A user equipment, UE, comprising: radio front end circuitry; and processor circuitry coupled to the radio front end circuitry, wherein the processor circuitry is configured to: receive, using the radio front end circuitry and from a base station, a slot format indicator, SFI, associated with a channel occupancy time, COT, structure, wherein the SFI indicates whether one or more slots associated with the COT structure are to be used for downlink, DL, symbols, uplink, UL, symbols, or flexible symbols, wherein the flexible symbols form one or more gaps in the COT structure in response to the flexible symbols not being overridden as a DL transmission or a UL transmission, wherein a duration of the one or more gaps is counted toward a duration of the COT structure in response to the duration of the one or more gaps being less than or equal to a threshold and the duration of the one or more gaps is not counted toward a duration of the COT structure in response to the duration of the one or more gaps being greater than the threshold; and use the SFI for transmitting of the UL symbols or receiving of the DL symbols between the base station and UE. radio front end circuitry; and processor circuitry coupled to the radio front end circuitry, wherein the processor circuitry is configured to: receive, using the radio front end circuitry and from a base station, a slot format indicator, SFI, associated with a channel occupancy time, COT, structure, wherein the SFI indicates whether one or more slots associated with the COT structure are to be used for downlink, DL, symbols, uplink, UL, symbols, or flexible symbols, wherein the flexible symbols form one or more gaps in the COT structure in response to the flexible symbols not being overridden as a DL transmission or a UL transmission, wherein a duration of the one or more gaps is counted toward a duration of the COT structure in response to the duration of the one or more gaps being less than or equal to a threshold and the duration of the one or more gaps is not counted toward a duration of the COT structure in response to the duration of the one or more gaps being greater than the threshold; and use the SFI for transmitting of the UL symbols or receiving of the DL symbols between the base station and UE. receive, using the radio front end circuitry and from a base station, a slot format indicator, SFI, associated with a channel occupancy time, COT, structure, wherein the SFI indicates whether one or more slots associated with the COT structure are to be used for downlink, DL, symbols, uplink, UL, symbols, or flexible symbols, wherein the flexible symbols form one or more gaps in the COT structure in response to the flexible symbols not being overridden as a DL transmission or a UL transmission, wherein a duration of the one or more gaps is counted toward a duration of the COT structure in response to the duration of the one or more gaps being less than or equal to a threshold and the duration of the one or more gaps is not counted toward a duration of the COT structure in response to the duration of the one or more gaps being greater than the threshold; and use the SFI for transmitting of the UL symbols or receiving of the DL symbols between the base station and UE.