In some aspects, the UE 120-1 may determine (or identify) a PDB threshold. The UE 120-1 may determine a PDB value associated with a communication. The UE 120-1 may determine whether the PDB value associated with the communication satisfies the PDB threshold. In some aspects, if the UE 120-1 determines that the PDB value associated with the communication satisfies the PDB threshold, then the UE 120-1 may identify that the UE 120-1 is to operate in the on-demand channel sensing mode or the full channel sensing mode. If the UE 120-1 determines that the PDB value associated with the communication does not satisfy the PDB threshold, then the UE 120-1 may identify that the UE 120-1 is to operate in the random selection mode. In some aspects, the PDB threshold may be based at least in part on a size of a sensing window associated with at least one of the channel sensing modes. For example, if the on-demand channel sensing mode is associated with a sensing window of 100 milliseconds, the PDB threshold may be less than or equal to 100 milliseconds.