WO2022155505A1

WO2022155505A1 - Techniques for flexible aperiodic sounding reference signal (srs) triggering

Info

Publication number: WO2022155505A1
Application number: PCT/US2022/012576
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alexei Davydov; Guotong Wang
Original assignee: Intel Corporation
Priority date: 2021-01-18
Filing date: 2022-01-14
Publication date: 2022-07-21

Abstract

This disclosure describes techniques for flexible aperiodic sounding reference signal (SRS) triggering. An example method may include determining, by a base station in a wireless network system, that a first uplink transmission time slot is scheduled for a first uplink transmission by a first user equipment (UE). The example method may also include determining, by the base station, a second uplink transmission time slot for a second uplink transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) by a second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission time slot is determined based on the base station considering the first uplink transmission time slot as an available time slot. The example method may also include sending an indication of the second uplink transmission time slot to the second UE.

Description

TECHNIQUES FOR FLEXIBLE APERIODIC SOUNDING REFERENCE SIGNAL (SRS) TRIGGERING CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION(S) This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.63/138,695, filed January 18, 2021, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference as set forth in full. TECHNICAL FIELD Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communications, and, more particularly, to techniques for flexible aperiodic sounding reference signal (SRS) triggering. BACKGROUND In the 3GPP standard, different types of sounding reference signal (SRS) resource sets may be supported. The SRS may be a reference signal that is sent in an uplink message from a user equipment (UE) to a gNB (which may also be referred to herein as a “base station”) which gives information about the channel quality. For example, the SRS may provide information about the combined effect of multipath fading, scattering, Doppler, and/or power loss of a transmitted signal. However, the current aperiodic SRS triggering over available slots does not consider the conflict among different UEs. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanying drawings. The use of the same reference numerals indicates similar or identical components or elements; however, different reference numerals may be used as well to indicate components or elements, which may be similar or identical. Various embodiments of the disclosure may utilize elements and/or components other than those illustrated in the drawings, and some elements and/or components may not be present in various embodiments. Depending on the context, singular terminology used to describe an element or a component may encompass a plural number of such elements or components and vice versa. FIG. 1 illustrates an example transmission sequence, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 2 illustrates an example transmission sequence, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 3 illustrates an example transmission sequence, in accordance with one or more embodiments of this disclosure. FIG. 4 illustrates an example transmission sequence, in accordance with one or more embodiments of this disclosure. FIG.5 illustrates an example method, in accordance with one or more embodiments of this disclosure. FIG.6 illustrates an example network, in accordance with one or more embodiments of this disclosure. FIG. 7 illustrates an example wireless network, in accordance with one or more embodiments of this disclosure. FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a computing system, in accordance with one or more embodiments of this disclosure. Certain implementations will now be described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which various implementations and/or aspects are shown. However, various aspects may be implemented in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the implementations set forth herein; rather, these implementations are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. Like numbers in the figures refer to like elements throughout. Hence, if a feature is used across several drawings, the number used to identify the feature in the drawing where the feature first appeared will be used in later drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrases “A or B” and “A/B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B). Among other things, one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may be directed to techniques for a flexible aperiodic sounding reference signal (SRS) triggering. The SRS resource set may be configured with a parameter of ‘usage,’ which may be set to ‘beamManagement,’ ‘codebook,’ ‘nonCodebook,’ or ‘antennaSwitching.’ The SRS resource set configured for ‘beamManagement’ may be used for beam acquisition and uplink beam indication using SRS. The SRS resource set configured for ‘codebook’ and ‘nonCodebook’ may be used to determine the UL precoding with explicit indication by transmission precoding matrix index (TPMI) or implicit indication by SRS resource index (SRI). Finally, the SRS resource set configured for ‘antennaSwitching’ may be used to acquire DL channel state information (CSI) using SRS measurements in the UE by leveraging reciprocity of the channel in TDD systems. For SRS transmission, the time domain behavior may be periodic, semi- persistent, or aperiodic. When a SRS resource set is configured as ‘aperiodic,’ the SRS resource set may also include configuration of slot offset (slotOffset) and trigger state(s) (aperiodicSRS- ResourceTrigger, aperiodicSRS-ResourceTriggerList). The parameter slotOffset may define the slot offset relative to PDCCH where SRS transmission should be commenced. The triggering state(s) defines which DCI codepoint(s) triggers the corresponding SRS resource set transmission. However, there may exist issues regarding the indication of k-th available slot to the UE for SRS transmission. As is illustrated further in FIGS.1-4 described below, a gNB may indicate to a first UE to transmit aperiodic SRS resource sets in a particular available uplink slot. However, the gNB and the first UE may not necessarily have the same understanding of which uplink time slot is considered the “first available” time slot. For example, the gNB may also be in communication with a second UE, and may have information that the second UE has already been assigned a particular uplink timeslot (referred to as time slot “k”). Given this, the time slot k may be unavailable and the first available time slot may actually be a time slot “k+1.” However, the first UE may not have information relating to the second UE, so the first UE may still determine that the time slot “k” is the first available time slot, even though this time slot is actually scheduled for the second UE. This inconsistency in the information known by the gNB and the information known by the first UE may need to be addressed to ensure that the gNB and the first UE maintain the same understanding of which time slot is available for SRS transmission. An example of this inconsistency is illustrated in FIG.1. In one or more embodiments, there may exist a number of solutions for addressing this information inconsistency. One example approach may involve the gNB treating any uplink time slots occupied by other UEs as available time slots (for example, the slot availability may be considered only from a single UE perspective). With this being the case, if the gNB were to transmit a message with a ‘slotOffset’ value of three (indicating that the SRS should be transmitted by the UE at the third available uplink time slot), then both the gNB and the UE may count three uplink time slots from the reference time slot, even if an uplink time slot included in the next three uplink time slots is known by the gNB to be scheduled to another UE. This results in the gNB and UE “counting” the same number of uplink time slots to arrive at the same uplink time slot to be used for transmission of the SRS by the UE. As an example, a sequence of time slots may include a first unavailable time slot (scheduled to a second UE) followed by a second available time slot that has not already been scheduled to another UE. If the gNB wants to trigger a first UE to send SRS over the second time slot, the gNB may indicate to the first UE to transmit SRS in a second available slot, even though the second available time slot is technically the third time slot since the first time slot is unavailable. However, in this approach, the gNB may ignore the unavailability of the first time slot and may instead treat the first time slot as if it is an available time slot. In this manner the gNB and the first UE both “count” the same number of time slots from the reference time slot in order to determine which time slot corresponds to the second time slot that the gNB desires the first UE to use for the SRS transmissions. With the gNB treating the first unavailable time slot as available, both the gNB and the UE may “count” two time slots back from the reference time slot, and the time slot that is technically unavailable may be included in the count by the gNB and the UE so both the gNB and UE are counting the same time slots to determine which time slot is to be used for the SRS transmission. This approach is illustrated further in FIG.2. In one or more embodiments, the collision handling rules may also need to be considered in addition to the approach to UE uplink SRS transmission scheduling as described above. For example, the uplink SRS transmission may need to be scheduled with respect to other uplink signals of the UE, such as physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). That is, even if a time slot is determined to be available using the approach described above, the time slot may not necessarily be the actual time slot that the SRS is transmitting using if other collision handling rules apply. Such collision handling rules may include any collision handling rules (for example, as defined in any 3GPP standards). Based on the collision handling rules, certain types of transmissions may be granted priority over other types of transmissions. For example, certain PUSCH and PUCCH messages may be granted priority over the aperiodic SRS resource sets transmissions. If aperiodic SRS should be dropped, then the uplink slot is considered to be unavailable. If aperiodic SRS should be transmitted according to the collision handling rule, then the uplink slot is available for aperiodic SRS. In one or more embodiments, the collision handling rules may be considered after an uplink time slot has already been indicated to a UE. For example, the gNB may indicate a particular time slot to the UE that the UE may use for uplink SRS transmissions, and then collision handling rules may be considered after this indication is provided. Thus, the UE may ultimately transmit the SRS using a different time slot than initially indicated if collision handling rules provide priority to a different type of uplink transmission in that particular time slot. Alternatively, the gNB may address collision handling rules before sending an indication of an uplink time slot to the UE. That is, when the indication of the time slot that the UE should use is provided to the UE, the collision handling has already been considered, so the UE would transmit using the indicated uplink time slot. Turning to the figures, FIG. 1 illustrates an example transmission sequence 100, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure. In one or more embodiments, the example transmission sequence 100 may illustrate a problem that may arise in scheduling uplink transmission time slots for a UE to transmit SRS resource sets. The example sequence may depict a series of downlink time slots (for example, downlink time slots 104, 106, 112, and 114) and uplink time slots (for example, uplink time slots 102, 108, and 110) that may be scheduled for data transmissions between a gNB and one or more UEs. In the example transmission sequence 100, a gNB (not shown in the figure) may indicate to a first UE (not shown in the figure) to transmit aperiodic SRS resource sets in a first available uplink slot. However, the gNB and the first UE may not necessarily have the same understanding of which uplink time slot is the first available time slot. For example, the gNB may also be in communication with a second UE, and may have information that the second UE has already been assigned a first uplink timeslot 108 (referred to as time slot “k”). Given this, the first uplink timeslot 108 may be unavailable and the first available time slot may actually be a time slot 110 (for example, time slot “k+1”). However, the first UE may not have information relating to the second UE, so the first UE may still determine that the first uplink timeslot 108 is the first available time slot, even though the first uplink timeslot 108 is actually scheduled for the second UE. This inconsistency in the information known by the gNB and the information known by the first UE may need to be addressed to ensure that the gNB and the first UE maintain the same understanding of which time slot is available for SRS resource set transmission. FIG. 2 illustrates an example transmission sequence 200, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure. In one or more embodiments, the transmission sequence 200 illustrates one example approach to solving the inconsistency in gNB and UE knowledge that is illustrated in FIG. 1. This example approach may involve the gNB treating any uplink time slots occupied by other UEs as available time slots. That is, slot availability may only be considered only from single UE perspective. As an example, a sequence of time slots may include a first unavailable uplink time slot 208 (scheduled to a second UE) followed by a second available uplink time slot 210 and a third available uplink time slot 216 that have not already been scheduled to another UE. If the gNB wants to trigger a first UE to send SRS resource sets over the third available uplink time slot 216, the gNB may indicate to the first UE to transmit SRS in a third available slot, even though the third available uplink time slot 216 is technically only the second next available time slot since the first unavailable uplink time slot 208 is unavailable. However, in this approach the gNB ignores the unavailability of the first unavailable time slot 208, and treats it as if it is an available time slot. In one or more embodiments, this approach allows the gNB and the first UE both “count” the same number of time slots from the reference time slot in order to determine which time slot corresponds to the third time slot that the gNB desires the first UE to use for the SRS transmissions. For example, if the gNB provides the indication at downlink time slot 204, then the UE would count three uplink time slots subsequent to the downlink time slot 204 to determine which uplink time slot to use for transmission of the SRS resource sets. Since the UE does not have information that the first unavailable uplink time slot 208, the third available uplink time slot from the UE’s perspective is the third available uplink time slot 216. Whereas normally the gNB would skip the first unavailable uplink time slot 208 in counting the three subsequent time slots (which would result in the gNB selecting the fourth available uplink time slot 218 as the time slot that the gNB would expect the UE to also select for transmission), using the approach described with respect to this figure, the gNB would still count the first unavailable uplink time slot 208, so that the gNB may also select the third available uplink time slot 216 as the uplink time slot that the gNB expects the UE to use for SRS resource sets transmission. In this manner, the gNB and UE may be aligned in terms of the uplink time slot that is selected. FIG. 3 illustrates an example transmission sequence 300, in accordance with one or more embodiments of this disclosure. In one or more embodiments, the example transmission sequence 300 may illustrate that collision handling rules with respect to other uplink signals of the UE (for example, physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)) may also be considered when determining time slot availability from a UE perspective. If the aperiodic SRS should be dropped, then the uplink time slot may be considered to be unavailable. If the aperiodic SRS should be transmitted according to the collision handling rule, then the uplink time slot may be available for aperiodic SRS. That is, the example transmission sequence 300 may illustrate a first approach to account for collision handling rules by considering the rules before the gNB provides an indication of the time slot that the UE should use for SRS resource set transmissions. In the specific example illustrated in the figure, when the gNB determines slot availability for a first UE, it may be determined that the first unavailable uplink time slot 308 is scheduled to a second UE, but may still be considered to be available by the gNB (in accordance with the method described with respect to FIG. 2). Additionally, the second unavailable uplink time slot 310 may already be schedule for transmission of a PUCCH acknowledgement for the first UE. Given this, the SRS resource sets transmission for the first UE may be dropped according to a collision handling rule. Therefore, the second unavailable uplink time slot 310 may be considered as unavailable for aperiodic SRS by the first UE. That is, while the first UE may not have knowledge that the first unavailable uplink time slot 308 is unavailable because it is scheduled to a second UE. However, the first UE may have the knowledge that the second unavailable uplink time slot 310 is unavailable because the second unavailable uplink time slot 310 is scheduled for a different type of uplink transmission for the first UE. Based on this, the gNB may indicate to the UE that the third available uplink time slot may be used by the first UE to transmit the aperiodic SRS resource sets transmission. If the gNB treats the first unavailable time slot 308 as available, and both the gNB and the first UE treat the second unavailable uplink time slot 310 as unavailable, then the first available uplink time slot may be understood by the gNB and the first UE to be the second available time slot 318. The first UE may then send the aperiodic SRS resource sets transmission over the second available uplink time slot 318. As illustrated through this example, the collision handling is considered at the front end of the analysis such that any collision handling rules are taken into account by the gNB when sending the uplink time slot scheduling indication to the first UE. FIG. 4 illustrates an example transmission sequence 400, in accordance with one or more embodiments of this disclosure. In one or more embodiments, the example transmission sequence 400 illustrates another approach to accounting for collision handling rules when scheduling SRS resource set transmissions by a UE. This approach may involve the gNB proceeding with scheduling an available uplink time slot with the UE as described in association with FIG. 2, and then applying collision handling rules after the time slot is determined. For example, the gNB may indicate to the UE to transmit the SRS resource sets over the third available uplink time slot, which in this case may be uplink time slot 416. This uplink time slot 416 may be selected before any collision handling rules are applied. Once the uplink time slot 416 is selected, however, the collision handling rules may then be applied to determine if the uplink time slot 416 is actually used by the UE to transmit any SRS resource sets. For example, if after applying the collision handling it is determined that the uplink time slot 416 is still available, then the UE may still use the uplink time slot 416 for SRS resource sets transmission. However, if it is determined that the uplink time slot 416 is already scheduled for other types of uplink transmissions, then a new uplink time slot may need to be used for the SRS resource sets transmission (for example, uplink time slot 418 may be used instead of uplink time slot 416). FIG.5 illustrates an example method 500, in accordance with one or more embodiments of this disclosure. At block 502, the method 500 may include determine (for example, by a gNB, such as gNB 616 or any other gNB) that a first uplink transmission time slot is scheduled for a first uplink transmission by a first user equipment (UE). Block 504 may include determine a second uplink transmission time slot for a second uplink transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) by a second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission time slot is determined based on the base station considering the first uplink transmission time slot as an available time slot. Block 506 may include encode a first signal for transmission using a transmit signal path including an indication of the second uplink transmission time slot to the second UE. In one or more embodiments, determining the second uplink transmission time slot may also include determine a number of time slots from a reference time slot. Determining the second uplink transmission time slot may also include encode a second signal for transmission using a transmit signal path including the number of time slots to the second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission is sent over the second uplink transmission time slot based on the second uplink transmission time slot being the number of time slots subsequent to the reference time slot. In one or more embodiments, determining the number of time slots from the reference time slot further comprises determining a number of available uplink time slots from the reference time slot. In one or more embodiments, wherein determining the second uplink transmission time slot is based on a collision handling rule. In one or more embodiments, the method 500 may also include determine, based on a collision handling rule and subsequent to determining the second uplink transmission time slot, that a third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot instead of the second uplink transmission. The method 500 may also include determine a fourth uplink transmission time slot for transmitting the second uplink transmission. In one or more embodiments, determining that the third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot is further based on the collision handling rule indicating that the third uplink transmission is a higher priority transmission than the second uplink transmission. In one or more embodiments, the processor may include a baseband processor. FIGS. 6-7 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments. FIG. 6 illustrates a network 600 in accordance with various embodiments. The network 600 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems, or the like. The network 600 may include a UE 602, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 604 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 602 may be communicatively coupled with the RAN 604 by a Uu interface. The UE 602 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, IoT device, etc. In some embodiments, the network 600 may include a plurality of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc. In some embodiments, the UE 602 may additionally communicate with an AP 606 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 606 may manage a WLAN connection, which may serve to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 604. The connection between the UE 602 and the AP 606 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 606 could be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In some embodiments, the UE 602, RAN 604, and AP 606 may utilize cellular-WLAN aggregation (for example, LWA/LWIP). Cellular-WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 602 being configured by the RAN 604 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources. The RAN 604 may include one or more access nodes, for example, AN 608. AN 608 may terminate air-interface protocols for the UE 602 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and L1 protocols. In this manner, the AN 608 may enable data/voice connectivity between CN 620 and the UE 602. In some embodiments, the AN 608 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of, for example, a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 608 be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 608 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells. In embodiments in which the RAN 604 includes a plurality of ANs, they may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 604 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 604 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interfaces, which may be separated into control/user plane interfaces in some embodiments, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handovers, data/context transfers, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc. The ANs of the RAN 604 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE 602 with an air interface for network access. The UE 602 may be simultaneously connected with a plurality of cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 604. For example, the UE 602 and RAN 604 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 602 to connect with a plurality of component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell. In dual connectivity scenarios, a first AN may be a master node that provides an MCG and a second AN may be secondary node that provides an SCG. The first/second ANs may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc. The RAN 604 may provide the air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may use LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms based on CA technology with PCells/Scells. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may perform medium/carrier-sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol. In V2X scenarios the UE 602 or AN 608 may be or act as a RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by: a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU”; an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU”; a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU”; and the like. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communications services. The components of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network. In some embodiments, the RAN 604 may be an LTE RAN 610 with eNBs, for example, eNB 612. The LTE RAN 610 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: SCS of 15 kHz; CP-OFDM waveform for DL and SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control; etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI- RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operating on sub-6 GHz bands. In some embodiments, the RAN 604 may be an NG-RAN 614 with gNBs, for example, gNB 616, or ng-eNBs, for example, ng-eNB 618. The gNB 616 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 616 may connect with a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 618 may also connect with the 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect with a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 616 and the ng-eNB 618 may connect with each other over an Xn interface. In some embodiments, the NG interface may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN 614 and a UPF 648 (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN614 and an AMF 644 (e.g., N2 interface). The NG-RAN 614 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for control and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use a CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH; and tracking reference signal for time tracking. The 5G- NR air interface may operating on FR1 bands that include sub-6 GHz bands or FR2 bands that include bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include an SSB that is an area of a downlink resource grid that includes PSS/SSS/PBCH. In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWP can be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS. For example, the UE 602 can be configured with multiple BWPs where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 602, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case example of BWP is related to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs can be configured for the UE 602 with different amount of frequency resources (for example, PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic loading scenarios. A BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with small traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE 602 and in some cases at the gNB 616. A BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic load. The RAN 604 is communicatively coupled to CN 620 that includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UE 602). The components of the CN 620 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 620 onto physical compute/storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 620 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 620 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. In some embodiments, the CN 620 may be an LTE CN 622, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 622 may include MME 624, SGW 626, SGSN 628, HSS 630, PGW 632, and PCRF 634 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the LTE CN 622 may be briefly introduced as follows. The MME 624 may implement mobility management functions to track a current location of the UE 602 to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, etc. The SGW 626 may terminate an S1 interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 622. The SGW 626 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement. The SGSN 628 may track a location of the UE 602 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 628 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 624; MME selection for handovers; etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 624 and the SGSN 628 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle/active states. The HSS 630 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions. The HSS 630 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 630 and the MME 624 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to the LTE CN 620. The PGW 632 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 636 that may include an application/content server 638. The PGW 632 may route data packets between the LTE CN 622 and the data network 636. The PGW 632 may be coupled with the SGW 626 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 632 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (for example, PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the PGW 632 and the data network 636 may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The PGW 632 may be coupled with a PCRF 634 via a Gx reference point. The PCRF 634 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 622. The PCRF 634 may be communicatively coupled to the app/content server 638 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows. The PCRF 632 may provision associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCI. In some embodiments, the CN 620 may be a 5GC 640. The 5GC 640 may include an AUSF 642, AMF 644, SMF 646, UPF 648, NSSF 650, NEF 652, NRF 654, PCF 656, UDM 658, and AF 660 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the 5GC 640 may be briefly introduced as follows. The AUSF 642 may store data for authentication of UE 602 and handle authentication- related functionality. The AUSF 642 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 640 over reference points as shown, the AUSF 642 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface. The AMF 644 may allow other functions of the 5GC 640 to communicate with the UE 602 and the RAN 604 and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events with respect to the UE 602. The AMF 644 may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE 602), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 644 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 602 and the SMF 646, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 644 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE 602 and an SMSF. AMF 644 may interact with the AUSF 642 and the UE 602 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, AMF 644 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 604 and the AMF 644; and the AMF 644 may be a termination point of NAS (N1) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. AMF 644 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 602 over an N3 IWF interface. The SMF 646 may be responsible for SM (for example, session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 648 and AN 608); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF 648 to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent via AMF 644 over N2 to AN 608; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or “session” may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 602 and the data network 636. The UPF 648 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to data network 636, and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF 648 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for a user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF-to-QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 648 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network. The NSSF 650 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE 602. The NSSF 650 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 650 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 602, or a list of candidate AMFs based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 654. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 602 may be triggered by the AMF 644 with which the UE 602 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 650, which may lead to a change of AMF. The NSSF 650 may interact with the AMF 644 via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 650 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface. The NEF 652 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 660), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 652 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. NEF 652 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 660 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 652 may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 652 may also receive information from other NFs based on exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF 652 as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 652 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 652 may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface. The NRF 654 may support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 654 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 654 may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface. The PCF 656 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 656 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 658. In addition to communicating with functions over reference points as shown, the PCF 656 exhibit an Npcf service-based interface. The UDM 658 may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE 602. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 658 and the AMF 644. The UDM 658 may include two parts, an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 658 and the PCF 656, and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 602) for the NEF 652. The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 658, PCF 656, and NEF 652 to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs over reference points as shown, the UDM 658 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface. The AF 660 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control. In some embodiments, the 5GC 640 may enable edge computing by selecting operator/3rd party services to be geographically close to a point that the UE 602 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge-computing implementations, the 5GC 640 may select a UPF 648 close to the UE 602 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 648 to data network 636 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 660. In this way, the AF 660 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 660 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF 660 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 660 may exhibit an Naf service-based interface. The data network 636 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers including, for example, application/content server 638. FIG. 7 schematically illustrates a wireless network 700 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 700 may include a UE 702 in wireless communication with an AN 704. The UE 702 and AN 704 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, like-named components described elsewhere herein. The UE 702 may be communicatively coupled with the AN 704 via connection 706. The connection 706 is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6GHz frequencies. The UE 702 may include a host platform 708 coupled with a modem platform 710. The host platform 708 may include application processing circuitry 712, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 714 of the modem platform 710. The application processing circuitry 712 may run various applications for the UE 702 that source/sink application data. The application processing circuitry 712 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit/receive application data to/from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (for example UDP) and Internet (for example, IP) operations The protocol processing circuitry 714 may implement one or more of layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 706. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 714 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC and NAS operations. The modem platform 710 may further include digital baseband circuitry 716 that may implement one or more layer operations that are “below” layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 714 in a network protocol stack. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling/descrambling, encoding/decoding, layer mapping/de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions. The modem platform 710 may further include transmit circuitry 718, receive circuitry 720, RF circuitry 722, and RF front end (RFFE) 724, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 726. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 718 may include a digital-to-analog converter, mixer, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuitry 720 may include an analog-to-digital converter, mixer, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 722 may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, power tracking components, etc.; RFFE 724 may include filters (for example, surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (for example, phase-array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the components of the transmit circuitry 718, receive circuitry 720, RF circuitry 722, RFFE 724, and antenna panels 726 (referred generically as “transmit/receive components”) may be specific to details of a specific implementation such as, for example, whether communication is TDM or FDM, in mmWave or sub-6 gHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit/receive chains, may be disposed in the same or different chips/modules, etc. In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 714 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit/receive components. A UE reception may be established by and via the antenna panels 726, RFFE 724, RF circuitry 722, receive circuitry 720, digital baseband circuitry 716, and protocol processing circuitry 714. In some embodiments, the antenna panels 726 may receive a transmission from the AN 704 by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 726. A UE transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry 714, digital baseband circuitry 716, transmit circuitry 718, RF circuitry 722, RFFE 724, and antenna panels 726. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 704 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panels 726. Similar to the UE 702, the AN 704 may include a host platform 728 coupled with a modem platform 730. The host platform 728 may include application processing circuitry 732 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 734 of the modem platform 730. The modem platform may further include digital baseband circuitry 736, transmit circuitry 738, receive circuitry 740, RF circuitry 742, RFFE circuitry 744, and antenna panels 746. The components of the AN 704 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with like-named components of the UE 702. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of the AN 708 may perform various logical functions that include, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling. FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 8 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 800 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 810, one or more memory/storage devices 820, and one or more communication resources 830, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 840 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 802 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 800. The processors 810 may include, for example, a processor 812 and a processor 814. The processors 810 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 820 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 820 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc. The communication resources 830 may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 804 or one or more databases 806 or other network elements via a network 808. For example, the communication resources 830 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components. Instructions 850 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 810 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 850 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 810 (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory/storage devices 820, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 850 may be transferred to the hardware resources 800 from any combination of the peripheral devices 804 or the databases 806. Accordingly, the memory of processors 810, the memory/storage devices 820, the peripheral devices 804, and the databases 806 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media. For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section. Example 1 may include an apparatus for a base station (gNB) comprising a processor and a memory storing computer-executable instructions. The computer-executable instructions, when executed by the processor, may cause the processor to determine that a first uplink transmission time slot is scheduled for a first uplink transmission by a first user equipment (UE). The computer-executable instructions also cause the processor to determine a second uplink transmission time slot for a second uplink transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) by a second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission time slot is determined based on the base station considering the first uplink transmission time slot as an available time slot. The computer-executable instructions also cause the processor to encode a first signal for transmission using a transmit signal path including an indication of the second uplink transmission time slot to the second UE. Example 2 may include the system of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein determining the second uplink transmission time slot further comprises determine a number of time slots from a reference time slot. Determining the second uplink transmission time slot further comprises encode a second signal for transmission using a transmit signal path including the number of time slots to the second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission is sent over the second uplink transmission time slot based on the second uplink transmission time slot being the number of time slots subsequent to the reference time slot. Example 3 may include the system of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein determining the number of time slots from the reference time slot further comprises determining a number of available uplink time slots from the reference time slot. Example 4 may include the system of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein determining the second uplink transmission time slot is based on a collision handling rule. Example 5 may include the system of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the computer-executable instructions also cause the processor to determine, based on a collision handling rule and subsequent to determining the second uplink transmission time slot, that a third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot instead of the second uplink transmission. The computer-executable instructions also cause the processor to determine a fourth uplink transmission time slot for transmitting the second uplink transmission. Example 6 may include the system of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein determining that the third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot is further based on the collision handling rule indicating that the third uplink transmission is a higher priority transmission than the second uplink transmission. Example 7 may include the system of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the processor comprises a baseband processor. Example 8 may include a computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations of determining, by a base station in a wireless network system, that a first uplink transmission time slot is scheduled for a first uplink transmission by a first user equipment (UE). The computer-executable instructions also cause the processor to perform operations of determining, by the base station, a second uplink transmission time slot for a second uplink transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) by a second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission time slot is determined based on the base station considering the first uplink transmission time slot as an available time slot. The computer-executable instructions also cause the processor to perform operations of encoding a first signal for transmission using a transmit signal path including an indication of the second uplink transmission time slot to the second UE. Example 9 may include the computer-readable medium of example 8 or some other example herein, wherein the computer-executable instructions also cause the processor to perform operations of determining a number of time slots from a reference time slot. The computer-executable instructions also cause the processor to perform operations of encoding a second signal for transmission using a transmit signal path including the number of time slots to the second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission is sent over the second uplink transmission time slot based on the second uplink transmission time slot being the number of time slots subsequent to the reference time slot. Example 10 may include the computer-readable medium of example 8 or some other example herein, wherein determining the number of time slots from the reference time slot further comprises determining a number of available uplink time slots from the reference time slot. Example 11 may include the computer-readable medium of example 8 or some other example herein, wherein determining the second uplink transmission time slot is based on a collision handling rule. Example 12 may include the computer-readable medium of example 8 or some other example herein, wherein the computer-executable instructions also cause the processor to perform operations of determining, based on a collision handling rule and subsequent to determining the second uplink transmission time slot, that a third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot instead of the second uplink transmission. The computer-executable instructions also cause the processor to perform operations of determining a fourth uplink transmission time slot for transmitting the second uplink transmission. Example 13 may include the computer-readable medium of example 8 or some other example herein, wherein determining that the third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot is further based on the collision handling rule indicating that the third uplink transmission is a higher priority transmission than the second uplink transmission. Example 14 may include the computer-readable medium of example 8 or some other example herein, wherein the third uplink transmission is associated with a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). Example 15 may include the computer-readable medium of example 8 or some other example herein may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 15 or some other example herein, wherein the wireless network system is a Fifth Generation (5G) wireless network system. Example 16 may include a method comprising determining, by a base station in a wireless network system, that a first uplink transmission time slot is scheduled for a first uplink transmission by a first user equipment (UE). The method also comprises determining, by the base station, a second uplink transmission time slot for a second uplink transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) by a second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission time slot is determined based on the base station considering the first uplink transmission time slot as an available time slot. The method also comprises encoding a first signal for transmission using a transmit signal path including an indication of the second uplink transmission time slot to the second UE. Example 17 may include the method of example 16 or some other example herein, wherein determining the second uplink transmission time slot further comprises determining a number of time slots from a reference time slot. The method further comprises sending the number of time slots to the second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission is sent over the second uplink transmission time slot based on the second uplink transmission time slot being the number of time slots subsequent to the reference time slot. Example 18 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 15 or some other example herein, wherein determining the number of time slots from the reference time slot further comprises determining a number of available uplink time slots from the reference time slot. Example 19 may include the method of example 16 or some other example herein, wherein determining the second uplink transmission time slot is based on a collision handling rule. Example 20 may include the method of example 16 or some other example herein, further comprising determining, based on a collision handling rule and subsequent to determining the second uplink transmission time slot, that a third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot instead of the second uplink transmission. The method further comprising determining a fourth uplink transmission time slot for transmitting the second uplink transmission. Example 21 may include the method of example 16 or some other example herein, wherein determining that the third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot is further based on the collision handling rule indicating that the third uplink transmission is a higher priority transmission than the second uplink transmission. Example 22 may include the method of example 16 or some other example herein, wherein the third uplink transmission is associated with a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). Example 23 may include the method of example 16 or some other example herein, wherein the wireless network system is a Fifth Generation (5G) wireless network system. Example 24 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing any of the methods of examples 16-23, or any other example herein. Example 25 may include a network node comprising a communication interface and processing circuitry connected thereto and configured to perform the method of examples 16- 23, or any other examples herein. Example 26 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or any other method or process described herein. Example 27 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or any other method or process described herein. Example 28 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or any other method or process described herein. Example 29 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or portions or parts thereof. Example 30 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or portions thereof. Example 31 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or portions or parts thereof. Example 32 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure. Example 33 may include a signal encoded with data as described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure. Example 34 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure. Example 35 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or portions thereof. Example 36 may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element is to cause the processing element to carry out the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or portions thereof. Example 37 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein. Example 38 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein. Example 39 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. Example 40 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments. Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments. For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussed herein. The term “circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry. The term “processor circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. Processing circuitry may include one or more processing cores to execute instructions and one or more memory structures to store program and data information. The term “processor circuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes. Processing circuitry may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms “application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processor circuitry.” The term “interface circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like. The term “user equipment” or “UE” as used herein refers to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment” or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface. The term “network element” as used herein refers to physical or virtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term “network element” may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like. The term “computer system” as used herein refers to any type interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another and configured to share computing and/or networking resources. The term “appliance,” “computer appliance,” or the like, as used herein refers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource. A “virtual appliance” is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide a specific computing resource. The term “resource” as used herein refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and/or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPU time, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardware time or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and applications, workload units, and/or the like. A “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by physical hardware element(s). A “virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term “network resource” or “communication resource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computer devices/systems via a communications network. The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable. The term “channel” as used herein refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalent to “communications channel,” “data communications channel,” “transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,” “data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequency carrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” as used herein refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information. The terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like as used herein refers to the creation of an instance. An “instance” also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. The terms “coupled,” “communicatively coupled,” along with derivatives thereof are used herein. The term “coupled” may mean two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another, may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled with each other. The term “directly coupled” may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another. The term “communicatively coupled” may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with one another by a means of communication including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or link, and/or the like. The term “information element” refers to a structural element containing one or more fields. The term “field” refers to individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains content. The term “SMTC” refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration. The term “SSB” refers to an SS/PBCH block. The term “a “Primary Cell” refers to the MCG cell, operating on the primary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure. The term “Primary SCG Cell” refers to the SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Sync procedure for DC operation. The term “Secondary Cell” refers to a cell providing additional radio resources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA. The term “Secondary Cell Group” refers to the subset of serving cells comprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC. The term “Serving Cell” refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cell comprising of the primary cell. The term “serving cell” or “serving cells” refers to the set of cells comprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED configured with CA. The term “Special Cell” refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term “Special Cell” refers to the Pcell. Unless used differently herein, terms, definitions, and abbreviations may be consistent with terms, definitions, and abbreviations defined in 3GPP TR 21.905 v16.0.0 (2019-06) and/or any other 3GPP standard. For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations (shown in Table 1) may apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is: 1. An apparatus for a base station comprising: a processor configured to: determine that a first uplink transmission time slot is scheduled for a first uplink transmission by a first user equipment (UE); determine a second uplink transmission time slot for a second uplink transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) by a second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission time slot is determined based on the base station considering the first uplink transmission time slot as an available time slot; and encode a first signal for transmission using a transmit signal path including an indication of the second uplink transmission time slot to the second UE; and a memory to store the indication.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein determining the second uplink transmission time slot further comprises: determine a number of time slots from a reference time slot; and encode a second signal for transmission using the transmit signal path including the number of time slots to the second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission is sent over the second uplink transmission time slot based on the second uplink transmission time slot being the number of time slots subsequent to the reference time slot.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein determining the number of time slots from the reference time slot further comprises determining a number of available uplink time slots from the reference time slot.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein determining the second uplink transmission time slot is based on a collision handling rule.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to: determine, based on a collision handling rule and subsequent to determining the second uplink transmission time slot, that a third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot instead of the second uplink transmission; and determine a fourth uplink transmission time slot for transmitting the second uplink transmission.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein determining that the third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot is further based on the collision handling rule indicating that the third uplink transmission is a higher priority transmission than the second uplink transmission.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor comprises a baseband processor.

8. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause processing circuitry, upon execution of the instructions by the processing circuitry, to: determine, by a base station in a wireless network system, that a first uplink transmission time slot is scheduled for a first uplink transmission by a first user equipment (UE); determine, by the base station, a second uplink transmission time slot for a second uplink transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) by a second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission time slot is determined based on the base station considering the first uplink transmission time slot as an available time slot; and encode a first signal for transmission using a transmit signal path including an indication of the second uplink transmission time slot to the second UE.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein determining the second uplink transmission time slot further comprises: determine a number of time slots from a reference time slot; and encode a second signal for transmission using the transmit signal path including the number of time slots to the second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission is sent over the second uplink transmission time slot based on the second uplink transmission time slot being the number of time slots subsequent to the reference time slot.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein determining the number of time slots from the reference time slot further comprises determining a number of available uplink time slots from the reference time slot.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein determining the second uplink transmission time slot is based on a collision handling rule.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising: determine, based on a collision handling rule and subsequent to determining the second uplink transmission time slot, that a third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot instead of the second uplink transmission; and determine a fourth uplink transmission time slot for transmitting the second uplink transmission.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein determining that the third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot is further based on the collision handling rule indicating that the third uplink transmission is a higher priority transmission than the second uplink transmission.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the third uplink transmission is associated with a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the wireless network system is a Fifth Generation (5G) wireless network system.

16. A method comprising: determining, by one or more processors of a base station in a wireless network system, that a first uplink transmission time slot is scheduled for a first uplink transmission by a first user equipment (UE); determining a second uplink transmission time slot for a second uplink transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) by a second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission time slot is determined based on the base station considering the first uplink transmission time slot as an available time slot; and encoding a first signal for transmission using a transmit signal path including an indication of the second uplink transmission time slot to the second UE.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining the second uplink transmission time slot further comprises: determining a number of time slots from a reference time slot; and encoding a second signal for transmission using the transmit signal path including the number of time slots to the second UE, wherein the second uplink transmission is sent over the second uplink transmission time slot based on the second uplink transmission time slot being the number of time slots subsequent to the reference time slot.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein determining the number of time slots from the reference time slot further comprises determining a number of available uplink time slots from the reference time slot.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein determining the second uplink transmission time slot is based on a collision handling rule.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising: determining, based on a collision handling rule and subsequent to determining the second uplink transmission time slot, that a third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot instead of the second uplink transmission; and determining a fourth uplink transmission time slot for transmitting the second uplink transmission.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein determining that the third uplink transmission will transmit using the second uplink transmission time slot is further based on the collision handling rule indicating that the third uplink transmission is a higher priority transmission than the second uplink transmission.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the third uplink transmission is associated with a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

23. The method of claim 16, wherein the wireless network system is a Fifth Generation (5G) wireless network system.

24. An apparatus comprising means for performing any of the methods of claims 16-23.

25. A network node comprising a communication interface and processing circuitry connected thereto and configured to perform the method of claims 16-23.