WO2025000135A1

WO2025000135A1 - Method and apparatus for intra sub-network transmissions

Info

Publication number: WO2025000135A1
Application number: PCT/CN2023/102152
Authority: WO
Inventors: Dong Li; Tao Tao; Paolo Baracca; Thomas Haaning Jacobsen; Renato Barbosa ABREU; Pingping Wen; Saeed Reza KHOSRAVIRAD; Daniel Medina
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Current assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2023-06-25
Filing date: 2023-06-25
Publication date: 2025-01-02
Anticipated expiration: 2025-12-25
Also published as: WO2025000135A9

Abstract

Methods, apparatus and computer-readable medium are disclosed for intra sub-network transmissions. In an embodiment, there is provided a method implemented at an access point of a sub-network of a radio access network. The method comprises: obtaining first configuration information related to one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, wherein one of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels; and transiting, to one or more network devices, a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern based on the first configuration information, wherein the subchannel set pattern indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, and the at least one active subchannel set is a part of the one or more subchannel sets. Related solutions implemented at a transmitting device and a receiving device are also provided.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTRA SUB-NETWORK TRANSMISSIONS

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the disclosure generally relate to a radio access technology, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for intra sub-network transmissions.

BACKGROUND

A radio network, e.g., the fifth generation (5G) or the sixth generation (6G) radio access technology, is expected to support extreme communication requirements in terms of throughput, latency and/or reliability, which can only be achieved by providing capillary wireless coverage. “In-X” sub-network (referred to as “sub-network” hereafter) is a promising component to fulfil the extreme communication requirements for certain 6G short-range scenarios. The in-X sub-networks may be installed in specific entities e.g., a vehicle, a human body, a house, etc., to provide life-critical data service with extreme performances over a local capillary coverage. The “X” stands for an entity in which a sub-network is deployed, e.g., a vehicle, a human body, a house for “in-vehicle” , “in-body” , “in-house” , respectively.

For a sub-network, various intra sub-network transmissions may have to be supported. Due to a very small coverage of the sub-network, the intra sub-network transmissions have many different properties and technical features, compared with the traditional downlink, uplink, and sidelink transmissions in cellular systems.

It is desirable to propose transmission mechanisms and procedure for sub-networks.

SUMMARY

This summary is provided to introduce simplified concepts of the present disclosure. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

According to a first aspect of the disclosure, there is provided an apparatus implemented at an access point of a sub-network of a radio access network. The apparatus comprises at least one processor, and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed on the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to obtain first configuration information related to one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, wherein one of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels; and transit, to one or more network devices, a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern based on the first configuration information, wherein the subchannel set pattern indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, and the at least one active subchannel set is a part of the one or more subchannel sets.

According to some embodiments, the subchannel set pattern may further indicate a variation of active subchannel sets over different subchannel set pattern periods.

According to some embodiments, the apparatus may be further caused to determine the subchannel set pattern at least based on the first configuration information.

According to some embodiments, one or more physical control channels for the one or more transmissions within the sub-network during the subchannel set pattern period may be to be transmitted on one or more subchannels of the at least one active subchannel set. One or more physical data channels for the one or more transmissions within the sub-network during the subchannel set pattern period may be to be transmitted on one or more subchannels of the at least one active subchannel set.

According to some embodiments, the parameters may comprise at least one of: an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern; an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern; a periodicity of the subchannel set pattern; an identity of the sub-network; or an indication of a function for deriving indexes of the at least one active subchannel set.

According to some embodiments, the message may be transmitted over one or more pre-defined specific subchannels.

According to some embodiments, obtaining the first configuration information related to the one or more subchannel sets may comprise at least one of: receiving the first configuration information from a base station of the radio access network; or obtaining the first configuration information based on pre-configurations at the apparatus.

According to some embodiments, the apparatus may be further caused to perform at least one of the following operations: obtaining second configuration information related to a transmission of the message; or obtaining third configuration information related to a periodicity of the subchannel set pattern. Obtaining the second configuration information may comprise at least one of: receiving the second configuration information from the base station; or obtaining the second configuration information based on pre-configurations at the apparatus. Obtaining the third configuration information may comprise at least one of: receiving the third configuration from the base station; or obtaining the third configuration information based on pre-configurations at the apparatus.

According to some embodiments, the first configuration information comprises at least one of: a size of respective subchannel sets of the one or more subchannel sets; or information related to a distribution of the one or more subchannel sets in a subband.

According to a second aspect of the disclosure, there is provided an apparatus implemented at a network device of a sub-network of a radio access network. The apparatus comprises at least one processor, and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed on the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to receive a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern which indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, wherein the at least one active subchannel set is a part of one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, and one of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels; and based on the subchannel set pattern, select at least one subchannel in the at least one active subchannel set for the one or more transmissions within the sub-network during the subchannel set pattern period.

According to some embodiments, selecting the at least one subchannel comprises: determining from the message, the subchannel set pattern or the at least one active subchannel set for the subchannel set pattern period.

According to some embodiments, the apparatus may be further caused to transmit one or more physical control channels for the one or more transmissions on the at least one selected subchannel during the subchannel set pattern period.

According to some embodiments, the apparatus may be further caused to transmit one or more physical data channels for the one or more transmissions on the at least one selected subchannel during the subchannel set pattern period.

According to some embodiments, the apparatus may be further caused to transmit one or more physical data channels for the one or more transmissions on one or more subchannels adjacent to the at least one selected subchannel during the subchannel set pattern period.

According to some embodiments, selecting the at least one subchannel may comprise: determining an index of the subchannel set pattern period, from at least one of an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern, an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern, and the periodicity of the subchannel set pattern; and deriving an index of the at least one active subchannel set at least from the index of the subchannel set pattern period and the identity of the sub-network, according to the function.

According to some embodiments, the apparatus may be further caused at least to: perform channel sensing over subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set. The at least one subchannel for the one or more transmissions is selected based on results of the channel sensing.

According to a third aspect of the disclosure, there is provided an apparatus implemented at a network device of a sub-network of a radio access network. The apparatus comprises at least one processor, and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed on the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to receive a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern which indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, wherein at least one active subchannel set is a part of one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, and one of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels; and monitor subchannels in at least one active subchannel set during the subchannel set pattern period. The message may be received over one or more pre-defined specific subchannels.

According to some embodiments, the subchannel set pattern further may indicate a variation of active subchannel sets over different subchannel set pattern periods.

According to some embodiments, the apparatus may be further caused at least to: determine from the message, the subchannel set pattern or the at least one active subchannel set for the subchannel set pattern period.

According to some embodiments, monitoring the subchannels may comprise: blindly decoding a physical control channel over the subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set; and in case that it is determined that the physical control channel is decoded with a destination identity matched to the network device, receiving and decoding a physical data channel over at least the subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set during the subchannel set pattern period.

According to some embodiments, the apparatus may be further caused at least to: determine an index of the subchannel set pattern period, from at least one of an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern, an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern, and the periodicity of the subchannel set pattern; and derive an index of the at least oner active subchannel set at least from the index of the subchannel set pattern period and the identity of the sub-network, according to the function.

According to a fourth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method performed by an access point of a sub-network of a radio access network. The method comprises: obtaining first configuration information related to one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, wherein one of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels; and transmitting to one or more network devices, a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern based on the first configuration information, wherein the subchannel set pattern indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, and the at least one active subchannel set is a part of the one or more subchannel sets.

According to fifth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network device of a sub-network of a radio access network. The method comprises: receiving a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern which indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmission within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, wherein the at least one active subchannel sets is a part of one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, and one of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels; and based on the subchannel set pattern, selecting at least one subchannel in the at least one active subchannel set for the one or more transmissions within the sub-network during the subchannel set pattern period.

According to sixth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network device of a sub-network of a radio access network. The method comprises: receiving a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern which indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, wherein the one or more active subchannel set is a part of one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, and one of the one or more subchannel set comprises one or more subchannels; and monitoring subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set during the subchannel set pattern period.

According to seventh aspect of the present disclosure, it is provided a computer readable storage medium, on which instructions are stored, when executed by at least one processor, the instructions cause the at least one processor to perform any method according to the fourth aspect.

According to eighth aspect of the present disclosure, it is provided computer program product comprising instructions which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform any method according to the fifth aspect.

According to ninth aspect of the present disclosure, it is provided computer program product comprising instructions which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform any method according to the sixth aspect.

It is to be understood that the summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates several exemplary use cases of sub-networks;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary architecture of a sub-network;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flowchart for sub-network operations according to embodiments of the present disclosure

FIG. 4 illustrates exemplary distributions of subchannel sets per subband, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates an anchor subchannel in a subchannel set for notifying one or more subchannel set patterns according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary procedure for determining a subchannel set pattern according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates exemplary different active subchannel sets for intra sub-network transmissions in several intervals of subchannel set pattern;

FIG. 8 illustrates exemplary resource allocations for intra sub-network transmissions according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is an exemplary diagram depicting a procedure according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates a flow chart depicting a method performed by an access point according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart depicting a method performed by a network device according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a flow chart depicting another method performed by a network device according to embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 13 shows a simplified block diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some example embodiments will now be described in more detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments are shown. Indeed, the example embodiments may take many different forms and should not be construed as fixed to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.

References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment” , “an embodiment” , “an example embodiment” , and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an example embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

As used herein, the terms “data, ” “content, ” “information, ” and similar terms may be used interchangeably to refer to data capable of being transmitted, received and/or stored in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. Thus, use of any such terms should not be taken to limit the spirit and scope of embodiments of the present invention.

As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:

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

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

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

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

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

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

As defined herein, a “computer-readable storage medium, ” which refers to a non-transitory physical storage medium (e.g., volatile or non-volatile memory device) , can be differentiated from a “computer-readable transmission medium, ” which refers to an electromagnetic signal. Such a medium may take many forms, including, but not limited to a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (e.g., non-volatile media, volatile media) , and transmission media. Transmission media include, for example, coaxial cables, copper wire, fiber optic cables, and carrier waves that travel through space without wires or cables, such as acoustic waves and electromagnetic waves, including radio, optical and infrared waves. Signals include man-made transient variations in amplitude, frequency, phase, polarization or other physical properties transmitted through the transmission media. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable media include a magnetic computer readable medium (e.g., a floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium) , an optical computer readable medium (e.g., a compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) , a digital versatile disc (DVD) , a Blu-Ray disc, or the like) , a random access memory (RAM) , a programmable read only memory (PROM) , an erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM) , a FLASH-EPROM, or any other non-transitory medium from which a computer can read. The term computer-readable storage medium is used herein to refer to any computer-readable medium except transmission media. However, it will be appreciated that where embodiments are described to use a computer-readable storage medium, other types of computer-readable mediums may be substituted for or used in addition to the computer-readable storage medium in alternative embodiments.

In the following, certain embodiments are explained with reference to a sub-network. The term sub-network (or in-X sub-network) refers to an autonomous, highly specialized cell with limited coverage to be deployed in locations where requirements for high performance are demanded, such as production modules, vehicles. Such cell can be a part of a larger wireless communication network (such as 6G radio access network) . A sub-network can be seen as a further leap to a concept of heterogeneous networks, aiming at improving data rates and reliability within the capillary coverage with the coordination and management of the wide area network.

The sub-network may have the following pivotal properties and technical features:

● Support of extreme performance requirements in terms of latency, reliability and/or throughputs.

● Low transmit power, which implies limited coverage range (e.g., in the order of few meters) .

● Star or tree topology, in which a sub-network may have one access point (referred to as in-X AP, herein) and one or more user equipment (referred to as in-X UEs, herein) , and the in-X AP communicates with the in-X UEs or coordinates the transmissions between the in-X UEs and the in-X AP has integrated controller capabilities.

● Overall mobility of an access node and associated user equipments, but lack/limited mobility across different sub-networks. Due to the nature of the deployments, each in-X UE can only be connected to a single in-X AP for its entire operation time. A sub-network can however be mobile, such as the ones installed in vehicles or in humans. For example, an in-vehicle sub-network installed in a vehicle may move around along with the vehicle. An in-vehicle AP and in-vehicle UEs (e.g., wireless sensors or actuators) of the in-vehicle sub-network would move around as a whole. Meanwhile, one in-vehicle sensor in a sub-network would not move and joint to another sub-network.

● Part of overlay wide area network (WAN) network, but being able to continue to work when out of coverage of the wide area network. This is because a sub-network may be in some cases supporting life-critical services that would not allow for any interruption. The WAN network is a larger network which serves one or more sub-network. The larger network may be any other type of communication networks, such as a Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network, 5G radio access network, 6G radio access network, or any other networks supporting wireless communication of one or more sub-networks within its coverage area.

Generally, the system design for a sub-network shall take the above technical features into account. A sub-network can be seen as a potential evolution of 5G sidelink, where on the other hand, many enhancements are needed:

● from the air interface, e.g., to allow an AP of a sub-network which is out of coverage of the wide area network (e.g., 6G radio access network) to sense channels, get resources and schedule those resources to network devices (including the AP and in-X UEs) of the sub-network (somehow beyond what 5G sidelink Mode 2 allows) .

● to architectural enablers, e.g., for improved authentication or policy enforcement policies in such scenarios.

FIG. 1 illustrates several typical use cases of sub-networks: (a) in-robot/in-production module sub-network 110a, (b) in-vehicle sub-network 110b, (c) in-body sub-network 110c, and (d) in-house sub-network 110d.

The use cases of in-robot/in-production module sub-networks and in-vehicle sub-networks have extreme performance requirements in both reliability (up to 6 nines reliability or more) and latency (down to the level of 100us or even below) , e.g., for the high demanding periodic deterministic communication services, which may be the most challenging scenarios in 6G system. For example, each robot and production module in a manufacturing station may be equipped with a sub-network. An in-X AP and in-X UEs of the sub-network 110a may be installed in a production module, so as to control a force applied to torque, grippers and robotic manipulators and their precision. Alternatively, an in-X AP and in-X UEs of the sub-network 110a may be installed in a mobile robot, so as to control the precision of the robot movements as well as proximity of other robots or obstacles in their path.

An in-vehicle sub-network 110b may replace a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus and automotive Ethernet operations with wireless, translating to a lower vehicle weight and therefore lower fuel consumption. In that respect, an in-X AP and in-X UEs of an in-vehicle sub-network can be installed on sensors and actors related to motor control, power steering, anti-lock braking system (ABS) , etc.

The in-X AP and in-X UEs of the sub-network 110c may be installed in a human body, either on the surface (e.g., wearables, skin patches, sensors for temperature and blood pressure) or in implants (e.g., pacemaker, insulin pump and, muscle controllers) . For example, the in-X AP of the sub-network 110c can be a wristband or even a brain implant that controls the operations of the connected devices.

The in-X AP and in-X UEs of the sub-network 110d may stay in a same house or, in some cases, in a same room. This is typically associated to high throughput and non-strictly latency limited applications. As an example, an in-house sub-network supports gaming with extended virtual reality (VR) , where several people, each with multiple smart wearables (e.g., glasses, armbands) play with the support of a console (e.g., acting as the in-X AP) connected to all the devices.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary architecture 200 of a sub-network 210. A subnetwork should be able to handle traffic flows with different characteristics. In an example, let us first define as high critical data flows the ones associated to latencies << 1 ms and reliability beyond five nines, while medium critical flows can be associated to latencies > 1 ms and a maximum of five nines reliability. Non-critical flows are associated to non-strictly limited latencies.

For a subnetwork, the high critical traffic may be locally generated. The AP 201 have integrated controller capabilities, or eventually be connected to a co-located “embedded edge” server. The AP 201 receives measurements from the sensors of the sub-network, which are processed by a controller of the AP, and issues commands to the actuators of the sub-network. In some cases, traffics may be transmitted between two in-X UEs directly, as shown by traffic 217. High critical data flows (such as traffics 211, 213, 215) are kept within the sub-network 210, as the tight latency requirement does not allow for external processing. Medium critical data flows (such as traffics 225) can eventually be processed in an edge cloud or cloudlet 220; the sub-network 210 can then be connected to an external network hosting these edge processing capabilities. Also, the AP 201 can collect data and statistics on non-critical data flows (e.g., for KPIs monitoring) to be shared to the outside world and processed in a central cloud 230, as shown by traffic 235. The intra sub-network transmissions discussed in this disclosure focus on transmissions for the high critical traffics.

As mentioned above, a sub-network is expected to be part of a larger 6G system. In this respect, the AP 201 behaves as a user equipment (UE) from the perspective of the 6G system and can access the wide area network 220, for traffic/control transmissions with medium or non-critical flows. In particular, the AP 201 is connected to a base station 221 of a 6G system or an enterprise network, which could control and coordinate different sub-networks to a certain extent. The AP 201 can realize functions such as device-to-network relaying between the in-X UEs and the 6G system.

Within the sub-network, an in-X AP controls and coordinates transmissions to/from/between the in-X UEs. In this procedure, the in-X AP behaves somewhat like a (special) base station BS in perspective of the in-X UEs. For example, the AP can receive measurements from the UE 203, and transmit data of high critical traffic to the UE 202. Thus, the in-X AP may have a dual role as a (special) BS from the perspective of the in-X UEs and as a UE from the perspective of the 6G system. Alternatively, the in-X AP may behave like a (special) UE in perspective of the in-X UEs. In this case, the transmissions between the AP and the UEs may comply with the sidelink specifications.

The in-X AP 201 and in-X UEs 202, 203, 204 may be embodied as any suitable wireless communication device, such as a mobile communication device, modem, cellular phone, gaming device, navigation device, media device, laptop computer, desktop computer, tablet computer, smart appliance, vehicle-based communication system, or an Internet-of-Things (IoT) device such as a sensor or an actuator, and other devices capable of wireless communication. The base station 221 may be embodied as any suitable base station supporting a radio access network, for example, a gNode B (gNB) or a wireless access point. Each base station defines a coverage area of a radio access network.

It is to be understood that the architecture 200 of sub-network is shown only for purpose of illustration, without suggesting any limitation to the scope of the present disclosure. Embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to an environment with a different structure. In this regard, it is to be appreciated that, although there is one sub-network in the wide area network 220 shown in FIG. 2, the wide area network (e.g., a radio access network of the base station 221) may comprise one or more sub-networks. Although there are three in-X UEs in the sub-network 210 shown in FIG. 2, a sub-network may comprise one or more in-X UEs. It is to be also appreciated that embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented for other kinds of sub-networks. Besides in-X sub-network, various sub-networks in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied are collectively referred to as sub-networks, hereinafter.

For a sub-network, various intra sub-network transmissions, including transmissions from an in-X AP to an in-X UE (referred to as AP-to-UE transmissions) , from an in-X UE to an in-X AP (referred to as UE-to-AP transmissions) , and from an in-X UE to an in-X UE (referred to as UE-to-UE transmissions) may have to be supported. Due to the very small coverage of the sub-network, an important property of sub-network transmissions compared with the traditional downlink, or uplink, or sidelink transmissions in cellular systems is that in a sub-network the links of AP-to-UE, UE-to-AP and UE-to-UE may have similar channel characteristics. Thus, a unified physical channel structure may be employed for the various link types in a sub-network. In other words, unified or symmetric physical channels can be applied for all kinds of intra sub-network transmissions in the sub-network. Instead, in a cellular system, generally, downlink, uplinks, and sidelinks employ separate physical channel designs due to quite different channel characteristics.

Resource allocation and reservation for intra sub-network transmissions may be considered with reference to sidelink transmissions. The New Radio (NR) sidelink that is relevant to the disclosure in aspect of resource allocation and reservation is simply described as follows.

The sidelink is defined within a context of a cellular system to enable direct communications among proximate UEs, instead of passing through the radio network node (e.g., a base station such as gNB in NR) . It was designed originally in Long Term Evolution (LTE) system particularly for public safety use cases, where a radio network coverage may not exist in some scenarios. Later, the sidelink designs were enhanced and tailored to the specific applications of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications (e.g., Release 14 or 15 for LTE sidelink and Release 16 or 17 for NR sidelink) .

A sidelink transmission occupies one or more subchannels over a single slot that are allocated (by a base station if in resource allocation (RA) mode 1) or selected (by a transmitting UE itself if in RA mode 2) within a sidelink resource pool that is preconfigured or configured by the radio network. In the distributed RA mode (i.e., mode 2 in NR sidelink) , triggered by the new data arrival in a transmitting buffer, the transmitting UE may select resources within a resource selection window based on sensing results obtained during the sensing window. The sensing operations consist of physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) decoding (to acquire 1st-stage sidelink control information (SCI) ) and RSRP measurements (e.g., Reference signal received power (RSRP) of PSCCH or Physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) ) .

In the sidelink transmissions, the transmitting UE may reserve resources for the subsequent up to two retransmissions of a same transport block (TB) , and may also reserve resources for a next TB in a next period (e.g., for periodic traffic) . The resource reservation is indicated by the 1st-stage sidelink control information (SCI) , which is conveyed by PSCCH in the front of the selected resources (e.g., over two or three Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols) in a current slot. Other proximate UEs may avoid the reserved resources in their resource selections to minimize the collision interference. Additionally, the resources for physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) may be (pre) configured with period of 1, 2 or 4 logical slots in the resource pool to convey the Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) feedback for the associated PSCCH/PSSCH transmissions.

It is noted that the resource allocation or selection is made just for a single sidelink transmitter for transmitting a single or multiple TB. Besides, a sidelink receiver which desires to obtain data from other potential transmitters may have to persistently make blind decoding for potential PSCCH transmissions over all the subchannels/slots throughout the whole resource pool, and continue to decode the associated PSSCH if the PSCCH is decoded with the destination ID of its interest.

The physical channels PSCCH/PSSCH/PSFCH defined in NR sidelink can act as baseline for the unified physical channel structure for the intra sub-network transmissions. On the other hand, different from the peer-to-peer network topology for the sidelink (at least when out of cellular network coverage) , the sub-network typically has a star or tree topology where the AP coordinates and manages the transmissions within the sub-network to optimize the link performances e.g., mitigate the collisions and half-duplex constraints through proper scheduling which are critical to achieve the extreme performances for the sub-networks.

However, the envisioned benefits that comes with centralized control of the sub-network at the in-X AP are achieved at a cost of potentially significant signaling overhead e.g., scheduling request (SR) or buffer status information from in-X devices to the AP, and the scheduling indication from the in-X AP to the in-X devices. Additionally, as mentioned above, according to NR sidelink specifications, a sidelink receiver which desires to obtain data from other potential transmitters may have to persistently make blind decoding for potential PSCCH transmissions over all the subchannels or slots throughout the whole resource pool, and continue to decode the associated PSSCH if the PSCCH is decoded with the destination ID of its interest. This results in a large computational complexity and power consumption. It’s not an issue for vehicle UEs, but may be a serious concern for in-X devices of a sub-network.

The present disclosure proposes transmission mechanisms and procedure for sub-networks to solve the above technical problems. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, as per (pre) configurations, carrier (s) available for a sub-network is divided into multiple subbands, each of which consists of one or more subchannels. For example, each subchannel may consist of a (pre) configured number of contiguous physical resource blocks (PRBs) as defined in NR sidelink. Transmissions within the sub-network (either from an in-X AP or in-X UE) may occupy one or more subchannels in frequency over one or more slots in time. Physical channels, including physical control channels and physical data channels such as PSCCH, PSSCH, or PSFCH (or their evolutions) , transmitted on these subchannels may apply a unified physical channel structure. The multiple subbands and subchannels may be configured or preconfigured by a base station (such as the base station 221 shown in FIG. 2) , to which the AP of the sub-network is attached.

In some embodiments, one out of the multiple subbands may be selected or reselected by the AP of the sub-network, and indicated to the in-X UEs of the sub-network. Then, transmissions within the sub-network would be confined to the selected subband. The AP may also configure or indicate a certain period of time for which the subband (re) selection is valid.

Although the following embodiments are discussed with reference to in-X sub-network in a 6G system, it should be appreciated that embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary flowchart 300 for sub-network operations according to embodiments of the present disclosure. This example may be implemented in the sub-networks illustrated in FIGs. 1 and 2.

As shown at a block 310 in FIG. 3, an AP (such as in-X AP 201) and in-X UEs (such as the in-X UEs 202, 203, 204) of a sub-network (such as the sub-network 210) may obtain first configuration information related to one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network. As per (pre) configuration, all subchannels of a subband assigned to the sub-network are grouped into multiple subchannel sets, each subchannel set consisting of one or more subchannels which are distributed across the entire subband. In a special case, each subchannel set may consist of a single subchannel. The first configuration information may be pre-configured in the AP and the in-X UEs. Alternatively, the first configuration information may be received from a base station (such as the base station 221) which is serving the sub-network.

At block 320, the AP transits, to one or more in-X UEs in the sub-network, a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern based on the first configuration information. In this regard, the AP may determine the subchannel set pattern at least based on the first configuration information. The subchannel set pattern indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period. The active subchannel set is a part of the one or more available subchannel sets for the sub-network. That is, the number of subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set is less than the whole number of subchannels in the available subchannel sets.

A subchannel set pattern period is a period of time, during which at least one active subchannel set would be reserved for intra sub-network transmissions within the sub-network. The at least one active subchannel set may vary from one subchannel set pattern period to another subchannel set pattern period. The subchannel set pattern may indicate a variation of active subchannel sets over different subchannel set pattern periods. This variation of active subchannel sets may be called as subchannel set hopping in this disclosure. The parameters related to the subchannel set pattern may be used by in-X UEs to derive respective active subchannel sets for each of subchannel set pattern periods. This variation of active subchannel sets enables the sub-network transmissions to be resilient to interference from other sub-network and from jamming attacks. This is beneficial to achieving extreme performances.

For any data transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, one or more physical control channels (e.g., PSCCH) will be mapped to and transmitted on one subchannel of the at least one active subchannel set activated for the subchannel set pattern period under the subchannel set pattern. Further, one or more physical data channels for the data transmissions within the sub-network during the subchannel set pattern period are to be transmitted on the same subchannel as the associated physical control channels and/or on one or more adjacent subchannels.

In some embodiments, the message may be a system control message (SCM) , which is broadcasted to all UEs in the sub-network. In some embodiments, the message may be transmitted by the AP periodically or quasi-periodically over one or more pre-defined specific subchannels (called anchor subchannel herein) , which may have been known by the UEs or be derivable by the UEs, e.g., based on some pre-defined parameters. The anchor subchannel may be out of the active subchannel set.

Accordingly, at block 330, in-X UEs of the sub-network would be configured to monitor and receive the message (e.g., a SCM from the AP) . The UEs may decode the message and derive a subchannel set pattern from the parameters related to the subchannel set pattern, so as to determine at least one active subchannel set among the multiple available subchannel sets for each subchannel set pattern period of interest. Details of the subchannel set pattern and the parameters related to a subchannel set pattern would be described later.

Then, if an in-X UE is a transmitting UE, it would select at least one subchannel in the active subchannel set for intra sub-network transmissions during the subchannel set pattern period, as shown at block 340. In this regard, the transmitting UE may perform channel sensing over a part of subchannel (s) or all subchannel (s) of the active subchannel set, and then selects time/frequency resources for its transmission according to results of the channel sensing, such as the received signal power over the respective subchannels. The subchannels may be selected and used based on the following constraints and properties. A physical control channel (e.g., PSCCH or its evolution) for the transmissions is mapped to the selected subchannel in the active subchannel set. This subchannel may be called control subchannel for this UE. Additionally, a physical data channel (e.g., PSSCH or its evolution) at least occupies the control subchannel, and may extend to one or multiple adjacent subchannels, which may not belong to the active subchannel set, depending on a size of data packets to be transmitted.

If an in-X UE is a receiving UE, it would monitor the subchannels of the active subchannel set during the subchannel set pattern period, e.g., by blindly decoding the physical control channels, as shown at block 350. If a physical control channel is decoded with a matched destination identity (ID) , the UE may proceed to decode the physical data channel to acquire data packets from the transmitting UE.

In some cases, the AP may act as a transmitting UE or a receiving UE. In this regard, operations and features described above for a transmitting UE are also applicable to the AP, in case that the intra sub-network transmission is AP-to-UE transmission. Operations and features described above for a receiving UE are also applicable to the AP, in case that the intra sub-network transmission is UE-to-AP transmission.

Embodiments of the present disclosure proposes a mechanism and procedure to support intra sub-network transmissions with optimized power consumption efficiency. Since the receiving devices (which may be an AP or a UE) only need to monitor a limited number of sub-channels within the active subchannel set for blind decoding the physical control channel for acquiring control information, the complexity and power consumption can be reduced for the receiving devices.

More details of the proposed mechanism for intra sub-network transmissions would be discussed with reference to FIGs. 4 to 13.

Configurations related to subchannel set pattern

A radio access network node (such as base station 221 shown in FIG. 2) of a wide area network may configure parameters related to configurations of subchannel set patterns for a sub-network. The radio access network node may transmit related configuration information to an AP and in-X UEs of a sub-network, via system information broadcasting or dedicated radio resource control (RRC) messages. The configuration information may contain at least one of first configuration information, second configuration information or third configuration information.

The first configuration information related to subchannel sets is available for the sub-network, e.g., subchannel set size (i.e., the number of subchannels contained in each subchannel set) and a distribution of subchannels of each subchannel set in a subband (e.g., uniformly distributed) . The first configuration information related to subchannel sets may be specific for each subband. That is, the subchannel set size and the distribution of subchannels are different for different subbands. Alternatively, the first configuration information related to subchannel sets may be common to all the subbands.

The second configuration information related to transmission of the message (such as SCM) indicates parameters related to a subchannel set pattern. The second configuration information may contain periodicity and offset (or window) for transmissions of the message. An AP may broadcast the SCM periodically or quasi-periodically to in-X UEs in a sub-network according to the second configuration information.

The third configuration information related to a periodicity of a subchannel set pattern may indicates periodicity or interval of the subchannel set hopping (i.e., subchannel set pattern period) during which the active subchannel set remains fixed and may change in the next subchannel set pattern period.

Note that the third configuration information may be absent in some embodiments. In these embodiments, it may be determined by the AP, and then indicated to in-X UEs in the sub-network by the AP in the SCM.

In some embodiments, for the distribution of subchannels of each subchannel set in a subband, at least one of the following options may be pre-defined, or pre-configured, or configured by the radio access network node (i.e., included in the first configuration information) .

● In one embodiment, the subchannels of each subchannel set are evenly distributed across a subband.

● In another embodiment, the subchannels of each subchannel set are continuously distributed in a subband.

● In another embodiment, the subchannels of each subchannel set are non-uniformly distributed in the subband, e.g., distributed in multiple clusters across the subband.

FIG. 4 provides several exemplary distributions and configurations of the subchannel sets per subband. In the examples, it is assumed that there are totally eight subchannels in one subband. In FIG. 4 (a) , it is exemplified that eight subchannel sets are configured, each with a single subchannel. In FIGs. 4 (b) and 4 (c) , four and two subchannel sets are configured, with each subchannel set consisting of two subchannels and four subchannels, respectively. In these examples, it is assumed that the subchannels in each subchannel set are evenly distributed across the subband.

Note that the above configurations related to the subchannel set pattern may also be pre-configured and can be used e.g., when the sub-network moves out of a coverage of the wide area network or the radio access network of the base station. It is assumed the previous configurations of the above-mentioned parameters are obtained reliably by the AP and the in-X UEs of the sub-network.

Without loss of generality, the following embodiments will be based on the subchannel set configuration shown in FIG. 4 (b) .

Transmissions of the system control message

The AP of a sub-network may transmit to all in-X UEs in the sub-network a SCM, which indicates at least parameters related to a subchannel set pattern. The AP may further transmit other system information on the sub-network.

In some embodiments, the SCM may contain at least one of the following information:

1) an index of a slot in which the SCM is transmitted;

2) an index of a frame in which the SCM is transmitted;

3) a periodicity of a subchannel set pattern, such as an interval of a subchannel set pattern period, e.g., the number of time slots included in one subchannel set pattern period;

4) an identity of the sub-network, such as a sub-network ID for subchannel set hopping, which is specific for a sub-network;

5) an indication of a function for deriving indexes of respective active subchannel sets for each subchannel set pattern period; and

6) other system information.

The transmission of the SCM may occur on a specific subchannel (called anchor subchannel) in the operating subband. In an embodiment, the anchor subchannel may be predefined e.g., the first subchannel in the operating subband as shown in FIG. 5. In the example shown in FIG. 5, one operating subband is allocated for transmissions within a sub-network. The operating subband comprises eight subchannels, in which four subchannel sets are configured, with each subchannel set consisting of two subchannels. It may be predefined that the anchor subchannel would be the first subchannel and the system control message (SCM) is transmitted over the anchor subchannel at the first slot of a SCM period. As shown in FIG. 5, there may be a control resource area (i.e., a physical control channel) 503 in the radio resource defined by the first subchannel, and the other part of the radio resource defined by the first subchannel may be a data resource area (i.e., a physical data channel) 504. The control resource area 503 conveys associated control information that is necessary to decode the physical data channel (i.e., denoted by the data resource area 504) . The SCM may be transmitted over the data resource area 504 as the data payload. The configurations of the subband and the subchannel sets may be configured by a base station or the AP, based on the application scenario (such as the type of in-X sub-networks and the specific application scenarios, etc. ) and/or the specific data transmission performance requirements (such as in aspects of latency, reliability, and/or throughput, etc. ) for the transmissions within the sub-networks.

In another embodiment, the anchor subchannel may be derived from an (initial) sub-network ID that is well-known to all the devices of the sub-network. In yet another embodiment, the location or index of anchor subchannel may shift with a pre-configured pattern of subchannel index.

The transmission of the SCM may occur periodically based on a (pre) configured periodicity and an offset, or occur quasi-periodically based on a (pre) configured periodicity and a window setting. The period of SCM transmission (also called SCM period) may be equal to or longer than the subchannel set pattern period, e.g., be an integer multiple of the subchannel set pattern period. In some embodiments, the AP may obtain at least one of the periodicity, offset and window setting for the transmission of the SCM from the base station, e.g., by receiving the second configuration information. In some other embodiments, the AP may determine at least one of a preconfigured periodicity, offset and window setting for the transmission of the SCM by itself.

If needed, the AP may transmit the SCM in multiple subchannels when a robustness for the SCM is needed, e.g., when a strong interference presents.

The SCM period and the subchannel set pattern period may be pre-configured or configured by the base station or the AP. Details as for how to (pre) configure the system control message period and the subchannel set pattern period are not within the scope of the present disclosure.

Devices, i.e., in-X UEs of the sub-network, would receive a broadcasted/multicasted SCM at the specific pre-defined sunchannel (s) . In an example shown in FIG. 5, the in-X UEs may receive and obtain control information for the SCM from the physical control channel (i.e., the control resource area 503) , and then receive data information (e.g., parameters related to a subchannel set pattern) of the SCM from the physical data channel (i.e., the data resource area 504) based on the control information.

Determination of the subchannel set pattern

An exemplary procedure for determining one or more subchannel set patterns by an in-X UE of a sub-network is illustrated in FIG. 6. As shown at block 610, the in-X UE may determine an index of a subchannel set pattern period based on information or parameter acquired from a SCM, e.g., at least one of index of a slot associated with a subchannel set pattern, or a frame associated with a subchannel set pattern, or a periodicity of a subchannel set pattern, etc. The index of a subchannel set pattern period is denoted as IDX_sspp.

FIG. 7 illustrates exemplary different active subchannel sets for intra sub-network transmissions in several intervals of subchannel set pattern. Configurations of the operating subband, the subchannel sets and SCM may be similar as those configurations shown in FIG. 5. For example, in the example of FIG. 7, the index of the subchannel set pattern period during which the SCM is received is denoted as IDX_sspp = n. The slot associated with a subchannel set pattern may be the index of a slot in which the SCM is transmitted. As mentioned above for the transmission of SCM with reference to FIG. 5, in-X UEs may receive an SCM at a predefined subchannel. Then, the UEs would firstly decode the SCM to acquire relevant parameters (e.g., index of slot or frame that the SCM is received, a subchannel set pattern period, and so on) . Based on these parameters, the UEs can determine the subchannel set pattern (i.e., in each subchannel set pattern period, which subchannel set is the active subchannel set) .

As an example, from the received SCM, the in-X UE may determine that the slot in which the SCM is transmitted is indexed as 0, and a periodicity of a subchannel set pattern is 5. Then, the in-X UE may determine that the index of the subchannel set pattern period #n, in which the SCM is transmitted, is n=0, assuming that the subchannel set pattern period #0 is spanning slot 0 through slot 4. Then, the in-X UE may further determine that the index of the next subchannel set pattern period # (n+1) is 1.

At block 620, the in-X UE may further obtain a parameter of a sub-network ID of the sub-network, which is denoted as: ID_ssh. The sub-network ID of the sub-network may be notified to the in-X device by the AP when it joins the sub-network. The sub-network ID may be an identifier used dedicatedly for subchannel set hopping. Alternatively, it may be an identity for identifying the sub-network in a general sense.

Then, at block 630, the in-X UE may derive an index of an active subchannel set during the interval #IDX_sspp of subchannel set pattern as a function of IDX_sspp and ID_ssh, such that different sub-networks (with different ID_ssh) or different subchannel set pattern periods (with different IDX_sspp) may lead to different indexes of active subchannel sets. The function may be a default or fixed function, e.g., specified in a related standard or protocol. Alternatively, multiple functions may be pre-defined and one out of them is indicated by the AP in the SCM to the devices to be used in deriving the index of the active subchannel set. In the example shown in FIG. 7, the subchannel set 2 (which consists of subchannel #3 and subchannel #7) is determined as the active subchannel set during the subchannel set pattern period #0, and the subchannel set 4 (which consists of subchannel #1 and subchannel #5) is determined as the active subchannel set during the subchannel set pattern period #1, as shown by the parts framed with bold lines in the FIG. 7. Then, the potential transmitting or receiving for the in-X UEs would be performed by using the active subchannel set. In this regard, the resource for transmitting during a subchannel set pattern period is to be selected from the subchannels of the active subchannel set determined for the subchannel set pattern period; and the monitoring and receiving during a subchannel set pattern period is only on the subchannels of the active subchannel set determined for the subchannel set pattern period.

Operations of a transmitting UE and a receiving UE of a sub-network

An AP and in-X UEs of a sub-network could perform intra sub-network transmissions during a subchannel set pattern period, over one or more subchannels in at least one active subchannel set for the subchannel set pattern period. A transmitting device (which may be an AP or a UE) of an intra sub-network transmission may perform the intra sub-network transmissions at least by following operations.

In case that there are new data to be transmitted (e.g., in a transmit buffer) at the transmitting device, the transmitting device may perform channel sensing over subchannels of the active subchannel set. The operation of channel sensing may comprise decoding a physical control channel to obtain information related to resource reservations from other transmitting devices at least in the sub-network, and performing associated RSRP measurements to measure a received power level from those transmitting devices. The operations of channel sensing may reuse defined channel sensing defined in NR sidelink.

Based on results of the channel sensing, the transmitting device may select resources in time domain or frequency domain at least from subchannels of the active subchannel set, for transmitting the data packet (s) . In this regard, the selection may be performed to avoid conflict or interference with other transmissions in the sub-network. In some embodiments, a physical control channel (e.g., PSCCH or its evolution) of the transmission may be transmitted on the selected subchannel in the active subchannel set. This subchannel is called control subchannel for this transmitting device herein. The physical data channel (e.g., PSSCH or its evolution) of the transmission may at least occupy the control subchannel, and/or may extend to one or multiple subchannels adjacent to the control subchannel. In an example, one physical data channel may occupy both the control subchannel and at least one subchannel adjacent to the control subchannel. This subchannel is called data subchannel for this transmitting device herein. In some cases, the data subchannel may not belong to the active subchannel set, depending on data packet size.

A receiving device (which may be an AP or a UE) of an intra sub-network transmission may receive the intra sub-network transmissions at least by following operations.

As a potential receiver, the receiving device may only monitor the subchannels of the active subchannel set, by blindly decoding physical control channels. If a physical control channel is decoded with a matched destination ID by the receiving device, the receiving device may proceed to decode a physical data channel associated with the physical control channel, to acquire data packets from a transmitting device. It is noted that as the receiving device only need to monitor the subchannels of the active subchannel set, instead of all the subchannels in a subband. As such, the computational complexity and the power consumption can be reduced substantially.

FIG. 8 illustrates exemplary resource allocations for intra sub-network transmissions during two subchannel set pattern periods, #n and # (n+1) , according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Configurations of the operating subband, the subchannel sets and SCM may be similar as those configurations shown in FIGs. 5 and 7.

As shown in FIG. 8, in the n-th subchannel set pattern period, the subchannel set 2 is determined as the active subchannel set which consists of subchannel #3 and subchannel #7. Particularly, a transmitting UE (denoted as UE1) of a sub-network may select resources on the subchannel #3 from the active subchannel set to transmit data to an AP of the sub-network. A physical control channel (as shown at 803) for data transmission (denoted as UE1-to-AP) is to be transmitted on the radio resource defined by subchannel #3 and a corresponding slot (e.g., slot #1 in this example) , and a data channel (as shown at 804) for this UE1-to-AP transmission is to be transmitted on the radio resource defined by subchannel #3 and a corresponding slot (e.g., slot#1 in this example) . As a size of the data packets to be transmitted is large, the data channel may be extended to an adjacent subchannel, e.g., subchannel #4.In this case, the physical control channel 803 includes scheduling information for the subchannel #3 and #4 in slot #1. However, even though the data channel may be extended to the adjacent subchannel, the control channel should be transmitted in the active subchannel set.

Similarly, for transmissions from the AP to UE1 (denoted as AP-to-UE1) , the AP may select resources in the subchannel set pattern period #n. In some embodiments, the AP may select a same subchannel as that for the UE1-to-AP transmission, for example, the AP may perform transmission and/or reception via a physical control channel and/or a physical data channel on subchannel #3. In similar manner, in the (n+1) -th subchannel set pattern period, UE2 and UE3 may select resources from active subchannel set 4 and transmit data packets to each other. In case sizes of the data packets to be transmitted from UE2 to UE3 is large, the resources from other subchannel set than active subchannel set 4 may be selected for transmitting data packets from UE2 to UE3.

In some embodiment, a subband consisting of a number of subchannels may span multiple resource block (RB) sets for Listen Before Talk (LBT) (also known as LBT bands) . That may be applicable, for example, in unlicensed spectrum where a carrier band (e.g., 5GHz band n46, or 6GHz band n96 or n102, without loss of generality) has multiple RB sets of 20MHz. In that case, it is possible that a resource pool of multiple subchannels sets is configured to be over more than one RB set of 20MHz. In one embodiment, the knowledge of the subchannel sets spanning multiple LBT bands may be used by an AP of a sub-network when deciding subchannel set patterns, so as to ensure that consecutive LBT failures in one LBT band will not cause a consecutive failure of a sub-network transmission. This can be achieved e.g., by placing SCM interchanged in LBT bands, or redundantly in LBT bands.

Referring now to FIG. 9, an exemplary flowchart 900 for intra sub-network transmissions is illustrated. This exemplary flowchart indicates interactions among an AP and in-X UEs of a sub-network, and may be implemented in the sub-network illustrated in FIGs 1 and 2. The AP 901 may be implemented in AP 201, and the in-X UEs 902 and 903 may be implemented in sensor 202 and sensor 203, and the gNB 904 may be implemented in base station 221.

At step 910, the gNB 904 determines configurations at least related to one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network.

At step 920, the gNB 904 transmits first configuration information at least related to the available subchannel sets to the AP 901, e.g., through system information or a RRC signaling.

At step 930, the AP 901 obtains the first configuration information related to the available subchannel sets from the gNB 904. In some cases, the AP 901 may receive the system information or the RRC signaling from the gNB 904. Note that in some cases, e.g., when the AP 901 is outside a coverage of the gNB 904, the AP 901 may determine the first configuration information by itself. For example, the AP 901 may determine the available subchannel sets from some pre-configurations, such as some default subchannel sets preconfigured by the gNB 904 or specified (e.g., in a protocol) to be used for sub-networks. Here, the “pre-configurations” may be configurations that was obtained from the gNB when the AP is in its coverage (but now it may be out of the coverage) . Alternatively or additionally, the “pre-configurations” may be configurations that are specified in a protocol and stored at the AP. The first configuration information may be a part of the pre-configurations, and so it can be obtained from the pre-configurations. From this perspective, the steps 910 and 920 may be optional, and drawn with dotted lines.

At step 940, the AP 901 may transmit a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern, e.g., through a system control message (SCM) broadcasted within the sub-network. The subchannel set pattern indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for intra sub-network transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period.

In-X UEs in the sub-network, such as the in-X UEs 902 and 903, may monitor to receive the SCM as shown at steps 950a and 950b.

Next at steps 960a and 960b, the in-X UEs 902 and 903 may determine the at least one active subchannel set and/or the subchannel set pattern from the received SCM.

If there are data to be transmitted at the in-X UE 902, it may perform channel sensing and select resources for at least one physical control channel and at least one physical data channel, from subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set, at step 970.

Then, the in-X UE 902 may perform at least one transmission via the at least one physical control channel and/or the at least one physical data channel, e.g., to the in-X UE 903 at step 980a and 980b.

In-X UEs (e.g., in-X UE 903) within the subnetwork may monitor subchannels in each active subchannel set, which is determined based on the information contained in the SCM received at step 960b. At step 990a, the in-X UE 903 may monitor subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set. If it can decode a physical control channel from the in-X UE 902, e.g., with the destination ID in the physical control channel of its interest, it may further decode an associated physical data channel from the in-X UE 902 for receiving data.

The AP 901 may also monitor subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set, as shown at step 990b. In the example shown in FIG. 9, the AP 901 may detect the physical control channel transmitted by the in-X UE 902 at step 980b. As the AP 901 is not a target receiver (e.g., indicated by the destination ID in the physical control channel) , the AP 901 will not continue to decode the physical data channel.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart depicting a method 1000 according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 1000 can be implemented at an access node. For example, the method 1000 may be implemented at the AP 201 and AP 901 as shown in FIGs. 2 and 9. It can be appreciated that the method 1000 may be implemented at other network nodes or devices.

As shown at block 1010, the method 1000 comprises obtaining first configuration information related to one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network. One of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels. The first configuration information may comprise at least one of: a size of respective subchannel sets of the one or more subchannel sets; or information related to a distribution of the one or more subchannel sets in a subband. The first configuration information may be received from a base station, or may be obtained based on pre-configurations at the access node.

Then the method 1000 further comprises transmitting to one or more network devices (such as in-X UEs) , a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern based on the first configuration information. The subchannel set pattern indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period. The at least one active subchannel set is a part of the one or more subchannel sets.

In an embodiment, the method 1000 may further comprise determining the subchannel set pattern at least based on the first configuration information. For example, a subchannel set pattern may be selected from a group of subchannel set patterns, e.g., based on a number of the one or more subchannel sets, a distribution of the one or more subchannel sets in the subband, or a number of UEs in the sub-network, or other factors.

In an embodiment, the method 1000 may further comprise obtaining second configuration information related to a transmission of the message. The second configuration information may be received from the base station or may be obtained based on pre-configurations at the access node.

In an embodiment, the method 1000 may further comprise obtaining third configuration information related to a periodicity of the subchannel set pattern. The third configuration information may be received from the base station or may be obtained based on pre-configurations at the access node.

In an embodiment, the parameters contained in the message related to the subchannel set pattern comprise at least one of: an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern, such as an index of a slot in which the message is transmitted; an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern, such as an index of a frame in which the message is transmitted; a periodicity of the subchannel set pattern, such as an interval of a subchannel set pattern period; an identity of the subnetwork; or an indication of a function for deriving indexes of the at least one active subchannel set.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart depicting a method 1100 according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 1100 can be implemented at a network device of a sub-network, which may be any suitable wireless communication device. For example, the method 1100 may be implemented at a transmitting UE, such as the in-X UE 902. It can be appreciated that the method 1100 may be implemented at other devices.

As shown at block 1110, the method 1100 comprises receiving a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern, which indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmission within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period. The at least one active subchannel sets is a part of one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network. One of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels.

At block 1120, the method 1100 further comprises based on the subchannel set pattern, selecting at least one subchannel in the at least one active subchannel set for the one or more transmissions within the sub-network during the subchannel set pattern period. The selecting may comprise determining from the message, the subchannel set pattern or the at least one active subchannel set for the subchannel set pattern period. The selecting may further comprise determining an index of the subchannel set pattern period, from at least one of: an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern, an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern, and the periodicity of the subchannel set pattern, which are comprised in the parameters; and deriving an index of the at least one active subchannel set at least as a function of the index of the subchannel set pattern period and the identity of the subnetwork.

In an embodiment, the method 1100 may further comprise determining from the message, the subchannel set pattern or the at least one active subchannel set for the subchannel set pattern period.

In an embodiment, the method 1100 may further comprise performing channel sensing over subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set. The at least one subchannel for the one or more transmissions is selected based on results of the channel sensing.

In an embodiment, the method 1100 may further comprise transmitting one or more physical control channels for the one or more transmissions on the at least one selected subchannel during the subchannel set pattern period.

In an embodiment, the method 1100 may further comprise transmitting one or more physical data channels for the one or more transmissions on the at least one selected subchannel during the subchannel set pattern period. In an embodiment, the method 1100 may further comprise transmitting one or more physical data channels for the one or more transmissions on one or more subchannels adjacent to the at least one selected subchannel during the subchannel set pattern period. In an example, one physical data channel may be transmitted on both the at least one selected subchannel and one or more adjacent subchannels during the subchannel set pattern period.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart depicting a method 1200 according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 1200 can be implemented at a network device of a sub-network, which may be any suitable wireless communication device. For example, the method 1200 may be implemented at a receiving UE, such as the in-X UE 903. It can be appreciated that the method 1200 may be implemented at other devices.

As shown at block 1210, the method 1200 comprises receiving a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern which indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period. The one or more active subchannel set is a part of one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network. One of the one or more subchannel set comprises one or more subchannels.

At block 1220, the method 1200 further comprises monitoring subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set during the subchannel set pattern period. In an embodiment, monitoring the subchannels comprises blindly decoding a physical control channel over the subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set; and in case that it is determined that the physical control channel is decoded with a destination identity of its interest, receiving and decoding a physical data channel over at least the subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set during the subchannel set pattern period.

In an embodiment, the method 1200 further comprises determining from the message, the subchannel set pattern or the at least one active subchannel set for the subchannel set pattern period.

In an embodiment, the method 1200 may further comprise determining an index of the subchannel set pattern period, from at least one of: an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern, an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern, and the periodicity of the subchannel set pattern, which are comprised in the parameters; and deriving an index of the at least one active subchannel set at least as a function of the index of the subchannel set pattern period and the identity of the subnetwork.

Embodiments of this disclosure may provide transmission mechanisms and procedure for sub-networks, with the following advantages. Firstly, a sub-network AP can only play limited coordination/control functions to avoid the significant signaling overhead/complexity and the associated latency. For example, the sub-network AP can only take charge of subband (re) selection, and a transmitting node (which may be an AP or a sub-network device) may select resources autonomously for its intra sub-network transmission within a subband. Secondly, a receiver node (which may be an AP or a sub-network device) only need to monitor a limited number of subchannels (in an extreme case, a single subchannel within the subband) to capture the physical control channel from the transmitting UE, instead of blindly monitoring all the subchannels for acquiring the physical control channel. In this way, the complexity and power consumption can be greatly reduced for the sub-network nodes. Thirdly, the sub-network communication should be resilient to interference from neighbor sub-network transmissions and from jamming attacks, and at the same time avoid high complexity and power consumption for monitoring as per above.

Now reference is made to FIG. 13 illustrating a simplified block diagram of an apparatus1200 that may be embodied in/as an access node (such as an AP) , or a sub-network device (such as an in-X UE) . The apparatus 1300 may comprise at least one processor 1301, such as a data processor (DP) and at least one memory (MEM) 1302 coupled to the at least one processor 1301. The apparatus 1300 may further comprise one or more transmitters TX, one or more receivers RX 1303, or one or more transceivers coupled to the one or more processors 1301 to communicate wirelessly and/or through wireline.

Although not shown, the apparatus 1300 may have at least one communication interface, for example, the communicate interface can be at least one antenna, or transceiver as shown in the FIG. 13. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network entities.

The processors 1301 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples.

The MEMs 1302 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor-based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples.

The MEM 1302 stores a program (PROG) 1304. The PROG 1304 may include instructions that, when executed on the associated processor 1301, enable the apparatus 1300 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, for example to perform one of the methods 1000, 1100 and 1200. A combination of the at least one processor 1301 and the at least one MEM 1202 may form processing circuitry or means 1305 adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by computer program executable by one or more of the processors 1301, software, firmware, hardware or in a combination thereof.

In general, the various exemplary embodiments may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. For example, some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device, although the invention is not limited thereto. While various aspects of the exemplary embodiments of this disclosure may be illustrated and described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other pictorial representation, it is well understood that these blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

As such, it should be appreciated that at least some aspects of the exemplary embodiments of the disclosures may be practiced in various components such as integrated circuit chips and modules. It should thus be appreciated that the exemplary embodiments of this disclosure may be realized in an apparatus that is embodied as an integrated circuit, where the integrated circuit may comprise circuitry (as well as possibly firmware) for embodying at least one or more of a data processor, a digital signal processor, baseband circuitry and radio frequency circuitry that are configurable so as to operate in accordance with the exemplary embodiments of this disclosure.

It should be appreciated that at least some aspects of the exemplary embodiments of the disclosures may be embodied in computer-executable instructions, such as in one or more program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types when executed by a processor in a computer or other device. The computer executable instructions may be stored on a computer readable medium, for example, non-transitory computer readable medium, such as a hard disk, optical disk, removable storage media, solid state memory, RAM, etc. As will be appreciated by one of skills in the art, the function of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments. In addition, the function may be embodied in whole or in part in firmware or hardware equivalents such as integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) , and the like.

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

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

As used herein, the phrase “at least one of A and B” or “at least one of A or B” should be understood to mean “only A, only B, or both A and B. ” The phrase “A and/or B” should be understood to mean “only A, only B, or both A and B” .

The present disclosure includes any novel feature or combination of features disclosed herein either explicitly or any generalization thereof. Various modifications and adaptations to the foregoing exemplary embodiments of this disclosure may become apparent to those skilled in the relevant arts in view of the foregoing description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, any and all modifications will still fall within the scope of the non-limiting and exemplary embodiments of this disclosure.

Claims

An apparatus implemented at an access point of a sub-network of a radio access network, the apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

obtain first configuration information related to one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, wherein one of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels; and

transit, to one or more network devices, a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern based on the first configuration information, wherein the subchannel set pattern indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, and the at least one active subchannel set is a part of the one or more subchannel sets.
The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the subchannel set pattern further indicates a variation of active subchannel sets over different subchannel set pattern periods.
The apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein when the instructions executed by the one or more processors, the apparatus is further caused at least to:

determine the subchannel set pattern at least based on the first configuration information.
The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein one or more physical control channels for the one or more transmissions within the sub-network during the subchannel set pattern period are to be transmitted on one or more subchannels of the at least one active subchannel set.
The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein one or more physical data channels for the one or more transmissions within the sub-network during the subchannel set pattern period are to be transmitted on one or more subchannels of the at least one active subchannel set.
The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the parameters comprise at least one of:

an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern;

an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern;

a periodicity of the subchannel set pattern;

an identity of the sub-network; or

an indication of a function for deriving indexes of the at least one active subchannel set.
The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the message is transmitted over one or more pre-defined specific subchannels.
The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 7, wherein obtaining the first configuration information related to the one or more subchannel sets comprises at least one of:

receiving the first configuration information from a base station of the radio access network; or

obtaining the first configuration information based on pre-configurations at the apparatus.
The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein when the instructions executed by the one or more processors, the apparatus is further caused to perform at least one of the following operations:

obtaining second configuration information related to a transmission of the message; or

obtaining third configuration information related to a periodicity of the subchannel set pattern.
The apparatus according to any of claim 9,

wherein obtaining the second configuration information comprises at least one of:

receiving the second configuration information from the base station; or

obtaining the second configuration information based on pre-configurations at the apparatus,

wherein obtaining the third configuration information comprises at least one of:

receiving the third configuration from the base station; or

obtaining the third configuration information based on pre-configurations at the apparatus.
The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the first configuration information comprises at least one of:

a size of respective subchannel sets of the one or more subchannel sets; or

information related to a distribution of the one or more subchannel sets in a subband.
An apparatus implemented at a network device of a sub-network of a radio access network, the apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

receive a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern which indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, wherein the at least one active subchannel set is a part of one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, and one of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels; and

based on the subchannel set pattern, select at least one subchannel in the at least one active subchannel set for the one or more transmissions within the sub-network during the subchannel set pattern period.
The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the subchannel set pattern further indicates a variation of active subchannel sets over different subchannel set pattern periods.
The apparatus according to claim 12 or 13, wherein selecting the at least one subchannel comprises:

determining from the message, the subchannel set pattern or the at least one active subchannel set for the subchannel set pattern period.
The apparatus according to any of claims 12 to 14, wherein when the instructions executed by the one or more processors, the apparatus is further caused at least to:

transmit one or more physical control channels for the one or more transmissions on the at least one selected subchannel during the subchannel set pattern period.
The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein when the instructions executed by the one or more processors, the apparatus is further caused at least to

transmit one or more physical data channels for the one or more transmissions on the at least one selected subchannel during the subchannel set pattern period.
The apparatus according to claim 15 or 16, wherein when the instructions executed by the one or more processors, the apparatus is further caused at least to

transmit one or more physical data channels for the one or more transmissions on one or more subchannels adjacent to the at least one selected subchannel during the subchannel set pattern period.
The apparatus according to any of claims 12 to 17, wherein the parameters comprise at least one of:

an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern;

an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern;

a periodicity of the subchannel set pattern;

an identity of the sub-network; or

an indication of a function for deriving indexes of the at least one active subchannel set.
The apparatus according to claim 18, wherein selecting the at least one subchannel comprises:

determining an index of the subchannel set pattern period, from at least one of an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern, an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern, and the periodicity of the subchannel set pattern; and

deriving an index of the at least one active subchannel set at least from the index of the subchannel set pattern period and the identity of the sub-network, according to the function.
The apparatus according to any of claims 12 to 19, wherein the message is received over one or more pre-defined specific subchannels.
The apparatus according to any of claims 12 to 20, wherein when the instructions executed by the one or more processors, the apparatus is further caused at least to:

perform channel sensing over subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set;

wherein the at least one subchannel for the one or more transmissions is selected based on results of the channel sensing.
An apparatus implemented at a network device of a sub-network of a radio access network, the apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

receive a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern which indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, wherein at least one active subchannel set is a part of one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, and one of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels; and

monitor subchannels in at least one active subchannel set during the subchannel set pattern period.
The apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the subchannel set pattern further indicates a variation of active subchannel sets over different subchannel set pattern periods.
The apparatus according to claim 22 or 23, wherein when the instructions executed by the one or more processors, the apparatus is further caused at least to:

determine from the message, the subchannel set pattern or the at least one active subchannel set for the subchannel set pattern period.
The apparatus according to any of claims 22 to 24, wherein monitoring the subchannels comprises:

blindly decoding a physical control channel over the subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set; and

in case that it is determined that the physical control channel is decoded with a destination identity matched to the network device, receiving and decoding a physical data channel over at least the subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set during the subchannel set pattern period.
The apparatus according to any of claims 22 to 25, wherein the parameters comprise at least one of:

an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern;

an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern;

a periodicity of the subchannel set pattern;

an identity of the sub-network; and

an indication of a function for deriving indexes of the at least one active subchannel set.
The apparatus according to claim 26, wherein when the instructions are executed by the at least one processor, the apparatus is further caused at least to:

determine an index of the subchannel set pattern period, from at least one of an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern, an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern, and the periodicity of the subchannel set pattern; and

derive an index of the at least oner active subchannel set at least from the index of the subchannel set pattern period and the identity of the sub-network, according to the function.
The apparatus according to any of claims 22 to 27, wherein the message is received over one or more pre-defined specific subchannels.
A method performed at an access point of a sub-network of a radio access network, the method comprising:

obtaining first configuration information related to one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, wherein one of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels; and

transmitting to one or more network devices, a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern based on the first configuration information, wherein the subchannel set pattern indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, and the at least one active subchannel set is a part of the one or more subchannel sets.
The method according to claim 29, wherein the subchannel set pattern further indicates a variation of active subchannel sets over different subchannel set pattern periods.
The method according to claim 29 or 30, further comprising:

determining the subchannel set pattern at least based on the first configuration information.
The method according to any of claims 29 to 31, wherein one or more physical control channels for the one or more transmissions within the sub-network during the subchannel set pattern period are to be transmitted on one or more subchannels of the at least one active subchannel set.
The method according to claim32, wherein one or more physical data channels for the one or more transmissions within the sub-network during the subchannel set pattern period are to be transmitted on one or more subchannels of the at least one active subchannel set.
The method according to any of claims 29 to 33, wherein the parameters comprise at least one of:

an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern;

an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern;

a periodicity of the subchannel set pattern;

an identity of the sub-network; and

an indication of a function for deriving indexes of the at least one active subchannel set.
The method according to any of claims 29 to 34, wherein the message is transmitted over one or more pre-defined specific subchannels.
The method according to any of claims 29 to 35, wherein obtaining the first configuration information related to the one or more subchannel sets comprises at least one of:

receiving the first configuration information from a base station of the radio access network; or

obtaining the first configuration information based on pre-configurations at the apparatus.
The method according to any of claims 29 to 36, further comprising:

obtaining second configuration information related to a transmission of the message; or

obtaining third configuration information related to a periodicity of the subchannel set pattern.
The method according to claim 37,

wherein obtaining the second configuration information comprises at least one of:

receiving the second configuration information from the base station; or

obtaining the second configuration information based on pre-configurations at the apparatus,

wherein obtaining the third configuration information comprises at least one of

receiving the third configuration information from the base station; or

obtaining the third configuration information based on pre-configurations at the apparatus.
The method according to any of claims 29 to 38, wherein the first configuration information comprises at least one of:

a size of respective subchannel sets of the one or more subchannel sets; or

information related to a distribution the one or more subchannel sets in a subband.
A method performed at a network device of a sub-network of a radio access network, the method comprising:

receiving a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern which indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmission within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, wherein the at least one active subchannel sets is a part of one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, and one of the one or more subchannel sets comprises one or more subchannels; and

based on the subchannel set pattern, selecting at least one subchannel in the at least one active subchannel set for the one or more transmissions within the sub-network during the subchannel set pattern period.
The method according to claim 40, wherein the subchannel set pattern further indicates a variation of active subchannel sets over different subchannel set pattern periods.
The method according to claim 40 or 41, wherein selecting the at least one subchannel comprises:

determining from the message, the subchannel set pattern or the at least one active subchannel set for the subchannel set pattern period.
The method according to any of claims 40 to 42, further comprising:

transmitting one or more physical control channels for the one or more transmissions on the at least one selected subchannels during the subchannel set pattern period.
The method according to claim 43, further comprising:

transmitting one or more physical data channels for the one or more transmissions on the at least one selected subchannel during the subchannel set pattern period.
The method according to claim 43 or 44, further comprising:

transmitting one or more physical data channels for the one or more transmissions on one or more subchannels adjacent to the at least one selected subchannel during the subchannel set pattern period.
The method according to any of claim 40 to 45, wherein the parameters comprise at least one of:

an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern;

an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern;

a periodicity of the subchannel set pattern;

an identity of the sub-network; and

an indication of a function for deriving indexes of the at least one active subchannel set.
The method according to claim 46, wherein selecting the at least one subchannel comprises:

determining an index of the subchannel set pattern period, from at least one of an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern, an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern, and the periodicity of the subchannel set pattern; and

deriving an index of the at least one active subchannel set at least from the index of the subchannel set pattern period and the identity of the sub-network, according to the function.
The method according to any of claims 40 to 47, wherein the message is received over one or more pre-defined specific subchannels.
The method according to any of claims 40 to 48, further comprising:

performing channel sensing over subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set;

wherein the at least one subchannel for the one or more transmissions is selected based on results of the channel sensing.
A method performed at a network device of a sub-network of a radio access network, the method comprising:

receiving a message indicating parameters related to a subchannel set pattern which indicates at least one active subchannel set to be used for one or more transmissions within the sub-network during a subchannel set pattern period, wherein the one or more active subchannel set is a part of one or more subchannel sets available for the sub-network, and one of the one or more subchannel set comprises one or more subchannels; and

monitoring subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set during the subchannel set pattern period.
The method according to claim 50, wherein the subchannel set pattern further indicates a variation of active subchannel sets over different subchannel set pattern periods.
The method according to claim 50 or 51, further comprising:

determining from the message, the subchannel set pattern or the at least one active subchannel set for the subchannel set pattern period.
The method according to any of claims 50 to 52, wherein monitoring the subchannels comprises:

blindly decoding a physical control channel over the subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set; and

in case that it is determined that the physical control channel is decoded with a destination identity matched to the network device, receiving and decoding a physical data channel over at least the subchannels in the at least one active subchannel set during the subchannel set pattern period.
The method according to any of claims 50 to 53, wherein the parameters comprise at least one of:

an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern;

an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern;

a periodicity of the subchannel set pattern;

an identity of the sub-network; and

an indication of a function for deriving indexes of the at least one active subchannel set.
The method according to claim 54, further comprising:

determining an index of the subchannel set pattern period, from at least one of an index of a slot associated with the subchannel set pattern, an index of a frame associated with the subchannel set pattern, and the periodicity of the subchannel set pattern; and

deriving an index of the at least one active subchannel set at least from the index of the subchannel set pattern period and the identity of the sub-network, according to the function.
The method according to any of claims 50 to 55, wherein the message is received over one or more pre-defined specific subchannels.
A computer-readable medium having computer program codes embodied thereon which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method according to any of claims 29 to 39.
A computer-readable medium having computer program codes embodied thereon which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method according to any of claims 40 to 49.
A computer-readable medium having computer program codes embodied thereon which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method according to any of claims 50 to 56.