Listen Before Talk Signaling and Channel Occupancy Time Sharing

A user equipment (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, configuration information;
• receive, from the base station, one or more downlink control information (DCI) messages, comprising:
• a downlink grant;
• and
• an uplink grant;
• determine whether resources for transmission according to the uplink grant occur within a same channel occupancy time (COT) as resources for reception according to the downlink grant;
• receive, from the base station, a downlink transmission according to the downlink grant;
• determine whether to perform a listen before talk (LBT) procedure prior to performing transmission according to the uplink grant, wherein the determination of whether to perform the LBT procedure is based on one or more of:
• the determination of whether the resources for transmission according to the uplink grant occur within the same COT as the resources for reception according to the downlink grant;
• the configuration information;
• one or more indication in one of the one or more DCI messages;
• and
• an amount of time between the resources for reception according to the downlink grant and the resources for transmission according to the uplink grant;
• and
• transmit, to the base station, an uplink transmission according to the uplink grant.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor configured to cause a base station to:
• establish communication with a user equipment (UE);
• perform a listen before talk (LBT) procedure;
• determine that the LBT procedure indicates that at least a first portion of a channel is clear;
• in response to the determination that at least the first portion of the channel is clear, transmit, to the UE, on the first portion of the channel, a downlink communication;
• transmit, to the UE, a downlink control information (DCI) message scheduling an uplink communication and indicating that the first portion of the channel is clear;
• and
• receive, from the UE, the uplink communication on the first portion of the channel.