Wireless communication with non-punctured symbols

An apparatus for wireless communication at a transmitting device, comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to:
• map complex valued symbols in sequence to physical resource blocks for a sidelink transmission;
• reserve an entire first symbol of a subframe, wherein resource elements in the entire first symbol of the subframe are not considered in mapping the complex valued symbols to the physical resource blocks for the sidelink transmission;
• transmit a pilot signal or a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) that spans the entire first symbol of the subframe, a placement of the pilot signal or the DM-RS to span the entire first symbol enabling reception of the DM-RS when automatic gain control converges prior to an end of the first symbol;
• and
• transmit the sidelink transmission after mapping the complex valued symbols to the physical resource blocks.