Autonomous reference signal transmission configuration

1. A method of transmitting a reference signal to a base station, the method comprising:

receiving a configuration message from the base station, wherein the configuration message comprises an indication of a set of candidate resources for transmitting the reference signal;

detecting a future downlink transmission from the base station; and

transmitting, in response to detecting the future downlink transmission, the reference signal utilizing a first resource of the set of candidate resources prior to receiving the future downlink transmission via a second resource in the set of candidate resources.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference signal comprises one or more of a sounding reference signal (SRS) or a channel state information (CSI) signal.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the future downlink transmission comprises detecting a downlink resource grant for the future downlink transmission.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting, to the base station, a radio resource control (RRC) message signal indicating an autonomous reference signal capability, and receiving the configuration message in response to the RRC message signal.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the future downlink transmission is in part based on the configuration message, wherein the configuration message indicates a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) of downlink grants, and wherein the set of candidate resources comprise resources allocated for downlink grants according to the SPS of downlink grants.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuration message is received via one or more of a radio resource control (RRC) message or downlink control information (DCI) for the future downlink transmission.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of candidate resources comprise one or more of an uplink slot resource or an index of symbols within the uplink slot resource.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the future downlink transmission is a retransmission of a first downlink transmission.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein detecting the future downlink transmission from the base station comprises:

determining that the base station will perform the retransmission based on a downlink decoding failure of the first downlink transmission; and

transmitting a negative-acknowledgement (NAK) to the base station in response to the downlink decoding failure.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining the set of candidate resources based at least in part on one or more of the indication of the set of candidate resources, or a resource of the first downlink transmission.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first resource of the set of candidate resources comprises an uplink-centric slot.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference signal comprises a channel state information (CSI) report, and wherein the method further comprises:

estimating a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) for the future downlink transmission from the base station; and

generating the CSI report based in part on the estimated SINR.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference signal comprises a channel state information (CSI) report, and wherein the method further comprises:

generating the CSI report based in part on one or more of a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) for a previous downlink transmission, or a signal-to-leakage ratio for the previous downlink transmission.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuration message includes downlink configuration information (DCI) comprising the indication of the set of candidate resources for transmitting the reference signal, and wherein the set of candidate resources include one or more resource blocks (RBs) of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or one or more RBs of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

15. A user equipment (UE), comprising:

a memory; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to:

receive a configuration message from a base station, wherein the configuration message comprises an indication of a set of candidate resources for transmitting a reference signal;

detect a future downlink transmission from the base station; and

transmit, in response to detecting the future downlink transmission, the reference signal utilizing a first resource of the set of candidate resources prior to receiving the future downlink transmission via a second resource in the set of candidate resources.

16. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the reference signal comprises one or more of a sounding reference signal (SRS) or a channel state information (CSI) signal.

17. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the processor, being configure to detect the future downlink transmission, is further configured to detect a downlink resource grant for the future downlink transmission.

18. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

transmit, to the base station, a radio resource control (RRC) message signal indicating an autonomous reference signal capability; and

receive the configuration message in response to the RRC message signal.

19. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the processor is further configured to detect the future downlink transmission based in part on the configuration message, wherein the configuration message indicates a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) of downlink grants, and wherein the set of candidate resources comprise resources allocated for downlink grants according to the SPS of downlink grants.

20. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the configuration message comprises one or more of a radio resource control (RRC) message or downlink control information (DCI) for the future downlink transmission.

21. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the set of candidate resources comprise one or more of an uplink slot resource or an index of symbols within the uplink slot resource.

22. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the future downlink transmission is a retransmission of a first downlink transmission.

23. The UE of claim 22 , wherein the processor, being configured to detect the future downlink transmission from the base station, is further configured to:

determine that the base station will perform the retransmission based on a downlink decoding failure of the first downlink transmission; and

transmit a negative-acknowledgement (NAK) to the base station in response to the downlink decoding failure.

24. The UE of claim 22 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine the set of candidate resources based at least in part on one or more of the indication of the set of candidate resources or a resource of the first downlink transmission.

25. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the first resource of the set of candidate resources comprises an uplink-centric slot.

26. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the reference signal comprises a channel state information (CSI) report, and wherein the processor is further configured to:

estimate a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) for the future downlink transmission from the base station; and

generate the CSI report based in part on the estimated SINR.

27. A user equipment (UE), comprising:

means for receiving a configuration message from a base station, wherein the configuration message comprises an indication of a set of candidate resources for transmitting a reference signal;

means for detecting a future downlink transmission from the base station; and

means for transmitting, in response to detecting the future downlink transmission, the reference signal utilizing a first resource of the set of candidate resources prior to receiving the future downlink transmission via a second resource in the set of candidate resources.

28. The UE of claim 27 , wherein the reference signal comprises one or more of a sounding reference signal (SRS) or a channel state information (CSI) signal.

29. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions that when executed by a user equipment (UE) cause the UE to perform a method of transmitting a reference signal from the UE to a base station, the method comprising:

receiving a configuration message from the base station, wherein the configuration message comprises an indication of a set of candidate resources for transmitting the reference signal;

detecting a future downlink transmission from the base station; and

transmitting, in response to detecting the future downlink transmission, the reference signal utilizing a first resource of the set of candidate resources prior to receiving the future downlink transmission via a second resource in the set of candidate resources.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 29 , wherein the reference signal comprises one or more of a sounding reference signal (SRS) or a channel state information (CSI) signal.