WO2025166802A1

WO2025166802A1 - Resource allocation

Info

Publication number: WO2025166802A1
Application number: PCT/CN2024/077084
Authority: WO
Inventors: Thomas Haaning Jacobsen; Paolo Baracca; Renato Barbosa ABREU; Dong Li; Tao Tao
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Current assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2024-02-08
Filing date: 2024-02-08
Publication date: 2025-08-14
Anticipated expiration: 2026-08-08

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to apparatuses, methods, and storage medium for congestion control. In a method, first utilization information related to first resources available for a sidelink communication and second utilization information related to second resources available for a sub-network communication are obtained. A first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication and a second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication, for congestion control are determined based at least in part on the first utilization information and the second utilization information.

Description

RESOURCE ALLOCATION

FIELDS

Various example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to apparatuses, methods and computer readable storage medium for resource allocation.

BACKGROUND

Short range sub-network is a component to meet performance requirements in terms of latency, reliability and/or throughput for certain sixth generation (6G) short-range scenarios. The short-range sub-networks are generally installed in/on/around specific entities e.g., in a vehicle, in a body, in a house and/or the like, to provide a data service over a local capillary coverage. Sidelink (SL) communication supports direct communication between two or more devices. There is a case that sub-networks and SL coexist.

SUMMARY

In a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: obtain first utilization information related to first resources available for a sidelink communication and second utilization information related to second resources available for a sub-network communication; and determine, based at least in part on the first utilization information and the second utilization information, a first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication and a second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication, for congestion control.

In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: obtaining first utilization information related to first resources available for a sidelink communication and second utilization information related to second resources available for a sub-network communication; and determining, based at least in part on the first utilization information and the second utilization information, a first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication and a second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication, for congestion control.

In a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises means for obtaining first utilization information related to first resources available for a sidelink communication and second utilization information related to second resources available for a sub-network communication; and means for determining, based at least in part on the first utilization information and the second utilization information, a first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication and a second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication, for congestion control.

In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform at least 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 embodiments 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

Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, where:

FIG. 1A illustrates an example process of SL mode 1;

FIG. 1B illustrates an example process of SL mode 2;

FIG. 1C illustrates a flowchart of an example process of a SL mode 2 resource allocation scheme;

FIG. 1D illustrates a flowchart of an example process of a procedure to determine a resource candidate set;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example communication environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

FIGS. 3A to 3D illustrate some example use cases of sub-networks;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example frame structure in sub-networks;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of an example method implemented at the apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of an example process of congestion control in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some 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 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. Embodiments 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, ” “second, ” …, etc. in front of noun (s) and the like 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 and they do not limit the order of the noun (s) . 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.

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 herein, unless stated explicitly, performing a step “in response to A” does not indicate that the step is performed immediately after “A” occurs and one or more intervening steps may be included.

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 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 New Radio (NR) , 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 fifth generation (5G) , the sixth generation (6G) 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) , an NR NB (also referred to as a gNB) , a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a relay, an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, an aircraft network device, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. In some example embodiments, radio access network (RAN) split architecture comprises a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. An IAB node comprises a Mobile Terminal (IAB-MT) part that behaves like a UE toward the parent node, and a DU part of an IAB node behaves like a base station toward the next-hop IAB node.

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. The terminal device may also correspond to a Mobile Termination (MT) part of an IAB node (e.g., a relay node) . In the following description, the terms “terminal device” , “communication device” , “terminal” , “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

As used herein, the term “resource, ” “transmission resource, ” “resource block, ” “physical resource block” (PRB) , “uplink resource, ” or “downlink resource” may refer to any resource for performing a communication, for example, a communication between a terminal device and a network device, such as a resource in time domain, a resource in frequency domain, a resource in space domain, a resource in code domain, or any other combination of the time, frequency, space and/or code domain 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.

The sub-networks have the following properties and technical features: support of performance requirements in terms of latency, reliability and/or throughputs; low transmit power, which implies a limited coverage range (e.g., in the order of few meters) ; star or tree topology with one sub-network access point (AP) and one or more sub-network UEs under AP’s control; overall mobility of an AP and associated UEs with lack/limited mobility across different sub-networks; a part of a 6G network with a need to continue to work outside of the network coverage.

The system design for a sub-network may take the above technical features into account. In addition, sub-networks can be seen as a potential evolution of 5G SL, where many enhancements are needed. For example, enhancements from an air interface are needed, e.g., to allow an out-of-coverage sub-network AP to sense a channel, to obtain resources and schedule those resources to sub-network devices (somehow beyond what 5G SL mode 2 allows) . Enhancements to architectural enablers are needed, e.g., for improved authentication or policy enforcement in such scenarios.

Short range IoT devices are expected to grow fast in the next decade and a standardized technology is required to be implemented in at least a sub-set of these devices. 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) may act as the standardized technology and is expected to engage into 6G sub-networks. The key arguments for 3GPP to be engaged into 6G sub-networks are as follows.

During 3GPP Rel-16, 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 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 SL transmission resource is assigned (scheduled) by the network to the SL TX UE, while a SL TX UE in mode 2 autonomously selects its SL transmission resources.

In SL mode 1, a gNB is responsible for the SL resource allocation, the configuration and operation are similar to the one over the Uu interface. The MAC level details of this procedure are given in section 5.8.3 of 38.321. FIG. 1A illustrates an example process 100 of SL mode 1. As shown in FIG. 1A, in the process 100, at 108, a SL TX UE 102 transmits SL-scheduling request (SR) to a gNB 106 to request resource for SL transmission, then at 110, the gNB 106 performs resource allocation for the SL TX UE 102. After obtaining the resource, at 112, the SL TX UE 102 performs SL transmission (PSCCH/PSSCH) to a SL receiver (RX) UE 104. At 114, the SL RX UE 104 transmits SL feedback (PSFCH) to the SL TX UE 102.

In NR SL mode 2, the SL UEs perform autonomously the resource selection with the aid of a sensing procedure. FIG. 1B illustrates an example process 120 of SL mode 2. As shown in FIG. 1B, in the process 120, at the sensing window 122, a SL TX UE may perform a sensing procedure over the configured SL transmission resource pool (s) , in order to obtain the knowledge of the reserved resource (s) by other nearby SL TX UE (s) . Then, at the selection window 124, based on the knowledge obtained from sensing, the SL TX UE may select resource (s) from the available SL resources. In order for a SL UE to perform sensing and obtain the necessary information to perform a SL transmission, it needs to decode the sidelink control information (SCI) . In 3GPP release 16, the SCI associated with a data transmission includes a 1^st-stage SCI and 2^nd-stage SCI, and their contents are standardized in 3GPP TS 38.212.

In NR SL mode 2, 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 Sec 8.1] on a candidate resource pool during a sensing window interval. FIG. 1C illustrates a flowchart of an example process 140 of a SL mode 2 resource allocation scheme. As shown in FIG. 1C, in the process 140, at 142, a TX UE has data to transmit, so the sensing procedure for resource selection is initiated. In an example, 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. At 144, the TX UE collects sensing information including reserved resources and SL-RSRP measurements. At 146, the TX UE forms candidate resource set. In an example, after the TX UE has acquired enough information from its monitoring of the resource pool, it may form the candidate resource set.

After forming the candidate resource set, at 148, the TX UE selects Tx resources semi-persistently, or up to maximum reservations, with starting time ‘m’ . At 150, the TX UE re-evaluates resource selection by keeping decoding other UEs’ PSCCH and measuring corresponding PSSCH energy. At 152, the TX UE decides whether the re-evaluation triggers a re-selection. If the re-evaluation triggers a re-selection, then the TX UE will go to 144, otherwise at 154, the TX UE may begin transmission. At 156, the TX UE further decides whether a re-selection is trigged (e.g., by reaching the maximum number of reservations) . If a re-selection is trigged, the TX UE may go to 144 to restart the process, otherwise the TX UE may go to 154 to continue using the reservation.

During a sensing window, the TX UE may collect the set of potential candidate resource slots that are within a defined selection window period and exclude some resources/slots. FIG. 1D illustrates a flowchart of an example process 160 of the procedure to determine a resource candidate set. The formation of the resource candidate set is depicted in FIG. 1D and occurs for resources within a candidate resource pool, which have been monitored during a sensing window interval. As shown in FIG. 1D, in the process 160, at 162, the TX UE determines the selection window set RSRPthreshold. At 164, the TX UE initialize candidate single-slot resources set S_A. After collecting the candidate resource slots, the TX UE may exclude some resources/slots. At 166, the TX UE may exclude not-monitored resources which are not monitored during the sensing period (e.g. due to own transmission or other activities including DRX) . At 168, the TX UE may further exclude resources with RSRP greater than RSRPthreshold. If a decoded SCI format 1-Aindicates that the candidate resource slot is reserved and the corresponding measured RSRP is greater than the pre-configured RSRPthreshold, candidate resource slot should be excluded. At 170, the TX UE decides whether the number of remaining slots is greater than initial 0.2|S_A|, for example. If the number of remaining single slot candidates is greater than X|S_A| (where X = 0.2, 0.35, 0.5, etc. ) , the TX UE forwards the potential candidate slots to the higher layers for final resource selection. Otherwise, at 172, the TX UE increases the RSRPthreshold by a step (i.e. RSRPthreshold = RSRPthreshold + step, where the step per the TS 38.214 spec is currently defined to be 3 dB) and go to 162 to repeat the procedure. At 174, final candidate slots are then forwarded to higher layers for final resource selection.

In NR SL, each SL device measures a channel busy ratio (CBR) using RSSI in each slot and sub-channel of a resource pool over an averaging window of 100ms, which gives an indication of how many of the sub-channels per slot is on average used. The measured CBR is used to determine a maximum channel occupancy ratio (CR) for each device (i.e. how many of the resources may a single device occupy on average) and dictate what the maximum transmit power is.

Coexistence of SL and sub-networks is a standardization direction for sub-networks. While there are congestion mechanisms in SL, there is still no such mechanism for sub-networks. Without such mechanisms, there is a risk of unbalanced resource availability across sub-networks and SL devices for that matter. For example, a few sub-networks may occupy all the resources they desire and then are leaving insufficient resources for other sub-networks to properly operate. In addition, if legacy SL congestion control is used, it may determine low CBR due to the low power intra-sub-network communication, which would cause low or no restrictions for SL devices (not restricted in reservations, transmit power etc. ) , and low performance of sub-networks.

A simple mechanism for resource reuse has been proposed where the resource reuse is determined by checking the measured RSRP against a RSRP threshold lists, and if the measured RSRP is lower than the RSRP threshold, the device is allowed to select those resources for transmission. However, the problem with this mechanism is that it does not scale well with an increasing density of devices and is not able to ensure fair access to radio resources, as this scheme does not have any constraint on the amount of resources and power a device can use in resource pools with resources shared for SL and sub-network communications.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure propose a congestion control solution. With this solution, first utilization information related to first resources available for a SL communication and second utilization information related to second resources available for a sub-network communication are obtained by an apparatus. Then, the apparatus determines, based at least in part on the first utilization information and the second utilization information, a first set of communication parameters for the SL communication and a second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication, for congestion control.

In this way, SL and sub-network may be managed together and there may be a balanced resource availability across sub-networks and SL devices, thereby improving performance of the sub-network.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example communication environment 200 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented.

The communication environment 200 includes a sub-network 230 where a network device 210 such as an AP may communicate with a plurality of terminal devices 220-1, …, 220-N (such as a sensor, an actuator, a mobile phone, and/or the like) in a sub-network 230. N represents a positive integer. For the purpose of discussions, the plurality of terminal devices 220-1, …, 220-N will be individually or collectively referred to as terminal device (s) 220. Some example use cases of sub-networks will be described below with reference to FIG. 3A to FIG. 3D.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example sub-network 300 in an in-robot/in-production module. Sensors and actuators may be used the sub-network 300. FIG. 3B illustrates an example in-vehicle sub-network 310. In this example, sensors and actuators may be embedded in a trunk, an ignition, a safety, an engine, or a suspension within a vehicle. The use cases of the sub-networks 300 and 310 may have high performance requirements in both reliability (up to six nines or more) and latency (down to the level of 100us or even below) , for example, for periodic and deterministic communication services which may be challenging scenarios in a 6G system.

FIG. 3C illustrates an example in-body sub-network 320. A pacemaker and some haptic sensors/actuators may be deployed within the sub-network 320. FIG. 3D illustrates an example in-house sub-network 330. For example, some in-house apparatuses, such as virtual reality (VR) glasses, may be deployed within the sub-network 330.

Still with reference to FIG. 2, in the sub-network 230, the network device 210 and the terminal devices 220 may perform sub-network communications. Traffic with different time critical levels may be transferred between the network device 210 and the terminal devices 220, which may comprise high time critical traffic (<< 1ms) , medium time critical traffic (1～10ms) , and/or non-critical traffic (e.g., Key Performance Indicator (KPI) monitoring) . The terminal device 220-2 and the 220-3 may perform sidelink communications.

Outside of the sub-network 230, the network device 210 may be connected to a network device 250 (such as a gNB) of a wide area network which may control and coordinate the sub-network 230 with other networks (not shown) . The traffic between the network device 210 and the network device 250 may comprise medium time critical traffic and/or non-critical traffic.

Communications in the communication environment 200 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol (s) , comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , the fifth generation (5G) , the sixth generation (6G) , and the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and/or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) , Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) , Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) , Time Division Duplex (TDD) , Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) , Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM) , Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and/or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

In the communication environment 200, SL and sub-network communications may coexist. Resource selection, reservation and coordination may be performed for congestion control of both SL and sub-network communications. In an example, the resource selection, reservation and coordination may be implemented by the network device 210.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example frame structure 400 for resource allocation in the sub-network 400. This frame structure may enable distributed resource selection and reservations between (6G) sub-networks. In this example, two control interfaces are introduced, the first one is an inter sub-network and SL interface used between (6G) sub-network access points (APs) and SL devices, where they inform other access points and devices about their radio resource reservations and similarly listen for reservations (transmitted by other APs or SL devices) to avoid conflicts and the second control interface is an intra sub-network interface where the AP sends control information to the sub-network devices on the resources reserved and indicated via the first control interface.

The first control interface may utilize “enhanced PSCCH” (ePSCCH) 410 which may be considered as an extension to prior art SL resource selection and reservation mechanism. This extended interface 410 allows for reservations in the future for sub- network usage and SL usage and may reserve multiple consecutive slots as well and indicate whether the reservation is to be used for SL or intra sub-network purposes. In this way, other APs and SL devices know how to measure the RSRP and/or RSSI on the reserved resource and can set their RSRP thresholds for the resource (re-) selection procedure.

The second control interface may utilize the “sub-network specific PSCCH” (sPSCCH) 420. These control interfaces may be able to scale with the utilization of the shared sub-network radio resources to allow a fair resource access to the sub-networks.

In some example embodiments, the ePSCCH 410 may be used for the sub-network AP-to-AP resource reservation and coordination as well as sub-network AP-to-SL resource reservations and SL-to-SL resource reservation indications. In addition, the sPSCCH 420 may be used by the sub-network AP towards its sub-network devices to allocate resources for the intra-sub-network communications.

Some example implementations will be described below with reference to FIGS. 5 to 6.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 500 in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 500 may be implemented at the network device 210, the terminal device 220 or the network device 250. For the purpose of discussion, the method 500 will be described from the perspective of the network device 210 with reference to FIG. 2.

At block 510, the network device 210 obtains utilization information (referred to as first utilization information) related to resources (referred to as first resources) available for a SL communication and utilization information (referred to as second utilization information) related to resources (referred to as second resources) available for a sub-network communication. The first resources and the second resources may be also referred to as a first resource pool and a second resource pool, respectively.

The utilization information may comprise a utilization ratio and/or a utilization level. In some example embodiments, a channel busy ratio (referred to as a first channel busy ratio) of the first resources may be determined as the first utilization information, and a channel busy ratio (referred to as a second channel busy ratio) of the second resources may be determined as the second utilization information. The channel busy ratio (CBR) may be used to indicate a load level of a channel. It may be determined by evaluating the portion (for example, the number of subchannels) of a resource pool with received signal strength exceeding a certain threshold within a given time.

In some example embodiments, the utilization information may be determined based on a channel occupation ratio (COR) . Alternatively, or in addition, the utilization information may be determined based on throughput or signal strength related to the resources. The signal strength may be indicated by a value of a reference signal receiving power (RSRP) or a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) .

In some example embodiments, the first utilization information may be determined based at least in part on at least one of an RSRP or an RSSI related to the first resources. The second utilization information may be determined based on at least one of an RSRP or an RSSI related to the second resources.

In some example embodiments, the first utilization information may be determined based on a comparison of the RSRP of the first resources and a first power threshold which may be an RSRP threshold. The second utilization information may be determined based on a comparison of the RSRP of the second resources and a second power threshold which may be another RSRP threshold. In some example embodiments, the first power threshold may be higher than the second power threshold. Compared to (intra-) sub-network communications, SL communications may be performed with higher transmitting power. A higher power threshold may be more fit for the SL communications such that the utilization information for the SL communications and sub-network communications may be evaluated more effectively or efficiently.

In an example, in the case that an ePSCCH (for example, the ePSCCH 410 in FIG. 4) is used for resource reservation and coordination, an ePSCCH-RSRP threshold may be configured for SL detection (e.g. ePSCCH-RSRP_SL) and another ePSCCH-RSRP threshold may be configured for sub-network detection (e.g. ePSCCH-RSRP_SubNW) . The ePSCCH may indicate whether the resource is used for SL or sub-network communication. RSRP measurements are performed on ePSCCH.

In some example embodiments, the first utilization information may be determined based on a comparison of the RSSI of the first resources and a first strength threshold which may be an RSSI threshold. The second utilization may be determined based on a comparison of the RSSI of the second resources and a second strength threshold which may be another RSSI threshold. For example, a threshold RSSI_SL may be configured for SL detection, and another threshold RSSI_SubNW may be configured for sub-network detection to compute CBR respectively.

In some example embodiments, a single (RSRP or RSSI) threshold may be used to determine the utilization for both SL and sub-network communications. For example, the lowest RSRP threshold may be used. Based on this threshold, the control channel may be decoded to determine if the resource is for sub-network or sidelink. For example, in a case where a resource pool (RP) is used for both SL and sub-network, for each slot, the network device 210 may attempt to decode an ePSCCH and estimate RSRP. If the RSRP is greater than the threshold, then the slot is used, otherwise the slot is not used. If the slot is used and the transmissions is SL, for example, which is indicated in the sidelink control indication (in an ePSCCH) , then it is marked for SL, otherwise it is marked for sub-network. If the slot is used and marked for sub-network, then the network device 210 will determine indicated subchannels in the consecutive slots (if reserved in the ePSCCH) as also occupied for sub-network.

In some example embodiments, different types of thresholds may be used for SL and sub-network communications, respectively. For example, an SL CBR (as an example of the first utilization information for the SL communications) may be measured with an RSSI, and a sub-network CBR (as an example of the first utilization information for the SL communications) could be measured with an RSRP such as an ePSCCH-RSRP. Accordingly, an RSSI threshold may be used to determine the SL CBR, and an RSRP threshold may be used to determine the sub-network CBR.

In some example embodiments, the first resources for the SL communication may be non-overlapping with the sub-network communication. Alternatively, or in addition, the first resources for the SL communication may be partially or fully overlapping with the second resources for the sub-network communication. In some example embodiments, the approaches for measuring the utilization may be separate for these cases.

In an example, in the case that sub-networks and sidelink coexist on the same frequency band but are not overlapping, a CBR for sub-networks and an CBR for sidelink is needed.

In the case where sub-networks and sidelink coexist on the same fully overlapping frequency resources, a CBR for sub-networks (denoted by CBR_SubNW) and a CBR for sidelink (denoted by CBR_SL) may be utilized. Alternatively, a single joint CBR may also be considered (e.g. CBR_joint = X1*CBR_SL+X2*CBR_SubNW) where X1 and X2 represent a weight.

In the (fully or partially) overlapping case, utilization information (referred to as third utilization information) , which is a part of the second utilization on the overlapping part of the second resources for the sub-network communication, may be determined by considering both two utilization estimates (referred to as a first utilization estimate and a second utilization estimate, respectively) obtained for the overlapping part of the second resources based on two different thresholds, referred to a first threshold and a second threshold, respectively. The utilization estimates may comprise CBR estimates or other utilization metrics.

In some example embodiments, the first utilization estimate may be obtained for the overlapping part of the second resources based on a higher first threshold (for example, a threshold for SL) . The second utilization estimate may be obtained for the overlapping part of the second resources based on a lower second threshold (for example, a threshold for sub-networks) . The third utilization information for the overlapping part of the second resources may be determined by subtracting the first utilization estimate from the second utilization estimate.

The utilization information such as the CBR may be computed based on the power or strength such as the RSRP or RSSI. The lower (or lowest) RSSI threshold may detect all active resources (including SL and sub-network resources) . In this case, for the overlapping resources or resource parts, the CBR for the highest RSSI thresholds may be computed first, and then this CBR may be subtracted from the CBR computed with the lowest RSSI threshold. In this way, the utilization information on the overlapping resources or resource parts may be determined more accurately.

In some example embodiments, in the case that sub-networks and sidelink coexist on partly the same time and frequency resources, the utilization may be measured and applied for the overlapping and non-overlapping parts, separately. For example, one CBR may be determined for overlapping resource parts (for example, a common or signal CBR as described above) , and another CBR may be determined for the non-overlapping resource parts.

At block 520, the network device 210 determines, based at least in part on the first utilization information and the second utilization information, a set (referred to as a first set) of communication parameters for the SL communication and a set (referred to as a second set) of communication parameters for the sub-network communication, for congestion control. The communication parameters may comprise a set of constrains.

In some example embodiments, the first set of communication parameters may be determined based on the first utilization information, and the second set of communication parameters may be determined based on the second utilization information. For example, sub-networks and sidelink may coexist on the same frequency band but are not overlapping. In this case, a CBR for sub-networks and a CBR for sidelink may be needed as well as two separate (or similar) sets of constraints (or communication parameters) applied. In the case that sub-networks and sidelink coexist on the same fully overlapping frequency resources, a CBR for sub-networks and a CBR for sidelink can be utilized to determine separate sets of constrains.

In the case that the first resources and the second resources are partially overlapping, the utilization information may be measured and applied for the non-overlapping and overlapping parts, separately. In some example embodiments, the network device 210 may select at least one of a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the SL communication on a non-overlapping part of the first resources, a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication on a non-overlapping part of the second resources, a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the SL communication on an overlapping part of the first resources with the second resources, or a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication on an overlapping part of the second resources with the first resources. For example, one CBR and set of constraints are determined for resources overlapping (common) and another CBR and set of constraints are determined for the non-overlapping resources.

In some example embodiments, on a non-overlapping part of the first resources, a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the SL communication may be determined based on the first utilization information. On a non-overlapping part of the second resources, a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication may be determined based on the second utilization information. For example, the subset of the first set of communication parameters for SL communication on a non-overlapping part of the first resources may be determined at least based on the CBR for SL communication. The subset of the second set of communication parameters for sub-network communication on a non-overlapping part of the second resources may be determined at least based on the CBR for sub-network communication.

In some example embodiments, on an overlapping part of the first resources with the second resources, a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the SL communication are determined based on both the first utilization information and the second utilization information. On an overlapping part of the second resources with the first resources, a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication are determined based on both the first utilization information and the second utilization information. For example, a single joint CBR may be considered (e.g. CBR_joint) , but two different sets of constraints are applied (one for sidelink and another for sub-networks) .

In some example embodiments, on an overlapping part of the first resources with the second resources, a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the SL communication may be selected based on the first utilization information from a set of common communication parameters for both the SL communication and the sub-network communication. On an overlapping part of the second resources with the first resources, a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication may be selected based on the second utilization information from the set of common communication parameters.

In an example, a set of common communication parameters (or the same set of constraints) such as a set of common resources may be applied for both the SL communication and the sub-network communication. the same set of constraints is applied. The utilization may be biased for selecting resources in the common resources (this is also applicable in the fully overlapping case) .

In some example embodiments, at least one of the first set of communication parameters or the second set of communication parameters comprise a set of communication parameters for resource selection or reselection. In these example embodiments, the set of communication parameters may include a maximum number of consecutive slots for each resource reservation. Alternatively, or in addition, the set of communication parameters may include a maximum number of sub-bands for each resource reservation, a maximum number of slots within a time period, a maximum number of sub-bands for each time period, a maximum number of resource reservations, a maximum number of retransmissions, and/or a maximum number of periods of periodic allocation.

In some example embodiments, the set of communication parameters for the resource selection or reselection may be determined further based on past usage of resources for the apparatus. The set of communication parameters may be variable and depends on the intended usage of the slots. The number of reservations for either SL or sub-networks puts a constraint on the number of slots which can be reserved for the other RAT within a time window. The network device 210 may select a maximum numerical value of slots per time period for a certain measured utilization ratio (other values would be associated to other utilization ratios) . For example, a maximum of 10 slots may be selected if these slots are used only for intra-sub-network. A maximum of 8 slots may be selected if at least 1 slot for SL and 1 slot for intra-sub-network. A maximum of 5 slots may be selected if these slots are used only for SL.

SL resources may be used with high transmitting power compared to intra-sub-network. Further, SL resources may generate a larger interference footprint compared to intra-sub-network. In this case, for the same measured utilization ratio, the network device 210 may be allowed to use more resources if those are allocated to intra-sub-network transmissions. Accordingly, the maximum number of slots used only for intra-sub-network may be greater than the maximum number of slots used only for SL. This rule is not limited to the number of slots, but can be generalized to the other parameters as well.

In some example embodiments, the first set of communication parameters for SL may include a set of SL communication parameters. The set of SL communication parameters may include at least one of: a percentage of a resource pool for SL resource reservations, an initial reference signal receiving power (RSRP) threshold list for the SL resource reservations, a RSRP threshold step for the SL resource reservations, a maximum RSRP threshold for the SL resource reservations, maximum transmit power for a SL transmission, maximum transmit power for a SL transmission overlapping a sub-network resource reservation, a minimum modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for SL transmissions, or a dedicated MCS table for the SL transmissions.

In some example embodiments, the second set of communication parameters for sub-networks include a set of sub-network communication parameters. The set of sub- network communication parameters may comprise at least one of: a percentage of a resource pool for intra-sub-network resource reservations, an initial reference signal receiving power (RSRP) threshold list for the intra-sub-network resource reservations, a RSRP threshold step for the intra-sub-network resource reservations, a maximum RSRP threshold for the intra-sub-network resource reservations, maximum transmit power for a sub-network transmission, maximum transmit power for a sub-network transmission overlapping a SL resource reservation, a minimum modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for sub-network transmissions, or a dedicated MCS table for the sub-network transmissions.

In some example embodiments, the network device 210 may receive a configuration for associations between resource utilization and a plurality of sets of communication parameters, where at least one of the first set of communication parameters or the second set of communication parameters are determined further based on the configuration. In an example, the configuration includes a mapping table which may translate utilization information into a variety of communication parameters. Table 1 shows mapping of CBRs for sub-network to several communication parameters.

Table 1

As shown in table 1, CBR_SubNW is between 0.6 and 0.8, the maximum number of consecutive slots per reservation may be 3, the maximum number of sub-bands per reservation may be 20, etc.

It is to be noted that Table 1 is merely an example mapping table and columns of other parameters described in the present disclosure may be added to this table. It is also to be noted that there may be another table available for SL. Table 1 may be applicable in some conditions. For example, this table may be only applied for a quality of service (QoS) flow priority. Thus, other tables would be available for other QoS flow priorities. Alternatively, a scaling factor may be applied to the table above based on QoS flow priority.

In some example embodiments, the first set of communication parameters may be determined further based on a QoS flow priority associated with the SL communication. The QoS flow priority may be used to scale the first set of communication parameters. In an example, the QoS flow priority may be used as a bias in a table of mapping utilization information to communication parameter or in table indexes. In addition, the QoS flow priority is used to determine whether delay sensitive traffic may be transmitted. If traffic is below a certain priority, the traffic is not transmitted.

In some example embodiments, at least one of the first utilization information or the second utilization information may be received from a base station such as the network device 250 in FIG. 2. In an example case, a semi-decentralized approach is used, where the base station may assist the network device 210 on the procedure of utilization estimation or provide a utilization level indication. In an example, the base station may measure the utilization ratio and/or receive sensing information from the SL devices and/or sub-network APs and estimate utilization ratio based on the received information. In another example, the base station may signal the utilization ratio or a utilization level to each sub-network AP and SL devices, e.g. using a broadcast message or as a part of the resource pool or BWP configuration associated with the physical resources of the commonly shared resources.

In some example embodiments, the network device 210 may transmit, to the base station, a utilization report indicating utilization information in a plurality of slots. The base station may perform further utilization measurement based on the received utilization report. In an example, the utilization report is not a single percentage or level indication, but is a bitmap of busy slots, which may then be used by the base station to determine improve the utilization level for specific service needs. For example, the network device 210 measures consecutive 70 slots, then prepare a 70 bits report (1 bit per slot to indicate whether exceed the threshold) . Such statistic report can provide more detailed information to see fluctuation of channel, then better decision may be made.

In some example embodiments, the network device 210 may transmit, to the base station, a utilization report indicating utilization information in a plurality of slots. The base station may perform further utilization measurements based on the received utilization report. In an example, the utilization report is not a single percentage or level indication, but is a bitmap of busy sub-channels or sub-bands, which may then be used by the base station to improve the utilization level for specific service needs. For example, the network device 210 measures consecutive 70 slots, each with 8 sub-channels, and then then prepares a 560 bits report (1 bit per sub-channel per slot to indicate whether the threshold is exceeded) . Such a statistic report can provide more detailed information about fluctuation of a channel, then better decision may be made.

In some example embodiments, the translation of utilization ratio to respective constraints (for its resource selection, parameters, transmit power and/or MCS) may be preconfigured or configured via radio resource control (RRC) signaling. For example, the network device 210 may be configured such that for a measured utilization ratio in range x1 to y1 it applies a constraints list A, for range x2 to y2 it applies the constraints list B, etc.

It is to be understood that the method 500 are described from the perspective of the network device 210 only for the purpose of illustration, without suggesting any limitation. In some example embodiments, the method may be implemented at the terminal device 220 as well. In these example embodiments, the terminal device 220 may determine the first utilization information for SL based on its own measurements or computation and/or based on the measurements or computation of the network device 210.

An example congestion control process will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of an example process 600 of congestion control in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, a AP1 610 operates as an example implementation of the network device 210 in FIG. 2, a device 1a 620 operates as an example implementation of the terminal device 220 in FIG. 2 and a AP2 630 operates as another example implementation of the network device 210 in FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 6, in the process 600, at 632, the AP1 610 listens for ePSCCH continuously. At 634, the AP2 630 transmits to the AP1 610 on ePSCCH indicating resource for sub-networks. At 636, the AP1 610 may mark all indicated resources in the ePSCCH as sub-networks resource and store the RSRP.

At 638, the AP1 610 computes CBR_SubNW (i.e., CBR for sub-network) for a time window as the ratio between all resource in the marked as sub-network. Prior to calculating CBR_SubNW, resources should be marked for sub-network. If the RSRP is greater than RSRP_SubNW (i.e. the RSRP threshold for sub-network) , then the slot is used. In addition, if the slot is used and indicates that the transmission is sub-network, it is marked for sub-network.

At 640, the AP1 610 computes CBR_SL (i.e., CBR for SL) for a time window as the ratio between all resource in the marked as sub-network. Prior to calculating CBR_SL, resources should be marked for SL. If the RSRP is greater than RSRP_SL (i.e. the RSRP threshold for SL) , then the slot is used. In addition, if the slot is used and indicates that the transmission is SL, it is marked for SL.

At 642, the AP1 610 determines the needed sub-network resources. At 644, the AP1 610 determines the resource constraint tables to apply based on the resource pool (e.g., fully, partly, non-overlapping) , CBR and QoS flow priority.

At 646, the AP1 610 determines for its sub-networks complying with the constraints based on the table.

At 648, the AP1 610 transmits to the device 1a 620 and the AP2 630 on ePSCCH indicating grants for sub-network resources.

At 650, the device 1a 620 may decode the ePSCCH and prepares reception or transmission on the granted resources.

Example Apparatus, Device and Medium

In some example embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing the method 500 (for example, the terminal device 220, the network device 210 or the network device 250 in FIG. 2) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 500. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The apparatus may be implemented as or included in the terminal device 220, the network device 210 or the network device 250 in FIG. 2.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus comprises means for obtaining first utilization information related to first resources available for a sidelink communication and second utilization information related to second resources available for a sub-network communication; and means for determining, based at least in part on the first utilization information and the second utilization information, a first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication and a second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication, for congestion control.

In some example embodiments, the first utilization information is determined based at least in part on at least one of a reference signal receiving power or a received signal strength indicator related to the first resources, and the second utilization information is determined based on at least one of a reference signal receiving power or a received signal strength indicator related to the second resources.

In some example embodiments, the first utilization information is determined based on a comparison of the reference signal receiving power of the first resources and a first power threshold, the second utilization information is determined based on a comparison of the reference signal receiving power of the second resources and a second power threshold, and the first power threshold is higher than the second power threshold.

In some example embodiments, the first utilization information is determined based on a comparison of the received signal strength indicator of the first resources and a first strength threshold, the second utilization is determined based on a comparison of the reference signal receiving power of the second resources and a second strength threshold, and the first strength threshold is higher than the second strength threshold.

In some example embodiments, the second utilization information comprises third utilization information related to an overlapping part of the second resources with the first resources, the third utilization information is determined by subtracting a first utilization estimate from a second utilization estimate, the first utilization estimate is obtained for the overlapping part of the second resources based on a first threshold, the second utilization estimate is obtained for the overlapping part of the second resources based on a second threshold, and the first threshold is higher than the second threshold.

In some example embodiments, a first channel busy ratio of the first resources is determined as the first utilization information, and a second channel busy ratio of the second resources is determined as the second utilization information.

In some example embodiments, the first set of communication parameters is determined based on the first utilization information, and the second set of communication parameters is determined based on the second utilization information.

In some example embodiments, the first resources and the second resources are non-overlapping, partially overlapping or fully overlapping.

In some example embodiments, the first resources and the second resources are partially overlapping, and wherein cause the apparatus to: means for selecting at least one of a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication on a non-overlapping part of the first resources, a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication on a non-overlapping part of the second resources, a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication on an overlapping part of the first resources with the second resources, or a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication on an overlapping part of the second resources with the first resources.

In some example embodiments, a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication on a non-overlapping part of the first resources are determined based on the first utilization information; and a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication on a non-overlapping part of the second resources are determined based on the second utilization information.

In some example embodiments, a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication on an overlapping part of the first resources with the second resources are determined based on both the first utilization information and the second utilization information; and a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication on an overlapping part of the second resources with the first resources are determined based on both the first utilization information and the second utilization information.

In some example embodiments, a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication on an overlapping part of the first resources with the second resources are selected based on the first utilization information from a set of common communication parameters for both the sidelink communication and the sub-network communication; and a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication on an overlapping part of the second resources with the first resources are selected based on the second utilization information from the set of common communication parameters.

In some example embodiments, at least one of the first set of communication parameters or the second set of communication parameters comprise a set of communication parameters for resource selection or reselection, the set of communication parameters for the resource selection or reselection comprising at least one of: a maximum number of consecutive slots for each resource reservation, a maximum number of sub-bands for each resource reservation, a maximum number of slots for each time period, a maximum number of sub-bands for each time period, a maximum number of resource reservations, a maximum number of retransmissions, or a maximum number of periods of periodic allocation.

In some example embodiments, the set of communication parameters for the resource selection or reselection are determined further based on past usage of resources for the apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the first set of communication parameters comprise a set of sidelink communication parameters, the set of sidelink communication parameters comprising at least one of: a percentage of a resource pool for sidelink resource reservations, an initial reference signal receiving power (RSRP) threshold list for the sidelink resource reservations, a RSRP threshold step for the sidelink resource reservations, a maximum RSRP threshold for the sidelink resource reservations, means for maximuming transmit power for a sidelink transmission, means for maximuming transmit power for a sidelink transmission overlapping a sub-network resource reservation, a minimum modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for sidelink transmissions, or a dedicated MCS table for the sidelink transmissions.

In some example embodiments, the second set of communication parameters comprise a set of sub-network communication parameters, the set of sub-network communication parameters comprising at least one of: a percentage of a resource pool for intra-sub-network resource reservations, an initial reference signal receiving power (RSRP) threshold list for the intra-sub-network resource reservations, a RSRP threshold step for the intra-sub-network resource reservations, a maximum RSRP threshold for the intra-sub-network resource reservations, maximum transmit power for a sub-network transmission, maximum transmit power for a sub-network transmission overlapping a sidelink resource reservation, a minimum modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for sub-network transmissions, or a dedicated MCS table for the sub-network transmissions.

In some example embodiments, the first set of communication parameters are determined further based on a quality of service (QoS) flow priority associated with the sidelink communication; and/or the second set of communication parameters are determined further based on a QoS flow priority associated with the sub-network communication.

In some example embodiments, at least one of the first utilization information or the second utilization information is received from a base station.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the base station, a utilization report indicating utilization information in a plurality of slots.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for receiving a configuration for associations between resource utilization and a plurality of sets of communication parameters, wherein at least one of the first set of communication parameters or the second set of communication parameters are determined further based on the configuration.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus comprises a sub-network access point.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for performing other operations in some example embodiments of the method 500 or the terminal device 220, the network device 210 or the network device 250 in FIG. 2. In some example embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the performance of the apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a simplified block diagram of a device 700 that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 700 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the terminal device 220, the network device 210 or the network device 250 in FIG. 2. As shown, the device 700 includes one or more processors 710, one or more memories 720 coupled to the processor 710, and one or more communication modules 740 coupled to the processor 710.

The communication module 740 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 740 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interfaces may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements. In some example embodiments, the communication module 740 may include at least one antenna.

The processor 710 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 700 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 720 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) 724, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM) , a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD) , a digital video disk (DVD) , an optical disk, a laser disk, and other magnetic storage and/or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 722 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

A computer program 730 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 710. The instructions of the program 730 may include instructions for performing operations/acts of some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The program 730 may be stored in the memory, e.g., the ROM 724. The processor 710 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 730 into the RAM 722.

The example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 730 so that the device 700 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to FIG. 5 to FIG. 6. The example 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 730 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 700 (such as in the memory 720) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 700. The device 700 may load the program 730 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 722 for execution. In some example embodiments, the computer readable medium may include any types of non-transitory storage medium, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. The term “non-transitory, ” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM) .

FIG. 8 shows an example of the computer readable medium 800 which may be in form of CD, DVD or other optical storage disk. The computer readable medium 800 has the program 730 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, and other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. Although 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.

Some example embodiments of the present disclosure also provide at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-transitory computer readable medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target physical or virtual processor, to carry out any of the methods as described above. 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. The program code 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 code, 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 code 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, although 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, although 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. Unless explicitly stated, certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, unless explicitly stated, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in a plurality of 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

An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

obtain first utilization information related to first resources available for a sidelink communication and second utilization information related to second resources available for a sub-network communication; and

determine, based at least in part on the first utilization information and the second utilization information, a first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication and a second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication, for congestion control.
The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first utilization information is determined based at least in part on at least one of a reference signal receiving power or a received signal strength indicator related to the first resources, and the second utilization information is determined based on at least one of a reference signal receiving power or a received signal strength indicator related to the second resources.
The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first utilization information is determined based on a comparison of the reference signal receiving power of the first resources and a first power threshold, the second utilization information is determined based on a comparison of the reference signal receiving power of the second resources and a second power threshold, and the first power threshold is higher than the second power threshold.
The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first utilization information is determined based on a comparison of the received signal strength indicator of the first resources and a first strength threshold, the second utilization is determined based on a comparison of the reference signal receiving power of the second resources and a second strength threshold, and the first strength threshold is higher than the second strength threshold.
The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second utilization information comprises third utilization information related to an overlapping part of the second resources with the first resources, the third utilization information is determined by subtracting a first utilization estimate from a second utilization estimate, the first utilization estimate is obtained for the overlapping part of the second resources based on a first threshold, the second utilization estimate is obtained for the overlapping part of the second resources based on a second threshold, and the first threshold is higher than the second threshold.
The apparatus of any of claims 1-5, wherein a first channel busy ratio of the first resources is determined as the first utilization information, and a second channel busy ratio of the second resources is determined as the second utilization information.
The apparatus of any of claims 1-6, wherein the first set of communication parameters is determined based on the first utilization information, and the second set of communication parameters is determined based on the second utilization information.
The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the first resources and the second resources are non-overlapping, partially overlapping or fully overlapping.
The apparatus of any of claims 1-6, wherein the first resources and the second resources are partially overlapping, and wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor cause the apparatus to:

select at least one of a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication on a non-overlapping part of the first resources, a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication on a non- overlapping part of the second resources, a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication on an overlapping part of the first resources with the second resources, or a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication on an overlapping part of the second resources with the first resources.
The apparatus of claim 9, wherein

a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication on a non-overlapping part of the first resources are determined based on the first utilization information; and

a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication on a non-overlapping part of the second resources are determined based on the second utilization information.
The apparatus of claim 10, wherein

a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication on an overlapping part of the first resources with the second resources are determined based on both the first utilization information and the second utilization information; and

a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication on an overlapping part of the second resources with the first resources are determined based on both the first utilization information and the second utilization information.
The apparatus of claim 10, wherein

a subset of the first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication on an overlapping part of the first resources with the second resources are selected based on the first utilization information from a set of common communication parameters for both the sidelink communication and the sub-network communication; and

a subset of the second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication on an overlapping part of the second resources with the first resources are selected based on the second utilization information from the set of common communication parameters.
The apparatus of any of claims 1-12, wherein at least one of the first set of communication parameters or the second set of communication parameters comprise a set of communication parameters for resource selection or reselection, the set of communication parameters for the resource selection or reselection comprising at least one of:

a maximum number of consecutive slots for each resource reservation,

a maximum number of sub-bands for each resource reservation,

a maximum number of slots for each time period,

a maximum number of sub-bands for each time period,

a maximum number of resource reservations,

a maximum number of retransmissions, or

a maximum number of periods of periodic allocation.
The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the set of communication parameters for the resource selection or reselection are determined further based on past usage of resources for the apparatus.
The apparatus of any of claims 1-14, wherein the first set of communication parameters comprise a set of sidelink communication parameters, the set of sidelink communication parameters comprising at least one of:

a percentage of a resource pool for sidelink resource reservations,

an initial reference signal receiving power (RSRP) threshold list for the sidelink resource reservations,

a RSRP threshold step for the sidelink resource reservations,

a maximum RSRP threshold for the sidelink resource reservations,

maximum transmit power for a sidelink transmission,

maximum transmit power for a sidelink transmission overlapping a sub-network resource reservation,

a minimum modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for sidelink transmissions, or

a dedicated MCS table for the sidelink transmissions.
The apparatus of any of claims 1-15, wherein the second set of communication parameters comprise a set of sub-network communication parameters, the set of sub-network communication parameters comprising at least one of:

a percentage of a resource pool for intra-sub-network resource reservations,

an initial reference signal receiving power (RSRP) threshold list for the intra-sub-network resource reservations,

a RSRP threshold step for the intra-sub-network resource reservations,

a maximum RSRP threshold for the intra-sub-network resource reservations,

maximum transmit power for a sub-network transmission,

maximum transmit power for a sub-network transmission overlapping a sidelink resource reservation,

a minimum modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for sub-network transmissions, or

a dedicated MCS table for the sub-network transmissions.
The apparatus of any of claims 1-16, wherein

the first set of communication parameters are determined further based on a quality of service (QoS) flow priority associated with the sidelink communication; and/or

the second set of communication parameters are determined further based on a QoS flow priority associated with the sub-network communication.
The apparatus of any of claims 1-17, wherein at least one of the first utilization information or the second utilization information is received from a base station.
The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor further cause the apparatus to:

transmit, to the base station, a utilization report indicating utilization information in a plurality of slots.
The apparatus of any of claims 1-19, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor further cause the apparatus to:

receive a configuration for associations between resource utilization and a plurality of sets of communication parameters,

wherein at least one of the first set of communication parameters or the second set of communication parameters are determined further based on the configuration.
The apparatus of any of claims 1-20, wherein the apparatus comprises a sub-network access point.
A method comprising:

obtaining first utilization information related to first resources available for a sidelink communication and second utilization information related to second resources available for a sub-network communication; and

determining, based at least in part on the first utilization information and the second utilization information, a first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication and a second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication, for congestion control.
An apparatus comprising:

means for obtaining first utilization information related to first resources available for a sidelink communication and second utilization information related to second resources available for a sub-network communication; and

means for determining, based at least in part on the first utilization information and the second utilization information, a first set of communication parameters for the sidelink communication and a second set of communication parameters for the sub-network communication, for congestion control.
A computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus at least to perform the method of claim 22.