The present application relates to the field of wireless communication networks or systems, more specifically to a sidelink communication of user devices in such communication systems. Embodiments relate to a new radio sidelink frame structure, NR SL FS.

Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of an example of a terrestrial wireless network 100 including, as is shown in Fig. 1(a) a core network 102 and one or more radio access networks RAN1, RAN2, ... RANN. Fig. 1(b) is a schematic representation of an example of a radio access network RANn that may include one or more base stations gNB1 to gNB5, each serving a specific area surrounding the base station schematically represented by respective cells 1061 to 1065. The base stations are provided to serve users within a cell. The term base station, BS, refers to a gNB in 5G networks, an eNB in UMTS/LTE/LTE-A/ LTE-A Pro, or just a BS in other mobile communication standards. A user may be a stationary device or a mobile device. The wireless communication system may also be accessed by mobile or stationary loT devices which connect to a base station or to a user. The mobile devices or the loT devices may include physical devices, ground based vehicles, such as robots or cars, aerial vehicles, such as manned or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the latter also referred to as drones, buildings and other items or devices having embedded therein electronics, software, sensors, actuators, or the like as well as network connectivity that enable these devices to collect and exchange data across an existing network infrastructure. Fig. 1(b) shows an exemplary view of only five cells, however, the RANn may include more or less such cells, and RANn may also include only one base station. Fig. 1(b) shows two users UE1 and UE2, also referred to as user equipment, UE, that are in cell 1062 and that are served by base station gNB2. Another user UE is shown in cell 1064 which is served by base station gNB4. The arrows 1081, 1082 and 1083 schematically represent uplink/downlink connections for transmitting data from a user UEi, UE2 and UE to the base stations gNB2, gNB4 or for transmitting data from the base stations gNB2, gNB4 to the users UE1, UE2, UE3. Further, Fig. 1(b) shows two loT devices 1101 and 1102 in cell 1064, which may be stationary or mobile devices. The loT device 1101 accesses the wireless communication system via the base station gNB4 to receive and transmit data as schematically represented by arrow 1121. The loT device 1102 accesses the wireless communication system via the user UE as is schematically represented by

arrow 1122. The respective base station gNB1 to gNBs may be connected to the core network 102, e.g. via the S1 interface, via respective backhaul links 1141 to 1145, which are schematically represented in Fig. 1(b) by the arrows pointing to “core”. The core network 102 may be connected to one or more external networks. Further, some or all of the respective base station gNB1 to gNB5 may connected, e.g. via the S1 or X2 interface or XN interface in NR, with each other via respective backhaul links 1161 to 1165, which are schematically represented in Fig. 1(b) by the arrows pointing to “gNBs”.

For data transmission a physical resource grid may be used. The physical resource grid may comprise a set of resource elements to which various physical channels and physical signals are mapped. For example, the physical channels may include the physical downlink and uplink shared channels (PDSCH, PUSCH) carrying user specific data, also referred to as downlink and uplink payload data, the physical broadcast channel (PBCH) carrying for example a master information block (MIB) and a system information block (SIB), the physical downlink and uplink control channels (PDCCH, PUCCH) carrying for example the downlink control information (DCI). For the uplink, the physical channels may further include the physical random access channel (PRACH or RACH) used by UEs for accessing the network once a UE synchronized and obtained the MIB and SIB. The physical signals may comprise reference signals or symbols (RS), synchronization signals and the like. The resource grid may comprise a frame or radio frame having a certain duration in the time domain and having a given bandwidth in the frequency domain. The frame may have a certain number of subframes of a predefined length. Each subframe may include two slots of 6 or 7 OFDM symbols depending on the cyclic prefix (CP) length. A frame may also consist of a smaller number of OFDM symbols, e.g. when utilizing shortened transmission time intervals (sTTI) or a mini-slot/non-slot-based frame structure comprising just a few OFDM symbols.

The wireless communication system may be any single-tone or multicarrier system using frequency-division multiplexing, like the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system, the orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) system, or any other IFFT-based signal with or without CP, e.g. DFT-s-OFDM. Other waveforms, like non-orthogonal waveforms for multiple access, e.g. filter-bank multicarrier (FBMC), generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) or universal filtered multi carrier (UFMC), may be used. The wireless communication system may operate, e.g., in accordance with the LTE-Advanced pro standard or the 5G or NR, New Radio, standard.

The wireless network or communication system depicted in Fig. 1 may by a heterogeneous network having distinct overlaid networks, e.g., a network of macro cells with each macro cell including a macro base station, like base station gNB1 to gNB5, and a network of small cell base stations (not shown in Fig. 1), like femto or pico base stations.

In addition to the above described terrestrial wireless network also non-terrestrial wireless communication networks exist including spaceborne transceivers, like satellites, and/or airborne transceivers, like unmanned aircraft systems. The non-terrestrial wireless communication network or system may operate in a similar way as the terrestrial system described above with reference to Fig. 1, for example in accordance with the LTE-Advanced Pro standard or the 5G or NR, new radio, standard.

In mobile communication networks, for example in a network like that described above with reference to Fig. 1, like an LTE or 5G/NR network, there may be UEs that communicate directly with each other over one or more sidelink (SL) channels, e.g., using the PCS interface. UEs that communicate directly with each other over the sidelink may include vehicles communicating directly with other vehicles (V2V communication), vehicles communicating with other entities of the wireless communication network (V2X communication), for example roadside entities, like traffic lights, traffic signs, or pedestrians. Other UEs may not be vehicular related UEs and may comprise any of the above-mentioned devices. Such devices may also communicate directly with each other (D2D communication) using the SL channels.

When considering two UEs directly communicating with each other over the sidelink, both UEs may be served by the same base station, i.e. , both UEs may be within the coverage area of a base station, like one of the base stations depicted in Fig. 1. This is referred to as a "in coverage” scenario. In accordance with other examples, both UEs that communicate over the sidelink may not be served by a base station which is referred to as an “out-of-coverage” scenario. It is noted that “out-of-coverage” does not mean that the two UEs are not within one of the cells depicted in Fig. 1, rather, it means that these UEs are not connected to a base station, for example, they are not in an RRC connected state. Yet another scenario is called a “partial coverage” scenario, in accordance with which one of the two UEs which communicate with each other over the sidelink, is served by a base station, while the other UE is not served by the base station.

When considering two UEs directly communicating with each other over the sidelink, e.g. PCS, one of the UEs may also be connected with a BS, and may relay information from the BS to the other UE via the sidelink interface. The relaying may be performed in the same frequency band (in-band-relay) or using another frequency band (out-of-band relay). In the first case, communication on the Uu and on the sidelink may be decoupled using different time slots as in time division duplex (TDD) systems.

Fig. 2 is a schematic representation of a situation in which two UEs directly communicating with each other are both in coverage of a base station. The base station gNB has a coverage area that is schematically represented by the circle 200 which, basically, corresponds to the cell schematically represented in Fig. 1. The UEs directly communicating with each other include a first vehicle 202 and a second vehicle 204 both in the coverage area 200 of the base station gNB. Both vehicles 202, 204 are connected to the base station gNB and, in addition, they are connected directly with each other over the PCS interface. The scheduling and/or interference management of the V2V traffic is assisted by the gNB via control signaling over the Uu interface, which is the radio interface between the base station and the UEs. The gNB assigns the resources to be used for the V2V communication over the sidelink. This configuration is also referred to as a mode 1 configuration in NR V2X or as a mode 3 configuration in LTE V2X.

Fig. 3 is a schematic representation of a situation in which the UEs are not in coverage of a base station, i.e., the respective UEs directly communicating with each other are not connected to a base station, although they may be physically within a cell of a wireless communication network. Three vehicles 206, 208 and 210 are shown directly communicating with each other over a sidelink, e.g., using the PCS interface. The scheduling and/or interference management of the V2V traffic is based on algorithms implemented between the vehicles. This configuration is also referred to as a mode 2 configuration in NR V2X or as a mode 4 configuration in LTE V2X. As mentioned above, the scenario in Fig. 3 which is an out-of-coverage scenario does not mean that the respective mode 4 UEs are outside of the coverage 200 of a base station, rather, it means that the respective mode 4 UEs are not served by a base station or are not connected to the base station of the coverage area. Thus, there may be situations in which, within the coverage area 200 shown in Fig. 2, in addition to the mode 3 UEs 202, 204 also mode 4 UEs 206, 208, 210 are present.

In the above-described scenarios of vehicular user devices, UEs, a plurality of such user devices may form a user device group, also referred to simply as group, and the communication within the group or among the group members may be performed via the sidelink interfaces between the user devices, like the PCS interface. Within the wireless communication network or within a cell thereof, a plurality of such groups may exist at the same time. While it is noted that the communication within the group is via sidelink communication, in case the group or at least some group members thereof are in-coverage, this does not exclude that also some or all of the group members communicate with other entities outside the group via the base station or via the sidelink. For example, the above-described scenarios using vehicular user devices may be employed in the field of the transport industry in which a plurality of vehicles being equipped with vehicular user devices may be grouped together, for example, by a remote driving application.

Other use cases in which a plurality of user devices may be grouped together for a sidelink communication among each other include, for example, factory automation and electrical power distribution. In the case of factory automation, a plurality of mobile or stationary machines within a factory may be equipped with user devices and grouped together for a sidelink communication, for example for controlling the operation of the machine, like a motion control of a robot. In the case of electrical power distribution, entities within the power distribution grid may be equipped with respective user devices which, within a certain area of the system may be grouped together so as to communicate via a sidelink communication with each other so as to allow for monitoring the system and for dealing with power distribution grid failures and outages.

It is noted that the information in the above section is only for enhancing the understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Starting from a prior art described above, for a wireless communication system in which a plurality of users may perform side!ink communications there may be a need for an improved frame structure for such sidelink communication.

Embodiments of the present invention are now described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a schematic representation of an example of a wireless communication system;

Fig. 2 shows a schematic representation of a situation in which UEs directly communicating with each other are in coverage of a base station;

Fig. 3 shows a scenario in which UEs directly communicating with each other are not are not in coverage of a base station, i.e., are not connected to a base station;

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a resource pool which is defined across time and frequency;

Fig. 5 is a schematic representation of a wireless communication system for communicating information between a transmitter and one or more receivers in accordance with embodiments of the present invention;

Fig. 6 Fig. 6 illustrates an embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention implementing the inventive approach in a time division multiplexed design;

Fig. 7 illustrates embodiments of the first aspect of the present invention for implementing a FDM collision avoidance scheme for sidelink communications;

Fig. 8 shows an embodiment of the second aspect of the present invention using dedicated resources for broadcast and groupcast communications over sidelink interfaces in the wireless communication system;

Fig. 9 illustrates a further embodiment of the second aspect of the present invention in accordance with which the available resources for sidelink communications include an additional resource pool including resources to be used for unicast communications;

Fig. 10(a) schematically illustrates the concept of bandwidth parts;

Fig. 10(b) illustrates the activation of BWPs with different numerologies and/or different bandwidth size;

Fig. 11 illustrates an example of bandwidth parts using CORESETs containing user specific and common search spaces;

Fig. 12 illustrates embodiments of the inventive concept for associating control and data;

Fig. 13 illustrates embodiments for implementing control and data regions in sidelink resource pools according to the present invention;

Fig. 14 illustrates an embodiment allowing the handling of data packets having a length exceeding a length of the data region;

Fig. 15 illustrates an embodiment implementing the above-described association of control and data regions which are not separated in time but are separated in frequency;

Fig. 16 illustrates an embodiment for providing the common control channel;

Fig. 17 illustrates an embodiment of a frequency domain multiplexed common control channel and non-deferred time domain multiplexed data regions within the inventive resource pools;

Fig. 18 illustrates a further embodiment which is similar to the one in Fig. 17 except that the control and data are time-deferred to one another; and

Fig. 19 illustrates an example of a computer system on which units or modules as well as the steps of the methods described in accordance with the inventive approach may execute.

Embodiments of the present invention is now described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which the same or similar elements have the same reference signs assigned.

The initial vehicle-to-everything (V2X) specification was included in LTE Release 14 of the 3GPP standard. The scheduling and assignment of resources had been modified according to the V2X requirements, while the original device-to-device (D2D) communication standard has been used as a basis of the design. Cellular V2X has been agreed to operate in two configurations from a resource allocation perspective, namely in the above-described mode 3 and mode 4 configurations. As mentioned above, in the V2X mode 3 configuration the scheduling and interference management of resources is performed by the base station for UEs within the coverage of the base station so as to enable sidelink, SL, communications, like vehicle-to-vehicle communications. The control signaling is provided to the UE over the Uu interface, for example using the downlink control indicator, DCI, and is dynamically assigned by the base station. In the V2X mode 4 configuration the scheduling and interference management for SL communications is autonomously performed using distributed or decentralized algorithms among the UEs based on a preconfigured resource configuration.

In- and Out-of-Coverage Collision Avoidance

In conventional approaches, the control and data channels, like the PSCCH and PSSCH, are multiplexed in the frequency domain, FDM, based on a current LTE V2X SL design which is now shortly described.

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a resource pool which is defined across time and frequency. The top of Fig. 4 illustrates the resources in time and frequency that may be available at the base station for a communication with one or more UEs being connected to the base station. From these available resources a subset of resources is selected for defining the resource pool. As is illustrated in Fig. 4, across the time domain, the base station provides the UE with a subframe bitmap of variable lengths. The bitmap indicates whether resources at a certain time are to be used for the resource pool (indicated by a 1 in the bitmap) and which resources are not to be used for the resource pool (indicated by a “0” in the bitmap). As is indicated by the vertical dotted line in the upper part of Fig. 4, the bitmap may be repeated across the duration of the resource pool. The resource pool includes data and control sub-channels, which are defined on the basis of the subframes indicated by the bitmap and

across the frequency. The data sub-channel is defined using a set of parameters that include the number of sub-channels together with a resource block, RB, index, and the size of the sub-channel in RBs. The control sub-channels are defined also on the basis of the subframes indicated in the bitmap, however, only the starting RB index is specified as the control channel extends only across two RBs in frequency. In the example of Fig. 4, one may see that from the block 310 of available resources the resource pool 312 is selected including two control sub-channels 314a and 314b as well as two data sub-channels 316a and 316b. In the example of Fig. 4, the control sub-channels are indicated by specifying the respective starting resource block in each selected subframes, namely the first and sixth RBs, the data sub-channels are described by their respective starting RBs, namely the third and eighth RBs in each subframe with a size of three RBs in frequency. Thus, in accordance with conventional approaches, a resource pool may contain a minimum of two sub-channels, one sub-channel for control information, like the PSCCH, and one sub-channel for data, like the PSSCH. At a given transmit time interval, TTI, or subframe, a transmitting UE broadcasts a sidelink control information, SCI, in the control channel, followed by the data in the same subframe. The SCI will point to the resources within the subframe that data will be transmitted on, and a receiving UE will listen to the control sub-channel so that when it does receive an SCI it is made aware where the data is to be received.

In the above-described conventional approaches, the base station may decide whether it assists in the scheduling of resources or whether the UEs need to select the resources to be used for transmission. This defines the above-mentioned two operational modes of a V2X system, namely the mode 3 and mode 4. However, mode 3 and mode 4 UEs, also referred to as in-coverage UEs and out-of-coverage UEs may use the same set of resources or resource pool provided by the base station or by the system for the sidelink communication. For example, a resource pool or a set of resources to be used for the sidelink may be fully shared among in-coverage UEs and out-of-coverage UEs. In accordance with other examples, the in-coverage UEs may use a first set of resources or resource pool, and the out-of-coverage UEs may use a second resource pool, however, the in-coverage resource pool and the out-of-coverage resource pool may partially overlap.

This sharing of resources may result in collisions between in-coverage UEs and out-of-coverage UEs when transmitting using the shared resources, and one aspect of the present invention aims at reducing or avoiding such undesired collisions by employing the various options offered by 5G or NR to design the sidelink, SL, for example due to the flexible capability of switching between different numerologies. More specifically, embodiments of the first aspect of the present invention provide a novel SL collision avoidance scheme for NR V2X that enables an enhanced coexistence between scheduled and autonomous resource selection. Scheduled resource selection pertains to mode 1 UEs in NR V2X or mode 3 UEs in LTE V2X, in the following also referred to as Ml UEs or in-coverage UEs, whereas autonomous resource selection pertains mode 2 UEs in NR V2X or mode 4 UEs in LTE V2X, the following also referred to as M2 UEs or out-of-coverage UEs. Embodiments of the first aspect of the present invention are applicable to cases in which the control and data channels, like the PSCCH and the PSSCH are multiplexed in the time domain, TDM, or in the frequency domain, FDM. The embodiments in accordance with the first aspect of the present invention as described below are advantageous as the likelihood of resource collisions between M1 and M2 UEs during a SL transmission is decreased, a resource efficiency may be increased by transmitting data in the control channel, and vacant control resources may be used for M2 SL transmissions or for high priority M1 transmissions directly in an adjacent control region.

Dedicated Resources for Broadcast and Groupcast

In accordance with a second aspect, embodiments of the present invention provide dedicated resources for broadcast and groupcast within an entire set of resources allocated for sidelink communications in a wireless communication system. Conventionally, like in LTE, a base station provides the UEs with information regarding a set of resources or resource pool when being in-coverage, as well as configuration information about the available resources if the UEs have to automatically allocate resources for its transmission when being, for example, out-of-coverage. When the UEs autonomously select resources, the probability of two UEs selecting the same resource is high, causing allocation collisions. Moreover, conventionally, e.g. in previous LTE releases, only broadcast type communication is supported in the sidelink, so that it was sufficient to only indicate a resource pool for the sidelink communication in which only a single communication type occurred.

In accordance with embodiments of the second aspect of the present invention, rather than limiting the sidelink communication to a broadcast, also groupcast communications are allowed. In accordance with embodiments of the second aspect of the present invention, the probability of collisions is reduced by dividing the entire set of resources, like the resource pool or a bandwidth part (BWP), which is allocated to be used by UEs for a sidelink communication, like a V2X communication, dependent on the communication type, namely whether a broadcast communication or a groupcast communication is desired. This

approach is advantageous as it uses for respective communications dedicated sets of resources or resource pools so that collisions among UEs sharing the resources are reduced, wherein the UEs may include in-coverage UEs and/or out-of-coverage UEs. The probability of collisions is reduced, as UEs using different kinds of communication types use different sets of resources which already reduces the probability of collisions substantially.

A group of UEs may include at least two members, and a groupcast communication for a group including only two members may be referred to as a unicast communication. In other words, a unicast communication from one UE directly to only one other UE over the sidelink may be considered to be a special subcase of a groupcast communication and the resources from the groupcast pool may be used. Alternatively, for such communications another subset of dedicated resources may be used. So that the set of resources may further include a third subset of resources to be allocated for one or more unicast transmissions over the sidelink from a first UE to a second UE,

In accordance with further embodiments of the second aspect of the present invention, when using dedicated resource pools for broadcast and groupcast for sidelink communications, the control and data resources may be designed in a time duplexed or frequency duplexed manner, and a set of resources or resource pool may include multiple groups of resources having different numerologies, like different bandwidth parts, or a single group of resources having a certain numerology, like a certain bandwidth part, may include multiple resource pools. In other words, one or more of the broadcast and groupcast resource pools may include resources of the same numerology or within each resource pool two or more groups of resources having different numerologies may be employed. In accordance with other embodiments, a certain group of resources with a predefined numerology, like a certain bandwidth part, may be used as a basis for the resources which are defining the broadcast and groupcast resource pool.

In accordance with further embodiments, the control information provided for the sidelink communication may be repeated at certain intervals across time or frequency followed by the data resources so that the control data and the user data are not separated, rather, there is a clear control-data association which avoids the need for providing a master allocation entity. Other embodiments allow to cater longer data packets, and the SCI may relate to more than one data portion or packet or to a longer data portion.

In accordance with yet further embodiments, in addition to the above-mentioned resource pools for the broadcast and groupcast an additional control channel may be provided, referred to as a common control channel that spans the entire duration of the resource pools, for example, it may result in a dedicated control bandwidth part, and the dedicated control channels include control regions which result in bandwidth parts allocated for specific communication types, like broadcast and groupcast. The control information in the data may be deferred in time with respect to each other, or may occur at the same time.

Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in a wireless communication system as depicted in Fig. 1, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 including base stations and users, like mobile terminals or loT devices. Fig. 5 is a schematic representation of a wireless communication system including a transmitter 300, like a base station, and one or more receivers 3021 to 302n, like user devices, UEs. The transmitter 300 and the receivers 302 may communicate via a wireless communication links or channels 304a, 304b, 304c, like a radio link. The transmitter 300 may include one or more antennas ANTT or an antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements, a signal processor 300a and a transceiver 300b, coupled with each other. The receivers 302 include one or more antennas ANTR or an antenna array having a plurality of antennas, a signal processor 302a1, 302an, and a transceiver 302bi, 302bn coupled with each other. The base station 300 and the UEs 302 may communicate via respective first wireless communication links 304a and 304b, like a radio link using the Uu interface, while the UEs 302 may communicate with each other via a second wireless communication link 304c, like a radio link using the PCS interface.

The system, the base station 300 and the one or more UEs 302 may operate in accordance with the inventive teachings described herein.

Collision Avoidance ‒ System

The present invention provides (see for example claim 1 ) a wireless communication system, comprising:

one or more base stations, and

a plurality of user devices, UEs, wherein the plurality of UEs comprises a plurality of first UEs operating in a first mode and a plurality of second UEs operating in a second mode, the first UEs and the second UEs configured for a sidelink communication,

wherein a side!ink transmission comprises a sidelink frame having a control region and a data region,

wherein the control region comprises a first control region and a second control region, the first control region for transmitting control data of a first UE, the second control region for transmitting control data of a second UE, and the first and second control regions including a plurality of a common resources.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 2), a first UE is configured to transmit control data in the first region, and a second UE is configured to transmit control data in the second region.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 3), a first UE is configured to monitor the first control region to blindly decode control data, and a second UE is configured to sense the control region, e.g., using energy detection and/or to monitor the control region and to blindly decode control data.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 4), a first UE is configured to

- send its control data using one or more common resources in the first control region, and

- after sending the control data, start sending the corresponding data in the data region or in the data region and the second control region.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 5), a first UE is configured to

- decode the control data from the first control region and/or the second control region, and

- decode the corresponding data at resources in the data region indicated by the control data.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 6), in case data to be send is associated with a certain service, like an emergency or other low latency service, a first UE is configured to

- use any known free or unused common resources so as to

○ send its control data in the first control region and its data both in the second control region and in the data region, or

○ send its control data in the second control region and its data both in the first control region and in the data region, or

- use a procedure like a second UE to find free or unused common resources and use the found free or unused common resources so as to send its control data in the second control region and its data in the data region.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 7), a second UE is configured to

- sense or blindly decode the first control region to find one or more free or unused common resources,

- send its control data using the one or more free or unused common resources in in the second control region,

- after sending the control data, start sending the corresponding data in the data region.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 8), in case a plurality of free or unused common resources is sensed, a second UE is configured to

- randomly select free or unused common resources for sending its control data in the second control region, or

- rank the free or unused common resources according to one or more predefined parameters, like a received power lever, and select resources for which the one or more predefined parameters meet one or more certain criteria, e.g., exceed a certain threshold or the like.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 9), a second UE is configured to

- decode the control data from the first control region and/or the second control region, and

- decode the corresponding data at resources in the data region indicated by the control data.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 10), the plurality of a common resources are part of a set of resources partially or fully shared by the one or more first UEs and the one or more second UEs.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 11),

the plurality of common resources comprises one of more subchannels defined by one or more carriers in the frequency domain,

wherein the first control region spans a first time, the second control region spans a second time, and the data region spans a third time, and

wherein the control data and the corresponding data is transmitted in the same subchannel.

in accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 12),

the plurality of common resources comprises one of more frames defined by one or more symbols in the time domain,

wherein the first control region spans a first frequency range, the second control region spans a second frequency range, and the data region spans a third frequency range, and

wherein a first UE is configured to transmit its control data in a first frame, and the data corresponding to the control data in a second frame, the first and second frames being offset in time, and a second UE is configured to transmit its control data in the second frame, and the data corresponding to the control data in the second frame.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 13), a first UE is configured to

- send its control data in the first control region in the first frame, and

- after sending the control data, start sending the corresponding data in the data region in the second frame.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 14), a second UE is configured to

- sense the first control region of a first frame to find one or more free or unused common resources

- responsive to finding one or more free or unused common resources, send its control data using the one or more free or unused common resources in in the second control region in the second frame,

- after sending the control data, start sending the corresponding data in the data region of the second frame.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 15), the first UEs comprise one or more in-coverage UEs, and wherein the second UEs comprise one or more out-of-coverage

UEs.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 16), the first UEs and the second UEs are configured for one or more of

- a one-to-all or broadcast communication,

- a one-to-one or unicast communication,

- a one-to-group or groupcast communication.

Dedicated RPs for broadcast, groupcast and unicast ‒ System

The present invention provides (see for example claim 17) a wireless communication system, comprising:

a plurality of user devices, UEs, wherein at least some of the UEs are configured for a sidelink communication,

wherein the wireless communication system is configured to provide a set of resources for the sidelink communication among the UEs, the set of resources including:

- a first subset of resources to be allocated for groupcast transmissions over the sidelink for one or more groups of UEs, a group including two or more UEs, and

- a second subset of resources to be allocated for a broadcast transmission over the sidelink from one or more UEs to all UEs.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 18) the wireless communication system comprises:

one or more base station,

wherein the base station is configured to

- divide an entire set of resources allocated to UEs for sidelink communications into the first subset of resources and the second subset of resources, and

- provide the UEs with information about the respective subsets so as to allow the UEs to carry out a broadcast communication or a groupcast communication.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 19), the base station is configured to provide a UE with information about the respective subsets during an initial access procedure of the UE.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 20), the base station is configured to

- dynamically modify the subsets based on current requirements of the UEs, or

- modify the subsets in periodic intervals using RRC configurations.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 21), the subsets of resources include resources adjacent or non-adjacent across frequency, and contiguous or non-contiguous across time.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 22), the subsets of resources include resources of the same numerology or a plurality of groups of resources having different numerologies.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 23), the subset of resources define respective resource pools or mini resource pools or a sub-pools.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 24), the plurality of UEs comprises one or more in-coverage UEs and/or one or more out-of-coverage UEs.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 25), a groupcast communication for a group including only two members is referred to as a unicast communication.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 26), the set of resources further includes:

a third subset of resources to be allocated for one or more unicast transmissions over the sidelink from a first UE to a second UE,

Control and Data Association /longer data packets - System

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 27),

some or all of the subsets of resources comprise a plurality of control regions and data regions,

the plurality of control regions are located at certain intervals and each control region is defined in time and in frequency,

wherein the data region associated with a control region follows the control region in time or frequency directly or with an offset and is located at the same frequency or time as the control region

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 28), one or more of the control regions include, at a common resource, like a common frequency/frequency band or a common time/frame, at least a first control region and a second control region, and at least a first data region associated with the first control region and a second data region associated with the second control region, and

wherein

- the first control region includes control data from a first UE, the second control region includes control data from a second UE, the first data region includes data from the first UE, and the second data region includes data from the second UE, or

- the first control region and/or the second control region includes control data from a UE, and the first and second data regions include data from the UE, or

- the first control region includes control data from a UE, and the second control region, the first data region and the second data region include data from the UE.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 29), the first and second control regions are arranged contiguous or with an offset.

FDMed Common Control and TDMed Data BWPs within RP - System

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 30), the base station is configured to provide a further subset of resources for a common control channel, the common control channel spanning across the time or duration of the subsets of resources and including basic information for one or more receiving UEs indicating in which of the subsets of resources data for the one or more receiving UEs is present, each of the subsets of resources including control information for the one or more receiving UEs having further control information regarding the data to be received, and

wherein

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are not deferred in time so that the basic information and the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UE are present at the same time, e.g., in the same frame or subframe, or

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are deferred in time by a certain offset so that the basic information for the one or more receiving UEs is present earlier than the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UEs, e.g., in different frames or subframes.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 31), the UEs are configured to obtain during the initial access process, e.g., via the MIB or the SIB, information about the common control channel and the subsets of resources.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 32), the UEs are configured to listen to the common control channel at all times, independent of whether a UE is a part of a group, or is carrying out a broadcast.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 33),

the common control channel includes at least two sub channels, each sub channel corresponding to one of the subsets of resources, and

each sub channel of the common control channel includes a number of resource blocks, the number of resource blocks being equal to or is a multiple of a number of sub channels present in each of the subsets of resources.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 34 each sub channel in each of the subsets of resources has a control region, CORESET, for the further control information, the CORESET mapping to the data within the sub channel in a given subframe for providing the receiving UE with an implicit one-to-one control-data resource mapping, or

wherein each the subset of resources has a single control region, CORESET, for the further control information, the CORESET divided into the number of sub channels in the subsets of resources, and each CORESET division being mapped to a sub channel in a given subframe for providing the receiving UE with an implicit one-to-one control-data resource mapping.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 35), the CORESET provides a receiving UE with at least one of the further information indicating

- whether a transmission is periodic, in which case the UE knows when to expect a next transmissions, wherein subsequent periodic transmissions may or may not contain a CORESET, or

- whether a transmission is aperiodic, or

- whether transmissions are SPS transmissions, the CORESET including an activation/deactivation parameter, a periodicity and an interval, or

- whether a transmission is a one shot transmission, the CORESET defining whether the data is across the entire subset of resources or only over some of the sub channels within the subset of resources.

In accordance with embodiments in which some control is coming from the BS or the Group Leader UE, the activation/deactivation of the SPS transmission may be triggered by that entity, i.e., the BS or the Group Leader UE.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 36),

a transmitting UE is configured to transmit common control information, CCI, in the common control channel in a given subframe, followed by the transmission of control and/or data in one of the subsets of resources, and

the CCI indicates to which of the subsets of resources the control information pertains so as to allow a receiving UE to decode the further control information in the associated subset of resources.

In accordance with embodiments the position of the CCI may indicate which BWP and sub channel within it contains the CORESET and data. Considering a common control BWP with 3 sub channels, with the first sub channel for broadcast, second for groupcast and the third for unicast, each sub channel has 3 RBs each, indicating 3 sub channels within each data BWP. If, for example, the CCI is send in the first RB of the common control BWP, it implicitly means that the UE has to look for the CORESET and data in the first sub channel of the broadcast BWP.

in accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 37),

in the case of a high priority transmission, the CCI contains all relevant information pointing to data directly in the relevant subset of resources

in the case of groupcast communications, the CCI is transmitted by a lead UE or the transmitting group member and contains information regarding a mini resource pool used for a group that resides within the second subset of resources, and/or the CCI defines a number of sub channels within the second subset of resources for a given group, wherein some or all of the sub channels in each subframe in the mini resource pool have a CORESET,

if the CCI spans all the number of resource blocks in the common control channel across more than one subframe, it indicates that all the sub channels in the associated subset of resources across the subframes are used for the respective transmission type being groupcast or broadcast.

in case CCIs have attached a priority, a receiving UE decides based on the priority atached to each of the CCIs which data it decodes.

In accordance with embodiments any UE (broadcast, groupcast or unicast) which transmits a CCI spanning all the RBs in the respective sub channel in the common control channel, indicates that it will be transmitting data in ail the sub channels within the respective data BWP. This may also span across multiple subframes as well. Even in the case of groupcast, if the lead UE sends out a CCI across the RBs of the groupcast sub channel, it means that the said group will be having a mini resource pool spanning the sub channels of the groupcast BWP.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 38), in the case of groupcast communications, the lead UE or a transmitting group member transmits the CCI at predefined and/or regular time instances/intervals.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 39), a receiving UE is configured to decode the CCI, and, in case the decoded CCI pertains to the receiving UE, decode the further control information in the associated subset of resources to obtain detailed information for the UE to receive the data successfully.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 40), in case the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are not deferred in time, the receiving UE is configured to

while decoding the CCI, buffer the contents of all subsets at this time,

in case the decoded CCI pertains to the receiving UE, decode the data in the associated subset of resources and discard the reset, and

in case the decoded CCI does not pertain to the receiving UE, clear the buffer.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 41), in case the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are deferred in time, the receiving UE is configured to

decode the CCI,

in case the decoded CCI pertains to the receiving UE, decode the data in the associated subset of resources in the time deferred frame, and

in case the decoded CCI does not pertain to the receiving UE, to carry on to the next frame.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 42), the UE comprises one or more of

- a mobile terminal, or

- stationary terminal, or

- cellular loT-UE, or

- vehicular UE, or

- an loT or narrowband loT, NB-loT, device, or

- a ground based vehicle, or

- an aerial vehicle, or

- a drone, or

- a moving base station, or

- road side unit, or

- a building, or

- any other item or device provided with network connectivity enabling the item/device to communicate using the wireless communication network, e.g., a sensor or actuator, and

wherein the base station comprises one or more of

- a macro cell base station, or

- a small cell base station, or

- a centra! unit of a base station, or

- a distributed unit of a base station, or

- a road side unit, or

- a UE, or

- a remote radio head, or

- an AMF, or

- an SMF, or

- a core network entity, or

- a network slice as in the NR or 5G core context, or

- any transmission/reception point, TRP, enabling an item or a device to communicate using the wireless communication network, the item or device

being provided with network connectivity to communicate using the wireless communication network.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 43), the frame comprises a transmission time interval or a certain interval for which the apparatus reserved resource, like a subframe, a TTI, a slot, and/or a mini-slot.

USER DEVICE/BASE STATION

Collision Avoidance ‒ UE/BS

The present invention provides (see for example claim 44) a user device, UE, for a wireless communication system having one or more base stations, and a plurality of user devices,

UEs,

wherein the UE is configured to operate in a first mode or in a second mode,

wherein the UE is configured for a sidelink communication with a one or more UEs, one or more UEs including UEs operating in the first mode and/or UEs operating in the second mode,

wherein a sidelink transmission comprises a sidelink frame having a control region and a data region,

wherein the control region comprises a first control region and a second control region, the first control region for transmitting control data of a first UE, the second control region for transmitting control data of a second UE, and the first and second control regions including a plurality of a common resources.

The present invention provides (see for example claim 45) a base station for a wireless communication system having one or more base stations, and a plurality of user devices, UEs, the UEs configured to operate in a first mode or in a second mode and for a sidelink communication with one or more of UEs, the one or more UEs including UEs operating in the first mode and/or UEs operating in the second mode,

wherein a sidelink transmission comprises a sidelink frame having a control region and a data region,

wherein the control region comprises a first control region and a second control region, the first control region for transmitting control data of a first UE, the second control region for transmitting control data of a second UE, and the first and second control regions including a plurality of a common resources.

Dedicated RPs for broadcast, groupcast and unicast ‒ UE/BS

The present invention provides (see for example claim 46) a user device, UE, for a wireless communication system having one or more base stations, and a plurality of user devices, UEs,

wherein the UE is configured for a sidelink communication,

wherein the UE is configured to use a set of resources for the sidelink communication among the UEs, the set of resources including:

- a first subset of resources to be allocated for groupcast transmissions over the sidelink for one or more groups of UEs, a group including two or more UEs, and

- a second subset of resources to be allocated for a broadcast transmission over the sidelink from one or more UEs to all UEs.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 47)

some or all of the subsets of resources comprise a plurality of control regions and data regions,

the plurality of control regions are located at certain intervals and each control region is defined in time and in frequency,

wherein the data region associated with a control region follows the control region in time or frequency directly or with an offset and is located at the same frequency or time as the control region.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 48)

the UE is configured to use a further subset of resources for a common control channel, the common control channel spanning across the time or duration of the subsets of resources and including basic information for one or more receiving UEs indicating in which of the subsets of resources data for the one or more receiving UEs is present, each of the subsets of resources including control information for the one or more receiving UEs having further control information regarding the data to be received, and

wherein

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are not deferred in time so that the basic information and the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UE are present at the same time, e.g., in the same frame or subframe, or

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are deferred in time by a certain offset so that the basic information for the one or more receiving UEs is present earlier than the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UEs, e.g., in different frames or subframes.

The present invention provides (see for example claim 49) a base station for a wireless communication system having one or more base stations, and a plurality of user devices, UEs, wherein at least some of the UEs are configured for a sidelink communication,

wherein the base station is configured to provide a set of resources for the sidelink communication among the UEs, the set of resources including:

- a first subset of resources to be allocated for groupcast transmissions over the sidelink for one or more groups of UEs, a group including two or more UEs, and

- a second subset of resources to be allocated for a broadcast transmission over the sidelink from one or more UEs to all UEs.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 50),

some or all of the subsets of resources comprise a plurality of control regions and data regions,

the plurality of control regions are located at certain intervals and each control region is defined in time and in frequency,

wherein the data region associated with a control region follows the control region in time or frequency directly or with an offset and is located at the same frequency or time as the control region

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 51),

the base station is configured to provide a further subset of resources for a common control channel, the common control channel spanning across the time or duration of the subsets of resources and including basic information for one or more receiving UEs indicating in which of the subsets of resources data for the one or more receiving UEs is present, each of the subsets of resources including control information for the one or more receiving UEs having further control information regarding the data to be received, and

wherein

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are not deferred in time so that the basic information and the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UE are present at the same time, e.g., in the same frame or subframe, or

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are deferred in time by a certain offset so that the basic information for the one or more receiving UEs is present earlier than the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UEs, e.g., in different frames or subframes.

METHODS

The present invention provides (see for example claim 52)a method for a sidelink communication in a wireless communication system having one or more base stations, and a plurality of user devices, UEs, wherein the plurality of UEs comprises a plurality of first UEs operating in a first mode and a plurality of second UEs operating in a second mode, the first UEs and the second UEs configured for a sidelink communication, the method comprising:

performing a sidelink transmission using a sidelink frame having a control region and a data region,

wherein the control region comprises a first control region and a second control region, the first control region for transmitting control data of a first UE, the second control region for transmitting control data of a second UE, and the first and second control regions including a plurality of a common resources.

The present invention provides (see for example claim 53) a method for a sidelink communication in a wireless communication system having one or more base stations, and a plurality of user devices, UEs, wherein at least some of the UEs are configured for a sidelink communication, the method comprising:

providing a set of resources for the sidelink communication among the UEs, the set of resources including:

- a first subset of resources to be allocated for groupcast transmissions over the sidelink for one or more groups of UEs, a group including two or more UEs, and

- a second subset of resources to be allocated for a broadcast transmission over the sidelink from one or more UEs to all UEs.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 54)

some or all of the subsets of resources comprise a plurality of control regions and data regions,

the plurality of control regions are located at certain intervals and each control region is defined in time and in frequency,

wherein the data region associated with a control region follows the control region in time or frequency directly or with an offset and is located at the same frequency or time as the control region.

In accordance with embodiments (see for example claim 55), the method comprises

providing a further subset of resources for a common control channel, the common control channel spanning across the time or duration of the subsets of resources and including basic information for one or more receiving UEs indicating in which of the subsets of resources data for the one or more receiving UEs is present, each of the subsets of resources including control information for the one or more receiving UEs having further control information regarding the data to be received,

wherein

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are not deferred in time so that the basic information and the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UE are present at the same time, e.g., in the same frame or subframe, or

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are deferred in time by a certain offset so that the basic information for the one or more receiving UEs is present earlier than the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UEs, e.g., in different frames or subframes.

COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT

The present invention provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, causes the computer to carry out one or more methods in accordance with the present invention.

In- and Out-of-Coverage Collision Avoidance Design

Subsequently, embodiments of the first aspect of the present invention are described in more detail. In accordance with embodiments of the first aspect, a sidelink frame to be used for a sidelink transmission may be provided, and the sidelink frame may have a control region and a data region. The sidelink frame may be defined by the transmission time interval for transmitting data from the first UE via the sidelink to the second UE, or it may be considered the time interval the resources for the transmission have been reserved by the system. For example, the sidelink may be a sub-frame including a plurality of symbols in the time domain and a plurality of sub-carriers in the frequency domain, or it may refer to a transmission time interval as mentioned above, or to a slot including a plurality of symbols used for a sidelink communication, or a mini-slot.

In accordance with embodiments of the first aspect, to provide for a collision avoidance, the control region of the sidelink frame is divided into a plurality of control regions, for example into a first control region and into a second control region. The first control region is used by UEs operating in a first mode, e.g., in-coverage UEs, for transmitting their control data while the second control region is used by UEs operating in a second mode, e.g., out-of-coverage UEs, for controlling their control data. The following description of embodiments will be made with reference to in-coverage UEs and out-of-coverage UEs, however, the present invention is not limited to such embodiments. In accordance with other embodiments, The UEs may operate in other modes, e.g. in-coverage but not under control of a base station or network or in-coverage but in mode 2 with some aids with respect to. resource allocation or selection of a base station or network. The respective first and second control regions are defined by a plurality of common resources in the sidelink frame which, in case of a time multiplex design are respective frequency bands or sub-channels in the frequency domain, and in case of a frequency multiplex design, the common resources are time periods in the time domain, like the duration of the frame in the time domain.

Fig. 6 illustrates an embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention implementing the inventive approach in a time division multiplexed design. Fig. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a sidelink frame 400 having a certain duration in the time domain t and a certain extension in the frequency domain f. More specifically, the sidelink frame 400 comprises a plurality of sub-channels 4021 to 4024 having a certain bandwidth in the frequency domain, which may be the same for each sub-channel or which may be different for the sub-channels. The frame 400 includes the plurality of sub-channels 4021 to 4024 which extend from an initial time to to a time t1 defining the duration of the frame 400. During the sidelink communication, once the frame 400 is transmitted, a new frame having the same structure may be transmitted for the next communication by a UE over the sidelink.

The frame 400 includes a control region 404 as well as a data region 406. The control region is divided into a first control region 404a and into a second control region 404b. the control region 404a is assigned to in-coverage UEs, also referred to as M1 UEs, i.e., UEs operating in accordance with mode 1 of the NR standard or mode 3 of the LTE standard, and the second control region 404b is assigned to out-of-coverage UEs, also referred to as M2 UEs operating in the M2 mode according to the NR standard or in accordance with the mode 4 of the LTE standard. Fig. 6 illustrates an embodiment in which a M1 UE performs a sidelink communication using the sidelink frame 400. The M1 UE places its control information C1 in the first control section 404a of the control region 404 of the frame 400 followed by its data D1. In accordance with embodiments, the data D1 may only be placed in the resources defining the data region 406 in the sub-channel 4021 associated with the area where the control information C1 has been placed, while in accordance with other embodiments, as depicted in Fig. 6, also the area in sub-channel 4021 which is defined to be the second control region 404b may be used for data transmission because only the M1 UE transmits data so that the resources in the second control region 404a are free or unused and may also be employed for transmiting data by the M1 UE.

Fig. 6 illustrates the situation in which a M2 UE also transmits using the side frame 400. Before starting transmission, the M2 UE senses the resources associated with the first control region 404a of the control region 404 in the side frame 400 so as to find free or unused resources. In the embodiment depicted in Fig. 6, the resources in the first control region 404a associated with the first sub-channel 4021 are occupied by the transmitting M1 UE, however, the resources in the first control region 404a in the second, third and fourth sub-channels are unused or free. The M2 UE, responsive to the sensing of the free or unused resources may select any one of the sub-channels 4022 to 4024 for the transmission of the control and data. For example, the resources to be used may be selected randomly. In other embodiments, the free or unused common resources may be ranked according to one or more predefined parameters, like a received power level evaluated at a time instance or a received power level averaged over a predefined time period, and resources for which the one or more predefined parameters meet one or more certain criteria, e.g., exceed a certain threshold or the like, may be selected. In the embodiment depicted in Fig. 6, it is assumed that the M2 selected the second sub-channel 4022 for the transmission and places its control data C2 into the corresponding second control region 404a of the control region 400 followed by the sending of its data D2 in the sub-channel 4022 in the data region 406.

An advantage in accordance with the embodiment of Fig. 6 is that data of the M1 or M2 UE may be transmitted immediately following the transmission of the control data, i.e., data is transmitted without delay immediately following the transmission of the control data.

In the wireless communication system using the frame structure 400 as depicted in Fig. 6 any UE, namely an M1 UE or a M2 UE, which is receiving the frame 400 may decode the data from the control region 404 so as to determine as to whether the data D1 or D2 is dedicated for the receiving UE, and following a successful decoding of the first and/or second control information C1 , C2, indicating that data D1 and/or data D2 is directed to the receiving UE, the data D1 and/or D2 is decoded by the receiving UE.

The embodiment described with reference to Fig. 6 was directed to a TDM design of the frame 400, however, the present invention is not limited to such a design, rather, the inventive concept in accordance with the first aspect of the present invention may also be employed for a frequency domain multiplex, FDM, design. Fig. 7 illustrates embodiments of the first aspect of the present invention for implementing an FDM collision avoidance scheme for sidelink communications.

Fig. 7(a) illustrates a plurality of sidelink frames 4001 to 4003 including respective control regions 4041 to 4043 and respective data regions 4061 to 4063. The respective sidelink frames 4001 to 4003 have a certain duration in the time so that a first frame extends from a time to to a time t1, the second frame 4002 extends from the time ti to the time t2, and the third frame 4003 extends from the time t2 to the time t3. Each of the frames extends also in the frequency domain f, and, other than in the TDM case, in the FDM case, the common resources mentioned above is the time duration of the frame, whereas the control region 404 and the data region 406 are placed in different frequency bands or employ different sets of sub-channels. In a similar way as described above with reference to Fig. 6, also in the FDM case, the respective control regions 4041 to 4043 are divided into a plurality of control regions, namely respective first control regions 404a1 to 404a3 and second control regions 404b1 to 404b3. Again, the first control regions are assigned for control information from M1 UEs, and the second control regions 404b are assigned to receive control information from M2 UEs.

When employing the FDM design, in accordance with embodiments, the data associated with a certain control information is not transmitted in the same frame but is delayed by at least one frame. This is indicated in Fig. 7(a) by the respective arrows 4081 and 4082 indicating the relationship between the respective first control regions 404a1 and 404a2 with the data regions in the subsequent frames, namely data regions 4062 and 4063 respectively. On the other hand, data associated with M2 UEs, i.e., data associated with control information in the second control region 404b1 to 404b3 will be transmitted in the same frame as is indicated by the arrows 4101 to 4103.

Fig. 7(b) illustrates an example for sensing and collision avoidance in accordance with embodiments of the first aspect employing the FDM design of Fig. 7(a). At a time t1 a M2 UE performs a sidelink transmission using the sidelink frame in accordance with the inventive approach, and it senses the control region 4041 of the frame 4001 and sees that the first control region 404a1 is empty, i.e., the resources are not used by a M1 UE for a transmission of control data meaning that the data region in the next channel 4022 includes free/unused resources. Thus, the M2 UE may use control region 404b2 in the next frame 4002 at the time t2 without colliding with any UE that uses the first control region 404a1 in the current frame. At the time t2, the M2 UE places its control information in the second control region 404b2 followed by its data in the data region 4062. A M1 UE which is to transmit via the sidelink may use at the first control region 404a2 to place its control data causing a transmission of its user data in data region 4O63 in the next frame 4003. A further M2 UE that is to transmit over the sidelink will see at t2 that there are no free or unused resources available in the first control section 404a2 meaning that in the next frame the data region 4063 is occupied by a transmission of M1 UE data, so that the further M2 UE will not transmit but has to wait until a free or unused first control region may be found so that resources for the data transmission of the M2 UE are available in the subsequent frame.

CLAIMS

1. A wireless communication system, comprising:

one or more base stations, and

a plurality of user devices, UEs, wherein the plurality of UEs comprises a plurality of first UEs operating in a first mode and a plurality of second UEs operating in a second mode, the first UEs and the second UEs configured for a sidelink communication,

wherein a sidelink transmission comprises a sidelink frame having a control region and a data region,

wherein the control region comprises a first control region and a second control region, the first control region for transmitting control data of a first UE, the second control region for transmitting control data of a second UE, and the first and second control regions including a plurality of a common resources.

2. The wireless communication system of claim 1 , wherein a first UE is configured to transmit control data in the first region, and a second UE is configured to transmit control data in the second region.

3. The wireless communication system of claim 1 or 2, wherein a first UE is configured to monitor the first control region to blindly decode control data, and a second UE is configured to sense the control region, e.g., using energy detection and/or to monitor the control region and to blindly decode control data.

4. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein a first UE is configured to

- send its control data using one or more common resources in the first control region, and

- after sending the control data, start sending the corresponding data in the data region or in the data region and the second control region.

5. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein a first UE is configured to

- decode the control data from the first control region and/or the second control region, and

- decode the corresponding data at resources in the data region indicated by the control data.

6. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein, in case data to be send is associated with a certain service, like an emergency or other low latency service, a first UE is configured to

- use any known free or unused common resources so as to

○ send its control data in the first control region and its data both in the second control region and in the data region, or

○ send its control data in the second control region and its data both in the first control region and in the data region, or

- use a procedure like a second UE to find free or unused common resources and use the found free or unused common resources so as to send its control data in the second control region and its data in the data region.

7. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein a second UE is configured to

- sense or blindly decode the first control region to find one or more free or unused common resources,

- send its control data using the one or more free or unused common resources in in the second control region,

- after sending the control data, start sending the corresponding data in the data region.

8. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein, in case a plurality of free or unused common resources is sensed, a second UE is configured to

- randomly select free or unused common resources for sending its control data in the second control region, or

- rank the free or unused common resources according to one or more predefined parameters, like a received power lever, and select resources for which the one or more predefined parameters meet one or more certain criteria, e.g., exceed a certain threshold or the like.

9. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein a second UE is configured to

- decode the control data from the first control region and/or the second control region, and

- decode the corresponding data at resources in the data region indicated by the control data.

10. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the plurality of a common resources are part of a set of resources partially or fully shared by the one or more first UEs and the one or more second UEs.

11. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein

the plurality of common resources comprises one of more subchannels defined by one or more carriers in the frequency domain,

wherein the first control region spans a first time, the second control region spans a second time, and the data region spans a third time, and

wherein the control data and the corresponding data is transmitted in the same subchannel.

12. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein

the plurality of common resources comprises one of more frames defined by one or more symbols in the time domain,

wherein the first control region spans a first frequency range, the second control region spans a second frequency range, and the data region spans a third frequency range, and

wherein a first UE is configured to transmit its control data in a first frame, and the data corresponding to the control data in a second frame, the first and second frames being offset in time, and a second UE is configured to transmit its control data in the second frame, and the data corresponding to the control data in the second frame.

13. The wireless communication system of claim 12, wherein a first UE is configured to

- send its control data in the first control region in the first frame, and

- after sending the control data, start sending the corresponding data in the data region in the second frame.

14. The wireless communication system of claim 12 or 13, wherein a second UE is configured to

- sense the first control region of a first frame to find one or more free or unused common resources,

- responsive to finding one or more free or unused common resources, send its control data using the one or more free or unused common resources in in the second control region in the second frame,

- after sending the control data, start sending the corresponding data in the data region of the second frame.

15. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the first UEs comprise one or more in-coverage UEs, and wherein the second UEs comprise one or more out-of-coverage UEs.

16. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the first UEs and the second UEs are configured for one or more of

- a one-to-all or broadcast communication,

- a one-to-one or unicast communication,

- a one-to-group or groupcast communication.

17. A wireless communication system, comprising:

a plurality of user devices, UEs, wherein at least some of the UEs are configured for a sidelink communication,

wherein the wireless communication system is configured to provide a set of resources for the sidelink communication among the UEs, the set of resources including:

- a first subset of resources to be allocated for groupcast transmissions over the sidelink for one or more groups of UEs, a group including two or more UEs, and - a second subset of resources to be allocated for a broadcast transmission over the sidelink from one or more UEs to all UEs.

18. The wireless communication system of claim 17, comprising:

one or more base station,

wherein the base station is configured to

- divide an entire set of resources allocated to UEs for sidelink communications into the first subset of resources and the second subset of resources, and

- provide the UEs with information about the respective subsets so as to allow the UEs to carry out a broadcast communication or a groupcast communication.

19. The wireless communication system of claim 18, wherein the base station is configured to provide a UE with information about the respective subsets during an initial access procedure of the UE.

20. The wireless communication system of claim 18 or 19, wherein the base station is configured to

- dynamically modify the subsets based on current requirements of the UEs, or

- modify the subsets in periodic intervals using RRC configurations.

21. The wireless communication system of any one of claims 17 to 20, wherein the subsets of resources include resources adjacent or non-adjacent across frequency, and contiguous or non-contiguous across time.

22. The wireless communication system of any one of claims 17 to 21, wherein the subsets of resources include resources of the same numerology or a plurality of groups of resources having different numerologies.

23. The wireless communication system of any one of claims 17 to 22, wherein the subset of resources define respective resource pools or mini resource pools or a sub-pools.

24. The wireless communication system of any one of claims 17 to 23, wherein the plurality of UEs comprises one or more in-coverage UEs and/or one or more out-of- coverage UEs.

25. The wireless communication system of any one of claims 17 to 24, wherein a groupcast communication for a group including only two members is referred to as a unicast communication.

26. The wireless communication system of any one of claims 17 to 24, wherein the set of resources further includes:

a third subset of resources to be allocated for one or more unicast transmissions over the sidelink from a first UE to a second UE.

27. The wireless communication system of any one of claims 17 to 26, wherein

some or all of the subsets of resources comprise a plurality of control regions and data regions,

the plurality of control regions are located at certain intervals and each control region is defined in time and in frequency,

wherein the data region associated with a control region follows the control region in time or frequency directly or with an offset and is located at the same frequency or time as the control region

28. The wireless communication system of claim 27,

wherein one or more of the control regions include, at a common resource, like a common frequency/frequency band or a common time/frame, at least a first control region and a second control region, and at least a first data region associated with the first control region and a second data region associated with the second control region, and

wherein

- the first control region includes control data from a first UE, the second control region includes control data from a second UE, the first data region includes data from the first UE, and the second data region includes data from the second UE, or

- the first control region and/or the second control region includes control data from a UE, and the first and second data regions include data from the UE, or

- the first control region includes control data from a UE, and the second control region, the first data region and the second data region include data from the UE.

29. The wireless communication system of claim 28, wherein the first and second control regions are arranged contiguous or with an offset.

30. The wireless communication system of any one of claims 17 to 29,

wherein the base station is configured to provide a further subset of resources for a common control channel, the common control channel spanning across the time or duration of the subsets of resources and including basic information for one or more receiving UEs indicating in which of the subsets of resources data for the one or more receiving UEs is present, each of the subsets of resources including control information for the one or more receiving UEs having further control information regarding the data to be received, and

wherein

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are not deferred in time so that the basic information and the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UE are present at the same time, e.g., in the same frame or subframe, or

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are deferred in time by a certain offset so that the basic information for the one or more receiving UEs is present earlier than the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UEs, e.g., in different frames or subframes.

31. The wireless communication system of claim 30, wherein the UEs are configured to obtain during the initial access process, e.g., via the MIB or the SIB, information about the common control channel and the subsets of resources.

32. The wireless communication system of claim 30 or 31, wherein the UEs are configured to listen to the common control channel at all times, independent of whether a UE is a part of a group, or is carrying out a broadcast.

33. The wireless communication system of any one of claims 30 to 32, wherein

the common control channel includes at least two sub channels, each sub channel corresponding to one of the subsets of resources, and

each sub channel of the common control channel includes a number of resource blocks, the number of resource blocks being equal to or is a multiple of a number of sub channels present in each of the subsets of resources.

34. The wireless communication system of any one of claims 30 to 33, wherein

wherein each sub channel in each of the subsets of resources has a control region, CORESET, for the further control information, the CORESET mapping to the data within the sub channel in a given subframe for providing the receiving UE with an implicit one-to-one control-data resource mapping, or

wherein each the subset of resources has a single control region, CORESET, for the further control information, the CORESET divided into the number of sub channels in the subsets of resources, and each CORESET division being mapped to a sub channel in a given subframe for providing the receiving UE with an implicit one-to-one control-data resource mapping.

35. The wireless communication system of claim 34, wherein the CORESET provides a receiving UE with at least one of the further information indicating

- whether a transmission is periodic, in which case the UE knows when to expect a next transmissions, wherein subsequent periodic transmissions may or may not contain a CORESET, or

- whether a transmission is aperiodic, or

- whether transmissions are SPS transmissions, the CORESET including an activation/deactivation parameter, a periodicity and an interval, or

- whether a transmission is a one shot transmission, the CORESET defining whether the data is across the entire subset of resources or only over some of the sub channels within the subset of resources.

36. The wireless communication system of any one of claims 30 to 35, wherein

a transmitting UE is configured to transmit common control information, CCI, in the common control channel in a given subframe, followed by the transmission of control and/or data in one of the subsets of resources, and

the CCI indicates to which of the subsets of resources the control information pertains so as to allow a receiving UE to decode the further control information in the associated subset of resources.

37. The wireless communication system of 36, wherein

in the case of a high priority transmission, the CCI contains all relevant information pointing to data directly in the relevant subset of resources

in the case of groupcast communications, the CCI is transmitted by a lead UE or the transmitting group member and contains information regarding a mini resource pool used for a group that resides within the second subset of resources, and/or the CCI defines a number of sub channels within the second subset of resources for a given group, wherein some or all of the sub channels in each subframe in the mini resource pool have a CORESET,

in the case of a direct or unicast commnicationons,

if the CCI spans all the number of resource blocks in the common control channel across more than one subframe, it indicates that all the sub channels in the associated subset of resources across the subframes are used for the respective transmission type being groupcast or broadcast.

in case CCIs have attached a priority, a receiving UE decides based on the priority attached to each of the CCIs which data it decodes.

38. The wireless communication system of 37, wherein, in the case of groupcast communications, the lead UE or a transmitting group member of claim transmits the CCI at predefined and/or regular time instances/intervals.

39. The wireless communication system of any one of claims 36 to 38, wherein a receiving UE is configured to decode the CCI, and, in case the decoded CCI pertains to the receiving UE, decode the further control information in the associated subset of resources to obtain detailed information for the UE to receive the data successfully.

40. The wireless communication system of claim 39, wherein, in case the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are not deferred in time, the receiving UE is configured to

while decoding the CCI, buffer the contents of all subsets at this time,

in case the decoded CCI pertains to the receiving UE, decode the data in the associated subset of resources and discard the reset, and

in case the decoded CCI does not pertain to the receiving UE, clear the buffer.

41. The wireless communication system of claim 40, wherein, in case the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are deferred in time, the receiving UE is configured to

decode the CCI,

in case the decoded CCI pertains to the receiving UE, decode the data in the associated subset of resources in the time deferred frame, and

in case the decoded CCI does not pertain to the receiving UE, to carry on to the next frame.

42. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein

the UE comprises one or more of

- a mobile terminal, or

- stationary terminal, or

- cellular loT-UE, or

- vehicular UE, or

- an loT or narrowband loT, NB-loT, device, or

- a ground based vehicle, or

- an aerial vehicle, or

- a drone, or

- a moving base station, or

- road side unit, or

- a building, or

- any other item or device provided with network connectivity enabling the item/device to communicate using the wireless communication network, e.g., a sensor or actuator, and

wherein the base station comprises one or more of

- a macro cell base station, or

- a small cell base station, or

- a central unit of a base station, or

- a distributed unit of a base station, or

- a road side unit, or

- a UE, or

- a remote radio head, or

- an AMF, or

- an SMF, or

- a core network entity, or

- a network slice as in the NR or 5G core context, or

- any transmission/reception point, TRP, enabling an item or a device to communicate using the wireless communication network, the item or device being provided with network connectivity to communicate using the wireless communication network.

43. The wireless communication system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the frame comprises a transmission time interval or a certain interval for which the apparatus reserved resource, like a subframe, a TTI, a slot, and/or a mini-slot.

44. A user device, UE, for a wireless communication system having one or more base stations, and a plurality of user devices, UEs,

wherein the UE is configured to operate in a first mode or in a second mode, wherein the UE is configured for a sidelink communication with a one or more UEs, one or more UEs including UEs operating in the first mode and/or UEs operating in the second mode,

wherein a sideiink transmission comprises a sideiink frame having a control region and a data region,

wherein the control region comprises a first control region and a second control region, the first control region for transmiting control data of a first UE, the second control region for transmitting control data of a second UE, and the first and second control regions including a plurality of a common resources.

45. A base station for a wireless communication system having one or more base stations, and a plurality of user devices, UEs, the UEs configured to operate in a first mode or in a second mode and for a sideiink communication with one or more of UEs, the one or more UEs including UEs operating in the first mode and/or UEs operating in the second mode,

wherein a sideiink transmission comprises a sideiink frame having a control region and a data region,

wherein the control region comprises a first control region and a second control region, the first control region for transmitting control data of a first UE, the second control region for transmitting control data of a second UE, and the first and second control regions including a plurality of a common resources.

46. A user device, UE, for a wireless communication system having one or more base stations, and a plurality of user devices, UEs,

wherein the UE is configured for a sideiink communication,

wherein the UE is configured to use a set of resources for the sideiink communication among the UEs, the set of resources including:

- a first subset of resources to be allocated for groupcast transmissions over the sideiink for one or more groups of UEs, a group including two or more UEs, and

- a second subset of resources to be allocated for a broadcast transmission over the sidelink from one or more UEs to all UEs.

47. The user device, UE, of claim 43, wherein

some or all of the subsets of resources comprise a plurality of control regions and data regions,

the plurality of control regions are located at certain intervals and each control region is defined in time and in frequency,

wherein the data region associated with a control region follows the control region in time or frequency directly or with an offset and is located at the same frequency or time as the control region.

48. The user device, UE, of claim 43 or 44, wherein

wherein the UE is configured to use a further subset of resources for a common control channel, the common control channel spanning across the time or duration of the subsets of resources and including basic information for one or more receiving UEs indicating in which of the subsets of resources data for the one or more receiving UEs is present, each of the subsets of resources including control information for the one or more receiving UEs having further control information regarding the data to be received, and

wherein

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are not deferred in time so that the basic information and the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UE are present at the same time, e.g., in the same frame or subframe, or

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are deferred in time by a certain offset so that the basic information for the one or more receiving UEs is present earlier than the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UEs, e.g., in different frames or subframes.

49. A base station for a wireless communication system having one or more base stations, and a plurality of user devices, UEs, wherein at least some of the UEs are configured for a sidelink communication,

wherein the base station is configured to provide a set of resources for the sidelink communication among the UEs, the set of resources including:

- a first subset of resources to be allocated for groupcast transmissions over the sidelink for one or more groups of UEs, a group including two or more UEs, and

- a second subset of resources to be allocated for a broadcast transmission over the sidelink from one or more UEs to all UEs.

50. The base station of claim 49, wherein

some or all of the subsets of resources comprise a plurality of control regions and data regions,

the plurality of control regions are located at certain intervals and each control region is defined in time and in frequency,

wherein the data region associated with a control region follows the control region in time or frequency directly or with an offset and is located at the same frequency or time as the control region

51. The base station of claim 49 or 50, wherein

the base station is configured to provide a further subset of resources for a common control channel, the common control channel spanning across the time or duration of the subsets of resources and including basic information for one or more receiving UEs indicating in which of the subsets of resources data for the one or more receiving UEs is present, each of the subsets of resources including control information for the one or more receiving UEs having further control information regarding the data to be received, and

wherein

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are not deferred in time so that the basic information and the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UE are present at the same time, e.g., in the same frame or subframe, or

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are deferred in time by a certain offset so that the basic information for the one or more receiving UEs is present earlier than the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UEs, e.g., in different frames or subframes.

52. A method for a sidelink communication in a wireless communication system having one or more base stations, and a plurality of user devices, UEs, wherein the plurality of UEs comprises a plurality of first UEs operating in a first mode and a plurality of second UEs operating in a second mode, the first UEs and the second UEs configured for a sidelink communication, the method comprising:

performing a sidelink transmission using a sidelink frame having a control region and a data region,

wherein the control region comprises a first control region and a second control region, the first control region for transmitting control data of a first UE, the second control region for transmitting control data of a second UE, and the first and second control regions including a plurality of a common resources.

53. A method for a sidelink communication in a wireless communication system having one or more base stations, and a plurality of user devices, UEs, wherein at least some of the UEs are configured for a sidelink communication, the method comprising:

providing a set of resources for the sidelink communication among the UEs, the set of resources including:

- a first subset of resources to be allocated for groupcast transmissions over the sidelink for one or more groups of UEs, a group including two or more UEs, and

- a second subset of resources to be allocated for a broadcast transmission over the sidelink from one or more UEs to all UEs.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein

some or all of the subsets of resources comprise a plurality of control regions and data regions,

the plurality of control regions are located at certain intervals and each control region is defined in time and in frequency,

wherein the data region associated with a control region follows the control region in time or frequency directly or with an offset and is located at the same frequency or time as the control region.

55. The method of claim 53 or 54, comprising

providing a further subset of resources for a common control channel, the common control channel spanning across the time or duration of the subsets of resources and including basic information for one or more receiving UEs indicating in which of the subsets of resources data for the one or more receiving UEs is present, each of the subsets of resources including control information for the one or more receiving UEs having further control information regarding the data to be received,

wherein

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are not deferred in time so that the basic information and the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UE are present at the same time, e.g., in the same frame or subframe, or

- the basic information and the data for the one or more receiving UEs are deferred in time by a certain offset so that the basic information for the one or more receiving UEs is present earlier than the data along with the further control information for the one or more receiving UEs, e.g., in different frames or subframes.

56. A non-transitory computer program product comprising a computer readable medium storing instructions which, when executed on a computer, perform the method of any one of claims 52 to 55.