Logical channel prioritization procedure for sidelink logical channels

1. An integrated circuit for controlling a user equipment operable in a wireless communications system supporting direct communication between user equipments, the integrated circuit comprising:

control circuitry, which, in operation:

selects a sidelink destination group (ProSe destination) associated with a sidelink logical channel having a highest logical channel priority among sidelink logical channels, which have data available for transmission in a sidelink control period (SC period) and which have not previously been selected in the same sidelink control period, wherein each of the sidelink logical channels belongs to a sidelink destination group, each of the sidelink logical channels is allocated to a logical channel group (LCG) depending on a priority of said each sidelink logical channel and on a priority of the logical channel group, and the logical channel group is defined per sidelink destination group; and

allocates radio resources to sidelink logical channels belonging to the selected sidelink destination group in decreasing priority order; and

transmitting circuitry, which, in operation, transmits the data using the allocated radio resources.

2. The integrated circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the logical channel priority depends on at least one factor chosen from:

a destination group priority associated with the sidelink destination group;

a logical channel group priority associated with a group of logical channels, grouped according to a data type;

a geographical location of the user equipment;

an emergency level in which the user equipment is operating; or

a user equipment identifier.

3. The integrated circuit according to claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving circuitry, which, in operation, receives an indication of logical channel priorities of the respective logical channels determined by a ProSe (proximity services) function in a ProSe entity of the wireless communications system, and stores the logical priorities.

4. The integrated circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry, in operation, determines a logical channel priority of a logical channel.

5. The integrated circuit according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a buffer, which, in operation, stores data to be transmitted for a logical channel; wherein,

the control circuitry, in operation, modifies a current priority of said logical channel into a modified priority either based on own recalculation of the priority or based on a command received from a ProSe function.

6. The integrated circuit according to claim 5 , wherein the data stored in the buffer before modification are either flushed or transmitted with the current priority depending on at least one factor chosen from:

a comparative determination of whether the current priority is higher than the modified priority;

a level of the modified priority; or

a cause of the modification.

7. The integrated circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry, in operation:

determines that the user equipment is selected or not selected to transmit data among the user equipments of the wireless communications system;

responsive to determining that the user equipment is not selected, suspends sidelink logical channels associated with the user equipment and does not select or allocate resources to the suspended sidelink logical channels; and

responsive to determining that the user equipment is selected, resumes the sidelink logical channels which were previously suspended.

8. The integrated circuit according to claim 7 , wherein the control circuitry, in operation: determines that the user equipment is not to transmit data, according to messages exchanged in the wireless communications system between the user equipments and/or a proximity service entity in a layer above MAC (medium access control), and

responsive to determining that the user equipment is not to transmit data, stops transmission of data and/or sidelink control information.

9. The integrated circuit according to claim 7 , wherein the control circuitry, in operation:

extracts, from sidelink control information on physical layer or a MAC (medium access control) PDU (protocol data unit), received from another user equipment, a user equipment priority indicator;

compares the extracted user equipment priority indicator with an own user equipment priority stored in the user equipment or a priority of the data to be transmitted; and

responsive to the own user equipment priority being lower than the extracted user equipment priority indicator, determines that the user equipment is not selected to transmit data.

10. The integrated circuit according to claim 9 , wherein, responsive to the user equipment having a floor and receiving sidelink control information from another user equipment with a higher user equipment priority, the control circuitry stops transmission of the data via the transmitting circuitry.

11. The integrated circuit according to claim 9 , wherein the user equipment priority indicator is carried within a MAC header of the MAC PDU and is configured by a ProSe (proximity services) entity of the wireless communications system.

12. The integrated circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry, in operation, reports to a network node of the wireless communications system a status of a buffer associated with a logical channel priority.

13. The integrated circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry, in operation, selects the radio resources to be allocated from a resource pool, and selects the resource pool among a plurality of resource pools according to a priority associated with the selected sidelink destination group or a logical channel priority associated with a logical channel from which the data is to be transmitted.