Apparatus, system and method for utilizing a flexible slot format indicator

A baseband processor, comprising:

• processing circuitry configured to perform operations at a user equipment device (UE), the operations comprising:
• establishing communication with a base station;
• receiving, from the base station, a first slot format indicator (SFI) index of a plurality of SFI indices, wherein each SFI index of the plurality of SFI indices indicates a respective single slot format indicator for each respective slot of one or more consecutive slots, wherein each single slot format indicator indicates a respective transmission direction for each respective symbol of the 14 symbols in a corresponding slot, and wherein each SFI index refers to an index-specific number of single slot format indicators corresponding to the index-specific number of consecutive slots;
• and
• performing communication with the base station during the index-specific number of consecutive slots according to the first SFI index.

A user equipment device (UE), comprising:

• a radio;
• and
• a processor operably connected to the radio and configured to cause the UE to:
• establish communication with a base station;
• receive, from the base station, a first slot format indicator (SFI) index of a plurality of SFI indices, wherein each SFI index of the plurality of SFI indices indicates a respective single slot format indicator for each respective slot of one or more consecutive slots, wherein each single slot format indicator indicates a respective transmission direction for each respective symbol of the 14 symbols in a corresponding slot, and wherein each SFI index refers to an index-specific number of single slot format indicators corresponding to the index-specific number of consecutive slots;
• and
• perform communication with the base station during the index-specific number of consecutive slots according to the first SFI index.