Transmission and reception of sub-band ss/pbch blocks

A base station (BS), comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a transceiver operably coupled to the processor, the transceiver configured to transmit synchronization signal (SS)/physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block (SSB) indices in SSB occasions, wherein:
• the SSB occasions are organized in SSB groups,
• an SSB group of the SSB groups includes N SSB indices in N SSB occasions,
• the SSB group spans M frequency occasions and K time occasions, where N≤M·K, and M>1,
• SSB index i, in a first SSB group with index s1, is transmitted in frequency occasion m1i and in time occasion k1i,
• SSB index i, in a second SSB group with index s2, is transmitted in frequency occasion m2i and in time occasion k2i, and
• m1i≠m2i.

A method of operating a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

• searching synchronization signal (SS)/physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block (SSB) indices in SSB occasions, wherein:
• the SSB occasions are organized in SSB groups,
• an SSB group of the SSB groups includes N SSB indices in N SSB occasions,
• the SSB group spans M frequency occasions and K time occasions, where N≤M·K, and M>1;
• receiving, in frequency occasion m1i and in time occasion k1i, SSB index i in a first SSB group with index s1;
• and
• receiving, in frequency occasion m2i and in time occasion k2i, SSB index i in a second SSB group with index s2,
• wherein m1i≠m2i.