IP Library › Granted Patent US 12676705

Granted Patent B2

US 12676705 · App. 18/111,004 · Granted Jul 7, 2026

Method and apparatus using resource allocation slot aggregation aspects for determining slots to sense and to include in a resource set

Inventors: Nuno Manuel Kiilerich Pratas (Gistrup, DK); Thomas Haaning Jacobsen (Nørresundby, DK); Faranaz Sabouri-Sichani (Aalborg, DK); Vinh Van Phan (Oulu, FI); Ling Yu (Kauniainen, FI); Torsten Wildschek (Gloucester, GB)

Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy

H04L5/001 H04L12/4035 H04L27/26025 H04W72/0446 H04W74/0808 H04B17/382 H04L25/03012 H04L27/2671 H04W28/26

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Quick Facts

Patent No.: US 12676705
App. No.: 18/111,004
Granted: Jul 7, 2026
Kind: B2

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Abstract

An apparatus comprising circuitry configured to: determine whether a resource pool of a group of time slots associated with a first carrier spacing overlaps with a resource pool of a frame associated with a second carrier spacing within a period of time; wherein the first carrier spacing has a higher frequency than the second carrier spacing, and the period of time comprises the group of time slots associated with the first carrier spacing and the frame associated with the second carrier spacing; and perform sensing of at least one time slot of the group of time slots, based on whether the resource pool of the group of time slots associated with the first carrier spacing overlaps with the resource pool of the frame associated with the second carrier spacing within the period of time.

Claims (47)

1 . 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:

determine whether a resource pool of a group of time slots associated with a first carrier spacing overlaps with a resource pool of a frame associated with a second carrier spacing within a period of time;

wherein the first carrier spacing has a higher frequency than the second carrier spacing, and the period of time comprises the group of time slots associated with the first carrier spacing and the frame associated with the second carrier spacing;

perform sensing of at least one time slot of the group of time slots, based on whether the resource pool of the group of time slots associated with the first carrier spacing overlaps with the resource pool of the frame associated with the second carrier spacing within the period of time;

perform sensing of a first time slot of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing and not perform sensing of any other time slot of the group of time slots associated with the first carrier spacing other than the first time slot, when each of the time slots of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing overlaps in time with the resource pool of the frame associated with the second carrier spacing; and

perform sensing of the first time slot of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing and perform sensing of each of the other time slots of the group of time slots associated with the first carrier spacing other than the first time slot, when none of the time slots of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing overlap in time with the resource pool of the frame associated with the second carrier spacing.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first carrier spacing is associated with a first radio access technology, and the second carrier spacing is associated with a second radio access technology.

3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the first radio access technology comprises new radio (NR), and the second radio access technology comprises long term evolution (LTE).

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

determine whether the apparatus is able to perform sensing of the first time slot of the group of time slots;

perform sensing of the first time slot of the group of time slots without performing sensing of other time slots of the group of time slots, when there is overlap and the first time slot is able to be sensed; and

perform sensing of the first time slot of the group of time slots and perform sensing of the other time slots of the group of time slots, when there is no overlap and the first time slot is able to be sensed.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sensing is performed to obtain information related to at least one resource configured for at least one sidelink transmitter.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a user equipment transmitting with the first carrier spacing is not allowed to begin transmission in a slot not aligned with a start of the frame associated with the second carrier spacing.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

determine to transmit in the first time slot of the group, or to transmit in the first time slot of the group and at least one other time slot of the group starting with the first time slot;

wherein at least one time slot of the group is not used for transmission; and

perform sensing in the at least one time slot of the group not used for transmission.

8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:

transmission across multiple slots of the group comprises use of a common transport block or use of multiple transport blocks; and

a slot transmission comprises data, first stage sidelink control information associated with a physical sidelink control channel, and second stage sidelink control information associated with a physical sidelink shared channel;

wherein the first stage sidelink control information of the multiple slots permits the apparatus, when sensing any of the multiple slots, to determine whether any of an aggregation of slots is a valid resource to allow inclusion or exclusion of the valid resource during a resource selection procedure.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one memory stores instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

determine that the first time slot of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing is valid for use as a candidate resource of a candidate resource set,

determine to include the first time slot of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing within the candidate resource set as the candidate resource, and

determine to include of each of the other time slots of the group of time slots associated with the first carrier spacing other than the first time slot within the candidate resource set as candidate resources.

10 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one memory stores instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

determine that the first time slot of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing is not valid for use as a candidate resource of a candidate resource set,

determine to exclude the first time slot of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing within the candidate resource set as the candidate resource, and

determine to exclude of each of the other time slots of the group of time slots associated with the first carrier spacing other than the first time slot within the candidate resource set as candidate resources.

11 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one memory stores instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

determine that the first time slot of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing is unable to be sensed, and

perform sensing of at least one time slot of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing other than the first time slot to acquire information for determining whether the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing is valid.

12 . A method comprising:

determining whether a resource pool of a group of time slots associated with a first carrier spacing overlaps with a resource pool of a frame associated with a second carrier spacing within a period of time;

performing sensing of at least one time slot of the group of time slots, based on whether the resource pool of the group of time slots associated with the first carrier spacing overlaps with the resource pool of the frame associated with the second carrier spacing within the period of time;

performing sensing of a first time slot of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing and not performing sensing of any other time slot of the group of time slots associated with the first carrier spacing other than the first time slot, when each of the time slots of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing overlaps in time with the resource pool of the frame associated with the second carrier spacing; and

performing sensing of the first time slot of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing and performing sensing of each of the other time slots of the group of time slots associated with the first carrier spacing other than the first time slot, when none of the time slots of the group of time slots of the resource pool associated with the first carrier spacing overlap in time with the resource pool of the frame associated with the second carrier spacing.

13 . A non-transitory program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine for performing operations, the operations comprising: