Sounding reference signal design and signaling in cellular communication systems

A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the UE comprising:

• a transceiver configured to receive, from a base station (BS), downlink control information (DCI) including an indication;
• and
• a processor operably coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to:
• determine, based on the indication included in DCI, whether to enable a rate matching operation in a sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission zone (TZ), and
• identify, based on a determination that the rate matching operation is enabled, a type of the rate matching operation associated with an uplink transmission mode,
• wherein the transceiver is further configured to transmit, to the BS, the SRS in the SRS TZ based on the type of the rate matching operation.

A method of user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

• receiving, from a base station (BS), a radio resource control (RRC) signal including first RRC parameters;
• identifying, based on the first RRC parameters, an aggregation flag indicating whether to enable sounding reference signal (SRS) slot aggregation;
• receiving the RRC signal including second RRC parameters indicating an SRS hopping pattern based on a determination that the SRS slot aggregation is enabled;
• performing, based on the SRS hopping pattern, the SRS slot aggregation to generate a super slot;
• and
• transmitting, to the BS, an SRS based on the super slot.