Methods, user equipment and base station for sidelink identification

1. A method implemented at a first user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

sending or receiving a communication carrying data related to a sidelink between the first UE and a second UE; and

identifying the sidelink to which the data relates using a sidelink ID, the sidelink ID comprising a full identity (ID) for identifying one of the first and second UEs and a short ID for identifying the other of the first and second UEs, the full ID being longer than the short ID and the short ID uniquely identifying the second UE among a plurality of UEs with which the first UE has simultaneous sidelinks.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises:

in response to a first predetermined condition being satisfied, determining that the first UE is to be identified in the sidelink ID by the full ID and the second UE is to be identified in the sidelink ID by the short ID;

determining the full ID for the first UE;

determining the short ID for the second UE; and

sending the full ID of the first UE and the short ID for the second UE to the second UE or a base station.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises:

in response to a second predetermined condition being satisfied, determining that the first UE is to be identified in the sidelink ID by the short ID and the second UE is to be identified in the sidelink ID by the full ID; and

receiving the short ID for the first UE and the full ID of the second UE from the second UE or a base station.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the full ID is a locally unique ID;

and wherein determining the full ID comprises receiving the full ID of the first UE from a base station.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the full ID is a locally unique ID, and wherein determining the full ID comprises:

receiving, from one or more surrounding UEs, one or more full IDs which are being used by the one or more surrounding UEs; and

selecting, as the full ID of the first UE, from a predetermined pool of full IDs, a full ID that has not been used by the one or more surrounding UEs for a predetermined time period.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the short ID is determined for the second UE based on a number of simultaneous sidelinks in which the first UE is or can be involved.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises:

sending information about the sidelink to a base station; and

receiving the sidelink ID from the base station.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

sending the received sidelink ID to the second UE on the sidelink.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the information about the sidelink comprises a full ID of the second UE and a number of simultaneous sidelinks in which the first UE is or can be involved.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating a data packet that contains at least information about the short ID of the sidelink ID;

encoding the data packet; and

transmitting the encoded data packet to the second UE on the sidelink; and

wherein the data packet further contains information about the full ID of the sidelink ID, or wherein encoding the data packet comprises scrambling the data packet with the full ID of the sidelink ID.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving an encoded data packet from the second UE on the sidelink;

decoding the encoded data packet into a data packet; and

obtaining at least the short ID of the sidelink ID from the data packet; and

wherein decoding the encoded data packet comprises descrambling, with the full ID of the sidelink ID, a scrambled data packet, or wherein the full ID of the sidelink ID is further obtained from the data packet.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sidelink is a unicast sidelink or a multicast sidelink, and the sidelink ID is used to identify the sidelink on layer 1 (L1).

13. A method implemented at a base station, the method comprising:

sending or receiving a communication carrying data related to a sidelink between a first UE and a second UE; and

identifying the sidelink to which the data relates using a sidelink ID, the sidelink ID comprising a full identity (ID) for identifying one of the first and second UEs and a short ID for identifying the other of the first and second UEs, the full ID being longer than the short ID and the short ID uniquely identifying the second UE among a plurality of UEs with which the first UE has simultaneous sidelinks.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the method comprises:

receiving information about the sidelink from one of the first and second UEs;

in response to a first predetermined condition being satisfied, determining that the first UE is to be identified in the sidelink ID by the full ID and the second UE is to be identified in the sidelink ID by the short ID;

determining the full ID for the first UE;

determining the short ID for the second UE; and

sending the full ID of the first UE and the short ID for the second UE to the one of the first and second UEs.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

sending the full ID of the first UE and the short ID for the second UE to the other of the first and second UEs.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the short ID is determined for the second UE based on a number of simultaneous sidelinks in which the first UE is or can be involved.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the method comprises:

receiving the sidelink ID from one of the first and second UEs; and

sending the received sidelink ID to the other of the first and second UEs.

18. A first user equipment (UE), comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory, the at least one memory containing instructions executable by the at least one processor, whereby the first UE is operative to:

send or receive a communication carrying data related to a sidelink between the first UE and a second UE; and

identify the sidelink to which the data relates using a sidelink ID, the sidelink ID comprising a full identity (ID) for identifying one of the first and second UEs and a short ID for identifying the other of the first and second UEs, the full ID being longer than the short ID and the short ID uniquely identifying the second UE among a plurality of UEs with which the first UE has simultaneous sidelinks.