Granted Patent B2

US 12,507,286 · App. 17/921,084 · Granted Dec 23, 2025

Inventors: Yisheng Xue (San Diego, CA); Xiaoxia Zhang (San Diego, CA); Jing Sun (San Diego, CA); Ozcan Ozturk (San Diego, CA); Tao Luo (San Diego, CA); Juan Montojo (San Diego, CA); Peter Gaal (San Diego, CA); Changlong Xu (Beijing, CN)

Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated

H04W74/0866H04W72/25H04W72/56H04W74/0816

Abstract

Claims (89)

1 . A method of wireless communication in a wireless communication network, the method comprising, at a wireless communication device:

occupying a slot in a first subchannel, wherein the first subchannel comprises a sidelink subchannel in a licensed band;

transmitting sidelink control in the first subchannel during the slot, except during a symbol gap indicated to include at least a last symbol of a plurality of symbols supported by the slot;

seeking access to a secondary carrier in an unlicensed band wherein the seeking access to the secondary carrier further comprises synchronizing a first channel access to the secondary carrier in the unlicensed band, based on a second channel access to the first subchannel in the licensed band; and

transmitting sidelink traffic in the secondary carrier upon receiving the access to the secondary carrier.

2 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , wherein the seeking access to the secondary carrier in the unlicensed band further comprises:

deriving frame-based equipment (FBE) frame timing over the unlicensed band from timing in the licensed band.

3 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , wherein the seeking access to the secondary carrier in the unlicensed band further comprises:

using a frame-based equipment (FBE) listen before talk (LBT) procedure to seek access to the secondary carrier during an idle interval that at least partially overlaps with the symbol gap.

4 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , wherein the seeking access to the secondary carrier in the unlicensed band further comprises:

seeking the access to the secondary carrier in the unlicensed band during the symbol gap.

5 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying a primary carrier that includes the first subchannel; and

monitoring only the primary carrier for sidelink control.

6 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

aggregating the sidelink control and the sidelink traffic to a primary carrier and the secondary carrier, respectively;

designating the licensed band to include the primary carrier; and

designating the unlicensed band to include the secondary carrier.

7 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

carrying stage 1 sidelink control information over the first subchannel; and

carrying enhanced stage 2 sidelink control information including at least one of modulation and coding scheme (MCS), hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), or transmission (TX) parameters for the secondary carrier over the first subchannel.

8 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

mapping the first subchannel in a primary carrier to a plurality of interlaced resource blocks in the secondary carrier.

9 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication device has one transmission block remaining and can obtain another transmission block upon receiving the access to the secondary carrier, the method further comprising:

transmitting the sidelink control and the sidelink traffic in the first subchannel.

10 . The method of wireless communication of claim 9 , wherein the sidelink control comprises an enhanced stage 2 sidelink control information (eSCI-2) message that defines at least one of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the secondary carrier, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback of the secondary carrier, or a transmission (TX) parameter for the secondary carrier.

11 . The method of wireless communication of claim 9 , wherein the sidelink control comprises a first stage 2 sidelink control information (first SCI-2) message and a pointer to a second stage 2 SCI (second SCI-2) message carried over the secondary carrier.

12 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting only sidelink control in the first subchannel.

13 . The method of wireless communication of claim 12 , wherein the sidelink control comprises a first stage 1 sidelink control information (first SCI-1) message and a pointer to a second stage 2 SCI (second SCI-2) message carried over the secondary carrier.

14 . The method of wireless communication of claim 12 , wherein the sidelink control comprises a stage one sidelink control information (SCI-1) message and an enhanced stage 2 sidelink control information (eSCI-2) message that defines at least one of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the secondary carrier, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for the secondary carrier, or a transmission (TX) parameter for the secondary carrier.

15 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

using the first subchannel as an anchor in a primary carrier for interlaced channel access over the secondary carrier;

obtaining a first channel occupancy ratio (CR) that is associated with a first packet transmitted over the first subchannel;

identifying a second subchannel that is not an anchor in the primary carrier for interlaced channel access over the secondary carrier;

obtaining a second CR, different from the first CR, which is associated with a second packet transmitted in the second subchannel;

avoiding competition for access to the first subchannel based on a difference between the first CR and the second CR.

16 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

using the first subchannel as an anchor in a primary carrier for interlaced channel access over the secondary carrier;

calculating a first channel occupancy ratio (CR) that is associated with a first packet transmitted over the first subchannel using a weighting factor that is greater than 1;

identifying a second subchannel that is not an anchor in the primary carrier for interlaced channel access over the secondary carrier;

calculating a second CR that is associated with a second packet transmitted in the second subchannel; and

avoiding competition for access to the first subchannel based on a difference between the first CR that was calculated with the weighting factor that is greater than 1 and the second CR.

17 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , wherein subchannels of a primary band including the first subchannel are mapped, according to a time varying pattern, to pluralities of physical resource blocks in the secondary carrier.

18 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying a primary carrier including the first subchannel; and

sending hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback of the secondary carrier over the primary carrier.

19 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

reporting at least one of: a channel quality indicator (CQI) or a rank indicator (RI) of the secondary carrier with CQI/RI of the first subchannel.

20 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a first priority value associated with a sidelink control packet to be transmitted as the sidelink control in the first subchannel;

determining a second priority value associated with a sidelink traffic packet; and

transmitting the sidelink traffic packet in the sidelink traffic if the second priority value is equal to the first priority value.

21 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a first priority value, associated with a sidelink control packet to be transmitted as the sidelink control in the first subchannel, wherein the first priority value is selected from a closed set of values;

determining a second priority value associated with a sidelink traffic packet, wherein the second priority value is selected from the closed set of values;

determining a third priority value, relative to the first priority value, and indicative of lesser priority than the first priority value; and

transmitting the sidelink traffic packet in the sidelink control if the second priority value is greater than or equal to the third priority value.

22 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting a sidelink traffic packet in the sidelink traffic without regard to priority of the sidelink traffic packet.

23 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , further comprising:

conducting load-balancing between a primary carrier including the first subchannel and the secondary carrier based on a channel busy ratio (CBR) determined for the primary carrier.

24 . The method of wireless communication of claim 23 , wherein the conducting load-balancing further comprises:

determining if the CBR exceeds a threshold; and

if the CBR exceeds the threshold, determining to transmit a sidelink traffic packet in the sidelink traffic based on a determination of at least one of:

whether a priority of the sidelink traffic packet is equal to a sidelink control packet,

whether the priority of the sidelink traffic packet is within a predetermined delta of the sidelink control packet, or

whether no priority of both the sidelink traffic packet is within a predetermined delta of the sidelink control packet.

25 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , wherein the seeking access to the secondary carrier in the unlicensed band further comprises:

deriving load-based equipment (LBE) frame timing over the unlicensed band from timing in the licensed band.

26 . The method of wireless communication of claim 1 , wherein the seeking access to the secondary carrier in the unlicensed band further comprises:

using a load-based equipment (LBE) listen before talk (LBT) process to seek the access to the secondary carrier during an idle interval that at least partially overlaps with the symbol gap.

27 . A wireless communication device in a wireless communication network, comprising:

a wireless transceiver;

a memory; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the wireless transceiver and the memory, wherein the processor and the memory are configured to:

occupy a slot in a first subchannel, wherein the first subchannel comprises a sidelink subchannel in a licensed band;

transmit sidelink control in the first subchannel during the slot, except during a symbol gap indicated to include at least a last symbol of a plurality of symbols supported by the slot;

seek access to a secondary carrier in an unlicensed band;

map the first subchannel in a primary carrier to a plurality of interlaced resource blocks in the secondary carrier; and

transmit sidelink traffic in the secondary carrier upon receiving the access to the secondary carrier.

28 . An article of manufacture for use by a wireless communication device in a wireless communication network, the article comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored therein instructions executable by one or more processors of the wireless communication device to:

occupy a slot in a first subchannel, wherein the first subchannel comprises a sidelink subchannel in a licensed band;

carry stage 1 sidelink control information over the first subchannel; and

carry enhanced stage 2 sidelink control information including at least one of modulation and coding scheme (MCS), hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), or transmission (TX) parameters for the secondary carrier over the first subchannel;

transmit sidelink control in the first subchannel during the slot, except during a symbol gap indicated to include at least a last symbol of a plurality of symbols supported by the slot;

seek access to a secondary carrier in an unlicensed band; and

transmit sidelink traffic in the secondary carrier upon receiving the access to the secondary carrier.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (31)