Multi-connection radio frequency (RF) exposure compliance

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques and apparatus for multi-connection radio frequency (RF) exposure compliance. An example method of wireless communication includes obtaining a transmit power budget associated with a time interval. The method also includes determining transmit power in a connection-by-connection manner among a plurality of connections based at least in part on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with the plurality of connections. The method also includes transmitting signals associated with the connections at respective transmit powers within the time interval.

Description

[0001] Cross-references to related applications

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Patent Application No. 18 / 340,285, filed June 23, 2023, which is incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0003] This disclosure relates to various aspects of wireless communications, and more specifically, to radio frequency (RF) exposure compliance. Background Technology

[0004] Related technical descriptions

[0005] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunications services, such as telephone, video, data, messaging, and broadcasting. Modern wireless communication devices (such as cellular phones) are typically required to meet radio frequency (RF) exposure limits set by certain government and international standards and regulations. To ensure compliance, such devices must undergo a comprehensive certification process before being placed on the market. To ensure that wireless communication devices comply with RF exposure limits, technologies have been developed that enable wireless communication devices to assess RF exposure from other devices and adjust their transmission power accordingly to meet these limits. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The systems, methods, and apparatus of this disclosure each have several aspects, none of which is solely responsible for their desired properties. Without limiting the scope of this disclosure as set forth in the appended claims, some features will now be briefly discussed. Upon consideration of this discussion, and particularly after reading the section entitled “Detailed Description,” one will understand how the features of this disclosure provide the advantages described herein.

[0007] Some aspects provide a method for wireless communication by a wireless device. The method includes: obtaining a transmit power budget associated with a time interval. The method further includes: determining a transmit power on a connection-by-connection basis, at least in part based on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with a plurality of connections. The method further includes: transmitting signals associated with these connections at corresponding transmit powers within the time interval.

[0008] Some aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus includes a memory and a processor coupled to the memory. The processor is configured to: obtain a transmit power budget associated with a time interval; determine transmit power on a connection-by-connection basis, at least in part based on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with a plurality of connections; and control the transmission of signals associated with these connections within the time interval at a corresponding transmit power.

[0009] Some aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus includes components for obtaining a transmit power budget associated with a time interval. The apparatus further includes components for determining transmit power on a connection-by-connection basis, at least in part based on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with a plurality of connections. The apparatus also includes components for transmitting signals associated with these connections at corresponding transmit power within the time interval.

[0010] Some aspects provide a computer-readable medium storing instructions for: obtaining a transmit power budget associated with a time interval; determining transmit power on a connection-by-connection basis, at least in part based on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with a plurality of connections; and transmitting signals associated with these connections at corresponding transmit power within the time interval.

[0011] Other aspects provide: an apparatus capable of operating to, configured to, or otherwise adapted to perform any one or more of the methods described herein and / or those elsewhere; a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor of the apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the methods described herein and those elsewhere; a computer program product embodied on a computer-readable storage medium comprising: code for performing the methods described herein and those elsewhere; and / or an apparatus comprising components for performing the methods described herein and those elsewhere. By way of example, an apparatus may include a processing system, a device having a processing system, or a processing system cooperating via one or more networks.

[0012] To achieve the foregoing and related objectives, one or more aspects include the features fully described below and specifically pointed out in the claims. Certain exemplary features of these one or more aspects are illustrated in detail in the following description and drawings. However, these features indicate only a few of the various ways in which the principles of the various aspects may be employed. Attached Figure Description

[0013] To gain a more detailed understanding of the foregoing features of this disclosure, a more specific description of the brief overview can be obtained by referring to some aspects illustrated in the accompanying drawings. However, it should be noted that the drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of this disclosure and are therefore not to be considered as limiting its scope, as other equally valid aspects are permissible in the description.

[0014] Figure 1 It is a block diagram that conceptually illustrates an example wireless communication network that demonstrates human exposure to radio frequency (RF).

[0015] Figure 2 It is a block diagram that conceptually illustrates the design of an example wireless communication device that communicates with another device.

[0016] Figure 3 This is an illustration illustrating an example of transmit power over time that conforms to RF exposure limits.

[0017] Figure 4 This is a block diagram illustrating an example multi-link operation between multi-link devices.

[0018] Figure 5 This is a diagram illustrating an example wireless device with multiple radio components.

[0019] Figure 6 This is a diagram illustrating an example logic architecture for controlling the transmit power associated with one or more radio components.

[0020] Figure 7 This is a flowchart illustrating an example operation of wireless communication by a wireless device.

[0021] Figure 8 Examples are illustrated of communication devices that may include various components configured to perform the operations of the techniques disclosed herein.

[0022] For ease of understanding, the same reference numerals have been used where possible to denote common elements in the figures. It is conceivable that elements disclosed in one aspect may be usefully applied to other aspects without specific description. Detailed Implementation

[0023] This disclosure provides apparatus, methods, processing systems, and computer-readable media for compliance with multi-connection radio frequency (RF) exposure requirements.

[0024] Wireless communication devices may communicate via a variety of radio access technologies (RATs), such as Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) RATs (e.g., 5G New Radio, Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and / or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) RATs (e.g., IEEE 802.11), short-range communications (e.g., Bluetooth), non-terrestrial communications, device-to-device (D2D) communications, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, and / or other communications (e.g., future RATs). In some cases, wireless devices may use a centralized controller to control RF exposure, which controls the transmit power associated with specific radio components used for one or more RATs (and thus controls RF exposure).

[0025] To control RF exposure associated with multiple radio components (e.g., WLAN, WWAN (E-UTRA / 5G), and Bluetooth), time-averaged assessment may involve two components: an outer loop (OL) that periodically determines transmit power limits for each radio component; and an inner loop (IL) for each radio component that uses the corresponding transmit power limits to determine a specific time interval for its operating time window or for each packet. The OL may calculate the transmit power limits based on a transmit power history report provided by the inner loop associated with each radio component, where the transmit power history report indicates the transmit power used over time in previous time intervals.

[0026] In some cases, the IL associated with one or more radio components (e.g., WWAN radio components, WLAN radio components) may fail to differentiate between multiple concurrent connections (e.g., connections corresponding to multiple links and / or multiple peers in a WWAN and / or WLAN). The IL may disregard certain characteristics associated with these connections when determining their transmit power. For example, a wireless device may disregard the transmit distance associated with each connection when determining transmit power. As an example, a wireless device may allocate the same transmit power to the closest and farthest peers. Therefore, the transmit power budget may not be distributed effectively among connections, potentially leading to performance degradation for some connections.

[0027] This disclosure provides apparatus and methods for multi-connection RF exposure compliance. A wireless device can distribute a transmit power budget among multiple connections on a per-connection basis, taking into account one or more characteristics associated with the multiple connections. For example, the wireless device can allocate individual transmit power to a connection based on the distance to each peer associated with the connection. Characteristics may include, for example, signal strength, data error rate, round-trip time, duty cycle, etc. Connections may be associated with WLAN communications, such as multiple links and / or multiple peers in multi-link operation (MLO). In some examples, constrained optimization methods (such as Lagrange multipliers) may be used to distribute the transmit power budget among connections.

[0028] The apparatus and methods described herein for multi-connection RF exposure compliance offer a variety of advantages. For example, multi-connection-aware RF exposure compliance can improve wireless communication performance, including, for example, increased throughput, reduced latency, and / or increased transmission range, which can be attributed to the efficient distribution of transmission power across multiple connections. For instance, a wireless device can allocate a smaller share of its transmission power budget to a peer closer to the wireless device and a larger share of its transmission power budget to another peer farther away from the wireless device.

[0029] As used herein, a radio component can refer to the physical or logical transmission path associated with one or more frequency bands (carriers, channels, bandwidths, their subdivisions, etc.), transceivers, and / or radio access technologies (RATs) used for wireless communication (e.g., Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), short-range communication (e.g., Bluetooth), off-terrestrial communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, etc.). For example, for uplink carrier aggregation (or multi-connectivity) in WWAN communication, each active component carrier in the active component carriers used for wireless communication can be considered a separate radio component. Similarly, multi-band transmission for IEEE 802.11 can be considered a separate radio component for each frequency band (e.g., 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or 6 GHz).

[0030] Example RF exposure compliance

[0031] Figure 1An example wireless communication system 100 in which aspects of this disclosure may be performed is illustrated. For example, wireless communication system 100 may include a wireless wide area network (WWAN) and / or a wireless local area network (WLAN). For example, a WWAN may include new radio systems (e.g., 5G NR networks), evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) systems (e.g., 4G networks), universal mobile telecommunications systems (UMTS) (e.g., 2G / 3G networks), code division multiple access (CDMA) systems (e.g., 2G / 3G networks), any future WWAN systems, or any combination thereof. A WLAN may include a wireless network configured to communicate according to IEEE standards (such as one or more standards in the 802.11 standard). In some cases, wireless communication system 100 may include a device-to-device (D2D) communication network or a short-range communication system, such as Bluetooth communication.

[0032] like Figure 1 As illustrated, the wireless communication system 100 may include a first wireless device 102 that communicates with any of the various second wireless devices 104a-f (second wireless devices 104) via any of the various radio access technologies (RATs), wherein a wireless device may refer to a wireless communication device. RATs may include, for example, WWAN communication (e.g., E-UTRA and / or 5G NR), WLAN communication (e.g., IEEE 802.11), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication, short-range communication (e.g., Bluetooth), etc.

[0033] The first wireless device 102 may transmit RF signals in the vicinity of a human 108, who may be a user and / or bystander of the first wireless device 102. As an example, the first wireless device 102 may be held in the hand of the human 108 and / or positioned against or near the head of the human 108. In some cases, the first wireless device 102 may be positioned in the pocket or bag of the human 108. In some cases, the first wireless device 102 may be positioned near the human 108 as a mobile hotspot. To ensure that the human 108 is not excessively exposed to RF emissions from the first wireless device 102, the first wireless device 102 may control the transmission power associated with the RF signal according to an RF exposure limit, as further described herein, wherein the RF exposure limit may depend on the corresponding exposure scenario (e.g., head exposure, limb (e.g., hand) exposure, body (body-worn) exposure, hotspot exposure, etc.). Limbs may include, for example, hands, wrists, feet, ankles, and ears.

[0034] The first wireless device 102 may include any wireless communication device from a variety of wireless communication devices, including user equipment (UE), radio station, access point, customer premises equipment (CPE), etc. In some aspects, according to various aspects of this disclosure, the first wireless device 102 includes an RF exposure manager 106 that controls the determination of transmit power on a connection-by-connection basis based on characteristics associated with the connection.

[0035] The second wireless devices 104a-f may include, for example, base station 104a, aircraft 104b, satellite 104c, vehicle 104d, access point (AP) 104e, and / or UE 104f. Furthermore, the wireless communication system 100 may include terrestrial aspects (such as terrestrial network entities (e.g., base station 104a and / or access point 104e)) and / or non-terrestrial aspects (such as aircraft 104b and satellite 104c), which may include onboard network entities (e.g., one or more base stations) capable of communicating with other network elements (e.g., terrestrial base stations) and / or user equipment.

[0036] Base station 104a may generally include: NodeB, enhanced NodeB (eNB), next-generation enhanced NodeB (ng-eNB), next-generation NodeB (gNB or gNodeB), access point, transceiver base station, radio base station, radio transceiver, transceiver function, transmit / receive point, and / or others. Base station 104a can provide communication coverage for a corresponding geographic coverage area, which may sometimes be referred to as a cell, and in some cases may overlap (e.g., a small cell may have a coverage area that overlaps with the coverage area of ​​a macro cell). For example, the base station may provide communication coverage for macro cells (covering a relatively large geographic area), pico cells (covering a relatively small geographic area, such as a stadium), femtocells (covering a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home)), and / or other types of cells.

[0037] The first wireless device 102 and / or UE 104f may generally include: cellular phones, smartphones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), satellite radios, global positioning systems, multimedia devices, video devices, digital audio players, cameras, game consoles, tablet computers, smart devices, wearable devices (e.g., watches, rings, headphones, earbuds, virtual (or augmented) reality headsets, etc.), vehicles, electricity meters, air pumps, large or small kitchen appliances, healthcare devices, implants, sensors / actuators, displays, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, always-on (AON) devices, edge processing devices, or other similar devices. The UE may also be more commonly referred to as a mobile device, wireless device, wireless communication device, radio station (STA), mobile station, subscriber station, mobile subscriber station, mobile unit, subscriber unit, wireless unit, remote unit, remote device, access terminal, mobile terminal, wireless terminal, remote terminal, mobile phone, and other terms.

[0038] According to some aspects, the wireless communication system 100 may include a WLAN, such as a Wi-Fi network. For example, the wireless communication system 100 may be a network implementing at least one of the IEEE 802.11 wireless communication protocol standard families (such as standards defined by the IEEE 802.11-2020 specification or its revisions, including but not limited to 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, 802.11bd, 802.11be, 802.11bf, and the 802.11 revisions associated with Wi-Fi 8). The wireless communication system 100 may include numerous wireless communication devices, such as wireless access points (APs) and stations (STAs). For example, a first wireless device 102, a second wireless device 104, and a UE 104f may represent an AP and / or a STA. As an example, in some cases, the first wireless device 102 may operate as an AP and / or a STA. The wireless communication system 100 may include multiple APs (including AP 104e) and / or the first wireless device 102. AP can refer to various types of APs, including but not limited to enterprise-grade APs, single-band APs, dual-band APs, stand-alone APs, software-enabled APs (softAPs), and multi-link APs. The coverage and capacity of cellular networks (such as E-UTRA, 5G NR, etc.) can be further improved using small cells supported by APs acting as micro base stations. Additionally, small cells can be used to establish dedicated cellular networks via radio area networks.

[0039] A single AP and its associated set of STAs may be referred to as a Basic Service Set (BSS), which is managed by the respective AP. The coverage area of ​​the AP may represent the Basic Service Area (BSA) of the wireless communication system 100. The BSS can be identified or indicated to users by a Service Set Identifier (SSID), and can also be identified to other devices by a Basic Service Set Identifier (BSSID), which may be the AP's Media Access Control (MAC) address. The AP may periodically broadcast beacon frames ("beacons") including the BSSID, so that any STA within the AP's wireless range can "associate" or reassociate with the AP to establish or maintain a corresponding communication link 110 with the AP. For example, the beacon may include an identifier or indication of the primary channel used by the respective AP and a timing synchronization function for establishing or maintaining timing synchronization with the AP. The AP may provide access to external networks to various STAs in the WLAN via the corresponding communication link 110.

[0040] To establish a communication link 110 with an AP, each STA is configured to perform a passive or active scanning operation (“scan”) on frequency channels in one or more frequency bands (e.g., 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, or 60 GHz bands). To perform a passive scan, the STA listens for beacons transmitted by the corresponding AP at periodic time intervals (referred to as the Target Beacon Transmission Time (TBTT) – measured in units of time (TU), where one TU may be equal to 1024 microseconds (µs)). To perform an active scan, the STA generates probe requests and transmits these requests sequentially on each channel to be scanned, and listens for probe responses from the AP. Each STA can identify, determine, determine, or select an AP to associate with based on the scanning information obtained through the passive or active scan, and performs authentication and association operations to establish a communication link 110 with the selected AP. At the end of the association operation, the AP assigns an Association Identifier (AID) to the STA, which the AP uses to track the STA.

[0041] As wireless networks become increasingly prevalent, a STA has the opportunity to choose from one BSS among many BSSs within its range, or from multiple APs forming an Extended Service Set (ESS) (comprising multiple connected BSSs). The extended network station associated with the wireless communication system 100 can be connected to a wired or wireless distribution system that allows multiple APs to be connected within such an ESS. Therefore, a STA can be covered by more than one AP and can be associated with different APs at different times for different transmissions. Additionally, after associating with an AP, a STA can periodically scan its surroundings to find a more suitable AP to associate with. For example, a STA moving relative to its associated AP can perform a "roaming" scan to find another AP with more desirable network characteristics, such as a larger Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) or reduced traffic load.

[0042] In some cases, STAs can form networks without an AP or other equipment besides themselves. An example of such a network is an ad hoc network (or wireless ad hoc network). Ad hoc networks may also be referred to as mesh networks or peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. In some cases, ad hoc networks can be implemented within a larger wireless network, such as wireless communication system 100. In such examples, while STAs may be able to communicate with each other via an AP using communication link 110, STAs may also communicate directly with each other via direct wireless communication link 110. For example, a first wireless device 102 may communicate directly with UE 104f via WLAN communication (or other P2P communication, e.g., Bluetooth). Additionally, two STAs may communicate via direct communication link 110, regardless of whether the two STAs are associated with and served by the same AP. In such ad hoc systems, one or more STAs may assume the role that the AP plays in the BSS. Such STAs may be referred to as group owners (GOs) and may coordinate transmissions within the ad hoc network. Examples of direct wireless communication links 110 include Wi-Fi direct connections, connections established using Wi-Fi Tunneling Direct Link Establishment (TDLS) links, and other P2P group connections. In some cases, the first wireless device 102 may be able to communicate with multiple peer devices, including STAs and / or APs.

[0043] APs and STAs may operate and communicate (via a corresponding communication link 110) according to one or more of the IEEE 802.11 wireless communication protocol family of standards. These standards define WLAN radio and baseband protocols for the physical (PHY) and media access control (MAC) layers. APs and STAs transmit and receive wireless communications to and from each other in the form of PHY Protocol Data Units (PPDUs) (also referred to hereinafter as “wireless packets”). APs and STAs in wireless communication system 100 may transmit PPDUs on unlicensed or shared spectrum, which may be part of a spectrum including frequency bands used by WLAN technologies, such as the 2.4 GHz band, 5 GHz band, 60 GHz band, 3.6 GHz band, and 900 MHz band. Some examples of APs and STAs described herein may also communicate in other frequency bands, such as the 5.9 GHz band and 6 GHz band, which can support both licensed and unlicensed communications. APs and STAs may also communicate on other frequency bands, such as shared licensed bands, where multiple operators may have licenses to operate in one or more of the same or overlapping frequency bands.

[0044] Each frequency band can include multiple sub-bands or frequency channels. For example, PPDUs conforming to revisions of the IEEE 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, and 802.11be standards can be transmitted in the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or 6 GHz bands, where each band is divided into multiple 20 MHz channels. Therefore, these PPDUs are transmitted on physical channels with a minimum bandwidth of 20 MHz, but larger channels can be formed through channel bonding. For example, PPDUs can be transmitted on physical channels with bandwidths of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or 320 MHz by bonding multiple 20 MHz channels together.

[0045] Each PPDU is a composite structure comprising a PHY preamble and a payload in the form of a PHY Service Data Unit (PSDU). The information provided in the preamble can be used by the receiving device to decode subsequent data in the PSDU. In instances where the PPDU is transmitted on a bound channel, the preamble field may be copied and transmitted in each of the multiple component channels. The PHY preamble may include both a legacy portion (or "legacy preamble") and a non-legacy portion (or "non-legacy preamble"). The legacy preamble can be used for other purposes such as packet detection, automatic gain control, and channel estimation. The legacy preamble is also typically used to maintain compatibility with legacy equipment. The format, decoding, and information provided in the non-legacy portion of the preamble are associated with the specific IEEE 802.11 protocol to be used to transmit the payload.

[0046] In certain circumstances, the first wireless device 102 can control the transmit power used to transmit RF signals to comply with RF exposure limits. RF exposure can be expressed using specific absorption rate (SAR), which measures the energy absorption per unit mass of human tissue and can be expressed in watts per kilogram (W / kg). RF exposure can also be expressed using power density (PD), which measures the energy absorption per unit area and can be expressed in milliwatts per square centimeter (mW / cm²). 2 In some cases, RF exposure can be expressed as a specific energy absorption (SA) limit or absorbed energy density (Uab) limit, for example, a limit on the total RF energy allowed over a specific time period. In some cases, a maximum permissible exposure (MPE) limit (in the form of PD) may be imposed on wireless communication devices using transmission frequencies above 6 GHz. Frequency bands from 24 GHz to 71 GHz or higher are sometimes referred to as “millimeter waves” (“mmW” or “mmWave”). MPE limits are area-based regulatory measures of exposure, such as energy density limits, which are defined as the number of watts per square meter (W / m²) averaged over a defined area and time-averaged over a frequency-related time window. 2 This is to prevent human exposure hazards represented by changes in tissue temperature. Some RF exposure limits may be specified based on the maximum RF exposure metric (e.g., SAR or PD) averaged over a specified time window (e.g., 100 or 360 seconds for the sub-6 GHz band, or 2 seconds for the 60 GHz band).

[0047] SAR (Radio Frequency Exposed) can be used to assess RF exposure at transmission frequencies below 6 GHz, covering wireless communication technologies such as 2G / 3G (e.g., CDMA), 4G (e.g., E-UTRA), 5G (e.g., NR in sub-6 GHz bands), and IEEE 802.11 (e.g., a / b / g / n / ac). PD (Radio Frequency Exposed) can be used to assess RF exposure at transmission frequencies above 6 GHz, covering wireless communication technologies such as IEEE 802.11ad, 802.11ay, and 5G in the mmWave band. Therefore, different metrics can be used to assess the RF exposure of different wireless communication technologies.

[0048] A wireless device (e.g., first wireless device 102) may be able to transmit signals using a variety of wireless communication technologies and / or frequency bands, and in some cases, be able to transmit such signals simultaneously. For example, the wireless device may use a first wireless communication technology operating at or below 6 GHz (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G, 802.11a / b / g / n / ac, etc.) and a second wireless communication technology operating above 6 GHz (e.g., mmWave 5G, IEEE 802.11ad, or 802.11ay in the 24 GHz to 60 GHz band) to transmit signals. In some aspects, the wireless device may use a first wireless communication technology (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G, IEEE 802.11ac, etc. in the sub-6 GHz band) (in which RF exposure can be measured in the form of SAR) and a second wireless communication technology (e.g., 5G, IEEE 802.11ad, 802.11ay, etc. in the 24 GHz to 71 GHz band) (in which RF exposure can be measured in the form of PD) to transmit signals.

[0049] Figure 2 Example components of a first wireless device 102 are illustrated, which can be used to communicate with either of a second wireless device 104 in some cases near human tissue, such as human 108.

[0050] The first wireless device 102 may be or may include a chip, system-on-a-chip (SoC), chipset, package, or device that includes one or more modems 212. In some cases, modem 212 may include, for example, any of the following: a WWAN modem (e.g., a modem configured to communicate via E-UTRA and / or 5G NR standards), a WLAN modem (e.g., a modem configured to communicate via the 802.11 standard), a Bluetooth modem, an NTN modem, etc. In some aspects, the first wireless device 102 may also include one or more radio components (collectively referred to as "radio component 250"). In some aspects, the first wireless device 102 may also include one or more processors, processing blocks, or processing elements (collectively referred to as "processor 210") and one or more storage blocks or elements (collectively referred to as "memory 240").

[0051] In some aspects, processor 210 may include a processor representing an application processor that generates information for transmission (e.g., application data, such as content requests) and / or receives information (e.g., requested content) via modem 212. In some cases, processor 210 may include a microprocessor associated with modem 212 that implements RF exposure manager 106 and / or processes any protocol stack layer associated with radio access technology (RAT). For example, processor 210 may process any of the application layer, packet layer, WLAN protocol stack layer (e.g., link or MAC layer), and / or WWAN protocol stack layer (e.g., Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer, Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and MAC layer). In some cases, at least one of modems 212 (e.g., a WWAN modem) may communicate with one or more other modems 212 (e.g., WLAN modems and / or Bluetooth modems). For example, processor 210 may represent at least one of modems 212 communicating with one or more other modems 212.

[0052] Modem 212 may include smart hardware blocks or devices (such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and other possibilities). Modem 212 may typically be configured to implement the physical (PHY) layer. For example, modem 212 may be configured to modulate packets and output the modulated packets to radio component 250 for transmission over a wireless medium. Modem 212 is similarly configured to receive modulated packets received by radio component 250 and demodulate these packets to provide demodulated packets. In addition to modulators and demodulators, modem 212 may also include digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry, automatic gain control (AGC), decoders, decoders, multiplexers, and demultiplexers (not shown).

[0053] As an example, when in transmit mode, modem 212 may obtain data from processor 210. The data obtained from processor 210 may be provided to a decoder, which encodes the data to provide coded bits. The coded bits may be mapped (e.g., using a selected modulation and decoding scheme) to points in a modulation constellation to provide modulated symbols. The modulated symbols may be mapped to, for example, a spatial stream or a space-time stream. The modulated symbols may be multiplexed, transformed via an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) block, and subsequently provided to DSP circuitry for transmit windowing and filtering. The digital signal may be provided to digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 222. In some aspects involving beamforming, the modulated symbols in the corresponding spatial stream may be pre-decoded via a steering matrix before being provided to the IFFT block.

[0054] Modem 212 may be coupled to radio component 250, which includes a transmit (TX) path 214 (also called a transmit chain) for transmitting signals via one or more antennas 218 and a receive (RX) path 216 (also called a receive chain) for receiving signals via antenna 218. When TX path 214 and RX path 216 share antenna 218, these paths may be connected to the antenna via interface 220, which may include any of a variety of suitable RF devices, such as switches, duplexers, doubleters, multiplexers, etc. As an example, modem 212 may output digital in-phase (I) baseband signals and / or quadrature (Q) baseband signals representing corresponding symbols to DAC 222.

[0055] Receiving either an I-band analog signal or a Q-band analog signal from DAC 222, TX path 214 may include a baseband filter (BBF) 224, a mixer 226 (which may include one or more mixers), and a power amplifier (PA) 228. BBF 224 filters the baseband signal received from DAC 222, and mixer 226 mixes the filtered baseband signal with a transmit local oscillator (LO) signal to convert the baseband signal to a different frequency (e.g., up-converting from baseband to radio frequency). In some aspects, the frequency conversion process produces a sum and difference frequency between the LO frequency and the frequency of the baseband signal. This sum and difference frequency is called a beat frequency. Some beat frequencies are in the RF range, such that the signal output from mixer 314 is typically an RF signal, which can be amplified by PA 228 before being transmitted via antenna 218. Antenna 218 can transmit an RF signal that can be received at the second wireless device 104. Although a mixer 226 is illustrated, several mixers can be used to upconvert a filtered baseband signal to one or more intermediate frequencies and then upconvert the intermediate frequency signal to the frequency used for transmission.

[0056] RX path 216 may include a low-noise amplifier (LNA) 230, a mixer 232 (which may include one or more mixers), and a baseband filter (BBF) 234. RF signals received via antenna 218 (e.g., from the second wireless device 104) may be amplified by LNA 230, and mixer 232 mixes the amplified RF signal with a received local oscillator (LO) signal to convert the RF signal to a baseband frequency (e.g., down-conversion). The baseband signal output from mixer 232 may be filtered by BBF 234 and then converted to a digital I or Q signal by analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 236 for digital signal processing. Modem 212 may receive the digital I or Q signal and further process the digital signal, e.g., demodulate the digital signal.

[0057] Some transceivers may employ a frequency synthesizer with a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) to generate a stable, tunable LO frequency with a specific tuning range. Therefore, the transmit LO frequency can be generated by frequency synthesizer 238, which may be buffered or amplified by an amplifier (not shown) before mixing with the baseband signal in mixer 226. Similarly, the receive LO frequency can be generated by frequency synthesizer 238, which may be buffered or amplified by an amplifier (not shown) before mixing with the RF signal in mixer 232. Separate frequency synthesizers may be used for TX path 214 and RX path 216.

[0058] When in receive mode, modem 212 can acquire the digitally converted signal via ADC 236 and RX path 216. As an example, in modem 212, the digital signal can be provided to DSP circuitry configured to acquire the received signal, for example, by detecting the presence of the signal and estimating the initial timing and frequency offset. The DSP circuitry is also configured to digitally condition the digital signal, for example, using channel (narrowband) filtering, analog impairment conditioning (such as correcting I / Q imbalance), and applying digital gain to ultimately obtain a narrowband signal. The output of the DSP circuitry can be fed to AGC, which is configured to use information extracted from the digital signal (e.g., in one or more received training fields) to determine the appropriate gain. The output of the DSP circuitry can also be coupled to a demodulator configured to extract modulated symbols from the signal and, for example, calculate the log-likelihood ratio (LLR) for each bit location of each subcarrier in each spatial stream. The demodulator can be coupled to a decoder configured to process the LLR to provide decoded bits. The decoded bits from all spatial streams can be fed to a demultiplexer for demultiplexing. The demultiplexed bits can be descrambled and provided to the media access control layer (e.g., processor 210) for processing, evaluation, or interpretation.

[0059] Processor 210 and / or modem 212 can control the transmission of signals via TX path 214 and / or the reception of signals via RX path 216. In some aspects, processor 210 and / or modem 212 can be configured to perform various operations, such as those associated with any of the methods described herein. Processor 210 and / or modem 212 may include a microcontroller, microprocessor, application processor, baseband processor, MAC processor, neural network processor, digital signal processor (DSP), application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device (PLD), discrete gate or transistor logic unit, discrete hardware component, or any combination thereof. In some cases, aspects of processor 210 may be integrated (incorporated and / or shared) with modem 212, such as RF exposure manager 106, microcontroller, microprocessor, baseband processor, media access control (MAC) processor, digital signal processor, etc. For example, processor 210 may represent a coprocessor (e.g., a microprocessor) associated with modem 212, and modem 212 may represent an ASIC including a baseband processor, MAC processor, DSP, and / or neural network processor. Memory 240 may store data and program code (e.g., computer-readable instructions) for performing wireless communications as described herein. Memory 240 may be external to (as shown) and / or incorporated therein of processor 210 and / or modem 212. In some cases, RF exposure manager 106 (e.g., implemented via processor 210 and / or modem 212) may determine transmit power that conforms to RF exposure limits set by national-specific regulations and / or international guidelines (e.g., International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines) as described herein (e.g., corresponding to certain gain levels applied to TX path 214 including BBF 224, mixer 226, and / or PA 228).

[0060] Figure 2 An example transceiver design is illustrated. It will be understood that other transceiver designs or architectures can be applied in conjunction with various aspects of this disclosure. For example, while the example discussed herein utilizes I and Q signals (e.g., quadrature modulation), those skilled in the art will understand that transceiver components can be configured to utilize any other suitable modulation, such as polarity modulation. As another example, circuit blocks can be... Figure 2 The configurations shown are arranged differently, and / or can be implemented in addition to or in place of the depicted blocks. Figure 2 Other circuit blocks not shown.

[0061] In some cases, compliance with RF exposure limits can be performed as a time-averaged RF exposure assessment within a specified operational (mobile) time window associated with the RF exposure limit. RF exposure limits can specify a time-averaged RF exposure metric (e.g., SAR and / or PD) within the operational time window. As an example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stipulates that for frequencies below 6 GHz, certain SAR limits (general public exposure) are 0.08 W / kg, such as averaging over the entire body, and 1.6 W / kg of peak spatially averaged SAR, averaging over any 1 gram of tissue (defined as a cubic tissue volume), while certain PD limits are 1 mW / cm². 2 Such as averaging over the entire body, and in any 1cm 2 The average value was 4mW / cm. 2 The peak spatial average PD. For example, under the proposed regulations, the FCC also specifies that for sub-6 GHz bands, the corresponding averaging time could be six minutes (360 seconds), while for mmWave bands (e.g., 60 GHz bands), the averaging time could be 2 seconds.

[0062] RF exposure limits and / or corresponding average time windows may vary based on frequency bands. In some respects, RF exposure limits and / or corresponding average time windows (if applicable) may be specific to a particular geographic region or country, such as the United States, Canada, China, or the European Union. In some cases, RF exposure limits may specify the maximum permissible RF exposure that may be encountered without time averaging. In such cases, the maximum permissible RF exposure may correspond to the maximum output or transmit power that can be used by the wireless device.

[0063] Figure 3 This is a graph 300 showing the transmit power (P(t)) changing over time within an operational (e.g., rolling or moving) time window (T) associated with RF exposure limits. A wireless device (e.g., first wireless device 102) can assess RF exposure compliance within the operational time window 302(T) based on past RF exposures (e.g., transmit power reports) in past time intervals 304 of time window 302 and future time intervals 306. The wireless device can determine the maximum permissible transmit power for future time intervals 306 that meets the time-averaged RF exposure limits based on past RF exposures used in past time intervals 304. The wireless device can perform this time-averaged assessment as time window 302 moves over time, for example, into the next future time interval 308, where past time interval 304 now includes the previous future time interval 306.

[0064] Maximum time-average transmit power limit (P) limitThis represents the maximum transmit power that the wireless device can continuously transmit within the duration of the operating time window 302(T), conforming to the RF exposure limit. For example, the wireless device transmits at P in the third time window 302c. limit Transmissions are made continuously such that the time-averaged transmit power over the time window (e.g., the third time window 302c) is equal to P, which meets the time-averaged RF exposure limit. limit .

[0065] In some cases, the instantaneous transmission power may exceed P at certain transmission moments. limit For example, as shown in the first time window 302a and the second time window 302b. In some cases, the wireless device can P max (This can be the maximum instantaneous transmit power supported by the wireless device, the maximum instantaneous transmit power that the wireless device is capable of outputting, or the maximum instantaneous transmit power permitted by standards or regulatory agencies (e.g., maximum output power P)). CMAX The wireless device may transmit at a rate less than or equal to P during certain transmission events. limit Transmit at the specified transmission power, for example, as shown in the first time window 302a.

[0066] In some cases, reserved power can be used to achieve the effect of power exceeding P during the time window (T). limit During transmission, continuous transmission can be performed within this time window, or a specific quality level can be achieved for certain transmissions. As shown in the second time window 302b, the transmission power can be adjusted from P... max Back to reserved power (P) reserve This allows the wireless device to maintain continuous transmission (e.g., maintain a radio connection with the receiving entity) within a time window while meeting the time-averaged RF exposure limit. In the third time window 302c, the wireless device can increase the transmission power to meet the time-averaged RF exposure limit P. limit In some cases, P reserve It can achieve specific transmission quality levels for certain transmissions (e.g., control signaling, high-priority communication, low-latency communication, highly reliable communication, etc.). P reserve It can be used to reserve transmission power for certain transmissions (e.g., control signaling) within at least a portion of time window 302.

[0067] In the second time window 302b, at P max The duration of transmission at point P is within P max With P reserve The area between them can be equal to the area between P within the time window T. limit With P reserveThe area between them makes the total area of ​​the transmitted power (P(t)) in the second time window 302b equal to the area of ​​P within the time window T. limit The area. This area can be considered as using 100% of the energy (transmit power or exposure) to maintain compliance with time-averaged RF exposure limits. Without reserved power P reserve In this case, the transmitter can transmit at P within a portion of the time window. max Transmission is performed, and the transmitter is turned off for the remainder of the time window to ensure compliance with the time-averaged RF exposure limit.

[0068] In some respects, the wireless device can achieve a higher P value in the time averaging mode illustrated in the second time window 302b. limit But less than P max The power is used for transmission. Although a single transmission burst is illustrated in the second time window 302b, it will be understood that the wireless device may instead utilize multiple transmission bursts within the time window (T), wherein the transmission burst is maintained at a transmission power equal to or below P during its duration. reserve The transmission time periods are separated. Furthermore, it will be understood that the transmission power of each transmission burst can vary (within the burst and / or compared to other bursts), and at least a portion of a burst can be higher than P. limit The power is transmitted.

[0069] In some respects, wireless devices may transmit power at a level less than or equal to a fixed power limit (e.g., P) without taking into account past exposure and / or past transmit power in terms of time-averaged RF exposure. limit The power of ) is used for transmission. For example, wireless devices can use (depending on the RF exposure scenario, including P) to transmit. limit (One or more values) lookup table to find values ​​less than or equal to P limit The power is used for transmission. The lookup table may be determined based on the transmission frequency, transmitting antenna, radio configuration (single or multiple radios), and / or RF exposure scenario encountered by the wireless device (e.g., device status index corresponding to head exposure, body or torso exposure, limb or hand exposure, and / or hotspot exposure) to provide P. limit One or more values. Examples of RF exposure scenarios include situations where a wireless device is emitting RF signals near human tissue (such as a user's head, hands, or body (e.g., torso)), or where the wireless device is being used as a hotspot away from human tissue. Therefore, RF exposure can be managed as a time-averaged RF exposure assessment (e.g., Figure 3 (As illustrated in the examples), management may be carried out using lookup tables, equalization, or maximum values, or another strategy or algorithm may be used, in which the specific process for managing RF exposure may be referred to as the RF exposure control scheme in this paper.

[0070] In some respects, a wireless device may exhibit or be configured with a transmit duty cycle. The wireless device may determine a transmit power level and / or reserved power level that conforms to time-averaged RF exposure limits based on the duty cycle. The transmit duty cycle may indicate the share (e.g., 100 ms) that the wireless device uses to transmit RF signals within a specific time period (e.g., 500 ms). The duty cycle may be a ratio of this share to the specific time period (e.g., ...). The duty cycle can be expressed as a number from zero to one. The duty cycle can be an effective duty cycle associated with the total transmission time of one or more transmissions within a time period, where the one or more transmissions can include a series of transmission bursts, with time gaps between at least two bursts. For example, in a first time window 302a, the duty cycle can be greater than 50% of the duration of the time window (T), while in a second time window 302b, the duty cycle can be equal to 100% of the duration of the time window (T). In some cases, the duty cycle can be normalized (e.g., predetermined) using a specific RAT and / or change over time, for example, due to variations in radio conditions, mobility, and / or user behavior. As an example, some RATs can specify the uplink duty cycle in the form of a time-division duplex (TDD) configuration, such as the TDD uplink-downlink (UL-DL) slotted mode in 5G NR or a similar TDD mode in E-UTRA or UMTS. In 5G NR, the TDD UL-DL slot mode can specify the number of uplink slots and the corresponding time positioning associated with the uplink slots in the slot sequence, such that the total number of uplink slots relative to the total number of slots in the sequence indicates the duty cycle. In some aspects, the duty cycle can correspond to the actual duration of past transmissions used for scheduling or use within, for example, the TDD UL-DL slot mode. For example, although a radio device may be configured with the TDD UL-DL slot mode, it may use a portion or subset of UL slots to transmit RF signals. Therefore, the duty cycle of the radio device may be less than the maximum available duty cycle corresponding to the TDD UL-DL slot mode.

[0071] Some wireless communication devices (including both APs and STAs) are capable of multi-link operation (MLO). In some examples, MLO supports establishing multiple different communication links between the STA and the AP (such as a first link on the 2.4 GHz band, a second link on the 5 GHz band, and a third link on the 6 GHz band). Each communication link may support one or more sets of channels or logical entities. In some cases, each communication link associated with a given wireless communication device may be associated with a corresponding radio component of the wireless communication device, which may include one or more transmit / receive (Tx / Rx) chains, including or coupled to one or more physical antennas, or including other components such as signal processing components. Devices with MLO capability may be referred to as multi-link devices (MLDs). For example, an AP MLD may include multiple APs, each configured to communicate on a corresponding communication link with a corresponding STA among multiple STAs that are not AP MLDs (also referred to as "STA MLDs"). A STA MLD may communicate with an AP MLD at a given time via one or more of the multiple communication links.

[0072] One type of MLO is Multi-Link Aggregation (MLA), where traffic associated with a single STA is transmitted simultaneously and in parallel across multiple communication links to maximize the utilization of available resources, thereby achieving higher throughput. That is, during at least some time durations, transmissions or portions of transmissions can occur simultaneously and in parallel through two or more links. In some examples, the parallel wireless communication links may support synchronous transmissions. In some other examples, or during some other time durations, transmissions via links may be parallel, but not synchronous or concurrent. In some examples or time durations, two or more of these links may be used for communication between wireless communication devices in the same direction (such as all uplinks or all downlinks). In some other examples or time durations, two or more of these links may be used for communication in different directions. For example, one or more links may support uplink communication, and one or more links may support downlink communication. In such examples, at least one of the wireless communication devices operates in full-duplex mode. Generally, full-duplex operation enables bidirectional communication, where at least one of the wireless communication devices can transmit and receive simultaneously.

[0073] MLA can be implemented in several ways. In some examples, MLA can be packet-based. For packet-based aggregation, frames of a single service stream (such as all services associated with a given service identifier (TID)) can be transmitted concurrently across multiple communication links. In some other examples, MLA can be stream-based. For stream-based aggregation, a single available communication link from among multiple available communication links can be used to transmit each service stream (such as all services associated with a given TID). As an example, a single STA MLD can access a web browser while streaming video in parallel. Services associated with web browser access can be communicated via a first communication link, while services associated with the video stream can be communicated in parallel via a second communication link (such that at least some of the data can be transmitted concurrently on the first channel with the data transmitted on the second channel).

[0074] In some other examples, MLA can be implemented as a hybrid of flow-based and packet-based aggregation. For example, MLD can employ flow-based aggregation when multiple traffic flows are created, and packet-based aggregation in other cases. The determination of switching between MLA techniques or modes may additionally or alternatively be correlated with other metrics, such as time of day, traffic load within the network, or battery level of wireless communication devices, and other factors or considerations.

[0075] To support MLO technology, the AP MLD and STA MLD can exchange information about supported MLO capabilities (such as supported aggregation types or supported frequency bands, etc.). In some examples, information exchange may occur via beacon signals, probe requests or responses, association request or response frames, dedicated action frames, or Operation Mode Indicators (OMIs), etc. In some examples, the AP MLD may designate a given channel in a given frequency band as an anchor channel (such as a channel on which the AP MLD transmits beacons and other management frames). In such examples, the AP MLD may also transmit beacons (such as beacons containing less information) on other channels for discovery purposes.

[0076] MLO technology offers several benefits to WLANs. For example, MLO can improve user-aware throughput (UPT) (e.g., by rapidly refreshing the per-user transmit queue). Similarly, MLO can improve throughput by improving the utilization of available channels and can increase spectrum utilization (e.g., by increasing the bandwidth-time product). Furthermore, MLO can enable smooth transitions between multi-band radio components (e.g., where each radio component can be associated with a given RF band) or provide a framework for separating control and data channels. Other benefits of MLO include reduced modem power-on time, which can benefit wireless communication devices in terms of power consumption. Another benefit of MLO is increased multiplexing opportunities in the case of a single BSS. For example, multi-link aggregation can increase the number of users transmitted per multiplexed segment served by a multi-link AP MLD.

[0077] In some wireless communication networks (e.g., 802.11be networks), an MLD can be a wireless communication device with multiple affiliated APs or STAs. An MLD can have a single Media Access Control (MAC) Service Access Point (SAP) leading to the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer. An MLD can also have a MAC address that uniquely identifies the MLD management entity. An MLD can support various multi-link operations (MLOs). In some aspects, an MLO can include multi-band aggregation, where two or more channels from different frequency bands (e.g., 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands) are combined to achieve higher transmission rates. In some aspects, the 6 GHz band can include a frequency range of 5.925 GHz–7.125 GHz. For example, a frame (or data) can be segmented and transmitted simultaneously through different channels in different frequency bands, thereby reducing frame transmission time or facilitating the transmission of larger aggregated frames. An MLO can include multi-band and multi-channel full-duplex communication, which is achieved by simultaneously transmitting and receiving on different channels (in the same or different frequency bands). MLO can include data and control plane separation on different channels (in the same or different frequency bands). In some respects, MLO can be implemented using a multi-link single radio (MLSR) architecture, where multiple affiliated APs or STAs of the MLD can be logical devices associated with a single radio component.

[0078] Figure 4This is a block diagram illustrating an example multi-link operation between MLDs. As shown, AP MLD 402 can communicate with non-AP MLD 404 via multi-link communication (such as multi-band aggregation). The first wireless device 102 may include AP MLD 402 or non-AP MLD 404. AP MLD 402 can also communicate with other systems (e.g., distributed systems (DS) such as LANs and / or WANs) via interface 418 (such as a wired or wireless backhaul interface). AP MLD 402 may include at least two STA entities 406, 408 (sometimes referred to as STA instances and also simply STAs herein), which can communicate with associated STA entities 410, 412 in non-AP MLD 404. The STA entities (or instances) of AP MLDs are generally APs (which may be referred to as AP-STAs or STAs used as APs), while the STA entities of non-AP MLDs are generally non-AP STAs (which may be simply STAs). MLD can use multi-link operations, such as multi-link aggregation (MLA) (which includes packet-level aggregation), where MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) from the same service ID (TID) can be sent via two or more links 414, 416.

[0079] In all respects, each of STA entities 406, 408 can communicate on a separate frequency band (e.g., a 2.4 GHz band, a 5 GHz band, and / or a 6 GHz band), and similarly, each of STA entities 410, 412 can communicate on a separate frequency band. For example, STA entities 406, 410 can communicate with each other via a first frequency band (e.g., a 5 GHz band) on a first link 414, and STA entities 408, 412 can communicate with each other via a second frequency band (e.g., a 6 GHz band) on a second link 416. The aggregated links 414, 416 enable the desired throughput and latency between AP MLD 402 and non-AP MLD 404. In some respects, the STA entities (406, 408 or 410, 412) of the MLD can be implemented as separate devices or RF transceiver chips for that MLD, or the STA entities can be integrated into the same device or RF transceiver chip. In some respects, a link can refer to a common physical path of wireless medium (WM) that can be used to transmit various packets, messages, or frames (such as MAC Service Data Units (MSDUs)) between two stations (STAs).

[0080] As described herein, the IL associated with one or more radio components (e.g., a WWAN radio component) may be unable to differentiate between multiple concurrent connections (e.g., connections corresponding to multiple links and / or multiple peers in a WWAN) when allocating transmit power to these connections. The IL may disregard certain characteristics associated with these connections when determining transmit power. For example, the wireless device may disregard the transmit distance associated with each connection when determining transmit power. As an example, the wireless device may allocate the same transmit power to the peer closest to and furthest from it. Therefore, the transmit power budget may not be distributed effectively among the connections, potentially leading to performance degradation for some connections.

[0081] Example of multi-connection RF exposure compliance

[0082] This disclosure provides apparatus and methods for multi-connection RF exposure compliance. A wireless device can distribute a transmit power budget among multiple connections on a per-connection basis, taking into account one or more characteristics associated with the multiple connections. For example, the wireless device can allocate individual transmit power to a connection based on the distance to each peer associated with the connection. Characteristics may include, for example, signal strength, data error rate, round-trip time, duty cycle, etc. Connections may be associated with WLAN communications, such as multiple links and / or multiple peers (including STAs and / or APs) in an MLO / MLA. In some examples, constrained optimization methods (such as Lagrange multipliers) may be used to distribute the transmit power budget among connections.

[0083] The apparatus and methods described herein for multi-connection RF exposure compliance offer various advantages. For example, multi-connection-aware RF exposure compliance can improve wireless communication performance, including, for example, increased throughput, reduced latency, and / or increased transmission range, which can be attributed to the efficient distribution of transmission power across multiple connections. For instance, a wireless device can allocate a smaller share of its transmission power budget to a peer closer to it and a larger share to another peer farther away. This distribution of the transmission power budget allows the wireless device to communicate with both peers (e.g., for the peer furthest from it) with increased throughput, reduced latency, and / or increased transmission range.

[0084] Some example scenarios involving multiple connections (to which multi-connection-aware exposure compliance as described herein may be applied) may include: a service access point (SAP) with links to multiple STAs; neighbor-aware networks (NAN)-Wi-Fi awareness, including NAN 1:N or N:1; peer-to-peer communication (e.g., Wi-Fi direct), including group owners (GOs) and / or group clients (GCs) in 1:N or N:1 scenarios; any other multi-channel concurrency (MCC) and / or single-channel concurrency (SCC) scenarios, such as SAP / STA, P2P / STA, NAN / STA, etc.; MLO and / or MLSR; or any combination thereof.

[0085] Figure 5 This is an illustration of an example wireless device 502 (e.g., a first wireless device 102) having multiple radio components 550a-550d (e.g., radio component 250). In this example, radio components 550a-550d can be associated with any of various RATs and / or frequency bands, channels, bandwidths, carriers, etc. For example, the first radio component 550a can communicate via a WWAN RAT (e.g., E-UTRA and / or 5G NR) in a sub-6 GHz band. The second radio component 550b can communicate via a WWAN RAT (e.g., 5G NR) in the mmWave band. The third radio component 550c can communicate via a WLAN RAT in a sub-6 GHz band (e.g., 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and / or 6 GHz). The fourth radio component 550d can communicate via short-range communication (e.g., Bluetooth) in the 2.4 GHz band. Although this example illustrates a wireless device with four radio components, the wireless device may have any number of radio components for wireless communication, such as radio components for each or more frequency bands associated with WWAN and / or WLAN communication, radio components per RAT, and or radio components capable of communicating via multiple RATs.

[0086] Figure 6This is a diagram illustrating an example logical architecture 600 for controlling the transmit power (and thus controlling RF exposure) associated with one or more radio components 606 (e.g., radio components 550a-550d) of a wireless device (e.g., wireless device 502). Since the outer loop 602 and inner loop 604 control the transmit power applied at the radio component 606 to comply with RF exposure limits, aspects of the outer loop 602 and / or inner loop 604 may represent an RF exposure manager 106. In some aspects, the outer loop 602 may represent a centralized RF exposure manager, and the inner loop may represent a transmit power manager associated with the radio component 606, as further described herein. As an example, the outer loop 602 may be implemented in a WWAN modem, and at least one of the inner loops 604 may be implemented in a WLAN modem or a multi-RAT modem (e.g., WLAN and Bluetooth). Figure 2 The outer ring 602 may be implemented in the processor 210 (as described herein, in some cases it may include or represent a modem, such as a WWAN modem), and the inner ring 604 may be implemented in the modem 212 (e.g., another modem, such as a WLAN modem).

[0087] In this example, outer ring 602 operates as a centralized controller for controlling the RF exposure associated with radio component 606. Outer ring 602 may determine the maximum permissible transmit power available in future time intervals based on past transmit power associated with all (or some) radio components of radio component 606. For example, outer ring 602 may periodically (e.g., every 500 milliseconds) receive first information 608 associated with radio component 606 from inner ring 604. In some cases, outer ring 602 may receive first information 608 in response to certain criteria (e.g., triggering events including changes in channel conditions, quality of service, etc.). The periodicity of receiving first information 608 at outer ring 602 may correspond to a time interval cycle, such as after each future time interval 306, 308 of rolling time window 302.

[0088] The first information 608 may include an indication of a transmit power report associated with a corresponding inner loop 604 and / or an indication of a transmit power request associated with that corresponding inner loop. The indication of a transmit power request may include a transmit power or exposure margin requested for a future time interval (e.g., time intervals 306, 308). The indication of a transmit power report may include a past transmit power history or average transmit power associated with a time interval (e.g., a past time interval within a rolling time window, such as past time interval 304 or a previous future time interval). A particular inner loop 604 may be associated with one or more radio components (e.g., any of radio components 550a-550d), and therefore, the first information 608 may be associated with such radio components. As an example, at least one inner loop of the inner loops 604 may provide the first information 608 associated with a WLAN radio component to the outer loop 602.

[0089] Outer loop 602 may determine a separate transmit power budget for inner loop 604, for example, based on first information 608 and / or other information (e.g., a specific transmit power budget allocation for inner loop). In some aspects, for example, when inner loop 604 is not configured to provide first information 608, outer loop 602 may determine the transmit power budget without first information 608. The transmit power budget may be associated with a time interval in which the transmit power budget is to be applied (such as future time intervals 306, 308). The transmit power budget for inner loop 604 may conform to RF exposure limits. For example, inner loop 604 may obtain the corresponding transmit power budget before the future time interval occurs, and inner loop 604 may determine the specific transmit power to be used that conforms to the corresponding transmit power budget.

[0090] In some respects, outer ring 602 may periodically provide second information 610 to inner ring 604, wherein the second information 610 may indicate a transmit power budget associated with inner ring 604. In some cases, each inner ring in inner ring 604 may receive the second information 610, which may indicate a portion of the total transmit power budget for each inner ring in inner ring 604. For example, outer ring 602 may provide a first transmit power budget to a first inner ring and a second transmit power budget to a second inner ring, wherein the first and second transmit power budgets are components of the total transmit power budget distributed among inner rings 604. In some cases, such as when certain radio components are disabled (e.g., in idle or sleep mode) and communication is not expected in the corresponding time interval, transmit power budgets may be assigned to a subset of inner rings 604. In such cases, outer ring 602 may provide the second information 610 only to a subset of inner rings 604.

[0091] In some respects, the inner loop 604 can operate in standalone mode, in which it determines its own transmit power budget that complies with RF exposure limits. In standalone mode, the inner loop 604 can determine the transmit power budget without periodic updates from the outer loop 602 and / or other inner loops 604. When operating in standalone mode, the inner loop 604 may not communicate with the outer loop 602. As an example, because the outer loop 602 is in idle or sleep mode, the inner loop 604 may temporarily cease communication with the outer loop 602, and therefore, the inner loop 604 can operate in standalone mode to determine the transmit power that complies with RF exposure limits. In some cases, the inner loop 604 can operate permanently in standalone mode without updates from the outer loop 602. For example, a WLAN modem and / or a Bluetooth modem can operate in standalone mode independently of the outer loop and / or inner loop associated with WWAN communication. In such cases of standalone mode, obtaining the transmit power budget may involve the inner loop 604 generating the transmit power budget. In some cases, the exposure of one or more RATs (e.g., WWAN) may be managed by the first outer ring 602, while the exposure of one or more other RATs (e.g., WLAN, Bluetooth, and / or NTN) may be managed by the second outer ring 602.

[0092] A transmit power budget indicates the maximum permissible time-average transmit power, compliant with RF exposure limits, that one or more radio components can use over a future time interval. The maximum permissible time-average transmit power may correspond to a portion of a rolling time window (e.g., a future time interval), while the maximum time-average transmit power (e.g., P) is... limit This can correspond to the entire duration of such a time window associated with the RF exposure limit. The total transmit power budget of a wireless device can be shared among multiple RATs (e.g., including WWAN, WLAN, NTN, V2X, D2D, and / or short-range (e.g., Bluetooth) communications). In some cases, the total transmit power budget can be allocated to a single RAT.

[0093] The inner loop 604 may determine the transmit power on a connection-by-connection basis, at least in part, based on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with the multiple connections (e.g., links and / or peers). The inner loop 604 may distribute the transmit power budget among the multiple connections based on the characteristics associated with the connections. The inner loop 604 may provide the radio component 606 with an indication of the transmit power 612 to be used for transmission in the time interval. The indication of the transmit power 612 may include the maximum permissible transmit power that can be used within the time interval, wherein the maximum permissible transmit power conforms to RF exposure limits according to the transmit power budget.

[0094] It should be understood that transmit power control can provide an additional or alternative transmit power budget and / or limit the determined maximum transmit power, such as interference or RF emission limits. In some respects, the inner loop 604 can apply any suitable transmit power control as a supplement to or alternative to the RF exposure-based transmit power budget, such as RF emission limits, interference limits, RF saturation limits, etc., wherein such transmit power control provides a transmit power budget that can be distributed between connections as described herein.

[0095] As an example of multiple links, inner loop 604 can determine a first transmit power for the first link 414 and a second transmit power for the second link 416 based on characteristics associated with links 414 and 416, such as the duty cycle and / or signal quality associated with each of links 414 and 416. For example, when the corresponding duty cycle of the first link 414 is greater than that of the second link 416, inner loop 604 can allocate more transmit power budget (e.g., corresponding to transmit power over all or some time intervals in the time interval) to the first link 414. Such transmit power budget allocation allows the wireless device to distribute more transmit power budget to links that transmit more frequently than other links, as indicated by their duty cycles.

[0096] As an example of multiple peers, the inner loop 604 can determine a first transmit power for a first peer (e.g., AP 104e) and a second transmit power for a second peer (e.g., UE 104f) based on characteristics associated with the peers, such as round-trip time, signal strength (e.g., Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI)), and / or data error rate (e.g., packet error rate) associated with each peer. For example, when the first peer has a longer round-trip time than the second peer, the inner loop 604 can allocate more transmit power budget to the first peer. Such a transmit power budget distribution allows the wireless device to transmit at a transmit power sufficient to overcome the increased path loss associated with the first peer.

[0097] In a multi-peer / multi-link scenario, the inner loop 604 can determine specific weights for power allocation for each connection based on any of the various characteristics associated with each connection. Examples of characteristics include Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), Round-Trip Time (RTT), Packet Error Rate (PER), channel conditions, duty cycle, etc. In some cases, the inner loop 604 can determine each transmit power associated with a connection based on appropriate weights, for example, by determining it as a product of the transmit power (e.g., maximum allowed transmit power) and a given weight.

[0098] For example, consider a three-peer (or three-link) scenario (1:3) where a wireless communication device is transmitting to three peers, and, for example, within a time interval (e.g., time interval 306), the corresponding peers have RSSIs of -75dBm, -50dBm, and -25dBm. Weights can be derived such that the device will transmit with the highest transmission power to the peer with the lowest RSSI (-75dBm), with the intermediate transmission power to the peer with the middle RSSI (-50dBm), and with the lowest transmission power to the peer with the highest RSSI (-25dBm).

[0099] In some respects, the inner loop 604 can be optimized using constrained optimization methods (e.g., Lagrange multipliers) to determine the transmit power 612. Assuming the existence of N links and / or peers, the total capacity (C), such as throughput, can be determined (or estimated) based on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) associated with the links / peers.

[0100] (1)

[0101] in It is the first The signal power of each link / peer, and It is noise power. Therefore, Indicates the SNR associated with the link / peer.

[0102] For signal power, the power budget constraint can be applied as follows:

[0103] (2)

[0104] in This is, for example, the total power budget allocated from the outer ring to all links and / or peers, and It is the first The weights of each link / peer. The inner loop 604 may determine the weights associated with a connection based on any characteristics associated with the connection as described herein, including, for example, duty cycle, round-trip time, transmission distance, path loss, signal strength, signal quality (e.g., SNR), data error rate, or ratio.

[0105] Therefore, constrained optimization methods can solve this problem, for example, by using Lagrange multipliers. In this case, the cost function (F) can be determined as:

[0106] (3)

[0107] in It is a Lagrange multiplier.

[0108] During the solution process, the individual signal power (P) associated with the link / peer is... i It can be determined by the Lagrange multipliers as follows:

[0109] (4)

[0110] Lagrange multipliers ( Therefore, the following equation can be used to solve it:

[0111] (5)

[0112] Constrained optimization methods (e.g., utilizing Lagrange multipliers) allow wireless devices to efficiently distribute transmit power budgets across multiple connections. It should be understood that any suitable characteristics associated with a connection (link / peer) can be applied to constrained optimization methods. For example, any suitable characteristics can be used to estimate capacity, including, for example, data error rate, round-trip time, duty cycle, path loss, signal strength (e.g., RSSI), signal quality (e.g., SNR), etc.

[0113] Figure 7 This is a flowchart illustrating an example operation 700 for wireless communication. Operation 700 may be performed, for example, by a wireless device (e.g., the first wireless device 102 in wireless communication system 100). Operation 700 may be implemented in one or more processors (e.g., Figure 2 The software components executed and running on the processor 210 and / or modem 212. Furthermore, the transmission and / or reception of signals by the wireless device in operation 700 may be performed, for example, by one or more antennas (e.g., Figure 2 This can be achieved via antenna 218. In some respects, the transmission and / or reception of signals by the wireless device can be achieved by obtaining and / or outputting signals for reception or transmission via the bus interface of one or more processors (e.g., processor 210 and / or modem 212).

[0114] Operation 700 may optionally begin at block 702, where the wireless device can obtain a transmit power budget (or transmit power budget indication) associated with a time interval (e.g., future time interval 306). For example, the inner loop of the wireless device (e.g., inner loop 604) can obtain a transmit power budget associated with the future time interval. This transmit power budget may include or correspond to the maximum permissible time-averaged transmit power based on RF exposure limits, for example, as described herein. Figure 3 and Figure 6As described. The transmit power budget indicates the maximum permissible time-average transmit power, conforming to RF exposure limits, that one or more radio components can use over a future time interval. Because the total transmit power budget of a wireless device can be shared among multiple radio components across a rolling time window, the transmit power budget can indicate a value less than or equal to P. max The time-averaged power. In some cases, to obtain the transmit power budget, the wireless device may obtain the transmit power budget from a controller (e.g., outer loop 602) that controls the RF exposure associated with multiple RATs (including RATs associated with these connections). In some cases, such as when the inner loop operates in stand-alone mode without periodic information (e.g., second information 610) from the outer loop, the inner loop may generate the transmit power budget. To obtain the transmit power budget, the wireless device may generate the transmit power budget in stand-alone mode.

[0115] At box 704, the wireless device may determine the transmit power on a connection-by-connection basis, at least in part, based on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with the multiple connections (e.g., links and / or peers). For example, the wireless device may apply weights to each of these connections, where the weights may be determined based on characteristics associated with the connection. The transmit power may satisfy the maximum time-averaged transmit power (e.g., P) associated with an RF exposure limit. limit ).

[0116] At box 704, the wireless device may transmit signals associated with these connections at a corresponding transmission power within that time interval. For example, the wireless device may transmit signals to a second wireless communication device (e.g., Figure 1 (Any of the second wireless devices 104 depicted herein) transmits signals. These signals may indicate (or carry) any information of various kinds, such as data and / or control information. In order to transmit signals, the wireless devices may transmit signals via multiple links (e.g., links 414, 416) within this time interval, wherein each transmission power in the transmission power is associated with a specific link among these links. For example, the wireless devices may transmit signals in an MLO / MLA, SAP / Multi-STA, or NAN connection (1:N). In order to transmit signals, the wireless devices may send signals to multiple peers (e.g., such as...) within this time interval. Figure 1 The STA and / or AP shown transmit signals, wherein each transmit power in the transmit power is associated with a specific peer among these peers.

[0117] In some respects, a connection can correspond to any wireless communication link. In some cases, a connection can correspond to multi-channel and / or multi-peer wireless communication. A connection can include multiple communication links and / or peers. In some cases, a link can be associated with multiple frequency channels, carriers, frequency bands, etc. In some cases, a link can be associated with the same frequency channel, carrier, frequency band, etc. A connection can include multiple links (e.g., links 414, 416) associated with multiple frequency channels (or sub-channels), multiple frequency carriers (or sub-carriers), multiple frequency bands (in WLAN or WWAN), multiple peers (e.g., STA and / or AP) or combinations thereof. In some cases, a link can correspond to an MLO / MLA link in WLAN communication. Peers can include any receiving device, such as... Figure 1 The document describes STAs, APs, base stations, sensors, vehicles, aircraft, satellites, etc.

[0118] In some aspects, connectivity may be associated with multiple RATs (e.g., WLAN, WWAN, Bluetooth, V2X, NTN, D2D, etc.) or a single RAT (e.g., WLAN or WWAN). In some cases, the frequency channels, bands, and / or carriers of the connectivity may belong to shared (e.g., unlicensed) and / or licensed spectrum. Bands may include the 2.4 GHz band, the 5 GHz band, the 6 GHz band, or any combination thereof.

[0119] In some respects, wireless devices can request a transmit power budget for that time interval, for example, as discussed in this article. Figure 6 As described, a wireless device can determine an initial transmit power budget associated with a time interval, at least in part, based on one or more characteristics associated with the connection. The wireless device can request the initial transmit power budget, and the wireless device can obtain the transmit power budget in response to the request.

[0120] To determine the transmission power, the wireless device can base it on the weights associated with each connection in the connection (e.g., ...). The transmit power is determined by weighting the signal strength. The wireless device may determine the weights based on one or more characteristics associated with the connection. These characteristics may include signal strength (e.g., Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)), data error rate (e.g., block error rate, frame error rate, packet error rate, bit error rate, etc.), data error ratio (e.g., block error ratio, frame error ratio, packet error ratio, bit error ratio, etc.), signal quality (e.g., path loss, channel quality indicator, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), signal-to-noise-plus-distortion ratio (SNDR), etc.), round-trip time (or delay), channel conditions, duty cycle, distance to another wireless device, physical layer (PHY) characteristics, or any combination thereof. Physical layer characteristics may include any characteristics associated with the physical layer of the connection, such as channel or carrier frequency, channel or carrier bandwidth, modulation and decoding scheme (MCS), decoding rate, guard interval, number of spatial streams, etc. To determine the transmit power, the wireless device may determine the transmit power based on the weighted sum of signal strengths being less than or equal to the transmit power budget, for example, according to expression (2). In some respects, wireless devices can apply constrained optimization methods to determine the transmit power, such as Lagrange multipliers, as described in this paper with respect to expressions (1)-(5).

[0121] The aspects of this disclosure can be applied to any of a variety of wireless communication devices (wireless devices) capable of emitting RF signals that could result in exposure to human tissue, such as mobile phones, wearable devices (e.g., watches, rings, headphones, earbuds, virtual (or augmented) reality headsets, etc.), base stations, access points, and / or CPEs, to perform the RF exposure compliance described herein. It will also be understood that RF exposure compliance is an example of transmit power control. Other aspects of transmit power control can be applied to this disclosure, including, for example, RF emission limits, interference limits, RF saturation limits, etc.

[0122] Example communication device

[0123] Figure 8 Various aspects of the example communication device 800 are described. In some aspects, the communication device 800 is a wireless communication device, as described above. Figure 1 and Figure 2 The first wireless device 102 is described.

[0124] The communication device 800 includes a processing system 802 coupled to a transceiver 808 (e.g., a transmitter and / or a receiver). The transceiver 808 is configured to transmit and receive signals for the communication device 800 via an antenna 810, such as various signals as described herein. The processing system 802 may be configured to perform processing functions of the communication device 800, including processing signals received by the communication device 800 and / or to be transmitted by the communication device.

[0125] Processing system 802 includes one or more processors 820. In various aspects, the one or more processors 820 may be represented as... Figure 2 Either the described processor 210 and / or modem 212. One or more processors 820 are coupled to a computer-readable medium / memory 830 via a bus 806. In some aspects, the computer-readable medium / memory 830 is configured to store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) that, when executed by one or more processors 820, cause one or more processors 820 to perform actions related to... Figure 7 The described operation 700 or any aspect relating to the operation described herein. It should be noted that references to a processor performing a function of the communication device 800 may include one or more processors performing that function of the communication device 800. References to one or more processors performing multiple functions may include any one of those processors performing any one of those multiple functions.

[0126] In the depicted example, computer-readable medium / memory 830 stores code 831 for obtaining (e.g., executable instructions), code 832 for determining, code 833 for sending, code 834 for requesting, code 835 for applying, or any combination thereof. Processing of codes 831-835 causes communication device 800 to perform actions related to... Figure 7 The operation described herein is 700 or any aspect related to the operation described herein.

[0127] One or more processors 820 include circuitry configured to implement (e.g., execute) code stored in computer-readable medium / memory 830, including circuitry 821 for obtaining, circuitry 822 for determining, circuitry 823 for transmitting, circuitry 824 for requesting, circuitry 825 for applying, or any combination thereof. Processing using circuitry 821-825 enables communication device 800 to perform actions regarding... Figure 7 The operation described herein is 700 or any aspect related to the operation described herein.

[0128] The various components of the communication device 800 can provide for performing tasks related to... Figure 7 The components described in operation 700 or any aspect relating to the operation described herein. For example, components for sending, transmitting, or outputting for transmission may include... Figure 2 The illustrated first wireless device 102 includes TX path 214 and / or antenna 218 and / or Figure 8 The communication device 800 includes a transceiver 808 and an antenna 810. In some cases, components for receiving or acquiring data may include... Figure 2The RX path 216 and / or antenna 218 of the first wireless device illustrated herein, and / or Figure 8 The communication device 800 includes a transceiver 808 and an antenna 810. Components for obtaining, determining, requesting, and / or applying may include one or more processors, such as... Figure 2 The processor 210 and / or modem 212 depicted herein, and / or Figure 8 The processor in it is 820.

[0129] Example

[0130] Specific implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

[0131] Aspect 1: A method for wireless communication by a wireless device, the method comprising: obtaining a transmit power budget associated with a time interval; determining transmit power in a connection-by-connection manner, at least in part based on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with a plurality of connections; and transmitting signals associated with the connections at corresponding transmit power within the time interval.

[0132] Aspect 2: According to the method of aspect 1, the connection includes multiple links associated with multiple frequency channels, multiple frequency carriers, multiple frequency bands, multiple peers, or combinations thereof.

[0133] Aspect 3: According to the method of aspect 2, the frequency band is in a shared spectrum.

[0134] Aspect 4: The method according to aspect 2 or 3, wherein the frequency band includes a 2.4 GHz band, a 5 GHz band, a 6 GHz band, or any combination thereof.

[0135] Aspect 5: The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 4, wherein the connection is associated with wireless local area network (WLAN) communication, wireless wide area network (WWAN) communication, or any combination thereof.

[0136] Aspect 6: The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 5, wherein transmitting the signal includes transmitting the signal via a plurality of links within the time interval, and wherein each of the transmission powers is associated with a specific link among the links.

[0137] Aspect 7: The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 6, wherein transmitting the signal includes transmitting the signal to a plurality of peers within the time interval, and wherein each of the transmission powers is associated with a specific peer among the peers.

[0138] Aspect 8: The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 7, wherein the transmit power budget includes the maximum permissible time-averaged transmit power based on the radio frequency (RF) exposure limit.

[0139] Aspect 9: The method according to aspect 8, wherein the transmit power satisfies the maximum time-averaged transmit power associated with the RF exposure limit.

[0140] Aspect 10: The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 9, wherein obtaining the transmit power budget includes: obtaining the transmit power budget from a controller, the controller controlling radio frequency (RF) exposure associated with a variety of radio access technologies, including radio access technologies associated with the connection.

[0141] Aspect 11: The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 10, wherein obtaining the transmit power budget includes generating the transmit power budget in independent mode.

[0142] Aspect 12: The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 11, the method further comprising: determining, at least in part, a preliminary transmit power budget associated with the time interval based on the one or more characteristics associated with the connection; and requesting the preliminary transmit power budget, wherein obtaining the transmit power budget includes obtaining the transmit power budget in response to requesting the preliminary transmit power budget.

[0143] Aspect 13: The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 12, wherein determining the transmission power includes determining the transmission power based on a weight associated with each of the connections.

[0144] Aspect 14: The method according to aspect 13, wherein determining the transmit power includes determining the weight based on one or more characteristics associated with the connection.

[0145] Aspect 15: The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 14, wherein the one or more characteristics include: signal strength, data error rate, data error ratio, signal quality, round-trip time, channel conditions, duty cycle, distance to another wireless device, physical layer characteristics, or any combination thereof.

[0146] Aspect 16: The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 15, wherein determining the transmission power includes determining the transmission power based on the fact that the weighted sum of transmission powers is less than or equal to the transmission power budget.

[0147] Aspect 17: The method according to any one of aspects 13 to 16, wherein determining the transmission power includes applying a constraint optimization method that uses the weights associated with each of the connections to determine the transmission power.

[0148] Aspect 18: The method according to aspect 17, wherein the constrained optimization method applies Lagrange multipliers.

[0149] Aspect 19: An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising: a memory; and one or more processors coupled to the memory, the one or more processors being configured to: obtain a transmit power budget associated with a time interval; determine transmit power in a connection-by-connection manner, at least in part based on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with a plurality of connections; and control the transmission of signals associated with the connections within the time interval at a corresponding transmit power.

[0150] Aspect 20: The apparatus according to aspect 19 further includes one or more transmitters coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more transmitters being configured to transmit the signal associated with the connection at the corresponding transmission power during the time interval, wherein the connection includes multiple links associated with multiple frequency channels, multiple frequency carriers, multiple frequency bands, multiple peers, or combinations thereof.

[0151] Aspect 21: The apparatus according to aspect 20, wherein the frequency band is in a shared spectrum.

[0152] Aspect 22: The apparatus according to any one of aspects 19 to 21, wherein the connection is associated with wireless local area network (WLAN) communication, wireless wide area network (WWAN) communication, or any combination thereof.

[0153] Aspect 23: The apparatus according to any one of aspects 19 to 22, wherein the transmit power budget includes the maximum permissible time-averaged transmit power based on a radio frequency (RF) exposure limit.

[0154] Aspect 24: The apparatus according to any one of aspects 19 to 23, wherein, in order to determine the transmission power, the one or more processors are further configured to determine the transmission power based on a weight associated with each of the connections.

[0155] Aspect 25: The apparatus according to any one of aspects 19 to 24, wherein the one or more characteristics include: signal strength, data error rate, data error ratio, signal quality, round-trip time, channel conditions, duty cycle, distance to another wireless device, physical layer characteristics, or any combination thereof.

[0156] Aspect 26: The apparatus according to any one of aspects 19 to 25, wherein, in order to determine the transmission power, the one or more processors are further configured to determine the transmission power based on the fact that the weighted sum of transmission powers is less than or equal to the transmission power budget.

[0157] Aspect 27: The apparatus according to any one of aspects 19 to 26, wherein, in order to determine the transmission power, the one or more processors are further configured to apply a constraint optimization method, the constraint optimization method using the weights associated with each of the connections to determine the transmission power.

[0158] Aspect 28: The apparatus according to aspect 27, wherein the constraint optimization method applies Lagrange multipliers.

[0159] Aspect 29: An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising: means for obtaining a transmit power budget associated with a time interval; means for determining transmit power in a connection-by-connection manner among the plurality of connections, at least in part based on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with the plurality of connections; and means for transmitting a signal associated with the connection at a corresponding transmit power within the time interval.

[0160] Aspect 30: A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon for: obtaining a transmit power budget associated with a time interval; determining transmit power in a connection-by-connection manner, at least in part based on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with a plurality of connections; and transmitting signals associated with the connections at corresponding transmit power within the time interval.

[0161] Aspect 31: An apparatus comprising: a memory including computer-executable instructions; and one or more processors configured to execute the computer-executable instructions and cause the apparatus to perform the method according to any one of aspects 1 to 18.

[0162] Aspect 32: An apparatus comprising components for performing the method according to any one of aspects 1 to 18.

[0163] Aspect 33: A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a processing system, cause the processing system to perform the method according to any one of aspects 1 to 18.

[0164] Aspect 34: A computer program product embodied on a computer-readable storage medium, the computer-readable storage medium including code for performing the method according to any one of aspects 1 to 18.

[0165] Additional Notes

[0166] The foregoing description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. The examples discussed herein do not limit the scope, applicability, or aspects set forth in the claims. Various modifications to these aspects will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. For example, the function and arrangement of the elements discussed may be changed without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Various processes or components may be omitted, substituted, or added as appropriate in various examples. For example, the described methods may be performed in a different order than described, and various actions may be added, omitted, or combined. Furthermore, features described with respect to some examples may be combined in some other examples. For example, any number of aspects set forth herein may be used to implement an apparatus or practice. Additionally, the scope of this disclosure is intended to cover such apparatuses or methods practiced using other structures, functionalities, or structures and functionalities that complement or replace the various aspects of this disclosure set forth herein. It should be understood that any aspect of the disclosure herein may be embodied by one or more elements of these claims.

[0167] The various exemplary logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in this disclosure can be implemented or executed using microcontrollers, microprocessors, general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), neural network processors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices (PLDs), discrete gate or transistor logic components, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, designed to perform the functions described herein. While a general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, in alternatives, the processor may be any commercially available processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors working in conjunction with a DSP core, a system-on-a-chip (SoC), or any other such configuration.

[0168] As used in this article, the phrase “at least one of” in a list of items refers to any combination of these items, including a single member. As an example, “at least one of a, b, or c” is intended to cover: a, b, c, ab, ac, bc, and abc, as well as any combination with multiple identical elements (e.g., aa, aaa, aab, aac, abb, acc, bb, bbb, bbb, bbc, cc, and ccc, or any other ordering of a, b, and c).

[0169] As used herein, the term "determine" encompasses a wide variety of actions. For example, "determine" can include calculation, operation, processing, deduction, investigation, lookup (e.g., searching in a table, database, or other data structure), assertion, and so on. Furthermore, "determine" can include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in memory), and so on. Additionally, "determine" can include parsing, selecting, identifying, mapping, applying, picking, building, and so on.

[0170] The methods disclosed herein include one or more actions for implementing the methods. These actions may be interchanged without departing from the scope of the claims. In other words, unless a specific order of actions is specified, the order and / or use of a particular action may be modified without departing from the scope of the claims. Furthermore, the various operations of the methods described above may be performed by any suitable component capable of performing the corresponding function. This component may include various hardware and / or software components and / or modules, including but not limited to circuits, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or processors.

[0171] The following claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but should be given the full scope consistent with the language of the claims. Within the claims, unless specifically stated otherwise, reference to an element in the singular form is not intended to mean “one and only one”, but rather “one or more”. The use of a definite article (e.g., “the” or “the”) before an element is not intended to impose a singular meaning (e.g., “one and only one”) onto that element which would otherwise have a plural meaning (e.g., “one or more”), unless specifically stated otherwise. Unless otherwise specifically stated, the term “some” refers to one or more. No element of any claim is to be interpreted in accordance with 35 USC § 112(f) unless the element is explicitly stated using the phrase “part for…”. All structural and functional equivalents of elements throughout the various aspects described in this disclosure that are known to a person skilled in the art or will later be known are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be covered by the claims. Furthermore, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be offered to the public, whether or not such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication by a wireless device, the method comprising: obtaining a transmit power budget associated with a time interval; determining transmit powers in a per-connection manner among a plurality of connections based at least in part on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with the connections; and transmitting signals associated with the connections with respective transmit powers within the time interval.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the connections comprise a plurality of links associated with a plurality of frequency channels, a plurality of frequency carriers, a plurality of frequency bands, a plurality of peers, or a combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the frequency bands are in a shared spectrum.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the frequency bands comprise a 2.4 GHz frequency band, a 5 GHz frequency band, a 6 GHz frequency band, or any combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the connections are associated with wireless local area network (WLAN) communications, wireless wide area network (WW AN) communications, or any combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the signals comprises transmitting the signals via a plurality of links within the time interval, and wherein each of the transmit powers is associated with a particular link of the links.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the signals comprises transmitting the signals to a plurality of peers within the time interval, and wherein each of the transmit powers is associated with a particular peer of the peers.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmit power budget comprises a maximum allowed time-averaged transmit power based on a radio frequency (RF) exposure limit.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the transmit powers satisfy a maximum time-averaged transmit power associated with the RF exposure limit. obtaining the transmit power budget from a controller that controls radio frequency (RF) exposure associated with a plurality of radio access technologies, including a radio access technology associated with the connections.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the transmit power budget comprises:

11. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the transmit power budget comprises generating the transmit power budget in a standalone mode.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining a preliminary transmit power budget associated with the time interval based at least in part on the one or more characteristics associated with the connections; and requesting the preliminary transmit power budget, wherein obtaining the transmit power budget comprises obtaining the transmit power budget in response to requesting the preliminary transmit power budget.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the transmit powers comprises determining the transmit powers based on weights associated with each of the connections.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the transmit powers comprises determining the weights based on the one or more characteristics associated with the connections.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more characteristics comprise: a signal strength, ​ ​ data error rate, data error proportion, signal quality, round trip time, channel condition, duty cycle, distance to another wireless device, physical layer characteristic, or any combination thereof.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the transmit power comprises determining the transmit power based on a sum of weighted transmit powers being less than or equal to the transmit power budget.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the transmit power comprises applying a constrained optimization method that uses the weights associated with each of the connections to determine the transmit power.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the constrained optimization method applies a Lagrange multiplier.

19. An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising: a memory; and one or more processors coupled to the memory, the one or more processors configured to: obtain a transmit power budget associated with a time interval; determine transmit powers in a connection-by-connection manner among a plurality of connections based at least in part on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with the connections; and control transmission of signals associated with the connections with respective transmit powers within the time interval.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising one or more transmitters coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more transmitters configured to transmit the signals associated with the connections with the respective transmit powers within the time interval, wherein the connections comprise a plurality of links associated with a plurality of frequency channels, a plurality of frequency carriers, a plurality of frequency bands, a plurality of peers, or a combination thereof.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the frequency bands are in a shared spectrum.

22. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the connections are associated with wireless local area network (WLAN) communications, wireless wide area network (WWAN) communications, or any combination thereof.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the transmit power budget comprises a maximum allowed time-averaged transmit power based on a radio frequency (RF) exposure limit.

24. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein to determine the transmit powers, the one or more processors are further configured to determine the transmit powers based on weights associated with each of the connections.

25. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the one or more characteristics comprise: signal strength, data error rate, data error proportion, signal quality, round trip time, channel condition, duty cycle, distance to another wireless device, physical layer characteristic, or any combination thereof.

26. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein to determine the transmit powers, the one or more processors are further configured to determine the transmit powers based on a sum of weighted transmit powers being less than or equal to the transmit power budget.

27. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein to determine the transmit powers, the one or more processors are further configured to apply a constrained optimization method that uses the weights associated with each of the connections to determine the transmit powers.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the constrained optimization method applies a Lagrange multiplier.

29. An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising: means for obtaining a transmit power budget associated with a time interval; means for determining transmit powers in a connection-by-connection manner among a plurality of connections based at least in part on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with the connections; and and means for transmitting signals associated with the connections with the respective transmit powers within the time interval.

30. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored therein for: obtaining a transmit power budget associated with a time interval; determining transmit powers in a connection-by-connection manner among a plurality of connections based at least in part on the transmit power budget and one or more characteristics associated with the connections; and transmitting signals associated with the connections with the respective transmit powers within the time interval.

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