IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,323,997
Granted Patent B2
US 12,323,997 · App. 18/392,983 · Granted Jun 3, 2025

Downlink control information (DCI) for sidelink grant

Inventors: Chunhai Yao (Beijing, CN); Chunxuan Ye (San Diego, CA); Dawei Zhang (Saratoga, CA); Wei Zeng (Saratoga, CA); Yushu Zhang (Beijing, CN); Weidong Yang (San Diego, CA); Oghenekome Oteri (San Diego, CA); Haitong Sun (Cupertino, CA); Yuchul Kim (San Jose, CA); Hong He (San Jose, CA); Jie Cui (San Jose, CA); Yang Tang (San Jose, CA)
Assignee: Apple Inc.
H04W72/23H04L1/08H04L1/1812H04W72/0453H04W76/30
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,323,997
App. No.
18/392,983
Granted
Jun 3, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

A service device (e.g., a user equipment (UE), a new radio NR (gNB), or other network component) as a service provider/consumer can process or generate sidelink communications based on a downlink control information (DCI) for one or more sidelink configured grants that enables resource allocation for the sidelink communication. The device can determine whether to activate, release/deactivate, or request a retransmission for the one or more sidelink configured grants based on one or more fields of a DCI format 3_0 configuration of the DCI.

Claims (54)

1. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

radio frequency (RF) circuitry;

a memory; and

processing circuitry coupled to the memory and configured to execute instructions stored in the memory to cause the UE to:

receive a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to activate a sidelink configured grant for a sidelink communication;

derive a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier (ID) for the sidelink configured grant based on a current slot variable that is a function of a system frame number (SFN);

transmit, via the RF circuitry, the sidelink communication based on the HARQ process ID;

receive downlink control information (DCI) with DCI format 3_0 including a frequency resource assignment (FRA) field; and

in response to the FRA field of the DCI being set to all ones, processing a release operation for the sidelink configured grant.

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause the UE to:

generate a retransmission operation of the sidelink configured grant based on at least one of: the HARQ process ID or a new data indicator (NDI) field corresponding to a sidelink dynamic grant.

3. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause the UE to:

determine whether to initiate a retransmission operation for a retransmission of the sidelink configured grant based on a field of a subsequent DCI with DCI format 3_0.

4. The UE of claim 3 , wherein the field of the subsequent DCI with DCI format 3_0 is applicable to a sidelink dynamic grant, and wherein the sidelink configured grant is based on a different radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) than the sidelink dynamic grant.

5. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause the UE to:

determine the HARQ process ID based on a representation as follows:

[floor(CURRENT_slot/sl-PeriodCG)] modulo sl-NrOfHARQ-Processes, where the CURRENT_slot as the current slot variable is equal to (SFN×numberOfSlotsPerFrame+slot number in frame).

6. The UE of claim 5 , wherein the HARQ process ID is mapped to a grant HARQ ID in a one-to-one mapping.

7. The UE of claim 6 , wherein the HARQ process ID is a sum of the grant HARQ ID and a minimum HARQ process ID for a range of HARQ process IDs.

8. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the HARQ process ID comprises a HARQ process number, and the processing circuitry is further configured to cause the UE to:

determine whether a field of a subsequent DCI with DCI format 3_0 is masked with a sidelink radio network temporary identifier (SL-RNTI); and

process an activation or release operation for the sidelink configured grant based on the determination of whether the field is masked with the SL-RNTI.

9. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the HARQ process ID comprises a HARQ process number, and the processing circuitry is further configured to cause the UE to:

determine whether the HARQ process number comprises all zeros; and

in response to the HARQ process number not comprising all zeros, release or ignore the sidelink configured grant.

10. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the HARQ process ID comprises a HARQ process number.

11. A computer readable storage device storing executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to activate a sidelink configured grant for a sidelink communication;

determining a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier (ID) for the sidelink configured grant based on a current slot variable;

providing the sidelink communication based on the HARQ process ID;

receiving downlink control information (DCI) with DCI format 3_0; and

determining a release of the sidelink configured grant based on a HARQ process ID field and a frequency resource assignment (FRA) field of the DCI.

12. The computer readable storage device of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise:

determining an activation of the sidelink configured grant based on a HARQ process ID field of a subsequent downlink control information (DCI) with DCI format 3_0.

13. The computer readable storage device of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise:

generating a retransmission operation of the sidelink configured grant based on at least one of: the HARQ process ID, a new data indicator (NDI) field corresponding to a sidelink dynamic grant, or a frequency resource assignment (FRA) field.

14. The computer readable storage device of claim 11 , wherein the HARQ process ID comprises a HARQ process number, and wherein the operations further comprise:

determining whether the HARQ process number comprises all zeros; and

in response to the HARQ process number not comprising all zeros, releasing or ignoring the sidelink configured grant.

15. The computer readable storage device of claim 11 , wherein the HARQ process ID comprises a HARQ process number, and wherein the operations further comprise:

determining whether a frequency resource assignment (FRA) of the sidelink configured grant is set to all ones; and

in response to the FRA being set to all ones, releasing the sidelink configured grant.

16. A baseband processor configured to, when executing instructions stored in a memory, perform operations comprising:

receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to activate a sidelink configured grant for a sidelink communication;

determining a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier (ID) for the sidelink configured grant based on a current slot variable;

providing, to a radio frequency (RF) interface for transmission, the sidelink communication based on the HARQ process ID; and

receiving downlink control information (DCI) indicating a HARQ process number; and

in response to the HARQ process number not comprising all zero s, releasing the sidelink configured grant.

17. The baseband processor of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise:

determining an activation of the sidelink configured grant based on a HARQ process ID field of a subsequent downlink control information (DCI) with DCI format 3_0, wherein the current slot variable is a function of a system frame number (SFN).

18. The baseband processor of claim 16 , wherein the DCI includes a HARQ process ID field indicating the HARQ process number.

19. The baseband processor of claim 16 , wherein the HARQ process ID is a HARQ process number, and wherein the operations further comprise:

determining whether a frequency resource assignment (FRA) of the sidelink configured grant is set to all ones; and

in response to the FRA being set to all ones, releasing the sidelink configured grant.

Continuity (2)
Continuation 17267852
Related Publication 20240137939A1 · Apr 25, 2024
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