WO2024065837A1

WO2024065837A1 - Device, method and computer readable medium for sidelink communications

Info

Publication number: WO2024065837A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/123632
Authority: WO
Inventors: Renato Barbosa ABREU; Nuno Manuel KIILERICH PRATAS; Timo Erkki Lunttila; Yong Liu; Jianguo Liu; Thomas Haaning Jacobsen; Laura Luque SANCHEZ; Antti-Veikko Sakari Piipponen; Takayuki Shimizu; Claude Arzelier
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co., Ltd.; Nokia Solutions And Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2022-09-30
Filing date: 2022-09-30
Publication date: 2024-04-04

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to method, device and computer readable media for sidelink communications. A first device determines whether in-band emission (IBE) will degrade a reception of a first transmission from the first device or a second transmission from a second device, wherein the first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on a first slot and in a first transmission band. If the in-band emission will degrade the reception, the first device changes a first starting point of the first transmission.

Description

DEVICE, METHOD AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR SIDELINK COMMUNICATIONS

TECHNICAL FIELD

Implementations of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication, and in particular, to devices, methods and computer readable media for sidelink (SL) communications.

BACKGROUND

Certain communication systems enable vehicle to everything (V2X) and device to device (D2D) communications to be performed. V2X communications can be based on communication technologies such as sidelink communication technologies. For this, sidelink resource pools and sidelink channels can be established for vehicles participating in such communications.

In V2X communications, there are two modes of resource allocation. In a first mode (also referred to as NR V2X mode 1 or mode 1 hereinafter) , one terminal device may perform V2X communications with the other terminal device by using resources allocated by a network device. In a second mode (also referred to as NR V2X mode 2 or mode 2 hereinafter) , one terminal device may perform V2X communications with the other terminal device by using resources autonomously selected in a resource pool by the one terminal device.

SUMMARY

In general, example implementations of the present disclosure provide devices, methods and computer readable media for sidelink communications.

In a first aspect, there is provided a first device. The first device comprises at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program codes. The at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the first device to: determine whether in-band emission (IBE) will degrade a reception of a first transmission from the first device or a second transmission from a second device, wherein the first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on a first slot and in a first transmission band; and in accordance with a determination that the in-band emission will degrade the reception, change a first starting point of the first transmission.

In a second aspect, there is provided a method implemented at a first device. The method comprises: determining whether IBE will degrade a reception of a first transmission from the first device or a second transmission from a second device, wherein the first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on a first slot and in a first transmission band; and in accordance with a determination that the in-band emission will degrade the reception, changing a first starting point of the first transmission.

In a third aspect, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises: means for determining whether IBE will degrade a reception of a first transmission from the first device or a second transmission from a second device, wherein the first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on a first slot and in a first transmission band; and means for changing a first starting point of the first transmission in accordance with a determination that the IBE will degrade the reception.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium. The non-transitory computer readable medium comprises program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform the method according to the second aspect.

It is to be understood that the summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of implementations of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. 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 implementations 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:

Figs. 1A and 1B illustrate an example communication network in which implementations of the present disclosure can be implemented, respectively;

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of a CCA slot in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure;

Fig. 3 illustrates an example of acquisition of Channel Occupancy Time (COT) in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure;

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a contention window countdown procedure in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure;

Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate an example of allowed gaps for which Type 2 Listen Before Talk (LBT) procedures to be applicable in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure, respectively;

Fig. 7 illustrates an example of NR SL resource allocation in mode 2 in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure;

Fig. 8 illustrates an example of an SL slot structure in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure;

Fig. 9 illustrates an example of interlaced Frequency Domain Multiplexing (FDM) scheme for NR-U uplink in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure;

Fig. 10 illustrates a flowchart of an SL mode 2 resource allocation scheme in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure;

Fig. 11 illustrates a flowchart of a method for determining a resource candidate set in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure;

Fig. 12 illustrates an example of in-band emission (IBE) in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure;

Fig. 13 illustrates an example of a simulation of emission levels of a terminal device transmitting in one interlace

Fig. 14 illustrates a flowchart of an example method in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure;

Fig. 15A illustrates an example where a starting point is unchanged in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure;

Figs. 15B and 15C illustrate an example where a starting point is changed in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure, respectively;

Fig. 16 illustrates a flowchart of another example method in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure;

Fig. 17 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an apparatus that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure; and

Fig. 18 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some implementations 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 example 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 limitation 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.

References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment, ” “an embodiment, ” “an example embodiment, ” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

It shall be understood that although the terms “first” and “second” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. 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. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” , “comprising” , “has” , “having” , “includes” and/or “including” , when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and/or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and/or combinations thereof. As used herein, “at least one of the following: <a list of two or more elements>” and “at least one of <a list of two or more elements>” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or” , mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.

As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:

(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry) and

(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable) :

(i) a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuit (s) with software/firmware and

(ii) any portions of hardware processor (s) with software (including digital signal processor (s) ) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and

(c) hardware circuit (s) and or processor (s) , such as a microprocessor (s) or a portion of a microprocessor (s) , that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) , Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, 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 future fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, and/or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP) , for example, a node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a NR NB (also referred to as a gNB) , a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology.

The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE) , a Subscriber Station (SS) , a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS) , or an Access Terminal (AT) . The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE) , laptop-mounted equipment (LME) , USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE) , an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD) , a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery) , an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and/or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and/or an automated processing chain contexts) , a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and/or industrial wireless networks, and the like. In the following description, the terms “terminal device” , “communication device” , “terminal” , “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

Fig. 1A illustrates a schematic diagram of an example communication network 100A in which implementations of the present disclosure can be implemented. As shown in Fig. 1A, the communication network 100A may comprise a first device 110, a second device 120, a third device 130 and a fourth device 140 which may communicate with each other via respective wireless communication channels.

The first device 110 may perform a first transmission to the fourth device 140. In other words, the fourth device 140 may perform a reception of the first transmission from the first device 110. In this case, the fourth device 140 may be referred to as a receiver of the first device 110.

Similarly, the second device 120 may perform a second transmission to the third device 130. In other words, the third device 130 may perform a reception of the second transmission from the second device 120. In this case, the third device 130 may be referred to as a receiver of the second device 120.

Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example communication network 100A in which implementations of the present disclosure can be implemented. As shown in Fig. 1, the communication network 100A may comprise a first device 110, a second device 120, a third device 130 and a fourth device 140 which may communicate with each other via respective wireless communication channels.

It is to be understood that the number of

devices

110, 120, 130 and 140 in Fig. 1 is given for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations to the present disclosure. The communication network 100A may include any suitable number of devices adapted for implementing implementations of the present disclosure.

Fig. 1B illustrates a schematic diagram of an example communication network 100B in which implementations of the present disclosure can be implemented. As shown in Fig. 1B, the communication network 100B may comprise the first device 110 and the second device 120 as shown in Fig. 1A as well as a fifth device 150 which may communicate with each other via respective wireless communication channels.

In this example, only for ease of discussion, the first device 110 and the second device 120 are illustrated as vehicles which enable V2X communications and the fifth device 150 is illustrated as a network device serving the

vehicles

110 and 120. It is to be understood that the vehicles and the network device are only example implementations of the first device 110, the second device 120 and the fifth device 150, respectively, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the present application. Any other suitable implementations are possible as well.

The communications in the

communication networks

100A and 100B may conform to any suitable standards including, but not limited to, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) , LTE, LTE-Evolution, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , GSM EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN) , Machine Type Communication (MTC) and the like. Furthermore, the communications 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.

In some implementations, the first device 110 may communicate with the second device 120, as shown in Fig. 1B.

In some implementations, the communications in the

communication networks

100A and 100B may include sidelink communications. In such implementations, the first device 110, the second device 120, the third device 130 and the fourth device 140 may use sidelink channels to transmit sidelink signaling or information. The sidelink channels may comprise at least one of the following: a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH) which is used for carrying sidelink control information (SCI) , a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH) which is used for carrying sidelink data, a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) which is used for carrying sidelink ACK/NACK feedback information, a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) which is used for carrying sidelink broadcast information, and a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH) which is used for carrying a sidelink discovery signal.

In some embodiments, the communications in the

communication networks

100A and 100B may be performed in a sidelink unlicensed band. Hereinafter, background for operation in the unlicensed band will be described with reference to Figs. 2 to 6.

Unlicensed operation background

In sub-7GHz unlicensed bands, the new radio (NR) coexistence with other systems (e.g. IEEE 802.11) may be ensured via an LBT channel access mechanism. According to the channel access mechanism, a user equipment (UE) (such as, the first device 110 or the second device 120) intending to perform an SL communication (such as the SL communication 112 or 122) may need first to successfully complete an LBT check, before being able to initiate the same SL communication. Hereinafter, an LBT procedure may also be referred to as Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) or channel access procedure.

For a UE to pass an LBT check, it must observe the channel as available for a number of consecutive CCA slots. In sub-7GHz, the duration of these slots is 9 μs, as depicted in Fig. 2. Fig. 2 shows that CCA slot may have a duration T _sl = 9 us, where the energy sensing takes place during 4 us. The UE deems the channel as available in a CCA slot if the measured power (i.e. the collected energy during the CCA slot) is below a regulatory specified threshold which may depend on the operating band and geographical region.

In an example, when a UE (e.g., the first device 110) takes a role of an initiating device to initiate a communication with a responding device (e.g., the second device 120) , this initiating UE may need to acquire the “right” to access the channel for a certain period of time –as denoted in the regulations as the COT –by applying an “extended” LBT procedure where the channel must be deemed as free for the entire duration of a Contention Window (CW) . This “extended” LBT procedure is commonly known as a Type 1 LBT procedure or LBT Type 1 procedure as specified in TS 37.213. This procedure is illustrated in Fig. 3.

Both of a CW duration and a COT duration in Fig. 3 may depend on the Channel Access Priority Class (CAPC) associated with the UE’s traffic (e.g., p=1 to p=4) , as shown in Table 1. Control plane traffic (such as physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) ) may be transmitted with a priority of p=1, while user plane traffic has a priority of p>1. Table 1 depicts details of the Type 1 LBT for the Uu uplink (UL) case. It may be noted that in the downlink (DL) case, Type 1 LBT parameters may also in principle be adopted in SL.

Table 1

Table 1 shows CAPC for UL. The contention window length in CCA slots associated with each CAPC has a minimum (CW _min, p) and maximum (CW _max, p) . The duration of the COT is given by T _ulm cot, p.

Examples of behavior during the contention window countdown procedure are depicted in Fig. 4. It should be noted that if during the countdown procedure the LBT check fails in any CCA slot, the countdown procedure will stop and will only resume if the channel is deemed as free (i.e. the LBT check is successful) during a defer time.

In Fig. 4, T _d represents the defer time, T _sl represents the CCA slot duration and N represents the number of CCA slots required to be deemed as free before the contention window countdown is completed. Specifically, Fig. 4 shows a Type 1 LBT contention window countdown procedure and examples on how it can be disrupted. In example (a) , when neither the defer time T _d nor the countdown are disrupted (i.e., the channel is not detected as busy during a sensing slot) . In example (b) , the defer time T _d is disrupted (i.e., the channel is detected as busy during a defer time sensing slot) . In example (c) , the contention window countdown is disrupted (i.e., the channel is detected as busy during a sensing slot of the countdown) .

The UE initiating the transmission (also referred to as the initiating device, e.g., the second device 120) upon successfully completing performing the Type 1 LBT procedure and performing a transmission (e.g., to the first device 110) , may acquire the COT with duration associated with a priority p in the corresponding CAPC. The acquired COT may be valid even in the case where the initiating device may pause its transmission, although if the initiating device wants to perform a new transmission (within the COT) it may still be required to perform a “reduced” LBT procedure. This “reduced” LBT procedure is commonly known as a Type 2 LBT procedure or LBT Type 2 procedure with the following variants:

· Type 2A (25 μs LBT) –for SL transmissions within a COT that the initiating device acquires (in case the gap between two SL transmissions is ≥ 25 μs, as well for SL transmissions following another SL transmission) , as depicted in example (c) in Fig. 5 and example (f) in Fig. 6;

· Type 2B (16 μs LBT) –for SL transmission within a COT that the initiating device acquires (can only be used for SL transmissions following another SL with a gap exactly equal to 16 μs) , as depicted in example (b) in Fig. 5 and example (e) in Fig. 6;

· Type 2C (no LBT) –which can only be used for SL transmission following another SL, with a gap < 16 μs and the allowed duration of the SL transmission ≤ 584 μs, as depicted in example (a) in Fig. 5 and example (d) in Fig. 6.

In addition, the examples (a) , (b) and (c) show the case where the gap is between the two transmissions both from the same initiating UE (i.e., the first device 110) , while the examples (d) , (e) , and (f) show the case that the gap is between the two different transmissions from the initiating UE (e.g., the second device 120) and the responding UE (e.g., the first device 110) , correspondingly.

The initiating device (e.g., the second device 120) may share its acquired COT with its intended receiver (also referred to as the responding device (e.g., the first device 110) ) . For this purpose, the initiating device shall inform (e.g., via control signaling) the responding device about the duration of this COT. The responding device then uses this information to decide which type of LBT procedure it should apply upon performing a transmission for which the intended receiver is the initiating device. In case the responding device transmission falls outside the COT, then the responding device will have to acquire a new COT using the Type 1 LBT with an appropriate class p in the CAPC.

NR-SL Overview

NR SL has been designed to facilitate a UE to communicate with other nearby UE(s) via direct/SL communication. Two resource allocation modes have been specified, and a SL transmitter (TX) UE (such as the first device 110 or the second device 120) is configured with one of them to perform its NR SL transmissions. These modes are denoted as NR SL mode 1 and NR SL mode 2. In mode 1, a sidelink transmission resource is assigned or scheduled by a network device (such as the fifth device 130) to the SL TX UE, while a SL TX UE in mode 2 autonomously selects its SL transmission resources.

In mode 1, the network device (such as the fifth device 130) is responsible for SL resource allocation, the configuration and operation is similar to the one over the Uu interface, as shown in Fig. 1C. In mode 1, it is possible to configure a single resource pool spanning the whole spectrum including the unavailable part (s) , but the network device schedules only sub-channels containing available PRBs. When the UE has data to transmit, it can request resources to the network device via SL-BSR MAC CE or via PUCCH resource configured for a SL logical channel to send SR, as shown in Fig. 1C. A dynamic sidelink grant DCI (DCI format 3_0) may grant sidelink resources for up to three transmissions of a transport block. The network device may also provide one or multiple configured grants allocating periodic sidelink resources. The MAC level details of this procedure are given in section 5.8.3 of 38.321.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example of NR SL resource allocation in mode 2. In mode 2, SL UEs perform autonomously the resource selection with the aid of a sensing procedure. More specifically, a SL TX UE in NR SL mode 2 first performs a sensing procedure over the configured one or more SL transmission resource pools in order to obtain the knowledge of one or more reserved resources by at least one other nearby SL TX UE. Based on the knowledge obtained from sensing, the SL TX UE may select at least one resource from the available SL resources accordingly. In order for a SL UE to perform sensing and obtain the necessary information to receive a SL transmission, it needs to decode the sidelink control information (SCI) . In Release 16, the SCI associated with a data transmission includes a 1st-stage SCI and 2nd-stage SCI.

Legacy SL physical layer structure background

In legacy SL, with contiguous RB-based transmission, in the frequency domain a resource pool (RP) consists of a set of consecutive sub-channels, where a sub-channel consists of a number of consecutive resource blocks (RB) . The total number of RBs within a given RP may be configured with the value from 10 to 275. Generally, the SL resource allocation, sensing, and resource selection operations are based on sub-channel. According to TS 38.331, the size of a sub-channel is configurable and may take the

values

10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 50, 75, and 100 RBs, and there may be from 1 to 27 configured number of sub-channels in a given RP.

For PSCCH transmission, it is always associated with the lowest sub-channel of scheduled PSSCH, meaning that, the bandwidth size (in terms of number of RBs) of PSCCH is always smaller or equal to the size of one sub-channel. The configuration of the PSCCH (e.g., DMRS, MCS, number of symbols used) is also part of the resource pool configuration. The PSCCH occupies sl-FreqResourcePSCCH PRBs over sl-TimeResourcePSCCH (which may be equal to 2 or 3) OFDM symbols which are (pre) configured by resource pool signaling, e.g. by RRC according TS 38.331. sl-FreqResourcePSCCH may be equal to or less than the sub-channel size. For example, sl-FreqResourcePSCCH may be equal to 10, 12, 15, 20 or 25.

An example of an SL slot structure is depicted in Fig. 8. Specifically, Fig. 8 shows a slot with PSCCH/PSSCH in an example (a) and a slot with PSCCH/PSSCH where the last symbols are used for PSFCH in an example (b) . It shall be noted that the location of the PSCCH is in the lowest part of the allocated sub-channel (s) .

Occupied Channel Bandwidth (OCB) and Power Spectral Density (PSD) requirements

The scope of NR in unlicensed spectrum was limited to below 7 GHz bands. For this frequency range, the following spectrum regulatory requirements for the design of UL physical channels are captured from EU regulations.

ETSI specifies that OCB shall be between 80%and 100%of the declared Nominal Channel Bandwidth.

As per updated ETSI regulation, during a COT, equipment may operate temporarily with an Occupied Channel Bandwidth of less than 80 %of its Nominal Channel Bandwidth with a minimum of 2 MHz.

Regulations on the maximum power spectral density are typically stated with a resolution bandwidth of 1 MHz. The ETSI specification requires a maximum Power Spectral Density (PSD) of 10 dBm/MHz for 5150-5350 MHz. It requires 10 KHz resolution for testing the 1 MHz PSD constraint and, thus, the maximum PSD constraint should be met in any occupied 1 MHz bandwidth.

In addition, the regulations impose a band specific total maximum transmission power in terms of EIRP, e.g., ETSI has EIRP limit of 23 dBm for 5150 –5350 MHz.

The regulatory limitations in terms of OCB and PSD guided the design choices for the uplink channels of NR-unlicensed system. The interlaced Frequency Domain Multiplexing (FDM) scheme was adopted. Fig. 9 illustrates an example of interlaced FDM scheme for15 kHz subcarrier spacing (SCS) . In interlaced FDM, specified in TS38.214 as UL resource allocation type 2, the UL resources are allocated in interlaces of 10 equidistant PRBs. The number of interlaces is 10 for 15 kHz SCS and 5 for 30 kHz SCS. For sidelink, one sub-channel equals K interlaces. For example, if sub-channels are configured to be equal to 1 interlace, one sub-channel may contain all the RBs associated to interlace#0. And if sub-channels are configured to be equal to 2 interlaces one sub-channel may comprise all the RBs associated to interlace#0 and interlace#1.

NR SL resource allocation mode 2

In mode 2 SL, each UE autonomously selects resources by decoding physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) (or sidelink control information (SCI) ) and performing RSRP measurement of (pre-) configured resource pool (s) based on a procedure specified in 3GPP 38.214 Section 8.1 on a candidate resource pool during a sensing window interval.

Fig. 10 illustrates a flowchart of a legacy SL resource allocation method 1000. As shown in Fig. 10, at block 1010, UE (for example, the first device 110) has data to transmit and thus the sensing procedure for resource selection is initiated.

At block 1020, UE collects sensing information including reserved resources and SL-RSRP measurements.

At block 1030, UE forms a candidate resource set.

At block 1040, UE selects Tx resources semi-persistently, or up to maximum reservations, with starting time ‘m’ .

At block 1050, UE re-evaluates resource selection by keeping decoding other UEs’ PSCCH and measuring corresponding PSSCH energy.

At block 1060, UE determines whether resource re-selection is triggered (from re-evaluation) .

If the resource re-selection is not triggered, UE begins transmission at block 1070. If the resource re-selection is triggered, the method 1000 proceeds to block 1020.

At block 1080, UE determines whether resource re-selection is triggered by reaching maximum number of reservations.

If the resource re-selection is triggered by reaching maximum number of reservations, UE restarts the method 1000 and method 1000 proceeds to block 1020. If the resource re-selection is not triggered by reaching maximum number of reservations, UE continues using reservation and the method 1000 proceeds to block 1070.

In the method 1000, regarding the block 1010, the monitoring of the resource pool and acquisition of information to be used during the resource selection procedure can be done prior to the Tx UE knowing that it has a transmission to perform. In addition, regarding the block 1030, after the Tx UE has acquired enough information from its monitoring of the resource pool it can form the candidate resource set.

Fig. 11 illustrates a flowchart of a method 1100 for determining the resource candidate set. A method 1100 occurs for resources within a candidate resource pool, which have been monitored during a sensing window interval. During this sensing window interval, UE (for example, the first device 110) collects the set of S _A of potential candidate resource slots that are within a defined selection window period and excludes all resources/slots which meet at least one of the following:

· The UE has not monitored them during the sensing period (e.g. due to own transmission or other activities including DRX) ; and

· The decoded SCI format 1-Aindicates that the candidate slot is reserved and the corresponding measured RSRP is above a pre-configured RSRP _threshold.

Specifically, as shown in Fig. 11, at block 1110, UE determines the selection window and set RSRP _threshold.

At block 1120, UE initializes a candidate single-slot resource set S _A.

At block 1130, UE excludes not-monitored resources from the set S _A.

At block 1140, UE excludes resources with RSRP greater than RSRP _threshold from the set S _A.

At block 1150, UE determines whether the number of remaining slots is greater than |X. S _A|, where X = 0.2, 0.35, or 0.5, |S _A| represents the initial total number of resources in the set S _A.

If the number of remaining slots is less than |X. S _A|, UE increases, at block 1160, the RSRP _threshold by a step (i.e., RSRP _threshold = RSRP _threshold + step, where the step is currently defined to be 3 dB) . Then, the method 1100 proceeds to block 1120.

If the number of remaining slots is greater than |X. S _A|, UE, at block 1170, forwards the potential candidate slots to the higher for final resource selection.

For interlace-RB-based transmissions, In Band Emission (IBE) impact is more significant in PC5 interface than at Uu interface. This is the case since, due to the slow decay of IBE in frequency, PRBs surrounding or over IQ image frequencies of the PRBs in which a UE is transmitting may suffer substantial interference. Relative locations of UEs may cause large power differences (near-far scenario) received at a UE. Interference due to IBE is aggravated for near-far scenario encountered in sidelink communication. Hence enhancement to interlace RB-based transmissions is required to reduce IBE impact for sidelink communication in unlicensed spectrum. It should be noted that this issue was not observed in the NR-U UL in Uu, since the UEs are power controlled so that the Rx power from the different UEs transmission is similar at gNB side.

Hereinafter, the IBE issue will be described with reference to Fig. 1A, 12 and 13.

As described with reference to Fig. 1A, the first device 110 performs the first transmission to the fourth device 140, and the second device 120 performs the second transmission to the third device 130. The first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on a first slot and in a first transmission band. The first transmission band may mean a band where an LBT procedure is performed in unlicensed or shared channels.

In some implementations, the first transmission is to be performed on a first frequency domain allocation in the first transmission band and the second transmission is to be performed on a second frequency domain allocation in the first transmission band. For example, the first transmission is to be performed on a first interlace in the first transmission band and the second transmission is to be performed on a second interlace in the first transmission band.

In some implementations, a first frequency separation between the first frequency domain allocation and the second frequency domain allocation is within at least one frequency interval.

The first transmission from the first device 110 may cause IBE to the reception of the second transmission from the second device 120. In this regard, the IBE will degrade the reception of the second transmission from the second device 120.

Similarly, the second transmission from the second device 120 may cause IBE to the reception of the first transmission from the first device 110. In this regard, the IBE will degrade the reception of the first transmission from the first device 110.

Fig. 12 shows IBE 1230 from the first transmission 1210 of the first device 110 interferes the reception of the second transmission 1220 from the second device 120.

Fig. 13 shows a simulation (based on model from TS38.101-1) of the emission levels of a UE transmitting in one interlace. The interlace comprises 10 RBs equally spaced over the 20 MHz band. Total transmit power is equal to19.5 dBm. A modulation scheme of QPSK is used. Tx frequency is at 5.2GHz.

Fig. 13 highlights the IBE levels of -25dBm/RB and -20dBm/RB on RBs adjacent to transmitting interlace RBs (higher peaks) and on RBs over the IQ image frequencies (lower peaks) , respectively. It is worth nothing that these levels still meet the specification requirements. However, assuming an SL scenario where an aggressor Tx UE (for example, the first device 110 as shown in Fig. 1A) is at 1 m distance of a victim Rx UE (for example, the third device 130 as shown in Fig. 1A) and a source Tx UE (for example, the second device 120 as shown in Fig. 1A) is at 20 m distance, and assuming that both Tx UEs transmit with same power, and path loss difference between aggressor and source Tx UEs is calculated to be ～26 dB (assuming free space) , there is high likelihood of a below 0 dB SINR on the highlighted resources (RBs 31 and 35 as well as other RBs of their interlace) which may translate to a degraded reception on a victim Rx UE receiving a transmission on these resources.

In order to solve the above and other potential problems, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for sidelink communications. In the solution, a first device determines whether IBE will degrade a reception of a first transmission from the first device or a second transmission from a second device. The first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on a first slot and in a first transmission band. If it is determined that the IBE will degrade the reception, the first device changes a first starting point of the first transmission. This solution allows protecting a transmission from the effect of IBE. For example, a transmission of high priority will be protected from the effect of IBE which can be very harmful on sidelink communication especially when interlace-RB-based allocation is adopted.

Hereinafter, principle of the present disclosure will be described with reference to Figs. 14 to 18.

Fig. 14 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 1400 in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure. In some implementations, the method 1400 can be implemented at a device, such as the first device 110 or the second device 120 as shown in Fig. 1A or 1B. In some implementations, the method 1400 can be implemented at the third device 130 or the fourth device 140 as shown in Fig. 1A. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1400 will be described with reference to Fig. 1A or 1B as performed by the first device 110 without loss of generality.

At block 1410, the first device 110 determines whether IBE will degrade a reception of the first transmission from the first device 110 or the second transmission from the second device 120. The first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on a first slot and in a first transmission band.

If the first device 110 determines that the IBE will degrade the reception, the first device 110 changes, at block 1420, a first starting point of the first transmission.

The method 1400 allows protecting a transmission from the effect of IBE. For example, a transmission of high priority will be protected from the effect of IBE which can be very harmful on sidelink communication especially when interlace-RB-based allocation is adopted.

In some implementations, if the first device 110 determines that the first transmission from the first device 110 is to be performed on a first frequency domain allocation in the first transmission band and the second transmission from the second device 120 is to be performed on a second frequency domain allocation in the first transmission band, and a first frequency separation between the first frequency domain allocation and the second frequency domain allocation is within at least one frequency interval, the first device 110 may determine that the IBE will degrade the reception of the first transmission or the second transmission.

In some implementations, the first transmission is to be performed on a first interlace in the first transmission band and the second transmission is to be performed on a second interlace in the first transmission band. The first frequency separation between the first interlace and the second interlace is within at least one frequency interval. This will be described with reference to Fig. 15A.

Fig. 15A illustrates an example where the first starting point of the first transmission from the first device 110 is unchanged. As shown in Fig. 15A, the first device 110 is preparing to perform the first transmission on a selected resource on an interlace #a. The first device 110 senses a resource reservation from the second device 120 on an interlace #b. A frequency separation (represented by w) between the interlace #aand the interlace #b is within at least one frequency interval, which is represented by W= [w _L, w _H] .

In some implementations, a first priority of the first transmission may be different from a second priority of the second transmission. For example, the first priority of the first transmission may be lower than the second priority of the second transmission. Alternatively, the first priority of the first transmission may be higher than the second priority of the second transmission.

In some implementations, the first device 110 may change the first starting point of the first transmission to be later than the second starting point of the second transmission based on determining at least one of the following:

· the first priority of the first transmission is lower than the second priority of the second transmission,

· an estimated receiving power (represented by y) of the second transmission is above a power threshold (represented by Y) ,

· a first distance between the first device 110 and the third device 130 receiving the second transmission is below a first distance threshold,

· a second distance between the second device 120 and the third device 130 receiving the second transmission is above a second distance threshold, or

· an index of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) associated with the second transmission corresponds to a modulation which an average error vector magnitude (EVM) is higher than a threshold.

Table 2 shows an example of association between a modulation scheme and an average EVM.

Table 2 (Requirements for EVM)

Parameter	Unit	Average EVM Level
Pi/2-BPSK	%		30
QPSK	%	17.5
16 QAM	%	12.5
64 QAM	%		8
256 QAM	%	3.5

Fig. 15B illustrates an example where the first starting point of the first transmission from the first device 110 is changed to be later than the second starting point of the second transmission. As shown in Fig. 15B, originally, both the first starting point of the first transmission from the first device 110 and the second starting point of the second transmission are at time 1510. After some implementations of the present disclosure are applied, the first device 110 performs an LBT procedure at time 1512. Ifthe LBT procedure succeeds, the first device 110 starts the first transmission at time 1514. In other words, after some implementations of the present disclosure are applied, the first device 110 changes the first starting point to be at time 1514 which is later than the second starting point of the second transmission at time 1510.

In the example of Fig. 15B, if the second device 120 succeeds to start the second transmission on interlace #b, then the first device 110 should be automatically blocked to start transmitting on interlace #aby the LBT procedure as the LBT procedure will sense the energy of the second transmission which starts earlier. Therefore, the second transmission from the second device 120, if occurring, will not be harmed by the IBE from the first device 110. In addition, if the second transmission from the second device 120 does not actually start on the reserved resource (e.g., due to LBT failure, reevaluation, or transmission dropping) , then the first device 110 still has a chance to start transmitting on interlace #alater on.

In some implementations, the change of the first starting point may preferably be at least 16 us, such that the first device 110 has time to perform Type 2B LBT procedure, or 25us to perform Type 2A LBT procedure and observe whether the second device 120 is transmitting.

In some implementations, in order to change the first starting point of the first transmission to be later than the second starting point of the second transmission, the first device 110 may reduce a first duration of a first cyclic prefix (CP) signal in comparison to a second duration of a second CP signal applied by the second device 120. The first CP signal is to be transmitted before the first transmission, and the second CP signal is to be transmitted before the second transmission. Alternatively, the first device 110 may puncture a start of an automatic gain control (AGC) symbol on the first slot. The first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on the first slot.

In some implementations, the first device 110 may change the first starting point of the first transmission to be earlier than the second starting point of the second transmission based on determining at least one of the following:

· the first priority of the first transmission is higher than the second priority of the second transmission,

· the estimated receiving power (represented by y) of the second transmission is above the power threshold (represented by Y) ,

· a third distance between the first device 110 and the fourth device 140 receiving the first transmission is above a third distance threshold,

· a fourth distance between the second device 120 and the fourth device 140 receiving the first transmission is below a fourth distance threshold, or

· an index of an MCS associated with the second transmission corresponds to a modulation which an average EVM is higher than a threshold.

Fig. 15C illustrates an example where the first starting point of the first transmission from the first device 110 is changed to be earlier than the second starting point of the second transmission. As shown in Fig. 15C, originally, both the first starting point of the first transmission from the first device 110 and the second starting point of the second transmission are at time 1520. The second device 120 performs an LBT procedure at time 1522. If the LBT procedure succeeds, the second device 120 starts the second transmission at time 1520. After some implementations of the present disclosure are applied, the first device 110 changes the first starting point to be at time 1524 which is earlier than the second starting point of the second transmission at time 1520.

In the example of Fig. 15C, the first transmission from the first device 110 (e.g., of higher priority) starts earlier and blocks the start of the lower priority transmission of the second device 1202 in the neighbour interlace, i.e., avoiding the lower priority transmission to cause IBE issues to the higher priority transmission. The example of Fig. 15C may be adopted in more severe circumstances, for example, the transmission is of the highest priority order and the scenario is interference limited.

In some implementations, in order to change the first starting point of the first transmission to be earlier than the second starting point of the second transmission, the first device 110 may increase a first duration of a first CP signal in comparison to a second duration of a second CP signal applied by the second device 120. The first CP signal is to be transmitted before the first transmission, and the second CP signal is to be transmitted before the second transmission. Alternatively, the first device 110 may reduce puncturing at a start of an AGC symbol on the first slot. The first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on the first slot.

Fig. 1600 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 1600 in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure. In some implementations, the method 1600 can be implemented at a device, such as the first device 110 or the second device 120 as shown in Fig. 1A or 1B. In some implementations, the method 1600 can be implemented at the third device 130 or the fourth device 140 as shown in Fig. 1A. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1600 will be described with reference to Fig. 1A or 1B as performed by the first device 110 without loss of generality. The method 1600 may be considered as an example implementation of the method 1400.

At block 1610, the first device 110 obtains a configuration for changing the first starting point of the first transmission. In some implementations, the first device 110 may obtain the configuration from the fifth device 150 via a radio resource control (RRC) signaling or dynamic signaling. Alternatively, the first device 110 may obtain the configuration from any of the second device 120, the third device 130 and the fourth device 140. In some implementations, the first device 110 may apply the change on the first starting point based on dynamic activation. In some implementations, the first device 110 may not apply the change on the first starting point based on dynamic deactivation.

In some implementations, the configuration for changing the first starting point of the first transmission may indicate at least one criterion for changing the first starting point of the first transmission, which has been described above.

For example, the configuration may indicate that the first device 110 may change the first starting point based on determining at least one of the following:

· the first transmission is to be performed on the first frequency domain allocation in the first transmission band and the second transmission is to be performed on the second frequency domain allocation in the first transmission band, and the first frequency separation between the first frequency domain allocation and the second frequency domain allocation is within at least one frequency interval.

· the first priority of the first transmission is different from the second priority of the second transmission,

· the estimated receiving power of the second transmission is above the power threshold,

· the first distance between the first device 110 and a third device 130 receiving the second transmission is below the first distance threshold,

· the second distance between the second device 120 and the third device 130 receiving the second transmission is above the second distance threshold,

· the third distance between the first device 110 and a fourth device 140 receiving the first transmission is above the third distance threshold,

· the fourth distance between the second device 120 and the fourth device 140 receiving the first transmission is below the fourth distance threshold, or

· the index of the MCS associated with the second transmission corresponds to a modulation which an average EVM is higher than a threshold.

In some implementations, the configuration may indicate at least one threshold associated with the respective criterion for changing the first starting point of the first transmission.

Alternatively, in some implementations, the at least one criterion for changing the first starting point of the first transmission and the respective threshold may be preconfigured or predefined.

With continued reference to Fig. 16, at block 1620, the first device 110 performs sensing procedure and resource allocation procedure. For example, the first device 110 may perform sensing procedure and resource allocation procedure as shown in Fig. 10. In addition, the first device 110 may perform the method 1100 in Fig. 11 to determine a resource candidate set for the first transmission. Alternatively, the first device 110 may perform mode 1 resource allocation procedure.

At block 1630, the first device 110 determines the first frequency separation between the first frequency domain allocation for the first transmission and the second frequency domain allocation for the second transmission.

At block 1640, the first device 110 determines whether the first frequency separation is within at least one frequency interval W.

In some implementations, the at least one frequency interval W may be defined based on location of RBs which may more likely suffer IBE interference, i.e., adjacent to allocated RBs, close to the IQ image frequency and to the center frequency. For example, as shown in Fig. 13, the second peaks (i.e., the lower peeks) corresponds to the IQ image frequencies which are approximately -20 dBm/RB. IQ image frequencies may be the frequencies where there is IBE caused by IQ imbalance in the modulation.

The at least one frequency interval W may depend on the subcarrier spacing (SCS) . For example, in 15kHz SCS, the first device 110 may apply the change on the first starting point if w is within W1= [0, 1) , i.e., adjacent RBs, and within W2= [4, 5] , i.e., RBs over IQ image frequency.

Regarding the frequency interval W1= [0, 1) , “0” refers to the lower limit of the separation in number of RBs and “1” refers to the higher limit of the separation in number of RBs. Similarly, regarding the frequency interval W2= [4, 5] , “4” refers to the lower limit of the separation in number of RBs and “5” refers to the higher limit of the separation in number of RBs. Thus, if the first frequency separation w is equal to 0 to 1 RB, RBs in the first frequency domain allocation for the first transmission and RBs in the second frequency domain allocation for the second transmission are adjacent to each other. If the first frequency separation w is equal to 0 to 1 RB or equal to 4 to 5 RBs, the first device 110 may determine that IBE issue is present.

In some implementations, the at least one frequency interval W may be associated with the power threshold. In such implementations, the first device 110 may be configured with different thresholds associated with the estimated receiving power for different frequency separations in order to determine the change on the first starting point.

For example, if the first frequency separation between the first interlace and the second interface and RSRP of reserved interlace are as follows in Table 3 (not restrict to this example) , the first device 110 may change the first starting point.

Table 3

It shall be understood that Table 3 just shows an example of association between the first frequency separation w and the power threshold. The scope of the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

At block 1650, the first device 110 determines whether the estimated receiving power threshold and/or distance threshold are violated. For example, the first device 110 determines at least one of the following:

· the first distance between the first device 110 and the third device 130 receiving the second transmission is below the first distance threshold,

· the third distance between the first device 110 and the fourth device 140 receiving the first transmission is above the third distance threshold, or

· the fourth distance between the second device 120 and the fourth device 140 receiving the first transmission is below the fourth distance threshold.

Fig. 1A just shows an example of the first distance, the second distance, the third distance and the fourth distance.

In some implementations, the first distance threshold, the second distance threshold, the third distance threshold and the fourth distance threshold may be configured or pre-configured.

In some implementations, to estimate these distances, for example, the first device 110 may utilize the received V2X messages that include Tx UE’s position information and/or the zone ID and communication range requirement contained in the second SCI Format 2-B (for groupcast with NACK-only HARQ feedback) . For example, the V2X messages may comprise System Architecture Evolution Basic Safety Message (SAE BSM) or European Telecommunications Standard Institute Cooperative Awareness Message (ETSI CAM) . The communication range requirement may be used to estimate the maximum distance between the first device 110 and target receivers of the first device 110 and the maximum distance between the second device 120 and target receivers of the second device 120.

In some implementations, the first device 110 may determine the estimated receiving power of the second transmission based on a reference signal received power of a resource reservation signal received from the second device 120.

Alternatively, the first device 110 may determine the estimated receiving power of the second transmission based on a first measurement report received from the fourth device 140 receiving the first transmission. For example, the fourth device 140 receiving the first transmission may report strong IBE interfering UE (e.g., the second device 120) and the receiving power (e.g. average or interlaced-based RSRP in semi-static or dynamic way) . Based on the report, the first device 110 may use this to determine whether to apply an early transmission starting point.

Alternatively, the first device 110 may determine the estimated receiving power of the second transmission based on a second measurement report received from the third device 130 receiving the second transmission. For example, the first device 110 may use this information to determine whether it may cause IBE issue to the third device 130 receiving the second transmission and therefore determine whether to apply a later transmission starting point.

Returning to Fig. 16, if the estimated receiving power threshold and/or distance threshold are violated, the method 1600 proceeds to block 1660. At block 1660, the first device 110 determines whether the first priority of the first transmission is lower than the second priority of the second transmission. If the first priority is lower than the second priority, the method 1600 proceeds to block 1670. At block 1670, the first device 110 changes the first starting point to be later than the second starting point.

If the first priority is not lower than the second priority, the method 1600 proceeds to block 1680. At block 1680, the first device 110 determines whether the first priority is higher than the second priority.

If the first priority is higher than the second priority, the method 1600 proceeds to block 1690. At block 1690, the first device 110 changes the first starting point to be earlier than the second starting point.

As mentioned above, in order to change the first starting point of the first transmission to be later than the second starting point of the second transmission, the first device 110 may reduce the first duration of the first CP signal in comparison to the second duration of the second CP signal applied by the second device 120, or puncture the start of the AGC symbol on the first slot. The first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on the first slot.

In some implementations, the first duration of the first CP signal may be associated with at least one of the following:

· the first priority of the first transmission,

· the second priority of the second transmission, or

· a difference between the first priority and the second priority.

In some implementations, a puncturing duration of the start of the AGC symbol may be associated with at least one of the following:

· the first priority of the first transmission,

· the second priority of the second transmission, or

· a difference between the first priority and the second priority.

In some implementations, higher priorities apply a longer duration of a CP signal or less puncturing, while lower priorities apply a shorter duration of a CP signal or more puncturing. Thus, if a device with the highest priority does not transmit, a device with the next highest priority should be able to transmit and so on. One example configuration for priority index, a duration of a CP signal and a puncturing duration is shown in Table 4.

Table 4

In Table 4, a priority index represents an index of the first priority of the first transmission from the first device 110. If the index of the first priority is equal to 0 or 1, the first duration of the first CP signal is equal to “Tsymb-25us” . Tsymb is the duration of one OFDM symbol. For example, Tsymb is equal to 71us in 15kHz subcarrier spacing. In this case, the first duration of the first CP signal will be equal to 71-25= 46us.

In Table 4, if the index of the first priority is equal to 5, 6 or 7, a puncturing duration of -25us will be applied. In other words, the first starting point is changed by -25us, which is equivalent to an AGC puncturing of 25us.

Alternatively, the first device 110 may be configured to apply a CP signal if its transmission has higher priority than that of the second device 120, or apply an AGC puncturing if its transmission has lower priority. One example configuration for priority of the first transmission from the first device 110 in relation to priority of the second transmission from the second device 120, a duration of a CP signal and a puncturing duration is shown in Table 5.

Table 5

In Table 5, for example, if the priority of the first transmission from the first device 110 is higher than the priority of the second transmission from the second device 120, the first duration of the first CP signal is equal to “Tsymb-25us” .

In some implementations, if the first device 110 determines that the first transmission is to be performed based on a first radio access technology (RAT) and the second transmission is to be performed based on a second RAT which is different from the first RAT, the first device 110 may change the first starting point of the first transmission.

In some implementations, the first RAT comprises a New Radio (NR) access technology and the second RAT comprises a Long Term Evolution (LTE) radio access technology. This permits improving coexistence with other systems, e.g. avoiding causing IBE issue to legacy systems.

In some implementations, the first device 110 may change the first starting point of the first transmission if the resource reservation of the second device 120 is for a transmission for a different RAT (for example, LTE versus NR) which is detected in the first device 110.

In some implementations, the first transmission is to be performed on a plurality of frequency domain allocations in sub-channels allocated for the first transmission. In such implementations, the first device 110 may change the first starting point of the first transmission in all of the frequency domain allocations. For example, the first device 110 may apply the change of transmission starting point to all the interlaces of the sub-channels allocated for the first transmission.

In some implementations, the first transmission is to be performed on sub-channels in the first transmission band allocated for the first transmission. In such implementations, the first device 110 may change the first starting point of the first transmission in all of the sub-channels. For example, the first device 110 may apply the change of transmission starting point to the sub-channels allocated in the same RB set where the resource reservation of the second device 120 is allocated.

In some implementations, the RSRP level is not considered or the power threshold Y is configured to be -infinity, which would be sufficient when the first device 110 has no reliable information on the anticipated received power of the neighbour interlaces at the intended receivers.

In some implementations, the first device 110 may apply the change in transmission starting point for non-interlaced based transmission, such as for contiguous RB based transmission.

In some implementations, the power threshold Y may be applied to any transmission priority or MCS or it can be a tabulated as function of both. The same observation is applicable to the at least one frequency interval W.

In some example implementations, the first device 110 may detect the resource reservation from multiple devices (for example, the second device 120 and the fourth device 140) in the same slot of its selected resource. In such example implementations, the first device 110 may change the first starting point in relation to the device which has resource reservation of higher priority, and/or in relation to the device which has higher estimated receive power, and/or in relation to the device which has closer separation in frequency in relation to the thresholds in the frequency interval W, and/or in relation to the device which has a receiver device closer to the first device 110, and/or in relation to the device which is closer to one or more receivers of the first device 110 (in the case of groupcast, the distance may be compared with every receiver in the group and make the decision based on the nearest one) .

In some example implementations, an apparatus capable of performing any of the method 1400 (for example, the first device 110) may comprise means for performing the respective steps of the method 1400. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.

In some example implementations, the apparatus comprises: means for determining whether IBE will degrade a reception of a first transmission from the first device 110 or a second transmission from the second device 120, wherein the first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on a first slot and in a first transmission band; and means for changing a first starting point of the first transmission in accordance with a determination that the IBE will degrade the reception.

In some implementations, the means for determining that the in-band emission will degrade the reception comprises: means for determining the first transmission is to be performed on a first frequency domain allocation in the first transmission band and the second transmission is to be performed on a second frequency domain allocation in the first transmission band, and a first frequency separation between the first frequency domain allocation and the second frequency domain allocation is within at least one frequency interval.

In some implementations, the means for determining that the in-band emission will degrade the reception comprises means for determining at least one of the following: a first priority of the first transmission is different from a second priority of the second transmission, an estimated receiving power of the second transmission is above a power threshold, a first distance between the first device and a third device receiving the second transmission is below a first distance threshold, a second distance between the second device and the third device receiving the second transmission is above a second distance threshold, a third distance between the first device and a fourth device receiving the first transmission is above a third distance threshold, a fourth distance between the second device and the fourth device receiving the first transmission is below a fourth distance threshold, or an index of a modulation and coding scheme associated with the second transmission corresponds to a modulation which an average error vector magnitude, EVM, is higher than a threshold.

In some implementations, the means for changing the first starting point to be later than the second starting point of the second transmission comprises: means for reducing a first duration of a first CP signal in comparison to a second duration of a second CP signal applied by the second device, In some implementations, the first CP signal is to be transmitted before the first transmission, and the second CP signal is to be transmitted before the second transmission; or means for puncturing a start of an automatic gain control, AGC, symbol on the first slot.

In some implementations, the means for changing the first starting point to be earlier than the second starting point comprises: means for increasing a first duration of a first CP signal in comparison to a second duration of a second CP signal applied by the second device, In some implementations, the first CP signal is to be transmitted before the first transmission, and the second CP signal is to be transmitted before the second transmission; or means for reducing puncturing at a start of an automatic gain control, AGC, symbol on the first slot.

In some implementations, the at least one frequency interval is associated with the power threshold.

In some implementations, the first duration of the first CP signal is associated with at least one of the following: the first priority of the first transmission, the second priority of the second transmission, or a difference between the first priority and the second priority.

In some implementations, a puncturing duration of the start of the AGC symbol is associated with at least one of the following: the first priority of the first transmission, the second priority of the second transmission, or a difference between the first priority and the second priority.

In some implementations, the first transmission and a group of transmissions from a group of devices are to be performed on the first slot and in the first transmission band, the group of transmissions comprises the second transmission. In such implementations, at least one of the following is met:

· a second priority of the second transmission is higher than priorities of other transmissions in the group,

· an estimated receiving power of the second transmission is higher than receiving powers of other transmissions in the group,

· the first distance between the first device and the third device receiving the second transmission is less than a distance between the first device and a device receiving one of the other transmissions, or

· the fourth distance between the second device and the fourth device receiving the first transmission is less than distances between a device transmitting one of the other transmissions and the fourth device.

In some implementations, the apparatus further comprises means for determining the estimated receiving power of the second transmission based on at least one of the following: a reference signal received power of a resource reservation signal received from the second device, a first measurement report received from the fourth device receiving the first transmission, or a second measurement report received from the third device receiving the second transmission.

In some implementations, the means for determining that the in-band emission will degrade the reception comprises means for determining that the first transmission is to be performed based on a first radio access technology (RAT) and the second transmission is to be performed based on a second RAT which is different from the first RAT.

In some implementations, the first RAT comprises a New Radio access technology and the second RAT comprises a Long Term Evolution radio access technology.

In some implementations, the first transmission is to be performed on a plurality of frequency domain allocations in sub-channels allocated for the first transmission. In such implementations, the means for changing the first starting point of the first transmission comprises means for changing the first starting point of the first transmission in all of the frequency domain allocations.

In some implementations, the first transmission is to be performed on sub-channels in the first transmission band allocated for the first transmission. In such implementations, the means for changing the first starting point of the first transmission comprises means for changing the first starting point of the first transmission in all of the sub-channels.

In some implementations, the apparatus further comprises means for obtaining a configuration for changing the first starting point of the first transmission. In some implementations, the means for determining whether the in-band emission will degrade the reception comprises means for determining whether the in-band emission will degrade the reception based on the configuration.

Fig. 17 is a simplified block diagram of a device 1700 that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 1700 may be provided to implement the communication device, for example, the first device 110 (for example, an Rx UE) or the second device 120 (for example, a Tx UE) as shown in Fig. 1. As shown, the device 1700 includes one or more processors 1710, one or more memories 1720 coupled to the processor 1710, and one or more communication modules 1740 coupled to the processor 1710.

The communication module 1740 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 1740 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements.

The processor 1710 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 1700 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.

The memory 1720 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 1724, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM) , a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD) , a digital video disk (DVD) , and other magnetic storage and/or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 1722 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

A computer program 1730 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 1710. The program 1730 may be stored in the ROM 1724. The processor 1710 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 1730 into the RAM 1722.

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 1730 so that the device 1700 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to Figs. 1 to 16. The embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

In some example embodiments, the program 1730 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 1700 (such as in the memory 1720) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 1700. The device 1700 may load the program 1730 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 1722 for execution. The computer readable medium may include any types of tangible non-volatile storage, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. Fig. 18 shows an example of the computer readable medium 1800 in form of CD or DVD. The computer readable medium has the program 1730 stored thereon.

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 representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method 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

methods

1600 and 1600 as described above with reference to Figs. 14 and 16. 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.

In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program codes or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer 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 computer 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 languages 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 first device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the first device to:

determine whether in-band emission will degrade a reception of a first transmission from the first device or a second transmission from a second device, wherein the first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on a first slot and in a first transmission band; and

in accordance with a determination that the in-band emission will degrade the reception, change a first starting point of the first transmission.
The first device of claim 1, wherein the first device is caused to determine that the in-band emission will degrade the reception by:

determining the first transmission is to be performed on a first frequency domain allocation in the first transmission band and the second transmission is to be performed on a second frequency domain allocation in the first transmission band, a first frequency separation between the first frequency domain allocation and the second frequency domain allocation is within at least one frequency interval.
The first device of claim 1 or 2, wherein the first device is caused to determine that the in-band emission will degrade the reception by determining at least one of the following:

a first priority of the first transmission is different from a second priority of the second transmission,

an estimated receiving power of the second transmission is above a power threshold,

a first distance between the first device and a third device receiving the second transmission is below a first distance threshold,

a second distance between the second device and the third device receiving the second transmission is above a second distance threshold,

a third distance between the first device and a fourth device receiving the first transmission is above a third distance threshold,

a fourth distance between the second device and the fourth device receiving the first transmission is below a fourth distance threshold, or

an index of a modulation and coding scheme associated with the second transmission corresponds to a modulation which an average error vector magnitude, EVM, is higher than a threshold.
The first device of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first device is caused to change the first starting point to be later than the second starting point of the second transmission by:

reducing a first duration of a first cyclic prefix, CP, signal in comparison to a second duration of a second CP signal applied by the second device, wherein the first CP signal is to be transmitted before the first transmission, and the second CP signal is to be transmitted before the second transmission; or

puncturing a start of an automatic gain control, AGC, symbol on the first slot.
The first device of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first device is caused to change the first starting point to be earlier than the second starting point by:

increasing a first duration of a first cyclic prefix, CP, signal in comparison to a second duration of a second CP signal applied by the second device, wherein the first CP signal is to be transmitted before the first transmission, and the second CP signal is to be transmitted before the second transmission; or

reducing puncturing at a start of an automatic gain control, AGC, symbol on the first slot.
The first device of claim 2, wherein the at least one frequency interval is associated with the power threshold.
The first device of claim 3 or 5, wherein the first duration of the first CP signal is associated with at least one of the following:

the first priority of the first transmission,

the second priority of the second transmission, or

a difference between the first priority and the second priority.
The first device of claim 3 or 5, wherein a puncturing duration of the start of the AGC symbol is associated with at least one of the following:

the first priority of the first transmission,

the second priority of the second transmission, or

a difference between the first priority and the second priority.
The first device of claim 2A, wherein the first transmission and a group of transmissions from a group of devices are to be performed on the first slot and in the first transmission band, the group of transmissions comprises the second transmission; and

wherein at least one of the following is met:

a second priority of the second transmission is higher than priorities of other transmissions in the group,

an estimated receiving power of the second transmission is higher than receiving powers of other transmissions in the group,

the first distance between the first device and the third device receiving the second transmission is less than a distance between the first device and a device receiving one of the other transmissions, or

the fourth distance between the second device and the fourth device receiving the first transmission is less than distances between a device transmitting one of the other transmissions and the fourth device.
The first device of claim 3, wherein the first device is further caused to determine the estimated receiving power of the second transmission based on at least one of the following:

a reference signal received power of a resource reservation signal received from the second device, or

a first measurement report received from the fourth device receiving the first transmission, or

a second measurement report received from the third device receiving the second transmission.
The first device of claim 1, wherein the first device is caused to determine that the in-band emission will degrade the reception by determining that the first transmission is to be performed based on a first radio access technology, RAT, and the second transmission is to be performed based on a second RAT which is different from the first RAT.
The first device of claim 11, wherein the first RAT comprises a New Radio access technology and the second RAT comprises a Long Term Evolution radio access technology.
The first device of claim 1, wherein the first transmission is to be performed on a plurality of frequency domain allocations in sub-channels allocated for the first transmission; and

wherein the first device is caused to change the first starting point of the first transmission in all of the frequency domain allocations.
The first device of claim 1, wherein the first transmission is to be performed on sub-channels in the first transmission band allocated for the first transmission; and

wherein the first device is caused to change the first starting point of the first transmission in all of the sub-channels.
The first device of claim 1, wherein the first device is further caused to obtain a configuration for changing the first starting point of the first transmission;

wherein the first device is caused to determine whether the in-band emission will degrade the reception based on the configuration.
A method, comprising:

determining, at a first device, whether in-band emission will degrade a reception of a first transmission from the first device or a second transmission from a second device, wherein the first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on a first slot and in a first transmission band; and

in accordance with a determination that the in-band emission will degrade the reception, changing a first starting point of the first transmission.
An apparatus, comprising:

means for determining, at a first device, whether in-band emission will degrade a reception of a first transmission from the first device or a second transmission from a second device, wherein the first transmission and the second transmission are to be performed on a first slot and in a first transmission band; and

means for changing a first starting point of the first transmission in accordance with a determination that the in-band emission will degrade the reception.
A computer readable medium comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method of claim 16.