Patent ID: 11818758

Abstract:
An assisted random-access procedure allows band sharing between New Radio Unlicensed (NR-U) and Wi-Fi to improve coexistence of NR-U and Wi-Fi in shared unlicensed bands (e.g., below 7 GHz). To connect to an NR-U network, NR-U User Equipment (UE) receives and decodes an NR-U preamble of an NR-U wireless transmission to determine NR-U channel occupancy time (COT). The NR-U UE detects Wi-Fi wireless transmissions and decodes a Wi-Fi preamble to determine Wi-Fi COT. A random access (RA) opportunity is acquired based upon the NR-U wireless transmission and the NR-U COT. When the RA opportunity is not during the Wi-Fi COT, a PRACh message is transmitted from the NR-U UE to a NR-U base station (gNB) to allow the NR-U UE to join the NR-U network. NR-U transmissions may include an NR-U common preamble that may be decoded by existing Wi-Fi devices to avoid collisions with NR-U wireless transmissions.