Abstract: The present disclosure provides various mechanisms to improve the communication of critical data, such as extended reality (XR) data, cloud gaming (CG) data, ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) data, internet of things (IoT) data, and/or any other type of high priority data/traffic. The described mechanisms include enhancements to buffer status reporting mechanisms; packet, protocol data unit (PDU), and/or service data unit (SDU) discard mechanisms; mechanisms to resolve issues related to system frame number (SFN) wraparound; and network congestion detection mechanisms. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Abstract: Various embodiments herein provide techniques related to sidelink relay enhancements in a cellular network. In some embodiments, a UE may include circuitry configured to identify, from a gNodeB (gNB) of a serving cell to which the UE and one or more relay UEs belong, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE); and identifying, based on the MAC CE, that the UE is to communicate with the gNB via multipath communication. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.