Patent Description:
<CIT> is considered to be prior art.

The scope of protection of the present invention is defined by the independent claims.

Optional variants are defined by the dependent claims.

In some aspects, a method of wireless communication, performed by a base station, is described, as defined in claim <NUM>.

In some aspects, a method of wireless communication, performed by a UE, is described, as defined in claim <NUM>.

In some aspects, a base station for wireless communication is described, as defined in claim <NUM>.

In some aspects, a UE for wireless communication is described, as defined in claim <NUM>.

In some aspects, a computer program is described, as defined in claim <NUM>.

While aspects are described in the present disclosure by illustration to some examples, those skilled in the art will understand that such aspects may be implemented in many different arrangements and scenarios. Techniques described herein may be implemented using different platform types, devices, systems, shapes, sizes, and/or packaging arrangements. For example, some aspects may be implemented via integrated chip embodiments or other non-module-component based devices (e.g., end-user devices, vehicles, communication devices, computing devices, industrial equipment, retail/purchasing devices, medical devices, or artificial intelligence-enabled devices). Aspects may be implemented in chip-level components, modular components, non-modular components, non-chip-level components, device-level components, or system-level components. Devices incorporating described aspects and features may include additional components and features for implementation and practice of claimed and described aspects. For example, transmission and reception of wireless signals may include a number of components for analog and digital purposes (e.g., hardware components including antennas, RF chains, power amplifiers, modulators, buffers, processor(s), interleavers, adders, or summers). It is intended that aspects described herein may be practiced in a wide variety of devices, components, systems, distributed arrangements, or end-user devices of varying size, shape, and constitution.

The wireless network <NUM> may include a number of base stations <NUM> (shown as BS 110a, BS 110b, BS 110c, and BS nod) and other network entities.

In the example shown in <FIG>, a relay BS nod may communicate with macro BS 110a and a UE 120d in order to facilitate communication between BS 110a and UE 120d.

UEs <NUM> (e.g., 120a, 120b, 120C) may be dispersed throughout wireless network <NUM>, and each UE may be stationary or mobile.

For example, the UEs <NUM> may communicate using peer-to-peer (P2P) communications, device-to-device (D2D) communications, a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) protocol (e.g., which may include a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) protocol, a vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) protocol, a vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) protocol, a vehicle-to-network (V2N) protocol, and/or the like), a mesh network, and/or the like.

The transceiver may be used by a processor (e.g., controller/processor <NUM>) and memory <NUM> to perform aspects of any of the methods described herein (for example, as described with reference to <FIG>, <FIG>, and/or <FIG>).

The transceiver may be used by a processor (e.g., controller/processor <NUM>) and memory <NUM> to perform aspects of any of the methods described herein (for example, as described with reference to <FIG>, <FIG>, and/or <FIG>).

Controller/processor <NUM> of base station <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM> of UE <NUM>, and/or any other component(s) of <FIG> may perform one or more techniques associated with group wake-up signaling using a sidelink zone identifier, as described in more detail elsewhere herein. For example, controller/processor <NUM> of base station <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM> of UE <NUM>, and/or any other component(s) of <FIG> may perform or direct operations of, for example, process <NUM> of <FIG>, process <NUM> of <FIG>, and/or other processes as described herein. Memories <NUM> and <NUM> may store data and program codes for base station <NUM> and UE <NUM>, respectively. In some aspects, memory <NUM> and/or memory <NUM> may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more instructions (e.g., code and/or program code) for wireless communication. For example, the one or more instructions, when executed (e.g., directly, or after compiling, converting, and/or interpreting) by one or more processors of the base station <NUM> and/or the UE <NUM>, may cause the one or more processors, the UE <NUM>, and/or the base station <NUM> to perform or direct operations of, for example, process <NUM> of <FIG>, process <NUM> of <FIG>, and/or other processes as described herein. In some aspects, executing instructions may include running the instructions, converting the instructions, compiling the instructions, and/or interpreting the instructions, among other examples.

In some aspects, UE <NUM> may include means for determining a sidelink zone identifier that corresponds to a geographical area in which UE <NUM> is located, means for waking from a sleep state based at least in part on receiving a group wake-up signal that is based at least in part on the sidelink zone identifier, and/or the like. In some aspects, such means may include one or more components of UE <NUM> described in connection with <FIG>, such as controller/processor <NUM>, transmit processor <NUM>, TX MIMO processor <NUM>, MOD <NUM>, antenna <NUM>, DEMOD <NUM>, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, and/or the like.

In some aspects, base station <NUM> may include means for configuring a group wake-up signal based at least in part on a sidelink zone identifier that corresponds to a geographical area, means for transmitting the group wake-up signal to collectively wake up at least a subset of UEs <NUM> located in the geographical area corresponding to the sidelink zone identifier, and/or the like. In some aspects, such means may include one or more components of base station <NUM> described in connection with <FIG>, such as antenna <NUM>, DEMOD <NUM>, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM>, transmit processor <NUM>, TX MIMO processor <NUM>, MOD <NUM>, antenna <NUM>, and/or the like.

<FIG> is a diagram illustrating an example <NUM> of sidelink communications, in accordance with the present disclosure.

As shown in <FIG>, a first UE <NUM>-<NUM> may communicate with a second UE <NUM>-<NUM> (and one or more other UEs <NUM>) via one or more sidelink channels <NUM>. The UEs <NUM>-<NUM> and <NUM>-<NUM> may communicate using the one or more sidelink channels <NUM> for P2P communications, D2D communications, V2X communications (e.g., which may include V2V communications, V2I communications, V2P communications, V2N communications, and/or the like), mesh networking, and/or the like. In some aspects, the UEs <NUM> (e.g., UE <NUM>-<NUM> and/or UE <NUM>-<NUM>) may correspond to one or more other UEs described elsewhere herein, such as UE <NUM>. In some aspects, the one or more sidelink channels <NUM> may use a PC5 interface and/or may operate in a high frequency band (e.g., the <NUM> band). Additionally, or alternatively, the UEs <NUM> may synchronize timing of transmission time intervals (TTIs) (e.g., frames, subframes, slots, symbols, and/or the like) using global navigation satellite system (GNSS) timing.

As further shown in <FIG>, the one or more sidelink channels <NUM> may include a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) <NUM>, a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) <NUM>, and/or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) <NUM>. The PSCCH <NUM> may be used to communicate control information, similar to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and/or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) used for cellular communications with a base station <NUM> via an access link or an access channel. The PSSCH <NUM> may be used to communicate data, similar to a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and/or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) used for cellular communications with a base station <NUM> via an access link or an access channel. For example, the PSCCH <NUM> may carry sidelink control information (SCI) <NUM>, which may indicate various control information used for sidelink communications, such as one or more resources (e.g., time resources, frequency resources, spatial resources, and/or the like) where a transport block (TB) <NUM> may be carried on the PSSCH <NUM>. The TB <NUM> may include data. The PSFCH <NUM> may be used to communicate sidelink feedback <NUM>, such as hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback (e.g., acknowledgement or negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) information), transmit power control (TPC), a scheduling request (SR), and/or the like.

In some aspects, the one or more sidelink channels <NUM> may use resource pools. For example, a scheduling assignment (e.g., included in SCI <NUM>) may be transmitted in sub-channels using specific resource blocks (RBs) across time. In some aspects, data transmissions (e.g., on the PSSCH <NUM>) associated with a scheduling assignment may occupy adjacent RBs in the same subframe as the scheduling assignment (e.g., using frequency division multiplexing). In some aspects, a scheduling assignment and associated data transmissions are not transmitted on adjacent RBs.

In some aspects, a UE <NUM> may operate using a transmission mode where resource selection and/or scheduling is performed by the UE <NUM> (e.g., rather than a base station <NUM>). In some aspects, the UE <NUM> may perform resource selection and/or scheduling by sensing channel availability for transmissions. For example, the UE <NUM> may measure an RSSI parameter (e.g., a sidelink-RSSI (S-RSSI) parameter) associated with various sidelink channels, may measure an RSRP parameter (e.g., a PSSCH-RSRP parameter) associated with various sidelink channels, may measure an RSRQ parameter (e.g., a PSSCH-RSRQ parameter) associated with various sidelink channels, and/or the like, and may select a channel for transmission of a sidelink communication based at least in part on the measurement(s).

Additionally, or alternatively, the UE <NUM> may perform resource selection and/or scheduling using SCI <NUM> received in the PSCCH <NUM>, which may indicate occupied resources, channel parameters, and/or the like. Additionally, or alternatively, the UE <NUM> may perform resource selection and/or scheduling by determining a channel busy rate (CBR) associated with various sidelink channels, which may be used for rate control (e.g., by indicating a maximum number of resource blocks that the UE <NUM> can use for a particular set of subframes).

In the transmission mode where resource selection and/or scheduling is performed by a UE <NUM>, the UE <NUM> may generate sidelink grants, and may transmit the grants in SCI <NUM>. A sidelink grant may indicate, for example, one or more parameters (e.g., transmission parameters) to be used for an upcoming sidelink transmission, such as one or more resource blocks to be used for the upcoming sidelink transmission on the PSSCH <NUM> (e.g., for TBs <NUM>), one or more subframes to be used for the upcoming sidelink transmission, an MCS to be used for the upcoming sidelink transmission, and/or the like. In some aspects, a UE <NUM> may generate a sidelink grant that indicates one or more parameters for semi-persistent scheduling (SPS), such as a periodicity of a sidelink transmission. Additionally, or alternatively, the UE <NUM> may generate a sidelink grant for event-driven scheduling, such as for an on-demand sidelink message.

<FIG> is a diagram illustrating an example <NUM> of sidelink communications and access link communications, in accordance with the present disclosure.

As shown in <FIG>, a transmitter (Tx) /receiver (Rx) UE <NUM> and an Rx/Tx UE <NUM> may communicate with one another via a sidelink, as described above in connection with <FIG>. As further shown in <FIG>, in some sidelink modes, a base station <NUM> may communicate with the Tx/Rx UE <NUM> via a first access link. Additionally, or alternatively, in some sidelink modes, the base station <NUM> may communicate with the Rx/Tx UE <NUM> via a second access link. In some aspects, the Tx/Rx UE <NUM> and/or the Rx/Tx UE <NUM> may correspond to one or more UEs described elsewhere herein, such as the UE <NUM> of <FIG>, the UE(s) <NUM> of <FIG>, and/or the like. Thus, a direct link between Tx/Rx UE <NUM> and Rx/Tx UE <NUM> (e.g., via a PC5 interface) may be referred to as a sidelink, and a direct link between the base station <NUM> and the Tx/Rx UE <NUM> and/or the Rx/Tx UE <NUM> (e.g., via a Uu interface) may be referred to as an access link. In some aspects, sidelink communications may be transmitted via the sidelink, and access link communications may be transmitted via the access link(s). An access link communication may be either a downlink communication (from the base station <NUM> to Tx/Rx UE <NUM> or Rx/Tx UE <NUM>) or an uplink communication (from Tx/Rx UE <NUM> or Rx/Tx UE <NUM> to the base station <NUM>).

In some aspects, the base station <NUM> and the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may be deployed in a radio access network that utilizes millimeter wave (mmW) technology and/or directional communications (e.g., beamforming, precoding, and/or the like) for communications among base stations and/or UEs (e.g., between two base stations, between two UEs, and/or between a base station and a UE). In some aspects, mmW communications may be performed in FR2, which includes frequency bands from <NUM> to <NUM>. In some aspects, wireless backhaul links between base stations <NUM> may use mmW signals to carry information and/or may be directed toward a target base station <NUM> using beamforming, precoding, and/or the like. Similarly, wireless access links between the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> and the base station <NUM> may use mmW signals and/or may be directed toward a target wireless node (e.g., a UE and/or a base station). Sidelink communications between the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may be performed using mmW technology and/or beamforming such that the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may direct or otherwise steer one or more transmissions towards one another and/or receive transmissions from a particular direction by using different weighting patterns to amplify a signal received at different antennas.

Accordingly, as described herein, wireless communication devices (e.g., UEs, base stations, and/or the like) may use beamforming to improve radio performance, increase throughput and reliability, and/or the like. This may be particularly useful in mmW communication systems, in which high operating frequencies can lead to significant path loss. For example, because mmW communications have a higher frequency and a shorter wavelength than various other radio waves used for communications (e. , sub-<NUM> communications), mmW communications may have shorter propagation distances, may be subject to atmospheric attenuation, may be more easily blocked by obstructions than other types of radio waves, and/or the like. Accordingly, to improve radio performance, mitigate path loss, and/or the like, mmW communications may be performed using beamforming, in which a transmitting wireless communication device may generate a transmit beam, and a receiving wireless communication device may generate a corresponding receive beam. The transmit beam may be reflected, diffracted, scattered, and/or the like by one or more clusters, obstacles, materials, and/or the like within an environment between or around the transmitting and receiving devices. The term "cluster" may refer to objects in the channel environment through which energy propagates. Example clusters in mmW channel environments may include reflectors such as lamp posts, vehicles, glass/window panes, metallic objects, and/or the like, diffractors such as edges or corners of buildings, walls, and/or the like, and/or scattering via irregular objects such as walls, human bodies, and/or the like.

While mmW communications offer various advantages, such as improved radio performance, increased throughput and reliability, and/or the like, mmW communications also present various challenges. For example, in contrast to sub-<NUM> relaying, mmW relaying and/or mmW sidelink communications may use a larger number of antenna elements in order to support directional beams that have a narrower width and therefore a longer range (e.g., mmW beams may have a beamwidth of <NUM> to <NUM> degrees (or an even narrower beamwidth if a UE has a large number of antenna elements), whereas beams used in sub-<NUM> relaying tend to have a beamwidth in a range from <NUM> to <NUM> degrees). As a result, power consumption can become a serious issue in mmW communications, especially for UEs operating on battery power. Furthermore, due to the significant power that may be consumed by mmW communications, thermal issues may arise due to the need to dissipate the power, and UEs may need to take a power backoff (e.g., a power management maximum power reduction (P-MPR)) when transmitting (e.g., on an uplink and/or a sidelink) in order to comply with maximum permissible exposure (MPE) requirements that are typically established by regulatory bodies.

Accordingly, because of the various challenges that arise due to the power demands of mmW communications, UEs that communicate using mmW technology may spend a significant amount of time in a sleep state (or other low-power mode). However, in order to communicate using beamforming, UEs may need to be aware of a direction in which to beamform. In some cases, a base station may indicate the appropriate beamforming direction for one or more in-coverage UEs to enable discovery of other UEs, but the base station may not be able to indicate the appropriate beamforming direction for out-of-coverage UEs and/or may not have sufficient information to enable discovery among all UEs. As a result, because sidelink communications using mmW technology may depend on an ability of UEs to discover each other, UEs that are in proximity to one another should generally be awake at the same time (or at least during overlapping times). Otherwise, if a first UE is in a sleep state while a second UE is performing a discovery operation (or vice versa), the first UE and the second UE will be unable to discover each other.

In some wireless networks, a group wake-up signal may be used to collectively wake various UEs at the same time. For example, in some cases, group wake-up signals are sometimes used to collectively wake up multiple UEs in eMTC, IoT, and/or other applications according to a UE identifier, a base station identifier, and/or the like. In other cases, techniques based on group wake-up signals may be configured to collectively wake up multiple UEs that have similar coverage, similar discontinuous reception (DRX) and gap configurations, or similar classes, or offer comparable services, and/or the like. However, these group wake-up techniques are generally not specifically tailored to mmW (or FR2) communications where UEs that are in the same neighborhood (e.g., geographical area) may need to be awake simultaneously in order to enable discovery processes that UEs rely upon to determine a direction in which to beamform. Accordingly, some aspects described herein relate to techniques and apparatuses to parameterize a group wake-up signal according to a sidelink zone identifier. For example, as described herein, the sidelink zone identifier may correspond to a geographical area, whereby a distance between sidelink UEs can be inferred from respective sidelink zone identifiers (e.g., UEs in different sidelink zones may be geographically farther apart than UEs in the same sidelink zone). Accordingly, in some aspects, a base station may configure a group wake-up signal to collectively wake up one or more UEs that are located in the geographical area by parameterizing the group wake-up signal according to the sidelink zone identifier. In this way, the UEs that are located in the geographical area may wake up at substantially the same time and may then perform sidelink discovery operations to enable sidelink communications.

<FIG> are diagrams illustrating one or more examples <NUM> of group wake-up signaling using a sidelink zone identifier, in accordance with the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, example(s) <NUM> include various UEs (e.g., UE1, UE2, UE3, and/or the like, each of which may correspond to a UE <NUM>) and one or more base stations (e.g., base station <NUM>). In some aspects, the various UEs and the base station(s) may be included in a wireless network such as wireless network <NUM>. In some aspects, the UEs may communicate via a wireless sidelink, and the UEs may communicate with the base station(s) via respective access links.

As shown in <FIG>, the various UEs may be located in a coverage area (e.g., a cell) provided by a base station. Accordingly, in some aspects, the base station may store information related to an identifier associated with each UE (e.g., a cell radio network temporary identity (C-RNTI), a serving temporary mobile subscriber identity (S-TMSI), a temporary identity used in next update (TIN), and/or the like), and the base station may further know approximate locations of each UE (e.g., based on location information periodically reported by the UEs, measurements associated with signals transmitted by the UEs, and/or the like). Furthermore, in some aspects, each UE may be assigned a sidelink zone identifier that corresponds to a geographical area in which the respective UE is located. For example, in some aspects, a geographical area may be partitioned into contiguous sidelink zones, and each sidelink zone may be a particular size and shape. In some aspects, the sidelink zones may be the same size and shape, or the sizes and/or the shapes of at least a subset of the sidelink zones may be different. For example, in some aspects, dimensions of a sidelink zone may be defined by a sidelink zone configuration parameter (e.g., a radio resource control (RRC) parameter, such as an SL-ZoneConfig information element). For example, the sidelink zone configuration parameter may indicate a length and width of the geographical area corresponding to each sidelink zone, a total number of sidelink zones that are configured with respect to latitude and longitude, and/or the like. Accordingly, the geographical area partitioned into the contiguous sidelink zones may be associated with a fixed reference point (e.g., geographical coordinates (<NUM>,<NUM>)) that may be used to determine sidelink zone identifiers that correspond to respective geographical areas in which the UEs are located.

For example, in some aspects, each sidelink zone may be assigned an identifier such that the sidelink zones may be indexed in a table, a wireless communication standard, a data structure, a wireless communication specification, and/or the like. The identifiers assigned to the sidelink zones may be numbered identifiers (e.g., Sidelink Zone <NUM> through Sidelink Zone <NUM>), lettered identifiers (e.g., Sidelink Zone A through Sidelink Zone G), or other types of identifiers. In some aspects, the identifiers used for the sidelink zones may be defined according to an N-bit index that wraps around or repeats after a particular number of identifiers are used such that the number of identifiers in use may be reduced while still permitting sidelink zones to be uniquely identified within a portion of the geographic area. For example, in some aspects, the N-bit index (or identifier) corresponding to a sidelink zone associated with a geographical area in which a particular UE is located may be determined by the UE and/or the base station according to a modulo operator using the length and width of each sidelink zone, the number of sidelink zones that are configured with respect to latitude and longitude, the fixed reference point, and the geographical coordinates that correspond to the current location of the particular UE. For example, in <FIG>, UE<NUM> and UE<NUM> may be determined to be located within a first sidelink zone associated with a first sidelink zone identifier (e.g., Zone ID <NUM>), UE<NUM>, UE<NUM>, and UE<NUM> may be determined to be located within a second sidelink zone associated with a second sidelink zone identifier (e.g., Zone ID <NUM>), and UE<NUM> and UE<NUM> may be determined to be located within a third sidelink zone associated with a third sidelink zone identifier (e.g., Zone ID <NUM>).

In some aspects, the size and shape of each sidelink zone may be a known and well-defined configuration such that use of sidelink zones may allow for distance determinations between two UEs. For example, UEs that are located in the same sidelink zone may generally be considered geographically close to one another, and UEs that are located in different sidelink zones may generally be considered geographically far apart (e.g., compared to UEs in the same sidelink zone). Additionally, or alternatively, the distance between two UEs may be inferred based at least in part on a number of sidelink zones between the two UEs. For example, assuming that a sidelink zone has a configuration with a width of <NUM> meters and a length of <NUM> meters, then the maximum distance between two UEs that are located in the same sidelink zone is <NUM> meters. In another example, if there are two sidelink zones between respective sidelink zones in which two UEs are located, then a coarse approximation of the maximum distance separating the two UEs would be <NUM> meters. Accordingly, as described herein, the sidelink zones in which UEs are located may provide a coarse estimate of the geographical locations of the UEs, the geographical distance or proximity between UEs, and/or the like, whereby a group wake-up signal may be parameterized according to a sidelink zone identifier to collectively wake up at least a subset of UEs that are located in a particular geographic region. In this way, the UEs that are collectively woken up by the group wake-up signal may perform an autonomous discovery operation to discover other UEs that are geographically nearby such that the UEs can then engage in sidelink communications.

For example, as shown in <FIG>, and by reference number <NUM>, a base station may parameterize one or more group wake-up signals according to sidelink zone identifiers in order to collectively wake up at least a subset of UEs that are located in geographical areas corresponding to particular sidelink zone identifiers. For example, in some aspects, UEs may enter a sleep state or other low-power state to conserve battery resources, processor resources, radio resources, and/or the like, and the UEs may include a particular module or sub-system, referred to herein as a wake-up receiver, to detect the group wake-up signal. When the wake-up receiver detects a group wake-up signal that is parameterized according to the sidelink zone identifier that corresponds to the geographical area in which the UE is located, a modem and/or an entire communication chain (e.g., any combination of antenna <NUM>, MOD <NUM>, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM>, and/or the like) may enter an active state to receive a control channel and subsequent shared channel. For example, in some aspects, the group wake-up signal may be an analog waveform, such as an on-off keying (OOK)-based tone, a preamble, a reference signal, and/or the like that is generated as a function of one or more parameters. Accordingly, as described herein, the one or more parameters used to generate the group wake-up signal may include at least a sidelink zone identifier, whereby a set of parameters associated with the group wake-up signal may be an explicit and/or implicit function of the sidelink zone identifier. In this way, all UEs that are located in a geographical area that corresponds to a particular sidelink zone identifier may have the same wake-up signal parameters, and different sidelink zone identifiers may be associated with different wake-up signal parameters. In other words, a group wake-up signal that is parameterized according to a particular sidelink zone identifier may wake up at least a subset of the UEs in the corresponding sidelink zone. Furthermore, in some aspects, the group wake-up signal may not awaken one or more UEs that are located in different sidelink zones.

Accordingly, in some aspects, the base station may determine a sidelink zone identifier associated with a subset of UEs to be woken up, and may generate a group wake-up signal that includes a wake-up signal parameter configuration that is an explicit or implicit function of the sidelink zone identifier. For example, as shown in <FIG>, the base station may generate and transmit a first group wake-up signal (WUS<NUM>) to collectively wake up at least a subset of the UEs that are located in a geographical area corresponding to a first sidelink zone identifier (e.g., Zone ID <NUM>), may generate and transmit a second group wake-up signal (WUS<NUM>) to collectively wake up at least a subset of the UEs that are located in a geographical area corresponding to a second sidelink zone identifier (e.g., Zone ID <NUM>), may generate and transmit a third group wake-up signal (WUS<NUM>) to collectively wake up at least a subset of the UEs that are located in a geographical area corresponding to a third sidelink zone identifier (e.g., Zone ID <NUM>), and/or the like. Accordingly, while in a sleep state or other low-power state, a UE may monitor an access link (e.g., a PDCCH) for a group wake-up signal that is parameterized based at least in part on the sidelink zone identifier that corresponds to the geographical area in which the UE is located, and may wake up or otherwise transition to an active state based at least in part on detecting such a group wake-up signal. Furthermore, in an mmW communication, the base station may beam sweep the group wake-up signal over multiple wake-up beams that are directionally steered towards the geographical area that corresponds to the sidelink zone identifier, thereby improving spatial and time diversity of the wake-up signal, reducing the likelihood of failure of detection due to beam degradation, conserving resources by avoiding transmitting the group wake-up signal in directions that are away from the geographical area of the UEs to be woken up, and/or the like.

In some aspects, as described above, a UE may generally monitor an access link for a group wake-up signal that is parameterized based at least in part on the sidelink zone identifier corresponding to the geographical area in which the UE is located. Furthermore, in some aspects, the UE may additionally monitor the access link for a group wake-up signal that is parameterized according to the identifier(s) associated with one or more neighboring sidelink zones. For example, a mobile UE may move between different sidelink zones as the UE changes geographical location, whereby UEs may monitor for group wake-up signals that are parameterized according to the identifier(s) associated with neighboring sidelink zones may ensure that the UEs are awake at the same time as UEs in the neighboring sidelink zones, in case of potential and/or likely movement into the neighboring sidelink zones. Furthermore, in some cases, the one or more neighboring sidelink zones may be located in the same cell as a serving base station, in a neighboring cell, and/or the like, whereby monitoring for the group wake-up signal associated with the neighboring sidelink zones may facilitate a potential and/or likely handover from the serving base station to a neighboring base station. In some aspects, a base station may indicate the neighboring sidelink zone identifiers that a particular UE is to monitor, and different base stations may communicate via a backhaul to determine neighboring sidelink zones to be monitored across different cells. Additionally, in some aspects, a UE may continue to monitor for a group wake-up signal associated with a sidelink zone in which the UE was previously located for a certain time period after changing sidelink zones. In this way, the continued monitoring of the group wake-up signal associated with the previous sidelink zone may provide a hysteresis function in case the UE changes location again and moves back into the previous sidelink zone.

In some aspects, as shown in <FIG>, and by reference number <NUM>, a geographical area that corresponds to a particular sidelink zone may span multiple cells. For example, in the claimed invention, sidelink zone identifiers are clustered together across multiple cells such that UEs that are in geographical proximity can have the same group wake-up signal parameters despite being located in different cells. For example, as shown in <FIG>, a geographical area that corresponds to a sidelink zone having identifier 'Zone ID <NUM>' includes a first portion that is located in a first cell provided by a first base station and a second portion located in a second cell provided by a second base station. Accordingly, by clustering the sidelink zone across multiple cells provided by different base stations, geographically nearby UEs can be collectively woken up at the same time. For example, as shown in <FIG>, base stations in neighboring cells may each transmit a PDCCH that includes a group wake-up signal that is parameterized according to the sidelink zone identifier 'Zone ID <NUM>' in order to collectively wake up all (or a subset) of the UEs located in the corresponding geographical area. For example, in <FIG>, a first base station (gNB<NUM>) may transmit a group wake-up signal (WUS<NUM>) to collectively wake up UE<NUM>, UE<NUM>, and UE<NUM> located in the cell provided by the first base station, and a second base station (gNB<NUM>) may transmit the same group wake-up signal to collectively wake up UE<NUM> and UE<NUM> located in the cell provided by the second base station. In this way, by clustering the sidelink zones across different cells, UEs may be monitored more easily within a broader geographical area, which may facilitate handovers across different base stations, TRPs, and/or the like. Furthermore, in some aspects, base stations in neighboring cells may communicate (e.g., via a backhaul) to configure the geographical area that corresponds to a sidelink zone spanning multiple cells. For example, in some aspects, the neighboring base stations may exchange information related to network-level statistical metrics related to geographical proximity among UEs located within the respective cells to determine the appropriate geographical configuration for a particular sidelink zone clustered across different cells.

In some aspects, as shown in <FIG>, a group wake-up signal may be configured to wake up or otherwise activate a subset of links within a geographical area that corresponds to a particular sidelink zone identifier. For example, as shown by reference number <NUM>, the group wake-up signal may activate all access links (e.g., Uu links between the base station and the UEs) for the subset of UEs that are collectively woken up within a geographical area. Furthermore, as shown by reference number <NUM>, the group wake-up signal may activate a subset of sidelinks (e.g., PC5 links between UEs) for the subset of UEs that are collectively woken up within the geographical area. For example, in <FIG>, the group wake-up signals for 'Zone ID <NUM>' and 'Zone ID <NUM>' wake up all access links and all sidelinks within the corresponding sidelink zones (e.g., the subset of the sidelinks that are woken up includes all of the sidelinks within the corresponding sidelink zones), but the group wake-up signal for 'Zone ID <NUM>' wakes up only a portion of the sidelinks within the corresponding sidelink zone. For example, in <FIG>, the group wake-up signal for 'Zone ID <NUM>' does not activate the sidelink between UE<NUM> and UE<NUM> (e.g., due to a distance between UE<NUM> and UE<NUM> satisfying a threshold). In some aspects, the base station may determine the subset of the sidelinks to be woken up or otherwise activated based on network-level statistical metrics (e.g., distances between UEs, knowledge related to which UEs are engaged or are not engaged in a sidelink session, and/or the like).

<FIG> is a diagram illustrating an example process <NUM> performed, for example, by a base station, in accordance with the present disclosure. Example process <NUM> is an example where the base station (e.g., base station <NUM> and/or the like) performs operations associated with group wake-up signaling using a sidelink zone identifier.

As shown in <FIG>, in some aspects, process <NUM> may include configuring a group wake-up signal based at least in part on a sidelink zone identifier that corresponds to a geographical area (block <NUM>). For example, the base station may configure (e.g., using transmit processor <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM>, memory <NUM>, and/or the like) a group wake-up signal based at least in part on a sidelink zone identifier that corresponds to a geographical area, as described above.

As further shown in <FIG>, in some aspects, process <NUM> may include transmitting the group wake-up signal to collectively wake up at least a subset of UEs located in the geographical area corresponding to the sidelink zone identifier (block <NUM>). For example, the base station may transmit (e.g., using controller/processor <NUM>, transmit processor <NUM>, TX MIMO processor <NUM>, MOD <NUM>, antenna <NUM>, memory <NUM>, and/or the like) the group wake-up signal to collectively wake up at least a subset of UEs located in the geographical area corresponding to the sidelink zone identifier, as described above.

In a first aspect, the group wake-up signal is associated with a parameter configuration that is based at least in part on the sidelink zone identifier.

In a second aspect, alone or in combination with the first aspect, the parameter configuration causes the group wake-up signal to collectively wake up the subset of the UEs located in the geographical area corresponding to the sidelink zone identifier without waking up one or more UEs located outside the geographical area corresponding to the sidelink zone identifier.

In a third aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first and second aspects, at least a portion of the geographical area that corresponds to the sidelink zone identifier is located in a neighboring cell.

In a fourth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through third aspects, process <NUM> includes communicating with a base station providing the neighboring cell to configure the geographical area that corresponds to the sidelink zone identifier based at least in part on one or more statistical metrics related to geographical proximity among UEs.

In a fifth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through fourth aspects, process <NUM> includes transmitting, to one or more of the UEs located in the geographical area corresponding to the sidelink zone identifier, information indicating one or more neighboring sidelink zone identifiers, where the one or more UEs monitor for the group wake-up signal associated with the sidelink zone identifier corresponding to the geographical area in which the one or more UEs are located and for group wake-up signals associated with the one or more neighboring sidelink zone identifiers.

In a sixth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through fifth aspects, the group wake-up signal activates an access link and at least a subset of sidelinks for each UE located in the geographical area corresponding to the sidelink zone identifier.

In a seventh aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through sixth aspects, process <NUM> includes determining the subset of the sidelinks to be activated for each UE located in the geographical area corresponding to the sidelink zone identifier based at least in part on one or more network-level statistical metrics.

<FIG> is a diagram illustrating an example process <NUM> performed, for example, by a UE, in accordance with the present disclosure. Example process <NUM> is an example where the UE (e.g., UE <NUM>, UE <NUM>, UE <NUM>, UE <NUM>, and/or the like) performs operations associated with group wake-up signaling using a sidelink zone identifier.

As shown in <FIG>, in some aspects, process <NUM> may include determining a sidelink zone identifier that corresponds to a geographical area in which the UE is located (block <NUM>). For example, the user equipment may determine (e.g., using controller/processor <NUM>, memory <NUM>, and/or the like) a sidelink zone identifier that corresponds to a geographical area in which the UE is located, as described above.

As further shown in <FIG>, in some aspects, process <NUM> may include waking from a sleep state based at least in part on receiving a group wake-up signal that is based at least in part on the sidelink zone identifier, wherein the group wake-up signal is configured to collectively wake up at least a subset of UEs located in the geographical area corresponding to the sidelink zone identifier (block <NUM>). For example, the UE may wake (e.g., using antenna <NUM>, DEMOD <NUM>, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM>, memory <NUM>, and/or the like) from a sleep state based at least in part on receiving a group wake-up signal that is based at least in part on the sidelink zone identifier, as described above. In some aspects, the group wake-up signal is configured to collectively wake up at least a subset of UEs located in the geographical area corresponding to the sidelink zone identifier.

In a fourth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through third aspects, process <NUM> includes receiving, from a base station, information indicating one or more neighboring sidelink zone identifiers, and monitoring for the group wake-up signal associated with the sidelink zone identifier corresponding to the geographical area in which the UE is located and for group wake-up signals associated with the one or more neighboring sidelink zone identifiers.

In a fifth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through fourth aspects, the group wake-up signal that causes the UE to wake up from the sleep state is associated with one or more of the sidelink zone identifier corresponding to the geographical area in which the UE is located or the one or more neighboring sidelink zone identifiers.

In a sixth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through fifth aspects, the UE further monitors for a group wake-up signal associated with a sidelink zone identifier corresponding to a geographical area in which the UE was previously located during a time period after entering the geographical area in which the UE is currently located.

In a seventh aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through sixth aspects, the group wake-up signal activates an access link for the UE and at least a subset of sidelinks for the UE.

Claim 1:
A method of wireless communication performed by a first base station, comprising:
configuring (<NUM>) a group wake-up signal based at least in part on a sidelink zone identifier that corresponds to a geographical area of a sidelink zone that is located in a coverage area of one or more base stations including the first base station and that covers user equipments, UEs, that are in geographical proximity to each other for sidelink communication; and
transmitting (<NUM>) the group wake-up signal to collectively wake up at least a subset of the UEs located in the geographical area corresponding to the sidelink zone identifier.