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EP-4742828-A2 - SIDELINK BEAM REPORTING MECHANISM

EP4742828A2EP 4742828 A2EP4742828 A2EP 4742828A2EP-4742828-A2

Abstract

Systems and methods for sidelink (SL) beam reporting mechanisms between a transmit (Tx) UE and a receive (Rx) UE are disclosed herein. The Tx UE may send a combined physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH)/physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) having one or more channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) on corresponding beams to the Rx UE. The Rx UE may perform beam measurement on the CSI-RSs and send a beam report to the Tx UE that is based on such measurement. Systems and methods for configuring various aspects of the beam reporting (and its associated beam measurement) between the Tx UE and the Rx UE, for triggering SL beam reporting between the Tx UE and the Rx UE, and for performing SL beam reporting relative to a zone identifier (ID) for one of the Tx UE and the Rx UE are disclosed.

Inventors

  • YE, CHUNXUAN
  • FAKOORIAN, SEYED ALI AKBAR
  • ZENG, WEI
  • WU, ZHIBIN
  • SUN, HAITONG
  • ZHANG, YUSHU
  • NIU, HUANING
  • ZHANG, DAWEI
  • HE, HONG
  • YANG, WEIDONG

Assignees

  • Apple Inc.

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20230223

Claims (15)

  1. A method of a transmit (Tx) user equipment (UE) for performing sidelink (SL) communications with a receive (Rx) UE, comprising: sending, to the Rx UE, a combined physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH)/physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) transmission including: sidelink control information (SCI) configured to trigger a beam report by the Rx UE; and one or more channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) to be used at the Rx UE for a beam measurement corresponding to the beam report; and receiving, from the Rx UE, the beam report.
  2. The method of claim 1, wherein the SCI indicates that the combined PSCCH/PSSCH transmission comprises the one or more CSI-RSs.
  3. The method of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the SCI identifies a channel state information (CSI) report configuration defining a manner of performing the beam measurement and making the beam report.
  4. The method of any of claim 1 to claim 3, wherein the CSI report configuration is indicated using one or more bits of stage 1 of the SCI.
  5. The method of any of claim 1 to claim 3, wherein: the CSI report configuration is indicated in stage 2 of the SCI; and the beam report is triggered by a field in the stage 2 of the SCI.
  6. The method of claim 5, wherein the field is further configured to trigger one of channel quality index (CQI) reporting and rank indicator (RI) reporting by the Rx UE.
  7. The method of any of claim 1 to claim 6, wherein each of the one or more CSI-RSs belongs to one of one or more CSI-RS resource sets, and wherein each CSI-RS of a given CSI-RS resource set is sent on a same antenna port.
  8. The method of any of claim 1 to claim 7, wherein the one or more of CSI-RSs comprises CSI-RS repetitions.
  9. A method of a transmit (Tx) user equipment (UE) for performing sidelink (SL) communications with a receive (Rx) UE, comprising: sending, to the Rx UE, periodic combined physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH)/physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) transmissions, wherein one or more of the periodic combined PSCCH/PSSCH transmissions corresponds to one or more beam measurements and includes one or more channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) to be used at the Rx UE for the one or more beam measurements; sending, to the Rx UE, first sidelink control information (SCI) configured to trigger beam reporting by the Rx UE; receiving, from the Rx UE, one or more beam reports of the beam reporting, the beam reports corresponding to the one or more beam measurements; and sending, to the Rx UE, second SCI configured to disable the beam reporting by the Rx UE.
  10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first SCI indicates a timing of a first in time of the one or more of the periodic combined PSCCH/PSSCH transmissions corresponding to the one or more beam measurements; or wherein the second SCI indicates a timing of a one of the periodic combined PSCCH/PSSCH transmissions that does not correspond to a beam measurement.
  11. A method of a transmit (Tx) user equipment (UE) for performing sidelink (SL) communications with a receive (Rx) UE, comprising: sending, to the Rx UE, periodic combined physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH)/physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) transmissions, wherein one or more of the periodic combined PSSCH/PSSCH transmissions corresponds to one or more beam measurements and includes one or more channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) to be used at the Rx UE for the one or more beam measurements, wherein: a first of the periodic combined PSCCH/PSSCH transmissions comprises first sidelink control information (SCI) configured to trigger beam reporting by the Rx UE; and a second of the periodic combined PSCCH/PSSCH transmissions comprises second SCI configured to disable the beam reporting by the Rx UE; and receiving, from the Rx UE, beam reports of the beam reporting, the beam reports corresponding to the one or more beam measurements.
  12. A method of a receive (Rx) user equipment (UE) for performing sidelink (SL) communications with a transmit (Tx) UE, comprising: receiving periodic combined physical sidelink control channel (PSSCH)/physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) transmissions that correspond to one or more beam measurements and include one or more channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) useable at the Rx UE for the one or more beam measurements; performing the one or more beam measurements corresponding to the periodic combined PSSCH/PSSCH transmissions using the one or more CSI-RSs; determining, based on a triggering event identified according to the one or more beam measurements, that a beam report is to be sent to the Tx UE; and sending the beam report to the Tx UE.
  13. The method of claim 12, wherein the triggering event is that a measured quality of a serving beam is below a threshold; or wherein the triggering event is that a measured quality of an inactive beam is above a threshold; or wherein the triggering event is that a first measured quality of a first beam is greater than a second measured quality of a serving beam by an offset amount; or wherein the triggering event is that a first measured quality of a serving beam is below a first threshold, and a second measured quality of another beam is above a second threshold; or wherein the triggering event is determined according to a resource pool used for the SL communications; or wherein the triggering event is configured to the Rx UE via SL radio resource control (RRC) signaling performed with the Tx UE.
  14. A baseband processor for a user equipment (UE) that is configured to cause the UE to perform one or more elements of any one of claim 1 to claim 13.
  15. A computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform the method of any of claim 1 to claim 13.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD This application relates generally to wireless communication systems, including wireless communications systems that include a transmit (Tx) UE that communicates with a receive (Rx) UE using sidelink (SL) communications. BACKGROUND Wireless mobile communication technology uses various standards and protocols to transmit data between a base station and a wireless communication device. Wireless communication system standards and protocols can include, for example, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) (e.g., 4G), 3GPP new radio (NR) (e.g., 5G), and IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless local area networks (WLAN) (commonly known to industry groups as Wi-Fi®). As contemplated by the 3GPP, different wireless communication systems standards and protocols can use various radio access networks (RANs) for communicating between a base station of the RAN (which may also sometimes be referred to generally as a RAN node, a network node, or simply a node) and a wireless communication device known as a user equipment (UE). 3GPP RANs can include, for example, global system for mobile communications (GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) RAN (GERAN), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), and/or Next-Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN). Each RAN may use one or more radio access technologies (RATs) to perform communication between the base station and the UE. For example, the GERAN implements GSM and/or EDGE RAT, the UTRAN implements universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) RAT or other 3GPP RAT, the E-UTRAN implements LTE RAT (sometimes simply referred to as LTE), and NG-RAN implements NR RAT (sometimes referred to herein as 5G RAT, 5G NR RAT, or simply NR). In certain deployments, the E-UTRAN may also implement NR RAT. In certain deployments, NG-RAN may also implement LTE RAT. A base station used by a RAN may correspond to that RAN. One example of an E-UTRAN base station is an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (also commonly denoted as evolved Node B, enhanced Node B, eNodeB, or eNB). One example of an NG-RAN base station is a next generation Node B (also sometimes referred to as a g Node B or gNB). A RAN provides its communication services with external entities through its connection to a core network (CN). For example, E-UTRAN may utilize an Evolved Packet Core (EPC), while NG-RAN may utilize a 5G Core Network (5GC). Frequency bands for 5G NR may be separated into two or more different frequency ranges. For example, Frequency Range 1 (FR1) may include frequency bands operating in sub-6 GHz frequencies, some of which are bands that may be used by previous standards, and may potentially be extended to cover new spectrum offerings from 410 MHz to 7125 MHz. Frequency Range 2 (FR2) may include frequency bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. Note that in some systems, FR2 may also include frequency bands from 52.6 GHz to 71 GHz (or beyond). Bands in the millimeter wave (mmWave) range of FR2 may have smaller coverage but potentially higher available bandwidth than bands in FR1. Skilled persons will recognize these frequency ranges, which are provided by way of example, may change from time to time or from region to region. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, the most significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to the figure number in which that element is first introduced. FIG. 1 illustrates a method of SL CSI-RS acquisition between a Tx UE and an Rx UE, according to an embodiment.FIG. 2 illustrates a diagram of aperiodic triggering of a SL beam report, according to embodiments discussed herein.FIG. 3 illustrates a diagram of periodic (semi-persistent) triggering of SL beam reporting, according to embodiments discussed herein.FIG. 4 illustrates a diagram of periodic (semi-persistent) triggering of SL beam reporting, according to embodiments discussed herein.FIG. 5 illustrates a diagram of event-based triggering of SL beam reporting, according to embodiments discussed herein.FIG. 6 is visualization of a set of zones using zone identifiers 0 through 15, as may be defined by a resource pool configuration for the SL resource pool that is used by a Tx UE and an Rx UE to perform SL communications, according to an embodiment.FIG. 7 illustrates a method of a Tx UE for performing sidelink communications with an Rx UE, according to an embodiment.FIG. 8 illustrates a method of a Tx UE for performing sidelink communications with an Rx UE, according to an embodiment.FIG. 9 illustrates a method of a Tx UE for performing sidelink communications with an Rx UE, according to an embodiment.FIG. 10 illustrates a method of a Tx UE for performing sidelink communications with an Rx UE, according to an embodiment.FIG. 11 illustrates a method of a Tx UE for performing sidelink communi