WO2020118569A1

WO2020118569A1 - Method, device and computer readable medium for sidelink resources allocation

Info

Publication number: WO2020118569A1
Application number: PCT/CN2018/120680
Authority: WO
Inventors: Dong Li; Yong Liu
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Current assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2018-12-12
Filing date: 2018-12-12
Publication date: 2020-06-18
Anticipated expiration: 2021-06-12
Also published as: CN113170287A

Abstract

A method, device and computer readable medium for sidelink resource allocation is provided. A new scheme for allocating resources to sidelink transmissions is provided. Each terminal device (110-2,110-1,120) is assigned with a terminal device (110-2,110-1,120) specific channel access opportunity. The amount of resources allocated to the terminal devices (110-2,110-1,120) are adapted based on the amount of traffic of sidelinks among the terminal devices (110-2,110-1,120). In this way, collisions are avoided and the traffic variation is adapted.

Description

METHOD, DEVICE AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR SIDELINK RESOURCES ALLOCATION

FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to communication techniques, and more particularly, to methods, devices and computer readable medium for sidelink resource allocation.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, different communication technologies have been proposed to improve communication performances, such as the New Radio (NR) system. For example, vehicle to everything (V2X) has been proposed to support direct communication of basic road safety services (for example, vehicle status information) between a vehicle and pedestrian/infrastructure/another vehicle. The V2X sidelink has been further enhanced with features of carrier aggregation, higher order modulation and latency reduction to support more diverse services and more strict service requirements.

SUMMARY

Generally, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method for sidelink resource allocation and the corresponding communication devices.

In a first aspect, embodiments of the disclosure provide a terminal device. The terminal device comprises: at least on processor; and a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions therein, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, causing the terminal device to: transmit, to a network device, a request to resources for transmitting data from the terminal device to at least one further terminal device via a sidelink between the terminal and the at least one further terminal device. The terminal device is further caused to receive, from the network device, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the terminal device and the at least one further terminal device. The configuration at least indicates a duration of a basic resource unit in time domain. The terminal device is also caused to determine, based on the configuration, a collection of basic resource units allocated to the terminal device as channel access opportunities for the transmission of the data.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the disclosure provide a network device. The network device comprises: at least on processor; and a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions therein, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, causing the network device to: receive, from a first terminal device, a request to resources for transmitting data from the first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device. The network device is also caused to determine, based on the request, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, the configuration at least indicating a duration of a basic resource unit in time domain. The network device is further caused to transmit the configuration to the first terminal device.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method. The method comprises: transmitting, to a network device, a request to resources for transmitting data from a first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device. The method also comprise receiving, from the network device, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device. The configuration at least indicates duration of a basic resource unit in time domain. The method also comprises determining, based on the configuration, a collection of basic resource units allocated to the first terminal device as channel access opportunities for the transmission of the data.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method. The method comprises: receiving, from a first terminal device, a request to resources for transmitting data from the first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device. The method further comprises determining, based on the request, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device. The configuration at least indicates duration of a basic resource unit in time domain. The method also comprises transmitting the configuration to the first terminal device.

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the disclosure provide an apparatus for communication. The apparatus comprises means transmitting, to a network device, a request to resources for transmitting data from a first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device. The apparatus further comprise means for receiving, from the network device, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device. The configuration at least indicates duration of a basic resource unit in time domain. The apparatus also comprises means for determining, based on the configuration, a collection of basic resource units allocated to the first terminal device as channel access opportunities for the transmission of the data.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the disclosure provide an apparatus for communication. The apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a first terminal device, a request to resources for transmitting data from the first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device. The apparatus also comprises means for determining, based on the request, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device. The configuration at least indicates duration of a basic resource unit in time domain. The apparatus further comprise means for transmitting the configuration to the first terminal device.

In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the disclosure provide a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium stores instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by at least one processing unit of a machine, causing the machine to implement the methods according to the third and fourth aspects.

Other features and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure will also be apparent from the following description of specific embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of embodiments of the disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the disclosure are presented in the sense of examples and their advantages are explained in greater detail below, with reference to the accompanying drawings, where

Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of interactions among the terminal devices and the network device according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figs. 3A and 3B illustrates schematic diagrams of a scheme for unicast mode according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figs. 4A and 4B illustrates schematic diagrams of a scheme for groupcast mode according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 5 a flow chart of a method implemented at a communication device according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 6 illustrates a flow chart of a method implemented at a communication device according to embodiments of the present disclosure; and

Fig. 7 illustrates a schematic diagram of a device according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the figures, same or similar reference numbers indicate same or similar elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The subject matter described herein will now be discussed with reference to several example embodiments. It should be understood these embodiments are discussed only for the purpose of enabling those skilled persons in the art to better understand and thus implement the subject matter described herein, rather than suggesting any limitations on the scope of the subject matter.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a, ” “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises, ” “comprising, ” “includes” and/or “including, ” when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and/or groups thereof.

It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions/acts noted may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two functions or acts shown in succession may in fact be executed concurrently or may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.

As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) , and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the future fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, and/or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system. For the purpose of illustrations, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to 5G communication system.

The term “network device” used herein includes, but not limited to, a base station (BS) , a gateway, a registration management entity, and other suitable device in a communication system. The term “base station” or “BS” represents a node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a NR NB (also referred to as a gNB) , a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth.

The term “terminal device” used herein includes, but not limited to, “user equipment (UE) ” and other suitable end device capable of communicating with the network device. By way of example, the “terminal device” may refer to a terminal, a Mobile Terminal (MT) , a Subscriber Station (SS) , a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS) , or an Access Terminal (AT) . The term “sidelink” used herein refers to a special kind of communication mechanism between device and device without going through eNB.

The term “circuitry” used herein may refer to one or more or all of the following:

(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry) and

(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable) :

(i) a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuit (s) with

software/firmware and

(ii) any portions of hardware processor (s) with software (including digital signal processor (s) ) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and

(c) hardware circuit (s) and or processor (s) , such as a microprocessor (s) or a portion of a microprocessor (s) , that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation. ”

This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

As mentioned above, the V2X has been proposed. In long term evolution (LTE) V2X Release 14/15, the sidelink transmissions operate in broadcast mode in physical layer perspective, which is motivated by the broadcasting needs of the targeted V2X traffic type of basic road safety services. In NR V2X, more diverse V2X traffic types and a lot of advanced V2X use cases may be supported, for example, vehicle platooning, extended sensors, advanced driving and remote driving. These various sidelink transmissions may comprise broadcast, groupcast and unicast transmissions. As the unicast and groupcast transmissions are newly introduced to V2X sidelink, how to support unicast/groupcast efficiently especially in aspect of resource allocation needs to be studied.

There are a lot of discussions about the NR V2X sidelink communications. It has been agreed that at least two resource allocation modes (i.e. mode 1 and mode 2) are defined and for mode 2, four sub-modes are further defined including mode 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d. In particular, in mode 1, a base station schedules sidelink resources for terminal devices with either dynamic scheduling (i.e. through physical layer downlink control information (DCI) signaling) or semi-static scheduling (i.e. through radio resource control (RRC) signaling for resource configuration together with activation/release by DCI) . In mode 2c, the terminal device is allocated resources with type-1 like NR configured grant for sidelink transmission, that is, resource configuration and activation/release (if any) are performed by RRC signaling.

In NR network coverage, the network may configure dedicated resource pool for V2X sidelink unicast/groupcast transmission. To avoid heavy signaling burden from the dynamic scheduling, the semi-static scheduling (SPS) of mode 1 or the mode 2c may be used to deliver the “configured sidelink grant” for the V2X unicast/groupcast sidelink transmissions (note here the SPS mode 1 and sub-mode 2c resemble type 2 and type 1 NR configured UL grants, respectively) . That is, some dedicated resource pool is configured by the base station with RRC signaling for the unicast/groupcast sidelink transmissions and the activation/release of the resource pool is made by the base station with physical layer DCI signaling (SPS mode 1) or with high layer RRC signaling (mode 2c) .

However, there are some technical problems needed to be addressed. For example, how to assign resources within the resource pool to the sidelink transmissions to avoid collisions is still needed to be addressed.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, a new scheme for allocating resources to sidelink transmissions is provided. Each terminal device is assigned with a terminal device specific channel access opportunity. The amount of resources allocated to the terminal devices are adapted based on the amount of traffic of sidelinks among the terminal devices. In this way, collisions are avoided and the traffic variation is adapted.

Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a communication system 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. The communication system 100, which is a part of a communication network, comprises terminal devices 110-1, 110-2, ..., 110-N (collectively referred to as “terminal device (s) 110” where N is an integer number) , and a network device 120. It should be noted that the communication system 100 may also comprise other elements which are omitted for the purpose of clarity. The network device 120 may communicate with the terminal devices 110. It is to be understood that the numbers of terminal devices and network devices shown in Fig. 1 are given for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations. The communication system 100 may include any suitable number of network devices and terminal devices. As shown in Fig. 1, the terminal devices 110-1, 110-2 and 110-3 may communicate with each other via sidelinks. For example, the terminal device 110-1 may communicate with the terminal device 110-2 via a unicast sidelink. The terminal device 110-1 may communicate with the terminal devices 110-2, ..., 110-N via groupcast sidelinks.

Communications in the communication system 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol (s) , including, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) and the fifth generation (5G) and on the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and/or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, including but not limited to: Code Divided Multiple Address (CDMA) , Frequency Divided Multiple Address (FDMA) , Time Divided Multiple Address (TDMA) , Frequency Divided Duplexer (FDD) , Time Divided Duplexer (TDD) , Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) , Orthogonal Frequency Divided Multiple Access (OFDMA) and/or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

Fig. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of interactions 200 among the terminal device 110-1, the terminal device 110-2 and the network device 120 in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be noted that the interactions 200 may be implemented at any suitable terminal devices.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-1 determines 205 a transmission of data to the terminal device 110-2. For example, the terminal device 110-1 may determine that data packets need to be transmitted to the terminal device 110-2 via a unicast sidelink. Alternatively, the terminal device 110-1 may determine that data packets need to be transmitted among a plurality of terminal devices (for example, the terminal devices 110-2, ...., 110-N) . In this situation, the terminal device 110-1 needs to transmit the data packets via groupcast sidelinks.

The terminal device 110-1 transmits 210 a resource request for the transmission to the network device 120. The resource request may comprise the type of the transmission. For example, the resource request may indicate that the transmission is a unicast sidelink transmission or a groupcast sidelink transmission. If the transmission type is the groupcast sidelink transmission, the resource request may also comprise the number of the terminal devices in this group. For example, if the terminal device 110-1 transmits the data packets to the terminal devices 110-2 and 110-3, the resource request may indicate that the number of terminal devices in this group is three.

In other embodiments, the resource request may also comprise the service type of the transmission. For example, if the terminal device 110-1 is to transmit images to other terminal devices, the resource request may include that the service type is image transmission.

Alternatively or in addition, the resource request may indicate the amount of resources that the terminal device 110-1 needs to perform the transmission. In some embodiments, the resource request may comprise an accurate amount. In other embodiments, the resource request may only indicate the amount of need resources is large or small.

The network device 120 determines 215 the resources based on the resource request. For example, the network device 120 may determine a plurality of physical resource blocks to be used for sidelink transmissions associated with the terminal device 110-1. As mentioned above, the resource request may indicate the amount of resources that the terminal device 110-1 needs to perform the transmission. The network device 120 may determine the resources based on the needed amount. In this way, the resource allocated to the terminal device 110-1 is adapted to the traffic variation.

The resources may be shared by the terminal devices related to the transmission. For example, if the transmission belongs to a unicast sidelink transmission, the resources are shared by the terminal devices 110-1 and 110-2. If the transmission belongs to a groupcast sidelink transmission, the resources are shared by the terminal devices involved in the groupcast.

The network device 120 determines 220 the configuration of the resources. The configurations indicate a basic resource unit in time domain and the number of basic resource units for the channel access opportunities for the sidelink transmissions. The basic resource unit may refer to a time resource unit (TRU) which is the basic time resource unit of channel access opportunities. In some embodiments, the basic resource unit may be one time slot. In other embodiments, the basic resource unit may be half of one time slot. The duration of the resource unit may also be associated with the traffic volume. The network device transmits 225 the configurations of the resources to the terminal device 110-1. The configurations may be transmitted via higher layer signaling, for example, RRC signaling. In some embodiments, the configuration may indicate the number of contiguous basic resource units for a transmission period. For example, the configurations may indicate a basic resource group (BRG) which is the group of contiguous time resource units as channel access opportunities of all relevant terminal devices. For unicast sidelink transmission, the number may be two and for groupcast sidelink transmission, the number may be equal to the number of terminal devices in the group.

Fig. 3A illustrates a schematic diagram of the configurations of the resources for unicast sidelink transmissions according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 3A, the resources 3010 are shared by the terminal devices 110-1 and 110-2. The resources 3010 comprise 12 basic resource units 3020 which are divided into 6 resource groups 3030. Fig. 4A illustrates a schematic diagram of the confirmations of the resources for groupcast sidelink transmissions according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 4A, the resources 4010 are shared among the group of terminal devices, for example, the terminal devices 110-1, 110-2, ..., 110-N. Only for the purpose of illustrations, the number of the terminal devices in the group is four, which means the number of basic resource units in one transmission period is four. The resources 4010 comprise 12 basic resource units 4020 which are divided into three resource groups 4030.

In some embodiments, the network device may transmit 230 periodicity of the terminal device 110-1 to the terminal device 110-1. In other embodiments, the periodicity may be transmitted by a head terminal device in the group of terminal devices. The periodicity may be terminal device specific. The periodicity may indicate the time resource offset within the basic resource group. For unicast sidelink transmissions, the values of the offset may be 0 and/or 1. For groupcast sidelink transmissions, the values of the offset may be 0, 1, K-1, where K is the number of terminal devices in the group.

The terminal device 110-1 determines 235 the collection of basic resource units allocated to itself as channel access opportunities. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-1 may determine the collection of basic resource units based on the periodicity and the number of contiguous basic resource units. In this way, the collisions are avoided without introducing more signaling. The term “channel access opportunity” used herein refers to the basic resource unit that a terminal device may use together with one or more subsequent basic resource units for the sidelink transmissions. All these basic resource units constitute basic resource group (s) .

For example, for unicast sidelink transmission, the offset of the terminal device 110-1 is 0 and the number of contiguous basic resource units in one transmission period is two. Thus, as shown in Fig 3B, the terminal device 110-1 may determine that the basic resource units 3040-1, 3040-2, 3040-3, 3040-4, 3040-5 and 3040-6 are allocated to the terminal device 110-1 as channel access opportunities, which means the terminal device 110-1 may access the basic resource group (s) starting from these basic resource units for the sidelink transmissions. More specifically, the basic resource units 3040-1, 3040-2, 3040-3, 3040-4, 3040-5 and 3040-6 are potential channel access opportunities for the terminal device 110-1. For example, the terminal device 110-1 can use the basic resource units 3040-1 and 3050-1 for its sidelink transmission if the terminal device 110-1 accesses the channel from the basic resource unit of 3040-1. In this case, the basic resource units 3040-1 and 3050-1 form a basic resource group indicated by 3030. The terminal device 110-1 may use multiple contiguous basic resource groups for its sidelink transmission depending on the sidelink data volume.

Similarly, the terminal device 110-2 may determine that the basic resource units 3050-1, 3050-2, 3050-3, 3050-4, 3050-5 and 3050-6 are allocated to the terminal device 110-2 as channel access opportunities, which means the terminal device 110-2 may access the basic resource group (s) starting from these basic resource units for the sidelink transmission.

As shown in Fig. 3B, the terminal device 110-1 may send control information on the Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH) 3060 using the basic unit resource 3040-1. The terminal device 110-2 may send control information on the Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH) 3070 using the basic unit resource 3050-2.

For groupcast sidelink transmission, as shown in Fig 4B, the terminal device 110-1 may determine that the basic resource units 4040-1, 4040-2 and 4040-3 are allocated to the terminal device 110-1 as channel access opportunities, which means the terminal device 110-1 may access the basic resource group starting from those basic resource units. The terminal device 110-2 may determine that the basic resource units 4050-1, 4050-2 and 4050-3 are allocated to the terminal device 110-2 as channel access opportunities, which means the terminal device 110-2 may access the basic resource group starting from these basic resource units. The terminal device 110-3 may determine that the basic resource units 4060-1, 4060-2 and 4060-3 are allocated to the terminal device 110-3 as channel access opportunities, which means the terminal device 110-3 may access the basic resource group starting from these basic resource units. The terminal device 110-4 may determine that the basic resource units 4070-1, 4070-2 and 4070-3 are allocated to the terminal device 110-4 as channel access opportunities, which means the terminal device 110-4 may access the basic resource group (s) starting from these basic resource units.

As shown in Fig. 4B, the terminal device 110-1 may send control information on the Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH) 4080 using the basic unit resource 4040-1. The terminal device 110-2 may send control information on the Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH) 4090 using the basic unit resource 4050-2. The terminal device 110-3 may send control information on the Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH) 4095 using the basic unit resource 4060-3.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-1 may determine 240 whether the previous basic unit is used or not. For example, the terminal device 110-1 may determine whether the basic resource unit 3050-1 is used. If the basic resource unit 3050-1 is not used, the terminal device 110-1 may transmit the data on the time resource group starting from 3040-2. For example, if the basic resource unit 3050-1 is not used, the terminal device 110-1 may transmit the data on the basic time resource units 3040-2 and 3050-2. If the basic resource unit 3050-1 is used, the terminal device 110-1 may not transmit the data on the time resource group starting from 3040-2. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-1 may perform energy measurement to determine whether the previous basic resource unit is used. Alternatively, the terminal device 110-1 may determine whether the previous basic resource unit is used based on the decoded sidelink control information.

The terminal device 110-1 transmits 245 the data using the basic resource group (s) starting from the device specific basic resource unit. For example, as shown in Fig. 3B, the terminal device 110-1 may perform sidelink transmissions on the basic resource group (s) starting from the basic resource unit 3040-1, 30401-2, 3040-3, 3040-4, 3040-5 or 3040-6. As shown in Fig. 4B, the terminal device 110-1 may perform sidelink transmissions on the basic resource groups starting from basic resource unit 4040-1, 4040-2 or 4040-3.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-2 may transmit 250 feedbacks to the terminal device 110-1. If the terminal device 110-1 transmits data to the terminal device 110-2 on the basic resource group starting from the basic unit resource 3040-1, the terminal device 110-2 may send feedback on the PSCCH 3080 using the basic unit resource 3050-2. If the terminal device 110-2 transmits data to the terminal device 110-1 on the basic resource group starting from the basic unit resource 3050-2, the terminal device 110-1 may send feedback on the PSCCH 3090 using the basic unit resource 3040-4. If the terminal device 110-1 transmits data to other terminal devices (for example, the terminal devices 110-2, 110-3 and 110-4) on the basic resource group starting from the basic unit resource 4040-1, the other terminal devices may send feedbacks in different PRB (s) or in the same PRB (s) to terminal device 110-1.

In some embodiments, if the terminal device 110-1 receives a NACK, the terminal device 110-1 may retransmit 255 the data on the next available basic resource unit. Note that here the available basic resource unit means that its previous basic resource unit is unused, so the basic resource group (s) starting from the available resource unit can be used by the terminal device 110-1 for the sidelink transmission. The terminal device 110-1 may perform channel sensing to determine whether the basic resource unit is unused or not.

In some embodiments, if the sidelink transmission for the unicast mode and/or the groupcast mode has been completed, the terminal device 110-1 may transmit 260 a further request to release the resources. Alternatively, the network device 120 may set a timer to release the resources.

Fig. 5 illustrates a flow chart of a method 500 in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 500 may be implemented at any suitable terminal devices. Only for the purpose of illustrations, the method 500 is described to be implemented at the terminal device 110-1.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-1 may determine data to be transmitted to another terminal device (for example, the terminal device 110-2) . In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-1 may determine that data packets need to be transmitted to the terminal device 110-2 via a unicast sidelink. Alternatively, the terminal device 110-1 may determine that data packets need to be transmitted among a plurality of terminal devices (for example, the terminal devices 110-2, ...., 110-N) . In this situation, the terminal device 110-1 needs to transmit the data packets via groupcast sidelinks.

At block 520, the terminal device 110-1 transmits a resource request for transmitting the data to the network device 120. The resource request may comprise the type of the transmission. For example, the resource request may indicate that the transmission is a unicast sidelink transmission or a groupcast sidelink transmission. If the transmission type is the groupcast sidelink transmission, the resource request may also comprise the number of the terminal devices in this group. For example, if the terminal device 110-1 transmits the data packets to the terminal devices 110-2 and 110-3, the resource request may indicate that the number of terminal devices in this group is three.

Alternatively or in addition, the resource request may indicate the amount of resources that the terminal device 110-1 needs to perform the transmission. In some embodiments, the resource request may comprise an accurate amount. In other embodiments, the resource request may only indicate the amount of need resources is large or small. In this way, the resource allocated to the terminal device 110-1 is adapted to the traffic variation.

At block 530, the terminal device 110-1 receives a configuration of the resources. The resources are shared by the terminal device 110-1 and other terminal devices with which the terminal device 110-1 may communicate via sidelinks. For example, the resources may be a plurality of physical resource blocks (PRBs) . In some embodiments, the configurations of the resources may be transmitted via higher layer signaling, such as RRC signaling.

The configuration indicates a duration a basic resource unit in time domain and the number of basic resource units for a transmission period. The basic resource unit may refer to a time resource unit (TRU) which is the basic time resource unit of channel access opportunities. In some embodiments, the basic resource unit may be one time slot. In other embodiments, the basic resource unit may be half of one time slot.

In some embodiments, the configuration may indicate the number of contiguous basic resource units for a transmission period. For example, the configurations may comprise indicating a basic resource group (BRG) which is the group of contiguous time resource units as channel access opportunities of all relevant terminal devices. For unicast sidelink transmission, the number may be two and for groupcast sidelink transmission, the number may be equal to the number of terminal devices in the group.

At block 540, the terminal device 110-1 determines the collection of basic resource units allocated to it as channel access opportunities. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-1 may determine the collection of basic resource units based on the periodicity and the number of contiguous basic resource units. In this way, the collisions are avoided without introducing more signaling.

For example, for unicast sidelink transmission, the offset of the terminal device 110-1 is 0 and the number of contiguous basic resource units in one transmission period is two. Thus, as shown in Fig 3B, the terminal device 110-1 may determine that the basic resource units 3040-1, 30401-2, 3040-3, 3040-4, 3040-5 and 3040-6 are allocated to the terminal device 110-1 as channel access opportunities, which means the terminal device 110-1 may access the basic resource group (s) starting from those basic resource units for its sidelink transmission.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-1 may determine whether the previous basic unit is used or not. For example, the terminal device 110-1 may determine whether the basic resource unit 3050-1 is used. If the basic resource unit 3050-1 is not used, the terminal device 110-1 may transmit the data on the basic resource group (s) starting from the basic resource unit 3040-2. For example, if the basic resource unit 3050-1 is not used, the terminal device 110-1 may transmit the data on the basic resource group comprising the basic resource units 3040-2 and 3050-2. If the basic resource unit 3050-1 is used, the terminal device 110-1 may not transmit the data on the basic resource group (s) starting from the basic resource unit 3040-2. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-1 may perform energy measurement to determine whether the previous basic resource unit is used. Alternatively, the terminal device 110-1 may determine whether the previous basic resource unit is used based on the decoded sidelink control information.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-2 may transmit 250 feedbacks to the terminal device 110-1. In some embodiments, if the terminal device 110-1 receives a NACK, the terminal device 110-1 may retransmit 255 the data on the basic resource group starting from the next available basic resource unit. The available basic resource unit means that its previous basic resource unit is unused.

In some embodiments, an apparatus for performing the method 500 (for example, the terminal device 110-1) may comprise respective means for performing the corresponding steps in the method 500. These means may be implemented in any suitable manners. For example, it can be implemented by circuitry or software modules.

In some embodiments, the apparatus comprises: means for transmitting, to a network device, a request to resources for transmitting data from a first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device; means for receiving, from the network device, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, the configuration at least indicating a duration of a basic resource unit in time domain; and means for determining, based on the configuration, a collection of basic resource units allocated to the first terminal device as channel access opportunities for the transmission of the data.

In some embodiments, the request indicates at least one of: a type of the transmission, an amount of the resources, and the number of a set of terminal devices related to the transmission, the set of terminal devices at least comprising the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device.

In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for determining whether a further basic resource unit being used for a further sidelink transmission, the further basic resource unit being previous to one of the set of its specific basic resource units; and means for in response to a determination that the further basic resource unit is unused, transmitting the data with resources starting from the one of the collection of basic resource units.

In some embodiments, the configuration further indicates that the number of contiguous basic resource units in a period of the channel access opportunities for sidelink transmissions between the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device.

In some embodiments, the means for determining the set of basic resource units comprises: means for obtaining periodicity of the first terminal device in the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device; and means for determining, based on the periodicity and the number of contiguous basic resource units, the collection of basic resource units allocated to the first terminal device as channel access opportunities.

In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the at least one second terminal device, a feedback to the transmission via the sidelink; and means for in response to receiving an NACK from the at least one second terminal device, retransmitting the data with basic resource group (s) starting from another available basic resource unit.

In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for in response to sidelink transmissions between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device being completed, transmitting, to the network device, a further request to release the resources.

Fig. 6 illustrates a flow chart of a method 600 in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 600 may be implemented at any suitable network devices. Only for the purpose of illustrations, the method 600 is described to be implemented at the network device 120.

At block 610, the network device 120 receives a request to resources for transmitting data from the first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the terminal device 110-1 and the terminal device 110-2. The resource request may comprise the type of the transmission. For example, the resource request may indicate that the transmission is a unicast sidelink transmission or a groupcast sidelink transmission. If the transmission type is the groupcast sidelink transmission, the resource request may also comprise the number of the terminal devices in this group.

At block 620, the network device 120 determines, based on the request, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device. In some embodiments, the network device 120 may determine a plurality of physical resource blocks to be used for sidelink transmissions associated with the terminal device 110-1. As mentioned above, the resource request may indicate the amount of resources that the terminal device 110-1 needs to perform the transmission. The network device 120 may determine the resources based on the needed amount. In this way, the resource allocated to the terminal device 110-1 is adapted to the traffic variation.

The configuration indicates a duration a basic resource unit in time domain and the number of basic resource units for a transmission period. The basic resource unit may refer to a time resource unit (TRU) which is the basic time resource unit of channel access opportunities. In some embodiments, the basic resource unit may be one time slot. In other embodiments, the basic resource unit may be half of one time slot. The duration of the resource unit may also be associated with the traffic volume. The network device transmits 225 the configurations of the resources to the terminal device 110-1. The configurations may be transmitted via higher layer signaling, for example, RRC signaling. In some embodiments, the configuration may indicate the number of contiguous basic resource units for a period of channel access opportunities for the sidelink transmissions. For example, the configurations may indicate a basic resource group (BRG) which is the group of contiguous time resource units as channel access opportunities of all relevant terminal devices. For unicast sidelink transmission, the number may be two and for groupcast sidelink transmission, the number may be equal to the number of terminal devices in the group.

At block 630, the network device 120 transmits the configuration to the terminal device 110-1. The configurations may be transmitted via higher layer signaling, for example, RRC signaling. In some embodiments, the network device may transmit 230 periodicity of the terminal device 110-1 to the terminal device 110-1. In other embodiments, the periodicity may be transmitted by a head terminal device in the group of terminal devices. The periodicity may be terminal device specific.

In some embodiments, an apparatus for performing the method 600 (for example, the network device 120) may comprise respective means for performing the corresponding steps in the method 600. These means may be implemented in any suitable manners. For example, it can be implemented by circuitry or software modules.

In some embodiments, the apparatus comprises: means for receiving, from a first terminal device, a request to resources for transmitting data from the first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device; and means for determining, based on the request, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, the configuration at least indicating a duration of a basic resource unit in time domain; and means for transmitting the configuration to the first terminal device.

In some embodiments, the configuration further indicates that the number of contiguous basic resource units in a period of channel access opportunities for the sidelink transmissions between the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, and the apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the first terminal device, periodicity of the first terminal device in the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device.

In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for in response to receiving, from the first terminal device, a further request to release the resources, transmitting an indication to release the resources.

Fig. 7 is a simplified block diagram of a device 700 that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 700 may be implemented at the registration management entity 730. The device 700 may also be implemented at the terminal device 110-1. The device 700 may also be implemented at the network device 120. As shown, the device 700 includes one or more processors 710, one or more memories 720 coupled to the processor (s) 710, one or more transmitters and/or receivers (TX/RX) 740 coupled to the processor 710.

The processor 710 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 700 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

The memory 720 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples.

The memory 720 stores at least a part of a program 730. The TX/RX 740 is for bidirectional communications. The TX/RX 740 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication, though in practice an Access Node mentioned in this application may have several ones. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements.

The program 730 is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by the associated processor 710, enable the device 700 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, as discussed herein with reference to Figs. 2 and 6. That is, embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented by computer software executable by the processor 710 of the device 700, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware.

While this specification contains many specific implementation details, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of any disclosure or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments of particular disclosures. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination.

Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various system components in the embodiments described above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all embodiments, and it should be understood that the described program components and systems can generally be integrated together in a single software product or packaged into multiple software products.

Various modifications, adaptations to the foregoing exemplary embodiments of this disclosure may become apparent to those skilled in the relevant arts in view of the foregoing description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Any and all modifications will still fall within the scope of the non-limiting and exemplary embodiments of this disclosure. Furthermore, other embodiments of the disclosures set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these embodiments of the disclosure pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings.

Therefore, it is to be understood that the embodiments of the disclosure are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are used herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purpose of limitation.

Claims

A terminal device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions therein, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, causing the terminal device to:

transmit, to a network device, a request to resources for transmitting data from the terminal device to at least one further terminal device via a sidelink between the terminal and the at least one further terminal device;

receive, from the network device, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the terminal device and the at least one further terminal device, the configuration at least indicating a duration of a basic resource unit in time domain; and

determine, based on the configuration, a collection of basic resource units allocated to the terminal device as channel access opportunities for the transmission of the data.
The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the request indicates at least one of:

a type of the transmission,

an amount of the resources, and

the number of a set of terminal devices related to the transmission, the set of terminal devices at least comprising the terminal device and the at least one further terminal device.
The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the terminal device is further causedto:

determine whether a further basic resource unit being used for a further sidelink transmission, the further basic resource unit being previous to one of the collection of basic resource units; and

in response to a determination that the further basic resource unit is unused, transmitting the data with resources starting from the one of the collection of basic resource units.
The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the configuration further indicates the number of contiguous basic resource units in a period of the channel access opportunities for sidelink transmissions.
The terminal device of claim 4, wherein the terminal is caused to determine the set of basic resource units by:

obtaining periodicity of the terminal device in the resources to be shared by the terminal device and the at least one further terminal device; and

determining, based on the periodicity and the number of contiguous basic resource units, the collection of basic resource units allocated to the terminal device as channel access opportunities.
The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

receive, from the at least one further terminal device, a feedback to the transmission via the sidelink; and

in response to receiving an NACK from the at least one further terminal device, retransmit the data with basic resource group (s) starting from another available basic resource unit in the collection of basic resource units.
The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the first terminal device is further caused to:

in response to sidelink transmissions between the terminal and the at least one further terminal device being completed, transmit, to the network device, a further request to release the resources.
A network device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions therein, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, causing the terminal device to:

receive, from a first terminal device, a request to resources for transmitting data from the first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device; and

determine, based on the request, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, the configuration at least indicating a duration of a basic resource unit in time domain; and

transmit the configuration to the first terminal device.
The network device of claim 8, wherein the request indicates at least one of:

a type of the transmission,

an amount of the resources, and

the number of a set of terminal devices related to the transmission, the set of terminal devices at least comprising the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device.
The network device of claim 8, wherein the configuration further indicates that the number of contiguous basic resource units in a period of channel access opportunities for the sidelink transmissions between the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, and wherein the network device is further caused to:

transmit, to the first terminal device, periodicity of the first terminal device in the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device.
The network device of claim 8, wherein the network device is further caused to:

in response to receiving, from the first terminal device, a further request to release the resources, transmit an indication to release the resources.
A method for communication comprising:

transmitting, to a network device, a request to resources for transmitting data from a first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device;

receiving, from the network device, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, the configuration at least indicating a duration of a basic resource unit in time domain; and

determining, based on the configuration, a collection of basic resource units allocated to the first terminal device as channel access opportunities for the transmission of the data.
The method of claim 12, wherein the request indicates at least one of:

a type of the transmission,

an amount of the resources, and

the number of a set of terminal devices related to the transmission, the set of terminal devices at least comprising the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device.
The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining whether a further basic resource unit being used for a further sidelink transmission, the further basic resource unit being previous to one of the collection of basic resource units; and

in response to a determination that the further basic resource unit is unused, performing the transmission with resources starting from the one of the collection basic resource units.
The method of claim 12, wherein the configuration further indicates that the number of contiguous basic resource units in a period of channel access opportunities for the sidelink transmission between the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device.
The method of claim 15, wherein determining the set of basic resource units comprises:

obtaining periodicity of the first terminal device in the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device; and

determining, based on the periodicity and the number of contiguous basic resource units, the collection of basic resource units allocated to the first terminal device as channel access opportunities.
The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving, from the at least one second terminal device, a feedback to the transmission via the sidelink; and

in response to receiving an NACK from the at least one second terminal device, retransmitting the data with basic resource group (s) starting from another available basic resource unit in the collection of basic resource units.
The method of claim 12, further comprising:

in response to sidelink transmissions between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device being completed, transmitting, to the network device, a further request to release the resources.
A method for communication comprising:

receiving, from a first terminal device, a request to resources for transmitting data from the first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device; and

determining, based on the request, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, the configuration at least indicating a duration of a basic resource unit in time domain; and

transmitting the configuration to the first terminal device.
The method of claim 19, wherein the request indicates at least one of:

a type of the transmission,

an amount of the resources, and

the number of a set of terminal devices related to the transmission, the set of terminal devices at least comprising the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device.
The method of claim 19, wherein the configuration further indicates that the number of contiguous basic resource units in a period of channel access opportunities for the sidelink transmissions between the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, and further comprising:

transmitting, to the first terminal device, periodicity of the first terminal device in the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device.
The method of claim 19, further comprising:

in response to receiving, from the first terminal device, a further request to release the resources, transmitting an indication to release the resources.
A computer readable medium storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by at least one processing unit of a machine, causing the machine to perform the method according to any one of claims 12-18.
A computer readable medium storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by at least one processing unit of a machine, causing the machine to perform the method according to any one of claims 19-22.
An apparatus for communication, comprising:

means for transmitting, to a network device, a request to resources for transmitting data from a first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device;

means for receiving, from the network device, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, the configuration at least indicating a duration of a basic resource unit in time domain; and

means for determining, based on the configuration, a collection of basic resource units allocated to the first terminal device as channel access opportunities for the transmission of the data.
An apparatus for communication comprising:

means for receiving, from a first terminal device, a request to resources for transmitting data from the first terminal device to at least one second terminal device via a sidelink between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal device;

means for determining, based on the request, a configuration of the resources to be shared by the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, the configuration at least indicating a duration of a basic resource unit in time domain; and

means for transmitting the configuration to the first terminal device.