Consistent listen before talk failure recovery procedure for sidelink operation in unlicensed bands

A method, comprising:

• monitoring a transmission resource pool in which the user equipment is operating, wherein the transmission resource pool has a plurality of resource block sets, wherein the monitoring is performed for each resource block set, of the plurality of resource block sets, for which a prohibit timer is not running or is expired, wherein the monitoring is performed to detect listen before talk failures of the user equipment for each monitored resource block set of the plurality of resource block sets of the transmission resource pool;
• detecting listen before talk failures of the user equipment for a monitored resource block set of the plurality resource block sets;
• incrementing a failure counter to a count value;
• starting or restarting a failure detection timer associated with the failure counter;
• triggering or declaring a consistent listen before talk failure for the monitored resource block set when the count value exceeds a threshold;
• and
• controlling communication of the user equipment based on the consistent listen before talk failure being triggered or declared.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

• monitoring a transmission resource pool in which the user equipment is operating, wherein the transmission resource pool has a plurality of resource block sets, wherein the monitoring is performed for each resource block set, of the plurality of resource block sets, for which a prohibit timer is not running or is expired, wherein the monitoring is performed to detect listen before talk failures of the user equipment for each monitored resource block set of the plurality of resource block sets of the transmission resource pool;
• detecting listen before talk failures of the user equipment for a monitored resource block set of the plurality resource block sets;
• incrementing a failure counter to a count value;
• starting or restarting a failure detection timer associated with the failure counter;
• triggering or declaring a consistent listen before talk failure for the monitored resource block set when the count value exceeds a threshold;
• and
• controlling communication of the user equipment based on the consistent listen before talk failure being triggered or declared.