WO2024065459A1

WO2024065459A1 - Method, device, and medium for communication

Info

Publication number: WO2024065459A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/122812
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ying Zhao; Jin Yang; Zhaobang MIAO; Wei Chen; Gang Wang
Original assignee: Nec Corporation
Priority date: 2022-09-29
Filing date: 2022-09-29
Publication date: 2024-04-04

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a solution for measurement reporting in sidelink (SL). In this solution, a first communication device determines at least one first resource based on a resource timing configuration and a frequency range. The frequency range at least comprises a frequency band of at least one second resource for at least one first sidelink reference signal communicated with a second communication device. The first communication device communicates, with the second communication device, a first measurement report using the at least one first resource, the first measurement report comprising at least measurement information about the at least one first sidelink reference signal.

Description

METHOD, DEVICE, AND MEDIUM FOR COMMUNICATION

FIELD

Example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of communication techniques and in particular, to a method, device, and medium for measurement reporting in sidelink (SL) .

BACKGROUND

A sidelink (SL) refers to a communication mode in which a direct link is established between communication devices, e.g., terminal devices, and data or information is directly exchanged between terminal devices without going through a network device. In sidelink communications, a sidelink reference signal (SL-RS) may be exchanged between communication devices for many applications. For example, a communication device (e.g., a terminal device) may be configured to determine its own position and/or the position of other communication devices based on SL-RSs (e.g., sidelink positioning reference signals (SL-PRSs) ) exchanged with the other communication devices. Generally, resource allocation may be configured for communication of the SL-RS as well as reporting of SL positioning measurement.

SUMMARY

In general, embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, devices and computer storage medium for measurement reporting in sidelink (SL) .

In a first aspect, there is provided a communication method. The method comprises: determining, at a first communication device, at least one first resource based on a resource timing configuration and a frequency range, the frequency range at least comprising a frequency band of at least one second resource for at least one first sidelink reference signal communicated with a second communication device; and communicating, with the second communication device, a first measurement report using the at least one first resource, the first measurement report comprising at least measurement information about the at least one first sidelink reference signal.

In a second aspect, there is provided a communication device. The communication device includes a processing unit; and a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to the first aspect.

In a third aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to the first aspect.

Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Through the more detailed description of some example embodiments of the present disclosure in the accompanying drawings, the above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of a process for resource allocation for a sidelink reference signal in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 3A-3B illustrate schematic diagrams of some examples of a resource timing configuration for measurement reporting in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3C illustrates a schematic diagram of an example of slot structure used for measurement reporting in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3D illustrates a schematic diagram of an example of a resource timing configuration with a report window in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example of measurement report transmission based on demodulation reference signals (DMRSs) in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 5A-5D illustrate schematic diagrams of some examples of resource allocation for measurement reporting in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 6A-6E illustrate schematic diagrams of some examples of resource allocation for measurement reporting in accordance with some further embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 7A-7D illustrate schematic diagrams of some examples of resource allocation for measurement reporting in accordance with some yet further embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a communication method in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 9 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an apparatus that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitations as to the scope of the disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

As used herein, the term ‘terminal device’ refers to any device having wireless or wired communication capabilities. Examples of the terminal device include, but not limited to, user equipment (UE) , personal computers, desktops, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) , portable computers, tablets, wearable devices, internet of things (IoT) devices, Ultra-reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) devices, Internet of Everything (IoE) devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, devices on vehicle for V2X communication where X means pedestrian, vehicle, or infrastructure/network, devices for Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) , Space borne vehicles or Air borne vehicles in Non-terrestrial networks (NTN) including Satellites and High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) encompassing Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) , eXtended Reality (XR) devices including different types of realities such as Augmented Reality (AR) , Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) , the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) commonly known as a drone which is an aircraft without any human pilot, devices on high speed train (HST) , or image capture devices such as digital cameras, sensors, gaming devices, music storage and playback appliances, or Internet appliances enabling wireless or wired Internet access and browsing and the like. The ‘terminal device’ can further has ‘multicast/broadcast’ feature, to support public safety and mission critical, V2X applications, transparent IPv4/IPv6 multicast delivery, IPTV, smart TV, radio services, software delivery over wireless, group communications and IoT applications. It may also incorporate one or multiple Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) as known as Multi-SIM. The term “terminal device” can be used interchangeably with a UE, a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile terminal, a user terminal or a wireless device.

The term “network device” refers to a device which is capable of providing or hosting a cell or coverage where terminal devices can communicate. Examples of a network device include, but not limited to, a Node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a next generation NodeB (gNB) , a transmission reception point (TRP) , a remote radio unit (RRU) , a radio head (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , an IAB node, a low power node such as a femto node, a pico node, a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) , and the like.

The terminal device or the network device may have Artificial intelligence (AI) or Machine learning capability. It generally includes a model which has been trained from numerous collected data for a specific function, and can be used to predict some information.

The terminal or the network device may work on several frequency ranges, e.g., FR1 (410 MHz to 7125 MHz) , FR2 (24.25GHz to 71GHz) , frequency band larger than 100GHz as well as Tera Hertz (THz) . It can further work on licensed/unlicensed/shared spectrum. The terminal device may have more than one connection with the network devices under Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) application scenario. The terminal device or the network device can work on full duplex, flexible duplex and cross division duplex modes.

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be performed in test equipment, e.g., signal generator, signal analyzer, spectrum analyzer, network analyzer, test terminal device, test network device, channel emulator. In some embodiments, the terminal device may be connected with a first network device and a second network device. One of the first network device and the second network device may be a master node and the other one may be a secondary node. The first network device and the second network device may use different radio access technologies (RATs) . In some embodiments, the first network device may be a first RAT device and the second network device may be a second RAT device. In some embodiments, the first RAT device is eNB and the second RAT device is gNB. Information related with different RATs may be transmitted to the terminal device from at least one of the first network device or the second network device. In some embodiments, first information may be transmitted to the terminal device from the first network device and second information may be transmitted to the terminal device from the second network device directly or via the first network device. In some embodiments, information related with configuration for the terminal device configured by the second network device may be transmitted from the second network device via the first network device. Information related with reconfiguration for the terminal device configured by the second network device may be transmitted to the terminal device from the second network device directly or via the first network device.

As used herein, the singular forms ‘a’ , ‘an’ and ‘the’ are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The term ‘includes’ and its variants are to be read as open terms that mean ‘includes, but is not limited to. ’ The term ‘based on’ is to be read as ‘at least in part based on. ’ The term ‘one embodiment’ and ‘an embodiment’ are to be read as ‘at least one embodiment. ’ The term ‘another embodiment’ is to be read as ‘at least one other embodiment. ’ The terms ‘first, ’ ‘second, ’ and the like may refer to different or same objects. Other definitions, explicit and implicit, may be included below.

In some examples, values, procedures, or apparatus are referred to as ‘best, ’ ‘lowest, ’ ‘highest, ’ ‘minimum, ’ ‘maximum, ’ or the like. It will be appreciated that such descriptions are intended to indicate that a selection among many used functional alternatives can be made, and such selections need not be better, smaller, higher, or otherwise preferable to other selections.

As used herein, the term “resource, ” “transmission resource, ” “uplink resource, ” or “downlink resource” may refer to any resource for performing a communication, such as a resource in the time domain, a resource in the frequency domain, a resource in space domain, a resource in code domain, or any other resource enabling a communication, and the like. In the following, unless explicitly stated, a resource in both frequency domain and time domain will be used as an example of a transmission resource for describing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. It is noted that example embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for resource allocation for sidelink reference signal. Principles and implementations of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the figures.

It is noted that any section/subsection headings provided herein are not intended to be limiting. Embodiments are described throughout this document, and any type of embodiment may be included under any section/subsection. Furthermore, embodiments disclosed in any section/subsection may be combined with any other embodiments described in the same section/subsection and/or a different section/subsection in any manner.

EXAMPLE OF COMMUNICATION NETWORK

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example communication environment 100 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented.

The communication environment 100 includes a plurality of communication devices 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 110-4, and 120. In FIG. 1, the communication devices 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, and 110-4 (collectively or individually referred to as communication devices 110) are illustrated as terminal devices. The communication device 120 is illustrated as a network device which provides a serving area 102 called a cell.

It is to be understood that the number of devices and their connections in FIG. 1 are given for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations to the present disclosure. The communication environment 100 may include any suitable number of network devices and/or terminal devices adapted for implementations of the present disclosure.

The communications in the communication environment 100 may conform to any suitable standards including, but not limited to, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) , Long Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Evolution, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , New Radio (NR) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , GSM EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN) , Machine Type Communication (MTC) and the like. The embodiments of the present disclosure may be performed according to any generation communication protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Examples of the communication protocols include, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, 5.5G, 5G-Advanced networks, or the sixth generation (6G) networks.

In some embodiments, a communication device 110 and a communication device 120 may communicate with each other via a channel such as a wireless communication channel on an air interface (e.g., Uu interface) . The communication device 110 capable of communicating with the communication device 120 may be in coverage of the serving area 102 of the communication device 120. In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the communication devices 110-1 and 110-2 may communicate with the communication device 120. The wireless communication channel may comprise a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) , a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) , a physical random-access channel (PRACH) , a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) , a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) . Of course, any other suitable channels are also feasible. In the specific example of communication environment 100, a link from the communication device 110 to the communication device 120 is referred to as uplink, while a link from the communication device 120 to the communication device 110 is referred to as a downlink.

In some embodiments, the communication devices 110 may communicate with each other via a sidelink (SL) connection. A sidelink is a communication mode that allows direct communications between two or more terminal devices without the communications going through network device. SL communications may be carried out on a wireless interface, e.g., PC5 interface. SL communications may be unicast, groupcast, or broadcast, and may be used for device-to-device (D2D) communications, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, emergency rescue applications, etc.

Depending on whether covered within a serving area of a network device or not, SL communication scenarios may include in-coverage (InC) , partial-coverage, and out-of-coverage (OOC) . For example, in the illustrated example of FIG. 1, SL communications between the communication devices 110-1 and 110-2 are in-coverage of the communication device 120; SL communications between the communication devices 110-3 and 110-4 are out-of-coverage. Partial-coverage may involve a scenario where a communication device 110 is within the network coverage area while the other communication device is outside the network coverage area. For example, in FIG. 1, SL communications between one of the communication devices 110-1 and 110-2 and one of the communication devices 110-3 and 110-4 may be considered as in partial-coverage.

In some cases, a network device (e.g., the communication device 120) facilitates the scheduling of resources for SL communications between the communication devices 110. In other cases, SL communications are carried out between the communication devices 110 without the involvement of a network device (e.g., the communication device 120) .

SL resource allocation schemes may be applied to allocate resources in a SL resource pool for SL communications. There may be two SL resource allocation schemes. In a first SL resource allocation scheme (referred to as Mode1 for SL resource allocation) , the network device may schedule SL resources via the communication interface with the communication devices 110. The resource allocation may include dynamic grant, for example, by downlink control information (DCI) , or configured grant (e.g., Type 1 or Type 2 configured grant) . In a second SL resource allocation scheme (referred to as Mode2 for SL resource allocation) , the resources for SL communications may be autonomously selected by the communication devices 110 based on a contention scheme.

In SL communications, a reference signal sent on a sidelink may be referred to as a sidelink reference signal (SL-RS) . A SL-RS may be exchanged between the communication devices 110 for many applications. For example, a communication device 110 (e.g., a user equipment (UE) ) may be configured to determine its own position and/or the position of other communication devices based on SL-RSs (e.g., sidelink positioning reference signals (SL-PRSs) ) exchanged with other communication devices. In addition to the positioning, a SL-RS may be communicated to enable channel status determination of a sidelink, communication scheme determination, and/or for other purposes. In addition to the SL-PRS, a SL-RS may also include, for example, a channel status information reference signal (CSI RS) , a sounding reference signal (SRS) , or any other reference signals that need to be transmitted in SL communications. In some embodiments, a SL-RS may be configured as a wide band signal with a comb structure. For example, a SL-RS may occupy multiple PRBs with only some subcarriers in each PRB are used.

A reference signal is generally known by both transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) communication devices. Generally, in the reception procedure of SL-RS, the RX communication device of a SL-RS may be configured to report one or more measurement instances to the TX communication device (s) .

In SL communications, resources may be configured or indicated for communications of SL-RSs. In addition, resources may also be configured or indicated for communications of a measurement report about the SL-RS (s) . Resource allocation configuration for a SL-RS is important in order to have high resource usage and detection accuracy of the SL-RS. Currently, as the SL-RS communication, specially, SL positioning based on the SL-RPS is discussed, there is not agreements on the resource allocation for SL-RS related communication, including measurement reporting for SL-RS.

WORK PRINCIPLE AND EXAMPLE SIGNAL FLOW

Example embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for measurement reporting in sidelink (SL) . In this solution, a communication device determines one or more resources for communicating a measurement report about at least one or more SL-RSs. The resource (s) is determined based on a resource timing configuration and a frequency range which comprises at least a frequency band of a resource (s) for the corresponding SL-RSs.

Through this solution, resource allocation for measurement reporting in SL-RS communication is enabled. Since the measurement report may be considered as feedback related to the SL-RSs, by relying on a frequency range of the resource (s) for the SL-RSs to determine the resources for the measurement report, less signaling overhead for resource allocation is required, especially in the scenario where the communication devices in SL needs to autonomously determine their resources without involving a network device, for example, in the OOC scenarios.

Principles and implementations of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the figures.

Reference is made to FIG. 2, which illustrates a signal flow 200 for measurement reporting in SL according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The signal flow 200 involves a plurality of communication devices 202-1, 202-2, ..., 202-3 (collectively or individually referred to as communication devices 202) . The communication devices 202 supports SL communication with each other. A communication device 202 may be any of the communication devices 110 in FIG. 1.

In the illustrated example, it is assumed that the communication devices 202 may have established a sidelink connection, for example, via a PC5 interface. One or more SL-RSs are communicated between the communication devices 202, and as a result, one or more measurement reports related to the one or more SL-RSs are communicated between those communication devices 202. More specifically, it is assumed that the communication device 202-1 detects one or more SL-RSs transmitted from one or more other communication devices 202-2, ..., 202-3. The communication device 202-1 is configured to transmit one or more measurement reports related to the received SL-RS (s) to the communication devices 202-2, ..., 202-3. Therefore, the communication device 202-1 is a RX device of a SL-RS, and a TX device of a measurement report, and the communication devices 202-2, ..., 202-3 are TX devices of the SL-RS and RX devices of the measurement report.

As an example, in the case of SL positioning, a positioning procedure may involve a target device to be positioned and at least one anchor device according to different PRS-based positioning techniques. An anchor device may comprise any device that supports positioning of the target device. One or more SL-PRSs may be communicated between the target device and the anchor device (s) along with the necessary assisted information for absolute positioning or relative positioning, respectively. A SL-PRS may be transmitted through omnidirectional or directional beams, and a directional SL-PRS beam corresponds to a certain spatial direction and coverage. In some embodiments, the target device may act as a TX device to transmit a SL-PRS to the anchor device (s) . In this case, the anchor device (s) may transmit a measurement report about the SL-PRS to the target device. In some embodiments, one or more anchor device (s) may act as a TX device (s) to transmit a SL-PRS to the target device and/or other anchor device (s) . In this case, the target device and/or other anchor device (s) may transmit their measurement reports about the SL-PRS to the TX anchor device (s) .

During communication of a SL-RS and a measurement report related to the SL-RS, both a TX device and a RX device need to determine a resource (s) configured for communicating the SL-RS and the measurement report. A device determines the configured resource (s) so that it can know where to transmit the SL-RS and receive the measurement report. The other device determines the configured resource (s) in a same way so that it can know where to detect the SL-RS and transmit the measurement report. Therefore, some operations in devices involved in the communications of the measurement report and the SL-RS are similar.

Specifically, when referring to FIG. 2, the communication device 202-1 determines 230 at least one first resource based on a resource timing configuration and a frequency range. The at least one first resource is used to communicate a first measurement report about one or more SL-RSs. The resource timing configuration is used to at least determine timing of the at least one first resource in the time domain, and the frequency range is used to at least locate the at least one first resource in the frequency domain. The frequency range is determined to comprise a frequency band of at least one second resource for at least one first SL-RS communicated with the communication device 202-2.

In some embodiments, the at least one first SL-RS is transmitted from the communication device 202-2 to the communication device 202-1 using at least one corresponding resource (for the purpose of discussion, referred to as at least one second resource) . The communication device 202-2, as a TX device of the at least one first SL-RS, may determine 205 the at least one second resource according to a resource allocation configuration for SL-RS communication and transmit 220 the at least one first SL-RS using the determined at least one second resource. The communication device 202-1, as a RX device of the at least one first SL-RS, may also be configured or indicated with the resource allocation configuration for SL-RS communication and thus may determine 210 the at least one second resource according to the resource allocation configuration so as to detect 225 the first SL-RS (s) in the corresponding second resource (s) .

Depending on the usage of SL-RS communications, the communication device 202-1 may measure one or more aspects related to a SL-RS and include one or more measurements about the SL-RS in a measurement report. Still take the SL positioning as an example. Depending on the positioning techniques to be applied for determining a location of a communication device, the communication device 202-1 may determine one or more measurements of Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) , Round Trip Time (Multi-RTT) , Arrival of Departure (DL-AoD) , Angle-of-Arrival (UL-AoA) , and/or other aspects related to a SL-RS. The measurements may be included in a measurement report.

In some embodiments, as an alternative or in addition, a measurement report may include other measurement information, such as a timestamp (s) associated with a SL-RS measurement, a quality metric (s) associated with a SL-RS positioning measurement, identification information for a SL-RS measurement, and so on. The scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the information in a measurement report for a SL-RS.

The communication device 202-1 transmits 235 the first measurement report to the communication device 202-2 using the determined at least one first resource. The first measurement report comprises at least measurement information about the at least one first sidelink reference signal.

In some embodiments, the communication device 202-1 may involve in one or more positioning procedures with other communication devices 2020. In some embodiments, one or more SL-RSs (such as SL-RS repetition) for a positioning procedure may correspond to a report occasion, and thus measurement information about the one or more SL-RSs may be included in a measurement report. In some embodiments, a plurality of SL-RSs for a plurality of positioning procedures in parallel may correspond to a report occasion, and thus measurement information about the one or more SL-RSs may be included in a measurement report. In some examples, the plurality of positioning procedures may relate to different positioning techniques.

At the RX side of the first measurement report, the communication device 202-2 also determines 240 the at least one first resource based on the resource timing configuration and the frequency range in a similar way as the communication device 202-1. As such, the same first resource (s) may be determined. The communication device 202-2 receives 245 the first measurement report using the determined at least one first resource.

In the following, it will be described the resource timing configuration first and then the specific determination of the at least one first resource based on the resource timing configuration and the frequency range.

A resource allocation configuration for reporting measurement information about a SL-RS (for the purpose of discussion, sometimes referred to as a “SL-RS measurement report” ) may be configured in various ways to the communication devices 202. Here, a resource allocation configuration for a SL-RS measurement report may comprise the resource timing configuration and certain rules or parameters with respect to the usage of the frequency range.

In some embodiments, the communication device 110 may receive information indicating part or all of a resource allocation configuration for a SL-RS measurement report from a network device, such as the communication device 120 in the example of FIG. 1. That is, the network device is configured to schedule resources for SL-RS transmission, for example, Mode1 for resource allocation. In some embodiments, a communication device 202 may receive a part or all of the resource allocation configuration from the network device and transmit the resource allocation configuration to one or more other communication devices 202.

In some embodiments, the communication devices 202 may autonomously determine or may be specified with the resource allocation configuration for a SL-RS measurement report, for example, in Mode2 for resource allocation. A communication device 110 may transmit the information indicating part or all of the resource allocation configuration to one or more other communication devices 110 which are configured to receive or transmit the SL-RS measurement report. In some embodiments, a resource allocation configuration for communication of SL-RSs may be configured in a similar way.

In some embodiments, a communication device 202 may either determine itself or receive the resource allocation configuration for a SL-RS measurement report from a network device or another communication device 110. In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may transmit the information indicating the resource allocation configuration or part of the resource allocation configuration to other communication devices 202 so they may determine the resources used to communicate SL-RS measurement reports. In some embodiments, a resource allocation configuration for communication of SL-RSs may be configured in a similar way.

In some embodiments, in the case of SL positioning, in addition to the resource allocation configuration, assistance information for absolute positioning or relative positioning may be exchanged between the target device and at least one anchor device.

In some embodiments, SL-RS (pre) configuration and positioning related information, such as shared and/or dedicated resource pool configuration and measurement report configuration, may be communicated to the communication devices 202 via the SL links, such as via PC5 interface.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, a resource allocation and assignment is proposed for communicating of a SL-RS measurement report. As will be described in below, some introductions or enhancements for the resource allocation configuration of a SL-RS measurement report are proposed. Before discussing the introductions or enhancements, some example ways for signaling the resource allocation configuration in SL will be first introduced.

In some embodiments, information indicating the resource allocation configuration about the measurement report as well as a SL-RS may be included in sidelink control information (SCI) to be transmitted to the communication device 202 or received from the communication device 202.

In some embodiments, one or more new fields with the additional information related to the resource allocation configuration may be inserted to a legacy SCI format (such as SCI format 1-A, SCI format 1-B, SCI format 2-A, SCI format 2-B, SCI format 2-C) in sidelink communications. In some embodiments, one or more legacy fields in a legacy SCI format may be redefined or enhanced (with the same or different size) to indicate the information indicating the resource allocation configuration for the SL-RS.

In some embodiments, one or more new SCI formats (such as SCI format 1-X and/or SCI format 2-D) or media access control-control element (MAC CE) may be introduced to convey the information indicating the resource allocation configuration for a SL-RS measurement report and/or for a SL-RS. In some embodiments, the new SCI format may also include some information as included in the legacy SCI format.

In some embodiments, information indicating the resource allocation configuration for a SL-RS measurement report and/or for a SL-RS may include one or more resource related parameters for determining a resource (s) allocated for a SL-RS measurement report. The resource related parameters may include, but are not limited to, sub-carrier spacing (SCS) /cyclic prefix (CP) for a SL-RS resource, SL-RS resource set configuration identity, SL-RS resource allocation configuration identity, SL-RS resource periodicity, the number of SL-RS resource repetition, the offset between two repeated instances of a SL-RS source, a starting slot/symbol of a SL-RS resource, a comb size of a SL-RS resource, the resource for a measurement report (s) corresponding to at least one SL-RS, and so on.

When determining a resource (s) for a measurement report and/or for a SL-RS, the determination of these parameters may be based on a (pre) configuration (which may be conveyed in assistance information or other suitable signaling) and/or indications of applicable resource (s) by control information, for example, via DCI, SCI, and/or MAC-CE. That is to say, some of the resource related parameters may be pre-configured, and some of the resource related parameters may be indicated when the resources for measurement reporting and/or SL-RS communication are needed or to be needed. For the latter, in some embodiments, some approaches may be applied to determine or indicate one or more resource related parameters. In a first approach, an association between the resource related parameter (s) and applicable resource (s) may be (pre) defined. In a second approach, the SL-RS resource related parameter (s) may be indicated along with the time-frequency resource indication. For example, the SL-RS resource related parameter (s) may be indicated by a frequency resource indication value (FRIV) and a time resource indication value (TRIV) , or may be indicated by information within one or more fields in a new DCI format, a new SCI format, or a new MAC-CE.

In some embodiments, in some SL scenarios such as in the OOC scenarios, the communication devices in SL may autonomously determine the resources used in a positioning procedure, especially for the resources in a dedicated resource pool for SL-RS related communications.

It would be appreciated that there may be other ways to convey information indicating the resource allocation configuration for a SL-RS measurement and/or for a SL-RS itself, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

In some embodiments, a dedicated or shared resource pool for SL-RS may be utilized in different manners for measurement reporting. In some embodiments, other resources pool may be configured for the measurement reporting.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, existing reference signals, procedures, and reporting from sidelink communication and from positioning may be reused. SL-RS related procedure, including the SL positioning procedure may be supported in scenarios including in-coverage, partial-coverage and out-of-coverage and performance improvements in the procedures can be achieved.

Detailed description related to the resource allocation proposed herein will be provided with reference to the accompanying figures.

RESOURCE TIMING CONFIGURATION

In some embodiments, a resource for a measurement report may include one or more resource blocks (RBs) or physical resource blocks (PRBs) , one or more sub-channels, one or more symbols in a slot, and/or one or more resource elements (REs) . The resource timing configuration is used to determine an occasion (e.g., a slot) available for communicating a measurement report.

In some embodiments, the resource timing configuration may indicate a time period for one or more resources. In some embodiments, the time period (represented as “N” ) may be in units of slots. Configurable values for the time period may be predefined or preconfigured. In some embodiments, to adapt the requirement for applications related to a SL-RS, the configurable values for the time period N may be set to an extended range. For example, for SL positioning, there may be different potential requirements on SL-RS transmission and measurement reporting according to the positioning accuracy and processing delay, and thus the time period N may be configured accordingly. In some embodiments, the time period N may be selected from a group consisting of 0 slot, 1 slot, 2 slots, 4 slots, 8 slots, 16 slots, and so on.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example of a resource timing configuration with a time period being 8 slots. In this illustrated example and following illustrated examples, “T” represents time and “F” represents frequency in the figures. In the example of FIG. 3A, among a pool of SL-RS resources 305, there may be a plurality of slots with resources available for SL-RS related communications. Some slots 302 have no report occasion, while some slots 304 have report occasions. In this example, slots with report occasions have a time period of 8 slots.

In some embodiments, the resource timing configuration may indicate relative timing of a resource (s) for measurement reporting to a resource (s) for a SL-RS. For example, if a SL-RS is transmitted in a first slot, and a measurement report related to this SL-RS is transmitted in a second slot, the timing configuration may configure a relative timing relationship between the first slot and the second slot. In some embodiments, the relative timing may be indicated with a parameter represented as “K” , which may be in units of slots. In some examples, the relative timing may be configured to indicate a minimum time interval from a resource for a SL-RS to a resource for reporting corresponding measurement.

Configurable values for the relative timing K may be predefined or preconfigured. In some embodiments, to adapt the requirement for applications related to a SL-RS, the configurable values for the relative timing K may be set to an extended range. For example, for SL positioning, there may be different potential requirements on SL-RS transmission and measurement reporting according to the positioning accuracy and processing delay, and thus the relative timing K may be configured accordingly.

In some embodiments, the relative timing K may be configured as lower than 2 slots or higher than 3 slots. In some embodiments, the relative timing K may be selected from a group consisting of 0 slot, 1 slot, 2 slots, 3 slots, 6 slots, 12 slots, and so on, so as to adapt to the different potential requirements on SL-PRS measurement reporting and processing delay. For example, relative timing of K=2 slots indicates that a measurement report about a SL-RS may be transmitted in a slot with a time interval larger than or equal to 2 slots from the slot where the SL-RS is transmitted.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example of a resource timing configuration with relative timing K being 0 slot. In this illustrated example, among the pool of SL-RS resources 305, a SL-RS is communicated using one or more symbols 316 in a slot 310. The slot 310 includes a report occasion on a symbol 318. In addition, the slot 310 may further includes other types of symbols, such as an automatic gain control (AGC) symbol 312 and one or more gap protect (GP) symbols 314. Since the relative timing K is 0, a measurement report for this SL-RS may be transmitted within the same slot 310, using the symbol 316.

In some embodiments, within a slot, for example, the slot with a report occasion, a resource for a measurement report may occupy one or more symbols in the slot. In some embodiments, a measurement report for a SL-RS (s) may be transmitted through a feedback channel. That is, a resource for measurement reporting may comprise a resource (s) for a feedback channel. In some examples, the feedback channel may include a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) . Thus, PSFCH, which is a specified channel in a slot structure for SL communication, may be reused to carry the measurement report.

PSFCH and other types of channels may be formatted for a slot. FIG. 3C illustrates a schematic diagram of an example of slot structure 320. As shown, a slot 322 may comprises one or more AGC symbols, one or more physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) for carrying control information, one or more physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) for carrying traffic data, one or more GP symbols, and one or more PSFCH symbols 324. A PSFCH symbol 324 may generally be used to carry feedback information. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a measurement report may be carried over PSFCH.

It would be appreciated that the slot structure in FIG. 3C is provided as an example, and other slot structures may be designed. In some embodiments, the measurement report may be carried in other symbols in a slot, or other terminologies than PSFCH may be used to refer to one or more symbols in a slot used for carrying a measurement report.

In some embodiments, the resource timing configuration may indicate a report window which is introduced to indicate a plurality of occasions within a certain time range. FIG. 3D illustrates an example of a resource timing configuration with a report window 330. The report window 330 indicates three report occasions in slots 304. According to the report window 300, as well as the time period N=4 and relative timing K=3, it can be determined that report occasions occur with a time period of 4 slots, and if a SL-RS is transmitted in a first slot, its measurement report may be transmitted in a second slot with a time interval larger than or equal to 3 slots from the first slot. Since there are three report occasions in the report window 330 according to the time period, the measurement report may be transmitted in one or more of the occasions in this report window 330.

In some embodiments, for the resources (e.g., resources in PSFCH) used for carrying a measurement report, a physical channel structure may be reconstructed. In some embodiments, a size of a measurement report may be generated according to a predefined size and a predefined format. The format of the measurement report may specify at least one type of measurement information to be contained in a measurement report. In some embodiments, the size and/or format of the measurement report may be determined according to the positioning (pre) configuration and/or dynamic indication and may be known to the communication devices. In some embodiments, the size and/or format may be varied according to the positioning technique and/or measurement information needed to be reported.

In some embodiments, a similar modulation and coding scheme for other channels (for example, PSSCH or PSCCH) may be reused for communication of the measurement report. For example, a similar low order of modulation and coding scheme may be reused.

In some embodiments, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) may be introduced in a measurement report as a baseline to facilitate report decoding. Specifically, a DMRS may be generated based on at least one identity (ID) of at least one SL-RS and communicate a measurement report including measurement information about the at least one SL-RS based on the DMRS. For example, for the first measurement report described with reference to FIG. 2 which comprises at least measurement information about the at least one first SL-RS, at least one ID of the at least one first SL-RS may be used to generate a DMRS for communicating the first measurement report.

In some examples, similar orthogonal sequences and frequency domain structures of DMRSs may be reused. IDs in DMRSs may be enhanced according to the corresponding SL-RS (s) to differentiate the measurement reports. As an example, a sequence for a DMRS may be generated as follows:

where r _l (m) represents the sequence for a DMRS, c (2m) represents a random sequence with an initial sequence generated as follows:

where N _ID associates with an ID of at least one SL-RS, l represents the OFDM symbol number within the slot,

represents the number of symbols within a slot, and

represents the slot number within a frame.

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example of measurement report transmission based on DMRSs. In this example, a PRB 402 is allocated for a first measurement report ( “Report 0” ) and a PRB 404 is allocated for a second measurement report ( “Report 1” ) . In the PRB 402, some REs 410 are used for carrying measurement information in Report 0 and other REs are used for carrying DMRS 412. DMRS 412 is generated based on an ID (s) of a SL-RS (s) related to Report 0. In addition, some REs 410 in the PRB 404 are used for carrying measurement information in Report 1 and other REs are used for carrying DMRS 414. DMRS 414 is generated based on an ID (s) of a SL-RS (s) related to Report 1. As such, with DMRSs, measurement reports related to different SL-RSs can be differentiated with each other.

In some cases, some SL-RSs may be transmitted periodically and periodic measurement reports may be communicated. In some cases, some SL-RSs may be transmitted on-demand or in an aperiodic manner and thus corresponding measurement reports may be on-demand and/or aperiodic. As used herein, an on-demand SL-RS or one-shot SL-RS refers to a SL-RS which is communicated per requested or in an aperiodic manner. A measurement report related to the on-demand SL-RS may be called an on-demand measurement report or on-shot measurement report.

If an on-demand SL-RS (s) is communicated between the communication devices 202, resource (s) for an on-demand measurement report may be indicated to or configured for the communication devices 202 in various way. In some embodiments, the resource (s) for an on-demand measurement report may be temporarily inserted with configurable timing parameter (s) (which indicate the resource timing configuration) .

In some embodiments, the resource timing configuration for the on-demand measurement report may be indicated by higher layer signaling and/or lower layer signaling. In an embodiment, the resource (s) for the on-demand measurement report may be triggered for use by higher layer signaling through the way of broadcast or groupcast for the communication devices 202 in a certain (pre) configured group (for example, a positioning group or a geographical distance-based group) . In some embodiments, the resource (s) for the on-demand measurement report may be triggered lower layer signaling such as SCI and/or MAC-CE, to indicate related information to the communication devices 202 using the same resource pool for SL-RS or measurement report transmission.

In some embodiments, the resource timing configuration for the on-demand measurement report may also be triggered along with the SL-RS configuration, activation, deactivation, triggering, or reservation in a manner of higher layer and/or lower layer signaling.

In some embodiments, the relation between a one-shot measurement report and the corresponding SL-RS (s) in the time domain may be limited to a range for periodic or semi-persistent measurement report. Alternatively, independent timing parameters may be configured or indicated each time when a one-shot measurement report and/or one-shot SL-RS is to be communicated.

RESOURCE ASSIGNMENT ACCORDING TO FREQUENCY RANGE OF SL-RS RESOURCES

In some embodiments, as mentioned above, the resource (s) used for communicating a measurement report is further determined based on a frequency range which comprises at least a frequency band of the resource (s) for the corresponding SL-RS (s) . That is, the frequency range used here may cover the corresponding SL-RS (s) in the frequency domain. In some embodiments, frequency bands used for transmitting different SL-RSs may be the same or different, may be partially or totally overlapped with each other. In either case, the frequency range used here may cover the frequency bands of those SL-RSs.

The frequency range may be used to determine a frequency location or frequency band of the resource (s) for the measurement report. For example, with the resource timing configuration, a communication device 202 may determine in the time domain a slot and/or a channel providing a resource (s) for a measurement repot based on the resource timing configuration, and may further determine in the frequency domain a frequency range configured for the measurement repot. For convenience of discussion, a resource for a SL-RS may sometimes be referred to as a SL-RS resource, and a resource for a measurement report may sometimes be referred to as a report resource in the following.

In some embodiments, as mentioned above, the communication device 202-1 may receive one or more SL-RSs from a same communication device 202, and/or SL-RSs from different communication devices 202. The communication device 202-1 may thus transmit one or more measurement reports. In some embodiments, the communication device 202-1 may include measurement information related to one or multiple SL-RS (s) transmitted from a same communication device 202 into a measurement report, and/or may include measurement information related to different SL-RSs from different communication devices 202 into a same measurement report or different measurement reports.

Some example embodiments of resource assignments based on the frequency range will be discussed blow for those different cases.

In some embodiments, a communication device 202 may determine a start frequency or an end frequency of one or more report resources to be located at a reference frequency within a frequency range of one or more SL-RS resources. In some embodiments, a frequency band of the one or more report resources may be overlapped with the frequency range. That is, with the start frequency or the end frequency determined, a report resource may be extended within the frequency range. In some embodiments, a bandwidth of a resource for a measurement report may be predefined, for example, according to a predefined size of the measurement report. Thus, if the start frequency or the end frequency is determined, the resource can be located in the frequency domain.

The reference frequency is used as a reference to determine the start or end frequency of a report resource. In some embodiments, the reference frequency may be configured, for example, through a resource allocation configuration for the SL-RS or the measurement report. In some embodiments, the reference frequency may be prespecified at the communication devices.

In some embodiments, the reference frequency may be a start frequency of the frequency range. In some embodiments, a start frequency of a report resource may be determined to be a start frequency of the frequency range. For example, a report resource with a certain bandwidth for a measurement report may start from the lowest RB or sub-channel of a SL-RS resource for a corresponding SL-RS (s) and the report resource may be extended in an ascending order in the frequency range.

FIG. 5A illustrates an example of resource allocation with a start frequency of a report resource located at a start frequency of the frequency range. In a pool of SL-RS resources 505, one or more SL-RSs are transmitted using one or more SL-RS resources 502. To transmit the corresponding measurement report, a report resource 504 may be determined with its start frequency aligned to the start frequency of the frequency band of the SL-RS resources 502. More specifically, the lowest RB or sub-channel of the report resource 504 may be aligned to the lowest sub-channel of the SL-RS resources 502. The report resource 504 may be configured with a predefined bandwidth ( “D” ) extending from its start frequency and occupy one or more sub-channels including RBs 506. The report resource 504 may be used for transmitting a measurement report related to the SL-RSs transmitted in the SL-RS resources 502.

In some embodiments, the reference frequency may be an end frequency of the frequency range. In some embodiments, an end frequency of a report resource may be determined to be an end frequency of the frequency range. For example, a report resource with a certain bandwidth for a measurement report may start from the highest RB or sub-channel of a SL-RS resource for a corresponding SL-RS (s) and the report resource may be extended in a descending order in the frequency range.

FIG. 5B illustrates an example of resource allocation with an end frequency of a report resource located at an end frequency of the frequency range. In this example, a report resource 514 may be determined with its end frequency aligned to the end frequency of the frequency band of SL-RS resources 502. More specifically, the highest RB or sub-channel of the report resource 514 may be aligned to the lowest sub-channel of the SL-RS resources 502. The report resource 514 may be configured with a predefined bandwidth of D extending from its end frequency and occupy one or more sub-channels including RBs 516. The report resource 514 may be used for transmitting a measurement report related to the SL-RSs transmitted in the SL-RS resources 502.

In some embodiments, a measurement report may be transmitted through different redundancy versions. For example, a plurality of resources may be determined for communicating a plurality of redundancy versions of the measurement report, respectively. In some embodiments, the plurality of the resources may be within a same slot or occasion, for example, may be aligned in the time domain.

In some embodiments, the report resources for different redundancy versions may be uniformly distributed (or located according to the RB or sub-channel order) within the frequency range of the SL-RSs. The report resources may be discrete in the frequency range with a uniform distribution. In this way, transmitting diversity can be achieved in the frequency domain. As an example, depending on the number of versions, the same number of resources may be required. The frequency range may be divided into a number of frequency sub-ranges according to the number of resources, with each resource starting from the lowest RB or sub-channel of one of the frequency sub-ranges.

FIG. 5C illustrates an example of resource allocation with report resources distributed uniformly in the frequency domain. In this example, a measurement report ( “Report 0) about the SL-RS (s) in the SL-RS resources 502 are to be transmitted through two redundancy versions ( “Version 0” and “Version 1” ) .

Corresponding report resources

522 and 524 are uniformly distributed in the frequency range of the SL-RS resources 502. The report resource 522 starts from a start frequency of the frequency range, i.e., the lowest RB or sub-channel of the frequency range, and the report resource 524 starts from a half frequency of the frequency range. It is noted that the report resources may also be located by determining its end frequencies based on other reference frequencies (i.e., end frequencies in the frequency sub-ranges) .

In some embodiments, the report resources for different versions of a measurement report may be contiguous in the frequency range. Thus, the report resources may be concentrated on a certain frequency band, such as the lowest/highest part of frequency range of the SL-RS resource (s) , which may leave the remaining frequency bands for other usage. In this case, a start frequency or end frequency for one of the report resources may be determined based on the start frequency or end frequency of the frequency ranges of the corresponding SL-RS resource (s) . A start frequency or end frequency of another adjacent report resource may be determined by using the start frequency or the end frequency of the first resource as a reference frequency. In some examples, if a report resource is defined as having a certain bandwidth of D, with the start frequency or end frequency of a report resource determined, a frequency band having multiple times of the bandwidth D at least may be determined from the corresponding frequency range for SL-RS resources and the report resources are concentrated in this frequency band.

FIG. 5D illustrates an example of resource allocation with contiguous report resources in the frequency domain. As shown, report

resources

532 and 534 used to transmitting Version 0 and Version 1 of Report 0 are contiguous in the frequency range of the SL-RS resources 502. The report resource 532 starts from a start frequency of the frequency range, i.e., the lowest RB or sub-channel of the frequency range, and the report resource 534 starts from the end frequency of the report resource 532. It is noted that the contiguous report resources may also be located in other ways, for example, by starting from the end frequency of the frequency range of the SL-RS resources 502.

In other embodiments, a report resource may be determined in any other ways relative to the start frequency, the end frequency or any other frequency in the frequency range of the SL-RS resource (s) as long as the determination ways are known to both TX and RX communication devices of the corresponding measurement report. It would be appreciated that the examples of resource allocation in FIGS. 5A-5D are provided for the purpose of illustration only, and other allocation may be configured.

In some embodiments, a measurement report may comprise measurement information about one or more SL-RS from a same communication device. In some embodiments, a plurality of SL-RSs may be communicated between two communication devices 202 and thus a plurality of measurement reports related to the plurality of SL-RSs may then be communicated. The measurement reports and the SL-RSs may be one-to-one mapping or one-to-many mapping, with each report comprising measurement information about one or more SL-RSs.

For example, if there are a plurality of parallel positioning procedures triggered between the communication devices 202-1 and 202-2 and the positioning procedures are based on different positioning techniques, the communication device 202-1 may transmit a plurality of measurement reports to the communication device 202-2, each report comprising measurement information related to the SL-RS (s) communicated for the corresponding positioning procedure.

In some embodiments, the plurality of SL-RSs may be communicated in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner or in a frequency division multiplexing (FDM) manner.

In some embodiments, to transmit the plurality of measurement reports, a plurality of report resources may be determined. The report resources for transmitting the plurality of corresponding measurement reports may be in a same slot or occasion (for example, aligned in time) or may in different slots or occasions.

Some examples of resource allocations for a plurality of measurement reports are provided.

In some embodiments, the plurality of report resources for the plurality of measurement reports may be determined in a similar way as the report resources determined for the plurality of redundancy versions of a same measurement report, as discussed above. The plurality of report resources may be in a same slot or occasions, and may be discrete in the frequency range with a uniform distribution or be contiguous in the frequency range.

FIG. 6A illustrates an example of resource allocation with report resources uniformly distributed. It is assumed that for the communication device 202-1, it receives a plurality of SL-RSs from the communication device 202-2 via SL-

RS resources

602 and 604. The SL-RS resources 602 may be allocated for SL-RS communication in a first positioning procedure, and the SL-RS resources 604 may be allocated for a second positioning procedure. A frequency band of the SL-RS resources 602 and a frequency band of the SL-RS resources 604 are different from and overlapped with the SL-RS resources 602. Thus, a frequency range used as a reference for corresponding report resources may be determined as having the larger frequency band of the SL-RS resources 602.

Measurement information about SL-RSs communicated using SL-RS resources 602 are to be transmitted in a first measurement report ( “Report 0” ) , and measurement information about SL-RSs communicated using SL-RS resources 604 are to be transmitted in a second measurement report ( “Report 1” ) .

Corresponding report resources

606 and 608 may be determined as being aligned in time, used to transmit Report 0 and Report 1, respectively. In this example, the

report resources

606 and 608 have a bandwidth of D and are uniformly distributed in the frequency range of the SL-

RS resources

602 and 604.

FIG. 6B illustrates an example of resource allocation with contiguous report resources. In this example, report

resources

616 and 618 for Report 0 and Report 1 are contiguous in the frequency range, and thus are concentrated on a certain frequency band (with two times of the bandwidth D) . The frequency band for the report resource 616 may start from a start frequency (e.g., the lowest RB or sub-channel) of the frequency range for the SL-

RS resources

602 and 604. The frequency band of the report resource 618 may follow the report resource 616. In other examples, this frequency band may also start from an end frequency (e.g., the highest RB or sub-channel) of the frequency range for the SL-

RS resources

602 and 604.

In some embodiments, the report resources for different measurement reports to be transmitted to a same communication device may be in different slots, for example, may be in different occasions in a feedback window. FIG. 6C illustrates such an example. In this example, report

resources

626 and 628 for Report 0 and Report 1 are in different occasions. Each of the

report resources

626 and 628 may be start from the lowest RB or sub-channel of the frequency range for the SL-

RS resources

602 and 604.

In the above examples of FIGS. 6A-6C, the plurality of SL-RSs are transmitted in a TDM manner. In some embodiments where the SL-RSs are transmitted in a FDM manner, the frequency bands for some SL-RSs may not be overlapped in the frequency domain. In this case, the frequency range used as a reference for report resources may comprise the non-overlapped frequency bands of the SL-RS resources. In the FDM related embodiments, the report resources used for the plurality of measurement reports may be determined in a similar way as in the TDM embodiments.

FIG. 6D illustrates an example of resource allocation with discrete report resources. It is assumed that for the communication device 202-1, SL-RSs from the communication device 202-2 are transmitted in a FDM manner. One or more SL-RSs from the communication device 202-2 are received via SL-RS resources 632 and one or more other SL-RSs from the communication device 202-3 are received via SL-RS resources 634. A frequency range may cover both the frequency band of the SL-

RS resources

632 and 634.

In the example of FIG. 6D, measurement information about SL-RSs communicated using SL-RS resources 632 is to be transmitted in a first measurement report ( “Report 0” ) , and measurement information about SL-RSs communicated using SL-RS resources 634 is to be transmitted in a second measurement report ( “Report 1” ) .

Corresponding report resources

636 and 638 may be determined as being aligned in time, used to transmit Report 0 and Report 1, respectively. The

report resources

636 and 638 have a bandwidth of D and are distributed in the frequency range of the SL-

RS resources

632 and 634.

In the FDM example, different reference frequencies may be used to determine the report resources, each reference frequency may be determined based on one of the frequency bands. For example, a start frequency or an end frequency of a report resource may be determined based on a start frequency or an end frequency of the frequency band of the SL-RS resource (s) for the corresponding SL-RS (s) . Similarly, a start frequency or an end frequency of the report resource may be determined based on a start frequency or an end frequency of the frequency band of the SL-RS resource (s) for the corresponding SL-RS (s) . In the example of FIG. 6A, the report resource 636 starts from the lowest RB or sub-channel of the SL-RS resource 632 for the corresponding SL-PRS (s) and arrange in ascending order.

FIG. 6E illustrates another example of resource allocation with contiguous report resources. Different from the example of FIG. 6D, in FIG. 6E, report

resources

646 and 648 for Report 0 and Report 1 are contiguous in the frequency domain and may concentrated on a certain frequency band (with multiple times of the bandwidth D at least) . The frequency band for the report resource 646 may start from a start frequency (e.g., the lowest RB or sub-channel) of the frequency range for the SL-RS resources 632 in an ascending order. The frequency band of the report resource 648 may follow the report resource 646. In other examples, the concentrated frequency band for the

report resources

646 and 648 may also start from an end frequency (e.g., the highest RB or sub-channel) of the frequency range in a descending order, for example from the end frequency of the SL-RS resources 634. Of course, in other examples, report resources for the different measurement reports may be determined within the frequency range in other ways.

In some embodiments, if a plurality of SL-RSs are received from different communication devices (for example, received by the communication device 202-1 from the communication devices 202-2 and 202-3) , measurement information about those SL-RSs may be integrated and packaged as a comprehensive measurement report. The communication device 202-1 may transmit this measurement report in a configured resource (s) , and the communication devices 202-2 and 202-3 may receive the measurement report and extract the measurement information related to their own SL-RSs from the report.

In some embodiments, the SL-RSs from different communication devices may also be transmitted in a FDM or TDM manner. The resources for the comprehensive measurement report may be determined in a similar way as discussed above based on the frequency range.

FIG. 7A illustrates an example for resource allocation for a measurement report to different communication devices. In this example, it is assumed that the communication device 202-1 receives SL-RS 0 from the communication device 202-2 in SL-RS resources 702, and receive SL-RS 1 from the communication device 202-3 in SL-RS resources 704. SL-RS 0 and SL-RS 1 are transmitted in a FDM manner. The communication device 202-1 generates a measurement report to include measurement information about SL-RS 0 and SL-RS 1. A report resource 706 for the measurement report may be determined based on the resource timing configuration as well as the frequency range covering both the frequency bands of the SL-

RS resources

702 and 704 for SL-RS 0 and SL-RS 1. In the illustrated example, a start frequency of the report resource 706 is determined to be located at a start frequency of the frequency range of the SL-

RS resources

702 and 704, for example, by starting from the lowest RB or sub-channel of the SL-RS resources 702. Of course, in other examples, the report resource may be determined with reference to other frequencies in the frequency range (e.g., the highest RS or sub-channel) .

In some embodiments, different redundancy versions of the measurement report targeted to different communication devices may be transmitted, and report resources for the different versions may be allocated as in the examples of FIGS. 5C-5D. FIG. 7B shows one example where a plurality of report resources 716 are uniformly distributed in the frequency range and used to transmitting different redundancy versions (Version 0 and Version 1) of the measurement report. In other examples, the report resources 716 may be allocated in any other similar ways as discussed above, for example, may be concentrated in the frequency range.

In some embodiments, if a plurality of SL-RSs are received from different communication devices (for example, received by the communication device 202-1 from the communication devices 202-2 and 202-3) , a plurality of measurement reports may be generated to include measurement information about the corresponding SL-RSs from different communication devices. In some embodiments, the SL-RSs from different communication devices may also be transmitted in a FDM or TDM manner. The resources for the different measurement reports may be determined in a similar way as discussed above for multiple reports.

As some examples, FIG. 7C illustrates an example of resource allocation, where SL-RS 0 from the communication device 202-2 are transmitted in a FDM manner with SL-RS 1 from the communication device 202-3, using corresponding SL-

RS resources

722 and 724. Measurement information about SL-RS 0 is to be transmitted in a first measurement report ( “Report 0” ) , and measurement information about SL-RS 1 is to be transmitted in a second measurement report ( “Report 1” ) . In the illustrated example,

report resource

726 and 728 may be determined to transmit Report 0 and Report 1, respectively.

The

report resources

726 and 728 may be determined based on respective reference frequencies in frequency bands of the corresponding SL-RS resources. The report resource 726 for Report 0 starts from the lowest RB or sub-channel of the SL-RS resource 722 for the corresponding SL-PRS (s) and arrange in ascending order. The report resource 728 for Report 1 starts from the lowest RB or sub-channel of the SL-RS resource 724 for the corresponding SL-PRS (s) and arrange in ascending order. The communication device 202-1 may transmit Report 0 to the communication device 202-2 using the report resource 726, and transmit Report 1 to the communication device 202-3 using the report resource 728. Of course, in other examples, report resources for the different measurement reports may be determined within the frequency range in other ways.

FIG. 7D illustrates an example of resource allocation, where SL-RS 0 from the communication device 202-2 are transmitted in a TDM manner with SL-RS 1 from the communication device 202-3, using corresponding SL-

RS resources

732 and 734.

Report resource

736 and 738 may be determined to transmit Report 0 and Report 1, respectively. Different from the example of FIG. 7C, in FIG. 7D,

report resources

736 and 738 for Report 0 and Report 1 are contiguous in the frequency domain and may concentrated on a certain frequency band (with multiple times of the bandwidth D at least) . The frequency band for the report resource 736 may start from a start frequency (e.g., the lowest RB or sub-channel) of the frequency range for the SL-RS resources 732 in an ascending order. The frequency band of the report resource 738 may follow the report resource 736. In other examples, the concentrated frequency band for the

report resources

736 and 738 may also start from an end frequency (e.g., the highest RB or sub-channel) of the frequency range in a descending order, for example from the end frequency of the SL-RS resources 734. Of course, in other examples, report resources for the different measurement reports may be determined within the frequency range in other ways.

It would be appreciated that in some other examples, the plurality of report resources for corresponding SL-RSs may be determined in other ways in the frequency bands of corresponding SL-RS resource (s) . It would also be appreciated that in some further examples, the plurality of report resources may be distributed in other ways in the whole frequency range of the different frequency bands of SL-RS resources.

In some embodiments, although not illustrated, for any one or more of the plurality of measurement reports, a plurality of different versions of the corresponding measurement reports may be determined and their report resources may be configured and determined in a similar way as discussed with reference to FIGS. 5C-5D.

In would be appreciated that in any of the above described embodiments, a report resource may be determined in any other ways relative to the start frequency, the end frequency or any other frequency in the frequency range of the SL-RS resource (s) as long as the determination ways are known to both TX and RX communication devices of the corresponding measurement report. It would be appreciated that the examples of resource allocation in FIGS. 6A-6E and FIGS. 7A-7D are provided for the purpose of illustration only, and other allocation may be configured.

EXAMPLE METHOD

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a communication method 800 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 800 may be implemented at a first communication device, which may be any one of the communication devices 110 in FIG. 1 or any one of the communications 202 in FIG. 2.

At block 810, the first communication device determines at least one first resource based on a resource timing configuration and a frequency range, the frequency range at least comprising a frequency band of at least one second resource for at least one first sidelink reference signal communicated with a second communication device (which may be any one of the communication devices 110 in FIG. 1 or any one of the communications 202 in FIG. 2) .

At block 820, the first communication device communicates, with the second communication device, a first measurement report using the at least one first resource, the first measurement report comprising at least measurement information about the at least one first sidelink reference signal.

In some embodiments, the resource timing configuration indicates at least one of the following: a time period for the at least one first resource, relative timing of the at least one first resource to the at least one second resource, or a report window comprising a plurality of occasions.

In some embodiments, the at least one first sidelink reference signal comprises an on-demand sidelink reference signal, and the resource timing configuration comprises an on-demand resource timing configuration. In some embodiments, the method 800 further comprises: receiving at least one of higher layer signaling or lower layer signaling to indicate the on-demand resource timing configuration.

In some embodiments, communicating the first measurement report comprises: determining a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) based on at least one identity of the at least one first sidelink reference signal; and communicating the first measurement report based on the DMRS.

In some embodiments, the first measurement report is generated according to a predefined size and a predefined format, the predefined format specifying at least one type of measurement information to be contained in a measurement report.

In some embodiments, determining the at least one first resource comprises: determining a start frequency or an end frequency of a first resource to be located at a reference frequency within the frequency range, a frequency band of the at least one first resource being overlapped with the frequency range.

In some embodiments, the reference frequency comprises one of a start frequency of the frequency range, an end frequency of the frequency range, or a start frequency or an end frequency of a further first resource in the frequency range.

In some embodiments, determining the at least one first resource comprises: determining a plurality of first resources for a plurality of versions of the first measurement report. In some embodiments, communicating the first measurement report comprises: communicating the plurality of versions of the first measurement report using the plurality of first resources, respectively.

In some embodiments, the plurality of first resources are in a first slot. In some embodiments, the plurality of first resources are discrete in the frequency range with a uniform distribution, or are contiguous in the frequency range.

In some embodiments, at least one second sidelink reference signal is communicated between the first communication device and the second communication device or between the first communication device and a third communication device. In some embodiments, the frequency range comprises the frequency band of the at least one second resource and a frequency band of at least one third resource for the at least one second sidelink reference signal.

In some embodiments, the first measurement report further comprises further measurement information about the at least one second sidelink reference signal.

In some embodiments, the method 800 further comprises: determining at least one fourth resource based on the timing configuration and the frequency range; and communicating, with the second communication device or the third communication device, a second measurement report using the at least one fourth resource, the second measurement report comprising at least measurement information about the at least one second sidelink reference signal.

In some embodiments, the at least one first resource and the at least one fourth resource are in a second slot. In some embodiments, the at least one first resource and the at least one fourth resource are discrete in the frequency range with a uniform distribution, or are contiguous in the frequency range.

In some embodiments, the at least one first resource and the at least one fourth resource are in different slots.

In some embodiments, the least one first sidelink reference signal and the at least one second sidelink reference signal are communicated in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner or in a frequency division multiplexing (FDM) manner.

In some embodiments, the at least one first resource comprises at least one resource for a feedback channel.

In some embodiments, the feedback channel comprises a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) .

In some embodiments, the at least one first sidelink reference signal is transmitted from the second communication device to the first communication device. In some embodiments, communicating the first measurement report with the second communication device comprises: transmitting the first measurement report to the second communication device.

In some embodiments, the at least one first sidelink reference signal is transmitted from the first communication device to the second communication device. In some embodiments, communicating the first measurement report with the second communication device comprises: receiving the first measurement report from the second communication device.

In some embodiments, the at least one first sidelink reference signal and/or the at least one second sidelink reference signal comprises a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) .

EXAMPLE DEVICE

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a device 900 that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 900 can be considered as a further example implementation of the communication device 110 or the communication device 120 as shown in FIG. 1, or the communication device 202 as shown in FIG. 2. Accordingly, the device 900 can be implemented at or as at least a part of the communication device 110, the communication device 120, or the communication device 202.

As shown, the device 900 includes a processor 910, a memory 920 coupled to the processor 910, a suitable transmitter (TX) /receiver (RX) 940 coupled to the processor 910, and a communication interface coupled to the TX/RX 940. The memory 910 stores at least a part of a program 930. The TX/RX 940 is for bidirectional communications. The TX/RX 940 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication, though in practice an Access Node mentioned in this application may have several ones. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements, such as X2/Xn interface for bidirectional communications between eNBs/gNBs, S1/NG interface for communication between a Mobility Management Entity (MME) /Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) /SGW/UPF and the eNB/gNB, Un interface for communication between the eNB/gNB and a relay node (RN) , or Uu interface for communication between the eNB/gNB and a terminal device.

The program 930 is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by the associated processor 910, enable the device 900 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, as discussed herein with reference to FIGS. 1 to 11B. The embodiments herein may be implemented by computer software executable by the processor 910 of the device 900, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. The processor 910 may be configured to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, a combination of the processor 910 and memory 920 may form processing means 950 adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The memory 920 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples. While only one memory 920 is shown in the device 900, there may be several physically distinct memory modules in the device 900. The processor 910 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 900 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

In some embodiments, a first communication device (for example, a terminal device) comprises a circuitry configured to: determine, at a first communication device, at least one first resource based on a resource timing configuration and a frequency range, the frequency range at least comprising a frequency band of at least one second resource for at least one first sidelink reference signal communicated with a second communication device; and communicate, with the second communication device, a first measurement report using the at least one first resource, the first measurement report comprising at least measurement information about the at least one first sidelink reference signal.

In some embodiments, the at least one first sidelink reference signal comprises an on-demand sidelink reference signal, and the resource timing configuration comprises an on-demand resource timing configuration. In some embodiments, the circuitry is further configured to: receive at least one of higher layer signaling or lower layer signaling to indicate the on-demand resource timing configuration.

In some embodiments, the circuitry is further configured to communicate the first measurement report by: determining a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) based on at least one identity of the at least one first sidelink reference signal; and communicating the first measurement report based on the DMRS.

In some embodiments, the circuitry is further configured to determine the at least one first resource by: determining a start frequency or an end frequency of a first resource to be located at a reference frequency within the frequency range, a frequency band of the at least one first resource being overlapped with the frequency range.

In some embodiments, the circuitry is further configured to determine the at least one first resource by: determining a plurality of first resources for a plurality of versions of the first measurement report. In some embodiments, the circuitry is further configured to communicate the first measurement report by: communicating the plurality of versions of the first measurement report using the plurality of first resources, respectively.

In some embodiments, the circuitry is further configured to: determine at least one fourth resource based on the timing configuration and the frequency range; and communicate, with the second communication device or the third communication device, a second measurement report using the at least one fourth resource, the second measurement report comprising at least measurement information about the at least one second sidelink reference signal.

In some embodiments, the at least one first sidelink reference signal is transmitted from the second communication device to the first communication device. In some embodiments, the circuitry is further configured to communicate the first measurement report with the second communication device by: transmitting the first measurement report to the second communication device.

In some embodiments, the at least one first sidelink reference signal is transmitted from the first communication device to the second communication device. In some embodiments, the circuitry is further configured to communicate the first measurement report with the second communication device by: receiving the first measurement report from the second communication device.

The term “circuitry” used herein may refer to hardware circuits and/or combinations of hardware circuits and software. For example, the circuitry may be a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuits with software/firmware. As a further example, the circuitry may be any portions of hardware processors with software including digital signal processor (s) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a terminal device or a network device, to perform various functions. In a still further example, the circuitry may be hardware circuits and or processors, such as a microprocessor or a portion of a microprocessor, that requires software/firmware for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation. As used herein, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (s) or a portion of a hardware circuit or processor (s) and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware.

In summary, embodiments of the present disclosure provide the following solutions.

In one solution, a communication method comprises: determining, at a first communication device, at least one first resource based on a resource timing configuration and a frequency range, the frequency range at least comprising a frequency band of at least one second resource for at least one first sidelink reference signal communicated with a second communication device; and communicating, with the second communication device, a first measurement report using the at least one first resource, the first measurement report comprising at least measurement information about the at least one first sidelink reference signal.

In some embodiments, the at least one first sidelink reference signal comprises an on-demand sidelink reference signal, and the resource timing configuration comprises an on-demand resource timing configuration. In some embodiments, the method further comprises: receiving at least one of higher layer signaling or lower layer signaling to indicate the on-demand resource timing configuration.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: determining at least one fourth resource based on the timing configuration and the frequency range; and communicating, with the second communication device or the third communication device, a second measurement report using the at least one fourth resource, the second measurement report comprising at least measurement information about the at least one second sidelink reference signal.

In another solution, a communication device comprises: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the device to perform any of the methods above.

In a further solution, a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to perform any of the methods above.

In a yet further solution, a computer program comprising instructions, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to perform any of the methods above.

Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representation, it will be appreciated that the blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor, to carry out the process or method as described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 11. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions/operations specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

The above program code may be embodied on a machine readable medium, which may be any tangible medium that may contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine readable medium may be a machine readable signal medium or a machine readable storage medium. A machine readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the machine readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Although the present disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

A communication method comprising:

determining, at a first communication device, at least one first resource based on a resource timing configuration and a frequency range, the frequency range at least comprising a frequency band of at least one second resource for at least one first sidelink reference signal communicated with a second communication device; and

communicating, with the second communication device, a first measurement report using the at least one first resource, the first measurement report comprising at least measurement information about the at least one first sidelink reference signal.
The method of claim 1, wherein the resource timing configuration indicates at least one of the following:

a time period for the at least one first resource,

relative timing of the at least one first resource to the at least one second resource, or

a report window comprising a plurality of occasions.
The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the at least one first sidelink reference signal comprises an on-demand sidelink reference signal, and the resource timing configuration comprises an on-demand resource timing configuration, and

wherein the method further comprises:

receiving at least one of higher layer signaling or lower layer signaling to indicate the on-demand resource timing configuration.
The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein communicating the first measurement report comprises:

determining a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) based on at least one identity of the at least one first sidelink reference signal; and

communicating the first measurement report based on the DMRS.
The method of any of claims 1-4, wherein the first measurement report is generated according to a predefined size and a predefined format, the predefined format specifying at least one type of measurement information to be contained in a measurement report.
The method of any of claims 1-5, wherein determining the at least one first resource comprises:

determining a start frequency or an end frequency of a first resource to be located at a reference frequency within the frequency range, a frequency band of the at least one first resource being overlapped with the frequency range.
The method of claim 6, wherein the reference frequency comprises one of a start frequency of the frequency range, an end frequency of the frequency range, or a start frequency or an end frequency of a further first resource in the frequency range.
The method of any of claims 1-7, wherein determining the at least one first resource comprises:

determining a plurality of first resources for a plurality of versions of the first measurement report; and

wherein communicating the first measurement report comprises:

communicating the plurality of versions of the first measurement report using the plurality of first resources, respectively.
The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of first resources are in a first slot, and

wherein the plurality of first resources are discrete in the frequency range with a uniform distribution, or are contiguous in the frequency range.
The method of any of claims 1-9, wherein at least one second sidelink reference signal is communicated between the first communication device and the second communication device or between the first communication device and a third communication device, and

wherein the frequency range comprises the frequency band of the at least one second resource and a frequency band of at least one third resource for the at least one second sidelink reference signal.
The method of claim 10, wherein the first measurement report further comprises further measurement information about the at least one second sidelink reference signal.
The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining at least one fourth resource based on the timing configuration and the frequency range; and

communicating, with the second communication device or the third communication device, a second measurement report using the at least one fourth resource, the second measurement report comprising at least measurement information about the at least one second sidelink reference signal.
The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one first resource and the at least one fourth resource are in a second slot, and

wherein the at least one first resource and the at least one fourth resource are discrete in the frequency range with a uniform distribution, or are contiguous in the frequency range.
The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one first resource and the at least one fourth resource are in different slots.
The method of any of claims 10-14, wherein the least one first sidelink reference signal and the at least one second sidelink reference signal are communicated in a time division multiplexing (TDM) manner or in a frequency division multiplexing (FDM) manner.
The method of any of claims 1-15, wherein the at least one first resource comprises at least one resource for a feedback channel.
The method of any of claims 1-16, wherein the at least one first sidelink reference signal is transmitted from the second communication device to the first communication device, and wherein communicating the first measurement report with the second communication device comprises:

transmitting the first measurement report to the second communication device.
The method of any of claims 1-16, wherein the at least one first sidelink reference signal is transmitted from the first communication device to the second communication device, and wherein communicating the first measurement report with the second communication device comprises:

receiving the first measurement report from the second communication device.
A communication device comprising:

at least one processor configured to cause the device to perform the method according to any of claims 1-18.
A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to perform the method according to any of claims 1-18.