception (DRX) parameters of the second UE.

13. The machine readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the DRX parameters of the second UE comprise a DRX cycle, an offset, and a wake-up duration.

14. The machine readable storage medium of any of claims 10-13, wherein preparing a message comprises preparing a dedicated radio resource control (RRC) message for the first UE.

15. The machine readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein preparing a message further comprises preparing a dedicated RRC message for the second UE.

16. The machine readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein preparing a message comprises preparing a system information block (SIB) with default DRX parameters for sidelink communication.

17. An apparatus for a remote user equipment (UE), comprising:

a memory interface to store or retrieve, from a memory device, discontinuous reception (DRX) resource information; and

a baseband processor to:

configure the remote UE to communicate with a relay UE; determine DRX parameters, based on the DRX information, that are specific to a sidelink between the remote UE and the relay UE;

configure the remote UE to enter an active state during a portion of a DRX cycle specific to the sidelink between the remote UE and the relay UE to monitor for data from the relay UE through the sidelink;

configure the remote UE to enter a sleep state during a remainder of the DRX cycle.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive a signal comprising DRX resource information from the relay UE.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive a signal comprising DRX resource information from an evolved node B (eNB).

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein to configure the remote UE to

communicate with a relay UE, the baseband processor prepares a message to the relay UE comprising a remote UE identification, and wherein a starting frame of the active state is specific to the remote UE identification.