Granted Patent B2

US 12,603,686 · App. 18/125,798 · Granted Apr 14, 2026

Inventors: Haitong Sun (Cupertino, CA); Wei Zeng (Saratoga, CA); Chunxuan Ye (San Diego, CA); Dawei Zhang (Saratoga, CA); Yushu Zhang (Beijing, CN); Zhibin Wu (Los Altos, CA); Hong He (San Jose, CA)

Assignee: APPLE INC.

H04B7/0626H04L5/0057H04W72/25

Abstract

Claims (80)

1 . A user equipment (UE) comprising:

a transceiver configured to enable wireless communications with a base station and a second UE; and

a processor, communicatively coupled to the transceiver, and configured to:

determine one or more channel state information (CSI) reporting elements out of a set of CSI reporting elements;

generate a MAC control element (MAC-CE) message, wherein the MAC-CE message comprises an indicator that indicates a second MAC-CE message to be transmitted within a predetermined time duration after the MAC-CE message is transmitted and a CSI report, and wherein the CSI report comprises the one or more CSI reporting elements; and

transmit, using the transceiver, the MAC-CE message to the second UE via a side-link connection.

2 . The UE of claim 1 ,

wherein the set of CSI reporting elements comprises a channel state information reference signal indicator (CRI), a synchronization signal block resource index (SSBRI), layer 1 reference signal received power (L1-RSRP), layer 1 signal to interference and noise ratio (L1-SINR), a precoder matrix indicator (PMI), a layer indicator (LI), and a coherent transmission indicator, and

wherein the processor is further configured to:

transmit, using the transceiver, the coherent transmission indicator to the base station using a radio resource control (RRC) message via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); or

transmit, using the transceiver, the coherent transmission indicator to the second UE using a second RRC message via a physical side-link shared channel (PSSCH).

3 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

generate a second CSI report that comprises additional one or more reporting elements of the set of CSI reporting elements; and

transmit, using the transceiver, the second CSI report to the second UE via a physical side-link shared channel (PSSCH) of the side-link connection.

4 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

generate a second CSI report that comprises additional one or more reporting elements of the set of CSI reporting elements;

determine that a physical side-link feedback channel (PSFCH) of the side-link connection supports more than 2 bits; and

in response to the determining, transmit, using the transceiver, the second CSI report to the second UE via the PSFCH of the side-link connection.

5 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein to transmit the MAC-CE message, the processor is further configured to:

receive a side-link control information (SCI) message from the second UE or a downlink control information (DCI) message from the base station.

6 . The UE of claim 5 ,

wherein the SCI message includes a CSI request field,

wherein the CSI request field includes one or more bits, and

wherein the processor is further configured to:

decode the CSI request field of the SCI message to determine the one or more bits; and

transmit, using the transceiver, the CSI report to the second UE based on the one or more bits.

7 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

generate a plurality of CSI reports periodically;

transmit, using the transceiver, the plurality of CSI reports to the second UE via the side-link connection periodically; and

receive, using the transceiver, a configuration message from the base station via a higher layer signaling, wherein the configuration message includes a periodicity of the plurality of CSI reports.

8 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive, using the transceiver, a configuration message from the base station via a higher layer signaling, wherein the configuration message indicates a semi-persistent CSI (SP-CSI) reporting;

receive, using the transceiver, an activation MAC-CE message;

generate a second CSI report based on the activation MAC-CE message, wherein the second CSI report comprises additional one or more reporting elements of the set of CSI reporting elements; and

transmit, using the transceiver, the second CSI report to the second UE via a physical side-link shared channel (PSSCH) or a physical side-link feedback channel (PSFCH) of the side-link connection.

9 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive, using the transceiver, a configuration message from the base station via a higher layer signaling, wherein the configuration message indicates a semi-persistent CSI (SP-CSI) reporting;

receive, using the transceiver, a side-link control information (SCI) message from the second UE;

generate a second CSI report based on the CSI message, wherein the second CSI report comprises additional one or more reporting elements of the set of CSI reporting elements; and

transmit, using the transceiver, the second CSI report to the second UE via a physical side-link shared channel (PSSCH) or a physical side-link feedback channel (PSFCH) of the side-link connection.

10 . The UE of claim 1 ,

wherein the MAC-CE message indicates a layer 1 reference signal received power (L1-RSRP) level using a first number of bits,

wherein the second MAC-CE message indicates a differential L1-RSRP level relative to the L1-RSRP level using a second number of bits, and

wherein the first number is greater than the second number.

11 . A user equipment (UE) comprising:

a transceiver configured to enable wireless communications with a base station and a second UE; and

a processor, communicatively coupled to the transceiver, and configured to:

generate a side-link control information (SCI) message, wherein the SCI message is configured to trigger the second UE to generate a MAC control element (MAC-CE) message, wherein the MAC-CE message comprises an indicator that indicates a second MAC-CE message to be transmitted within a predetermined time duration after the MAC-CE message is transmitted and a channel state information (CSI) report, and wherein the CSI report comprises one or more CSI reporting elements out of a set of CSI reporting elements;

transmit, using the transceiver, the SCI message to the second UE via a side-link connection; and

receive, using the transceiver, the MAC-CE message from the second UE via the side-link connection.

12 . The UE of claim 11 ,

wherein the set of CSI reporting elements comprises a channel state information reference signal indicator (CRI), a synchronization signal block resource index (SSBRI), layer 1 reference signal received power (L1-RSRP), layer 1 signal to interference and noise ratio (L1-SINR), a precoder matrix indicator (PMI), a layer indicator (LI), and a coherent transmission indicator, and

wherein the processor is further configured to receive the coherent transmission indicator included in a radio resource control (RRC) message from the second UE via a physical side-link shared channel (PSSCH).

13 . The UE of claim 10 , wherein the SCI message is further configured to trigger the second UE to:

generate a second CSI report that comprises one or more reporting elements of the set of CSI reporting elements; and

transmit the second CSI report to the UE via a physical side-link shared channel (PSSCH) of the side-link connection.

14 . The UE of claim 11 , wherein the SCI message is further configured to trigger the second UE to:

generate a second CSI report that comprises one or more reporting elements of the set of CSI reporting elements;

determine that a physical side-link feedback channel (PSFCH) of the side-link connection supports more than 2 bits; and

in response to the determining, transmit the second CSI report to the UE via the PSFCH of the side-link connection.

15 . The UE of claim 11 ,

wherein the SCI message includes a CSI request field,

wherein the CSI request field includes one or more bits, and

wherein the SCI message is configured to trigger the second UE to decode the CSI request field of the SCI message to determine the one or more bits and transmit the CSI report to the UE based on the one or more bits.

16 . The UE of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive, using the transceiver, a plurality of CSI reports from the second UE via the side-link connection periodically; and

receive, using the transceiver, a configuration message from the base station via a higher layer signaling, wherein the configuration message includes a periodicity of the plurality of CSI reports.

17 . A base station comprising:

a transceiver configured to enable wireless communication with a user equipment (UE); and

a processor, communicatively coupled to the transceiver, and configured to:

generate a configuration message configured to cause the UE to generate a MAC control element (MAC-CE) message, wherein the MAC-CE message comprises an indicator that indicates a second MAC-CE message to be transmitted within a predetermined time duration after the MAC-CE message is transmitted and a channel state information (CSI) report, and wherein the CSI report comprises one or more CSI reporting elements out of a set of CSI reporting elements; and

transmit, using the transceiver, the configuration message to the UE via a higher layer signaling.

18 . The base station of claim 17 ,

wherein the set of CSI reporting elements comprises a channel state information reference signal indicator (CRI), a synchronization signal block resource index (SSBRI), layer 1 reference signal received power (L1-RSRP), layer 1 signal to interference and noise ratio (L1-SINR), a precoder matrix indicator (PMI), a layer indicator (LI), and a coherent transmission indicator, and

wherein the processor is further configured to receive the coherent transmission indicator included in a radio resource control (RRC) message via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

19 . The base station of claim 17 , wherein the configuration message is further configured to cause the UE to:

generate a plurality of CSI reports periodically; and

transmit the plurality of CSI reports to a second UE via a side-link connection periodically.

20 . The base station of claim 17 , wherein the configuration message is further configured to cause the UE to:

transmit a plurality of CSI reports to a second UE via a side-link connection semi-persistently.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (29)