WO2023205608A1

WO2023205608A1 - Channel access sensing and frequency interlacing for sidelink communication

Info

Publication number: WO2023205608A1
Application number: PCT/US2023/065853
Authority: WO
Inventors: Salvatore TALARICO; Kilian Roth; Alexey Khoryaev; Sergey PANTELEEV; Mikhail Shilov
Original assignee: Intel Corp
Current assignee: Intel Corp
Priority date: 2022-04-18
Filing date: 2023-04-17
Publication date: 2023-10-26
Anticipated expiration: 2024-10-18
Also published as: US20250151086A1; CN119032624A

Abstract

Various embodiments herein provide techniques for sidelink communication, e.g., in an unlicensed frequency band. For example, embodiments may relate to channel access sensing procedures, e.g., in association with a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure for unlicensed spectrum. Embodiments may further relate to a frequency interlaced physical structure for sidelink communication. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Description

CHANNEL ACCESS SENSING AND FREQUENCY INTERLACING FOR SIDELINK COMMUNICATION

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/332,178, which was filed April 18, 2022; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/332,109, which was filed April 18, 2022; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/407,408, which was filed September 16, 2022; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/408,344, which was filed September 20, 2022; and to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/485,382, which was filed February 16, 2023.

FIELD

Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communications. For example, some embodiments may relate to techniques for sidelink communication, such as in unlicensed spectrum.

BACKGROUND

Mobile communication has evolved significantly from early voice systems to today’s highly sophisticated integrated communication platform. The next generation wireless communication system, fifth generation (5G) (which may be additionally or alternatively referred to as new radio (NR)) may provide access to information and sharing of data anywhere, anytime by various users and applications. NR may be a unified network/system that target to meet vastly different and sometime conflicting performance dimensions and services. Such diverse multidimensional requirements may be driven by different services and applications.

For instance, in the third generation partnership project (3GPP) release-16 (Rel.16) specifications, sidelink (SL) communication was developed in radio access network (RAN) to support advanced vehicle-to-anything (V2X) applications. In release-17 (Rel.17), SA2 studied and standardized proximity based service including public safety and commercial related services and as part of Rel.17, power saving solutions (e.g., partial sensing, discontinuous reception (DRX), etc.) and inter-user equipment (UE) coordination have been developed to improve power consumption for battery limited terminals and reliability of SL transmissions. Although NR SL was initially developed for V2X applications, there is growing interest in the industry to expand the applicability of NR SL to commercial use cases, such as sensor information (e.g., video) sharing between vehicles with high degree of driving automation. For commercial SL applications, desirable features may include increased SL data rate and support of new carrier frequencies for SL. To achieve these elements, one objective in release-18 (Rel.18) is to extend SL operation in unlicensed spectrum (e.g., referred to as NR-U SL). BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 schematically illustrates New Radio - Unlicensed (NR-U) sidelink (SL) communication modes.

Figure 2A illustrates switching times within a SL slot without a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 2B illustrates switching times within a SL slot with a PSFCH, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 3 illustrates examples of transmit (Tx) / receive (Rx) and Rx/Tx gaps (guard periods) in a sidelink physical structure, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 4 illustrates examples of the applicability of cyclic prefix extension (CPE) to synchronization signal block (SSB) transmission when prior SL transmission to the sidelink SSB (S-SSB) transmission ends one symbol earlier, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 5 illustrates examples of the impact of SL synchronization error, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 6 illustrates examples of the impact of UE-UE propagation delay, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 7 illustrates an example of two UEs competing for the same channel and performing LBT at the same time, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 8 illustrates an example of two UEs that choose the same starting position for their transmission, and apply a different CPE and listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure beforehand to avoid collision between their transmissions, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 9 illustrates an example of a general ON/OFF time mask for shared spectrum channel access, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 10 illustrates examples of LBT window and ON/OFF (OFF/ON) transient period effecting a type 2B LBT, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 11 illustrates an example of Type 2B LBT for SL communication in unlicensed spectrum, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 12 illustrates an example of a physical channel structure with 20 MHz bandwidth (BW) and 30 kHz subcarrier spacing (SCS) (number of resource blocks (NRB) = 51) where M=5; N=11 for int.#0 and N = 10 for int. #1-4, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figures 13 A and 13B illustrate an example of a physical channel structure with K=51 RBs and M = 5 with both single RB interleaving options, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 14 illustrates an example of a physical channel structure with K=51 RBs and M = 5 with group RB interleaving, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 15 illustrates an example of comb-5 sub-carrier (SC) interleaving, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 16 schematically illustrates a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 17 schematically illustrates components of a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 18 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.

Figure 19 depicts an example procedure for practicing the various embodiments discussed herein.

Figure 20 depicts another example procedure for practicing the various embodiments discussed herein.

Figure 21 depicts another example procedure for practicing the various embodiments discussed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

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. For the purposes of the present document, the phrases “A or B” and “A/B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B).

Embodiments herein provide techniques for sidelink communication, e.g., in an unlicensed frequency band. For example, embodiments may relate to channel access sensing procedures. Embodiments may further relate to a frequency interlaced physical structure for sidelink communication.

As discussed above, one objective in release-18 (Rel.18) is to extend SL operation in unlicensed spectrum (referred to herein as NR-unlicensed (NR-U) SL spectrum). However, it is noted that to allow fair usage of the spectrum and fair coexistence among different technologies, different regional regulatory requirements are imposed worldwide. Thus, to enable a solution for all regions complying with the strictest regulation from ETSI BRAN published in EN 301 893 may be sufficient. In fact, for the development of NR-U during Rel.16 a 3 GPP NR based system complying with these regulations was developed.

With that said, to enable a SL communication system in the unlicensed band, the considerations of SL communication systems may need to be combined with the regulator requirements necessary for the operation in the unlicensed bands. In particular, it is noted that NR SL could operate through two modes of operation: 1) mode-1, where a gNB schedules the SL transmission resource(s) to be used by the UE, and Uu operation is limited to licensed spectrum only; 2) mode-2, where a UE determines (e.g, gNB does not schedule) the SL transmission resource(s) within SL resources which are configured by the gNB/network or pre-configured. Figure 1 illustrates the two modes of operation.

In this context, there are several specific challenges to enable NR-U SL.

Channel Access Sensing Procedure

In SL, the concept of SL slot has been introduced together with the transmit/receive (TX/RX) and RX/TX switching gaps, which have been defined as guard interval for proper RF retuning at the UE when switching from RX mode to TX mode and vice versa. As example of SL slot is illustrated in Figures 2A-2B. Figure 2A depicts the case of a SL slot without a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), while Figure 2B provides an example of SL slot with PSFCH.

As shown in Figures 2A-2B, at least 1 symbol gap will be present in a SL system, which in unlicensed band is synonymous of LBT overhead, since in FR-1, when a gap larger than 16 us exists among bursts within a channel occupancy time (COT) then regardless of whether the system operates in semi-static or dynamic channel access mode an LBT mechanism is needed at either the initiating and/or the responding device to resume transmission or to start a transmission after that gap. Various embodiments herein provide techniques to mitigate this issue.

Another issue to consider regarding a SL slot is that in SL all transmissions start at a predefined symbol positions within a slot, and the first symbol of each SL transmission is a replica of the second symbol, where such physical structure was defined to support automatic gain control (AGC) convergence time. However, due to the fact that LBT may be required in unlicensed spectrum and potential LBT failures may occur, additional flexibility is needed on when a SL transmission may be initiated. In this matter, multiple options are discussed in this disclosure.

Accordingly, embodiments herein provide mechanisms to handle the gaps left in SL for RX/TX and TX/RX switching gap when operating in unlicensed spectrum. Furthermore, embodiments herein provide mechanisms to mitigate mutual blocking across UEs when operating in either TDM or FDM mode.

TX/RX & RX/TX Switching Gaps

As discussed above, SL physical structure defines one symbol for TX/RX and RX/TX switching gaps (also called guard period). The actual duration needed for these TX/RX and RX/TX switching gaps have been determined by RAN4, and they may be less than 13us. However, the allocated duration for the TX/RX and RX/TX switching gaps depends on the subcarrier spacing (SCS) settings (e.g., OFDM symbol duration without CP is equal to 66.6/33.3 and 16.6 us for 15/30/60 kHz SCS, respectively) and is larger than the actual time needed.

When operating in unlicensed spectrum, for efficient LBT operation and to reduce LBT overhead within SL COT sharing interval, the gaps among transmission bursts within the COT should be less than or equal to 16 us, so that no LBT may be needed for both dynamic and semi- static channel access mode. If the gap is larger than 16 us, then Type-2 A or 2B LBT procedures may be needed within a shared COT.

To reduce the TX/RX and RX/TX switching gaps defined in SL physical structure when operating in unlicensed spectrum, in one embodiment, one of the following options may be adopted: o Option 1 : a SL transmission may start earlier than the symbol/slot boundary (e.g., cyclic prefix extension is used, or any other reference or data signal is added); o Option 2: a SL transmission ends a later time than the symbol boundary (e.g., cyclic postfix extension is used, or any other reference or data signal is added).

(Option 1: Cyclic prefix extension and Option 2: Cyclic postfix extension)

In one embodiment, if option 1 or option 2 above is adopted, it is left up to UE’s implementation to determine the length of the cyclic prefix or postfix to apply. In another option, the cyclic prefix extension to apply so that to mitigate the gaps length is indicated in SL mode 1 within the scheduling DCI 3_x. In another option, the cyclic postfix applied by a UE is indicated within the SL control indication (SCI) (in either stage- 1 or stage 2 or both).

Regardless of whether the TX/RX and RX/TX switching time is reduced or one of the options above is not used, it may be important to define the UE’s behavior in terms of LBT procedure in presence of such a gap. In this sense, the features may be decoupled based on whether the SL slot may or may not include a PSFCH transmission. Case without PSFCH

In one embodiment, when the SL slot may not include a PSFCH, one of the following options could be adopted: o Option 1 : If the gap deriving from TX-RX time is occurring within a COT together with the follow up transmission (e.g., other burst from gNB or same UE, or other UE through PSFCH transmission), it is left up to implementation to make sure if LBT may be needed there is always a sufficient gap between the UL burst and the follow up burst to perform LBT. o Option 2: The TX-RX switching times is adjusted for 60 kHz to be at least 2 symbols to guarantee a minimum gap of 25 us, so that LBT is always needed regardless of SCS and scenarios, and no need to handle gaps length from UE’s point of view via cyclic prefix or post prefix. o Option 3: The TX-RX switching times are left as defined in Rel-16, and a UE performing transmission after the gap determines the specific length of such a gap by decoding the SCI from the prior burst and specifically by knowing the time domain resource used for the prior burst and the time domain resources used for the following intended transmission. After knowing the specific length of such a gap, the UE may choose the LBT type to use according to the one or more of the following rules:

♦ If the UE operates in dynamic channel access mode, and if the gap is larger than 16 us but smaller than 25 us, then LBT type 2B is used.

♦ If the UE operates in dynamic channel access mode, and if the gap is larger than 25 us, then LBT type 2A is used.

♦ If the UE operates in semi-static channel access mode, and if the gap is larger than X us, then the UE may perform an LBT procedure using an observation window of X us, where X=9 us or may be equal to 16 us in China or in other regions where an observation window of such a length is required.

Case with PSFCH

When the SL slot may include a PSFCH, different consideration may be made separately depending on whether the gap may be related to TX/RX and RX/TX switching.

In one embodiment, when the SL slot may include a PSFCH, for the TX/RX switching time one of the following options could be adopted:

♦ Alt 1 : the switching time is left as is, and no enhancements are applied

♦ Alt -2: the switching time is adjusted for 60 kHz to be at least X symbols to guarantee a minimum gap of 25 us, so that LBT is always needed regardless of SCS and scenarios, and no need to handle gaps length from UE’s point of view via CP extension. In one embodiment, X is fixed and for example equal to X=2. In another embodiment, X is configured through higher layer.

□ Also notice that:

■ For semi-static channel access mode, 1 symbol for 60 kHz may be sufficient if either the UE transmitting PSFCH is a responding device or initiating device since the sensing should be 9 us long. In this case, in one embodiment, based on whether semi-static channel access mode and dynamic channel access mode is used, a different switching time length may be used.

■ Special consideration may also be needed in China, where the minimum sensing is 16us. In this case, in one embodiment, a cell-specific RRC signaling may be needed to distinguish between regional deployments, and additional differentiation for the RX/TX and TX/RX switching times can be also done based on whether this parameter is configured or not. As an example, if the system operates semi-static channel access mode and it operates in China or any other country where a minimum sensing of 16us is need, X=2 may be configured or used, otherwise X=1 may be configured or used. o The RX-TX switching time

In one embodiment, when the SL slot may include a PSFCH, for the RX/TX switching time one of the following options may be used:

♦ Alt 1 : the switching time is left as is, and no enhancements are applied

□ Further aspects may include:

■ Special consideration may be also needed in China, where the minimum sensing is 16us. In this case, in one embodiment, a cell-specific RRC signaling may be needed to distinguish between regional deployments, and additional differentiation for the RX/TX and TX/RX switching times can be also done based on whether this parameter is configured or not. As an example, if the system operates semi-static channel access mode and it operates in China or any other country where a minimum sensing of 16us is need, X=2 may be configured or used, otherwise X=1 may be configured or used.

In one embodiment, regardless of the SCS, PSFCH is qualified as short control signaling, and one of the following options may be used: o Option 1 : No LBT is needed for PSFCH and the 5 % duty cycle is applied for device, meaning that the UE transmitting PSFCH will be responsible to meet the 5 %, otherwise LBT will be needed for any additional PSFCH transmission. o Option 2: No LBT is needed for PSFCH and the 5 % duty cycle is applied per “initiating” device, meaning the 5% is counted independently of the UE transmitting PSFCH by the UE that is initiating the COT, and it is left up to gNB’ s or initiating UE to indicate whether LBT or not LBT is needed. o Option 3: No LBT is needed for PSFCH and the 5 % duty cycle is applied per “cell”, meaning the 5 % is counted independently of the UE transmitting PSFCH by the serving gNB, and it is left up to gNB’s to indicate whether LBT or not LBT is needed. o Option 4: if the UE operates in dynamic channel access mode, type 2A LBT is used before PSFCH is transmitted if the gap within a shared COT among a prior burst and the transmission of PSFCH is larger than 25 us or if the PSFCH falls outside of any other UE’s or that UE’s COT.

Another issue that may be considered is when the PSFCH is transmitted as if the UE is the initiating device, and the starting point of the COT aligns with the PSFCH transmission. In this case, in many scenarios the UE will not be able to perform any LBT (either type 1 or type 2A/2B), since the prior burst to the PSFCH transmission may block the LBT procedure. In this matter, in one embodiment, one of the following options may be used: o Option 1 : No special handling is supported, and UE as initiating device at the boundary of a PSFCH transmission is avoided via proper scheduling when possible. o Option 2: PSFCH transmission is allowed only if one or more of the following is satisfied:

♦ PSFCH transmission occurs within a shared COT from another device (gNB’s or other UE’s COT).

♦ PSFCH occurs within the transmitting UE’s COT, if the COT has been initiated prior to the PSFCH transmission.

In one embodiment, right before a PSFCH transmission may occur (e.g., right before the start of the allocated resources for PSFCH) a UE may apply a cyclic prefix extension of length T_(symb, (l-l)mod 7-2^Ap )^Ap -Y where 1 is the OFDM symbol where the cyclic prefix extension may be applied, p identifies the subcarrier spacing (e.g., p=0 corresponds to 15 kHz, p=l corresponds to 30 kHz, and p=2 corresponds to 60 kHz), and Y, as an example may be fixed and equal to 13us or may be some other value in other embodiments such as less or equal to approximately 16us if the UE transmitting PSFCH is able to operate as responding device within its own or another UE’s COT. This option may be applied, for example, when a UE detects that its PSFCH transmission may occur within a shared COT and additionally that within the SL slot in which the PSFCH transmission would occur another UE may perform a PSSCH/PSCCH transmission ending one symbol before this PSFCH transmission as illustrated in the right figure of Fig. 2. In one embodiment, as an alternative the value of Y is (pre-) configured or may be decided by the UE based on UE’s implementation. In one embodiment, even if Y may be provided by (pre-)configuration, its values may be pre-defined or fixed in the condition where a UE assesses that its S-SSB transmission could occur within a shared COT, and determines that a prior SL transmission (either PSSCH/PSCCH or PSFCH) from itself or another UE may end one symbol before the start of the S-SSB transmission as illustrated in Figure 4.

In one embodiment, no cyclic prefix extension is applied before a PSFCH transmission when a UE performs this transmission outside a shared COT. In this case, whether a UE may perform type 2A or type 1 LBT, this may end right before the first symbol of the PSFCH transmission (e.g., the type 2A and type 1 LBT are performed so that assessment of whether a channel is idle or occupied would occur right before the PSFCH transmission).

In one embodiment, a cyclic prefix extension is applied before a PSFCH transmission when a UE performs this transmission inside a shared COT, and when the prior transmission may end more than 1 symbol earlier. In this case, the length of the cyclic prefix extension may be either up to UE’s implementation or based upon a (pre-configured value).

Notice that some of the options/embodiments provided above are not mutually exclusive but can be jointly adopted.

Cyclic Prefix Extension for S-SSB within a shared COT:

In one embodiment, S-SSB can be transmitted either within or outside a COT, and if its transmission occurs outside a COT, a type 2A LBT may be used if one or more of the following conditions is met:

• S-SSB transmission is at most 1 ms long

• Its duty cycle is at most 1/20

• The duty cycle is calculated over an observation period of 50 ms When a UE assesses that its S-SSB transmission could occur within a shared COT, in one embodiment a UE may append a cyclic prefix extension before the start of an S-SSB transmission in the symbol right before of length

— Y syinb, (Z-l)mod 7-2^ ¹ if it also determines that a prior SL transmission (either PSSCH/PSCCH or PSFCH) from itself or another UE may end one symbol before the start of the S-SSB transmission as illustrated in Figure 4.

In one embodiment, I is the OFDM symbol where the cyclic prefix extension may be applied, identifies the subcarrier spacing (e.g., = 0 corresponds to 15 kHz, // = 1 corresponds to 30 kHz, and /J. = 2 corresponds to 60 kHz), and Y as an example may be fixed and equal to 13us or may be generally less or equal than 16us if the UE transmitting S-SSB is able to operate within its own or another UE’s COT. In one embodiment, as an alternative the value of Y is (pre-) configured within each resource pool or may be decided by the UE based on UE’s implementation. In one embodiment, even if Y may be provided by (pre-)configuration, its values may be pre-defined or fixed in the condition where a UE assesses that its S-SSB transmission could occur within a shared COT, and determines that a prior SL transmission (either PSSCH/PSCCH or PSFCH) from itself or another UE may end one symbol before the start of the S-SSB transmission as illustrated in Figure 4.

In one embodiment, no cyclic prefix extension is applied before an S-SSB transmission when a UE performs this outside a shared COT. In this case, whether a UE may perform type 2A or type 1 LBT, this may end right before the first symbol of the S-SSB transmission (e.g., the type 2A and type 1 LBT are performed so that assessment of whether a channel is idle or occupied would occur right before the S-SSB transmission).

In one embodiment, a cyclic prefix extension is applied before an S-SSB transmission when a UE performs this transmission inside a shared COT, and when the prior transmission may end more than 1 symbol earlier. In this case, the length of the cyclic prefix extension may be either up to UE’s implementation or based upon a (pre-configured value).

In one embodiment, the conditions for which type 2C may apply could be relaxed for SL- U. For instance, a type 2C could be applied within a shared COT independently of the length of the transmission, which does not need to be necessarily shorter than 584 us.

Sidelink AGC Considerations for Unlicensed Spectrum Operation

In NR design, all SL transmissions start at a predefined symbol positions within a slot. Furthermore, the first symbol of each SL transmission is a replica of the second symbol, where such physical structure was defined to support AGC at each slot following the RAN4 input on AGC convergence time. However, operating channel access at fixed/predefined position in time is not suitable for operation in unlicensed spectrum with incumbent technologies since those can access the channel at arbitrary time and across slot boundaries.

In one embodiment, channel access at arbitrary time with sub-symbol granularity is supported, where AGC may be invoked at any time within slot when significant received signal power change is observed. In another option, such behavior can be avoided, if there is no incumbent technology deployed (e.g., absenceOfAnyOtherTechnology is indicated).

In one embodiment, of the following options could be adopted:

• Option 1 : All SL transmissions start at a predefined symbol position within a slot;

• Option 2: A SL transmission can start at any symbol within a slot or a predefined or configurable set of symbols;

• Option 3 : A SL transmission can be configured to either start at a given predefined symbol position or within a predefined set of starting positions (or can start at any symbols within a slot).

In one embodiment, CP extension could be applied by a UE before a SL transmission, and this is used to enable additional time for preparation of the actual waveform for PSCCH and/or PSSCH transmission.

In one embodiment, the AGC symbol could be elongated and could be fit to ensure immediate transmission occurs soon after the LBT has been successfully performed by assessing that a channel is empty.

In one embodiment, different options, and different embodiments among those described above may apply depending on whether the SL transmission may occur within or outside of a shared COT.

In one embodiment, the start of the OFDM symbol in a slot is shifted to adjust the TX/RX gap and jointly use the extended CP for AGC adaptation.

In one embodiment, AGC adaptation is omitted as the transmissions only start with a PSCCH during and the AGC is adjusted during the reception of the PSCCH.

In one embodiment, the AGC is adjusted during the transmission of anything not meant of demodulation.

Note that some of the options/embodiments provided above are not mutually exclusive but can be jointly adopted. Potential Impact of SL Synchronization on LBT Operation

As mentioned above according to RAN4, the upper bound for TX/RX and RX/TX switching time is 13 us in FR1 and 7 us in FR2. The UE typically also has an ON/OFF and OFF/ON transient period in the order of 10 us. Furthermore, the UE may also incur into SL synchronization errors (e.g., GNSS sync error or gNB synchronization error), and the gNB SL synchronization additionally include propagation delay that for macro cell deployments can be in the order of several us (e.g. 2 us or 4 us for gNB-UE distance of 600 m and 1200 m respectively). In addition, the gNB synchronization error may be in the order of up to 3 us.

For SL operating in unlicensed band the LBT procedure may be needed, and a UE is expected to perform energy measurements within specific instances of time. However, due to the aforementioned errors, UEs may end up blocking each other as illustrated as an example in Figure 5 based on the following two cases:

• Case 1 : a UE2 may be blocked by UE1 transmission depending on the position of LBT type of UE2, the propagation delay between UE2 and UE1, A_prOp, and the location of the energy measurement interval (observation windows) within the LBT window of UE2. In this case propagation delay from UE1 to UE2 is in favor of UE2, and plays a positive role.

• Case 2: a UE1 may be blocked by UE2 on any follow up transmission depending on the LBT type, the propagation delay between UE2 and UE1, A_prOp, and the location of the energy measurement interval (observation windows) within the LBT window of UE1. In this case propagation delay from UE2 to UE1 is not in favor of UE1, and plays a negative role.

Furthermore, even if two or multiple UEs may attempt to align their starting transition time, and the synchronization errors may be negligible, blocking among them may still occur due to propagation delays as illustrated in Figure 6.

In one embodiment, FDM among SL UE is not supported when operating in unlicensed spectrum, and SL is only operated in TDM manner.

In one embodiment, in order to mitigate the aforementioned issue, FDM among SL UE is supported, and the LBT windows and energy measurement intervals (observation windows) within the LBT windows are aligned across UEs so that avoid mutual blocking.

In particular, when perfect alignment among UEs is not possible due to the aforementioned issues, in one embodiment, one or more of the following could be adopted to mitigate the cross- UEs mutual blocking: o Option 1 : sub-channel based LBT or interlace-based LBT is used when OCB must be met. In this case, during the LBT procedure at a UE the energy measurement is only evaluated/performed within the sub-channel(s) or the interlace(s) used by that UE for SL transmission. o Option 2: LBT is still performed over chunks of 20 MHz LBT BW, but the ED threshold is adjusted so that in the case of FDM even if the head of a transmission performed by a UE may overlap with the LBT window of another UE, mutual blocking may be minimized. For instance, in the case of FDM, the ED threshold is lowered even further by either a fix value or by simply using in the EDT threshold calculation the effective bandwidth over which a UE may be transmitting. o Option 3 : In FDM, the LBT procedure or structure could be modified so that to mitigate mutual blocking:

• Option 3a: the LBT window is performed in advance by a UE by considering the possible worst-case scenario (the drawback is that transmission may not happen right away). For instance, assuming the error case of 3 us, then all LBT window should be initiated 3 us + LBT window before a transmission.

■ This can be easily applied for dynamic and semi-static channel access mode via implementation.

• Option 3b: For semi-static channel access mode the 4 us measurement is mandate always in the first 4 us of the 9 us measurement window. This will allow a device to neglect any energy measurement toward the tail of the LBT window which may be caused by transmissions misalignments. Similar approach could be applied in dynamic channel access mode to Type-1, Type- 2a and 2b, but the results may not be as effective and deterministic as for semistatic channel access mode.

In one embodiment, in order to ensure that UEs are able to operate in FDM mode within a carrier (e.g., 20 MHz channel bandwidth) or across carriers, they are imposed to terminate their LBT procedure at the same time, and if LBT succeeds initiate transmission in the same instance. To ensure this type of operation, a cyclic prefix extension (CPE) could be appended before each transmission of each UE within a carrier or across carriers, so that UEs may not block each other during the LBT procedure, and upon termination of the LBT be able to transmit. In one option, the CPE length is equivalent to

T_(symb, (l-l)mod 7-2^Ap )^Ap -Y where 1 is the OFDM symbol where the cyclic prefix extension may be applied, p identifies the subcarrier spacing (e.g., p=0 corresponds to 15 kHz, p=l corresponds to 30 kHz, and p=2 corresponds to 60 kHz). As for the value of Y, one or more of the following options could be adopted: Y is (pre-)configured based on a pre-defined or (pre-)configurable set of values, which as an example could be { 16us, 25us, 34us, 43us, 52us, 61us or T_(symb, (l-l)mod 7’2 p ) _pi}

Y is selected by UE’s implementation across a set of pre-defined or (pre-)configurable set of values, which as an example could be { 16us, 25us, 34us, 43us, 52us, 61us or T_(symb, (l-l)mod 7-2^Ap )^Ap}.

Y is selected by UE’s implementation.

Y is (pre-)configured based on a pre-defined or (pre-)configurable set of values, which as an example could be { 16us, 25us, 34us, 43us, 52us, 61us or T_(symb, (l-l)mod 7-2^Ap )^Ap} which depends on the priority of the transmission. In other words, there may be a different (pre-)configured cyclic prefix extension based on the priority of the transmission, and a UE may apply the cyclic prefix extension based on the priority of the current transmission.

Y is selected by UE’s implementation across a set of pre-defined or (pre-)configurable set of values, which as an example could be { 16us, 25us, 34us, 43us, 52us, 61us or T_(symb, (l-l)mod 7-2^Ap )^Ap} which depends on the priority of the transmission. In other words, there may be a different (pre-)configured cyclic prefix extension based on the priority of the transmission, and a UE may apply the cyclic prefix extension based on the priority of the current transmission.

In one embodiment, the aforementioned cyclic shift prefix is appended only for UEs operating in RA mode 2. As an alternative, the aforementioned cyclic shift prefix is appended irrespective of the RA mode in which a UE is operating with. In one embodiment, the aforementioned cyclic shift prefix is appended only for UEs operating outside a shared COT. As an alternative, the aforementioned cyclic shift prefix is appended irrespective of whether a UE may operate outside or within a shared COT, which may belong to itself or to another UE.

Randomized or Pseudo-randomized the LBT Window

When operating in TDM mode, it could happen that two UEs may select the same set of resources from the resource pool or a set of resources which lead to the same starting time for their transmissions. In this case, by performing LBT at the same time, the two UEs may not be able to hear each other, and while able to successfully assess that the channel is idle and transmit (by potentially even acquiring an overlapping COT), their transmission may collide with each other, as illustrated in Figure 7.

In order to mitigate mutual interference, in one embodiment, a CP extension could be applied before the actual transmission burst starts and the length of the CP extension could be randomly picked by each UE (e.g., from a predefined set of values) so that to randomize the starting position of the each transmission so that to make sure that one UE will not block the other during the LBT procedure, and their transmissions will never collide. This mechanism is illustrated in Figure 8.

In general case, in one embodiment, UEs can use LBT measurement bandwidth aligned with either their transmission bandwidth or structure of frequency sub-channels to determine whether they can access channel on any of the frequency resources.

In one embodiment, the mechanism defined above could be implemented by using same principles as Rel-16 CG intra-symbol starting positions, and the CP extension to use could be defined as follows:

where identifies the subcarrier spacing (e.g., = 0 corresponds to 15 kHz, = 1 corresponds to 30 kHz, and /J. = 2 corresponds to 60 kHz) and

links to a set of predefined values, which as an example could be defined as in the following table:

In one embodiment, no cyclic prefix extension is applied when a UE performs a SL transmission outside a shared COT. In this case, independently on the type of LBT performed by the UE, this may end right before the first symbol of the SL transmission (e.g., LBT is performed so that assessment of whether a channel is idle or occupied would occur right before the actual SL transmission). In one embodiment, a UE may apply one or more of the following criteria to select a cyclic prefix extension to be appended before its transmission:

• A UE randomly selects the cyclic prefix extension to apply before its transmission by randomly picking among the fixed/pre-defined set of values or across a subset of values which is (pre-)configured and whose values are selected from a pre-defined set of values.

• A UE may select the cyclic prefix extension to apply based on the priority of the transmission. For instance, a pre-defined set of cyclic prefix extension values are defined and each or a group of them are associated with a specific priority level.

• Different set of values could be defined based on whether a transmission occurs within or outside a COT.

In one embodiment, the aforementioned method could be only applicable to one or more of the following types of SL transmissions:

• PSSCH/PSCCH

• PSFCH

• S-SSB

ON/OFF and OFF/ON Transient Time Considerations for Unlicensed Spectrum Operation

As discussed herein, when operating in unlicensed spectrum the LBT procedure may be mandated. In particular, energy measurements must be performed within an LBT window if the time gap between subsequent SL transmissions exceeds or equal to 16 us. Furthermore, according to RAN4 requirements, NR transmissions have ON/OFF and OFF/ON transient periods which are bounded by TONOFF = 10 us as for operation in unlicensed spectrum the mask illustrated in Figure 8 has been defined:

With that said, to avoid measurements of transient effect within LBT windows as depicted in Figure 10, some special considerations should be made in this regard.

In one embodiment, the minimum gap between consecutive SL transmission requiring LBT should be readjusted to account for ON/OFF and OFF/ON transient periods. For instance for dynamic channel access mode, the minimum gap should be at least TONOFF/2(5 US) + TLBT(16 US) + TQFFON/2(5) = 26 us (or 21 us if the 5 us of the OFF-ON are incorporated by implementation in the LBT procedure by performing the 4 us measurement 5 us before the end of the observation period). For semi-static channel access mode, the minimum gap should be at least TONOFF/2(5 US) + TLBT(X US) + TQFFON/2(5) = X=10 us (or X+5 us if the 5 us of the OFF-ON are incorporated by implementation in the LBT procedure by performing the 4 us measurement 5 us before the end of the observation period), where X=9us except for China or any other regions where a minimum observation window of X=16us is required.

In one embodiment, the location of the measurement windows within the observation windows of an LBT procedure are modified so that to account for the ON/OFF and OFF/ON transient periods, and the location of the measurements windows are pre-configured by specification or by gNB/network or selected properly by UE’s implementation. As an example of this method, the type 2B LBT depicted in Figure 11 is modified according to one of the following options: o Option 1 : Values of parameters Al, A2, A3, A4 are left up to UE implementation o Option 2: Values of Al, A2, A3, A4 are pre-configured by gNB/network o Option 3: Bounds for values of Al, A2, A3, A4 are pre-defined by specification

Notice that the example above could be applied straightforwardly to any other LBT types.

The above issue may not be critical for UL-to-UL transmission switch among different devices, since there may always be a sufficient gap across SL transmissions from different UEs that the ON/OFF and OFF/ON transient times would not impact the LBT procedure, in NR-U SL, UL-to-UL transmission switch from the very same device are actually very commonly due to PSFCH transmissions, and depending on the gap between bursts, a device may indeed block itself. For example, for 60 kHz SCS, one symbol gap is equivalent to ~16 us, but when performing 16 us LBT due to the 5 us transient time from end of first burst, and start of the following burst, the second burst may be blocked from being transmitted. In order to mitigate this additional issue, in one embodiment, one or more of the following options could be adopted:

Option 1 : Gaps smaller than a certain duration should be avoided by the UE, and should be filled out with additional transmissions (e.g., CP extension, reference signal, data signals or any other option possibly including dummy/garbage transmissions) by the UE to form a contiguous transmission. For example, 1 and 2 symbol gaps for 60 kHz SCS and 1 symbol gap for 30 kHz SCS are not allowed, and always filled by the UE.

• Option 2: Gaps smaller than a certain duration are not allowed and a UE should drop the follow up transmission. For example, 1 and 2 symbol gaps for 60 kHz SCS and 1 symbol gap for 30 kHz SCS are not allowed.

• Option 3: Gap defined by the ETSI BRAN are adjusted by 10 us (or 5 us), and in particular one or more of the following could be adopted: o no LBT could be extended to 16+10 us or 16+5 us (where the OFF/ON transient time could be taking care by implementation and by performing 4 us measurement at the head of the 9us observation window), which means that no LBT for 1 symbol gap for 60 kHz SCS. o 16 us LBT is applied if gap is larger than 16+10 us (or 16+5 us) and less than 25+10 us (or 25+5 us) o 25 us LBT is applied if gap is larger than 25+10 us (or 25+5 us)

• Option 4: Transient period is absorbed inside the start time interval of transmission and/or transient period is absorbed inside end time interval of transmission. o In this case, the small gap equal to duration of LBT window can be supported o UEs receiving transmissions may be allowed to skip processing of symbols affected by transient periods

• Option 5: Transient period is reduced to 5 us (e.g., new requirement is imposed on transient period)

• Option 6: The RAN4 mask is modified so that to capture the transient period within the SL transmission so no transmission will spill out, and potentially overlap within an LBT window.

• Option 7: The position of the measurement windows are fixed to specific instance of time within the measurement window. For instance, o for type 2B LBT, the 1 us measurement window is performed in the last 3 us of the first 7 us observation window, and/or the 4 us measurement window is performed in the first 4 us of the last 9us observation window. o For a 9 us observation time used for semi-static channel access mode, the 4us sensing window is performed in the first or the last 4 us of the observation time.

Frequency Interlaced Physical Structure

The regulations on power spectral density (PSD) limitation of 10 dBm/MHz by ETSI, and MIIT and 11 dBm/MHz by FCC as well as minimum percentage of occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) 80 % - 100 % (see ETSI EN 301 893) implies the need to either use bandwidth extension at the expense of spectrum efficiency or to support interlaced channel structure which improves coverage with maximum spectrum efficiency.

In Rel.16 NR-U uplink, the interlaced waveform was introduced and supported for both PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions. The frequency domain allocation for PUCCH and PUSCH is controlled by the higher layer parameter uselnterlacePUCCH-PUSCH . As an example how different RBs are interlaces in 30 kHz subcarrier spacing (SCS) is illustrate in Figure 12.

When the use of a interlace PUCCH-PUSCH is configured, for 15 kHz and 30 kHz SCS the interlace is formed based on the following table, where M is the number of interlaces per carrier and N is the number of RBs per interlace:

As for 60 kHz SCS or higher, no interlace is supported.

In this context, there are several specific challenges to enable NR-U SL. Embodiments herein provide techniques to enable an interlaced structure for the physical layer channels of the SL. The interlaced structure may be a general solution that may be applicable to any physical channel, such as physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), sidelink synchronization signal block (S- SSB), and/or physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH).

For SL communication, support of interlaced structure can be considered for several UL physical channels, such as PSCCH/PSSCH/PSFCH/S-SSB and PSBCH. However, note that even in SL Rel.16/17 design when a UE transmits feedback for multiple SL transmissions, the PSFCH transmission can already be scattered over the SL resource pool bandwidth. When considering an interlaces structure for SL, the following solutions may be considered:

• Interleaving solutions that are based on interleaving single RBs. The Rel.16 NR-U solution is an example of this category.

• Interleaving solutions that are based on interleaving a group of RBs. Compare to single RB solutions these have the advantage of being more robust regarding a frequency offset across different UEs transmitting at the same time.

• Interleaving solutions that are based on interleaving sub-carriers. Note that interleaving groups of sub-carriers can be considered the same as interleaving RBs or groups of RBs.

All interleaving solutions partition the number of available frequency resource into M parts. As the concept of sub-channel was introduced for SL, one of these parts can be view as a sub-channel. Thus, in the description of various embodiments herein, a sub-channel may refer to a set of frequency resources in general and not in the NR SL definition of several adjacent RBs. Note that for some of the options, it may be assumed that the NR SL resource pool configuration is extended to accommodate the additional information required for the NR-U SL operation.

Single RB Interleaving

For the single RB solutions, a compromise between the NR SL and the NR-U solutions may be taken. In this matter, in one embodiment, one of the following options may be used:

• Option 1 : In this option the per resource pool configured number of K RBs is divided into M sub-channels each comprising of ARBs. Note that in the same fashion as in NR SL the K AT RBs remaining are not used for transmission. The logical RBs of each sub-channel are mapped to physical RBs in an interleaved fashion. This means that the resource pool is configured in the same way as for Rel.16 NR SL, but with an additional RRC bit signaling usage of interleaved sub-channel logical to physical RB mapping. An example is illustrated in Figure 13 A). In one example, M is configurable or is fixed and equivalent to 10 for 15 kHz and 5 for 30 kHz.

• Option 2: In this option the configuration of the resource pool is changed. In this case, one additional field to indicate an interleaved mapping needs to be introduced. Based on this field either the Rel.16 NR SL field indicating the number of sub-channels needs to be reinterpreted or a new field for the number of interleaved frequency parts (also called sub-channels) needs to be introduced. The current Rel. 16 field indicating the number of RBs per sub-channel is redundant in this case, thus it can be re-interpreted. Based on this signaling the number of K available RBs is divided into M sub-channels. Note that in this case in contrast to the Rel.16 NR SL these sub -channels can have a different sized as some will have the size of and some The reminder RBs can be mapped to any

of the sub-channels. An example is illustrated in Figure 13B). In one example, M is configurable or is fixed and equivalent to 10 for 15 kHz and 5 for 30 kHz. Notice that by choosing M=10 and M=5 for 15 kHz and 30 kHz SCS, respectively, this mimics exactly the interlaced structure defined in NR-U, where some of the interlaces will be formed by K=10 PRBs and some by K=11 PRBs in same manner as Rel.16 NR-U.

In one embodiment, regardless of whether option 1 or option 2 is supported a UE may be configured to transmit over one or more interlaces.

In one embodiment, the interlaced structure provided by the embodiments above may apply to one or more of the following physical channels:

- PSCCH;

- PSSCH;

- PSFCH;

- PSBCH;

- S-SSB.

In one embodiment, for a PSCCH and PSSCH transmission, one sub-channel for PSSCH equals to N RB-based interlace across all RB set within the resource pool, where N is fixed (e.g., N=l) or N may be (pre-)configured. Group RB Interleaving

From the perspective of a receiver, it cannot always be guaranteed that the frequency synchronization of different UEs is perfect. For interleaved transmission this means that subcarriers (SCs) at the edge of a group of SCs will experience inter-carrier interference (ICI) as the SCs from other UEs will not be fully orthogonal. Dependent on how large the expected frequency offset between different UEs is expected to be, this can motivate using a larger group of SCs than one RB for each UE. This also has the benefit of improved channel estimation as in this case it can be performed considering all RS in the group instead of only a single RB. As in the case of single RB interleave it is possible to either include the reminder RBs or do not consider them in the transmission. In this matter, in one embodiment, one of the following options may be used:

• Option 1 : After all available PBs are distributed to M sub-channels all additional RBs remaining are not used. The N RBs per sub-channel are afterwards divided into L RB groups. The RB groups of each sub-channel are than mapped to interleaved RB groups. Not that dependent on the number of RBs not every group does necessarily have the same size. The signaling for the resource pool configuration would consist of an additional PRG group size field. Also, a mapping rule for the groups need to be established. In one example, M, N, and L are configurable or can be fixed.

• Option 2: In the second case all RBs are used. This means in contrast to option 1 the reminder RBs are added to the first (last or any other mapping) sub-channels. Again, the RBs in each sub-channel are divided into L RB groups. As shown in the example in Figure 14. Note that also in this case the RB groups within a sub-channel do not necessarily have the same size. The resource pool signaling would be the same as for option 2 of the single RB interleaving case only adding an additional field for either the number of RB groups per sub-channel or the minimum number of RBs per RB group. In one example, M, N, and L are configurable or can be fixed.

- PSCCH;

- PSSCH;

- PSFCH;

- PSBCH;

- S-SSB. Sub-carrier based Interleaving

The third interleaving category is interleaving single sub-carriers. Note that groups of sub-carriers are not separately treated as this would be like the case of treating a group of SCs as an RB (potentially with a different size). The signaling in this case would also only consist of one additional information field that that is indicating that sub-carrier based interleaving is used. As shown in Figure 15 a comb-x SC structure can be used. In the case of the illustrated example 5 different frequency resource are available.

- PSCCH;

- PSSCH;

- PSFCH;

- PSBCH;

- S-SSB.

Configuration Parameters

In one embodiment, the interlaced structure may be enabled or disabled based on regional compliance, and cell-specific higher layer parameter may be introduced to enable the interlaced physical structure, and in this matter one of the following options could be adopted:

• Option 1 : a new RRC parameter (e.g., uselnterlacePSCCH-PSSCH or uselnterlacePSCCH-PSSCH-PSFCH) may be defined to enable and disable this waveform based on whether this may or may not be required by regional requirements for SL in unlicensed spectrum.

• Option 2: the same RRC parameter defined in Rel.16 (e.g., uselnterlacePUCCH- PUSCPP) could be used, since this is simply an indication that the interlace is needed because of regional compliance.

In a separate option, it is possible to configure these as part of the resource pool configuration. In fact, as discussed above when listing the interlacing options for some of these options additional signaling fields are required.

Note that the enabling of the interlaced structure does make an interlaced structure also mandatory to be used for a transmission of the physical channel for which this is applied. Other options include that the interlaced structure is dependent on other system conditions, such as one or more of: • COT sharing

• System load

• LBT status

• Unicast/Groupcast connection status

• Network configuration

As an example, the interlaced structure may be used by a UE initiating a COT, but may not be required within a shared COT.

Indication of the Interlaced Mapping

Embodiments herein may further relate to the indication of the interlaced mapping. In Rel.16 NR-U, X bits from the FDRA field (either DCI or RRC) are used to indicate the interlace or interlaces that a UE should use at a given time for an PUSCH or PUCCH transmission, where: X=5 bits are used for 30 kHz SCS, where the 5 bits form a bitmap for 5 interlaces;

X=6 bits are used for 15 kHz SCS, where the interlace indication is based on RIV based approach for 10 interlaces, where: o RIV values 0..54 indicate the starting interlace index and the number of consecutive interlace indices. o RIV values 55..63 indicate the following interlace combinations:

Moving forward to Rel.18 SL a few approaches could be used for properly indicating the set of interlaces to use via sl-TxPoolScheduling, and in one embodiment, one or more of the following options may be used: • Option 1 : When the resource pool configuration parameter defined/used to indicate the need of interlaced waveform is configured, sl-SubchannelSize-rl6 is discharged, sl- StartRB-Subchannel-rl6 is reinterpreted to indicate the lowest or highest RB of a specific interlace, while sl-NumSubchannel-rl6 could be reinterpreted to indicate the number of consecutives interlaces (in frequency domain) to be used.

In case additional interlaced signaling is required new fields may be introduced, and these fields may be one or more of the following: o Interlaces PRB group size; o Allowed frequency resource allocation per LBT type.

• Option 2: When the resource pool configuration parameter defined/used to indicate the need of interlaced waveform is configured, additional dedicated parameters could be added within the SL-Re sourcePool IE to specify the set of interlaces to be used. For instance one or more of the following could be introduced: o Indication of the lowest or highest PRB of a specific interlace or set of interlaces; o Number of consecutive PRBs; o Bitmap indicating the interlaces to be used.

• Option 3: In the case that the use of the interlaced physical structure is optional or conditional on the system state. This means that potentially wideband, interlaced, and sub-channel-based channel access need to coexists. This means that a configuration for all channel access methods need to be present in the resource pool configuration. In this matter, there are two sub options that could be considered: o Option 3A: There is a separate configuration of the frequency resource for any combination of present frequency allocation methods. o Option 3B: The configuration is based on reinterpretation of the already present sub-channel-based resource pool configuration fields. Additional functionality for other frequency allocation methods are based on reinterpretation of these fields or addition of new fields.

In one embodiment, either the SL control indication (SCI) 1-x (either stage 1 or stage 2 or both) or DCI 3_x or both could be enhanced to carry additional information related to the interlace or interlaces that a UE may be using for transmission. In particular, in terms of FDRA signaling in SCI 1-x and DCI 3_x one or more of the following options could be considered:

• Option 1 : the concept of reusing FDRA field design from SCI 1-x in DCI 3_x can be reused. At the same time, the frequency offset for the initial transmission scheduled by DCI 3_x needs to be modified to accommodate the interlace resource allocation. In this case, the lowest index of the subchannel allocation of the initial transmission can be signaled as an interlace index from 0 to M-l.

• Option 2: when the RRC parameter defined/used to indicate the need of interlaced waveform is configured, the FDRA field within DCI 3_x and SCI 1-x is reinterpreted and X bits are used as in Rel.16 NR-U to indicate the interlace or set of interlaces to be used. In one option, if wideband operation is supported in SL, Y bits are additionally used to indicate which RB sets (corresponding to LBT BWs) are allocated to a UE, where Y is determined by the number of RB sets N contained in the BWP as follows: Y =

o Option 2a: In one sub-option, within DCI 3_x the field “First transmission subchannel index” is not carried or this field is refurbished for other usage, and a transmission is spanned over the overall configured interlace or set of interlaces. o Option 2b: In one sub-option, within DCI 3_x the field “First transmission subchannel index” is carried, and it is used to signal the lowest index of the RB belonging to the selected set of interlaces over which the initial transmission may span.

• Option 3: For SCI 1-x and DCI 3_x signaling the structure from Rel.16 SL is kept. This implies that the PSCCH is present only in one sub-channel, as the starting sub-channel of the transmission needs to connect to the PSCCH location.

• Option 4: To indicate the sub-channel used/reserved, the sub-channel index indicated is determined by the interlace index within an RB set and the RB set index within a resource pool. In this case the indexing follows the interlace index first, followed by the RB set index.

• Option 5: To indicate the sub-channel used/reserved, a UE may indicate in an independent manner the interlace index or sub-channel index within an RB set and the RB set index within a resource pool.

In terms of UE capability, in one embodiment, one of the following options could be adopted and related considerations could be made:

• Alt.1 : interlace is mandatory for NR-U SL from both RX and TX perspective.

• Alt.2: interlace is optional for NR-U SL from TX perspective, but it is mandatory from RX perspective.

• Alt.3 : Interlaces is option for NR-U SL from both TX and RX perspective. In one embodiment, PRBs belonging to the intra-cell guard band of two adjacent RB sets can be used for SL transmissions. In one option, this is only restricted to the case when a UE may be able to succeed LBT on both RB sets and the UE performs simultaneous transmission on both.

In one embodiment, PRBs belonging to the intra-cell guard band of two adjacent RB sets are never used for SL transmissions.

Note that some of the options/embodiments provided above are not mutually exclusive but can be jointly adopted.

SYSTEMS AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

Figures 16-18 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments.

Figure 16 illustrates a network 1600 in accordance with various embodiments. The network 1600 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3 GPP systems, or the like.

The network 1600 may include a UE 1602, which may include any mobile or non -mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 1604 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 1602 may be communicatively coupled with the RAN 1604 by a Uu interface. The UE 1602 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electron! c/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, loT device, etc.

In some embodiments, the network 1600 may include a plurality of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.

In some embodiments, the UE 1602 may additionally communicate with an AP 1606 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 1606 may manage a WLAN connection, which may serve to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 1604. The connection between the UE 1602 and the AP 1606 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 1606 could be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In some embodiments, the UE 1602, RAN 1604, and AP 1606 may utilize cellular- WLAN aggregation (for example, LWA/LWIP). Cellular-WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 1602 being configured by the RAN 1604 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

The RAN 1604 may include one or more access nodes, for example, AN 1608. AN 1608 may terminate air-interface protocols for the UE 1602 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and LI protocols. In this manner, the AN 1608 may enable data/voice connectivity between CN 1620 and the UE 1602. In some embodiments, the AN 1608 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of, for example, a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 1608 be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 1608 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

In embodiments in which the RAN 1604 includes a plurality of ANs, they may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 1604 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 1604 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interfaces, which may be separated into control/user plane interfaces in some embodiments, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handovers, data/context transfers, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

The ANs of the RAN 1604 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE 1602 with an air interface for network access. The UE 1602 may be simultaneously connected with a plurality of cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 1604. For example, the UE 1602 and RAN 1604 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 1602 to connect with a plurality of component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell. In dual connectivity scenarios, a first AN may be a master node that provides an MCG and a second AN may be secondary node that provides an SCG. The first/second ANs may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc.

The RAN 1604 may provide the air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may use LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms based on CA technology with PCells/Scells. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may perform medium/carrier-sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

In V2X scenarios the UE 1602 or AN 1608 may be or act as a RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by: a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU”; an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU”; a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU”; and the like. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communications services. The components of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network.

In some embodiments, the RAN 1604 may be an LTE RAN 1610 with eNBs, for example, eNB 1612. The LTE RAN 1610 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: SCS of 15 kHz; CP-OFDM waveform for DL and SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control; etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operating on sub-6 GHz bands.

In some embodiments, the RAN 1604 may be an NG-RAN 1614 with gNBs, for example, gNB 1616, or ng-eNBs, for example, ng-eNB 1618. The gNB 1616 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 1616 may connect with a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 1618 may also connect with the 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect with a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 1616 and the ng-eNB 1618 may connect with each other over an Xn interface.

In some embodiments, the NG interface may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN 1614 and a UPF 1648 (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN1614 and an AMF 1644 (e.g., N2 interface).

The NG-RAN 1614 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for control and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use a CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH; and tracking reference signal for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operating on FR1 bands that include sub-6 GHz bands or FR2 bands that include bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include an SSB that is an area of a downlink resource grid that includes PSS/SSS/PBCH.

In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWP can be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS. For example, the UE 1602 can be configured with multiple BWPs where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 1602, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case example of BWP is related to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs can be configured for the UE 1602 with different amount of frequency resources (for example, PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic loading scenarios. A BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with small traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE 1602 and in some cases at the gNB 1616. A BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic load.

The RAN 1604 is communicatively coupled to CN 1620 that includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UE 1602). The components of the CN 1620 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 1620 onto physical compute/storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 1620 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 1620 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

In some embodiments, the CN 1620 may be an LTE CN 1622, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 1622 may include MME 1624, SGW 1626, SGSN 1628, HSS 1630, PGW 1632, and PCRF 1634 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the LTE CN 1622 may be briefly introduced as follows.

The MME 1624 may implement mobility management functions to track a current location of the UE 1602 to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

The SGW 1626 may terminate an SI interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 1622. The SGW 1626 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.

The SGSN 1628 may track a location of the UE 1602 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 1628 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 1624; MME selection for handovers; etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 1624 and the SGSN 1628 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3 GPP access network mobility in idle/active states.

The HSS 1630 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions. The HSS 1630 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 1630 and the MME 1624 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to the LTE CN 1620.

The PGW 1632 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 1636 that may include an application/content server 1638. The PGW 1632 may route data packets between the LTE CN 1622 and the data network 1636. The PGW 1632 may be coupled with the SGW 1626 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 1632 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (for example, PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the PGW 1632 and the data network 16 36 may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The PGW 1632 may be coupled with a PCRF 1634 via a Gx reference point.

The PCRF 1634 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 1622. The PCRF 1634 may be communicatively coupled to the app/content server 1638 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows. The PCRF 1632 may provision associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCI.

In some embodiments, the CN 1620 may be a 5GC 1640. The 5GC 1640 may include an AUSF 1642, AMF 1644, SMF 1646, UPF 1648, NSSF 1650, NEF 1652, NRF 1654, PCF 1656, UDM 1658, and AF 1660 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the 5GC 1640 may be briefly introduced as follows.

The AUSF 1642 may store data for authentication of UE 1602 and handle authentication- related functionality. The AUSF 1642 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 1640 over reference points as shown, the AUSF 1642 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface.

The AMF 1644 may allow other functions of the 5GC 1640 to communicate with the UE 1602 and the RAN 1604 and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events with respect to the UE 1602. The AMF 1644 may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE 1602), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF -related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 1644 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 1602 and the SMF 1646, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 1644 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE 1602 and an SMSF. AMF 1644 may interact with the AUSF 1642 and the UE 1602 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, AMF 1644 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 1604 and the AMF 1644; and the AMF 1644 may be a termination point of NAS (Nl) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. AMF 1644 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 1602 over an N3 IWF interface.

The SMF 1646 may be responsible for SM (for example, session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 1648 and AN 1608); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF 1648 to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent via AMF 1644 over N2 to AN 1608; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or “session” may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 1602 and the data network 1636.

The UPF 1648 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to data network 1636, and a branching point to support multi -homed PDU session. The UPF 1648 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for a user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF- to-QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 1648 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network.

The NSSF 1650 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE 1602. The NSSF 1650 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 1650 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 1602, or a list of candidate AMFs based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 1654. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 1602 may be triggered by the AMF 1644 with which the UE 1602 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 1650, which may lead to a change of AMF. The NSSF 1650 may interact with the AMF 1644 via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 1650 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

The NEF 1652 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3 GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 1660), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 1652 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. NEF 1652 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 1660 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 1652 may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 1652 may also receive information from other NFs based on exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF 1652 as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 1652 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 1652 may exhibit an Nnef servicebased interface.

The NRF 1654 may support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 1654 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 1654 may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface.

The PCF 1656 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 1656 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 1658. In addition to communicating with functions over reference points as shown, the PCF 1656 exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.

The UDM 1658 may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE 1602. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 1658 and the AMF 1644. The UDM 1658 may include two parts, an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 1658 and the PCF 1656, and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 1602) for the NEF 1652. TheNudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 1658, PCF 1656, and NEF 1652 to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM- FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, regi strati on/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs over reference points as shown, the UDM 1658 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.

The AF 1660 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

In some embodiments, the 5GC 1640 may enable edge computing by selecting operator/3^rd party services to be geographically close to a point that the UE 1602 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge-computing implementations, the 5GC 1640 may select a UPF 1648 close to the UE 1602 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 1648 to data network 1636 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 1660. In this way, the AF 1660 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 1660 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF 1660 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 1660 may exhibit an Naf service-based interface.

The data network 1636 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers including, for example, application/content server 1638.

Figure 17 schematically illustrates a wireless network 1700 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 1700 may include a UE 1702 in wireless communication with an AN 1704. The UE 1702 and AN 1704 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, like-named components described elsewhere herein.

The UE 1702 may be communicatively coupled with the AN 1704 via connection 1706. The connection 1706 is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR. protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6GHz frequencies.

The UE 1702 may include a host platform 1708 coupled with a modem platform 1710. The host platform 1708 may include application processing circuitry 1712, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 1714 of the modem platform 1710. The application processing circuitry 1712 may run various applications for the UE 1702 that source/sink application data. The application processing circuitry 1712 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit/receive application data to/from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (for example UDP) and Internet (for example, IP) operations

The protocol processing circuitry 1714 may implement one or more of layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 1706. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 1714 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC and NAS operations.

The modem platform 1710 may further include digital baseband circuitry 1716 that may implement one or more layer operations that are “below” layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 1714 in a network protocol stack. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling/descrambling, encoding/decoding, layer mapping/de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

The modem platform 1710 may further include transmit circuitry 1718, receive circuitry 1720, RF circuitry 1722, and RF front end (RFFE) 1724, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 1726. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 1718 may include a digital-to-analog converter, mixer, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuitry 1720 may include an analog-to-digital converter, mixer, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 1722 may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, power tracking components, etc.; RFFE 1724 may include filters (for example, surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (for example, phase-array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the components of the transmit circuitry 1718, receive circuitry 1720, RF circuitry 1722, RFFE 1724, and antenna panels 1726 (referred generically as “transmit/receive components”) may be specific to details of a specific implementation such as, for example, whether communication is TDM or FDM, in mmWave or sub-6 gHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit/receive chains, may be disposed in the same or different chips/modules, etc.

In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 1714 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit/receive components.

A UE reception may be established by and via the antenna panels 1726, RFFE 1724, RF circuitry 1722, receive circuitry 1720, digital baseband circuitry 1716, and protocol processing circuitry 1714. In some embodiments, the antenna panels 1726 may receive a transmission from the AN 1704 by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 1726. A UE transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry 1714, digital baseband circuitry 1716, transmit circuitry 1718, RF circuitry 1722, RFFE 1724, and antenna panels 1726. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 1704 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panels 1726.

Similar to the UE 1702, the AN 1704 may include a host platform 1728 coupled with a modem platform 1730. The host platform 1728 may include application processing circuitry 1732 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 1734 of the modem platform 1730. The modem platform may further include digital baseband circuitry 1736, transmit circuitry 1738, receive circuitry 1740, RF circuitry 1742, RFFE circuitry 1744, and antenna panels 1746. The components of the AN 1704 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with like- named components of the UE 1702. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of the AN 1708 may perform various logical functions that include, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

Figure 18 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, Figure 18 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1800 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1810, one or more memory/storage devices 1820, and one or more communication resources 1830, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1840 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1802 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1800.

The processors 1810 may include, for example, a processor 1812 and a processor 1814. The processors 1810 may be, for example, 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 DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radiofrequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

The memory/storage devices 1820 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 1820 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-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.

The communication resources 1830 may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1804 or one or more databases 1806 or other network elements via a network 1808. For example, the communication resources 1830 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

Instructions 1850 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 1810 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1850 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 1810 (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1820, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 1850 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1800 from any combination of the peripheral devices 1804 or the databases 1806. Accordingly, the memory of processors 1810, the memory/storage devices 1820, the peripheral devices 1804, and the databases 1806 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

EXAMPLE PROCEDURES

In some embodiments, the electronic device(s), network(s), system(s), chip(s) or component(s), or portions or implementations thereof, of Figures 16-18, or some other figure herein, may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods as described herein, or portions thereof. One such process 1900 is depicted in Figure 19. The process 1900 may be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of a UE, or an electronic device that includes a UE. At 1902, the process 1900 may include identifying a set of sidelink resources for transmission of a sidelink message, wherein the set of sidelink resources is in unlicensed spectrum, and wherein the set of sidelink resources includes respective individual resource blocks (RBs) that are interleaved in the frequency domain. At 1904, the process 1900 may further include transmitting or receiving the sidelink message on the set of sidelink resources.

Figure 20 illustrates another process 2000 in accordance with various embodiments. The process 2000 may be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of a UE, or an electronic device that includes a UE. At 2002, the process 2000 may include identifying a resource allocation for a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) or a sidelink synchronization signal block (S-SSB). At 2004, the process 2000 may further include applying a cyclic prefix extension immediately prior to the resource allocation.

Figure 21 illustrates another process 2100 in accordance with various embodiments. The process 2100 may be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of a UE, or an electronic device that includes a UE. At 2102, the process 2100 may include receiving configuration information to indicate one or more starting symbols that are allowed for a sidelink transmission of the UE. At 2104, the process 2100 may further include sending the sidelink transmission based on the configuration information.

For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section.

EXAMPLES

Example Al may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE) configure the UE to: identify a set of sidelink resources for transmission of a sidelink message, wherein the set of sidelink resources is in unlicensed spectrum, and wherein the set of sidelink resources includes respective individual resource blocks (RBs) that are interleaved in the frequency domain; and transmit or receive the sidelink message on the set of sidelink resources.

Example A2 may include the one or more NTCRM of example Al, wherein a resource pool of K RBs is divided into M subchannels of N RBs, wherein the set of sidelink resources is one of the M subchannels, and wherein a remaining K - M*N RBs are not used for sidelink transmission.

Example A3 may include the one or more NTCRM of example Al, wherein the instructions when executed, are further to configure the UE to receive a radio resource control (RRC) message to indicate a resource pool for sidelink communication, wherein the RRC includes an indication that interleaved RB mapping is used for the resource pool, and wherein the set of sidelink resources is identified based on the indication. Example A4 may include the one or more NTCRM of example A3, wherein the indication is a cell-specific indication based on a regional requirement for sidelink communication in unlicensed spectrum.

Example A5 may include the one or more NTCRM of example A3, wherein the instructions, when executed, further configure the UE to receive configuration information to indicate a set of interlaces of the resource pool that are included in the set of sidelink resources, wherein the configuration information includes one or more of: an indication of a lowest or highest RB of the set of interlaces or of respective interlaces of the set of interlaces; a number of consecutive interlaces in the frequency domain to be used; a size of interlaced physical resource blocks (PRBs); an allowed frequency resource allocation per listen-before-talk (LBT) type; or a bitmap to indicate the set of interlaces.

Example A6 may include the one or more NTCRM of example Al, wherein the instructions, when executed, further configure the UE to receive a message to configure a number of interlaces into which a subchannel in the set of sidelink resources is mapped.

Example A7 may include the one or more NTCRM of any one of examples A1-A6, wherein the set of sidelink resources is a first set of sidelink resources, and wherein the instructions, when executed, further configure the UE to: identify a second set of sidelink resources that includes RBs adjacent to respective RBs of the first set of sidelink resources; and transmit or receive, simultaneously with the transmission or reception of the sidelink message on the first set of sidelink resources, the sidelink message or another sidelink message on the second set of sidelink resources and an intra-cell guard band between the first and second sets of sidelink resources.

Example A8 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE) configure the UE to: identify a resource allocation for a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) or a sidelink synchronization signal block (S-SSB); and apply a cyclic prefix extension immediately prior to the resource allocation.

Example A9 may include the one or more NTCRM of example A8, wherein the cyclic prefix extension has a length of

¹ symb, (Z-l)mod 7-2^ — Y ¹ wherein I is a symbol in which the cyclic prefix extension is applied, // is a value based on a subcarrier spacing, and Y is a time period.

Example A10 may include the one or more NTCRM of example A9, wherein Y is less than or equal to 16 microseconds.

Example Al 1 may include the one or more NTCRM of example A8, wherein the cyclic prefix extension is applied prior to the PSFCH or the S-SSB if a prior sidelink transmission of the UE or another UE is to end one symbol before a start of the PSFCH or the S-SSB.

Example A12 may include the one or more NTCRM of example A8, wherein the S-SSB is transmitted outside of a channel occupancy time of the UE, and wherein a listen-before-talk type 2 A is used for the SSB if one or more of the S-SSB transmission is at most 1 millisecond long; or a duty cycle of the S-SSB is at most 1/20 over an observation period.

Example A13 may include the one or more NTCRM of any one of examples A8-A12, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further to configure the UE to perform a listen- before-talk (LBT) procedure prior to transmission of the PSFCH, wherein the LBT procedure stops at a designated time that is the same for all UEs communicating on a same sidelink carrier.

Example A14 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE) configure the UE to: receive configuration information to indicate two starting symbols that are allowed for a sidelink transmission of the UE; and send the sidelink transmission based on the configuration information.

Example Al 5 may include the one or more NTCRM of example A14, wherein the two starting symbols correspond to respective starting positions within a slot.

Example A16 may include the one or more NTCRM of example A14, wherein the two starting symbols correspond to any symbol within a pre-configured set of values.

Example A17 may include the one or more NTCRM of example A14, wherein the instructions, when executed, further configure the UE to apply a pre-configured cyclic prefix extension prior to the sidelink transmission.

Example Al 8 may include the one or more NTCRM of example A14, wherein the instructions, when executed, further configure the UE to perform a listen-before-talk procedure prior to the sidelink transmission.

Example A19 may include the one or more NTCRM of example A14, wherein the LBT procedure stops at a designated time that is the same for all UEs communicating on a same sidelink carrier. Example A20 may include the one or more NTCRM of any one of examples A14-A19, wherein the sidelink transmission is a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) or a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH).

Example Bl may include the methods to adjust the TX/RX switching gap for a SL system operating in unlicensed spectrum to fulfil LBT requirements when within a SL the PSFCH is not carried;

Example B2 may include the methods to adjust the TX/RX switching gap for a SL system operating in unlicensed spectrum to fulfil LBT requirements when within a SL a PSFCH is carried;

Example B3 may include the methods to support a SL system operating in unlicensed spectrum and mitigate mutual interference across UEs when this operate in FDM mode;

Example B4 may include the methods to support a SL system operating in unlicensed spectrum and mitigate mutual interference across UEs when this operate in TDM mode;

Example B5 may include the methods to adapt the AGC for a UE in the case of LBT operation

Example B6 may include the methods to consider the ON/OFF transition of the transmitter for the LBT operation.

Example B7 includes a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of a UE, or an electronic device that includes a UE, wherein the method comprises: identifying that a switching guard period is greater than 16 ps; shortening the switching guard period to be less than or equal to 16 ps; and transmitting a sidelink (SL) transmission using the shortened switching guard period. Example B8 includes the method of example B7 and/or some other example herein, wherein the switching guard period is a TX/RX or a RX/TX switching gap.

Example B9 includes the method of any of examples B7-B8, and/or some other example herein, wherein shortening the switching guard period includes shortening the switching guard period to be less than or equal to 13 ps.

Example BIO includes the method of any of examples B7-B9, and/or some other example herein, further comprising transmitting the SL transmission without the use of LBT.

Example Bl 1 includes the method of any of examples B7-B10, and/or some other example herein, wherein shortening the switching guard period includes identifying resources on which to transmit the SL transmission that are not aligned with a symbol or slot boundary of the frame or subframe in which the SL transmission is to be transmitted.

Example B12 includes the method of any of examples B7-B11, and/or some other example herein, wherein the SL transmission is a physical SL feedback channel (PSFCH) transmission.

Example B13 includes the method of example Bl 2, and/or some other example herein, further comprising adding, prior to transmission of the PSFCH transmission, a cyclic prefix extension with a length that is based on whether the UE transmitting PSFCH is able to operate as responding device within its own or another UE’s COT.

Example Cl may include a method to meet channel occupancy regulatory requirements in order to enable a SL system to operate in unlicensed spectrum are provided.

Example C2 may include the method of example Cl or some other example herein, wherein single interleaving methods are introduced.

Example C3 may include the method of example Cl or some other example herein, wherein group interleaving methods are introduced.

Example C4 may include the method of example Cl or some other example herein, wherein sub-carrier based interleaving methods are introduced.

Example C5 may include the method of examples C1-C4 or some other example herein, wherein different options on how to configure the above methods are provided.

Example C6 may include a method of a UE, the method comprising: determining a set of sidelink resources for transmission of a sidelink message, wherein the set of sidelink resources is interleaved in the time domain and/or frequency domain; and transmitting the sidelink message on the set of sidelink resoures.

Example C7 may include the method of example C6 or some other example herein, wherein the set of sidelink resources are in unlicensed spectrum.

Example C8 may include the method of example C6-C7 or some other example herein, wherein the set of sidelink resources are interleaved using single resource block interleaving.

Example C9 may include the method of example C6-C7 or some other example herein, wherein respective groups of multiple resource blocks are interleaved from one another in the set of sidelink resources.

Example CIO may include the method of example C6-C9 or some other example herein, wherein subcarriers of the set of sidelink resources are interleaved.

Example Cl 1 may include the method of example C6-C10 or some other example herein, further comprising receiving an indicator to activate interleaving.

Example C12 may include the method of example C6-C11 or some other example herein, wherein the sidelink message is a PSCCH, PSSCH, PSFCH, PSBCH, and/or S-SSB.

Example Z01 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples A1-A20, B1-B13, C1-C12, or any other method or process described herein. Example Z02 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 A1-A20, B1-B13, C1-C12, or any other method or process described herein.

Example Z03 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples A1-A20, Bl -Bl 3, Cl -Cl 2, or any other method or process described herein.

Example Z04 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples A1-A20, B1-B13, C1-C12, or portions or parts thereof.

Example Z05 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 A1-A20, B1-B13, C1-C12, or portions thereof.

Example Z06 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples A1-A20, Bl -Bl 3, Cl -Cl 2, or portions or parts thereof.

Example Z07 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples A1-A20, B1-B13, C1-C12, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example Z08 may include a signal encoded with data as described in or related to any of examples A1-A20, B1-B13, C1-C12, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example Z09 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples A1-A20, B I B I S, C1-C12, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example Z10 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples A1-A20, B1-B13, C1-C12, or portions thereof.

Example Z11 may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element is to cause the processing element to carry out the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples A1-A20, Bl- B13, Cl -Cl 2, or portions thereof.

Example Z12 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example Z13 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example Z14 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Example Z15 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Abbreviations

Unless used differently herein, terms, definitions, and abbreviations may be consistent with terms, definitions, and abbreviations defined in 3GPP TR 21.905 vl6.0.0 (2019-06). For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations may apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

3 GPP Third AO A Angle of Shift Keying Generation Arrival BRAS Broadband

Partnership AP Application Remote Access Project Protocol, Antenna Server 4G Fourth 40 Port, Access Point 75 BSS Business Generation API Application Support System 5G Fifth Programming Interface BS Base Station Generation APN Access Point BSR Buffer Status 5GC 5G Core Name Report network 45 ARP Allocation and 80 BW Bandwidth AC Retention Priority BWP Bandwidth Part

Application ARQ Automatic C-RNTI Cell Client Repeat Request Radio Network

ACR Application AS Access Stratum Temporary Context Relocation 50 ASP 85 Identity ACK Application Service CA Carrier

Acknowledgem Provider Aggregation, ent Certification ACID ASN.l Abstract Syntax Authority

Application 55 Notation One 90 CAPEX CAPital Client Identification AUSF Authentication Expenditure AF Application Server Function CBD Candidate Function AWGN Additive Beam Detection

AM Acknowledged White Gaussian CBRA Contention Mode 60 Noise 95 Based Random

AMBRAggregate BAP Backhaul Access Maximum Bit Rate Adaptation Protocol CC Component AMF Access and BCH Broadcast Carrier, Country

Mobility Channel Code, Cryptographic

Management 65 BER Bit Error Ratio 100 Checksum Function BFD Beam CCA Clear Channel AN Access Failure Detection Assessment Network BLER Block Error CCE Control ANR Automatic Rate Channel Element

Neighbour Relation 70 BPSK Binary Phase 105 CCCH Common Control Channel Management System Redundancy Check CE Coverage CO Conditional CRI Channel -State Enhancement Optional Information CDM Content CoMP Coordinated Resource Delivery Network 40 Multi-Point 75 Indicator, CSI-RS CDMA Code- CORESET Control Resource Division Multiple Resource Set Indicator Access COTS Commercial C-RNTI Cell

CDR Charging Data Off-The-Shelf RNTI Request 45 CP Control Plane, 80 CS Circuit

CDR Charging Data Cyclic Prefix, Switched Response Connection CSCF call

CFRA Contention Free Point session control function Random Access CPD Connection CSAR Cloud Service CG Cell Group 50 Point Descriptor 85 Archive CGF Charging CPE Customer CSI Channel -State

Gateway Function Premise Information CHF Charging Equipment CSI-IM CSI

Function CPICHCommon Pilot Interference

CI Cell Identity 55 Channel 90 Measurement CID Cell-ID (e g., CQI Channel CSI-RS CSI positioning method) Quality Indicator Reference Signal CIM Common CPU CSI processing CSI-RSRP CSI Information Model unit, Central reference signal CIR Carrier to 60 Processing Unit 95 received power Interference Ratio C/R CSI-RSRQ CSI CK Cipher Key Command/Resp reference signal CM Connection onse field bit received quality Management, CRAN Cloud Radio CSI-SINR CSI

Conditional 65 Access 100 signal -to-noise and Mandatory Network, Cloud interference CMAS Commercial RAN ratio Mobile Alert Service CRB Common CSMA Carrier Sense CMD Command Resource Block Multiple Access CMS Cloud 70 CRC Cyclic 105 CSMA/CA CSMA with collision Access Identifier (GSM Evolution) avoidance EAS Edge

CSS Common DRB Data Radio Application Server

Search Space, CellBearer EASID Edge specific Search 40 DRS Discovery 75 Application Server

Space Reference Signal Identification

CTF Charging DRX Discontinuous ECS Edge

Trigger Function Reception Configuration Server

CTS Clear-to-Send DSL Domain ECSP Edge

CW Codeword 45 Specific Language. 80 Computing Service

CWS Contention Digital Provider

Window Size Subscriber Line EDN Edge

D2D Device-to- DSLAM DSL Data Network

Device Access Multiplexer EEC Edge

DC Dual 50 DwPTS 85 Enabler Client

Connectivity, Direct Downlink Pilot EECID Edge

Current Time Slot Enabler Client

DCI Downlink E-LAN Ethernet Identification

Control Local Area Network EES Edge

Information 55 E2E End-to-End 90 Enabler Server

DF Deployment EAS Edge EESID Edge

Flavour Application Server Enabler Server

DL Downlink ECCA extended clear Identification

DMTF Distributed channel EHE Edge

Management Task 60 assessment, 95 Hosting Environment

Force extended CCA EGMF Exposure

DPDK Data Plane ECCE Enhanced Governance

Development Kit Control Channel Management

DM-RS, DMRS Element, Function

Demodulation 65 Enhanced CCE 100 EGPRS

Reference Signal ED Energy Enhanced

DN Data network Detection GPRS

DNN Data Network EDGE Enhanced EIR Equipment

Name Datarates for GSM Identity Register

DNAI Data Network 70 Evolution 105 eLAA enhanced Licensed Assisted Tsunami Warning Block

Access, System FBI Feedback enhanced LAA eUICC embedded Information EM Element UICC, embedded FCC Federal Manager 40 Universal 75 Communications eMBB Enhanced Integrated Circuit Commission Mobile Card FC CH Frequency

Broadband E-UTRA Evolved Correction CHannel

EMS Element UTRA FDD Frequency Management System 45 E-UTRAN Evolved 80 Division Duplex eNB evolved NodeB, UTRAN FDM Frequency E-UTRAN Node B EV2X Enhanced V2X Division EN-DC E- F1AP Fl Application Multiplex UTRA-NR Dual Protocol FDM A F requency Connectivity 50 Fl-C Fl Control 85 Division Multiple

EPC Evolved Packet plane interface Access Core Fl-U Fl User plane FE Front End EPDCCH interface FEC Forward Error enhanced FACCH Fast Correction PDCCH, enhanced 55 Associated Control 90 FFS For Further Physical CHannel Study

Downlink Control FACCH/F Fast FFT Fast Fourier

Cannel Associated Control Transformation

EPRE Energy per Channel/Full feLAA further resource element 60 rate 95 enhanced Licensed EPS Evolved Packet FACCHH Fast Assisted System Associated Control Access, further

EREG enhanced REG, Channel/Half enhanced LAA enhanced resource rate FN Frame Number element groups 65 FACH Forward Access 100 FPGA Field- ETSI European Channel Programmable Gate

Telecommunica FAUSCH Fast Array tions Standards Uplink Signalling FR Frequency Institute Channel Range

ETW S Earthquake and 70 FB Functional 105 FQDN Fully Qualified Domain System HN Home Network Name GPRS General Packet HO Handover

G-RNTI GERAN Radio Service HPLMN Home

Radio Network GPSI Generic Public Land Mobile

Temporary 40 Public Subscription 75 Network Identity Identifier HSDPA High GERAN GSM Global System Speed Downlink

GSM EDGE for Mobile Packet Access RAN, GSM EDGE Communication HSN Hopping

Radio Access 45 s, Groupe Special 80 Sequence Numb er

Network Mobile HSPA High Speed

GGSN Gateway GPRS GTP GPRS Packet Access Support Node Tunneling Protocol HSS Home GLONASS GTP-UGPRS Subscriber Server

GLObal'naya 50 Tunnelling Protocol 85 HSUPA High

NAvigatsionnay for User Plane Speed Uplink Packet a Sputnikovaya GTS Go To Sleep Access Si sterna (Engl.: Signal (related HTTP Hyper Text Global Navigation to WUS) Transfer Protocol

Satellite 55 GUMMEI Globally 90 HTTPS Hyper

System) Unique MME Text Transfer Protocol gNB Next Identifier Secure (https is Generation NodeB GUTI Globally http/ 1.1 over gNB-CU gNB- Unique Temporary SSL, i.e. port 443) centralized unit, Next 60 UE Identity 95 I-Block

Generation HARQ Hybrid ARQ, Information

NodeB Hybrid Block centralized unit Automatic ICCID Integrated gNB-DU gNB- Repeat Request Circuit Card distributed unit, Next 65 HANDO Handover 100 Identification

Generation HFN HyperFrame IAB Integrated

NodeB Number Access and distributed unit HHO Hard Handover Backhaul

GNSS Global HLR Home Location ICIC Inter-Cell Navigation Satellite 70 Register 105 Interference Coordination Equipment Network ID Identity, Identity ISIM IM Services identifier IMGI International Identity Module IDFT Inverse Discrete mobile group identity ISO International Fourier 40 IMPI IP Multimedia 75 Organisation for

Transform Private Identity Standardisation IE Information IMPU IP Multimedia ISP Internet Service element PUblic identity Provider IBE In-Band IMS IP Multimedia IWF Interworking- Emission 45 Subsystem 80 Function IEEE Institute of IMSI International I-WLAN Electrical and Mobile Interworking

Electronics Subscriber WLAN Engineers Identity Constraint IEI Information 50 loT Internet of 85 length of the Element Things convolutional

Identifier IP Internet code, USIM IEIDL Information Protocol Individual key Element Ipsec IP Security, kB Kilobyte (1000

Identifier Data 55 Internet Protocol 90 bytes) Length Security kbps kilo-bits per IETF Internet IP-CAN IP- second Engineering Task Connectivity Access Kc Ciphering key Force Network Ki Individual

IF Infrastructure 60 IP-M IP Multicast 95 subscriber IIOT Industrial IPv4 Internet authentication Internet of Things Protocol Version 4 key IM Interference IPv6 Internet KPI Key Measurement, Protocol Version 6 Performance Indicator

Intermodulation 65 IR Infrared 100 KQI Key Quality , IP Multimedia IS In Sync Indicator IMC IMS IRP Integration KSI Key Set Credentials Reference Point Identifier IMEI International ISDN Integrated ksps kilo-symbols Mobile 70 Services Digital 105 per second KVM Kernel Virtual PLMN MANO Machine LPP LTE Management LI Layer 1 Positioning Protocol and Orchestration (physical layer) LSB Least MBMS Ll-RSRP Layer 1 40 Significant Bit 75 Multimedia reference signal LTE Long Term Broadcast and received power Evolution Multicast L2 Layer 2 (data LWA LTE-WLAN Service link layer) aggregation MBSFN L3 Layer 3 45 LWIP LTE/WLAN 80 Multimedia (network layer) Radio Level Broadcast LAA Licensed Integration with multicast Assisted Access IPsec Tunnel service Single LAN Local Area LTE Long Term Frequency Network 50 Evolution 85 Network LADN Local M2M Machine-to- MCC Mobile Country Area Data Network Machine Code LBT Listen Before MAC Medium Access MCG Master Cell Talk Control Group LCM LifeCycle 55 (protocol 90 MCOT Maximum Management layering context) Channel LCR Low Chip Rate MAC Message Occupancy LCS Location authentication code Time Services (security/ encrypti on MCS Modulation and LCID Logical 60 context) 95 coding scheme Channel ID MAC-A MAC MD AF Management LI Layer Indicator used for Data Analytics LLC Logical Link authentication Function Control, Low Layer and key MD AS Management Compatibility 65 agreement 100 Data Analytics LMF Location (TSG T WG3 context) Service

Management Function MAC-IMAC used for MDT Minimization of LOS Line of data integrity of Drive Tests

Sight signalling messages ME Mobile LPLMN Local 70 (TSG T WG3 context) 105 Equipment MeNB master eNB Shared mMTC massive MTC, MER Message Error CHannel massive Ratio MPRACH MTC Machine-Type MGL Measurement Physical Random Communication Gap Length 40 Access 75 s MGRP Measurement CHannel MU-MIMO Multi Gap Repetition MPUSCH MTC User MIMO Period Physical Uplink Shared MWUS MTC MIB Master Channel wake-up signal, MTC Information Block, 45 MPLS MultiProtocol 80 WUS Management Label Switching NACK Negative

Information Base MS Mobile Station Acknowledgement MIMO Multiple Input MSB Most NAI Network Multiple Output Significant Bit Access Identifier MLC Mobile 50 MSC Mobile 85 NAS Non-Access Location Centre Switching Centre Stratum, Non- Access MM Mobility MSI Minimum Stratum layer Management System NCT Network MME Mobility Information, Connectivity Management Entity 55 MCH Scheduling 90 Topology MN Master Node Information NC-JT NonMNO Mobile MSID Mobile Station coherent Joint Network Operator Identifier Transmission MO Measurement MSIN Mobile Station NEC Network

Object, Mobile 60 Identification 95 Capability

Originated Number Exposure MPBCH MTC MSISDN Mobile NE-DC NR-E-

Physical Broadcast Subscriber ISDN UTRA Dual CHannel Number Connectivity

MPDCCH MTC 65 MT Mobile 100 NEF Network Physical Downlink Terminated, Mobile Exposure Function Control Termination NF Network

CHannel MTC Machine-Type Function

MPDSCH MTC Communication NFP Network Physical Downlink 70 s 105 Forwarding Path NFPD Network Physical Assistance

Forwarding Path Downlink Information

Descriptor Shared CHannel S-NNSAI Single-

NFV Network NPRACH NSSAI

Functions 40 Narrowband 75 NSSF Network Slice

Virtualization Physical Random Selection Function

NFVI NFV Access CHannel NW Network

Infrastructure NPUSCH NWU S N arrowb and

NF VO NFV Narrowband wake-up signal,

Orchestrator 45 Physical Uplink 80 N arrowb and WU S

NG Next Shared CHannel NZP Non-Zero

Generation, Next Gen NPSS Narrowband Power

NGEN-DC NG- Primary O&M Operation and

RAN E-UTRA-NR Synchronization Maintenance

Dual Connectivity 50 Signal 85 ODU2 Optical channel

NM Network NSSS Narrowband Data Unit - type 2

Manager Secondary OFDM Orthogonal

NMS Network Synchronization Frequency Division

Management System Signal Multiplexing

N-PoP Network Point 55 NR New Radio, 90 OFDMA of Presence Neighbour Relation Orthogonal

NMIB, N-MIB NRF NF Repository Frequency Division

Narrowband MIB Function Multiple Access

NPBCH NRS Narrowband OOB Out-of-band

Narrowband 60 Reference Signal 95 OOS Out of

Physical NS Network Sync

Broadcast Service OPEX OPerating

CHannel NS A Non- Standalone EXpense

NPDCCH operation mode OSI Other System

Narrowband 65 NSD Network 100 Information

Physical Service Descriptor OSS Operations

Downlink NSR Network Support System

Control CHannel Service Record OTA over-the-air

NPDSCH NSSAINetwork Slice PAPR Peak-to-

Narrowband 70 Selection 105 Average Power Ratio Convergence Protocol POC PTT over

PAR Peak to PDN Packet Data Cellular

Average Ratio Network, Public PP, PTP Point-to-

PBCH Physical Data Network Point Broadcast Channel 40 PDSCH Physical 75 PPP Point-to-Point

PC Power Control, Downlink Shared Protocol

Personal Channel PRACH Physical

Computer PDU Protocol Data RACH

PCC Primary Unit PRB Physical Component Carrier, 45 PEI Permanent 80 resource block Primary CC Equipment PRG Physical

P-CSCF Proxy Identifiers resource block

CSCF PFD Packet Flow group

PCell Primary Cell Description ProSe Proximity

PCI Physical Cell 50 P-GW PDN Gateway 85 Services,

ID, Physical Cell PHICH Physical Proximity- Identity hybrid-ARQ indicator Based Service

PCEF Policy and channel PRS Positioning

Charging PHY Physical layer Reference Signal

Enforcement 55 PLMN Public Land 90 PRR Packet

Function Mobile Network Reception Radio

PCF Policy Control PIN Personal PS Packet Services Function Identification Number PSBCH Physical

PCRF Policy Control PM Performance Sidelink Broadcast and Charging Rules 60 Measurement 95 Channel Function PMI Precoding PSDCH Physical

PDCP Packet Data Matrix Indicator Sidelink Downlink

Convergence PNF Physical Channel

Protocol, Packet Network Function PSCCH Physical

Data Convergence 65 PNFD Physical 100 Sidelink Control Protocol layer Network Function Channel

PDCCH Physical Descriptor PSSCH Physical

Downlink Control PNFR Physical Sidelink Shared

Channel Network Function Channel

PDCP Packet Data 70 Record 105 PSFCH physical sidelink feedback Access RNTI Control, Radio channel RAB Radio Access Link Control

PSCell Primary SCell Bearer, Random layer

PSS Primary Access Burst RLC AM RLC

Synchronization 40 RACH Random Access 75 Acknowledged Mode

Signal Channel RLC UM RLC

PSTN Public Switched RADIUS Remote Unacknowledged

Telephone Network Authentication Dial Mode

PT-RS Phase-tracking In User Service RLF Radio Link reference signal 45 RAN Radio Access 80 Failure

PTT Push-to-Talk Network RLM Radio Link

PUCCH Physical RAND RANDom Monitoring

Uplink Control number (used for RLM-RS

Channel authentication) Reference

PUSCH Physical 50 RAR Random Access 85 Signal for RLM

Uplink Shared Response RM Registration

Channel RAT Radio Access Management

QAM Quadrature Technology RMC Reference

Amplitude RAU Routing Area Measurement Channel

Modulation 55 Update 90 RMSI Remaining

QCI QoS class of RB Resource block, MSI, Remaining identifier Radio Bearer Minimum

QCL Quasi coRBG Resource block System location group Information

QFI QoS Flow ID, 60 REG Resource 95 RN Relay Node

QoS Flow Element Group RNC Radio Network

Identifier Rel Release Controller

QoS Quality of REQ REQuest RNL Radio Network

Service RF Radio Layer

QPSK Quadrature 65 Frequency 100 RNTI Radio Network

(Quaternary) Phase RI Rank Indicator Temporary Shift Keying RIV Resource Identifier

QZSS Quasi-Zenith indicator value ROHC RObust Header

Satellite System RL Radio Link Compression

RA-RNTI Random 70 RLC Radio Link 105 RRC Radio Resource Control, Radio S-GW Serving Context

Resource Control Gateway Management layer S-RNTI SRNC SCS Subcarrier

RRM Radio Resource Radio Network Spacing

Management 40 Temporary 75 SCTP Stream Control

RS Reference Identity Transmission

Signal S-TMSI SAE Protocol

RSRP Reference Temporary Mobile SDAP Service Data

Signal Received Station Adaptation

Power 45 Identifier 80 Protocol,

RSRQ Reference SA Standalone Service Data

Signal Received operation mode Adaptation

Quality SAE System Protocol layer

RS SI Received Signal Architecture SDL Supplementary Strength 50 Evolution 85 Downlink

Indicator SAP Service Access SDNF Structured Data

RSU Road Side Unit Point Storage Network RSTD Reference SAPD Service Access Function Signal Time Point Descriptor SDP Session difference 55 SAPI Service Access 90 Description Protocol

RTP Real Time Point Identifier SDSF Structured Data Protocol SCC Secondary Storage Function

RTS Ready-To-Send Component Carrier, SDT Small Data RTT Round Trip Secondary CC Transmission Time 60 SCell Secondary Cell 95 SDU Service Data

Rx Reception, SCEF Service Unit Receiving, Receiver Capability Exposure SEAF Security S1AP SI Application Function Anchor Function Protocol SC-FDMA Single SeNB secondary eNB

Sl-MME SI for 65 Carrier Frequency 100 SEPP Security Edge the control plane Division Protection Proxy Sl-U SI for the user Multiple Access SFI Slot format plane SCG Secondary Cell indication

S-CSCF serving Group SFTD Space- CSCF 70 SCM Security 105 Frequency Time Diversity, SFN SN Secondary Continuity and frame timing Node, Sequence SS-RSRP difference Number Synchronization

SFN System Frame SoC System on Chip Signal based Number 40 SON Self-Organizing 75 Reference

SgNB Secondary gNB Network Signal Received SGSN Serving GPRS SpCell Special Cell Power Support Node SP-CSI-RNTISemi- SS-RSRQ

S-GW Serving Persistent CSI RNTI Synchronization Gateway 45 SPS Semi-Persistent 80 Signal based

SI System Scheduling Reference Information SQN Sequence Signal Received

SI-RNTI System number Quality

Information RNTI SR Scheduling SS-SINR

SIB System 50 Request 85 Synchronization Information Block SRB Signalling Signal based Signal

SIM Subscriber Radio Bearer to Noise and Identity Module SRS Sounding Interference Ratio SIP Session Reference Signal SSS Secondary

Initiated Protocol 55 SS Synchronization 90 Synchronization

SiP System in Signal Signal Package SSB Synchronization SSSG Search Space

SL Sidelink Signal Block Set Group

SLA Service Level SSID Service Set SSSIF Search Space

Agreement 60 Identifier 95 Set Indicator SM Session SS/PBCH Block SST Slice/Service Management SSBRI SS/PBCH Types SMF Session Block Resource SU-MIMO Single

Management Function Indicator, User MIMO SMS Short Message 65 Synchronization 100 SUL Supplementary Service Signal Block Uplink

SMSF SMS Function Resource TA Timing SMTC S SB-based Indicator Advance, Tracking Measurement Timing SSC Session and Area

Configuration 70 Service 105 TAC Tracking Area Code Network Layer Management

TAG Timing TPC Transmit Power UDP User Datagram Advance Group Control Protocol TAI TPMI Transmitted UDSF Unstructured

Tracking Area 40 Precoding Matrix 75 Data Storage Network Identity Indicator Function

TAU Tracking Area TR Technical UICC Universal Update Report Integrated Circuit

TB Transport Block TRP, TRxP Card TBS Transport Block 45 Transmission 80 UL Uplink Size Reception Point UM

TBD To Be Defined TRS Tracking Unacknowledge

TCI Transmission Reference Signal d Mode

Configuration TRx Transceiver UML Unified

Indicator 50 TS Technical 85 Modelling Language

TCP Transmission Specifications, UMTS Universal

Communication Technical Mobile

Protocol Standard Telecommunica

TDD Time Division TTI Transmission tions System

Duplex 55 Time Interval 90 UP User Plane

TDM Time Division Tx Transmission, UPF User Plane Multiplexing Transmitting, Function

TDMATime Division Transmitter URI Uniform

Multiple Access U-RNTI UTRAN Resource Identifier

TE Terminal 60 Radio Network 95 URL Uniform

Equipment Temporary Resource Locator

TEID Tunnel End Identity URLLC Ultra¬

Point Identifier UART Universal Reliable and Low

TFT Traffic Flow Asynchronous Latency

Template 65 Receiver and 100 USB Universal Serial

TMSI Temporary Transmitter Bus

Mobile UCI Uplink Control USIM Universal

Subscriber Information Subscriber Identity

Identity UE User Equipment Module

TNL Transport 70 UDM Unified Data 105 USS UE-specific search space VoIP Voice-over-IP, UTRA UMTS Voice-over- Internet Terrestrial Radio Protocol

Access VPLMN Visited

UTRAN 40 Public Land Mobile

Universal Network Terrestrial Radio VPN Virtual Private

Access Network Network VRB Virtual

UwPTS Uplink 45 Resource Block Pilot Time Slot WiMAX V2I Vehicle-to- Worldwide Infrastruction Interoperability V2P Vehicle-to- for Microwave Pedestrian 50 Access

V2V Vehicle-to- WLANWireless Local Vehicle Area Network

V2X Vehicle-to- WMAN Wireless everything Metropolitan Area

VIM Virtualized 55 Network Infrastructure Manager WPANWireless VL Virtual Link, Personal Area Network VLAN Virtual LAN, X2-C X2-Control Virtual Local Area plane Network 60 X2-U X2-User plane VM Virtual XML extensible Machine Markup

VNF Virtualized Language Network Function XRES EXpected user

VNFFG VNF 65 RESponse

Forwarding Graph XOR exclusive OR VNFFGD VNF ZC Zadoff-Chu

Forwarding Graph ZP Zero Power

Descriptor VNFMVNF Manager Terminology

For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

The term “application” may refer to a complete and deployable package, environment to achieve a certain function in an operational environment. The term “AI/ML application” or the like may be an application that contains some AI/ML models and application-level descriptions.

The term “circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

The term “processor circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. Processing circuitry may include one or more processing cores to execute instructions and one or more memory structures to store program and data information. The term “processor circuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computerexecutable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes. Processing circuitry may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms “application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processor circuitry.”

The term “interface circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like.

The term “user equipment” or “UE” as used herein refers to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment” or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.

The term “network element” as used herein refers to physical or virtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term “network element” may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like.

The term “computer system” as used herein refers to any type interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another and configured to share computing and/or networking resources.

The term “appliance,” “computer appliance,” or the like, as used herein refers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource. A “virtual appliance” is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide a specific computing resource.

The term “resource” as used herein refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and/or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPU time, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardware time or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and applications, workload units, and/or the like. A “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by physical hardware element(s). A “virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term “network resource” or “communication resource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computer devices/systems via a communications network. The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

The term “channel” as used herein refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalent to “communications channel,” “data communications channel,” “transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,” “data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequency carrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” as used herein refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

The terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like as used herein refers to the creation of an instance. An “instance” also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code.

The terms “coupled,” “communicatively coupled,” along with derivatives thereof are used herein. The term “coupled” may mean two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another, may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled with each other. The term “directly coupled” may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another. The term “communicatively coupled” may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with one another by a means of communication including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or link, and/or the like.

The term “information element” refers to a structural element containing one or more fields. The term “field” refers to individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains content.

The term “SMTC” refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration .

The term “SSB” refers to an SS/PBCH block. The term “a “Primary Cell” refers to the MCG cell, operating on the primary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure.

The term “Primary SCG Cell” refers to the SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Sync procedure for DC operation.

The term “Secondary Cell” refers to a cell providing additional radio resources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA.

The term “Secondary Cell Group” refers to the subset of serving cells comprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC.

The term “Serving Cell” refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cell comprising of the primary cell.

The term “serving cell” or “serving cells” refers to the set of cells comprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE in RRC CONNECTED configured with CA/.

The term “Special Cell” refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term “Special Cell” refers to the Pcell.

The term “machine learning” or “ML” refers to the use of computer systems implementing algorithms and/or statistical models to perform specific task(s) without using explicit instructions, but instead relying on patterns and inferences. ML algorithms build or estimate mathematical model(s) (referred to as “ML models” or the like) based on sample data (referred to as “training data,” “model training information,” or the like) in order to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform such tasks. Generally, an ML algorithm is a computer program that learns from experience with respect to some task and some performance measure, and an ML model may be any object or data structure created after an ML algorithm is trained with one or more training datasets. After training, an ML model may be used to make predictions on new datasets. Although the term “ML algorithm” refers to different concepts than the term “ML model,” these terms as discussed herein may be used interchangeably for the purposes of the present disclosure.

The term “machine learning model,” “ML model,” or the like may also refer to ML methods and concepts used by an ML-assisted solution. An “ML-assisted solution” is a solution that addresses a specific use case using ML algorithms during operation. ML models include supervised learning (e.g., linear regression, k-nearest neighbor (KNN), descision tree algorithms, support machine vectors, Bayesian algorithm, ensemble algorithms, etc.) unsupervised learning (e.g., K-means clustering, principle component analysis (PCA), etc.), reinforcement learning (e.g., Q-leaming, multi-armed bandit learning, deep RL, etc.), neural networks, and the like. Depending on the implementation a specific ML model could have many sub-models as components and the ML model may train all sub-models together. Separately trained ML models can also be chained together in an ML pipeline during inference. An “ML pipeline” is a set of functionalities, functions, or functional entities specific for an ML-assisted solution; an ML pipeline may include one or several data sources in a data pipeline, a model training pipeline, a model evaluation pipeline, and an actor. The “actor” is an entity that hosts an ML assisted solution using the output of the ML model inference). The term “ML training host” refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts the training of the model. The term “ML inference host” refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts model during inference mode (which includes both the model execution as well as any online learning if applicable). The ML-host informs the actor about the output of the ML algorithm, and the actor takes a decision for an action (an “action” is performed by an actor as a result of the output of an ML assisted solution). The term “model inference information” refers to information used as an input to the ML model for determining inference(s); the data used to train an ML model and the data used to determine inferences may overlap, however, “training data” and “inference data” refer to different concepts.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE) configure the UE to: identify a set of sidelink resources for transmission of a sidelink message, wherein the set of sidelink resources is in unlicensed spectrum, and wherein the set of sidelink resources includes respective individual resource blocks (RBs) that are interleaved in the frequency domain; and transmit or receive the sidelink message on the set of sidelink resources.

2. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein a resource pool of K RBs is divided into M subchannels of N RBs, wherein the set of sidelink resources is one of the M subchannels, and wherein a remaining K - M*N RBs are not used for sidelink transmission.

3. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed, are further to configure the UE to receive a radio resource control (RRC) message to indicate a resource pool for sidelink communication, wherein the RRC includes an indication that interleaved RB mapping is used for the resource pool, and wherein the set of sidelink resources is identified based on the indication.

4. The one or more NTCRM of claim 3, wherein the indication is a cell-specific indication based on a regional requirement for sidelink communication in unlicensed spectrum.

5. The one or more NTCRM of claim 3, wherein the instructions, when executed, further configure the UE to receive configuration information to indicate a set of interlaces of the resource pool that are included in the set of sidelink resources, wherein the configuration information includes one or more of: an indication of a lowest or highest RB of the set of interlaces or of respective interlaces of the set of interlaces; a number of consecutive interlaces in the frequency domain to be used; a size of interlaced physical resource blocks (PRBs); an allowed frequency resource allocation per listen-before-talk (LBT) type; or a bitmap to indicate the set of interlaces.

6. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, further configure the UE to receive a message to configure a number of interlaces into which a subchannel in the set of sidelink resources is mapped.

7. The one or more NTCRM of any one of claims 1-6, wherein the set of sidelink resources is a first set of sidelink resources, and wherein the instructions, when executed, further configure the UE to: identify a second set of sidelink resources that includes RBs adjacent to respective RBs of the first set of sidelink resources; and transmit or receive, simultaneously with the transmission or reception of the sidelink message on the first set of sidelink resources, the sidelink message or another sidelink message on the second set of sidelink resources and an intra-cell guard band between the first and second sets of sidelink resources.

8. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE) configure the UE to: identify a resource allocation for a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) or a sidelink synchronization signal block (S-SSB); and apply a cyclic prefix extension immediately prior to the resource allocation.

9. The one or more NTCRM of claim 8, wherein the cyclic prefix extension has a length of

— Y syinb, (Z-l)mod 7-2^ ¹ wherein I is a symbol in which the cyclic prefix extension is applied, /J. is a value based on a subcarrier spacing, and Y is a time period.

10. The one or more NTCRM of claim 9, wherein Y is less than or equal to 16 microseconds.

11. The one or more NTCRM of claim 8, wherein the cyclic prefix extension is applied prior to the PSFCH or the S-SSB if a prior sidelink transmission of the UE or another UE is to end one symbol before a start of the PSFCH or the S-SSB.

12. The one or more NTCRM of claim 8, wherein the S-SSB is transmitted outside of a channel occupancy time of the UE, and wherein a listen-before-talk type 2A is used for the SSB if one or more of: the S-SSB transmission is at most 1 millisecond long; or a duty cycle of the S-SSB is at most 1/20 over an observation period.

13. The one or more NTCRM of any one of claims 8-12, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further to configure the UE to perform a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure prior to transmission of the PSFCH, wherein the LBT procedure stops at a designated time that is the same for all UEs communicating on a same sidelink carrier.

14. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE) configure the UE to: receive configuration information to indicate two starting symbols that are allowed for a sidelink transmission of the UE; and send the sidelink transmission based on the configuration information.

15. The one or more NTCRM of claim 14, wherein the two starting symbols correspond to respective starting positions within a slot.

16. The one or more NTCRM of claim 14, wherein the two starting symbols correspond to any symbol within a pre-configured set of values.

17. The one or more NTCRM of claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed, further configure the UE to apply a pre-configured cyclic prefix extension prior to the sidelink transmission.

18. The one or more NTCRM of claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed, further configure the UE to perform a listen-before-talk procedure prior to the sidelink transmission.

19. The one or more NTCRM of claim 14, wherein the LBT procedure stops at a designated time that is the same for all UEs communicating on a same sidelink carrier.

20. The one or more NTCRM of any one of claims 14-19, wherein the sidelink transmission is a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) or a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH).