阅读说明：本技术 用于v2x的组播过程 (Multicast procedure for V2X ) 是由 萨伦·塞尔瓦尼安 托马斯·菲润巴赫 罗亚·易卜拉欣·礼萨加 科尼利厄斯·海勒格 托马斯·威尔 于 2020-01-14 设计创作，主要内容包括：一种无线通信系统包括多个用户设备UE和根据一个或多个逻辑组标准限定的至少一个逻辑组。逻辑组包括待被经由侧行链路连接以与彼此进行侧行链路通信的多个成员UE,并且逻辑组的所有成员UE都被分配相同的目的地标识ID,目的地ID对于逻辑组是唯一的。(A wireless communication system includes a plurality of user equipments, UEs, and at least one logical group defined according to one or more logical group criteria. The logical group includes a plurality of member UEs to be connected via a sidelink for sidelink communication with each other, and all the member UEs of the logical group are assigned the same destination identification ID, which is unique to the logical group.)

1. A wireless communication system, comprising:

a plurality of user equipments UE and

at least one logical group defined according to one or more logical group criteria, the logical group comprising a plurality of member UEs to be connected via a sidelink for sidelink communication with each other,

wherein all member UEs of the logical group are assigned the same destination identification ID, the destination ID being unique to the logical group.

2. The wireless communication system of claim 1, wherein the one or more logical group criteria comprise one or more of:

the initial size of the group is the size of the group,

the duration of the group is the duration of the group,

the final location of the group, such as the end point or destination,

a vector of sets/positions of waypoints,

the UE speed or velocity, and the UE velocity,

ranges, e.g., UEs sharing the same location or being close to each other,

the requirements of the QoS are set by the QoS requirements,

CSI, RSSI, RSRQ, RSRP UE measurements,

the range of base station or UE transmissions, and the location or direction or environment and/or velocity or speed of the UE within said range,

the UEs are temporarily located within a specific geographical location or area or close to a specific infrastructure, e.g. RSU, traffic lights, etc., and have the same properties, such as direction or environment and/or range of speed or velocity.

3. The wireless communication system of claim 2, wherein the logical group of criteria or a combination of the logical group of criteria is used to form the logical group from a network perspective.

4. The wireless communication system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the logical group is managed by an application server, such as a V2X application enabler, VAE, server, which assigns a unique destination ID to the logical group, wherein the application server can be located outside or inside the wireless communication system or one or more of the plurality of UEs can function as the application server.

5. The wireless communication system of claim 4, wherein the application server handles joining of new UEs to the logical group and assigning unique destination IDs to new UEs, and leaving of member UEs with unique destination IDs revoked.

6. The wireless communication system of any of the preceding claims, wherein the logical group is managed by one or more of the plurality of UEs, the UEs being configured with rules for generating unique destination IDs for the logical group using the one or more logical group criteria.

7. The wireless communication system of any preceding claim, wherein in the event that one of the member UEs is to perform a transmission within the logical group, the transmitting member UE is configured to generate a source ID, for example by an application layer or V2X layer, wherein to generate the source ID, the transmitting member UE is configured to consider the source ID of a current or existing transmitting member UE to generate or select a different source ID.

8. The wireless communication system of claim 8, wherein in the event that two transmission member UEs generate or select the same source ID, a collision in source IDs

Detected and resolved by the application layer, or

In response to a request to transmit resources by a transmitting member UE, an entity of the wireless communication system, such as a gNB, for allocating and scheduling resources is configured to detect the conflict, e.g. based on a source UE ID and/or C-RNTI or the conflict being reported by member UEs of the logical group, and to signal a notification of a source ID conflict to at least one of the transmitting member UEs, and

detected by the member UE (in case of out-of-coverage),

wherein the at least one transmitting member UE is configured to generate or select a new source ID.

9. The wireless communication system of any of the preceding claims, wherein any conflicts between logical groups using the same unique destination ID are resolved by one or more of the applications defining the logical group.

10. The wireless communication system according to any of the preceding claims, comprising a group supervisor that is aware of or configured to collect unique destination IDs of some or all UEs that are members of one or more logical groups.

11. The wireless communication system according to claim 10, wherein the group supervisor comprises one or more network entities, such as base stations, and/or UEs, and/or network components, such as core network functions, of the wireless communication system.

12. The wireless communication system of claim 11, wherein the group supervisor is a base station when member UEs of a logical group are in coverage and operating in RRC Idle, RRC Inactive or RRC Connected mode, and member UEs of the same logical group intending to perform SL communication within the logical group are configured to signal the intent of SL communication to the base station via a message, e.g., a sidelink UE information RRC message.

13. The wireless communication system of claim 12, wherein the message comprises at least a first information element and a second information element,

the first information element indicates a single unique destination ID describing all members of the logical group, an

The second information element indicates whether the transmission is a multicast for the logical group and indicates a logical group ID,

wherein the one or more logical groups are inferred by the base station from the first information element or the one or more logical groups are indicated to the base station by member UEs requesting resources for SL communication using the second information element, and

wherein the base station is configured to accordingly provide resources for SL communication within the logical group based on the existence of the logical group, wherein the resources can be from a dedicated set of resources, such as mini resource pools for SL.

14. The wireless communication system of any of claims 11 to 13, wherein the group supervisor is a member UE of the logical group.

15. The wireless communication system of claim 14, wherein the member UEs of the logical group that become the group supervisor are referred to as group leaders or GL UEs of the logical group.

16. The wireless communication system of claim 15, wherein the GL UEs are configured to identify and collect source IDs of member UEs of the logical group, the member UEs of the logical group being configured to perform multicast transmissions within the logical group, wherein the GL UEs of the logical group and all other member UEs have the same unique destination ID.

17. The wireless communication system of claim 17, wherein the GL UE is configured to identify and collect the source ID via:

PC5-RRC signaling, or

SCI on physical SL control channel.

18. The wireless communication system of claim 16 or 17, wherein the GL UE is configured to identify and collect the source IDs only for:

traffic with priority over a certain threshold, e.g. traffic with high QoS requirements, and/or

Certain types of traffic, such as SPS or OS traffic,

wherein for traffic, the member UE is capable of sensing the source ID from a set of resources for SL communication.

19. The wireless communication system of any of claims 14 to 18, wherein, when within coverage, the GL UE is configured to communicate with a base station on behalf of an entire logical group, e.g. to request resources for SL communication from another transmission member UE of the logical group that sends its resource request to the GL UE.

20. The wireless communication system of any of claims 14 to 19, wherein the GL UE is configured to communicate with a wireless communication device

Selected by the application layer so that member UEs know the GL UE in its own application layer, or

Selection by the application layer according to the configuration of the UE, or

Selected by the application layer according to preset or preconfigured rules regarding priority for use as source ID for the GLUE, or

Selected by one or more entities of the wireless communication system.

21. The wireless communication system of any of claims 14 to 20, wherein the member UEs of the logical group that initiate the first multicast within the logical group are the GL UEs, at least initially, and all member UEs that are the destination of the first multicast identify a transmitting member UE as the GL UE, wherein the GL UE can signal its presence to the entire logical group, e.g., periodically or at certain intervals.

22. The wireless communication system of any of claims 14 to 21, wherein the GL UE is configured to:

for example, periodically or at certain intervals, signaling its presence to the entire logical group, and

in case the current GL UE disconnects or disappears, or in case the current GL UE wants to stop as a GL UE, a new GL UE is defined by:

o negotiation between the remaining member UEs, or

O, for example, by selecting a member UE from the list, indicating that one or more member UEs will be the storage configuration of the new GL UE.

23. The wireless communication system of any of claims 14 to 22, wherein, in case a current GL UE wants to stop GL UEs as a group, the current GL UE is configured to:

signaling a request to a member UE with a source ID,

in response to receiving an acknowledgement from the member UE that it is going to become a new GL UE, signaling the new GL UE to the member UE, and

fallback from GL UE, and another member UE becomes a new GL UE,

wherein the current GL UE is capable of sharing with or transmitting group information collected by it as a leader to a new GL UE.

24. The wireless communication system of any preceding claim, wherein the destination ID unique to the logical group is a layer 2ID, such AS an Access Stratum (AS) layer ID, the layer 2ID having a structure comprising:

a logical group ID meaning or implying the logical group or a part inferred from the logical group criteria, and

meaning or implying part of the layer 1ID like the physical layer ID.

25. The wireless communication system of claim 24, wherein the layer 2ID structure further comprises a portion that implies or implies a geographical or zone ID indicating a geographical area in which the member UE is located, e.g., a 4-bit field that can provide a zone ID corresponding to from 1 to 8.

26. The wireless communication system of any of the preceding claims, wherein the multicast transmission to the member UEs of the logical group comprises:

SL multicast originating from one of the member UEs of the logical group, or

SL multicast originating from UEs outside the logical group, or

Uu multicast originating from base station.

27. The wireless communication system of any of the preceding claims, wherein the member UEs are located in different zones of a base station coverage area, and wherein the base station is configured to provide a set of resources, either in a resource pool RP, or a mini RP, for SL communication within a logical group of different zones.

28. A wireless communication system, comprising:

one or more base stations, and

a plurality of user equipments, UEs, which are aware of a logical group, e.g. a common and unique destination ID of a group, to be used for intercepting and/or transmitting critical information related to geographical location, such as traffic light information, traffic warnings, etc.

29. The wireless communication system of claim 28, wherein the base station is configured to provide or signal one or more radio beams to cover a particular geographical location or area in which the plurality of UEs are located, in order to broadcast information in the particular geographical location or area.

30. The wireless communication system of claim 28 or 29, wherein the UEs are preconfigured with logical group information for a particular geographical location or area.

31. The wireless communication system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the ID is reassembled or amended based on a set of predefined criteria, e.g. to maintain privacy and security of the logical group.

32. The wireless communication system as claimed in claim 31, wherein reassembly is performed based on an agreed-upon or signaled algorithm and/or based on a reassembly timer indicating validity of an ID.

33. The wireless communication system of claim 31 or 32, wherein the IDs to be reassembled comprise one or more of: a source UE ID, an L2 destination ID, an L1 destination ID, and/or a logical group ID.

34. The wireless communication system according to any of the preceding claims,

wherein the UE comprises one or more of: a mobile terminal, or a fixed terminal, or a cellular IoT-UE, or a vehicle Group Leader (GL) UE, or an IoT or narrowband IoT, NB-IoT, device, or ground-based vehicle, or aircraft, or drone, or a mobile base station, or roadside unit, or building, or any other item or device with network connectivity, such as sensors or actuators, that enables the item/device to communicate using a wireless communication network; and

wherein the base station comprises one or more of: a macro cell base station, or a small cell base station, or a central unit of a base station, or a distributed unit of a base station, or a roadside unit, or a UE, or a Group Leader (GL), or a relay, or a remote radio head, or an AMF, or an SMF, or a core network entity, or a mobile edge computing entity, or a network slice as in an NR or 5G core environment, or any transmission/reception point TRP enabling an item or device to communicate using a wireless communication network, the item or device having network connectivity to communicate using the wireless communication network.

35. A user equipment, UE, for a wireless communication system, the wireless communication system comprising a plurality of user equipments, UEs,

the UE is a member UE of at least one logical group identified or formed in a network, defined by applications and/or application assistance and/or existing information within the network according to one or more logical group criteria, the logical group comprising a plurality of member UEs to be connected via a sidelink for sidelink communication with each other,

wherein the UE is assigned the same destination identification ID as all other member UEs of the logical group, the destination ID being unique to the logical group.

36. A user equipment for a wireless communication system, the wireless communication system comprising one or more base stations and a plurality of user equipments, UEs,

the UE knows a logical group, e.g. a common and unique destination ID of a group, to be used for intercepting and/or transmitting critical information related to geographical location, e.g. traffic light information, traffic warnings, etc., an

When located in a particular geographical location or area in which a plurality of UEs are located, the UEs are configured to receive a broadcast containing information about a logical group, e.g. a common and unique destination ID for the group, from a base station providing one or more radio beams to cover the particular geographical location or area, the broadcast including the information.

37. The user equipment according to claim 35 or 36, wherein the wireless communication system is a wireless communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 29.

38. A base station for a wireless communication system, the wireless communication system comprising a plurality of user equipments, UEs,

the base station is configured to serve one or more member UEs in at least one logical group identified or formed in the network according to one or more logical group criteria, the logical group comprising a plurality of member UEs to be connected via a sidelink for sidelink communication with each other,

wherein all member UEs of the logical group are assigned the same destination identification ID, the destination ID being unique to the logical group.

39. A base station for a wireless communication system, the wireless communication system comprising one or more base stations and a plurality of user equipments, UEs,

the base station is configured to provide one or more radio beams to cover a specific geographical location or area where a plurality of UEs are located, in order to broadcast to UEs in the specific geographical location or area a logical group information, e.g. a common and unique destination ID of the group, which the UEs know, which is to be used for listening to and/or transmitting critical information related to the geographical location, e.g. traffic light information, traffic warnings, etc.

40. The base station according to claim 38 or 39, wherein the wireless communication system is a wireless communication system according to any of claims 1 to 29.

41. A method in a wireless communication system having a plurality of user equipments, UEs, the method comprising:

defining at least one logical group comprising a plurality of member UEs to be connected via a sidelink for sidelink communication with each other, according to one or more logical group criteria, an

Assigning the same destination identification ID to all member UEs of the logical group, the destination ID being unique to the logical group.

42. A method in a wireless communication system having one or more base stations and a plurality of user equipments, UEs, the method comprising:

let the UE know a logical group, e.g. a common and unique destination ID of the group, to be used for intercepting and/or transmitting geo-location related critical information, e.g. traffic light information, traffic warnings, etc., and

one or more radio beams are provided or signaled to cover a particular geographical location or area in which multiple UEs are located in order to broadcast information in the particular geographical location or area.

43. A non-transitory computer program product comprising a computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed on a computer, perform the method of claim 41 or 43.

Embodiments of the present invention introduce a logical group and all member UEs of this logical group have assigned the same destination ID or address, which is unique to this logical group. In other words, all member UEs of the logical group have the same destination ID that is unique to the logical group. Fig. 11 shows an embodiment of the inventive concept using the same destination ID unique to a logical group for all UEs of the logical group. In fig. 11, a wireless communication system, more specifically, a plurality of UEs denoted by ∘ s and Xs, is schematically shown. The UEs denoted by Xs are members of a logical group, and the UEs denoted by o s are not members of this logical group (they may or may not be members of another group). The method of the present invention allows the use of a common, unique destination ID for communications (multicast) from one UE to member UEs, whether from outside the group, e.g., by UE1 that is not a member of this logical group, or from inside, e.g., by member UE 2.

According to an embodiment, the logical group may be formed by a plurality of user equipments UEs, and all members of the logical group are group destination UEs. Meanwhile, one or more members of the logical group or a plurality of external entities, such as one/more UEs, e.g., another vehicle traveling along the same road, or one or more RSUs, may be the source UEs, and each source UE may perform multicast or equivalently multicast communication to all members of the group except the source UE itself. In this configuration, for each particular source UE, all other UEs, which may include other source UEs, are multicast destination UEs.

For example, UEs may be grouped together into logical groups according to their specific attributes, which may be defined by the application in which the UE is used. In a use case of vehicle formation, vehicles traveling together along a road to a common destination are members of an application group. The application may push the unified destination IDs to the UEs or alternatively configure them to generate unified destination IDs by the UEs. These UEs form a logical group (described in more detail below) so that, for example, only one and the same destination address will be used for communication from a fleet member to other fleet members. Thus, an application level group, such as a fleet of vehicles, whether all or part of it, may be considered a logical group in a communication network. This may be beneficial from a network perspective, as the network may select and manage logical groups based on the performance of the network, since the application is unaware of the physical network parameters. In this embodiment, the application group and the logical group are the same.

According to other examples, the network may use information that it inherently has or may have, such as one or more of the UE's communication mode, measurements, geographic location, environment, direction, velocity, or speed, to infer or define logical groups in the network from one or more logical group criteria.

Examples are:

fleet: the group of vehicles having the same route,

a vehicle approaching a road junction and a road crossing,

vehicles travelling along a part of the same road,

vehicles in close proximity to each other.

In this embodiment, logical groups may be formed that are independent of any application group.

According to embodiments, the logical group may be defined or formed, for example, by an application or GL UE or UE using or applying one or more or a combination of the following logical group criteria:

the initial size of the group is the size of the group,

the duration of the group is the duration of the group,

the final location of the group, such as the end point or destination,

a vector of sets/positions of waypoints,

the UE speed or velocity, and the UE velocity,

ranges, e.g., UEs sharing the same location or being close to each other,

the requirements of the QoS are set by the QoS requirements,

CSI, RSSI, RSRQ, RSRP UE measurements,

the range of base station or UE transmissions, and the location or direction or environment and/or velocity or speed of the UE within this range,

the UE is temporarily located within a specific geographical location or area or close to a specific infrastructure, e.g. RSU, traffic lights, etc., and has the same properties, such as direction or environment and/or range of speed or velocity,

the type of the vehicle,

e.g. UEs belonging to the same brand (e.g. public, BWM, demohler),

e.g., UEs belonging to the same vehicle class, e.g., trucks, Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), etc.,

contract/subscription based classifications, e.g., gold, silver, bronze UE, depending on its status based on business contracts (e.g., payment plan).

For example, the information needed to identify logical groups within a network or equivalently at the network level may be present or inherently available within the network or may be passed off from an application or may be a combination of both types of information, according to a standard. In other words, the logical group is formed from a network perspective, such as from a physical layer, MAC layer RLC, PDCP, IP perspective, using a logical group standard or combination of logical group standards.

According to an embodiment, at least two UEs are used to form a logical group such that the at least two UEs can communicate using multicast communication. Although communication from one of the UEs to another UE may be performed using unicast transmission, creating a logical group is advantageous because additional UEs may easily join the group by simply assigning a unique destination ID, so that new UEs also receive multicast transmissions with reduced signaling overhead. According to other embodiments, a threshold may be set for a minimum number of UEs required to form a logical group. In much the same way, a maximum threshold may be used to limit the number of UEs forming a logical group, which may be hard coded or signaled.

For example, depending on the location of the UEs, their proximity to a particular infrastructure (e.g., RSUs, traffic lights, etc.), their direction and speed, the network may identify or form a logical group in case a UE at a particular location and with a particular range of rates needs to multicast to other UEs with the same attributes. Another example of a network identification logical group is when based on information passed down from the application layer to the V2X layer, several UEs are assigned the same group destination ID (e.g., destination L2 ID) or configured in such a way that they generate the same group destination ID. Among these UEs, one or more UEs may perform multicast on the assigned or generated group destination ID. Other criteria may be, for example, that the UE performs certain actions so that logical groups may be formed during signal-regulated traffic, during rapid braking at the end of a traffic jam, during coordinated acceleration when traffic lights turn green. In this scenario, the group may exist as long as there are several vehicles nearby to perform the operation.

As mentioned above, embodiments of the first aspect of the present invention introduce a proposal to define a logical group and to assign the same destination ID or address to all member UEs of the logical group, this destination ID or address being unique to the logical group. For example, a common destination floor-2 group ID may be assigned or pushed to all members of the group using group criteria, such as vehicle formation criteria. In other words, all UEs within a logical group, e.g., UEs in a fleet, are assigned the same destination L2 ID. Thus, multicast communication or equivalent multicast communication from one of the group members to all other group members:

have the same destination L2ID,

distinguished by source ID.

An embodiment is described below in which all UEs in a logical group are assigned the same destination L2 ID. According to a first embodiment, the allocation may be handled by an application server of the administrative group, such as a VAE server. The VAE server assigns a unique destination L2ID to a logical group (e.g., a fleet) and pushes it to the VAE client. The VAE server is an application server and may be located outside or inside the network. According to other examples, a UE or group of UEs may act as a (host) VAE server.

According to a second embodiment, the allocation may be handled autonomously, e.g. the UE may be configured with rules to be able to generate an appropriate destination L2ID based on logical group criteria.

According to embodiments, to handle the dynamics of a logical group, for example, in the event that a new member joins the group or a current member leaves the group, the application and/or V2X layer may be responsible for adding/assigning and/or revoking destination L2 IDs.

Further embodiments provide for distinguishing and resolving conflicts or collisions between source L2 IDs within the same group. For example, initially, the members of the group that want to be the source consider the source L2ID of the current source. The UE application/V2X layer generates or selects a different source L2ID as appropriate based on this information. If two members generate or select the same source L2ID in the process, a source L2ID collision may occur. According to an example, such a collision may be detected and resolved by the application layer in a conventional manner. According to other examples, upon a resource request (e.g., transmission of a buffer status report), the entity allocating and scheduling resources may detect a source L2ID collision and signal to both or one source to inform them/its source L2ID collision. The notified source may generate or select a new source L2 ID. This scheme may also take into account that there is feedback from the AS layer to the V2X layer/application layer regarding this ID collision. To resolve this conflict, it is sufficient for one of the two conflicting sources to change its source L2 ID. According to a further example, the entity allocating and scheduling resources may inform only one of the sources of the collision in order to reduce the signaling overhead associated with collision handling, e.g. if one of the sources has a lower priority, this source may be the source of the uniquely informed ID collision.

Further embodiments provide for distinguishing and resolving collisions between destinations L2ID in two different groups. Conflicts resulting from different applications (e.g., V2X applications) assigning the same or identical destination L2ID to different logical groups can be resolved within the application, for example, by applying the process described in reference [2 ].

Further embodiments of the first aspect are directed to a method for indicating the presence of a logical group to a network entity or a combination of network entities. The network entity may be a base station, e.g., a gNB, and/or a UE, and/or a network component, e.g., a core network function. This entity is referred to herein as a team supervisor. According to an embodiment, the group supervisor is always a UE unless not allowed by the base station (in-coverage scenario) or the network. For example, the gNB may be a group supervisor when the congestion of a cell is below a certain threshold. Once the threshold is exceeded, the UE may become the group supervisor.

The group supervisor may know or collect the destinations L2ID of all or a selected group of UEs of one of the multiple logical groups, and the network may use this knowledge for resource management and/or to improve service to logical group members and other users in the network. The group supervisor can infer information of the presence of the corresponding group and its members from the common destination L2 ID.

According to an embodiment, the base station, e.g. the gNB, is a group supervisor. The base station may be a group supervisor when a group of UEs is in coverage and operating in RRC _ Idle, RRC _ Inactive, or RRC _ Connected mode. UEs of the same logical group (e.g., fleet) that are intended to perform V2X group-based communication may signal this to the base station, e.g., a sidelink UE information RRC message as shown below.

Sidelink UE information message

Conventionally, when a UE performs multicast/multicast communications, the element DestinationInfoList-r12 forming the above message is a list of all intended destination IDs, however, according to embodiments of the present invention, the element DestinationInfoList-r12 is a single unique destination L2ID that describes all members of a logical group. The element V2X-Platon describes whether the transfer is for multicast (with multiple receivers) of a logical group (V2X-Platon may be a true or false flag) and associates the logical group with the ID "Platon-Identity" using the "SL-V2X-Platon" IE.

The base station may infer the existence of a logical group, such as a fleet of vehicles, from the fact that destinationinfdelist-r 12 includes the same or identical ID. According to other examples, a UE requesting resources for group-based communication may inform the base station of the logical group using IE V2X-plane. In either case, the base station may supply resources accordingly based on the existence of the logical group, which may facilitate enhanced scheduling of the source member UEs.

According to other embodiments, the UE is a group supervisor. Such UEs may be members of a logical group and therefore have the same destination L2ID as the rest of the group. The group member UE that becomes the group supervisor will be referred to herein as the group leader, or GL UE for short. The GL UE may identify and collect the source IDs of the multicast transmitted source UEs within its leading group. The multicast transmission within the group addresses the same destination L2ID as the destination L2ID of the GL UE. The GL UE may know the source ID of the transmitting UEs within the group, e.g., it may request/collect information from these UEs to assist in resource allocation and scheduling, etc. This information may be obtained by using RRC signaling, e.g. via RRC only in case of NR type 1 UEs, or via RRC configuration and SCI activation/deactivation in case of NR type 2 UEs, or by using SCI on a common control channel. According to embodiments, GL UEs may implement this only for high priority traffic (e.g., traffic with high QoS requirements) or specific traffic types (e.g., SPS or OS), while for other traffic, member UEs sense the resources provided for SL traffic, such as SL PR or micro rp (mrp). When in coverage, the GL UE may communicate with the gNB on behalf of the entire group, e.g., to request resources, etc. Further, if the GL UE is responsible for resource management of the group, other sources in this group send their resource requests to the GL UE.

According to an embodiment, the GL UE may be selected by the application layer, and the group member knows the GL UE in its own application layer. This learning may be conveyed to the AS layer. The GL UE may also be selected by the application layer according to a configuration of the UE, or according to a preset or preconfigured rule related to a priority for use as a source ID for the GL UE.

According to other embodiments, the GL UE may be selected by an entity or group of entities of the communication network. For example, the source node that initiates the first multicast within the group may be the initial GL UE. This simplifies the selection and reduces the signalling load.

Once selected, the GL UE may signal its presence to the entire group, e.g., periodically or at certain intervals. In case the GL UE is unexpectedly disconnected or disappeared, other group members, including other sources, can identify the absence of the GL UE. For example, the disconnection or disappearance of the GL UE may be recognized because a timer after the last notification message expires, or the GL UE does not respond to the request, or the GL UE does not transmit within a certain time. In this case, the sources within the group may signal/negotiate between each other to decide which is the next GL UE. In other examples where extra signaling is avoided, an automatic configuration may be used, based on which each can understand or infer which is the next GL UE without negotiation. One example may be based on the order of the source L2 IDs, e.g., ascending or descending. If such a configuration exists, the first source in the queue may attempt to become a GL UE and negotiate this with other sources.

In case the GL UE wants to stop the GL UE as a group, e.g. when the GL UE is about to leave the group or does not want to handle the GL UE functions anymore for any other reason, e.g. due to a depleted battery or a low energy state or a fuel deficiency, another source may become the GL UE. This procedure may be as described above, or according to other examples, the current GL UE may signal its request to another source UE. If the other source UE responds in the affirmative, the current GL UE signals to all group members that it will no longer be a GL UE, and then back off from the GL UE and the other source becomes a new GL UE. The information collected by the current GL UE may be transferred from the current GL UE to the new GL UE if the current GL UE is also responsible for resource management of the group.

According to a further embodiment of the first aspect, a simplified structure of the common destination ID for the logical groups may be provided. In considering the L1 ID and the L2ID, a destination L2ID is generated in the V2X layer or higher and mapped to the L1 ID. To address the problem of L1 ID having inherent limitations on size for transmission at the physical layer, particularly if it is transmitted over a control channel, embodiments provide an overall structure of destination L2ID having at least two parts, a first part meaning/implying a logical group ID, and a second part meaning/implying a group layer-1 ID (L1 ID), where the first and second parts may overlap completely or partially. Fig. 12 is an example of a destination L2ID according to an embodiment. The depicted portions or segments may be distributed throughout the destination L2ID and may have different proportional lengths. As shown in fig. 12, the destination L2ID may also include a third portion that means/implies a geographic or region ID that may completely or partially overlap the first and second portions. This section may be advantageous because it enables different groups in different geographic regions to reuse the same group L1I D.

Aspect (2)

Embodiments of the second aspect of the invention relate to decentralized group communication. For example, the gNB may allocate a dedicated set of multicast resources based on the location/range of the UE, which may span multiple zones for a subset of the UE, as shown in fig. 13, so that the UE/base station infers a logical group based on its range/location/rate/speed. Fig. 13 shows an example case of range-based group formation of UEs at a traffic intersection.

In conventional methods or schemes, group 1 and group 2 are allocated independent resources, however, because according to the first aspect of the invention the UEs form a logical group based on their range and environment, the UEs are at the intersection, and the network knows that source 1 and source 2 are part of the same logical group via a common destination ID provided for the group. The life cycle of such a range-based closed group may be limited, and the UE may not have a long-term relationship, as in the illustrated vehicle formation use case. The gNB may collect information such as location and velocity to determine logical groups to provide resources with the required QoS. In fig. 13, closed range-based group spanning zone IDs 1, 3 and 4. According to an embodiment, relationships across these zones may be established via a common resource pool (e.g., mRP) to enable coordinated resource allocation. For example, in the case where zone ID 3 is heavily occupied, UEs in this zone may transmit with a lower QoS due to lack of resources compared to the member UEs in zone ID 1 and zone ID 4.

According to an embodiment, a temporary logical group may be formed in a limited area using UEs such as V2X UEs, as shown in fig. 13. The UEs have a common destination L2ID, which means the geographical location where this temporary group is formed. For this group, only the geographical location may be important, so that the other fields of the L2ID in fig. 12 may be filled with dummy/don't care bits or may be bits that may be reserved for future use. When a UE wants to address a nearby temporary group, it will multicast to this L2ID address. The UE receiving this multicast compares the destination L2ID of this multicast with all its own destination L2 IDs. Only for a particular L2ID associated with its geographical area, the UE ignores the dummy bits and only considers and compares the valid bits.

According to other embodiments, the temporary logical group may be formed in a limited area using base stations BS multicast to a geographical area, as shown in fig. 13. According to an example, the BS may use power control and beam selection/formation to cover a desired geographic area and broadcast logical group information, such as a destination ID, to this area. This information may be broadcast to a particular geographic area periodically or at a particular time. The signaling flow may include signaling requesting multicast communication from the UE to the BS for a logical group including the destination L2 ID. The BS broadcasts or multicasts or equivalently multicasts the existence of the logical group and the destination L2ID of the logical group to all other UEs in the geographical area that match the logical group criteria. In either case, the request to transfer some content to this particular area ID may be a request by a UE, another group of UEs, a higher layer, or an application function/server.

In general

Embodiments of the present invention have been described above in detail, and the respective embodiments and aspects may be implemented alone or two or more embodiments may be implemented in combination. It is noted that a UE may have multiple destination L2 IDs and/or multiple source L2 IDs according to different transmission/reception, e.g., unicast, multicast, and multicast.

Embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above with reference to sidelink communications using a PC5 interface. However, the present invention is not limited to the use of a PC5 interface. Any other interface allowing direct communication between one or more UEs may be employed, e.g. an interface according to the IEEE 802.11p standard, the IEEE 802.15.4 standard (Zigbee), etc.

In some embodiments described above, reference is made to a respective vehicle in a mode in which SL resource allocation configuration or assistance is provided by the base station (e.g., connected mode, also referred to as NR mode 1 or LTE mode 3 configuration), or in a mode in which SL resource allocation configuration or assistance is not provided by the base station (e.g., idle mode, also referred to as NR mode 2 or LTE mode 4 configuration). However, the present invention is not limited to V2V communications or V2X communications, but is also applicable to any device-to-device communications, such as off-board mobile users or fixed users performing sidelink communications through a PC5 interface. Also in this scenario, the above-described aspects of the present invention may be employed.

According to embodiments, the wireless communication system may comprise a ground network or a non-ground network, or a network or network segment using an aircraft or a combination thereof as a receiver.

According to embodiments, the receiver may comprise one or more of a mobile or fixed terminal, an IoT device, a ground-based vehicle, an aircraft, an unmanned airplane, a building, or any other item or device (such as a sensor or actuator) provided with network connectivity that enables the item/device to communicate using a wireless communication system. According to an embodiment, the transmitter may comprise one or more of the following: a macro cell base station, or a small cell base station, or an aircraft such as a satellite or space, or an aircraft such as a drone system (UAS) (e.g., tethered UAS, light-air UAS (lta), heavy-air UAS (hta) and high altitude UAS platforms (HAPs)), or any transmission/reception point (TRP) that enables items or devices provided with network connectivity to communicate using a wireless communication system.

Although some aspects of the described concepts have been described in the context of an apparatus, it is clear that these aspects also represent a description of a corresponding method, wherein a block or device corresponds to a method step or a feature of a method step. Similarly, aspects described in the context of method steps also represent a description of a respective block or item or feature of a respective apparatus.

The various elements and features of the invention may be implemented in hardware using analog and/or digital circuitry, in software using instructions executed by one or more general-purpose or special-purpose processors, or as a combination of hardware and software. For example, embodiments of the invention may be implemented in the context of a computer system or another processing system. Fig. 14 shows an example of a computer system 600. The units or modules and the steps of the methods performed by the units may be performed on one or more computer systems 600. The computer system 600 includes one or more processors 602, such as a special purpose or general purpose digital signal processor. The processor 602 is connected to a communication infrastructure 604, such as a bus or network. Computer system 600 includes a main memory 606 (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM)), and a secondary memory 608 (e.g., a hard disk drive and/or a removable storage drive). Secondary memory 608 may allow computer programs or other instructions to be loaded into computer system 600. Computer system 600 may further include a communications interface 610 to allow software and data to be transferred between computer system 600 and external devices. Communications may be in the form of electrical, electromagnetic, optical, or other signals capable of being processed by the communications interface. The communication can use wire or cable, fiber optics, a phone line, a cellular phone link, an RF link, and other communication channels 612.

The terms "computer program medium" and "computer-readable medium" are used to generally refer to tangible storage media, such as removable storage units or hard disks installed in hard disk drives. These computer program products are means for providing software to computer system 600. Computer programs, also called computer control logic, are stored in main memory 606 and/or secondary memory 608. Computer programs may also be received via communications interface 610. The computer programs, when executed, enable the computer system 600 to implement the present invention. In particular, the computer programs, when executed, enable the processor 602 to implement processes of the present invention, such as any of the methods described herein. Accordingly, such computer programs may represent controllers of the computer system 600. Where the disclosure is implemented using software, the software may be stored in a computer program product and loaded into computer system 600 using a removable storage drive, such as an interface to communication interface 610.

Implementation in hardware or software may be performed using a digital storage medium, such as a cloud storage, a floppy disk, a DVD, a blu-ray, a CD, a ROM, a PROM, an EPROM, an EEPROM or a flash memory, on which electronically readable control signals are stored, which cooperate (or are capable of cooperating) with a programmable computer system such that the respective method is performed. Accordingly, the digital storage medium may be computer-readable.

Some embodiments according to the invention comprise a data carrier having electronically readable control signals capable of cooperating with a programmable computer system so as to carry out one of the methods described herein.

Generally, embodiments of the invention can be implemented as a computer program product having a program code, which is operative for performing one of the methods when the computer program product runs on a computer. The program code may for example be stored on a machine readable carrier.