WO2022147811A1

WO2022147811A1 - Directional active channel occupancy signaling and monitoring for collision avoidance

Info

Publication number: WO2022147811A1
Application number: PCT/CN2021/070994
Authority: WO
Inventors: Siyi Chen; Arumugam Chendamarai Kannan; Changlong Xu; Jing Sun; Xiaoxia Zhang
Original assignee: Qualcomm Inc
Current assignee: Qualcomm Inc
Priority date: 2021-01-09
Filing date: 2021-01-09
Publication date: 2022-07-14
Anticipated expiration: 2023-07-09

Abstract

Mechanisms for active channel occupancy signaling and monitoring are provided. In one aspect, a method for channel occupancy monitoring performed by a first wireless communication device associated with a first priority includes: monitoring, in a plurality of beam directions during a sensing window, for a channel occupancy signal in a shared radio frequency band, where the monitoring includes detecting, during the sensing window, the channel occupancy signal from a second wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, where the second wireless communication device is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority; and refraining, based on the detecting the channel occupancy signal, from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in at least the first beam direction for a period.

Description

DIRECTIONAL ACTIVE CHANNEL OCCUPANCY SIGNALING AND MONITORING FOR COLLISION AVOIDANCE

Siyi Chen, Arumugam Chendamaraikannan, Changlong Xu, Jing Sun, Xiaoxia Zhang

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to active signaling and monitoring to avoid collisions in shared frequency bands.

INTRODUCTION

Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power) . A wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations (BSs) , each simultaneously supporting communications for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE) .

To meet the growing demands for expanded mobile broadband connectivity, wireless communication technologies are advancing from the long term evolution (LTE) technology to a next generation new radio (NR) technology, which may be referred to as 5 ^th Generation (5G) . For example, NR is designed to provide a lower latency, a higher bandwidth or a higher throughput, and a higher reliability than LTE. NR is designed to operate over a wide array of spectrum bands, for example, from low-frequency bands below about 1 gigahertz (GHz) and mid-frequency bands from about 1 GHz to about 6 GHz, to high-frequency bands such as millimeter wave (mmWave) bands. NR is also designed to operate across different spectrum types, from licensed spectrum to unlicensed and shared spectrum. Spectrum sharing enables operators to opportunistically aggregate spectrums to dynamically support high-bandwidth services. Spectrum sharing can extend the benefit of NR technologies to operating entities that may not have access to a licensed spectrum.

In some instances, multiple 5G NR networks may operate in overlapping areas and in shared frequency bands, including mmWave bands. Devices operating in mmWave bands, such as BSs, may use directional beamforming to focus transmitted and/or received signal energy in each of a plurality of beam directions. In this regard, wireless communication in the mmWave bands is particularly susceptible to signal loss and attenuation from the air. Accordingly, beam-based directional communication can improve the efficiency of wireless communication systems. However, the devices of different spatially co-located networks may experience communication collisions and interference from the devices of the other network. These collisions can result in failed data transmissions and reduce the efficiency of the network.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF SOME EXAMPLES

The following summarizes some aspects of the present disclosure to provide a basic understanding of the discussed technology. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated features of the disclosure and is intended neither to identify key or critical elements of all aspects of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of any or all aspects of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects of the disclosure in summary form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes a method of wireless communication performed by a first wireless communication device associated with a first priority. The method includes: monitoring, in a plurality of beam directions during a sensing window, for a channel occupancy signal in a shared radio frequency band, where the monitoring includes detecting, during the sensing window, the channel occupancy signal from a second wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, where the second wireless communication device is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority; and refraining, based on the detecting the channel occupancy signal, from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in at least the first beam direction for a period.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes a method of wireless communication performed by a wireless communication device. The method of wireless communication includes: determining that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band, where the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority higher than a second priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band; and transmitting, during the sensing window in response to determining that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) . The method of wireless communication includes receiving, from a base station (BS) , a dynamic frequency selection (DFS) configuration. The method also includes transmitting, in a shared radio frequency band during a sensing window based on the DFS configuration, a channel occupancy signal to a wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction, where the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band, and where the UE is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes a first wireless communication device associated with a first priority. The first wireless communication device includes: a processor configured to: monitor, in a plurality of beam directions during a sensing window, for a channel occupancy signal in a shared radio frequency band, where the processor configured to monitor may include the processor configured to detect, during the sensing window, the channel occupancy signal from a second wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, where the second wireless communication device is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority; and refrain, based on the detecting the channel occupancy signal, from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in at least the first beam direction for a period.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes a wireless communication device including: a processor configured to determine that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band, where the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority higher than a second priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band; and a transceiver configured to transmit, during the sensing window in response to determine that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes a user equipment (UE) . The UE includes a processor; and a transceiver configured to receive, from a base station (BS) , a dynamic frequency selection (DFS) configuration. The processor is configured to cause the transceiver to transmit, in a shared radio frequency band during a sensing window based on the DFS configuration, a channel occupancy signal to a wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction, where the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band, and where the UE is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon. The program code includes code for causing a first wireless communication device associated with a first priority to monitor, in a plurality of beam directions during a sensing window, for a channel occupancy signal in a shared radio frequency band, where the code for causing a first wireless communication device to monitor for the channel occupancy signal may include code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect, during the sensing window, the channel occupancy signal from a second wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, where the second wireless communication device is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority; and code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain, based on the detecting the channel occupancy signal, from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in at least the first beam direction for a period.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon. The program code includes code for causing a wireless communication device to determine that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band, where the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority higher than a second priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band; and code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit, during the sensing window in response to determine that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon. The program code includes code for causing a user equipment (UE) to receive, from a base station (BS) , a dynamic frequency selection (DFS) configuration, code for causing the UE to transmit, in a shared radio frequency band during a sensing window based on the DFS configuration, a channel occupancy signal to a wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction, where the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band, and where the UE is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes a first wireless communication device associated with a first priority. The first wireless communication device includes means for monitoring, in a plurality of beam directions during a sensing window, for a channel occupancy signal in a shared radio frequency band, where the means for monitoring may include means for detecting, during the sensing window, the channel occupancy signal from a second wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, where the second wireless communication device is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority; and means for refraining, based on the detecting the channel occupancy signal, from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in at least the first beam direction for a period.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes a wireless communication device of wireless communication device. The wireless communication device includes means for determining that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band, where the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority higher than a second priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band; and means for transmitting, during the sensing window in response to determining that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes a user equipment (UE) . The user equipment includes means for receiving, from a base station (BS) , a dynamic frequency selection (DFS) configuration. The equipment also includes means for transmitting, in a shared radio frequency band during a sensing window based on the DFS configuration, a channel occupancy signal to a wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction, where the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band, and where the UE is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority.

Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, upon reviewing the following description of specific, exemplary aspects of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures. While features of the present invention may be discussed relative to certain aspects and figures below, all aspects of the present invention can include one or more of the advantageous features discussed herein. In other words, while one or more aspects may be discussed as having certain advantageous features, one or more of such features may also be used in accordance with the various aspects of the invention discussed herein. In similar fashion, while exemplary aspects may be discussed below as device, system, or method aspects it should be understood that such exemplary aspects can be implemented in various devices, systems, and methods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless communication network according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a directional wireless communication scenario including a first wireless network and a second wireless network, according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a signaling diagram illustrating a directional active channel occupancy signaling scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating a channel occupancy monitoring scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5A illustrates a beam sweeping pattern in a channel occupancy signaling scheme according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5B illustrates an incremental, repeating beam pattern in a channel occupancy signaling scheme according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5C illustrates an asymmetrical periodic beam pattern in a channel occupancy signaling scheme according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5D illustrates beam-specific periodic beam pattern in a channel occupancy signaling scheme according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6A illustrates a channel occupancy monitoring response scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6B illustrates a channel occupancy monitoring response scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6C illustrates a channel occupancy monitoring response scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6D illustrates a channel occupancy monitoring response scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7A illustrates a channel occupancy monitoring response scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7B illustrates a channel occupancy monitoring response scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7C illustrates a channel occupancy monitoring response scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7D illustrates a channel occupancy monitoring response scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a signaling diagram of a UE-assisted channel occupancy signaling scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of a base station (BS) according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of a user equipment (UE) according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of a communication method according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of a communication method according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of a communication method according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description set forth below, in connection with the appended drawings, is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to represent the only configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of the various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and components are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring such concepts.

This disclosure relates generally to wireless communications systems, also referred to as wireless communications networks. In various aspects, the techniques and apparatus may be used for wireless communication networks such as code division multiple access (CDMA) networks, time division multiple access (TDMA) networks, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) networks, orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks, LTE networks, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) networks, 5 ^th Generation (5G) or new radio (NR) networks, as well as other communications networks. As described herein, the terms “networks” and “systems” may be used interchangeably.

An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as evolved UTRA (E-UTRA) , Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, flash-OFDM and the like. UTRA, E-UTRA, and GSM are part of universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) . In particular, long term evolution (LTE) is a release of UMTS that uses E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, GSM, UMTS and LTE are described in documents provided from an organization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP) , and cdma2000 is described in documents from an organization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2) . These various radio technologies and standards are known or are being developed. For example, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations that aims to define a globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone specification. 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) is a 3GPP project which was aimed at improving the UMTS mobile phone standard. The 3GPP may define specifications for the next generation of mobile networks, mobile systems, and mobile devices. The present disclosure is concerned with the evolution of wireless technologies from LTE, 4G, 5G, NR, and beyond with shared access to wireless spectrum between networks using a collection of new and different radio access technologies or radio air interfaces.

In particular, 5G networks contemplate diverse deployments, diverse spectrum, and diverse services and devices that may be implemented using an OFDM-based unified, air interface. In order to achieve these goals, further enhancements to LTE and LTE-Aare considered in addition to development of the new radio technology for 5G NR networks. The 5G NR will be capable of scaling to provide coverage (1) to a massive Internet of things (IoTs) with an Ultra-high density (e.g., ～1M nodes/km ²) , ultra-low complexity (e.g., ～10s of bits/sec) , ultra-low energy (e.g., ～10+years of battery life) , and deep coverage with the capability to reach challenging locations; (2) including mission-critical control with strong security to safeguard sensitive personal, financial, or classified information, ultra-high reliability (e.g., ～99.9999%reliability) , ultra-low latency (e.g., ～ 1 ms) , and users with wide ranges of mobility or lack thereof; and (3) with enhanced mobile broadband including extreme high capacity (e.g., ～ 10 Tbps/km ²) , extreme data rates (e.g., multi-Gbps rate, 100+ Mbps user experienced rates) , and deep awareness with advanced discovery and optimizations.

The 5G NR may be implemented to use optimized OFDM-based waveforms with scalable numerology and transmission time interval (TTI) ; having a common, flexible framework to efficiently multiplex services and features with a dynamic, low-latency time division duplex (TDD) /frequency division duplex (FDD) design; and with advanced wireless technologies, such as massive multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) , robust millimeter wave (mmWave) transmissions, advanced channel coding, and device-centric mobility. Scalability of the numerology in 5G NR, with scaling of subcarrier spacing, may efficiently address operating diverse services across diverse spectrum and diverse deployments. For example, in various outdoor and macro coverage deployments of less than 3GHz FDD/TDD implementations, subcarrier spacing may occur with 15 kHz, for example over 5, 10, 20 MHz, and the like bandwidth (BW) . For other various outdoor and small cell coverage deployments of TDD greater than 3 GHz, subcarrier spacing may occur with 30 kHz over 80/100 MHz BW. For other various indoor wideband implementations, using a TDD over the unlicensed portion of the 5 GHz band, the subcarrier spacing may occur with 60 kHz over a 160 MHz BW. Finally, for various deployments transmitting with mmWave components at a TDD of 28 GHz, subcarrier spacing may occur with 120 kHz over a 500 MHz BW.

The scalable numerology of the 5G NR facilitates scalable TTI for diverse latency and quality of service (QoS) requirements. For example, shorter TTI may be used for low latency and high reliability, while longer TTI may be used for higher spectral efficiency. The efficient multiplexing of long and short TTIs to allow transmissions to start on symbol boundaries. 5G NR also contemplates a self-contained integrated subframe design with UL/downlink scheduling information, data, and acknowledgement in the same subframe. The self-contained integrated subframe supports communications in unlicensed or contention-based shared spectrum, adaptive UL/downlink that may be flexibly configured on a per-cell basis to dynamically switch between UL and downlink to meet the current traffic needs.

Various other aspects and features of the disclosure are further described below. It should be apparent that the teachings herein may be embodied in a wide variety of forms and that any specific structure, function, or both being disclosed herein is merely representative and not limiting. Based on the teachings herein one of an ordinary level of skill in the art should appreciate that an aspect disclosed herein may be implemented independently of any other aspects and that two or more of these aspects may be combined in various ways. For example, an apparatus may be implemented or a method may be practiced using any number of the aspects set forth herein. In addition, such an apparatus may be implemented or such a method may be practiced using other structure, functionality, or structure and functionality in addition to or other than one or more of the aspects set forth herein. For example, a method may be implemented as part of a system, device, apparatus, and/or as instructions stored on a computer readable medium for execution on a processor or computer. Furthermore, an aspect may comprise at least one element of a claim.

A wireless network may use directional beamforming to transmit and/or receive wireless communications. Directional beamforming can reduce the occurrence of collisions or interference between devices of different networks. Further, directional beamforming can increase the power efficiency of wireless communication systems. For example, in the mmWave spectrum, wireless communications are particularly susceptible to signal loss and attenuation by the interaction of the radio signals and the air. Directional beamforming allows the energy to be focused in a given direction to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the signal at the receiving device. Due to the reduced propagation of radio signals in these frequencies, wireless networks operating in the mmWave spectrum may include several BSs within a relatively small geographical area. Additionally, there may be more than one network operating in the mmWave spectrum in the geographic area. Although directional beamforming may reduce the chance of a collision due to their directional nature, it is still possible that one or more wireless communication devices within a network experience collisions or interference from the devices of another wireless network.

In some aspects, the wireless networks operating within a same geographic area may be associated with different priorities. For example, a first wireless network may be operated by a government entity or organization that has specified prioritized access to network resources. Further, some wireless networks may include devices indicated for high reliability and/or low latency. Accordingly, it may be desirable to resolve or avoid potential collisions between different networks in a way that allows the higher-priority network to maintain access to a shared frequency band, while causing the low-priority network to back off of the shared frequency band.

The present disclosure describes mechanisms for active channel occupancy signaling and monitoring to reduce the occurrence of collisions between networks having different priorities. For example, an active channel occupancy signaling scheme may include a high-priority BS transmitting one or more channel occupancy signals in one or more beam directions according to a beam pattern. The high-priority BS may determine whether there is data traffic scheduled for a sensing window, and transmit the channel occupancy signals in the shared frequency band during the sensing window when there is no data traffic scheduled. A low-priority BS may monitor for the channel occupancy signal during the sensing window, and back off of the shared frequency band when one or more channel occupancy criteria are met. The low-priority BS may monitor for the channel occupancy signal using directional beamforming to sweep across a plurality of beam directions. Based on the detected channel occupancy signal, the low-priority BS may determine to back off of the entire shared frequency band, or one or more subbands of the shared frequency band. Further, the low-priority BS may determine to back off of the shared frequency band for all beam directions, or for some of the beam directions.

Further, the present disclosure describes mechanisms for UE-assisted channel occupancy signaling, which includes configuring the UEs of the high-priority network to actively transmit channel occupancy signals during one or more sensing windows. In some aspects, the UEs of the high-priority network may be configured to transmit the channel occupancy signals at a same time, or at different times. Further, the UEs of the high-priority network may be configured to transmit the channel occupancy signals in a same subband or group of subbands, or indifferent subbands or groups of subband.

The mechanisms described herein advantageously increase the chances that a low-priority network device detects traffic or signals from another network to cause the low-priority network to back off of the shared frequency band. The active channel occupancy signals thus reduce the chance and occurrence of collisions, thereby improving the efficiency of the wireless networks. Further, the channel occupancy monitoring schemes provide a temporally efficient mechanism which can be performed at sparse intervals. Further, the active channel occupancy signaling resolves potential collisions such that the high-priority system can continue using the shared frequency band.

FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless communication network 100 according to some aspects of the present disclosure. The network 100 may be a 5G network. The network 100 includes a number of base stations (BSs) 105 (individually labeled as 105a, 105b, 105c, 105d, 105e, and 105f) and other network entities. A BS 105 may be a station that communicates with UEs 115 and may also be referred to as an evolved node B (eNB) , a next generation eNB (gNB) , an access point, and the like. Each BS 105 may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to this particular geographic coverage area of a BS 105 and/or a BS subsystem serving the coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used.

A BS 105 may provide communication coverage for a macro cell or a small cell, such as a pico cell or a femto cell, and/or other types of cell. A macro cell generally covers a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscriptions with the network provider. A small cell, such as a pico cell, would generally cover a relatively smaller geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscriptions with the network provider. A small cell, such as a femto cell, would also generally cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and, in addition to unrestricted access, may also provide restricted access by UEs having an association with the femto cell (e.g., UEs in a closed subscriber group (CSG) , UEs for users in the home, and the like) . A BS for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A BS for a small cell may be referred to as a small cell BS, a pico BS, a femto BS or a home BS. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the

BSs

105d and 105e may be regular macro BSs, while the BSs 105a-105c may be macro BSs enabled with one of three dimension (3D) , full dimension (FD) , or massive MIMO. The BSs 105a-105c may take advantage of their higher dimension MIMO capabilities to exploit 3D beamforming in both elevation and azimuth beamforming to increase coverage and capacity. The BS 105f may be a small cell BS which may be a home node or portable access point. A BS 105 may support one or multiple (e.g., two, three, four, and the like) cells.

The network 100 may support synchronous or asynchronous operation. For synchronous operation, the BSs may have similar frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs may be approximately aligned in time. For asynchronous operation, the BSs may have different frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs may not be aligned in time.

The UEs 115 are dispersed throughout the wireless network 100, and each UE 115 may be stationary or mobile. A UE 115 may also be referred to as a terminal, a mobile station, a subscriber unit, a station, or the like. A UE 115 may be a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, or the like. In one aspect, a UE 115 may be a device that includes a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) . In another aspect, a UE may be a device that does not include a UICC. In some aspects, the UEs 115 that do not include UICCs may also be referred to as IoT devices or internet of everything (IoE) devices. The UEs 115a-115d are examples of mobile smart phone-type devices accessing network 100. A UE 115 may also be a machine specifically configured for connected communication, including machine type communication (MTC) , enhanced MTC (eMTC) , narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and the like. The UEs 115e-115h are examples of various machines configured for communication that access the network 100. The UEs 115i-115k are examples of vehicles equipped with wireless communication devices configured for communication that access the network 100. A UE 115 may be able to communicate with any type of the BSs, whether macro BS, small cell, or the like. In FIG. 1, a lightning bolt (e.g., communication links) indicates wireless transmissions between a UE 115 and a serving BS 105, which is a BS designated to serve the UE 115 on the downlink (DL) and/or uplink (UL) , desired transmission between BSs 105, backhaul transmissions between BSs, or sidelink transmissions between UEs 115.

In operation, the BSs 105a-105c may serve the

UEs

115a and 115b using 3D beamforming and coordinated spatial techniques, such as coordinated multipoint (CoMP) or multi-connectivity. The macro BS 105d may perform backhaul communications with the BSs 105a-105c, as well as small cell, the BS 105f. The macro BS 105d may also transmits multicast services which are subscribed to and received by the

UEs

115c and 115d. Such multicast services may include mobile television or stream video, or may include other services for providing community information, such as weather emergencies or alerts, such as Amber alerts or gray alerts.

The BSs 105 may also communicate with a core network. The core network may provide user authentication, access authorization, tracking, Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity, and other access, routing, or mobility functions. At least some of the BSs 105 (e.g., which may be an example of a gNB or an access node controller (ANC) ) may interface with the core network through backhaul links (e.g., NG-C, NG-U, etc. ) and may perform radio configuration and scheduling for communication with the UEs 115. In various examples, the BSs 105 may communicate, either directly or indirectly (e.g., through core network) , with each other over backhaul links (e.g., X1, X2, etc. ) , which may be wired or wireless communication links.

The network 100 may also support mission critical communications with ultra-reliable and redundant links for mission critical devices, such as the UE 115e, which may be a drone. Redundant communication links with the UE 115e may include links from the

macro BSs

105d and 105e, as well as links from the small cell BS 105f. Other machine type devices, such as the UE 115f (e.g., a thermometer) , the UE 115g (e.g., smart meter) , and UE 115h (e.g., wearable device) may communicate through the network 100 either directly with BSs, such as the small cell BS 105f, and the macro BS 105e, or in multi-step-size configurations by communicating with another user device which relays its information to the network, such as the UE 115f communicating temperature measurement information to the smart meter, the UE 115g, which is then reported to the network through the small cell BS 105f. The network 100 may also provide additional network efficiency through dynamic, low-latency TDD/FDD communications, such asV2V, V2X, C-V2X communications between a

UE

115i, 115j, or 115k and other UEs 115, and/or vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications between a

UE

115i, 115j, or 115k and a BS 105.

In some implementations, the network 100 utilizes OFDM-based waveforms for communications. An OFDM-based system may partition the system BW into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as subcarriers, tones, bins, or the like. Each subcarrier may be modulated with data. In some instances, the subcarrier spacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) may be dependent on the system BW. The system BW may also be partitioned into subbands. In other instances, the subcarrier spacing and/or the duration of TTIs may be scalable.

In some aspects, the BSs 105 can assign or schedule transmission resources (e.g., in the form of time-frequency resource blocks (RB) ) for downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) transmissions in the network 100. DL refers to the transmission direction from a BS 105 to a UE 115, whereas UL refers to the transmission direction from a UE 115 to a BS 105. The communication can be in the form of radio frames. A radio frame may be divided into a plurality of subframes or slots, for example, about 10. Each slot may be further divided into mini-slots. In a FDD mode, simultaneous UL and DL transmissions may occur in different frequency bands. For example, each subframe includes an UL subframe in an UL frequency band and a DL subframe in a DL frequency band. In a TDD mode, UL and DL transmissions occur at different time periods using the same frequency band. For example, a subset of the subframes (e.g., DL subframes) in a radio frame may be used for DL transmissions and another subset of the subframes (e.g., UL subframes) in the radio frame may be used for UL transmissions.

The DL subframes and the UL subframes can be further divided into several regions. For example, each DL or UL subframe may have pre-defined regions for transmissions of reference signals, control information, and data. Reference signals are predetermined signals that facilitate the communications between the BSs 105 and the UEs 115. For example, a reference signal can have a particular pilot pattern or structure, where pilot tones may span across an operational BW or frequency band, each positioned at a pre-defined time and a pre-defined frequency. For example, a BS 105 may transmit cell specific reference signals (CRSs) and/or channel state information –reference signals (CSI-RSs) to enable a UE 115 to estimate a DL channel. Similarly, a UE 115 may transmit sounding reference signals (SRSs) to enable a BS 105 to estimate an UL channel. Control information may include resource assignments and protocol controls. Data may include protocol data and/or operational data. In some aspects, the BSs 105 and the UEs 115 may communicate using self-contained subframes. A self-contained subframe may include a portion for DL communication and a portion for UL communication. A self-contained subframe can be DL-centric or UL-centric. A DL-centric subframe may include a longer duration for DL communication than for UL communication. AN UL-centric subframe may include a longer duration for UL communication than for UL communication.

In some aspects, the network 100 may be an NR network deployed over a licensed spectrum. The BSs 105 can transmit synchronization signals (e.g., including a primary synchronization signal (PSS) and a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) ) in the network 100 to facilitate synchronization. The BSs 105 can broadcast system information associated with the network 100 (e.g., including a master information block (MIB) , remaining system information (RMSI) , and other system information (OSI) ) to facilitate initial network access. In some instances, the BSs 105 may broadcast the PSS, the SSS, and/or the MIB in the form of synchronization signal block (SSBs) over a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) and may broadcast the RMSI and/or the OSI over a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) .

In some aspects, a UE 115 attempting to access the network 100 may perform an initial cell search by detecting a PSS from a BS 105. The PSS may enable synchronization of period timing and may indicate a physical layer identity value. The UE 115 may then receive a SSS. The SSS may enable radio frame synchronization, and may provide a cell identity value, which may be combined with the physical layer identity value to identify the cell. The PSS and the SSS may be located in a central portion of a carrier or any suitable frequencies within the carrier.

After receiving the PSS and SSS, the UE 115 may receive a MIB. The MIB may include system information for initial network access and scheduling information for RMSI and/or OSI. After decoding the MIB, the UE 115 may receive RMSI and/or OSI. The RMSI and/or OSI may include radio resource control (RRC) information related to random access channel (RACH) procedures, paging, control resource set (CORESET) for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring, physical UL control channel (PUCCH) , physical UL shared channel (PUSCH) , power control, and SRS.

After obtaining the MIB, the RMSI and/or the OSI, the UE 115 can perform a random access procedure to establish a connection with the BS 105. In some examples, the random access procedure may be a four-step random access procedure. For example, the UE 115 may transmit a random access preamble and the BS 105 may respond with a random access response. The random access response (RAR) may include a detected random access preamble identifier (ID) corresponding to the random access preamble, timing advance (TA) information, an UL grant, a temporary cell-radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) , and/or a backoff indicator. Upon receiving the random access response, the UE 115 may transmit a connection request to the BS 105 and the BS 105 may respond with a connection response. The connection response may indicate a contention resolution. In some examples, the random access preamble, the RAR, the connection request, and the connection response can be referred to as message 1 (MSG1) , message 2 (MSG2) , message 3 (MSG3) , and message 4 (MSG4) , respectively. In some examples, the random access procedure may be a two-step random access procedure, where the UE 115 may transmit a random access preamble and a connection request in a single transmission and the BS 105 may respond by transmitting a random access response and a connection response in a single transmission.

After establishing a connection, the UE 115 and the BS 105 can enter a normal operation stage, where operational data may be exchanged. For example, the BS 105 may schedule the UE 115 for UL and/or DL communications. The BS 105 may transmit UL and/or DL scheduling grants to the UE 115 via a PDCCH. The scheduling grants may be transmitted in the form of DL control information (DCI) . The BS 105 may transmit a DL communication signal (e.g., carrying data) to the UE 115 via a PDSCH according to a DL scheduling grant. The UE 115 may transmit an UL communication signal to the BS 105 via a PUSCH and/or PUCCH according to an UL scheduling grant.

In some aspects, the BS 105 may communicate with a UE 115 using HARQ techniques to improve communication reliability, for example, to provide a URLLC service. The BS 105 may schedule a UE 115 for a PDSCH communication by transmitting a DL grant in a PDCCH. The BS 105 may transmit a DL data packet to the UE 115 according to the schedule in the PDSCH. The DL data packet may be transmitted in the form of a transport block (TB) . If the UE 115 receives the DL data packet successfully, the UE 115 may transmit a HARQ ACK to the BS 105. Conversely, if the UE 115 fails to receive the DL transmission successfully, the UE 115 may transmit a HARQ NACK to the BS 105. Upon receiving a HARQ NACK from the UE 115, the BS 105 may retransmit the DL data packet to the UE 115. The retransmission may include the same coded version of DL data as the initial transmission. Alternatively, the retransmission may include a different coded version of the DL data than the initial transmission. The UE 115 may apply soft-combining to combine the encoded data received from the initial transmission and the retransmission for decoding. The BS 105 and the UE 115 may also apply HARQ for UL communications using substantially similar mechanisms as the DL HARQ.

In some aspects, the network 100 may operate over a system BW or a component carrier (CC) BW. The network 100 may partition the system BW into multiple BWPs (e.g., portions) . A BS 105 may dynamically assign a UE 115 to operate over a certain BWP (e.g., a certain portion of the system BW) . The assigned BWP may be referred to as the active BWP. The UE 115 may monitor the active BWP for signaling information from the BS 105. The BS 105 may schedule the UE 115 for UL or DL communications in the active BWP. In some aspects, a BS 105 may assign a pair of BWPs within the CC to a UE 115 for UL and DL communications. For example, the BWP pair may include one BWP for UL communications and one BWP for DL communications.

In some aspects, the network 100 may operate over a shared channel, which may include shared frequency bands and/or unlicensed frequency bands. For example, the network 100 may be an NR-U network operating over an unlicensed frequency band. In such an aspect, the BSs 105 and the UEs 115 may be operated by multiple network operating entities. To avoid collisions, the BSs 105 and the UEs 115 may employ a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure to monitor for transmission opportunities (TXOPs) in the shared channel. A TXOP may also be referred to as channel occupancy time (COT) . For example, a transmitting node (e.g., a BS 105 or a UE 115) may perform an LBT prior to transmitting in the channel. When the LBT passes, the transmitting node may proceed with the transmission. When the LBT fails, the transmitting node may refrain from transmitting in the channel.

An LBT can be based on energy detection (ED) or signal detection. For an energy detection-based LBT, the LBT results in a pass when signal energy measured from the channel is below a threshold. Conversely, the LBT results in a failure when signal energy measured from the channel exceeds the threshold. An LBT may include one, two, or more clear channel assessments (CCAs) performed during successive time periods. For a signal detection-based LBT, the LBT results in a pass when a channel reservation signal (e.g., a predetermined preamble signal) is not detected in the channel. Additionally, an LBT may be in a variety of modes. An LBT mode may be, for example, a category 4 (CAT4) LBT, a category 2 (CAT2) LBT, or a category 1 (CAT1) LBT. A CAT1 LBT is referred to a no LBT mode, where no LBT is to be performed prior to a transmission. A CAT2 LBT refers to an LBT without a random back-off period. For instance, a transmitting node may determine a channel measurement in a time interval and determine whether the channel is available or not based on a comparison of the channel measurement against a ED threshold. A CAT4 LBT refers to an LBT with a random back-off and a variable contention window (CW) . For instance, a transmitting node may draw a random number and back-off for a duration based on the drawn random number in a certain time unit.

In mmWave, wireless nodes (e.g., BSs 105, UEs 115) may use directional beamforming to focus signal energy in each of a plurality of beam directions. Accordingly, the probability of collisions may be relatively lower than non-directional wireless communication, such as wireless communications in the sub-7GHz bands. Further, LBT procedures may not focus received signal energy directionally, and thus the probability of detecting interference in the mmWave over a given threshold is further reduced. Although directional (beam-based) LBT may be used to monitor for traffic and interference on a shared frequency band in a plurality of beam directions, the overhead of these LBT procedures may be excessive in comparison to the low occurrence of collisions between networks operating in mmWave bands. However, it is still possible for collisions in directional mmWave frequency bands between networks. Thus, it may still be desirable to provide a mechanism which avoids interference collisions between wireless networks with less overhead than some directional LBT mechanisms.

FIG. 2 illustrates a directional wireless communication scenario 200 including a first wireless network 200a and a second wireless network 200b, according to aspects of the present disclosure. The first wireless network 200a and second wireless network 200b may be similar or identical to the wireless network 100 shown in FIG. 1. For example, the wireless network 200a includes a BS 205 a, a first UE 215a, and a second UE 215b. The second wireless network 200b includes a second BS 205b, a third UE 215c, and a fourth UE 215d. In some aspects, the first wireless network 200a may be a higher priority network compared to the second wireless network 200b. The scenario 200 illustrates a wireless communication collision occurring when a wireless node in one network (e.g., UE 215b) is within range of two or more BSs 205 belonging to other wireless networks (200b) .

In FIG. 2, the first BS 205a is emitting a first signal 202 in a first beam direction towards the second UE 215b and the second BS 205b is emitting a second signal 204 in a second beam direction toward the third UE 215c. The first signal 202 may carry first data destined for the first UE 215b and the second signal 204 may carry second data destined for third UE 215c Because the second UE 215b and the third UE 215c are approximately in the direction and range of the first signal 202 and the second signal 204, the

UEs

215b and 215c may experience interference where first and second data may collide. The collisions may result in failed communication attempts, thereby degrading performance and efficiency. The scenario 200 may be more likely in directional wireless communication schemes in which beamforming is used to generate focused wireless signals having relatively narrow beam widths. For example, in 5G NR, beamforming may be used in the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum to compensate for signal loss attenuation in the air. Further, a network operating in the mmWave spectrum may include several wireless nodes or BSs with in a relatively close proximity. Accordingly, the wireless communication devices within a 5G NR network may experience interference as shown in FIG. 2. In the scenario 200, the first wireless network 200a has a higher priority than the second network 200b. Accordingly, it may be desirable to provide a mechanism for resolving or preventing collisions in shared frequency bands such that the higher priority networks can continue operating and the lower priority networks yield to the higher priority networks. In some aspects, the priority levels may be negotiated or agreed between operating entities of the networks sharing a shared frequency band. The present disclosure describes systems, devices, methods, and mechanisms to reduce collisions between high-and low-priority networks using directional (e.g., beam-based) active signaling and detection.

FIG. 3 is a signaling diagram illustrating a directional active channel occupancy signaling scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure. The scheme 300 may be performed by wireless networks, such as the

networks

100, 200a, and 200b, sharing a radio frequency band (e.g., a mmWave band) for communications. In this regard the scheme 300 is carried out by a high-priority BS 303a, a low-priority BS 303b, and a low-priority UE 313. The BSs 305a, 305b may include any of the BSs 105 shown in FIG. 1. In some aspects, the high-priority BS 303a and/or the low-priority BS 303b may utilize one or more components of the BS 1000, such as the processor 1002, the memory 1004, the channel occupancy module 1008, the transceiver 1010, the modem 1012, and the one or more antennas 1016, to execute the steps of the method 300. The UE 313 may include any of the UEs 115 shown in FIG. 1. The UE 313 may utilize one or more components of the UE 900, such as the processor 902, the memory 904, the channel occupancy module 908, the transceiver 910, the modem 912, and the one or more antennas 916, to execute the steps of the method 300. In some aspects, the high-priority BS 303a may be operated by a governmental agency, or may have other aspects or features associated with a higher wireless communication priority. For example, the high-priority BS 303a may provide communication for devices specifying high reliability and/or low-latency. The high-priority BS 303a and the low-priority BS 303b may be associated with different networks, such as the high-priority network 200a and the low-priority network 200b shown in FIG. 2. The low-priority BS 303b and the high-priority BS 303a may be positioned such that the low-priority BS 303b is at least partially within range of wireless signals from the high-priority BS 303a, and vice versa.

In action 305, the high-priority BS 303a monitors for interference in the shared radio frequency band. In one aspect, the high-priority BS 303a monitors for interference in a plurality of beam directions using beamforming. The beamforming may include selectively controlling individual antenna elements or groups of antenna elements of an antenna array, and adjusting the gain and phase of the received signals to focus on particular receive beam directions. The interference may come from other BSs such as the low-priority BS 303b or other wireless nodes within range of the high-priority BS 303a, such as the low-priority UE 313.

In action 310, based on the monitoring of action 305, the high-priority BS 303a determines the beam directions associated with the interference. In this regard, the high-priority BS 303a may determine the relative intensity of interference in each of the plurality of beam directions. For example, the high-priority BS 303a may create and maintain a list of interference for each beam direction and determine a beam sweeping pattern for channel occupancy signal transmission, as will be discussed more fully below. In some other aspects, action 305 can be optional, and the high-priority BS 303a may determine the beam directions based on a set of preconfigured beam directions.

In action 315, the low-priority BS 303b monitors for a channel occupancy signal in the shared radio frequency band during a sensing window. The low-priority BS 303b may be preconfigured with the parameters for the monitoring, such as the specific time and frequency resources associated with the sensing window. The monitoring may include obtaining signal measurements during the sensing window, comparing the signal measurements to a threshold, and/or cross-correlating the signal measurements to a known waveform or sequence in order to detect the channel occupancy signal. The monitoring may be periodic such that the low-priority BS 303b monitors for the channel occupancy signal at predetermined time intervals and for predetermined durations. Monitoring for the channel occupancy signal may include refraining from transmitting and or receiving during the sensing window. The low-priority BS 303b may presume that any transmission detected during the sensing window is coming from the high-priority BS 303a.

The low-priority BS 303b may use beamforming to monitor for the channel occupancy signal in each of a plurality of beam directions. The beamforming may include selectively activating individual antenna elements and groups of antenna elements of an antenna array (e.g., MIMO) , and adjusting the gain and phase of the signals provided by each antenna element to focus on each of a plurality of receive beam directions. The monitoring may be performed according to a beam pattern, such as a beam sweeping pattern in which the low-priority BS 303b uses beamforming to sweep across a plurality of receive beam directions. The low-priority BS 303b may monitor for the channel occupancy signal in a plurality of sensing windows separated by a channel occupancy sensing period or interval. In some aspects, the interval between individual sensing windows may be relatively large. For example, the period between sensing windows may be several seconds or several minutes, including values such as thirty seconds, forty-five seconds, one minute, two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes, sixty minutes, and any other suitable value, both greater and smaller. The low-priority BS 303b may be configured to monitor in each beam direction of the plurality of beam directions one or more times. For example, the low-priority BS 303b may sweep through each of the plurality of beam directions two, three, four, five, or more times.

In action 320, the high-priority BS 303a determines a channel occupancy signal pattern. In some aspects, the channel occupancy signal pattern may be based on the beam directions of the interference determined in action 310. The signal pattern may also be referred to as a beam sweep pattern. For example, as will be further explained below, the channel occupancy signal pattern may comprise a greater number of beams in the directions associated with a greater amount of interference. In other aspects, the channel occupancy signal pattern may include a beam sweep in which the directionality of the channel occupancy signal is swept across the spatial plane of the high-priority BS 303a.

In action 325, the high-priority BS 303a transmits the channel occupancy signal according to the channel occupancy signal pattern (beam sweep pattern) determined in action 320. Transmitting the channel occupancy signal may include using beamforming to focus the signal energy in each of a plurality of transmit beam directions such that the signal is associated with a beam having a beam width. For the purposes of the present disclosure, using beamforming to transmit signals in a focused direction or beam may be referred to as transmitting “abeam, ” where the beam is a spatially-focused signal associated with a beam direction and a beam width. Similarly, using beamforming to receive signals from specific beam directions may be referred to as receiving “abeam. ” In some aspects, the channel occupancy signal may be a waveform signal. The waveform signal can include a predetermined waveform sequence known to wireless communication devices (e.g., the high-priority BS 303a and the low-priority 303b) sharing the frequency band.

As similarly described above with respect action 315, the beamforming may include activating individual antenna elements, and adjusting the gain and phase of the signals emitted by the antenna elements such that the signal energy is focused in a particular direction. In the scheme 300 shown in FIG. 3, the channel occupancy signal is transmitted at least to the low-priority BS 303b. The channel occupancy signal may include a simple energy transmission, or may include a preconfigured or predetermined waveform or sequence. For example, in some aspects, the high-priority BS 303a and the low-priority BS 303b may be configured with a same waveform, sequence, or pattern for transmitting and detecting the channel occupancy signal.

In some aspects, action 325 is based on the high-priority BS 303a determining that there is no data traffic scheduled for the sensing window. For example, if the high-priority BS 303a determines that there is DL data scheduled during the sensing window and in the frequency band, the high-priority BS 303a may refrain from transmitting the channel occupancy signal during the sensing window. In this regard, if the high-priority BS 303a determines that data traffic is already scheduled for the sensing window, the high-priority BS 303a may proceed with transmitting the data. The low-priority BS may detect the data transmission, instead of a channel occupancy signal, from the high-priority BS during the sensing window, and back-off the shared frequency band. On the other hand, if there is no data traffic scheduled during the sensing window, the high-priority BS 303a may send a channel occupancy signal during the sensing window to assist the low-priority BS to 303b in detecting an occupied channel so that the low-priority BS 303b can back-off the shared frequency band more quickly.

In action 330, the low-priority BS 303b detects the channel occupancy signal. Detecting the channel occupancy signal may include performing signal measurements and/or signal detection (cross-correlation) during the sensing window, comparing the signal measurements to a threshold, and/or comparing a cross-correlation value to a signal detection threshold. In some aspects, the detection of the channel occupancy signal is based on the measured energy alone. For example, the low-priority BS 303b may compare the measured energy to a signal threshold. If the measured energy exceeds the threshold, the low-priority BS 303b determines that the channel occupancy signal has been detected. In other aspects, the low-priority BS 303b may perform a cross-correlation of a signal received in the sensing window and a known waveform, sequence, or pattern. If the cross-correlation value exceeds the threshold, the low-priority BS 303b determines that the channel occupancy signal has been detected. In some instances, the low-priority BS 303b may use a lower threshold for signal detection than would be used when determining the channel occupancy signal based solely on measured energy.

In action 335, based on detecting the channel occupancy signal, the low-priority BS 303b backs off of the radio frequency band associated with the sensing window for a predetermined amount of time. Backing off of the shared band may include refraining from communicating (transmitting or receiving) on the shared radio frequency band. As explained below, in some aspects, the low-priority BS 303b may back off an entire bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band associated with the sensing window, or may back off of specific subbands of the shared radio frequency band. In this regard, the channel occupancy signal may span only a portion of the frequency band during the sensing window. For example, the shared radio frequency band may have a bandwidth of about 80 MHz partitioned into about four 20 MHz subbands, and a channel occupancy signal may be in a particular 20 MHz subband. In the mmWave spectrum, the shared radio frequency band may have a bandwidth of about 2 GHz partitioned into about five 400 MHz subbands, and a channel occupancy signal may be in a particular 400 MHz subband. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the low-priority BS 303b may back off of those subbands in which the channel occupancy signal is detected. In other embodiments, the low-priority BS 303b determines whether to back off of the entire shared radio frequency band by comparing the total detected energy in the sensing window, or the number of beams or instances of the channel occupancy signal to a threshold. Backing off of the shared radio frequency band may include refraining from communicating on the shared radio frequency band, including transmitting and or receiving on the shared radio frequency band.

In action 340, the low-priority BS 303b and the low priority UE 313 communicate on a second radio frequency band different from the shared radio frequency band. In this regard, the BS 303b may assume that the active channel occupancy signaling caused any lower priority devices to back off of the shared frequency band. Thus, in some aspects, the high-priority BS 303a may proceed or continue to communicate in the shared frequency band in which the low-priority BS 303b was monitoring, and in which the channel occupancy signal was transmitted in Action 325. It will be understood that, although the description of the method 300 refers to monitoring, transmitting, and backing off of a shared frequency band, the low-priority BS 303b may monitor and back off of a subband of a shared frequency band.

Referring generally to the scheme 300 shown in FIG. 3, the high-priority BS 303a and/or the high-priority network associated with the high-priority BS 303a may assume that there are one or more out-of-network wireless communication devices within range of the devices of the high-priority network, and those out-of-network devices may be attempting to use time and frequency resources (e.g. mmWave) on which the high-priority BS 303a is operating. Further, it may be difficult for the low-priority devices such as the low-priority BS 303b and the low-priority UE 313 to detect traffic or interference on a given channel. Accordingly, the high-priority BS 303a can assist the low-priority BS 303b and the low-priority UE 115 by actively transmitting channel occupancy signals during a sensing window to indicate that the shared channel is occupied. In particular, the high-priority BS 303a transmits the channel occupancy signals when there is no data scheduled during the sensing windows. This is different from LBT where a transmitting node may perform an LBT and transmit an occupancy signal when there is data for transmissions. In some aspects, if the high-priority BS 303a determines that there is data traffic scheduled during the sensing window, the data traffic may serve the same or a similar purpose as the channel occupancy signal to indicate to the low-priority BS 303B and/or the low-priority UE 313 that the channel is occupied. The active signaling provided by the high-priority BS 303a may be configured to increase the chances that the low-priority BS 303b detects the channel occupancy signal, and subsequently back off of the channel to reduce or avoid the occurrence of collisions. Accordingly, the higher priority network retains access to the frequency resources with a reduced chance of collision from devices on the lower priority network.

In some aspects, the method 300 may be referred to as a beam-specific or directional DFS scheme. In a DFS scheme, a wireless node monitors for interference on a shared frequency band, and selects a different frequency band in response to detecting interference. The wireless node may maintain and update a non-occupancy list (NOL) which indicates the shared frequency bands and or subbands that are occupied. The wireless node may avoid using occupied channels for significant amount of time, such as several seconds, or several minutes. For example, in some aspects, a wireless node using DFS may avoid using an occupied channel for at least thirty minutes after detecting interference. DFS may be used in wireless local area networks (WLANs) to detect the presence of an incumbent wireless node, which may include radar equipment. In this regard, the incumbent wireless node may have priority access to the shared frequency band. Accordingly, the wireless node (e.g., Wi-Fi router) may monitor for radar signals on a shared frequency band/subband for a period of time before commencing communications on the shared frequency band/subband. The wireless node may, upon commencing communications in the shared frequency band, continuously scan for radar signal patterns.

A DFS scheme may be periodic, and may be performed according to various parameters. For example, the DFS scheme may include a non-occupancy period, which is the time period during which the wireless node will avoid using shared frequency band after interference or an incumbent wireless signal is detected. The DFS scheme may also include a channel availability check parameter, which indicates that a channel will be monitored to determine if an incumbent wireless signal above a signal threshold is detected. Further, the DFS scheme may include a channel availability check time parameter, which is the period of time during which a channel availability check is performed. The DFS scheme may further include a channel move time, which is the period of time to cease all transmissions on the current channel upon detection of an incumbent wireless signal above a signal threshold.

Although FIG. 3 is described in the context of a low-priority BS 303b performing beam monitoring, beam selection, and back-off in a single shared frequency band or channel, it should be understood that in other examples, the low-priority BS 303b may utilize the method 300 in one frequency channel and may switch to another frequency channel and apply the method 300 to the other channel.

FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating a channel occupancy monitoring scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure. The scheme 400 may be employed by BSs such as the BSs 105 and UEs such as the UEs 115 in a network such as the network 100 for communications. In particular, the BS may communicate with the UE using time-frequency resources configured as shown in the scheme 400. In FIG. 4, the x-axis represent time in some arbitrary units and the y-axis represent frequency in some arbitrary units. The scheme 400 shows communications transmitted and received by a low-priority system, such as the low-priority BS 303b. The scheme 400 is performed during a time window 402, in which a low-priority system transmits or receives DL data in block 404, and performs channel occupancy sensing during a sensing window 410. The low- priority system may be performing channel occupancy sensing during sensing window 410 as described above with respect to action 315 in the method 300 shown in FIG. 3.

Referring to FIG. 4, the low-priority system monitors during the sensing window 410 and across a frequency band 408. In some aspects, the frequency band 408 may include a shared radio frequency band, such as a mmWave shared frequency band. The frequency band 408 includes

subbands

422 and 424. During the sensing window 410, the low-priority system detects a first channel occupancy signal 420a and a second channel occupancy signal 420b from a high-priority network (e.g., transmitted by a high-priority BS 303a) . The first channel occupancy signal 420a is detected in the first subband 422 and the second channel occupancy signal 420b is detected in the second subband 424. The

channel occupancy signals

420a and 420b are transmitted across time periods 412. In some aspects, the time periods 412 may represent individual symbols, or individual slots. For example, each

channel occupancy signal

420a, 420b may occupy a plurality of symbols within a single slot. In other aspects, each

channel occupancy signal

420a, 420b may occupy a plurality of slots. In one aspect, each

channel occupancy signal

420a, 420b occupies a single slot. In some aspects, the duration of the

channel occupancy signals

420a and 420b may be associated with a time duration the low-priority system allocates for sensing in each of a plurality of beam directions. In other aspects, the duration of each

channel occupancy signal

420a, 420b is based on the channel occupancy signal configuration of the high-priority system. In some aspects, the low-priority system may be otherwise silent during the sensing window 410, such that the low-priority system refrains or ceases from transmitting data and/or monitoring for data.

In addition to being associated with different subbands, the

channel occupancy signals

420a and 420b are associated with different beam beams 411 having different beam directions. In this regard, the low-priority system (such as the low-priority system 305b shown in FIG. 3) receives the channel occupancy signals 420 in a plurality of beams associated with different beam directions, including receive

beam direction

414 and 416. The first channel occupancy signal 420a is received in a second beam 411b having a beam direction 416. The second channel occupancy signal 420b is received in a third beam 413c having a beam direction 414. The

channel occupancy signals

420a and 420b may be transmitted according to a beam pattern determined by the high-priority system. The beam pattern may be a beam sweeping pattern, a periodic pattern, a repetitive pattern, an asymmetrical pattern, or any other suitable beam pattern. In other aspects, the beam pattern may be based on interference monitoring performed by the high-priority system, as explained with respect to action 305 in FIG. 3.

The

channel occupancy signals

420a and 420b may be transmitted by a high-priority system when the high-priority system determines that no data traffic is scheduled during the sensing window 410. This active channel occupancy signaling performed by the high-priority system may assist the low-priority system to identify or detect an occupied frequency band and back off from the occupied frequency band. As explained above, if the high-priority system determines that data traffic is scheduled during the sensing window, the high-priority system may not perform the active channel occupancy signaling during the sensing window 410.

FIGS. 5A-5D illustrate various transmit beam patterns 500a-500d in various channel occupancy signaling schemes according to some aspects of the present disclosure. The beam patterns 500 may be used by a wireless communication device 505 such as a BS. The BS 505 may be one of the BSs 105 of the network 100. In some aspects, the BS 505 may be part of a high-priority system communicating in a shared radio frequency band, such as a mmWave radio frequency band. The BS 505 may transmit channel occupancy signals on the shared frequency band using beamforming to focus the channel occupancy signals in each of a plurality of beam directions. The beam patterns 500 may be configured by the high-priority network. In some aspects, the beam patterns 500 are determined based on interference measurements obtained by the BS 505.

Referring to FIG. 5A, the BS 505 transmits a plurality of channel occupancy signals in a plurality of bursts 511, 513, 515. In the beam pattern 500a shown in FIG. 5A, each burst includes four beams (e.g. 511a, 511b, 511c, and 511d) . The pattern 500a is a periodic beam sweeping pattern in which the BS 505 transmits the channel occupancy signal beams in an incremental fashion, sweeping across the spatial range of the BS 505. The beam pattern 500a periodically repeats with each burst 511, 513, 515. The beam pattern 500a may repeat for N beams (e.g., 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 15, 20, etc. ) during a sensing window. The beam sweeping pattern 500a may increase the chances that any lower priority network devices within a range of the base station detect a channel occupancy signal during a sensing window, and subsequently back off of the shared frequency band to reduce or avoid collisions.

FIG. 5B shows an incremental, repeating beam pattern 500b, in which the BS 505 transmits a plurality of channel occupancy signals multiple times in a given beam direction in each burst 511, 513, 515. In this regard, the

beams

511a, 511b, 511c, and 511d of the first burst 511 are transmitted in a same beam direction. Similarly, the

beams

513a, 513b, 513c, 513d of the second burst are transmitted in a second beam direction, and the

beams

515a, 515b, 515c, 515d of the third burst are transmitted in a third beam direction. In other words, the BS 505 transmits a channel occupancy signal with repetitions (multiple instances) successively in each beam direction before switching to another beam direction.

FIG. 5C shows an asymmetrical periodic beam sweeping pattern 500c in which the channel occupancy signals are transmitted more frequently in some beam directions than in others. For example, a first beam 511a and a second beam 511b are transmitted in a same beam direction, while the third 511c and fourth beam 511d are transmitted in the second and third beam directions, respectively. Thus, more beams are transmitted in the first beam direction than in the second and third beam directions. In the beam pattern 500c, no beams are transmitted in the fourth beam direction. The beam pattern 500c may be based on interference measurements performed by the high-priority system, such as the BS 505. For example, if the BS 505 detects a greater amount of interference in the first beam direction associated with

beams

511a and 511b, the BS 505 may dedicate more time and frequency resources for active channel occupancy signaling in the first beam direction than in the second, third, and fourth beam directions.

Figure 5D shows a beam-specific periodic beam pattern 500d including a plurality of beam bursts 502, 504, 506, and 508. In the beam pattern 500d, each beam direction may be associated with a different periodicity. For example, the BS 505 may transmit beams in the first beam direction (e.g., beam 511a) in each of the

bursts

502, 504, 506, and 508. By contrast, the BS 505 may transmit channel occupancy signals in the second beam direction (e.g., beam 511b) in every other burst, including

burst

502 and 506. The BS 505 may transmit channel occupancy signals in the third beam direction (e.g., beam 511c) in every third burst, including

bursts

502 and 508. The BS 505 transmits channel occupancy signals in the fourth beam direction (e.g., beam 511d) with a periodicity greater than every third burst. Accordingly, each beam direction is associated with a periodicity which may be the same or different from the periodicity of the other beam directions. In some aspects, the beam pattern 500d is determined by the BS 505 based on directional interference measurements as explained with respect to action 305 in the scheme 300.

FIGS. 6A-6D illustrate channel occupancy monitoring response schemes 600 according to aspects of the present disclosure. The schemes 600 are performed by a high-priority system including a high-priority BS 605a, and a low-priority system including a low-priority BS 605b. The high-priority BS 605a and the low-priority BS 605b may be operating, or attempting to operate, in a shared radio frequency band, such as a mmWave band. The schemes 600 are performed during a sensing window 602. The x-axis represents time in some arbitrary units. The sensing window 602 may refer to a set of time and/or frequency resources configured in each of the networks for channel occupancy monitoring and/or signaling. The high-priority BS 605a and the low-priority BS 605b may be configured to perform the channel occupancy schemes 600 according to a directional DFS scheme.

Referring to FIG. 6A, and the scheme 600a, the high-priority BS 605a transmits a channel occupancy signal 612 during the sensing window 602. The channel occupancy signal 612 may span a time period, which may be one or more symbols, or one or more slots. The channel occupancy signal 612 may occupy an entirety of the shared radio frequency band on which the low-priority BS 605b is monitoring, or may occupy only a portion or one or more subbands of the shared radio frequency band which the low-priority BS 605b is monitoring. The channel occupancy signal 612 may be transmitted by the high-priority BS 605a according to a beam pattern as described above with respect to FIGS. 5A-5D. The channel occupancy signal 612 may be referred to as a channel occupancy instance or burst, and may include a simple transmission of any signal or waveform signal having a certain signal energy to occupy the channel, or may be transmitted according to a preconfigured waveform or sequence. The low-priority BS 605b monitors for the channel occupancy signal 612 by sweeping through a plurality of receive beams 620. This regard, FIG. 6A-6D show the low-priority BS 605b sweeping through a plurality of receive beam directions 620 in a sequential, periodic pattern similar to the pattern 500a shown in FIG. 5A. However, it will be understood that the low-priority BS 605b may perform channel occupancy sensing using other receive beam patterns than what is shown in FIG. 6A-6D.

The low-priority BS 605b detects the channel occupancy signal 612 in a first receive beam 620b associated with a second beam direction, as shown in the legend. In the scheme 600a, the low-priority BS 605b (and/or the low-priority network associated with the low-priority BS 605b) is configured to back off of the shared frequency in response to detecting the single instance of the channel occupancy signal 612. Accordingly, if the channel occupancy signal 612 is detected in even a single beam direction 620, the low-priority system 605B refrains from communicating on the entire channel. In the scheme 600a, the low-priority BS 605b may compare the received energy from the received channel occupancy signal to a threshold. The threshold may be above a noise floor. Accordingly, the backing off of the shared frequency band may be based on the measured signal energy exceeding the threshold. As explained further below, in other aspects the low-priority BS 605b may refrain from communicating on only the portion of the frequency band in which the channel occupancy signal 612 was detected.

In the scheme 600b shown in FIG. 6B, the low-priority BS 605b is configured to compare the number of beam directions 620 in which the channel occupancy signals 612, 614 are detected to a threshold to determine whether to back off of the shared radio frequency band. In the example shown in FIG. 6B, the low-priority BS 605b is configured to back off of the shared frequency band when one or more channel occupancy signals 612, 614 are detected in any three beams, regardless of beam direction. In this regard, the first channel occupancy signal or first instance of the channel occupancy signal 612 is detected in the second beam direction 620b and the third beam directions 620c. The second channel occupancy signal 614 is detected in the first beam directions 620a of a second receive beam burst. Accordingly, the channel occupancy signals 612, 614 are detected by the low-priority BS 605b in a total of three beams. Upon detecting channel occupancy signals in three beam directions, the low-priority BS 605b may back off from the channel. The low-priority BS 605b may be configured to apply any suitable threshold, including one beam, two beams, four beams, five beams, ten beams, or any other suitable number, both greater or smaller. In other words, the low-priority BS may be configured to back off of a shared frequency in response to detecting K instances of a channel occupancy signal 612 across the plurality of beams directions 620, where K is an integer. The K instances of the channel occupancy signal 612 can be detected from any number (e.g., 1, 2, 3, …, K) of the plurality of beam directions.

In the scheme 600c shown in FIG. 6C, the low-priority BS 605b is configured to combine the total detected energy from channel occupancy signals 612, 614, 616 in portions of the sensing window 602. In this regard, the low-priority BS 605B is configured to combine or aggregate the total detected energy from the first channel occupancy signal 612 and the second channel occupancy signal 614 during an N-slot time window 604, and to combine or aggregate the total detected energy from the third channel occupancy signal 616 during an N-slot time window 606. If the total combined energy detected in either of the

time windows

604, 606 rises above a given threshold, the low-priority BS 605b is configured to back off of the shared radio frequency band. In other aspects, the low-priority BS 605b may be configured to back off of the shared radio frequency band only if the total combined energy in each of the

windows

604, 606 rises above the given threshold. In some aspects, the low-priority BS 605b is configured to combine the total sensed energy across the entire sensing window 602, and compare the combined energy to the given threshold.

In the scheme 600d shown in FIG. 6D, the low-priority BS 605b is configured to back off of a shared radio frequency band in response to determining that a

channel occupancy signal

612, 614, 616 has been detected in a particular beam 620a given number of times. For example, in the scheme 600d, the low-priority BS 605b is configured to back off of the shared channel, or a portion of the shared channel, in response to determining that a channel occupancy signal has been detected in any one of the beam directions at least three times. Accordingly, in the scheme 600d, the low-priority BS 605b detects channel occupancy signals 612, 614, 616 in the first beam 620a associated with a first beam direction a total of three times during the sensing window 602. Accordingly, the low-priority BS 605b may determine to back off of the shared frequency channel, or a portion of the shared frequency channel. In some aspects, the determination by the low-priority BS 605b may be on a beam-per-beam basis, such that the low-priority BS 605b will refrain from communicating in the shared frequency band only in those beam directions for which the number of detected channel occupancy signals exceeds the threshold. Accordingly, in the scheme 600d the low-priority BS 605b may continue to communicate in the shared frequency band in the beam directions associated with the second beam 620b, the third beam 620c, and the fourth beam 620d. In other words, the low-priority BS may be configured to back off of a shared frequency in a particular beam direction in response to detecting K instances of a channel occupancy signal 612 in the particular beam direction, where K is an integer. In other aspects, the low-priority BS 605b may refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any of the beams 620.

As explained above, a channel occupancy signal may occupy only a portion of the shared radio frequency band which a low-priority BS is monitoring. For example, a channel occupancy signal may be transmitted in one or more subbands of the shared radio frequency band. In this regard, FIGS. 7A-7D illustrate channel occupancy monitoring response schemes 700 according to various aspects of the present disclosure. The x-axis represents frequency in some arbitrary units. The schemes 700 are performed by a low-priority BS 705b and a high-priority BS 705a associated with different networks. The low-priority BS 705b and the high-priority BS 705a may be any of the BSs 105 of the network 100.

In the scheme 700a shown in FIG. 7A, the low-priority BS 705b is configured to monitor for a channel occupancy signal across the shared radio frequency band 710. The shared radio frequency band 710 comprises a bandwidth and extends across multiple subbands. In some aspects, the bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band 710 may correspond to a system bandwidth, and the subbands may correspond to bandwidth-parts. The high-priority BS 705a is configured to transmit a channel occupancy signal 712 (shown by the diagonal-tripe-patterned box representing a channel occupancy signal (COS) burst) in one subband of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band 710. In the scheme 700a, the low-priority BS 705b is configured to perform a wideband measurement in the shared radio frequency band 710 and back off of the of the entire shared frequency band 720 when the wideband measurement exceeds or satisfies a threshold. In this regard, the low-priority BS 705b may determine a signal energy measurement across the shared radio frequency band 710. The signal energy measurement may include the signal energy of the channel occupancy signal 712. Accordingly, if the low-priority BS 705b determines that the signal energy measurement in the shared radio frequency band 710 exceeds or satisfies the threshold, the low-priority BS 705b refrains from communicating on the entire frequency band 710 for a predetermined amount of time (shown by the criss-cross-patterned box) . In other words, while the channel occupancy signal 712 may be in a portion (one or two subbands) of the shared radio frequency band 710, the low-priority BS 705b refrains from communicating on the entire frequency band 710.

In the scheme 700b shown in FIG. 7B, the low-priority BS 705b is configured to make a device-specific determination based on a number of subbands in which a channel occupancy signal 714 is detected. In this regard the channel occupancy signal 714 is transmitted and detected in a single subband of the shared radio frequency band 710. In this example, the low-priority BS 705b may perform monitoring or signal energy measurement per subband, determine whether the per-subband signal energy measurement for each subband exceeds or satisfies a threshold (representing the presence of a channel occupancy signal) , compare the number of subbands in which the channel occupancy signal (s) is detected to a threshold number of subbands, such as two. Accordingly, because the low-priority BS 705b detects the channel occupancy signal 714 in only one subband, the low-priority BS 705b may proceed to communicate in the shared radio frequency band 710. It will be understood that the low-priority BS 705B may use any suitable threshold for determining whether to back off of the frequency band 710, including one, two, three, four, five, or any other suitable number of subbands.

In the scheme 700c shown in FIG. 7C, the low-priority BS 705b makes a subband-per-subband determination for backing off of a shared frequency band 710. In this regard, the high-priority BS 705a transmits a first channel occupancy signal 716 in a first subband, and a second channel occupancy signal 718 in a second subband of the shared frequency band 710. The low-priority BS 705b detects the channel occupancy signals 716 and 718 in the

subbands

722 and 724. Thus, the low-priority BS 705b backs off of the first and

second subband

722, 724, but proceeds to communicate in the other portions or subbands of the shared frequency band 710.

In the scheme 700d shown in FIG. 7D, the high-priority BS 705a may transmit a channel occupancy signal in a second shared frequency band 715 that is not part of the shared frequency band 710. In other words, the high-priority BS 705a utilizes an out-of-band channel occupancy signal transmission to indicate an active usage or occupancy of the shared frequency band 710. As shown, at time T1, the high-priority BS 705a transmits the channel occupancy signal simultaneously with data transmitted (by the BS 705b and shown by the horizontal-strip-patterned box) in the shared radio frequency band 710. Accordingly, the low-priority BS 705b may detect the channel occupancy signal in the second frequency band 715 and determine to refrain from communicating further on the shared radio frequency band 710 at time T2 based on the channel occupancy signal received in the second frequency band 715. In some aspects, the high-priority BS 705a may further include active transmission information in the channel occupancy signal. For instance, the channel occupancy signal may include an indication of which of the subband (s) within the frequency band 710 is to be occupied by the high-priority 705a and the low-priority 705b may back off of the indicated subband (s) and continue to utilize other subband (s) .

In some aspects, depending on the geographical locations of high-priority devices and the locations of low-priority devices, a low-priority device (e.g., a

BS

303b, 605b, 705b) may be further away from a high-priority BS than a high-priority UE, the low-priority BS may not be able to detect a channel occupancy signal transmitted by the high-priority BS. Accordingly, the present disclosure describes mechanisms for UE-assisted active channel occupancy signaling in which one or more UEs in the high-priority network are configured to transmit channel occupancy signals to increase the chances that the low-priority network devices detect the signals during a sensing window.

FIG. 8 is a signaling diagram of a UE-assisted channel occupancy signaling scheme 800. The scheme 800 is performed by a high-priority BS 803a, a low-priority BS 803b, and high-priority UEs 813 sharing a shared frequency band (e.g., a mmWave band) for communications. The low-priority BS 803b and the high-priority BS 803a may be BSs 105 in the network 100. The high-priority UEs 813 may be the UEs 115 of the network 100. In some aspects, the high-priority BS 803a and/or the low-priority BS 803b may utilize one or more components of the BS 1000, such as the processor 1002, the memory 1004, the channel occupancy module 1008, the transceiver 1010, the modem 1012, and the one or more antennas 1016, to execute the steps of the method 800. The UEs 813 may include any of the UEs 115 shown in FIG. 1. The UEs 813 may utilize one or more components of the UE 900, such as the processor 902, the memory 904, the channel occupancy module 908, the transceiver 910, the modem 912, and the one or more antennas 916, to execute the steps of the method 800.

In action 805, the high-priority BS 803a transmits a channel occupancy signaling configuration to the high-priority UEs 813. The channel occupancy signaling configuration may indicate the time and frequency resources of a sensing window used by the low-priority BS 803b. The channel occupancy signaling configuration may also indicate a beam pattern or other signaling pattern, a channel occupancy signal energy, waveform, and/or sequence. The channel occupancy signaling configuration may be transmitted in an RRC message, in a system information block (SIB) , or any other suitable mechanism.

In action 810, the high-priority UEs 813 determine that time and frequency resources for the channel occupancy signal based on the channel occupancy signaling configuration received an action 805. For example, the high-priority BS 803a may determine the timing of the sensing windows used by the low-priority BS 803b based on the channel occupancy signaling configuration. In other aspects, the high-priority UEs 813 may themselves determine the timing of the sensing windows used by the low-priority BS. The sensing windows may be static or dynamic. The sensing windows may be periodic or non-periodic. Further, the high-priority UEs 813 may determine the subbands in which to transmit the channel occupancy signals. In some aspects, each of the high-priority UEs 813 determines to transmit the channel occupancy signal at a same time and in a same subband or group of subbands. In other aspects, the high-priority UEs may determine, based on the channel occupancy signaling configuration received an action 805, to transmit the channel occupancy signals at different times and/or different subbands.

In action 815 the low-priority BS 803b monitors for channel occupancy signals in the shared frequency band during the sensing window 815. Monitoring for the channel occupancy signal may include silencing or ceasing other communications on the frequency band during the sensing window. Further, monitoring for the channel occupancy signals may include performing signal measurements during the sensing window, comparing the measured energy to a threshold, comparing the measured energy to a known waveform or sequence, and/or performing a cross-correlation of the measured signal energy. The low-priority BS 803b may be configured to monitor for the channel occupancy signal across an entire bandwidth of the frequency band, or may be configured to monitor for the channel occupancy signal in each of a plurality of subbands of the frequency band. Further, the low-priority BS 803b may be configured to use beamforming to sweep or scan through a plurality of received beams to focus the received energy in specific beam directions.

In action 820, the high-priority UEs 813 transmit the channel occupancy signals in the sensing window. Action 820 may include the UEs 813 determining that there is no data traffic scheduled for the sensing window. The high-priority UEs may transmit the channel occupancy signals according to a beam pattern or sequence. Further, the high-priority UEs 813 may transmit the channel occupancy signals based on signal energy parameters, signal waveform parameters, signal sequence parameters, as defined in the channel occupancy signaling configuration received an action 805. The high-priority UEs 813 may use beamforming to transmit the channel occupancy signals in one or more of a plurality of beam directions. The high-priority UEs may transmit the channel occupancy signals in a beam sweeping pattern, a sequential repetitive pattern, or any other suitable pattern, for example, as discussed above with reference to FIGS. 5A-5D.

In action 825, the low-priority BS 803b detects the channel occupancy signals transmitted by the high-priority UEs 813. In some aspects, detecting the channel occupancy signals may comprise, or result from, the monitoring of action 815 described above. In this regard, detecting the channel occupancy signals may include performing signal measurements and/or across-correlation during the sensing window. For example, the low-priority BS 803b may perform a cross-correlation of a signal received in the sensing window and a known waveform, sequence, or pattern. If the cross-correlation value exceeds the threshold, the low-priority BS 803b determines that the channel occupancy signal has been detected In some aspects, the detection of the channel occupancy signal is based on the measured energy alone. For example, the low-priority BS 803b may compare the measured energy to a signal threshold. If the measured energy exceeds the threshold, the low-priority BS 803b determines that the channel occupancy signal has been detected. In other aspects, the low-priority BS 803b may perform a cross-correlation of a signal received in the sensing window and a known waveform, sequence, or pattern. If the cross-correlation value exceeds the threshold, the low-priority BS 803b determines that the channel occupancy signal has been detected. In some instances, the low-priority BS 803b may use a lower threshold for signal detection than would be used when determining the channel occupancy signal based solely on measured energy.

In action 830, the low-priority BS 803b determines to back off at least a portion of the frequency band based on detecting the channel occupancy signals in action 825. In this regard, as similarly described above, the low-priority BS 803b may refrain from communicating on the entire bandwidth of the shared frequency band, or in specific subbands of the frequency band. Further, the low-priority BS 803b may determine to refrain from communicating only in specific beam directions in the shared frequency band. The low-priority BS 803b may refrain from communicating in the shared frequency band (or in the portions of the shared frequency band) for a period of time. The period of time may be several milliseconds, several seconds, or several minutes. For example, the period of time in which the low-priority BS 803b refrains from communicating in the shared frequency band may be 5 ms, 10 ms, 100 ms, one second, thirty seconds, one minute, ten minutes, thirty minutes, sixty minutes, or any other suitable amount of time. In some exemplary aspects of the present disclosure, the low-priority BS 803b (and/or other devices in the low-priority network) may back off of the shared frequency band for several minutes. Accordingly, the low-priority BS 803b may also refrain from performing additional channel occupancy signal measurements for several minutes. On the other hand, if the low-priority BS 803b does not detect channel occupancy signals during the sensing window 815, the low-priority BS 803b may proceed to communicate in the shared frequency band for a significant amount of time, including several minutes before performing additional channel occupancy monitoring.

The parameters of the channel occupancy monitoring and signaling may be performed according to dynamic frequency selection (DFS) configurations and parameters. Accordingly, the channel occupancy monitoring may be referred to as DFS monitoring, and the channel occupancy signaling may be referred to as active DFS signaling. The individual parameters of the channel occupancy configurations may be indicated as DFS parameters, including DFS periodicity, and DFS offset, or any other suitable DFS parameter.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an exemplary UE 900 according to some aspects of the present disclosure. The UE 900 may be a UE 115 as discussed above in FIGS. 1 and 15. As shown, the UE 900 may include a processor 902, a memory 904, a channel occupancy module 908, a transceiver 910 including a modem subsystem 912 and a radio frequency (RF) unit 914, and one or more antennas 916. These elements may be in direct or indirect communication with each other, for example via one or more buses.

The processor 902 may include a central processing unit (CPU) , a digital signal processor (DSP) , an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) , a controller, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) device, another hardware device, a firmware device, or any combination thereof configured to perform the operations described herein. The processor 902 may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

The memory 904 may include a cache memory (e.g., a cache memory of the processor 902) , random access memory (RAM) , magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) , read-only memory (ROM) , programmable read-only memory (PROM) , erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM) , electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) , flash memory, solid state memory device, hard disk drives, other forms of volatile and non-volatile memory, or a combination of different types of memory. In an aspect, the memory 904 includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The memory 904 may store, or have recorded thereon, instructions 906. The instructions 906 may include instructions that, when executed by the processor 902, cause the processor 902 to perform the operations described herein with reference to the UE 115 in connection with aspects of the present disclosure, for example, aspects of FIGS. 5-10. Instructions 906 may also be referred to as code, which may be interpreted broadly to include any type of computer-readable statement (s) as discussed above.

The channel occupancy module 908 may be implemented via hardware, software, or combinations thereof. For example, the channel occupancy module 908 may be implemented as a processor, circuit, and/or instructions 906 stored in the memory 904 and executed by the processor 902. In some instances, the channel occupancy module 908 can be integrated within the modem subsystem 912. For example, the channel occupancy module 908 can be implemented by a combination of software components (e.g., executed by a DSP or a general processor) and hardware components (e.g., logic gates and circuitry) within the modem subsystem 912.

The channel occupancy module 908 may communicate with one or more components of UE 900 to implement various aspects of the present disclosure, for example, aspects of FIG. 8. For instance, the channel occupancy module 908 may be configured to determine that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band, and cause the transceiver 910 to transmit, during the sensing window in response to determining that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.

In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 908 is further configured to cause the transceiver 910 to transmit the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in the first frequency subband. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 908 is further configured to cause the transceiver 910 to transmit the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a different second frequency subband. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 908 is further configured to cause the transceiver 910 to transmit the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band before a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a second frequency subband.

As shown, the transceiver 910 may include the modem subsystem 912 and the RF unit 914. The transceiver 910 can be configured to communicate bi-directionally with other devices, such as the

BSs

105, 205, 303, 505, 605, 705, and 1100. The modem subsystem 912 may be configured to modulate and/or encode the data from the memory 904 and/or the channel occupancy module 908 according to a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) , e.g., a low-density parity check (LDPC) coding scheme, a turbo coding scheme, a convolutional coding scheme, a digital beamforming scheme, etc. The RF unit 914 may be configured to process (e.g., perform analog to digital conversion or digital to analog conversion, etc. ) modulated/encoded data (e.g., HARQ ACK/NACK) from the modem subsystem 912 (on outbound transmissions) or of transmissions originating from another source such as a UE 115 or a BS 105. The RF unit 914 may be further configured to perform analog beamforming in conjunction with the digital beamforming. Although shown as integrated together in transceiver 910, the modem subsystem 912 and the RF unit 914 may be separate devices that are coupled together at the UE 115 to enable the UE 115 to communicate with other devices.

The RF unit 914 may provide the modulated and/or processed data, e.g. data packets (or, more generally, data messages that may contain one or more data packets and other information) , to the antennas 916 for transmission to one or more other devices. The antennas 916 may further receive data messages transmitted from other devices. The antennas 916 may provide the received data messages for processing and/or demodulation at the transceiver 910. The transceiver 910 may provide the demodulated and decoded data (e.g., RRC configurations and SPS configurations, activations, reactivations, and releases, PDSCH data, DCI) to the channel occupancy module 908 for processing. The antennas 916 may include multiple antennas of similar or different designs in order to sustain multiple transmission links.

In an example, the transceiver 910 is configured to communicate with one or more components of the UE 900 to transmit, during the sensing window in response to determining that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.

In an aspect, the UE 900 can include multiple transceivers 910 implementing different RATs (e.g., NR and LTE) . In an aspect, the UE 900 can include a single transceiver 910 implementing multiple RATs (e.g., NR and LTE) . In an aspect, the transceiver 910 can include various components, where different combinations of components can implement different RATs.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an exemplary BS 1000 according to some aspects of the present disclosure. The BS 1000 may be a BS 105 as discussed in FIG. 1. A shown, the BS 1000 may include a processor 1002, a memory 1004, a channel occupancy module 1008, a transceiver 1010 including a modem subsystem 1012 and a RF unit 1014, and one or more antennas 1016. These elements may be in direct or indirect communication with each other, for example via one or more buses.

The processor 1002 may have various features as a specific-type processor. For example, these may include a CPU, a DSP, an ASIC, a controller, a FPGA device, another hardware device, a firmware device, or any combination thereof configured to perform the operations described herein. The processor 1002 may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

The memory 1004 may include a cache memory (e.g., a cache memory of the processor 1002) , RAM, MRAM, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, a solid state memory device, one or more hard disk drives, memristor-based arrays, other forms of volatile and non-volatile memory, or a combination of different types of memory. In some aspects, the memory 1004 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The memory 1004 may store instructions 1006. The instructions 1006 may include instructions that, when executed by the processor 1002, cause the processor 1002 to perform operations described herein, for example, aspects of FIGS. 2-6, 9, and 11. Instructions 1006 may also be referred to as program code. The program code may be for causing a wireless communication device to perform these operations, for example by causing one or more processors (such as processor 1002) to control or command the wireless communication device to do so. The terms “instructions” and “code” should be interpreted broadly to include any type of computer-readable statement (s) . For example, the terms “instructions” and “code” may refer to one or more programs, routines, sub-routines, functions, procedures, etc. “Instructions” and “code” may include a single computer-readable statement or many computer-readable statements.

The channel occupancy module 1008 may be implemented via hardware, software, or combinations thereof. For example, the channel occupancy module 1008 may be implemented as a processor, circuit, and/or instructions 1006 stored in the memory 1004 and executed by the processor 1002. In some examples, the channel occupancy module 1008 can be integrated within the modem subsystem 1012. For example, the channel occupancy module 1008 can be implemented by a combination of software components (e.g., executed by a DSP or a general processor) and hardware components (e.g., logic gates and circuitry) within the modem subsystem 1012.

The channel occupancy module 1008 may communicate with one or more components of BS 1000 to implement various aspects of the present disclosure, for example, aspects of FIGS. 3-8. For instance, the channel occupancy module 1008 may be configured to determine that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band, and cause the transceiver 1010 to transmit, during the sensing window in response to determining that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.

In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to cause the transceiver 1010 to transmit the channel occupancy signal in the plurality of beam directions based on a periodic beam sweeping pattern. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to cause the transceiver 1010 to transmit two or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions in contiguous lots. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to cause the transceiver 1010 to: transmit, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions; and to transmit, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a different second beam direction. In some aspects, a first number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the first beam direction is different from a second number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the second beam direction.

In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to cause the transceiver 1010 to: transmit, during the sensing window, a first plurality of channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a first periodicity; and to transmit, during the sensing window, a second plurality of channel occupancy signals in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a different second periodicity. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to cause the transceiver 1010 to transmit a channel occupancy signal waveform. In some aspects, the transmitting the channel occupancy signal includes transmitting a channel occupancy signal sequence.

In another aspect, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to monitor, in a plurality of beam directions during a sensing window, for a channel occupancy signal in a shared radio frequency band. The monitoring may include: detecting, during the sensing window, the channel occupancy signal from a second wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions.

In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to refrain, based on the detecting the channel occupancy signal, from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in at least the first beam direction for a period. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to measure a signal energy during the sensing window, and determine that the signal energy exceeds an energy threshold. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to detect a predetermined channel occupancy signal sequence. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to detect a predetermined channel occupancy signal waveform. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to detect, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to determine whether a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy across the plurality of beam directions exceeds a threshold, and refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions in response to determining that the number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds the threshold.

In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to detect, during the sensing window, a second channel occupancy signal in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to determine a combined signal energy of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction and the second channel occupancy signal and the second beam direction. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on the combined signal energy. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to detect, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signals in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in the first beam direction based on a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction.

In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to determine a wideband signal measurement across a bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to refrain from communicating in an entire bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band based on the wideband signal measurement. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to detect the channel occupancy signal in a first subband of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to refrain from communicating in any subband of reality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first subband of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band.

In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to detect the channel occupancy signal in one or more first subbands of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to: refrain from communicating in the one or more first subbands of the plurality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the one or more of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to communicate a communication signal in one or more second subbands of the plurality of subbands different from the one or more first subbands. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to detect the channel occupancy signal in a first portion of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to refrain from communicating in a second portion of the shared radio frequency band different from the first portion in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first portion of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the channel occupancy signal indicates an occupancy in a first subband of a plurality of subbands within the second portion of the shared radio frequency band area. In some aspects, the channel occupancy module 1008 is configured to refrain from communicating in the first subband in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal indicating the occupancy in the first subband

As shown, the transceiver 1010 may include the modem subsystem 1012 and the RF unit 1014. The transceiver 1010 can be configured to communicate bi-directionally with other devices, such as the

UEs

115, 313, 813, and/or 900 and/or another core network element. The modem subsystem 1012 may be configured to modulate and/or encode data according to a MCS, e.g., a LDPC coding scheme, a turbo coding scheme, a convolutional coding scheme, a digital beamforming scheme, etc. The RF unit 1014 may be configured to process (e.g., perform analog to digital conversion or digital to analog conversion, etc. ) modulated/encoded data (e.g., RRC configurations, SPS configurations, activations, reactivations, and releases, and PDSCH data, DCI) from the modem subsystem 1012 (on outbound transmissions) or of transmissions originating from another source such as a UE 115 and/or UE 900. The RF unit 1014 may be further configured to perform analog beamforming in conjunction with the digital beamforming. Although shown as integrated together in transceiver 1010, the modem subsystem 1012 and/or the RF unit 1014 may be separate devices that are coupled together at the BS 1000 to enable the BS 1000 to communicate with other devices.

The RF unit 1014 may provide the modulated and/or processed data, e.g. data packets (or, more generally, data messages that may contain one or more data packets and other information) , to the antennas 1016 for transmission to one or more other devices. The antennas 1016 may further receive data messages transmitted from other devices and provide the received data messages for processing and/or demodulation at the transceiver 1010. The transceiver 1010 may provide the demodulated and decoded data (e.g., HARQ ACK/NACK, etc. ) to the channel occupancy module 1008 for processing. The antennas 1016 may include multiple antennas of similar or different designs in order to sustain multiple transmission links.

In an example, the transceiver 1010 is configured to communicate with one or more components of the BS 1000 to receive signal energy associated with a channel occupancy signal from a high-priority wireless communication device. In another example, the transceiver 1010 is configured to communicate with one or more components of the BS 1000 to transmit, during the sensing window in response to determining that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.

In an aspect, the BS 1000 can include multiple transceivers 1010 implementing different RATs (e.g., NR and LTE) . In an aspect, the BS 1000 can include a single transceiver 1010 implementing multiple RATs (e.g., NR and LTE) . In an aspect, the transceiver 1010 can include various components, where different combinations of components can implement different RATs.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrating a communication method 1100 according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Aspects of the method 1100 can be executed by a computing device (e.g., a processor, processing circuit, and/or other suitable component) of a wireless communication device or other suitable means for performing the steps. For example, a wireless communication device, such as a BS 105, BS 205, BS 303, BS 505, BS 605, BS 705, BS 813, or BS 1000, may utilize one or more components, such as the processor 1002, the memory 1004, the channel occupancy module 1008, the transceiver 1010, the modem 1012, and the one or more antennas 1016, to execute the steps of method 1100. In particular, the wireless communication device may be a low-priority wireless communication device, such as a low-

priority BS

605b, 705b. The method 1100 may employ similar mechanisms as described in FIGS. 3-7D. As illustrated, the method 1100 includes a number of enumerated steps, but aspects of the method 1100 may include additional steps before, after, and in between the enumerated steps. In some aspects, one or more of the enumerated steps may be omitted or performed in a different order.

At block 1110, the wireless communication device monitors, in a plurality of beam directions during a sensing window, for a channel occupancy signal in a shared radio frequency band. The monitoring comprises: detecting, during the sensing window, the channel occupancy signal from a second wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions. In some examples, the wireless communication may be a BS associated with a low-priority. The low-priority BS may be preconfigured with the parameters for the monitoring, such as the specific time and frequency resources associated with the sensing window. The monitoring may include obtaining signal measurements during the sensing window, comparing the signal measurements to a threshold, and/or performing a cross-correlation of a signal received in the sensing window and a known waveform, sequence, or pattern. For example, if the cross-correlation value exceeds a threshold, the low-priority BS determines that the channel occupancy signal has been detected _. The monitoring may be periodic such that the wireless communication device monitors for the channel occupancy signal at predetermined time intervals and for predetermined durations. Monitoring for the channel occupancy signal may include refraining from transmitting and or receiving during the sensing window.

The wireless communication device may use beamforming to monitor for the channel occupancy signal in each of a plurality of beam directions. The beamforming may include selectively activating individual antenna elements and groups of antenna elements of an antenna array (e.g., MIMO) , and adjusting the gain and phase of the signals provided by each antenna element to focus on each of a plurality of receive beam directions. The monitoring may be performed according to a beam pattern, such as a beam sweeping pattern in which the wireless communication device uses beamforming to sweep across a plurality of receive beam directions. The wireless communication device may monitor for the channel occupancy signal in a plurality of sensing windows separated by a channel occupancy sensing period or interval. The second wireless communication device is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority. In some aspects, the wireless communication device may utilize one or more components, such as the processor 1002, the memory 1004, the channel occupancy module 1008, the transceiver 1010, the modem 1012, and the one or more antennas 1016, to perform the operations at block 1110.

At block 1120, the wireless communication device refrains, based on the detecting the channel occupancy signal, from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in at least the first beam direction for a period. In some aspects, refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band may include refraining from transmitting and/or receiving on the shared radio frequency band. The wireless communication device may back off an entire bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band associated with the sensing window, or may back off of specific subbands of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the wireless communication device determines whether to back off of the entire shared radio frequency band by comparing the total detected energy in the sensing window, or the number of beams or instances of the channel occupancy signal to a threshold.

The wireless communication device may be configured to back off communicating in the shared frequency band for all beam directions, or for one or more beam directions of a plurality of beam directions. For example, the wireless communication device may refrain from communicating in only those beam directions in which a channel occupancy signal was detected. In other aspects, the wireless communication device may compare the number of beam directions in which channel occupancy signals or signal instances were detected to a threshold. The wireless communication device may determine to back off of communicating in all of the beam directions, or in a portion of the beam directions based on the comparison, as described above with respect to FIG. 6B. In other aspects, the wireless communication device is configured to combine or aggregate the total detected energy from channel occupancy signals detected in a plurality of beam directions, and compare the combined beam energy to a threshold, as described above with respect to FIG. 6C. In some aspects, the wireless communication device may be configured to back off of a beam direction in response to detecting a channel occupancy signal in the beam direction a threshold number of times, as described above with respect to FIG. 6D. In some aspects, the wireless communication device may utilize one or more components, such as the processor 1002, the memory 1004, the channel occupancy module 1008, the transceiver 1010, the modem 1012, and the one or more antennas 1016, to perform the operations at block 1120.

In some aspects, the detecting the channel occupancy signal includes measuring a signal energy during the sensing window, and determining that the signal energy exceeds an energy threshold. In some aspects, the detecting the channel occupancy signal includes detecting a predetermined channel occupancy signal sequence. In some aspects, the detecting the channel occupancy signal includes detecting a predetermined channel occupancy signal waveform. In some aspects, the detecting the channel occupancy signal includes detecting, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction. In some aspects, the method further includes determining whether a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds a threshold, and the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band includes refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions in response to determining that the number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds the threshold.

In some aspects, the monitoring for the channel occupancy signal includes detecting, during the sensing window, a second channel occupancy signal in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions. In some aspects, the method 1100 further includes determining a combined signal energy of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction and the second channel occupancy signal and the second beam direction. In some aspects, the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band includes refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on the combined signal energy. In some aspects, the detecting the channel occupancy signal includes detecting, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signals in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction. In some aspects, the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band includes refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in the first beam direction based on a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction.

In some aspects, the monitoring for the channel occupancy signal comprises determining a wideband signal measurement across a bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band includes refraining from communicating in an entire bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band based on the wideband signal measurement. In some aspects, the detecting the channel occupancy signal includes detecting the channel occupancy signal in a first sub band of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band includes refraining from communicating in any sub band of reality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first subband of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band.

In some aspects, the detecting the channel occupancy signal includes detecting the channel occupancy signal in one or more first subbands of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band includes: refraining from communicating in the one or more first subbands of the plurality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the one or more of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the method 1100 further includes communicating a communication signal in one or more second subbands of the plurality of subbands different from the one or more first subbands. In some aspects, the detecting the channel occupancy signal includes detecting the channel occupancy signal in a first portion of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band includes refraining from communicating in a second portion of the shared radio frequency band different from the first portion in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first portion of the shared radio frequency band. In some aspects, the channel occupancy signal indicates an occupancy in a first subband of a plurality of subbands within the second portion of the shared radio frequency band area in some aspects, the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band includes refraining from communicating in the first subband in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal indicating the occupancy in the first subband.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram illustrating a communication method 1200 according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Aspects of the method 1200 can be executed by a computing device (e.g., a processor, processing circuit, and/or other suitable component) of a wireless communication device or other suitable means for performing the steps. For example, a wireless communication device, such as a BS 105, BS 205, BS 303, BS 505, BS 605, BS 705, BS 813, or BS 1000, may utilize one or more components, such as the processor 1002, the memory 1004, the channel occupancy module 1008, the transceiver 1010, the modem 1012, and the one or more antennas 1016, to execute the steps of method 1200. The method 1200 may employ similar mechanisms as described in FIGS. 3-7D. As illustrated, the method 1200 includes a number of enumerated steps, but aspects of the method 1200 may include additional steps before, after, and in between the enumerated steps. In some aspects, one or more of the enumerated steps may be omitted or performed in a different order.

At block 1210, the wireless communication device determines that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band. For example, the wireless communication device may identify a sensing window based on system configuration and/or channel occupancy parameters, and determine whether DL data or signals (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH communications) are scheduled in the slot (s) and/or symbol (s) and frequency band associated with the sensing window. In some aspects, the UE 115 may utilize one or more components, such as the processor 902, the memory 904, the channel occupancy module 908, the transceiver 910, the modem 912, and the one or more antennas 916, to perform the operations at block 1210.

At block 1220, the wireless communication device transmits, during the sensing window in response to determining that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern. Transmitting the channel occupancy signal may include using beamforming to focus the signal energy in each of the plurality of transmit beam directions such that the signal is associated with a beam having a beam width. In some aspects, the channel occupancy signal may be a waveform signal. The waveform signal can include a predetermined waveform sequence known to wireless communication devices sharing the frequency band.

The beamforming may include activating individual antenna elements, and adjusting the gain and phase of the signals emitted by the antenna elements such that the signal energy is focused in a particular direction. Transmitting the channel occupancy signal may include a simple energy transmission, or may include a preconfigured or predetermined waveform or sequence.

In some aspects, the wireless communication device may include a high-priority BS. If the high-priority BS determines that data traffic is already scheduled for the sensing window, the high-priority BS may proceed with transmitting the data. A low-priority BS may detect the data transmission, instead of a channel occupancy signal, from the high-priority BS during the sensing window, and back-off the shared frequency band. On the other hand, if there is no data traffic scheduled during the sensing window, the high-priority BS may transmit a channel occupancy signal during the sensing window to assist the low-priority BS to in detecting an occupied channel so that the low-priority BS can back-off the shared frequency band more quickly. In some aspects, the wireless communication device may utilize one or more components, such as the processor 1002, the memory 1004, the channel occupancy module 1008, the transceiver 1010, the modem 1012, and the one or more antennas 1016, to perform the operations at block 1220.

In some aspects, the transmitting the channel occupancy signal includes transmitting the channel occupancy signal in the plurality of beam directions based on a periodic beam sweeping pattern. In some aspects, the transmitting the channel occupancy signal includes transmitting two or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions in contiguous lots. In some aspects, the transmitting the channel occupancy signal includes: transmitting, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions; and transmitting, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a different second beam direction. In some aspects, a first number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the first beam direction is different from a second number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the second beam direction.

In some aspects, the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises: transmitting, during the sensing window, a first plurality of channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a first periodicity; and transmitting, during the sensing window, a second plurality of channel occupancy signals in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a different second periodicity. In some aspects, the transmitting the channel occupancy signal includes transmitting a channel occupancy signal waveform. In some aspects, the transmitting the channel occupancy signal includes transmitting a channel occupancy signal sequence.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram illustrating a communication method 1300 according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Aspects of the method 1300 can be executed by a computing device (e.g., a processor, processing circuit, and/or other suitable component) of a wireless communication device or other suitable means for performing the steps. For example, a wireless communication device, such as a UE 115, UE, 313, UE 813, or UE 900, may utilize one or more components, such as the processor 902, the memory 1004, the channel occupancy module 908, the transceiver 910, the modem 912, and the one or more antennas 916, to execute the steps of method 1300. The method 1300 may employ similar mechanisms as described in FIGS. 3-7D. As illustrated, the method 1300 includes a number of enumerated steps, but aspects of the method 1300 may include additional steps before, after, and in between the enumerated steps. In some aspects, one or more of the enumerated steps may be omitted or performed in a different order.

At block 1310, the UE determines that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band. As similarly describe above with respect to the method 1200, the UE may identify a sensing window based on system configuration and/or channel occupancy parameters, and determine whether UL data or signals (e.g., PUCCH, PUSCH communications) are scheduled in the slot (s) and/or symbol (s) and frequency band associated with the sensing window. In some aspects, the UE may utilize one or more components, such as the processor 902, the memory 904, the channel occupancy module 908, the transceiver 910, the modem 912, and the one or more antennas 916, to perform the operations at block 1310.

At block 1320, the UE transmits, during the sensing window in response to determining that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern. Transmitting the channel occupancy signal may include using beamforming to focus the signal energy in each of the plurality of transmit beam directions such that the signal is associated with a beam having a beam width. In some aspects, the channel occupancy signal may be a waveform signal. The waveform signal can include a predetermined waveform sequence known to wireless communication devices sharing the frequency band. The beamforming may include activating individual antenna elements, and adjusting the gain and phase of the signals emitted by the antenna elements such that the signal energy is focused in a particular direction. Transmitting the channel occupancy signal may include a simple energy transmission, or may include a preconfigured or predetermined waveform or sequence. In some aspects, the wireless communication device may utilize one or more components, such as the processor 902, the memory 1004, the channel occupancy module 908, the transceiver 910, the modem 912, and the one or more antennas 916, to perform the operations at block 1320.

In some aspects, the transmitting the channel occupancy signal includes transmitting the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in the first frequency subband. In some aspects, the transmitting the channel occupancy signal includes transmitting the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a different second frequency subband. In some aspects, the transmitting the channel occupancy signal based on the DFS configuration includes transmitting the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band before a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a second frequency subband.

Further aspects of the present disclosure include the following:

1. A method of wireless communication performed by a first wireless communication device associated with a first priority, comprising:

monitoring, in a plurality of beam directions during a sensing window, for a channel occupancy signal in a shared radio frequency band, wherein the monitoring comprises:

detecting, during the sensing window, the channel occupancy signal from a second wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, wherein the second wireless communication device is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority; and

refraining, based on the detecting the channel occupancy signal, from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in at least the first beam direction for a period.

2. The method of clause 1, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises: measuring a signal energy during the sensing window; and

determining that the signal energy exceeds an energy threshold.

3. The method of any of clauses 1 and 2, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting a predetermined channel occupancy signal sequence.

4. The method of any of clauses 1 and 2, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting a predetermined channel occupancy signal waveform.

5. The method of any of clauses 1-4, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds a threshold, and wherein the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions in response to determining that the number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds the threshold.

6. The method of any of clauses 1-4, wherein the monitoring for the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting, during the sensing window, a second channel occupancy signal in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, and wherein the method further comprises:

determining a combined signal energy of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction and the second channel occupancy signal in the second beam direction, and wherein the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on the combined signal energy.

7. The method of any of clauses 1-4, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signals in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction, wherein the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in the first beam direction based on a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction.

8. The method of any of clauses 1-7, wherein the monitoring for the channel occupancy signal comprises:

determining a wideband signal measurement across a bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band, and wherein the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in an entire bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band based on the wideband signal measurement.

9. The method of any of clauses 1-7, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting the channel occupancy signal in a first subband of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band, wherein the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in any subband of the plurality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first subband of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band.

10. The method of any of clauses 1-7, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting the channel occupancy signal in one or more first subbands of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band, wherein the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in the one or more first subbands of the plurality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the one or more of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band; and wherein the method further comprises:

communicating a communication signal in one or more second subbands of the plurality of subbands different from the one or more first subbands.

11. The method of any of clauses 1-7, wherein:

the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting the channel occupancy signal in a first portion of the shared radio frequency band, and the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in a second portion of the shared radio frequency band different from the first portion in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first portion of the shared radio frequency band.

12. The method of clause 11, wherein:

the channel occupancy signal indicates an occupancy in a first subband of a plurality of subbands within the second portion of the shared radio frequency band, and

the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in the first subband in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal indicating the occupancy in the first subband.

13. A method of wireless communication performed by a wireless communication device, comprising:

determining that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band, wherein the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority higher than a second priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band; and

transmitting, during the sensing window in response to determining that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.

14. The method of clause 13, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting the channel occupancy signal in the plurality of beam directions based on a periodic beam sweeping pattern.

15. The method of clause 13, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting two or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in a first beam direction of a plurality of beam directions in contiguous slots.

16. The method of clause 13, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions; and

transmitting, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a different second beam direction,

wherein a first number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the first beam direction is different from a second number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the second beam direction.

17. The method of clause 13, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting, during the sensing window, a first plurality of channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a first periodicity; and

transmitting, during the sensing window, a second plurality of channel occupancy signals in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a different second periodicity.

18. The method of any of clauses 13-17, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting a channel occupancy signal waveform.

19. The method of any of clauses 13-18, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting a channel occupancy signal sequence.

20. A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) , comprising:

receiving, from a base station (BS) , a dynamic frequency selection (DFS) configuration; and

transmitting, in a shared radio frequency band during a sensing window based on the DFS configuration, a channel occupancy signal to a wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction, wherein the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band, and wherein the UE is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority.

21. The method of clause 20, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in the first frequency subband.

22. The method of clause 20, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal:

transmitting the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a different second frequency subband.

23. The method of clause 20, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal based on the DFS configuration comprises:

transmitting the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band before a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a second frequency subband.

Information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

The various illustrative blocks and modules described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with a general-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration) .

The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software executed by a processor, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Other examples and implementations are within the scope of the disclosure and appended claims. For example, due to the nature of software, functions described above can be implemented using software executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hardwiring, or combinations of any of these. Features implementing functions may also be physically located at various positions, including being distributed such that portions of functions are implemented at different physical locations. Also, as used herein, including in the claims, “or” as used in a list of items (for example, a list of items prefaced by a phrase such as “at least one of” or “one or more of” ) indicates an inclusive list such that, for example, a list of [at least one of A, B, or C] means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C) .

As those of some skill in this art will by now appreciate and depending on the particular application at hand, many modifications, substitutions and variations can be made in and to the materials, apparatus, configurations and methods of use of the devices of the present disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. In light of this, the scope of the present disclosure should not be limited to that of the particular aspects illustrated and described herein, as they are merely by way of some examples thereof, but rather, should be fully commensurate with that of the claims appended hereafter and their functional equivalents.

Claims

A method of wireless communication performed by a first wireless communication device associated with a first priority, comprising:

monitoring, in a plurality of beam directions during a sensing window, for a channel occupancy signal in a shared radio frequency band, wherein the monitoring comprises:

detecting, during the sensing window, the channel occupancy signal from a second wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, wherein the second wireless communication device is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority; and

refraining, based on the detecting the channel occupancy signal, from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in at least the first beam direction for a period.
The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

measuring a signal energy during the sensing window; and

determining that the signal energy exceeds an energy threshold.
The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting a predetermined channel occupancy signal sequence.
The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting a predetermined channel occupancy signal waveform.
The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction,

wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds a threshold, and

wherein the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions in response to determining that the number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds the threshold.
The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring for the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting, during the sensing window, a second channel occupancy signal in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, and

wherein the method further comprises:

determining a combined signal energy of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction and the second channel occupancy signal in the second beam direction, and

wherein the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on the combined signal energy.
The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signals in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction,

wherein the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in the first beam direction based on a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction.
The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring for the channel occupancy signal comprises:

determining a wideband signal measurement across a bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band, and

wherein the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in an entire bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band based on the wideband signal measurement.
The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting the channel occupancy signal in a first subband of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band,

wherein the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in any subband of the plurality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first subband of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band.
The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting the channel occupancy signal in one or more first subbands of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band,

wherein the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in the one or more first subbands of the plurality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the one or more of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band; and

wherein the method further comprises:

communicating a communication signal in one or more second subbands of the plurality of subbands different from the one or more first subbands.
The method of claim 1, wherein:

the detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

detecting the channel occupancy signal in a first portion of the shared radio frequency band, and

the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in a second portion of the shared radio frequency band different from the first portion in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first portion of the shared radio frequency band.
The method of claim 11, wherein:

the channel occupancy signal indicates an occupancy in a first subband of a plurality of subbands within the second portion of the shared radio frequency band, and

the refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

refraining from communicating in the first subband in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal indicating the occupancy in the first subband.
A method of wireless communication performed by a wireless communication device, comprising:

determining that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band, wherein the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority higher than a second priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band; and

transmitting, during the sensing window in response to determining that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.
The method of claim 13, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting the channel occupancy signal in the plurality of beam directions based on a periodic beam sweeping pattern.
The method of claim 13, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting two or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in a first beam direction of a plurality of beam directions in contiguous slots.
The method of claim 13, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions; and

transmitting, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a different second beam direction,

wherein a first number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the first beam direction is different from a second number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the second beam direction.
The method of claim 13, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting, during the sensing window, a first plurality of channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a first periodicity; and

transmitting, during the sensing window, a second plurality of channel occupancy signals in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a different second periodicity.
The method of claim 13, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting a channel occupancy signal waveform.
The method of claim 13, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting a channel occupancy signal sequence.
A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) , comprising:

receiving, from a base station (BS) , a dynamic frequency selection (DFS) configuration; and

transmitting, in a shared radio frequency band during a sensing window based on the DFS configuration, a channel occupancy signal to a wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction, wherein the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band, and wherein the UE is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority.
The method of claim 20, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

transmitting the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in the first frequency subband.
The method of claim 20, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal:

transmitting the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a different second frequency subband.
The method of claim 20, wherein the transmitting the channel occupancy signal based on the DFS configuration comprises:

transmitting the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band before a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a second frequency subband.
A first wireless communication device associated with a first priority, the first wireless communication device comprising:

a processor configured to:

monitor, in a plurality of beam directions during a sensing window, for a channel occupancy signal in a shared radio frequency band, wherein the processor configured to monitor comprises the processor configured to:

detect, during the sensing window, the channel occupancy signal from a second wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, wherein the second wireless communication device is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority; and

refrain, based on the detecting the channel occupancy signal, from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in at least the first beam direction for a period.
The first wireless communication device of claim 24, wherein the processor configured to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to:

measure a signal energy during the sensing window; and

determine that the signal energy exceeds an energy threshold.
The first wireless communication device of claim 24, wherein the processor configured to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to:

detect a predetermined channel occupancy signal sequence.
The first wireless communication device of claim 24, wherein the processor configured to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to:

detect a predetermined channel occupancy signal waveform.
The first wireless communication device of claim 24, wherein the processor configured to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to:

detect, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction,

wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine whether a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds a threshold, and

wherein the processor configured to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises the processor configured to:

refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions in response to determining that the number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds the threshold.
The first wireless communication device of claim 24, wherein the processor configured to monitor for the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to:

detect, during the sensing window, a second channel occupancy signal in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, and

wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine a combined signal energy of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction and the second channel occupancy signal in the second beam direction, and

wherein the processor configured to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises the processor configured to:

refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on the combined signal energy.
The first wireless communication device of claim 24, wherein the processor configured to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to:

detect, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signals in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction,

wherein the processor configured to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises the processor configured to:

refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in the first beam direction based on a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction.
The first wireless communication device of claim 24, wherein the processor configured to monitor for the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to:

determine a wideband signal measurement across a bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band, and

wherein the processor configured to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises the processor configured to:

refrain from communicating in an entire bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band based on the wideband signal measurement.
The first wireless communication device of claim 24, wherein the processor configured to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to:

detect the channel occupancy signal in a first subband of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band,

wherein the processor configured to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises the processor configured to:

refrain from communicating in any subband of the plurality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first subband of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band.
The first wireless communication device of claim 24, wherein the processor configured to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to:

detect the channel occupancy signal in one or more first subbands of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band,

wherein the processor configured to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises the processor configured to:

refrain from communicating in the one or more first subbands of the plurality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the one or more of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band; and

wherein the processor is further configured to:

communicate a communication signal in one or more second subbands of the plurality of subbands different from the one or more first subbands.
The first wireless communication device of claim 24, wherein:

the processor configured to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to:

detect the channel occupancy signal in a first portion of the shared radio frequency band, and

the processor configured to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises the processor configured to:

refrain from communicating in a second portion of the shared radio frequency band different from the first portion in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first portion of the shared radio frequency band.
The first wireless communication device of claim 34, wherein:

the channel occupancy signal indicates an occupancy in a first subband of a plurality of subbands within the second portion of the shared radio frequency band, and

the processor configured to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises the processor configured to:

refrain from communicating in the first subband in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal indicating the occupancy in the first subband.
A wireless communication device, comprising:

a processor configured to:

determine that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band, wherein the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority higher than a second priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band; and

a transceiver configured to:

transmit, during the sensing window in response to determine that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.
The wireless communication device of claim 36, wherein the transceiver configured to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises the transceiver configured to:

transmit the channel occupancy signal in the plurality of beam directions based on a periodic beam sweeping pattern.
The wireless communication device of claim 36, wherein the transceiver configured to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises the transceiver configured to:

transmit two or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in a first beam direction of a plurality of beam directions in contiguous slots.
The wireless communication device of claim 36, wherein the transceiver configured to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises the transceiver configured to:

transmit, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions; and

transmit, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a different second beam direction,

wherein a first number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the first beam direction is different from a second number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the second beam direction.
The wireless communication device of claim 36, wherein the transceiver configured to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises the transceiver configured to:

transmit, during the sensing window, a first plurality of channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a first periodicity; and

transmit, during the sensing window, a second plurality of channel occupancy signals in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a different second periodicity.
The wireless communication device of claim 36, wherein the transceiver configured to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises the transceiver configured to:

transmit a channel occupancy signal waveform.
The wireless communication device of claim 36, wherein the transceiver configured to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises the transceiver configured to:

transmit a channel occupancy signal sequence.
A user equipment (UE) , comprising:

a processor; and

a transceiver configured to:

receive, from a base station (BS) , a dynamic frequency selection (DFS) configuration,

wherein the processor is configured to cause the transceiver to:

transmit, in a shared radio frequency band during a sensing window based on the DFS configuration, a channel occupancy signal to a wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction, wherein the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band, and wherein the UE is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority.
The UE of claim 43, wherein the processor configured to cause the transceiver to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to cause the transceiver to:

transmit the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in the first frequency subband.
The UE of claim 43, wherein the processor configured to cause the transceiver to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to cause the transceiver to:

transmit the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a different second frequency subband.
The UE of claim 43, wherein the processor configured to cause the transceiver to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises the processor configured to cause the transceiver to:

transmit the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band before a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a second frequency subband.
A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon, the program code comprising:

code for causing a first wireless communication device associated with a first priority to monitor, in a plurality of beam directions during a sensing window, for a channel occupancy signal in a shared radio frequency band, wherein the code for causing a first wireless communication device to monitor for the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect, during the sensing window, the channel occupancy signal from a second wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, wherein the second wireless communication device is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority; and

code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain, based on the detecting the channel occupancy signal, from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in at least the first beam direction for a period.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to measure a signal energy during the sensing window; and

code for causing the first wireless communication device to determine that the signal energy exceeds an energy threshold.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect a predetermined channel occupancy signal sequence.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect a predetermined channel occupancy signal waveform.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction,

wherein the program code further comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to determine whether a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds a threshold, and

wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions in response to determining that the number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds the threshold.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to monitor for the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect, during the sensing window, a second channel occupancy signal in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, and

wherein the program code further comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to determine a combined signal energy of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction and the second channel occupancy signal in the second beam direction, and

wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on the combined signal energy.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signals in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction,

wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in the first beam direction based on a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to monitor for the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to determine a wideband signal measurement across a bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band, and

wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in an entire bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band based on the wideband signal measurement.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect the channel occupancy signal in a first subband of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band,

wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in any subband of the plurality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first subband of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect the channel occupancy signal in one or more first subbands of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band,

wherein the code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the one or more first subbands of the plurality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the one or more of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band; and

wherein the program code further comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to communicate a communication signal in one or more second subbands of the plurality of subbands different from the one or more first subbands.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein:

the code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to detect the channel occupancy signal in a first portion of the shared radio frequency band, and

the code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in a second portion of the shared radio frequency band different from the first portion in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first portion of the shared radio frequency band.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 57, wherein:

the channel occupancy signal indicates an occupancy in a first subband of a plurality of subbands within the second portion of the shared radio frequency band, and

the code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

code for causing the first wireless communication device to refrain from communicating in the first subband in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal indicating the occupancy in the first subband.
A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon, the program code comprising:

code for causing a wireless communication device to determine that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band, wherein the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority higher than a second priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band; and

code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit, during the sensing window in response to determine that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 59, wherein the code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit the channel occupancy signal in the plurality of beam directions based on a periodic beam sweeping pattern.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 59, wherein the code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit two or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in a first beam direction of a plurality of beam directions in contiguous slots.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 59, wherein the code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions; and

code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a different second beam direction,

wherein a first number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the first beam direction is different from a second number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the second beam direction.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 59, wherein the code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit, during the sensing window, a first plurality of channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a first periodicity; and

code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit, during the sensing window, a second plurality of channel occupancy signals in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a different second periodicity.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 59, wherein the code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit a channel occupancy signal waveform.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 59, wherein the code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the wireless communication device to transmit a channel occupancy signal sequence.
A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon, the program code comprising:

code for causing a user equipment (UE) to receive, from a base station (BS) , a dynamic frequency selection (DFS) configuration,

code for causing the UE to transmit, in a shared radio frequency band during a sensing window based on the DFS configuration, a channel occupancy signal to a wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction, wherein the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band, and wherein the UE is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 66, wherein the code for causing the UE to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the UE to transmit the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in the first frequency subband.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 66, wherein the code for causing the UE to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the UE to transmit the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a different second frequency subband.
The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 66, wherein the code for causing the UE to transmit the channel occupancy signal comprises:

code for causing the UE to transmit the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band before a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a second frequency subband.
A first wireless communication device associated with a first priority, the first wireless communication device comprising:

means for monitoring, in a plurality of beam directions during a sensing window, for a channel occupancy signal in a shared radio frequency band, wherein the means for monitoring comprises:

means for detecting, during the sensing window, the channel occupancy signal from a second wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, wherein the second wireless communication device is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority; and

means for refraining, based on the detecting the channel occupancy signal, from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in at least the first beam direction for a period.
The first wireless communication device of claim 70, wherein the means for detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for measuring a signal energy during the sensing window; and

means for determining that the signal energy exceeds an energy threshold.
The first wireless communication device of claim 70, wherein the means for detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for detecting a predetermined channel occupancy signal sequence.
The first wireless communication device of claim 70, wherein the means for detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for detecting a predetermined channel occupancy signal waveform.
The first wireless communication device of claim 70, wherein the means for detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for detecting, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction,

wherein the first wireless communication device further comprises:

means for determining whether a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds a threshold, and

wherein the means for refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

means for refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions in response to determining that the number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal across the plurality of beam directions exceeds the threshold.
The first wireless communication device of claim 70, wherein the means for monitoring for the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for detecting, during the sensing window, a second channel occupancy signal in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions, and

wherein the first wireless communication device further comprises:

means for determining a combined signal energy of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction and the second channel occupancy signal in the second beam direction, and

wherein the means for refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

means for refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in any beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on the combined signal energy.
The first wireless communication device of claim 70, wherein the means for detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for detecting, during the sensing window, one or more instances of the channel occupancy signals in one or more beam directions of the plurality of beam directions, the one or more beam directions comprising the first beam direction,

wherein the means for refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

means for refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band in the first beam direction based on a number of the one or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in the first beam direction.
The first wireless communication device of claim 70, wherein the means for monitoring for the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for determining a wideband signal measurement across a bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band, and

wherein the means for refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

means for refraining from communicating in an entire bandwidth of the shared radio frequency band based on the wideband signal measurement.
The first wireless communication device of claim 70, wherein the means for detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for detecting the channel occupancy signal in a first subband of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band,

wherein the means for refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

means for refraining from communicating in any subband of the plurality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first subband of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band.
The first wireless communication device of claim 70, wherein the means for detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for detecting the channel occupancy signal in one or more first subbands of a plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band,

wherein the means for refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

means for refraining from communicating in the one or more first subbands of the plurality of subbands in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the one or more of the plurality of subbands of the shared radio frequency band; and

wherein the first wireless communication device further comprises:

communicating a communication signal in one or more second subbands of the plurality of subbands different from the one or more first subbands.
The first wireless communication device of claim 70, wherein:

the means for detecting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for detecting the channel occupancy signal in a first portion of the shared radio frequency band, and

the means for refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

means for refraining from communicating in a second portion of the shared radio frequency band different from the first portion in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal in the first portion of the shared radio frequency band.
The first wireless communication device of claim 80, wherein:

the channel occupancy signal indicates an occupancy in a first subband of a plurality of subbands within the second portion of the shared radio frequency band, and

the means for refraining from communicating in the shared radio frequency band comprises:

means for refraining from communicating in the first subband in response to detecting the channel occupancy signal indicating the occupancy in the first subband.
A wireless communication device of wireless communication performed by a wireless communication device, comprising:

means for determining that data is not scheduled for a sensing window in a shared radio frequency band, wherein the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority higher than a second priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band; and

means for transmitting, during the sensing window in response to determining that data is not scheduled for the sensing window, a channel occupancy signal in a plurality of beam directions based on a beam sweeping pattern.
The wireless communication device of claim 82, wherein the means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal in the plurality of beam directions based on a periodic beam sweeping pattern.
The wireless communication device of claim 82, wherein the means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for transmitting two or more instances of the channel occupancy signal in a first beam direction of a plurality of beam directions in contiguous slots.
The wireless communication device of claim 82, wherein the means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for transmitting, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions; and

means for transmitting, during the sensing window, one or more channel occupancy signals in a different second beam direction,

wherein a first number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the first beam direction is different from a second number of the one or more channel occupancy signals associated with the second beam direction.
The wireless communication device of claim 82, wherein the means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for transmitting, during the sensing window, a first plurality of channel occupancy signals in a first beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a first periodicity; and

means for transmitting, during the sensing window, a second plurality of channel occupancy signals in a second beam direction of the plurality of beam directions based on a different second periodicity.
The wireless communication device of claim 82, wherein the means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for transmitting a channel occupancy signal waveform.
The wireless communication device of claim 82, wherein the means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for transmitting a channel occupancy signal sequence.
A user equipment (UE) , comprising:

means for receiving, from a base station (BS) , a dynamic frequency selection (DFS) configuration; and

means for transmitting, in a shared radio frequency band during a sensing window based on the DFS configuration, a channel occupancy signal to a wireless communication device in at least a first beam direction, wherein the wireless communication device is associated with a first priority for sharing resources in the shared radio frequency band, and wherein the UE is associated with a second priority higher than the first priority.
The UE of claim 89, wherein the means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal comprises:

means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in the first frequency subband.
The UE of claim 89, wherein the means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal:

means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band at a same time as a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a different second frequency subband.
The UE of claim 89, wherein the means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal based on the DFS configuration comprises:

means for transmitting the channel occupancy signal in a first frequency subband of the shared radio frequency band before a second channel occupancy signal associated with a different second UE in a second frequency subband.