Terminal device and method for facilitating communication between terminal devices

1. A method in a first terminal device for facilitating direct communication with a second terminal device, where the direct communication is a sidelink communication for vehicular services, comprising:

transmitting to the second terminal device a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) index that corresponds to one of a first mapping of a set of MCS indexes and a second mapping of the set of MCS indexes, wherein each MCS index is associated with a modulation order and a Transport Block Size (TBS) index in the first mapping and associated with a modulation order and a TBS index in the second mapping, in which the first mapping and the second mapping have an overlapped portion of same MCS indexes with corresponding same modulation order and TBS indexes, in which each TBS index maps to a corresponding same Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) between the first mapping and the second mapping for the overlapped portion and to a corresponding different PRBs between the first mapping and the second mapping for the non-overlapped portion, in order for the second terminal device, in response to receiving the MCS index, to identify the modulation order and TBS index by the MCS index and identify a number of PRBs by the TBS index based on the first mapping or the second mapping to communicate with the first terminal device;

wherein the MCS index is determined by the first terminal device by selectively applying the first mapping or the second mapping for communicating with the second terminal device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-overlapped portion of the second mapping supports a higher modulation order than modulation orders supported by the first mapping.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the overlapped portion is associated with coding rates below a predefined threshold.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein, in a portion of the second mapping that does not overlap the first mapping, each TBS associated with the second mapping is scaled down with respect to a corresponding TBS associated with the first mapping by a factor dependent on a number of Resource Elements (REs) available for data transmission.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the MCS index is determined by the first terminal device by applying the first mapping when retransmission is configured, or the second mapping when no retransmission is configured and a modulation order and a TBS obtained by applying the first mapping would result in a coding rate higher than a predefined threshold.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting to the second terminal device an indicator indicating which of the first and second mappings is applied by the first terminal device.

7. A method in a first terminal device for facilitating direct communication with a second terminal device, where the direct communication is a sidelink communication for vehicular service, comprising:

receiving from the second terminal device a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) index that corresponds to one of a first mapping of a set of MCS indexes and a second mapping of the set of MCS indexes, wherein each MCS index is associated with a modulation order and a Transport Block Size (TBS) index in the first mapping and associated with a modulation order and a TBS index in the second mapping, in which the first mapping and the second mapping have an overlapped portion of same MCS indexes with corresponding same modulation order and TBS indexes, in which each TBS index maps to a corresponding same Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) between the first mapping and the second mapping for the overlapped portion and to a corresponding different PRBs between the first mapping and the second mapping for the non-overlapped portion; and

identifying the modulation order and the TBS index by the MCS index and corresponding mapping of the MCS index to the first mapping or the second mapping and identifying a number of PRBs by the TBS index and the corresponding mapping of the MCS index to the first mapping or the second mapping.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the non-overlapped portion of the second mapping supports a higher modulation order than modulation orders supported by the first mapping.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the overlapped portion is associated with coding rates below a predefined threshold.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein, in a portion of the second mapping that does not overlap the first mapping, each TBS associated with the second mapping is scaled down with respect to a corresponding TBS associated with the first mapping by a factor dependent on a number of Resource Elements (REs) available for data transmission.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the modulation order and the TBS are obtained by the first terminal device in accordance with the first mapping when retransmission is configured, or with the second mapping when no retransmission is configured and a modulation order and a TBS obtained in accordance with the first mapping would result in a coding rate higher than a predefined threshold.

12. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

receiving from the second terminal device an indicator indicating which of the first and second mappings is applied by the second terminal device.

13. A first terminal device in direct communication with a second terminal device, where the direct communication is a sidelink communication for vehicular service, the first terminal device comprising:

a transceiver;

a processor coupled to the transceiver; and

a memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the first terminal device to perform operations to:

transmit to the second terminal device a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) index that corresponds to one of a first mapping of a set of MCS indexes and a second mapping of the set of MCS indexes, wherein each MCS index is associated with a modulation order and a Transport Block Size (TBS) index in the first mapping and associated with a modulation order and a TBS index in the second mapping, in which the first mapping and the second mapping have an overlapped portion of same MCS indexes with corresponding same modulation order and TBS indexes, in which each TBS index maps to a corresponding same Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) between the first mapping and the second mapping for the overlapped portion and to a corresponding different PRBs between the first mapping and the second mapping for the non-overlapped portion, in order for the second terminal device, in response to receiving the MCS index, to identify the modulation order and TBS index by the MCS index and identify a number of PRBs by the TBS index based on the first mapping or the second mapping to communicate with the first terminal device;

wherein the MCS index is determined by the first terminal device by selectively applying the first mapping or the second mapping for communicating with the second terminal device.