Surface Element Segmentation and Node Grouping of Intelligent Reflecting Devices

Abstract

This document generally relates to a wireless communication system that involves one or more intelligent reflecting devices. A plurality of second nodes communicating with a first node can be grouped into node groups based on one or more communication parameters between the plurality of second nodes and the intelligent reflecting devices. Further, the first node can transmit signals to the plurality of second nodes via the intelligent reflecting devices according to a schedule based on the node grouping. Additionally or alternatively, the intelligent reflecting device can include surface elements that are divided into a plurality of surface element regions. The first node can communicate independently with the plurality of surface element regions to serve the plurality of second nodes.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This document generally relates to intelligent reflecting devices in wireless communication. Background Art

[0002] With a substantial increase in network capacity density, some significant challenges faced by wireless communication include increased complexity, hardware cost, and energy consumption. For example, adding base stations in a ultra-dense network environment may increase hardware and maintenance costs, and / or may encounter severe network interference problems. Additionally, spectrum expansion from below 6G to millimeter waves or even terahertz waves requires more complex signal processing and hardware with higher energy consumption costs. Another or related challenge in wireless communication (especially for wireless communication targeting 5G, 6G, and higher) is the ability to serve a large number of user devices simultaneously, such as the expansion of massive machine type communication (mMTC). Methods for overcoming these challenges may be required in future wireless communication environments. Summary of the Invention

[0003] This document relates to methods, systems, apparatuses, and devices for using intelligent reflecting devices in wireless communication. In some implementations, a method is disclosed. The method may include: assigning, by a node group assignment node, each of a plurality of second nodes to one of a plurality of node groups based on one or more communication parameters between the plurality of second nodes and an intelligent reflecting device; determining, by a first node, a plurality of signals to be transmitted to the plurality of second nodes and a timing schedule according to which the plurality of second signals are to be transmitted, where the timing schedule: identifies a plurality of time slots, indicates that signals are transmitted in the same time slot for second nodes of the same node group to receive, and indicates that signals are transmitted in different time slots for second nodes of different node groups to receive; and transmitting, by the first node, the plurality of signals to the intelligent reflecting device according to the timing schedule.

[0004] In some other implementations, a method is disclosed. The method may include: determining, by a region determination node, a plurality of surface element regions of a plurality of surface elements of an intelligent reflecting device; independently setting, by at least one of the first node or the intelligent reflecting device, communication parameters for respective communications between the first node and each of the plurality of surface element regions; and transmitting, by the first node, signals to a plurality of second nodes via the plurality of surface element regions according to the independent setting of the communication parameters.

[0005] In some other implementations, a system is disclosed, the system including one or more network devices. The one or more network devices may include one or more processors and one or more memories, where the one or more processors are configured to read computer code from the one or more memories to implement any of the above methods.

[0006] In still some other implementations, a computer program product is disclosed. The computer program product may include a non-transitory computer-readable program medium having computer code stored thereon, the computer code causing one or more processors to implement any of the above methods when executed by the one or more processors.

[0007] The above and other aspects and their implementations are described in more detail in the drawings, the description, and the claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] Figure 1 A block diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication system.

[0009] Figure 2A A block diagram illustrating an example intelligent reflecting device.

[0010] Figure 2B A diagram showing the surface of an intelligent reflecting device that reflects an incident signal.

[0011] Figure 2C A diagram showing a surface that reflects at multiple reflection angles.

[0012] Figure 3 A flowchart illustrating an example wireless communication method including node grouping.

[0013] Figure 4 A timing diagram related to a transmission scheme of an intelligent reflecting device, where downlink transmission is performed on a per-node-group basis.

[0014] Figure 5 A flowchart illustrating an example wireless communication method including surface element region determination.

[0015] Figure 6A A diagram showing a group of surface elements distributed on the surface of an intelligent reflecting device.

[0016] Figure 6B Shows Figure 6A a diagram in which the group of surface elements is separated based on node grouping.

[0017] Figure 6C Shows Figure 6B a diagram in which the group of surface elements is included in a surface element region.

[0018] Figure 7 A diagram showing a radio access node and a user equipment participating in uplink communication via an intelligent reflecting device.

[0019] Figure 8A A diagram showing a radio access node and a user equipment participating in downlink communication via an intelligent reflecting device under near-field conditions.

[0020] Figure 8B A diagram showing a radio access node and a user equipment participating in downlink communication via an intelligent reflecting device under far-field conditions. Detailed implementation

[0021] This specification describes various embodiments of systems, apparatuses, devices, and methods for wireless communication involving one or more intelligent reflecting devices. In such embodiments, a first node may communicate with one or more second nodes via one or more intelligent reflecting devices. For example, the first node may transmit a signal to one or more intelligent reflecting devices, and the one or more intelligent reflecting devices reflect the signal to the second node.

[0022] In various embodiments, the second nodes may be grouped into node groups based on one or more communication parameters between the second nodes and the intelligent reflecting devices. The first node may transmit signals to the second nodes in the same node group via the intelligent reflecting device in the same time slot, and may transmit signals to the second nodes in different node groups via the intelligent reflecting device in different time slots.

[0023] Furthermore, in various embodiments, the surface element area of the surface elements of the intelligent reflecting device may be determined, and the first node may transmit signals to the second node via the intelligent reflecting device according to the surface element area. For example, the first node and / or the intelligent reflecting device may independently set the communication parameters of the corresponding communication between the first node and the surface element area.

[0024] Furthermore, in various embodiments, the first node may communicate with the second node via multiple intelligent reflecting devices. In such an embodiment, for each second node, a target intelligent reflecting device may be determined or selected, and the first node will communicate with a specific second node via the target intelligent reflecting device. Then, node grouping and / or surface element area determination may be performed for a subset of the second nodes associated with the same target intelligent reflecting device.

[0025] Furthermore, in various embodiments, the first node may communicate with multiple second nodes via multiple intelligent reflecting devices or a multi-intelligent reflecting device chain. For example, the first node may transmit a signal to the first intelligent reflecting device in the chain, and the first intelligent reflecting device reflects the signal to the second intelligent reflecting device in the chain, and so on, until the last intelligent reflecting device reflects the signal to a given second node. For such an embodiment, the channel state information may be obtained through channel estimation, beam training or scanning, or a combination thereof, depending on whether and / or which of the intelligent reflecting devices in the chain have sensing capabilities and which do not. Additionally or alternatively, a relatively low-complexity scheme may be implemented, where node grouping and / or surface element area determination is performed only for and / or based on the last intelligent reflecting device in the chain.

[0026] The various embodiments described herein provide improved and more efficient ways, including improved and more efficient resource allocation (including time-domain and space-domain resources), for a first node to communicate with multiple second nodes in a wireless communication system via one or more intelligent reflecting devices, and / or may allow the first node to communicate effectively with a larger number of second nodes via one or more intelligent reflecting devices. Such improvements and increased efficiency can be achieved through surface element grouping and / or region determination, node grouping, channel state information acquisition, utilization of angular domain information, utilization of channel reciprocity, utilization of location information, utilization of service (e.g., QoS) requirements, or any various combinations thereof, as described in further detail below. Additionally, separating the surface elements of an intelligent reflecting device into regions can increase the spatial degrees of freedom. Further, a trade-off between complexity and efficiency can be determined for communication via multiple intelligent reflecting devices in parallel or in cascade (series). The advantages, benefits, and improvements that can result from the implementation of the various embodiments will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0027] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of an example wireless communication system 100 is shown, which includes a plurality of communication nodes (or simply nodes) configured to communicate wirelessly with each other. Generally, the communication nodes include at least one user equipment 102 and at least one wireless access node 104. Figure 1 The example wireless communication system 100 in is shown as including two user equipments 102 and two wireless access nodes 104. However, various other examples of the wireless communication system 100 include any one of various combinations of user equipments 102 and wireless access nodes 104, including only one user equipment 102 and only one wireless access node 104, only one user equipment 102 and two or more wireless access nodes 104, two or more user equipments 102 without any wireless access nodes 104, two or more user equipments 102 and one or more wireless access nodes 104, or two or more wireless access nodes 104 without any user equipments 102.

[0028] User equipment 102 may include a single electronic device or apparatus, or multiple electronic devices or apparatuses (e.g., a network thereof) capable of wireless communication over a network. The user equipment may be included or otherwise referred to as a user terminal or user equipment (UE). Additionally, the user equipment may be or include, but is not limited to, a mobile device (as a non-limiting example, such as a mobile phone, smartphone, tablet, or laptop computer) or a fixed or stationary device (as a non-limiting example, such as a desktop computer or other computing device that generally does not move for a long time, such as an appliance, other relatively heavy devices, including Internet of Things (IoT) or computing devices used in a commercial or industrial environment). In various examples, user equipment 102 may include transceiver circuitry 106 coupled to an antenna 108 to enable wireless communication with a wireless access node 104. The transceiver circuitry 106 may also be coupled to a processor 110, which may also be coupled to a memory 112 or other storage device. Instructions or code may be stored in the memory 112, which when read and executed by the processor 110 cause the processor 110 to implement the various methods described herein.

[0029] Similarly, wireless access node 104 may also include a single electronic device or apparatus, or multiple electronic devices or apparatuses (e.g., a network thereof), and may include one or more base stations or other wireless network access points capable of wireless communication with one or more user equipments and / or with one or more other wireless access nodes 104 over a network. For example, in various embodiments, wireless access node 104 may include a 4G LTE base station, 5G NR base station, 5G central unit base station, 5G distributed unit base station, next-generation node B (gNB), evolved node B (eNB), or other similar or next-generation (e.g., 6G) base stations. Wireless access node 104 may include transceiver circuitry 114 coupled to an antenna 116, which may include an antenna tower 118 in various ways to enable wireless communication with user equipment 102 or another wireless access node 104. The transceiver circuitry 114 may also be coupled to one or more processors 120, which may also be coupled to a memory 122 or other storage device. Instructions or code may be stored in the memory 122, which when read and executed by the processor 120 cause the processor 120 to implement one or more of the methods described herein.

[0030] In various embodiments, two communication nodes in the wireless system 100, such as user equipment 102 and radio access node 104, two user equipments 102 without a radio access node 104, or two radio access nodes 104 without user equipment 102, may be configured to wirelessly communicate with each other in and / or through a mobile network and / or a radio access network according to one or more standards and / or specifications. Generally, the standards and / or specifications may define rules or procedures under which the communication nodes may wirelessly communicate, which, in various embodiments, may include rules and procedures for communicating in the millimeter (mm) waveband and / or using multi-antenna schemes and beamforming capabilities. Additionally or alternatively, the standards and / or specifications are those that define radio access technologies and / or cellular technologies (as non-limiting examples, such as fourth-generation (4G) Long-Term Evolution (LTE), fifth-generation (5G) New Radio (NR), or Licensed-Assisted Access New Radio (NR-U)).

[0031] In the wireless system 100, the communication nodes are configured to wirelessly transmit signals to each other. Generally, the communication between two communication nodes in the wireless system 100 may be or include transmission or reception, and is typically simultaneous, depending on the perspective of the particular node in the communication. For example, for a given communication between a first node and a second node, where the first node is transmitting a signal to the second node and the second node is receiving the signal from the first node, the first node may be referred to as the transmitting node or transmitting device, the second node may be referred to as the receiving node or receiving device, and the communication may be considered a transmission by the first node and a reception by the second node. Of course, since the communication nodes in the wireless system 100 can both transmit and receive signals, a single communication node may be both a transmitting node and a receiving node simultaneously, or switch between being a transmitting node and a receiving node.

[0032] Furthermore, a particular signal may be characterized or defined as an uplink (UL) signal, a downlink (DL) signal, or a sidelink (SL) signal. An uplink signal is a signal transmitted from the user equipment 102 to the radio access node 104. A downlink signal is a signal transmitted from the radio access node 104 to the mobile station 102. A sidelink signal is a signal transmitted from a first user equipment 102 to a second user equipment 102, or from a first radio access node 104 to a second radio access node 104.

[0033] In addition, the wireless communication system 100 may also include or communicate with a network of one or more intelligent reflecting devices 124. As used herein, an intelligent reflecting device is a device having a surface capable of reflecting signals and having one or more variable reflection angles. The intelligent reflecting device and / or the surface of the intelligent reflecting device may also or otherwise be referred to as an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS), a large intelligent surface (LIS), a large intelligent metasurface (LIM), an intelligent reflecting array, a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), a software-defined surface (SDS), a software-defined metasurface (SDM), a passive intelligent surface (PIS), or a passive intelligent mirror.

[0034] Generally, the surface of the intelligent reflecting device receives an incident signal and reflects the incident signal. The signal output in response to or as a result of the reflection by the surface is referred to as the reflected signal. In other words, the reflected signal is a reflected version of the incident signal reflected by the surface.

[0035] In addition, the surface of the intelligent reflecting device may be configured to reflect signals at one or more variable reflection angles. The reflection angle is the angle at which the surface outputs the reflected signal. The reflection angle may be determined or measured with respect to the surface of the intelligent reflecting device or a line perpendicular to the surface. In addition, a variable reflection angle is a reflection angle having a quantity or value that varies over time. Thus, at any given time, the intelligent reflecting device may change the quantity of the reflection angle or keep it unchanged.

[0036] In addition, in various embodiments, the intelligent reflecting device may reflect multiple signals simultaneously, each signal using a respective variable reflection signal among a plurality of variable reflection signals. As described in further detail below, in various embodiments, the surface of the intelligent reflecting device may be separated or divided into multiple parts or regions. Each region may be configured to reflect an incident signal at an associated variable reflection angle. At any given time, different regions may reflect the incident signal at associated variable reflection angles that are the same or different from each other. The intelligent reflecting device may be configured to independently control or set the variable reflection angles of different regions at different times.

[0037] In addition, for at least some embodiments, the surface of the intelligent reflecting device may be configured to reflect an incident signal at a variable reflection amplitude. Generally, the reflection amplitude is or indicates the amount of power of the incident signal reflected by the surface. The reflection amplitude may be a value in units of power (such as watts), or may be expressed as a percentage or fraction of the power of the incident signal. The reflection amplitude may be inversely proportional to the amount of energy of the signal absorbed by the surface during signal reception and reflection. In addition, a variable reflection amplitude is a reflection amplitude having a quantity or value that varies over time. Thus, at any given time, the intelligent reflecting device may change the quantity of the reflection amplitude or keep it unchanged.

[0038] In addition, in various embodiments, the intelligent reflecting device can reflect multiple signals simultaneously, with each signal using a corresponding reflection amplitude among multiple reflection amplitudes. In particular, each of multiple regions on the surface of the intelligent reflecting device can reflect an incident signal with an associated variable reflection amplitude. At any given time, different regions can reflect the incident signal with the same or different associated variable reflection amplitudes with respect to each other. The intelligent reflecting device can be configured to independently control or set the variable reflection amplitudes of different regions at different times.

[0039] More specifically, Figure 2A A block diagram showing an example configuration of the intelligent reflecting device 200, which represents Figure 1 an example configuration of the intelligent reflecting device 124 in Figure 2A The intelligent reflecting device 200 includes a surface 202 and a controller 204. The surface 202 includes a plurality of surface elements (SEs) (also referred to as surface units (SUs)) 206. For simplicity,

[0040] 12 surface elements 206 are shown. However, in any of the various embodiments, any number of surface elements 206 are possible, including hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, or higher numbers. Generally, the surface elements 206 of the surface 202 of the intelligent reflecting device 200 are the smallest units or parts of the surface having associated variable reflection angles. Thus, the intelligent reflecting device 200 can be configured such that any two surface elements 206 can be independently set or controlled for their respective variable reflection angles.

[0041] In addition, each surface element 206 can have an associated variable phase shift, with which the surface element 206 reflects an incident signal. The amount of the phase shift can in turn determine the amount of the reflection angle. Thus, the intelligent reflecting device 200 can set the associated phase shift of a given surface element 206 to a certain amount in order to achieve a certain amount of reflection angle associated with the given surface element 206. Additionally, the intelligent reflecting device 200 can change the phase shift from one amount to a second amount in order to achieve a corresponding change in the reflection angle.

[0041] Furthermore, the surface elements 206 of the surface 202 can be divided, separated, or combined together into one or more surface element regions (SERs) 208. Generally, a surface element region is a group or collection of one or more surface elements 206. For illustrative purposes, Figure 2A four surface element regions 208 are shown, although in any of the various embodiments, the surface 202 can divide its surface elements 206 into any number of one or more surface regions 208. Additionally, for at least some embodiments, one surface element can be located in only one surface element region 208 at any given time point.

[0042] In addition, in some embodiments, the surface element region 208 is fixed, i.e., one or more surface elements forming the surface element region 208 are constant or unchangeable. In other embodiments, the surface element region 208 is variable or configurable. That is, the combination of one or more surface elements 206 can change at different time points. Further, the number, shape, and / or size of the surface element region 208 of the surface 202 can change at different time points. For example, Figure 2A Four surface element regions 208 are shown, including two surface element regions 208 each having two surface elements 206 per region, and two surface element regions 208 each having four surface elements 206 per region. As a non-limiting example, at another time point, the intelligent reflection device 200 can divide 12 surface elements 206 into two surface element regions 208, where each surface element region 208 has 6 surface elements 206, or can divide 12 surface elements 206 into two surface element regions 208, but each surface element region 208 has an unequal number of surface elements 206, or can group all 12 surface elements 206 into one surface element region 208. Additionally, in various embodiments, and / or at any time among various times, a given surface element 206 may not be part of any surface element region.

[0043] In addition, surface elements 206 can be assigned to a given surface element region 208 to configure the given surface element region 208 to have a specific shape, size, and / or to have a specific position or cover a specific region of the surface 202. Any shape among various shapes that can be formed by one or more surface elements 206 of the surface 202 is possible, such as a rectangle or polygon, star, ellipse, amorphous, or any other type of shape. Additionally, the size of a given surface element region 208 can depend on or be equal to the number of surface elements 206 of the given surface element region 208. Thus, at any time among various times when the surface element region is divided into multiple surface element regions 208, any two surface element regions 208 can have the same or different sizes and / or shapes from each other. Additionally, in various embodiments, a given surface element region 208 can be continuous or discontinuous (e.g., the given surface region 208 includes two or more parts that are not connected to each other). In various embodiments or at any time among various times, the surface element regions 208 of the surface can all be continuous, can all be discontinuous, or can be a combination of continuous and discontinuous.

[0044] Generally, each surface element region 208 may have an associated variable reflection angle, and the intelligent reflection device 200 may be configured to independently set, control, and / or change the variable reflection angle of each surface element region 208. Thus, the intelligent reflection device 200 can independently determine the reflection angles of different surface element regions, and further, set the phase shifts of different surface elements 206 of different surface element regions 208 so that different surface element regions 208 are configured to reflect (including simultaneously reflecting) corresponding incident signals at corresponding reflection angles.

[0045] As an illustrative example, Figure 2B shows a surface 202 whose surface elements are configured as a single surface element region 208 that reflects an incident signal s i (t) so as to output a reflected signal s r (t) at a reflection angle Θ r . The intelligent reflection device 200 can determine the amount of the reflection angle Θ r , and further set the phase shift of the surface element 206 that is part of the single surface element region 208 such that the single surface element region 208 outputs a reflected signal s r (t) at the determined amount of the reflection angle Θ r .

[0046] As another illustrative example, Figure 2C shows a surface 202 whose surface elements are configured as two surface element regions 208(1) and 208(2). The intelligent reflection device 200 can independently determine the amount of a first reflection angle Θ r1 of a first surface region 208(1) and the amount of a second reflection angle Θ r2 of a second surface region 208(2). Further, the intelligent reflection device 200 can set the phase shifts of the surface elements 206 in the first surface element region 208(1) and the second surface element region 208(2) such that the first surface element region 208(1) reflects a first incident signal s i1 (t) and outputs a first reflected signal s r1 (t) at the first reflection angle Θ r1 , and the second surface element region 208(2) reflects a second incident signal s i2 (t) and outputs a second reflected signal s r1 (t) at the second reflection angle Θ r2 .

[0047] Referring again to Figure 2A, Generally, the controller 204 is configured to control the surface 202 and the surface elements 206. As part of its control function, the controller 204 can be configured to perform various functions and / or make various determinations so that the surface elements reflect at a specific reflection angle. As an example, the controller 204 can determine the surface element regions 208, and determine which surface element region 208 each surface element 206 belongs to, and / or assign each surface element 206 to a surface element region 208. Additionally or alternatively, the controller 204 determines the reflection angle of each surface element region 208, and is configured to set the phase shift of the surface elements 206 such that the surface element regions 208 reflect according to the determined reflection angle. Further, the controller 204 can control the surface 202 and / or the surface elements 206 to control the reflection amplitude by which the surface elements 206 reflect the incident signal. Further, in various embodiments, the controller 204 can be configured to determine and / or set any one of the various communication parameters associated with receiving the incident signal and / or outputting the reflected signal for communication between other nodes in the wireless communication system 100. As a non-limiting example, the controller 204 can be configured to determine the channel state information and / or the received signal power associated with the incident signal received by the intelligent reflecting device 200 and / or the reflected signal output by the intelligent reflecting device 200. Additional functions associated with the controller 204 are described in more detail below.

[0048] Similar to Figure 1 the communication nodes in, the controller 204 can include a processor 208 and a memory (or other storage device) 210. In various embodiments, instructions or code can be stored in the memory 210 that, when read and executed by the processor 208, cause the processor 208 to perform any one of the various functions and / or any one of the various methods described herein.

[0049] Furthermore, for at least some example configurations, the controller 204 includes transceiver circuitry 212 that is configured to communicate with one or more other communication nodes in the wireless communication system 100, including transmitting and receiving signals and / or information. For some example embodiments, such as Figure 2AAs shown, the intelligent reflecting device 200 includes an antenna 214 coupled to a transceiver 212 through which the intelligent reflecting device 200 communicates wirelessly with other communication nodes. Additionally or alternatively, through the transceiver 212, the intelligent reflecting device 200 may be configured to communicate with one or more other communication nodes through one or more wired connections, such as through a wire or cable that electrically connects the intelligent reflecting device 200 to the one or more other communication nodes. Thus, in various embodiments, the intelligent reflecting device 200 may communicate externally with one or more communication nodes wirelessly, through a wired connection, or a combination thereof.

[0050] Referring again to Figure 1 , this specification describes a scheme or strategy for node grouping and surface element area partitioning for communication between a first node and a plurality of second nodes via an intelligent reflecting device 124. The node grouping and / or surface element area partitioning schemes described below may allow a very large (substantial) number of second nodes to receive signals from and / or be served by the first node through the use of the intelligent reflecting device 124 with low time-frequency resource utilization, minimal time-frequency resource cost, high spectral efficiency, and / or high data transmission quality, making them an ideal scheme to adopt when using the intelligent reflecting device 124 for wireless communication between wireless access nodes.

[0051] Any combination of various combinations of one or more user equipments 102 and / or one or more wireless access nodes 104 of the first node and the plurality of second nodes is possible. In a particular embodiment, the first node is a wireless access node 104, the plurality of second nodes are user equipments 102, and the communication between the first node and the plurality of second nodes is a downlink transmission, where the wireless access node 104 transmits a downlink signal to the plurality of user equipments 102 through the intelligent reflecting device 124. However, in other embodiments, the first node may be a user equipment 102, and the plurality of second nodes 104 may be wireless access nodes 104, where the user equipment 102 transmits an uplink signal to the wireless access nodes 104 through the intelligent reflecting device 124. In other embodiments, the first node and the plurality of second nodes are all user equipments 102, or the first node and the plurality of second nodes are all wireless access nodes 104, where a first user equipment 102 transmits a sidelink signal to the plurality of second nodes through the intelligent reflecting device 124. In other embodiments, the first node is a user equipment 102 or a wireless access node 104, and the plurality of second nodes include a combination of one or more user equipments 102 and one or more wireless access nodes 104, such that the communication between the first node and the plurality of second nodes includes a combination of one or more uplink transmissions and one or more sidelink transmissions, or a combination of one or more downlink transmissions and one or more sidelink transmissions.

[0052] Figure 3

[0052] shows an example method 300 of wireless communication including node grouping. Generally, when a first node intends to communicate with multiple second nodes, the first node may determine multiple node groups to which each second node may belong and / or multiple node groups to which each second node may be assigned. A node group is a group or set of one or more second nodes to which the first node transmits during a single or common time slot. For a given set of second nodes in the same node group, the first node may determine that signals should be transmitted to the second nodes in the same node group during the same time slot. Additionally, for a given set of nodes in different node groups, the first node may determine that signals should be transmitted to these nodes during different time slots.

[0053] Generally, a time slot is a time unit defined for transmission in the time domain. The parameters defining a time slot may be determined according to the communication standard or specification based on which the nodes in the wireless communication system communicate. In various embodiments, a time slot may be part of a subframe and may have a predetermined number of symbols, such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. For example, in 5G NR, a subframe may be divided into time slots, where each time slot includes 14 OFDM symbols. Various other ways of defining a time slot are also possible.

[0054] After determining the multiple node groups, the first node may know which node group each second node belongs to. Thus, after determining the multiple node groups, the first node may know the node group to which each second node belongs. Further, the first node may know in which time slot to transmit signals to each second node via the intelligent reflecting device 124 based on which node group each second node belongs to.

[0055] More specifically, at block 302, the node group assignment node may assign each of the multiple second nodes to one of the multiple node groups based on one or more communication parameters between the multiple second nodes and the intelligent reflecting device. Generally, the node group assignment node may be any communication node responsible for assigning second nodes to one or more node groups. The assignment node may be the first node that is to transmit signals to the second nodes, the second node that is to receive signals from the first node via the intelligent reflecting device, the intelligent reflecting device, another communication node that does not otherwise participate in the communication between the first node and the multiple second nodes via the intelligent reflecting device, or any combination thereof.

[0056] In addition, as is generally used herein, a communication parameter is any information that can characterize or describe communication between two nodes. Non-limiting examples of communication parameters include signal power (including received signal power and / or transmitted signal power); channel state information, location information of a node (including where a node is located relative to another node, or the distance between one node and another node); surface element group information and overlapping information associated with the surface element group information (described in further detail below); node type (e.g., the type of the second node), beams including a selected beam selected from a plurality of beams (including a transmission beam for transmitting a signal and / or a reception beam for receiving a signal), or any other parameter among various parameters related to or capable of describing or characterizing communication between two nodes, including target parameters according to which two nodes will communicate with each other, and / or actual or measured parameters determined from one or more communications between two nodes. Non-limiting examples include: signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), data rate (or data transmission rate), capacity, signal gain, signal energy, or angle (or angle domain) information, or quality of service (QoS) parameters.

[0057] In addition, in at least some example embodiments, each second node may have an associated surface element group of surface elements 206. In the wireless system 100, one or more nodes designated as surface element group determining nodes may determine the surface element group of the second node. The surface element group determining node may be any node among various nodes in the wireless communication system, such as the intelligent reflecting device 124, the first node, one of the second nodes, or a combination thereof.

[0058] In a particular embodiment, the surface element group determining node may determine the surface element group of the second node based on the received signal power of the surface elements 206 of the intelligent reflecting device 124. In various embodiments, the received signal power of a given surface element 206 may be characterized or quantified in any of various ways, including an absolute power value, a power ratio of the received signal power of a given surface element 206 to the received signal power of all surface elements 206, a ratio of the received signal power of a given surface element 206 to the total signal power, or a comparative power ratio between the received signal power of a given surface element 206 and the received signal power of one or more other surface elements 206.

[0059] The surface element group determination node can determine the surface element group of a given second node by identifying a set of one or more surface elements 206 of the surface 202. The surface element group of a given second node can include the following surface elements 206 of the surface 202 of the intelligent reflection device 124: these surface elements 206 receive a signal power higher than the power threshold when communicating with the given second node. Thus, for a given second node, if the surface element group determination node determines that a given surface element 206 has a received signal power associated with the given second node that is higher than the threshold power level, in order to determine the surface element group of the given second node, the surface element group determination node can determine the given surface element 206 as part of the surface element group or add the surface element 206 to the surface element group. Additionally, if the surface element group determination node determines that a given surface element 206 does not have a received signal power associated with the given second node that is higher than the threshold power level, the surface element group determination node can determine not to add the given surface element 206 to the surface element group of the given second node.

[0060] Moreover, in various embodiments, the surface element group determination node can use one or more other or additional criteria to determine the surface element group of a given second node. The one or more other or additional criteria can include a predetermined maximum number of surface elements and / or a predetermined minimum number of surface elements. For example, if the received signal power of a given surface element 206 meets the power threshold, but the number of surface elements 206 added to the surface element group of the given second node has reached the predetermined maximum number of surface elements, the surface element group determination node can determine that it is not necessary to add the given surface element 206 to the surface element group so as not to exceed the predetermined maximum number. Additionally or alternatively, if the received signal power of a given surface element 206 does not meet the power threshold, but the number of surface elements 206 added to the surface element group of the given second node is lower than the predetermined minimum number of surface elements, the surface element group determination node can determine that it is necessary to add the given surface element 206 to the surface element group to meet the predetermined minimum number.

[0061] For at least some embodiments, the surface element group determination node may determine the received signal power based on the channel state information. In various embodiments, the intelligent reflecting device 124 (such as through the use of its controller 204) may have sensing capabilities that allow the intelligent reflecting device 124 to obtain the channel state information through channel estimation algorithms such as least squares (LS) or minimum mean square error (MMSE). The intelligent reflecting device 124 may determine the channel state information of different second nodes by performing channel estimation in different time slots. Additionally, if the channel is sparse, the intelligent reflecting device 124 may use advanced signal processing techniques such as compressive sensing, which may be particularly advantageous in millimeter wave and / or terahertz frequency bands. In other embodiments, the intelligent reflecting device 124 may not have sensing capabilities, and the surface element group determination node may use beam search and / or beam training techniques to determine the channel state information for performing channel estimation. For example, for downlink transmissions, the codebooks of the wireless access node 104 and the intelligent reflecting device 124 may be fixed, and the beam training process may be repeated in multiple iterations using different beam pairs to determine the desired or optimal beam pair, which in turn may provide the channel state information that the surface element group determination node may use to determine the surface element group of a given second node.

[0062] In some embodiments, one or more communication parameters for assigning a second node to a node group include surface element group information identifying the surface element group of the second node. For such embodiments, after the surface element group determination node determines the surface element group of the second node, the node group assignment model may assign the second node to a node group based on the surface element group. Particularly in these embodiments, the node group assignment node may determine how to assign the second node to a node group based on at least one surface element overlap criterion associated with the surface element group.

[0063] Generally, if two sets of surface elements have at least one surface element 206 that is the same or common to each other, then the two sets of surface elements overlap each other. The surface element that is common to two or more sets of surface elements can be referred to as a common surface element or an overlapping surface element. The surface element state indicates or characterizes the overlap between two or more sets of surface elements. The "no overlap" surface element state of two or more sets of surface elements indicates that the two or more sets of surface elements do not have any common surface elements. The "partial overlap" surface element state of two or more sets of surface elements indicates that the two or more sets of surface elements have at least one common surface element, and not all of their surface elements are common. In various embodiments, the partial overlap surface element state may also include or be accompanied by the amount of overlap between the sets of surface elements, which may be the total number of common surface elements, or a percentage of the total number of surface elements of one or both of the sets of surface elements. The "complete overlap" surface element state of two or more sets of surface elements indicates that all of the surface elements of the two or more sets of surface elements are common.

[0064] A surface element overlap criterion can be an overlap threshold corresponding to a threshold number of common surface elements. In various embodiments, for two or more sets of surface elements, the overlap threshold can be the absolute number of common surface elements, or a percentage of the total number of surface elements that are common to the two or more sets of surface elements. For two sets of surface elements of two given second nodes, the node group assignment node can determine the amount of surface element overlap between the two sets of surface elements. If the amount of surface element overlap is less than or does not exceed the overlap threshold, the node group assignment node can assign the two given second nodes to the same node group. Additionally, if the amount of surface element overlap exceeds the overlap threshold, the node group assignment node can assign the two given second nodes to different node groups.

[0065] In various embodiments, the overlap criterion corresponds to a target surface element overlap state, which in turn can correspond to an overlap threshold. For example, for an embodiment where the target surface element state is "no overlap", the overlap threshold can be zero or zero percent. As another example, for an embodiment where the target surface element state is "partial overlap", the overlap threshold can be the number of surface elements or the percentage of surface elements greater than zero.

[0066] Another surface element overlapping criterion can be a surface element group boundary criterion. Generally, the boundary surface elements of a given surface element group are the surface elements that form the boundary (or edge or perimeter) of the given surface element group. Thus, the surface element group boundary criterion can be: If the only common surface elements in the surface element groups of two second nodes are boundary surface elements, then these two second nodes can be assigned to the same node group. On the other hand, if at least one of the common surface elements is not a boundary surface element in at least one of the two surface element groups, then these two second nodes can be assigned to different node groups. Another surface element group boundary criterion can be the number of common surface elements that are boundary surface elements, which, in various embodiments, can be the absolute number of surface elements or a percentage of the total number of surface elements of the two surface element groups. If the number of common surface elements that are boundary surface elements is less than or does not exceed a threshold, the node group assignment node can assign the two second nodes to the same node group. Additionally, if the number of common surface elements that are boundary surface elements exceeds the threshold, the node group assignment node can assign the two second nodes to different node groups.

[0067] Additionally or alternatively, the communication parameters based on which the node group is assigned to the second node can include channel state information. In various embodiments, the channel state information can include angle information (or angle domain information) and / or gain information (including channel gain information and / or path gain information) associated with the channel between the intelligent reflecting device 124 and the second node. For such embodiments, the node group assignment node can determine the node group based on at least one of the angle information or the gain information. In particular, in such embodiments, the node group assignment node determines the node group based on the angular spread of the second node and / or the central angle of the second node. For at least some of these embodiments, the node group assignment node determines the node group based on at least one angle overlapping criterion associated with the angular spread and / or the central angle.

[0068] More specifically, the angle information associated with a given second node may include or indicate one or more angles of incidence or angles of arrival. The one or more angles may include or be characterized as an angle spread or an angular region. For a given transmission of a signal, where the receiving node (the given second node or the intelligent reflecting device 124, depending on which node is transmitting and which node is receiving) receives a single version of the transmitted signal on a single path, the angle spread includes the single angle of arrival of the single signal. Additionally, in the case where the receiving node receives multiple versions of the transmitted signal via multiple paths (i.e., the transmission is a multipath transmission), the receiving node may receive multiple versions of the signal at multiple angles of arrival, in which case the angle spread includes multiple angles. In addition to having an associated angle of arrival, each signal version received on an associated path may have an associated signal energy, and / or the associated path may have an associated path gain. Further, for a given second node, the angle information and / or the angle spread includes the central (or center) angle among the multiple angles that make up the angle spread associated with the highest signal energy and / or path gain.

[0069] In various embodiments, the node group assignment node may determine the node groups based on the angle spread and / or the central angle of the second node. In a particular embodiment, the node group assignment node may determine the node groups based on the angle spread and / or the central angle and one or more angle overlap criteria. In some embodiments, the angle overlap criteria may be based on the amount of overlap between the two angle spreads of two nodes, such as the percentage of overlap. If the amount of overlap between the two angle spreads of two given second nodes is at or below the angle spread overlap threshold, the node group assignment node may assign the given second nodes to the same node group. Alternatively, if the amount of overlap between the two angle spreads is above the angle spread overlap threshold, the node group assignment node may assign the two given second nodes to different node groups. In other embodiments, the angle overlap criteria may be based on the overlap between the central angles of two nodes. If the central angles of two given nodes are different, or have a difference higher than the difference threshold, the node group assignment node may assign the two given nodes to the same node group. Alternatively, if the central angles of two given nodes match, or have a difference equal to or lower than the difference threshold, the node group assignment node may assign the two given nodes to different node groups.

[0070] Moreover, in various embodiments, including those involving relatively high frequencies, the node group assignment node may ignore the angle spread and use only the central angle to determine how to group the second nodes into node groups.

[0071] In addition, for at least some embodiments, the node group assignment node determines or is used to determine the central angle and angular spread of the node group as the effective central angle and angular spread determined based on a power or energy threshold. In particular, if a given received signal received through a relevant path has a signal power or energy higher than the power or energy threshold, and / or the relevant path has a relevant path gain higher than the path gain threshold, the node group assignment node may add the associated angle of arrival to the effective angular spread of a given second node. Alternatively, if the signal power or energy is lower than the power or energy threshold, and / or the relevant path gain is lower than the path gain threshold, the node group assignment node may not add the associated angle of arrival to the effective angular spread of a given second node.

[0072] In addition, in various embodiments, the node group assignment node may determine the node group based on the angle and gain information of the channel (where the channel is sparse) between the intelligent reflecting device 124 and the second node. Additionally or alternatively, the node group assignment node may determine the angle and / or gain information based on reciprocity. In the case where the node group assignment node operates under full reciprocity, the node group assignment node may determine the ideal channel state information of the channel between the intelligent reflecting device 124 and the second node, and then the node group assignment node may identify the angle and gain information of the transmission from the first node to the second node as the same as the angle and gain information of the transmission from the second node to the first node. Further, in the case where the node group assignment node operates under full reciprocity and the determined channel state information is not ideal, the node group assignment node may identify the angle and gain information of the transmission from the first node to the second node as the same as the angle and gain information of the transmission from the second node to the first node plus some correction (e.g., in the case where the channel state information is not ideal, a pilot signal may be communicated to correct the channel state information obtained through channel reciprocity). Further, in the case where the node group assignment node operates under partial reciprocity, the first node may transmit a signal, such as a pilot signal, to the second node via the intelligent reflecting device 124, or the second node may transmit a signal to the first node via the intelligent reflecting device 124 to obtain one or more channel state parameters that may otherwise not be obtainable due to reciprocity being partial rather than full. In addition, in the case where the node group assignment node operates under non-reciprocity, the first node may transmit a signal, such as a pilot signal, to the second node via the intelligent reflecting device 124, or the second node may transmit a signal to the first node via the intelligent reflecting device 124 to determine or recover the angle and gain information. Under partial reciprocity or non-reciprocity, for embodiments where the second node transmits a signal to the first node, in response, the first node may directly determine the angle and gain information. In addition, for embodiments where the first node transmits a signal to the second node, the second node may feedback the angle and gain information to the first node, and in response, the first node may determine the angle and gain information based on the feedback information from the second node. In addition, in various embodiments, in combination with signal transmission (e.g., pilot signal transmission), the node group assignment node may employ any one of various channel state information methods or algorithms to determine the angle and gain information, such as least squares (LS), minimum mean square error (MMSE), multiple signal classification (MUSIC), or estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT).

[0073] Additionally or alternatively, in various embodiments, the communication parameter may include the orthogonality between the channels of two second nodes. That is, in various embodiments, the node group allocation node may determine the node group based on the orthogonality between the channels between the intelligent reflecting device 124 and the second node. In a particular embodiment, the node group allocation node uses the orthogonality information to determine a node group in which the channels between the intelligent reflecting device 124 and the second node are not sparse. After determining the orthogonality between two channels for a given pair of second nodes, the node group allocation node may compare the determined orthogonality with a predetermined orthogonality threshold. If the determined orthogonality is higher than the predetermined orthogonality threshold, the node group allocation node may determine that the given pair of second nodes needs to be assigned to the same node group. Alternatively, if the determined orthogonality is lower than the predetermined orthogonality threshold, the node group allocation node may determine that the given pair of nodes needs to be assigned to separate node groups.

[0074] Furthermore, in various embodiments, the node group allocation node may determine the orthogonality based on the complete channel information. For embodiments where the node group allocation node operates under full reciprocity, the node group allocation node may directly determine the channel state information of the channel in the direction from the first node to the second node based on the channel state information of the channel in the direction from the second node to the first node. For example, if the first node is the radio access node 104 and the second node is the user equipment 102, the node group allocation node may directly determine the channel state information of the downlink channel from the radio access node 104 to the user equipment 102 based on the channel state information of the uplink channel from the user equipment 102 to the radio access node 104. Additionally, in cases where the node group operation node operates under non-reciprocity, the first node may transmit one or more signals (e.g., pilot signals) to the second node, or the second node may transmit one or more signals (e.g., pilot signals) to the first node to determine the complete channel state information. Under partial or non-reciprocity, for embodiments where the second node transmits a signal to the first node, in response, the first node may directly determine the complete channel state information. Furthermore, for embodiments where the first node transmits a signal to the second node, the second node may feedback the channel state information to the first node, and in response, the first node may determine the channel state information based on the feedback information from the second node. Additionally, in various embodiments, in combination with signal transmission (e.g., pilot signal transmission), the node group allocation node may employ any one of various channel state information methods or algorithms to determine the angle and gain information, as non-limiting examples, such as least squares (LS) or minimum mean square error (MMSE).

[0075] Additionally or alternatively, in various embodiments, the communication parameter includes the location information of the second node. That is, in various embodiments, the node group allocation node can determine the node group based on the location information of the second node. The location information may include the relative position of the second node with respect to the intelligent reflecting device 124 in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional space, and / or the relative distance between the second node and the intelligent reflecting device. For a given pair of second nodes, the node group allocation node can determine how to group the two second nodes based on the location difference between the two second nodes, which can be determined by the node group allocation node according to the location information of the two second nodes. If the location difference between two nodes exceeds the location difference threshold, the node group allocation node can determine that the two nodes need to be grouped in the same node group. Alternatively, if the location difference between two nodes does not exceed the location difference threshold, the node group allocation node can determine that the two nodes need to be grouped in different node groups. Any of the various location parameters can be used to determine the location difference and the location difference threshold between two second nodes, including the absolute distance difference, or the distance difference in a direction vector in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional space, such as the horizontal distance difference or the vertical (or height) distance difference.

[0076] Additionally or alternatively, in various embodiments, the communication parameter includes the device type of the second node. For such embodiments, the node group allocation node can determine that the second nodes of the same device type should be grouped or allocated in the same node group, and the nodes of different device types are allocated in different node groups. Assuming that devices of the same type require the same service and / or communicate under similar communication parameters (such as transmission rate or latency), the node group allocation node can group the second nodes into node groups based on the device type. Example device types can include user device types, non-limiting examples of which include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC). Grouping according to device type may be particularly advantageous in mMTC scenarios involving a large number of user devices communicating with the base station simultaneously.

[0077] Additionally or alternatively, in various embodiments, the communication parameters include one or more quality of service (QoS) parameters, non-limiting examples of which include minimum SINR, minimum data rate, minimum capacity, minimum number of surface elements that a surface element group may have, secure communication rate, or minimum inter-user interference. In various embodiments, the node group assignment node may determine a QoS target based on one or more QoS parameters of each second node. Further, for a given pair of second nodes, if the node group assignment node determines that the QoS targets of the two second nodes match or are close enough to each other (such as by their difference being below a QoS target threshold), then the node group assignment point may determine that the two second nodes should be assigned to the same node group. Additionally, if the node group assignment node determines that the QoS targets of the two second nodes are far enough apart from each other (e.g., their difference is above the QoS target threshold), then the node group assignment node may determine that the two second nodes should be assigned to different node groups.

[0078] Furthermore, in various embodiments, the node group assignment node may assign second nodes to user groups based on a node distribution criterion. Specifically, the node group assignment node may assign second nodes to node groups so as to achieve as uniform a distribution of second nodes in the node groups as possible. Thus, after assigning second nodes to node groups according to one or more of the above-identified criteria, the node group assignment node may analyze the groups to determine whether the number of second nodes in the node groups is as uniformly distributed as possible. If not, then the node group assignment node may change the assignment of at least one second node from the original or current node group to a different node group in order to achieve a more uniform distribution of the number of second nodes in the node groups. The node group assignment node may perform multiple iterations of moving one or more second nodes to one or more different node groups until an optimal uniform distribution of the number of second nodes in the node groups is achieved.

[0079] Moreover, in various embodiments, after the node group assignment node determines the node group of a second node, the node group notification node (which may be the node group assignment node or another node) may notify the second node of the node group to which they belong. In various embodiments, the node group notification node may notify the second node by broadcasting node group information to the second node. In a particular embodiment, the node group notification node may include the node group information at the header of the broadcast signal. In response to receiving the broadcast signal, the second node checks the header of the broadcast signal to identify the node group to which it belongs. In various embodiments, each node group may have an associated node group identifier (ID) that uniquely identifies the node group. For at least some of these embodiments, the node group notification node may use the node group ID to notify the second node of the node group.

[0080] In addition, in various embodiments, a node group notification node may notify a second node before a first node transmits a signal to the second node. For example, the node group notification node may broadcast node group information to the first node before other signals that the first node will transmit to the second node via the intelligent reflecting device 124. For other embodiments, the first node includes the group node information in the signal it transmits to the second node. After the signal is reflected by the intelligent reflecting device 124, the second node receives the reflected signal. A given second node that receives the reflected signal may examine a portion of the reflected signal, such as the header of the reflected signal, to identify the node group to which it belongs.

[0081] In addition, in various embodiments where the node group assignment node is not the intelligent reflecting device 124, the node group assignment node may also notify the intelligent reflecting device 24 of the node group information. The node group assignment node may notify the intelligent reflecting device wirelessly or via a wired connection, depending on how it is communicatively connected to the intelligent reflecting device 124.

[0082] In block 304, after the node group assignment node assigns each second node to one of a plurality of node groups, the first node may determine a plurality of signals to transmit to the plurality of second nodes via the intelligent reflecting device 124. For the first node to be able to transmit the signals, a scheduling node may determine a timing schedule according to which the signals are to be transmitted. The scheduling node may be the first node or another node. The timing schedule may identify the times for transmitting each signal. Specifically, the timing schedule may identify one or more time slots and associate each of the one or more time slots with one of the signals to be transmitted by the first node. The given time slot associated with a given signal in the timing schedule indicates that the first node will transmit the given signal in or during the given time slot. The scheduling node may generate the timing schedule based on the node groups determined in block 302. Specifically, the scheduling node may associate the signals with the time slots such that the timing schedule indicates transmitting signals for second nodes in the same node group in the same time slot and transmitting signals for second nodes in different node groups in different time slots.

[0083] For illustration, assume that second node A and second node B are in the same node group, and assume that the first node is to transmit a first signal to second node A and a second signal to second node B. Since second node A and second node B are in the same node group, the scheduling node may generate a timing schedule to indicate transmitting the first signal and the second signal in the same time slot. As another example, assume that second node A and second node C are in different node groups, and assume that the first node is to transmit a third signal to second node C. Since second node A and second node C are in different node groups, the scheduling node may generate a timing schedule to indicate transmitting the first signal and the third signal in different time slots.

[0084] At block 306, a first node may transmit a signal to a second node via intelligent reflecting device 126 according to a timing schedule. In doing so, the first node transmits the signal in a time slot associated with each signal. Additionally, the signal is transmitted to the second node via intelligent reflecting device 124 because, after a given signal to be received by the second node is transmitted by the first node and before the given signal is received by the given second node, the given signal is reflected by intelligent reflecting device 124.

[0085] Figure 4 An example timing diagram is shown that illustrates an example timing scheme for performing downlink and uplink data transmissions based on node grouping. Such a timing diagram may be implemented where the first node is radio access node 104 and the second node is user equipment 102. Similar timing schemes may be implemented in other configurations where the first node and the second node are not radio access node 104 and user equipment 102, respectively. As Figure 4 shown, the nodes may determine channel state information, which may include an uplink channel estimate and then a downlink channel estimate. After determining the channel state information, the node group assignment node may determine the node group of the second node (user equipment 102) based on one or more communication parameters as described above. After determining the node group, radio access node 104 may transmit downlink signals to user equipment 102 via intelligent reflecting device 124 over multiple time slots on a per-node-group basis (such as based on the node group according to the timing schedule, as described above). After transmitting the downlink signals to the last node group of user equipment 102, user equipment 102 may transmit an uplink signal to radio access node 104.

[0086] As a supplement or alternative to node grouping performed by the node group assignment node, a region determination node (which may be the same as or different from the node group assignment node, and / or may be the first node or another node in wireless communication system 100) may determine a plurality of surface element regions 208 of a plurality of surface elements 206 of intelligent reflecting device 200. The region determination node may determine the plurality of surface element regions by dividing, grouping, or separating surface elements 206 into surface element regions 208.

[0087] After determining a plurality of surface element regions 208, a first node may independently set communication parameters for respective communications between the first node and the plurality of surface element regions 208. Example communication parameters are beams, such as a transmission beam selected by the first node and used by the first node to transmit a signal. For illustration, if the first node is to transmit a first signal to a first surface element region and a second signal to a second surface element region, the first node may independently select a first beam for transmitting the first signal to the first surface element region and a second beam for transmitting the second signal to the second surface element region. The first beam and the second beam may be the same as or different from each other. Another example communication parameter is the reflection angle at which a surface element region reflects an incident signal or at which a surface element region outputs a reflected signal. For illustration, the first node may independently control the first surface element region to output a first reflected signal at a first reflection angle and control the second surface element region to output a second reflected signal at a second reflection angle.

[0088] Figure 5 An example method 500 of wireless communication including surface element region determination is shown. At block 502, a region determination node may determine a plurality of surface element regions 208 of a plurality of surface elements 206 of a surface 202 of an intelligent reflecting device 200. The region determination node may form the plurality of surface element regions 208 by dividing the plurality of surface elements 206 into a plurality of surface regions 208. To divide the surface elements 206 into surface element regions 208, the region determination node may assign or associate each surface element 206 to one of the plurality of surface regions 208. Thus, after dividing the surface elements 206 into surface element regions 208, it may be known to which surface element region 208 each surface element 206 belongs. The region determination node may divide the surface elements 206 in any of a variety of ways based on any of a variety of criteria, examples of which will be described in further detail below.

[0089] For some embodiments, the region determination node may determine the number of surface element regions 208 into which the surface elements 206 are to be divided. For example, the region determination unit may determine the number of surface element regions 208, and then the region assignment node may assign each surface element 206 to one or more of the number of surface element regions 208. For at least some of these embodiments, the region determination node may determine the number of surface element regions based on a plurality of second nodes. The number may also be based on a predetermined ratio of the number of surface element regions 208 to the number of second nodes. In various embodiments, the ratio is less than 1, equal to 1, or greater than 1, which indicates that according to the ratio, the number of surface regions 208 may be less than, equal to, or greater than the number of second nodes.

[0090] Additionally or alternatively, the number of surface regions 208 may be proportional to the number of second nodes. Thus, as the number of second nodes increases, the number of surface regions 208 also increases, and as the number of second nodes decreases, the number of surface regions 208 also decreases.

[0091] In addition, in at least some embodiments, a region determination node may determine the shape of the surface element region 208. The region determination node may assign the surface element 206 as the boundary surface element of the surface element region 208 to form a shape. Any of various shapes formed by one or more surface elements 206 of the surface 202 may be possible, such as a rectangle or polygon, star, ellipse, amorphous, or any other type of shape.

[0092] Furthermore, for at least some embodiments, after determining the surface element region 208, a region assignment node (which may be the same node as or different from the region determination node) may assign or match each second node to one or more surface element regions 208. By the assignment or matching, the region assignment node establishes an association between the surface element region 208 and the second node. Subsequently, when a first node is to transmit a signal to a given second node associated with a given one or more surface element regions 208, the first node may transmit the signal to the one or more associated surface element regions 208, and the surface element region 208 will in turn reflect the signal toward the given second node. Before the reflection, the first node (or another node) may set one or more reflection angles of the one or more surface element regions 208 to an optimal value for the reflection of the signal to the given second node.

[0093] In various embodiments, the region allocation node may allocate a second node to the surface element region 208 based on any of a variety of communication parameters. For some embodiments, the region allocation node may allocate a second node to the surface element region 208 based on the channel state information of the channel between the surface element 206 of the intelligent reflecting device 124 and the second node. According to the channel state information, the region allocation node may determine the received signal power or energy of each surface element 206 of each second node. Furthermore, the region allocation node may allocate the second node to one or more surface element regions 208 based on the received signal power or energy derived from the channel state information (such as the received signal amplitude of the channel state information). For example, the region allocation node may allocate a given second node to a given surface element region 208, where the received signal power or energy of the surface elements 206 in the given surface element region 208 exceeds a threshold, or is the highest among the highest received signal powers and energies of a predetermined number of the given second node. If the channel between the second node and the surface element 206 is sparse, the region allocation node may determine the received signal power or energy of each surface element 206 of each second node based on the angle and gain information.

[0094] Additionally or alternatively, for some embodiments, the region allocation node may allocate a second node to the surface element region 208 based on the surface element group of the second node. For a given surface element group of a given second node and a given surface element region 208, if the number of surface elements 206 of the given surface element group that is also part of the given surface element region 208 meets or exceeds a threshold, the region allocation node may allocate the given second node to the given surface element region. In various embodiments, the threshold may be the threshold number of surface elements, or a percentage of the total number of surface elements of the given surface element group. For example, if the threshold is five surface elements, the region allocation node may allocate a given second node to a given surface element region 208 if the surface element group associated with the given second node has at least five surface elements that are located in or are part of the given surface element region. As another example, if the threshold is 50%, the region allocation node may allocate a given second node to a given surface element region if the surface element group associated with the given second node has at least 50% of its surface elements in or part of the given surface element region.

[0095] In addition, in some embodiments or situations, a set of surface elements of a given second node may overlap with two or more surface element regions, i.e., the set of surface elements may include surface elements that are part of two or more surface element regions. For at least some of these embodiments, the region assignment node may have a predetermined maximum number of surface element regions to be assigned to a given second node. If the number of surface element regions overlapping with the set of surface elements exceeds the predetermined maximum number, the region assignment node may select a predetermined maximum number of surface element regions from the surface element regions overlapping with the set of surface elements that have the strongest signal power for the given second node, and assign the selected (multiple) surface element regions to the given second node.

[0096] Additionally or alternatively, for some embodiments, the region assignment node may assign a second node to one or more surface element regions 208 based on target communication parameters (such as target SINR, capacity, or data rate, as non-limiting examples). For at least some of these embodiments, the region assignment node may determine the number of surface element regions 208 to be assigned to a given second node based on one or more target communication parameters. For example, the region assignment node may assign only one or more than one (such as two or more) surface element regions to a given second node based on one or more target communication parameters. Additionally or alternatively, compared to a second second node, the region assignment node may assign more surface element regions 208 to a first second node, where the first second node has one or more higher target communication parameters compared to the second second node. By way of illustration, if the first second node has higher target communication parameters compared to the second second node, the region assignment node may assign the first second node to two surface element regions 208 and assign the second second node to only one surface element region 208.

[0097] Additionally or alternatively, for some embodiments, the region allocation node may assign a second node to one or more surface element regions 208 based on location information associated with the second node. For at least some of these embodiments, the region allocation node may assign more surface element regions 208 to a first second node compared to a second second node, where the first second node is further away from the intelligent reflection device 124 compared to the second second node. Additionally or alternatively, the region allocation node may assign the second node to the surface element region 208 based on the relative distance to the surface element region 208. In particular, the region allocation node may assign a closer second node to the surface element region compared to a second node that is further away. For example, if a first second node is closer to a first surface element region compared to a second second node, and the second second node is closer to a second surface element region compared to the first second node, then the region allocation node may assign the first second node to the first surface element region and assign the second second node to the second surface element region.

[0098] The above surface element region determination may be considered a fixed surface element region because the number, size, and shape of the determined surface element regions 208 may be fixed before assigning the second node to the surface element region. In other embodiments, the region determination node may perform a dynamic surface element region determination. Under dynamic surface element region determination, the region determination node "dynamically" or dynamically determines the surface element regions 208 according to or depending on the surface element group of the second node. For example, even if the number of second nodes is known, the region determination node may not determine the size, shape, relative position, or generally which surface elements 206 belong to which surface element regions 208 until or unless the surface element group of the second node is known. In contrast, under the previously described fixed method, the surface element regions 208 are determined (i.e., which surface elements 206 are in which surface element region 208), and then based on one or more criteria, the second nodes are assigned or matched to one or more surface element regions 208, where one criterion may be the surface element group of the second node, as described above.

[0099] Under a dynamic surface element determination scenario, a region determination node may identify surface element region 208 as the region encompassing the surface elements of a given second user's surface element group. Surface element region 208 may be the surface element group itself, or may be the surface element group exclusive of other surface elements 206 surrounding the surface element group. In a particular embodiment, surface element region 208 includes all surface elements 206 of the surface element group, although in other embodiments, a surface element region 208 that includes fewer than all surface elements 206 of the surface element group is possible. Additionally, in a particular embodiment, the region determination node may determine surface element region 208 based on a one-to-one correspondence or ratio of surface element region 208 to the surface element group (or second node). That is, for such an embodiment, surface element region 208 includes the surface elements 206 of only one surface element group, and / or the region assignment node assigns or matches only one second node to surface element region 208. In other embodiments, the region determination node may determine a surface element region 208 that includes more than one surface element group, and / or the region assignment node may assign or match more than one second node to surface element region 208. In either case, when the region determination node determines that one or more surface element groups are part of surface element region 208, the region determination node may determine the boundaries of surface element region 208 that includes the one or more surface element groups while excluding the surface elements of other surface element groups. In this manner, the region determination node dynamically determines surface element region 208, including its dimensions, shape, and relative position on surface 202, based on the surface element group (e.g., when the region determination node analyzes the surface element group), rather than in a predetermined or fixed manner.

[0100] For at least some embodiments, in a case where two surface element groups of two given second nodes overlap and the region determination node determines to form two different surface element regions 208 for the two surface element groups, the region determination node may determine, based on one or more overlapping criteria, which of the two surface element regions 208 the overlapping surface elements 206 are to be assigned to. One overlapping criterion may be based on received signal strength. Specifically, the region determination node may determine to assign or match the overlapping surface elements to the surface element region 208 of the second node having a larger received signal power. Another overlapping criterion may be based on the number of surface elements. Specifically, the region determination node may determine to assign or match the overlapping surface elements to the surface element region 208 having a smaller number of surface elements. In other embodiments, the region determination node may not select one surface element region relative to another surface element region 208. Instead, the region determination node may assign the overlapping surface elements 206 to all of the two surface element regions 208. In other embodiments, the region determination node may determine not to assign the overlapping surface elements 206 to any of the two surface element regions 208, but instead to reserve the surface elements 206 as empty surface elements 206 that may be part of another surface element region 208.

[0101] In addition, for at least some embodiments implementing a dynamic region determination scheme, the region determination node may determine the size (the number of surface elements 206) of the surface element region 208 based on the location information of the second node. For example, the region determination node may determine the size of the surface element region 208 of a given second node according to or depending on the distance between the given second node and the intelligent reflecting device 124. In a particular embodiment, the region determination node may assign more surface elements 206 to the surface element region 208 of a second node that is farther from the intelligent reflecting device 124 compared to other second nodes that are closer to the intelligent reflecting device 124.

[0102] Additionally or alternatively, for at least some embodiments implementing a dynamic region determination scheme, the region determination node may determine the size of the surface element region 208 based on one or more target communication parameters (e.g., target SINR, target capacity, target data rate). In a particular embodiment, the region determination node may assign more surface elements 206 to the surface element region 208 of a second node having one or more higher target communication parameters compared to other second nodes having lower target communication parameters.

[0103] Additionally or alternatively, for at least some embodiments implementing a dynamic region determination scheme, a region determination node may determine a surface element region based on node groups. For example, as previously described, a node group assignment node may assign each second node to one of a plurality of node groups. Additionally, as previously described, a scheduling node may determine a timing table that indicates that signals should be transmitted in the same time slot for second nodes of the same node group to receive, and signals should be transmitted in different time slots for second nodes of different node groups to receive. According to the node grouping corresponding to the timing table, the region determination node may determine the surface element region group by group or slot by slot. Specifically, the region determination node may determine a set of surface element regions 208 for each node group. Since the first node transmits signals to different node groups in different time slots, the region determination node may use the same surface element 206 for different sets of surface element regions 208.

[0104] Figures 6A to 6C An example of dynamic region determination based on node groups determined from a set of surface elements is shown. In this example, the first node will communicate with 10 second nodes. Figure 6A Ten surface element groups (SEGs) distributed on the surface 202 of the intelligent reflecting device are shown, each surface element group being associated with one of the 10 second nodes. For example, the first surface element group SEG1 is associated with the first second node, the second surface element group SEG2 is associated with the second second node, and so on. Referring Figure 6B , the node group determination node may group each of the 10 second nodes into one of a plurality of node groups, such as based on one or more of the criteria described above. In Figure 6B the example shown, the second nodes are divided into two node groups, including a first node group (node group 1) and a second node group (node group 2). Specifically, the first second node, the third second node, the fifth second node, the sixth second node, and the tenth second node are grouped into node group 1, and the second second node, the fourth second node, the seventh second node, the eighth second node, and the ninth second node are grouped into node group 2. Referring Figure 6C , the region determination node determines a plurality of sets of surface element regions, each set for one of the node groups. For example, since the node group determination node determines two node groups, the region determination node determines two sets of surface element regions, each set for one of the two node groups. As Figure 6CAs shown, each set includes five surface element regions (SERs), and each of the five second nodes in the node group has a surface element region. For the first node group, the first surface element region (SER1) includes the surface element group of the first second node (SEG1); the second surface element region (SER2) includes the surface element group of the tenth second node (SEG10); and so on. Similarly, for the second node group, the first surface element region (SER1) includes the surface element group of the second second node (SEG2); the second surface element region (SER2) includes the surface element group of the ninth second node (SEG9); and so on.

[0105] After determining the set of surface element regions, the first node and / or the intelligent reflecting device 124 can independently set one or more communication parameters for communicating with different surface element regions within the same set of surface element regions, and can also independently set one or more communication parameters for communicating with different surface element regions in different sets of surface element regions. For example, regarding Figure 6C , the first node can determine to transmit a first set of signals to the first node group via the intelligent reflecting device 124 in the first time slot. To this end, the first node can independently select the transmission beam for transmitting signals to each of the five surface element regions of the first set of surface element regions, and / or the intelligent reflecting device 124 can independently set the reflection angle of each of the five surface element regions of the first set of surface element regions. In the case of independently setting the transmission beam and / or the reflection angle, the first node can transmit the first set of signals to the second node in the first node group via the intelligent reflecting device in the first time slot. In addition, the first node can determine to transmit a second set of signals to the second node group via the intelligent reflecting device 124 in the second time slot. To this end, the first node can independently select the transmission beam for transmitting signals to each of the five surface element regions of the second set of surface element regions, and / or the intelligent reflecting device 124 can independently set the reflection angle of each of the five surface element regions in the second set of surface element regions. In the case of independently setting the transmission beam and / or the reflection angle, the first node can transmit the second set of signals to the second node in the second node group via the intelligent reflecting device in the second time slot.

[0106] Under the dynamic region determination scheme, the region determination node determines or forms the surface element region 208 of a specific second node. Therefore, when determining the surface element region 208, the assignment of the second node to the surface element region 208 is inherent. Therefore, different from the fixed region determination scheme, the dynamic region scheme may not have a clear region assignment node to assign the second node to the surface element region 208.

[0107] In addition, in various embodiments of the fixed-region determination scheme or the dynamic-region determination scheme, the region determination node and / or the region allocation node may notify the intelligent reflecting device 124 of the determined surface region 208, and for at least some embodiments, notify the intelligent reflecting device 124 of which nodes in the second nodes are allocated or matched to each determined surface region 208. The region determination node and / or the region allocation node may notify the intelligent reflecting device 124 wirelessly or via a wired connection, depending on how the region determination node and / or the region allocation node is communicatively connected to the intelligent reflecting device 124.

[0108] When the second nodes are far enough away from the intelligent reflecting device 124, the total size of the surface element groups of the second nodes may be or typically is relatively small compared to the surface 202. Thus, the second nodes or at least most of the second nodes may have non-overlapping surface element groups, thereby allowing communication between the first nodes and the second nodes via the intelligent reflecting device 124 with little transmission loss. Even for relatively large surface element groups, dynamic region determination is feasible.

[0109] Figure 7 A schematic diagram shows the wireless access node 104 and multiple user devices (UDs) 102 communicating with each other via the intelligent reflecting device 124 during the uplink communication phase. In FIG. 6, two user devices 102(1) and 102(2) may transmit uplink signals simultaneously. The first user device 102(1) may transmit an uplink signal to the wireless access node 104 via the first surface element region SER1 of the intelligent reflecting device, and the second user device 102(2) may transmit an uplink signal to the wireless access node 104 via the second surface element region SER2 of the intelligent reflecting device. The first surface element region SER1 may include the surface element group of the first user device 102(1), and the second surface element region SER2 may include the surface element group of the second user device 102(2). The spatial separation between the first surface element region SER1 and the second surface element region SER2 may be relatively unimportant during the uplink phase, or at least not as important as during the downlink phase, because the surface element regions SER of the intelligent reflecting device 124 form beams all pointing to the same entity (i.e., the wireless access node 104).

[0110] Refer back to Figure 5In the method, after the area determination node determines the surface element area, at block 504, the first node and / or the intelligent reflection device 104 can independently set the communication parameters of the corresponding communication between the first node and the surface element area. In various embodiments, the communication parameters include at least one of the transmission beam of the first node or the reflection angle associated with the surface element area. For example, the intelligent reflection device 124 can independently set the reflection angle for each surface element area, such as by setting the phase shift of each surface element 206, so that the surface element area optimally reflects the corresponding incident signal towards the second node with which it is associated or matched. As another example, the first node can independently select the transmission beam for transmitting signals to different surface element areas. For example, since different surface element areas are spatially separated, the first node may need to use different transmission beams when transmitting to different surface element areas. Therefore, the first node can independently select the optimal transmission beam to transmit signals to the corresponding different surface element areas. Other communication parameters that the first node and / or the intelligent reflection device 124 can independently set are also possible.

[0111] Figure 8A and Figure 8B FIG. shows a diagram of the first device transmitting to multiple second nodes via the intelligent reflection device 124. In Figure 8A and Figure 8B In the specific case shown, the first node is the wireless access node 104, the multiple second nodes are the user devices 102, and the wireless access node 104 and the user devices 102 are operating in the downlink transmission phase, that is, the wireless access node 104 is transmitting to the user devices 102. As Figure 8A and Figure 8B shown, the surface elements 206 of the intelligent reflection device 124 are divided into three surface element areas SER1, SER2, and SER3. Each of the three surface element areas SER1, SER2, and SER3 is associated with a corresponding one of the three user devices 102(1), 102(2), and 102(3) and is configured to reflect signals to it.

[0112] Figure 8A FIG. shows a case where the distance between the wireless access node 104 and the intelligent reflection device 124 is relatively small to meet the near-field condition. For this near-field condition, all surface element areas SER can receive similar signals, as Figure 8A shown.

[0113] Figure 8BThe situation where the distance between the wireless access node 104 and the intelligent reflecting device 124 is relatively large to meet the far-field condition is shown. For such a far-field condition, the first node (e.g., the wireless access node 104) can simultaneously and independently formulate or use multiple or different beams to transmit signals to different surface element regions SER. In addition, the intelligent reflecting device 124 can independently set the reflection angles of the corresponding surface element regions to optimally reflect the incident signals towards the corresponding second nodes (e.g., the user equipment 102) associated therewith, so as to minimize the interference between the entire channels (including the path from the first node (e.g., the wireless access node 104) to the surface element region SER and the path from the surface element region SER to the second node (e.g., the user equipment 102)).

[0114] Referring again to Figure 5 , at block 506, after independently setting the communication parameters of the corresponding communication, the first node can transmit signals to the second node via multiple surface element regions of the intelligent reflecting device. As described above, if the region determination node determines the surface element region 208 on a per-node group basis, the first node and / or the intelligent reflecting device can independently set the communication parameters of different or multiple sets of surface element regions, and after independently setting the communication parameters of different sets of different node groups, transmit signals to different node groups.

[0115] Referring again to Figure 1, as shown in the figure, the wireless communication system 100 may include multiple intelligent reflecting devices 124. For such an embodiment, in order for a first node to communicate with a second node via the multiple intelligent reflecting devices 124, an intelligent reflecting device selection node (which may be the first node, an intelligent reflecting device, one or more second nodes, any other node in the communication system 100, or various combinations thereof) may first select or determine one or more target (or serving) intelligent reflecting devices from the multiple intelligent reflecting devices for each second node. In various embodiments, the intelligent reflecting device selection node may independently select the intelligent reflecting devices 124 for different second nodes, such that each second node is associated with a corresponding one or more target intelligent reflecting devices, and such that for any two given second nodes, the one or more target intelligent reflecting devices may be the same as or different from each other. For example, when selecting a target intelligent reflecting device for a second node, the intelligent reflecting device selection node may determine that the first node communicates with a first second node via a first set of one or more target intelligent reflecting devices, and determine that the first node communicates with a second second node via a second set of one or more target intelligent reflecting devices, where the first set of one or more target intelligent reflecting devices and the second set of one or more target intelligent reflecting devices are the same as or different from each other. If all the target intelligent reflecting devices in both sets of one or more target intelligent reflecting devices are the same, then the two sets of one or more target intelligent reflecting devices may be the same as each other. Additionally, if at least one intelligent reflecting device in one set is not part of the other set of intelligent reflecting devices, then the two sets of one or more target intelligent reflecting devices may be different from each other.

[0116] Furthermore, for an embodiment in which a node group assignment node determines the node group of a second node, the node group assignment unit may determine the node group of the second node based on a set of intelligent reflecting devices (such as on a per-intelligent reflecting device basis). For example, assume that a first node is to communicate with a group of second nodes via multiple intelligent reflecting devices 124. Additionally, assume that the intelligent reflecting device selection node determines that the first node is to communicate with only a subset of the second node group via a first target intelligent reflecting device. Further, the node group assignment node may determine the node group of this subset of second nodes to exclude second nodes that are not part of this subset when grouping the subset of second nodes into multiple node groups. Additionally, the scheduling node may determine a timing table based on the node group of this subset, and the first node may transmit signals to the subset of second nodes via the first target intelligent reflecting device according to this timing table. Similar node grouping, timing table, and transmission actions may be performed for other subsets of second nodes corresponding to other target intelligent reflecting devices.

[0117] In addition, for embodiments in which the region determination node determines a surface element group of surface elements of the intelligent reflecting device 124, the region determination node may determine the surface element region based on a set of intelligent reflecting devices (such as on a per-intelligent reflecting device basis). For example, assume that a first node is to communicate with a set of second nodes via a plurality of intelligent reflecting devices 124. Further assume that the intelligent reflecting device selection node determines that the first node is to communicate with only a subset of the set of second nodes via a first target intelligent reflecting device. Furthermore, the region determination node may determine the surface element region of the first target intelligent reflecting device based on communication parameters and / or surface element groups associated only with the subset of the second nodes, without considering the second nodes of the group that are not part of the subset.

[0118] In addition, in various embodiments of determining the target intelligent reflecting device, the intelligent reflecting device selection node may select a target intelligent reflecting device for a given second node based on the signal power arriving at the intelligent reflecting device 124. To this end, the first node may transmit one or more signals to a plurality of intelligent reflecting devices 124 of a given second node. In response to the reception of the signals, each of the plurality of intelligent reflecting devices 124 may feedback the received or arriving signal power to the first node. In some embodiments, for the transmission to a given intelligent reflecting device for a given second node, if the received signal power received from the given intelligent reflecting device is higher than a predetermined threshold (e.g., 20%), the intelligent reflecting device selection node may identify the given intelligent reflecting device as the target intelligent reflecting device, and the first node will communicate via the target intelligent reflecting device to transmit a signal to the given second node. In other exemplary embodiments, the intelligent reflecting device selection node may select the following target intelligent reflecting device for a given second node as the intelligent reflecting device: the intelligent reflecting device having the highest received signal power or a predetermined number of the highest received signal powers among the received signal powers of the plurality of intelligent reflecting devices.

[0119] In other exemplary embodiments, the first node may communicate with a plurality of second nodes via a plurality of intelligent reflecting devices. For such embodiments, the plurality of intelligent reflecting devices may be chain intelligent reflecting devices, where the first intelligent reflecting device in the chain is the first intelligent reflecting device for reflecting a set of signals from the first node, and the last intelligent reflecting device in the chain is the last intelligent reflecting device in the chain that reflects the set of signals before the set of signals is received by the second node. In addition, the channel from the first node via the plurality of intelligent reflecting devices to the second node may include: a plurality of channel segments, where each channel segment is between two nodes, including the channel segment between the first node of the chain and the first intelligent reflecting device, the channel segment between the last intelligent reflecting device of the chain and the second node; and one or more channel segments, each channel segment being between a corresponding two of the plurality of intelligent reflecting devices in the chain.

[0120] For some embodiments, the surface element group determination node may determine the surface element group of each node among one or more second nodes for each intelligent reflecting device in the chain. For other embodiments, the surface element group determination node may determine the surface element group of each node among one or more second nodes only for the last intelligent reflecting device in the chain. Further, for embodiments in which each intelligent reflecting device has sensing capabilities, the surface element group node may determine the channel state information of each channel segment based on a channel estimation algorithm (such as LS or MMSE), as described above. For at least some embodiments, the surface element group determination node may also use compressive sensing. Further, for at least some embodiments, the surface element group determination node may perform channel estimation to determine the channel state information of intelligent reflecting devices other than the first intelligent reflecting device in the chain at different time slots.

[0121] Further, for embodiments in which the last intelligent reflecting device has sensing capabilities while the first intelligent reflecting device does not have sensing capabilities, the channel state information of the channel segment between the last intelligent reflecting device and the second node may be obtained through channel estimation (such as through the use of LS or MMSE) and / or compressive sensing, while the channel state information of other channel segments may be obtained by repeating the beam training or beam scanning process for other channel segments (as described above).

[0122] Further, for embodiments in which the first intelligent reflecting device has sensing capabilities but the last intelligent reflecting device does not have sensing capabilities, the channel state information of channel segments other than the channel segment between the first node and the first intelligent reflecting device may be determined by repeating beam training or beam scanning. For example, the codebooks of the first node and one or more intelligent reflecting devices may be fixed, and a repeating process using different beam pairs may be used to determine the desired beam pair from which the channel state information may be obtained.

[0123] In addition, in various embodiments where the first intelligent reflecting device communicates with a plurality of second nodes via an intelligent reflecting device chain, the node group allocation node may determine a node group based on one or more communication parameters between the plurality of second nodes and the last intelligent reflecting device in the chain. For example, the node group allocation node may inhibit the formation of a node group based on communication parameters associated with any other intelligent reflecting device in the chain other than the last intelligent reflecting device. Additionally or alternatively, the region determination node may determine the surface element region only for the last intelligent reflecting device in the chain. For example, for each of the other intelligent reflecting devices other than the last intelligent reflecting device, the surface elements of the other intelligent reflecting devices may be configured to reflect according to one reflection angle to jointly serve an entire or complete region of the plurality of second nodes. In contrast, as described above, the last intelligent reflecting device may separate its surface elements into different surface element regions, and each surface element region is independently controlled and set at an associated reflection angle to independently reflect signals to corresponding second nodes associated with each surface element region.

[0124] Thus, for such embodiments, each intelligent reflecting device in the chain may have an associated phase shift matrix for determining the phase shift of the surface elements. Each of the other intelligent reflecting devices other than the last intelligent reflecting device may have an associated phase shift matrix that configures the phase shift of all surface elements of the surface such that the surface elements operate as a single unit to jointly reflect according to a single reflection angle. On the other hand, the last intelligent reflecting device may have an associated phase shift matrix that corresponds to a plurality of surface element regions of the surface of the last intelligent reflecting device, and sets the phase shift of the surface elements of the different surface element regions such that the different surface element regions reflect at a plurality of independently set reflection angles according to the phase shift determined by the phase shift matrix.

[0125] For a configuration that independently performs node grouping, surface element region determination, and / or reflection angle / phase shift control only for different surface element regions of the last intelligent reflecting device in the chain, the overall complexity of communication between the first node and the plurality of nodes can be reduced, making the use of the intelligent reflecting device chain more practical and / or easier to implement.

[0126] The above description and the accompanying drawings provide specific example embodiments and implementations. However, the described subject matter may be embodied in a variety of different forms, and thus, the subject matter being covered or claimed is intended to be construed as not limited to any example embodiment set forth herein. The scope of the subject matter being claimed or covered is quite broad. For example, among other things, the subject matter may be embodied as a method, apparatus, component, system, or non-transitory computer-readable medium for storing computer code. Thus, an embodiment may take, for example, the form of hardware, software, firmware, a storage medium, or any combination thereof. For example, the above method embodiments may be implemented by a component, device, or system including a memory and a processor by executing computer code stored in the memory.

[0127] Throughout the specification and the claims, terms may have nuances of meaning that are suggested or implied by the context rather than being explicitly set forth. Similarly, the phrase "in one embodiment / implementation" as used herein does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, and the phrase "in another embodiment / implementation" as used herein does not necessarily refer to a different embodiment. For example, the claimed subject matter is intended to include combinations of all or part of the example embodiments.

[0128] Generally, terms may be understood, at least in part, from their usage in context. For example, terms such as "and," "or," or "and / or" as used herein may include a variety of meanings that may depend, at least in part, on the context in which such terms are used. Generally, "or" if used to associate a list, such as A, B, or C, is intended to mean A, B, and C (used here in the inclusive sense) as well as A, B, or C (used here in the exclusive sense). Additionally, depending at least in part on the context, the term "one or more" as used herein may be used to describe any feature, structure, or characteristic in a singular sense or may be used to describe a combination of features, structures, and characteristics in a plural sense. Similarly, terms such as "a," "an," or "the" may be understood to convey either a singular or a plural usage, at least in part, depending on the context. Further, the term "based on" may be understood to not necessarily intend to convey a set of exclusive factors, and instead, may allow for the existence of additional factors that are not necessarily explicitly described, at least in part, depending on the context.

[0129] References in this specification to features, advantages, or similar language do not imply that all features and advantages that can be realized with the present solution should or are included in any single implementation thereof. Instead, language referring to features and advantages is understood to mean that a particular feature, advantage, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present solution. Thus, the discussion of features and advantages and similar language throughout the specification may, but does not necessarily, refer to the same embodiment.

[0130] In addition, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the present solution can be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. Based on the description herein, those of ordinary skill in the relevant art will recognize that the present solution can be practiced without one or more specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages that are not present in all embodiments of the present solution can be recognized in certain embodiments.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication, the method comprising: Determining, by a first node, a plurality of surface element areas of a plurality of surface elements of an intelligent reflecting device; Determining, based on the number of a plurality of second nodes communicating with the first node via the intelligent reflecting device, the number of the plurality of surface element areas into which the plurality of surface elements are to be divided, wherein the number of the plurality of surface element areas is proportional to the number of the plurality of second nodes; Independently setting, by the first node, communication parameters for respective communications between the first node and each of the plurality of surface element areas; And Transmitting, by the first node according to the independent setting of the communication parameters, signals to the plurality of second nodes via the plurality of surface element areas.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: Assigning, by the first node, each of the plurality of second nodes to one or more of the plurality of surface element areas.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein assigning each of the plurality of second nodes to one or more of the plurality of surface element areas is based on channel state information.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising: Determining, by the first node, received signal power or energy based on the channel state information, wherein assigning each of the plurality of second nodes to one or more of the plurality of surface elements is based on the received signal power or energy.

5. The method according to claim 2, further comprising: Determining, by the first node, a plurality of surface element groups for the plurality of second nodes, each surface element group in the plurality of surface element groups comprising at least one surface element of the surface of the intelligent reflecting device, and each surface element group being associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of second nodes, wherein assigning each of the plurality of second nodes to one or more of the plurality of surface element areas is based on the plurality of surface element groups.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein assigning each of the plurality of second nodes to one or more of the plurality of surface element areas comprises: Assigning, by the first node, one of the plurality of second nodes to one of the plurality of surface element areas based on the number of surface elements of the surface element group of the second node that is part of one of the plurality of surface element areas exceeding a threshold.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the surface element group of one of the second nodes overlaps two or more of the plurality of surface element areas, Assigning each of the plurality of second nodes to one or more of the plurality of surface element regions includes: and the first node assigns the one of the second nodes to one of the two or more surface element areas of the plurality of surface element areas based on the strongest signal power.

8. The method according to claim 2, wherein assigning each of the plurality of second nodes to one or more of the plurality of surface element regions is based on one or more target communication parameters.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein assigning each of the plurality of second nodes to one or more of the plurality of surface element regions based on one or more target communication parameters includes: assigning a first second node among the plurality of second nodes by the first node to more surface element regions than a second second node among the plurality of second nodes, based on the target communication parameters.

10. The method according to claim 2, wherein assigning each of the plurality of second nodes to one or more of the plurality of surface element regions is based on location information associated with the plurality of second nodes.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein assigning each of the plurality of second nodes to one or more of the plurality of surface element regions based on the location information includes: assigning a first node among the plurality of second nodes, which is farther from the intelligent reflecting device than a second node among the plurality of second nodes, by the first node to more surface element regions than the second node among the plurality of second nodes.

12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the first node, a plurality of surface element groups for the plurality of second nodes, each surface element group in the plurality of surface element groups including at least one surface element of the surface of the intelligent reflecting device, and each surface element group being associated with a corresponding node among the plurality of second nodes, wherein determining the plurality of surface element regions is based on the plurality of surface element groups.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein at least one of a size, a shape, or a position of a surface element region among the plurality of surface element regions is based on the surface element group included in the surface element region among the plurality of surface element regions.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein the plurality of surface element groups includes two surface element groups having overlapping surface elements, Determining the plurality of surface element regions based on the plurality of surface element groups includes: assigning the overlapping surface elements to a surface element region among the plurality of surface element regions based on one or more overlapping criteria.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the overlapping criterion comprises: Which of the two surface element groups is associated with a larger received signal power.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the overlapping criterion comprises: Which of the two surface element regions has a smaller number of surface elements.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein the plurality of surface element groups includes two surface element groups having overlapping elements, wherein determining the plurality of surface element regions based on the plurality of surface element groups includes: assigning, by the first node, the overlapping surface elements to two surface element regions among the plurality of surface element regions including the two surface element groups; or The first node determines not to allocate the overlapping surface element to any of the surface element regions of the plurality of surface element regions.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the plurality of surface element regions of the plurality of surface elements of the intelligent reflecting device includes: The first node determines the sizes of the plurality of surface element regions based on the position information of the second node.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein determining the sizes of the plurality of surface element regions based on the position information of the second node includes: The first node allocates more surface elements to a first surface element region for a first node in the second node than to a second surface element region for a second node in the second node, based on the first node in the second node being farther from the intelligent reflecting device than the second node in the second node.

20. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the plurality of surface element regions of the plurality of surface elements of the intelligent reflecting device includes: The first node determines the sizes of the plurality of surface element regions based on one or more target communication parameters.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein determining the sizes of the plurality of surface element regions based on the one or more target communication parameters includes: The first node allocates more surface elements to a first surface element region for a first node in the second node than to a second surface element region for a second node in the second node, based on the first node in the second node having higher target communication parameters than the second node in the second node.

22. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the plurality of surface element regions of the plurality of surface elements is based on a plurality of node groups of the plurality of second nodes.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein determining the plurality of surface element regions of the plurality of surface elements based on the plurality of node groups includes: The first node determines a first set of surface element regions for a first node group in the plurality of node groups and a second set of surface element regions for a second node group in the plurality of node groups.

24. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of second nodes includes a subset of a set of second nodes, the intelligent reflecting device includes a target intelligent reflecting device among a plurality of intelligent reflecting devices, and the method further includes: The first node determines the target intelligent reflecting device from the plurality of target intelligent reflecting devices for the subset, wherein determining the plurality of surface element regions is based on a group of surface elements associated with the subset.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein determining the target intelligent reflecting device from the plurality of target intelligent reflecting devices for the subset is based on the received signal power at the target intelligent reflecting device.

26. The method according to claim 1, wherein the intelligent reflection device comprises the last intelligent reflection device in a chain of multiple intelligent reflection devices, and the first node communicates with the multiple second nodes via the last intelligent reflection device.

27. The method according to claim 1, wherein the communication parameter comprises at least one of the following: a beam for a corresponding communication, or a reflection angle for the corresponding communication.

28. An apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the processor is configured to read code from the memory and implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 27.

29. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable program medium having code stored thereon, the code causing the processor to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 27 when executed by the processor.

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