HIGHER LAYER DESIGN FOR USER PLANE PACKET PROCESSING IN FIFTH GENERATION (5G) NEW RADIO (NR) THINGS SIDELINK (tSL) COMMUNICATION

Techniques for implementing a tSL-HL (5G (Fifth Generation) NR (New Radio) Things (t) SL (Sidelink) HL (higher layer)) for communications involving a tUE (5G NR Things User Equipment) are discussed. One example involves assigning a distinct sequence number to each of one or more user plane (UP) packets from an upper layer; buffering the one or more UP packets to a UP transmission buffer; determining a physical resource assignment (PRA) and an allocated size for a UP tSL-HL protocol data unit (PDU); generating the UP tSL-HL PDU based at least in part on the one or more UP packets buffered to the UP transmission buffer, the PRA, and the allocated size; adding a packet header to the tSL-HL PDU; and providing the tSL-HL PDU to a physical layer based on the PRA.