System and method for broadcasting wake-up signals to user equipment

Abstract

A wakeup signal (WUS) network (separate from a cellular network) includes a WUS node that broadcasts a WUS targeting a WUS receiver of a user equipment (UE). The WUS may have a low frequency, such as within the television white space spectrum. When the cellular network determines that a UE should enter a power saving mode, or when a cellular receiver of the UE enters an idle state, the cellular network may request resources for the UE from a WUS node and activate a WUS receiver of the UE. When the cellular network has data to transmit to the UE or a threshold time has expired, the cellular network may request a WUS from the WUS network that broadcasts the WUS that may be received by the UE. If the UE has data to send to the cellular network, the cellular network may request the WUS node to cease providing resources to the UE.

Description

Background Art

[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to adapting power saving techniques employed by user equipment.

[0002] The user equipment can save power by putting the cellular modem or transceiver into a power saving state so that the cellular modem does not transmit or receive signals. When it is time to transmit or receive signals, the user equipment can activate or wake up the cellular modem to enter an operating state. However, there may be complications in waking up the modem to receive signals when the modem is in a power saving state. Summary of the invention

[0003] The following describes a summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein. It should be understood that these aspects are presented only to provide the reader with a concise summary of these specific embodiments, and these aspects are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. In fact, the present disclosure may encompass a number of aspects that may not be described below.

[0004] In one embodiment, the user equipment includes a cellular transmitter, a cellular receiver, a wake-up signal receiver, and a processing circuit communicatively coupled to the cellular transmitter, the cellular receiver, and the wake-up signal receiver. The processing circuit causes the cellular transmitter to send an indication of the wake-up signal receiver to a base station, deactivate the cellular receiver, and activate the wake-up signal receiver. The processing circuit also causes the wake-up signal receiver to receive a wake-up signal, and activate the cellular receiver based on the wake-up signal and deactivate the wake-up signal receiver. The processing circuit also causes the cellular receiver to receive a cellular signal from the base station.

[0005] In another embodiment, a method includes: receiving an indication of a wake-up signal receiver from a user equipment at a base station; and sending, by the base station, a provision request for the wake-up signal receiver to a wake-up signal node. The method also includes: sending, by the base station, a wake-up signal receiver initiation request to the wake-up signal node, wherein the user equipment enters a power saving mode; and receiving, by the base station, an indication that the user equipment has reconnected to the base station based on the user equipment exiting the power saving mode. The method also includes sending data to the user equipment by the base station or receiving data from the user equipment by the base station.

[0006] In yet another embodiment, one or more tangible non-transitory machine-readable media store instructions that cause a processing circuit of a wake-up signal node to receive a provision request for user equipment from a base station, allocate resources to the user equipment, and receive an initialization request for activating a wake-up signal receiver of the user equipment. The instructions also cause the processing circuit to broadcast a wake-up signal associated with the user equipment.

[0007] With respect to various aspects of the present disclosure, there may be various improvements to the above-mentioned features. Other features may also be incorporated into these various aspects. These improvements and additional features may exist individually or in any combination. For example, the various features discussed below with respect to one or more embodiments in the illustrated embodiments may be incorporated into any of the above-mentioned aspects of the present disclosure individually or in any combination. The brief summary presented above is intended only to familiarize the reader with certain aspects and contexts of the embodiments of the present disclosure, without limiting the claimed subject matter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] Various aspects of the present disclosure may be better understood upon reading the following detailed description and referring to the drawings described below, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts.

[0009] Figure 1 is a block diagram of a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0010] Figure 2 According to the embodiments of the present disclosure Figure 1 A functional diagram of a user equipment;

[0011] Figure 3 According to the embodiments of the present disclosure Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a transmitter of a user equipment;

[0012] Figure 4 According to the embodiments of the present disclosure Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a receiver of a user equipment;

[0013] Figure 5 According to the embodiments of the present disclosure Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a wake-up signal receiver of a user equipment;

[0014] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the communication system comprising a wireless communication (e.g., cellular) network communicatively coupled to a wake-up signal network supported by a base station and a wake-up signal node. Figure 1 User equipment;

[0015] Figure 7 According to the embodiments of the present disclosure Figure 6 A schematic diagram of a cell of a base station of a cellular network and a cell of a wake-up signal node of a wake-up signal network;

[0016] Figure 8 is a frequency diagram of wake-up signal channelization of a wake-up signal frequency band according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0017] Fig. 9According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for activating a user equipment when the user equipment is in a connected state Figure 5 A flowchart of a method for waking up a signal receiver;

[0018] Fig.10 According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for activating a user equipment when the user equipment is in an idle state is provided. Figure 5 A flowchart of a method for waking up a signal receiver;

[0019] Fig.11 According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for using a base station to Figure 6 The wake-up signal node broadcasts a wake-up signal to activate in response to receiving the wake-up signal Figure 4 A flowchart of a method for a cellular receiver;

[0020] Fig.12 According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, Figure 6 The wake-up signal node initiates the broadcast of the wake-up signal to activate the Figure 4 A flowchart of a method for a cellular receiver; and

[0021] Fig.13 According to the embodiments of the present disclosure Figure 5 The wake-up signal receiver is activated when used Figure 1 User equipment activation Figure 4 A flow chart of a method for a cellular receiver. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] One or more specific embodiments will be described below. In order to provide a brief description of these embodiments, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It should be understood that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, decisions specific to many implementations must be made to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints that may vary from one implementation to another. In addition, it should be understood that such development work may be complex and time-consuming, but it will still be a routine task of design, processing and manufacturing for those of ordinary skill in the art who benefit from this disclosure.

[0023] When introducing the elements of various embodiments of the present disclosure, the articles "one", "an" and "the" are intended to mean one or more elements present in the elements. The terms "include", "comprise" and "have" are intended to be inclusive, and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Additionally, it should be understood that the reference to "one embodiment" or "embodiment" of the present disclosure is not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the described features. In addition, specific features, structures or characteristics can be combined in any appropriate manner in one or more embodiments. The use of the terms "roughly", "close to", "about", "close to" and / or "substantially" should be understood to mean including close to a target (e.g., design, value and amount), such as within the limits of any suitable or conceivable error (e.g., within 0.1% of a target, within 1% of a target, within 5% of a target, within 10% of a target, within 25% of a target, etc.). Furthermore, it should be understood that any exact value, number, measurement, etc. provided herein is contemplated to include approximations of such exact value, number, measurement, etc. (eg, within a suitable or conceivable margin of error).

[0024] The present disclosure relates to efficient power usage in user equipment. The user equipment may continuously or periodically activate a receiver (e.g., a receiver of a cellular modem) to ensure that a wireless (e.g., cellular) signal is received. However, this continuous or periodic activation of the receiver may consume excessive power. In contrast, the user equipment may include a wake-up or low-power receiver that consumes less power than a cellular receiver because it is less complex (e.g., may not demodulate a received signal, may not amplify a received signal, may not filter a received signal, etc.). If the user equipment is not actively receiving a wireless signal, or does not receive a wireless signal within a threshold time period, the user equipment may cause the receiver to enter a sleep or power saving mode, or be disabled (e.g., powered off), and activate a wake-up signal receiver. The wake-up signal receiver may then periodically scan for wireless wake-up signals transmitted from a wireless (e.g., cellular) network.

[0025] Upon receiving the wake-up signal, the wake-up signal receiver may activate or wake up the cellular receiver, which may begin receiving wireless signals (e.g., cellular signals with user data). The wake-up signal receiver may then enter a sleep or power saving mode, or be deactivated. However, embedding the wake-up signal into a cellular signal (e.g., having a frequency between 700 megahertz (MHz) and 71 gigahertz (GHz)) may include several disadvantages, such as causing interference to the cellular signal and / or other cellular signals and / or reducing the overall spectral efficiency of the cell or base station. That is, an increase in cell traffic may adversely affect coordination between the wake-up signal receiver and the cell.

[0026] The disclosed embodiments include a wake-up signal network (e.g., separate from a cellular network) having a wake-up signal node that broadcasts a wake-up signal targeted at a wake-up signal receiver of a user equipment. The wake-up signal may have a low frequency (e.g., 1 gigahertz or lower, 800 megahertz (MHz) or lower, in the range of 500 MHz to 680 MHz, etc.), such as by using a television white space spectrum. The user equipment may maintain two independent cell selection processes: one from the wake-up signal network and one from the cellular network. If the user equipment is configured to listen for wake-up signals (e.g., its wake-up receiver is active), the user equipment may monitor or be able to detect the presence of the wake-up signal network. Depending on the design of the wake-up signal, the user equipment may reselect from one wake-up node to another wake-up node. If the wake-up network coverage is lost, the user equipment may fall back to a normal cellular network reselection process (e.g., as provided under a cellular technical specification) and / or transmit to the cellular network an indication that it has switched from a mode of listening for wake-up signals to cellular network paging (e.g., through a normal radio resource control (RRC) recovery process).

[0027] In some embodiments, the cellular network may determine that the user equipment should enter a sleep mode (e.g., due to inactivity of a cellular receiver), and the network (e.g., via a next generation Node B (gNodeB or gNB) base station) may request resources for the user equipment from a wake-up signal node and activate the wake-up signal receiver of the user equipment. In additional or alternative embodiments, when the cellular receiver of the user equipment enters an idle state (e.g., an RRC idle or inactive state), the cellular network (e.g., via a gNodeB base station) may request resources for the user equipment from a wake-up signal network (e.g., via a wake-up signal node) and activate the wake-up signal receiver of the user equipment.

[0028] In the event that the network has data to transmit to the user equipment, the threshold time has expired, etc., the network may request a wake-up signal from a wake-up signal network (e.g., via a wake-up signal node), which broadcasts a wake-up signal that can be received by the user equipment. Similarly, if the user equipment has data to send to the network (e.g., user data), the user equipment may acquire a cell supported by a base station of the network, and the network may request the wake-up signal node to stop providing resources to the user equipment, which may remove such resources. In this way, when the user equipment is not actively receiving data, the user equipment may put its cellular receiver into a power saving mode and activate its wake-up signal receiver, thereby ensuring that when there is data to transmit or receive, the wake-up signal receiver activates its cellular receiver while saving power.

[0029] If the network desires to activate the user equipment (e.g. due to the presence of data addressed to the user equipment), a corresponding indication to wake up the network may be transmitted by different network entities, depending on the state of the user equipment. If the user equipment is in an inactive state (e.g. the user equipment context is in a radio access network (RAN)), the RAN may initiate a request to wake up the network. If the user equipment is in an idle state, depending on the configuration, it may be the RAN or the core network that transmits the corresponding request to wake up the network. If the core network is involved, it must be known that the user equipment is configured with a wake-up mode.

[0030] In view of the above, Figure 1 is a block diagram of a user device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The user device 10 may include, among other things, one or more processors 12 (collectively referred to herein as a single processor for convenience, which may be implemented in any suitable form of processing circuitry), a memory 14, a non-volatile storage device 16, a display 18, input structures 22, an input / output (I / O) interface 24, a network interface 26, and a power supply 29. Figure 1 The various functional blocks shown may include hardware elements (including circuits), software elements (including machine executable instructions), or a combination of hardware and software elements (which may be referred to as logical components). Processor 12, memory 14, non-volatile storage device 16, display 18, input structure 22, input / output (I / O) interface 24, network interface 26, and / or power supply 29 may each be directly or indirectly communicatively coupled to each other (e.g., through or via another component, a communication bus, a network) to send and / or receive data between each other. It should be noted that Figure 1 It is merely one example of a particular implementation and is intended to illustrate the types of components that may be present in user equipment 10 .

[0031] By way of example, user equipment 10 may include any suitable computing device, including a desktop or notebook computer (e.g., a computer commercially available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California). Pro, MacBook mini, or Mac ), portable electronic or handheld electronic devices such as wireless electronic devices or smart phones (e.g., available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California) ), tablet computers (e.g., in the form of models available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California ), wearable electronic devices (e.g., Apple Inc. available from Cupertino, California ), or other similar devices. It should be noted that Figure 1 The processor 12 and other related items in the embodiment may be embodied in whole or in part as software, hardware, or both. Figure 1 Other related items in the user equipment 10 may be single independent processing modules, or may be fully or partially integrated into any of the other elements in the user equipment 10. The processor 12 may be implemented using a combination of a general-purpose microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a controller, a state machine, a gated logic, a discrete hardware component, a dedicated hardware finite state machine, or any other suitable entity that can perform calculations or other manipulations of information. The processor 12 may include one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, or both, and perform various functions described herein.

[0032] exist Figure 1 In the user equipment 10, the processor 12 may be operably coupled to the memory 14 and the non-volatile storage device 16 to execute various algorithms. Such programs or instructions executed by the processor 12 may be stored in any suitable article including one or more tangible computer-readable media. The tangible computer-readable medium may include the memory 14 and / or the non-volatile storage device 16, individually or collectively, to store instructions or routines. The memory 14 and the non-volatile storage device 16 may include any suitable article for storing data and executable instructions, such as random access memory, read-only memory, rewritable flash memory, hard drive, and optical disk. In addition, the program (e.g., operating system) encoded on such a computer program product may also include instructions that can be executed by the processor 12 to enable the user equipment 10 to provide various functions.

[0033] In certain embodiments, display 18 may facilitate a user viewing images generated on user equipment 10. In some embodiments, display 18 may include a touch screen that may facilitate a user interacting with a user interface of user equipment 10. Additionally, it should be understood that in some embodiments, display 18 may include one or more liquid crystal displays (LCDs), light emitting diode (LED) displays, organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) displays, or some combination of these and / or other display technologies.

[0034] The input structures 22 of the user equipment 10 may enable a user to interact with the user equipment 10 (e.g., pressing a button to increase or decrease a volume level). As with the network interface 26, the I / O interface 24 may enable the user equipment 10 to interact with a variety of other electronic devices. In some embodiments, the I / O interface 24 may include an I / O port for a hardwired connection for charging and / or content manipulation using a standard connector and protocol such as the Lightning connector provided by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California, a universal serial bus (USB), or other similar connectors and protocols. The network interface 26 may include, for example, one or more interfaces for a personal area network (PAN), such as an ultra-wideband (UWB) or Network; Local Area Network (LAN) or Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), such as one of the IEEE 802.11x family of protocols (e.g. ) networks; and / or wide area networks (WANs), such as any standards associated with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including, for example, 3rd Generation (3G) cellular networks, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), 4th Generation (4G) cellular networks, Long Term Evolution (LET), and / or 4G cellular networks. Cellular network, Long Term Evolution Licensed Assisted Access (LTE-LAA) cellular network, 5th generation (5G) cellular network and / or new radio (NR) cellular network, 6th generation (6G) or super 6G cellular network, non-terrestrial network, etc. Specifically, the network interface 26 may include, for example, one or more interfaces for using the version 15 cellular communication standard of the 5G specification including a millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency range (e.g., 24.25 gigahertz (GHz) to 300GHz), and / or any other cellular communication standard version (e.g., version 16, version 17, any future version) that defines and / or implements a frequency range for wireless communication. The network interface 26 of the user equipment 10 may allow communication through the aforementioned networks (e.g., 5G, Wi-Fi, LTE-LAA, etc.).

[0035] The network interface 26 may also include, for example, one or more interfaces for broadband fixed wireless access networks (eg, ), mobile broadband wireless network (mobile ), asynchronous digital subscriber line (e.g., ADSL, VDSL), digital video terrestrial broadcasting ( ) network and its extension DVB handheld Networks, ultra-wideband (UWB) networks, alternating current (AC) power lines, etc.

[0036] Figure 2 According to the embodiments of the present disclosure Figure 11 is a functional diagram of a user equipment 10. As shown, the processor 12, the memory 14, the transceiver 30, the transmitter 52, the receiver 54, the wake-up signal receiver 56 and / or the antenna 55 (illustrated as 55A-55N, collectively referred to as antenna 55) can be directly or indirectly communicatively coupled to each other (e.g., through or via another component, a communication bus, a network) to send and / or receive data between each other.

[0037] The user equipment 10 may include a transmitter 52 and / or a receiver 54, which can transmit and receive data (e.g., user data) between the user equipment 10 and an external device via, for example, a network (e.g., including a base station or an access point) or a direct connection. As shown, the transmitter 52 and the receiver 54 may be combined into a transceiver 30. The user equipment 10 may also have one or more antennas 55A-55N, which are electrically coupled to the transceiver 30. The antennas 55A-55N may be configured in an omnidirectional or directional configuration with a single beam, a dual beam, or a multi-beam arrangement. Each antenna 55 may be associated with one or more beams and various configurations. In some embodiments, multiple antennas in the antennas 55A-55N of an antenna group or module may be communicatively coupled to the corresponding transceiver 30 and each transmits a radio frequency signal that can be advantageously and / or destructively combined to form a beam. The user equipment 10 may include multiple transmitters, multiple receivers, multiple transceivers, and / or multiple antennas suitable for various communication standards. In some embodiments, the transmitter 52 and the receiver 54 may transmit and receive information via other wired or wired systems or components. Although the present disclosure refers to the transmitter 52 and / or the receiver 54 as a cellular transmitter and / or a cellular receiver, it should be understood that, as discussed above, the transmitter 52 and / or the receiver 54 may additionally or alternatively communicate with any other suitable communication network or device.

[0038] The user equipment 10 may include a wake-up or low-power receiver 56 that consumes less power in operation than the receiver 54 because it is less complex (e.g., may not demodulate received signals, may not amplify received signals, may not filter received signals, etc.). That is, the wake-up WUS receiver 56 may include fewer or less complex components than the receiver 54, so that in operation, it uses less power than the receiver 54. For example, the wake-up signal receiver 56 may not include a demodulator, an amplifier, a filter, etc., where the receiver 54 includes such components. In addition, the various components of the user equipment 10 may be coupled together via a bus system 58. The bus system 58 may include a data bus, for example, and a power bus, a control signal bus, and a status signal bus in addition to the data bus. The components of the user equipment 10 may be coupled together, or use some other mechanism to receive or provide input to each other.

[0039] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a transmitter 52 (e.g., a transmitting circuit) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown, the transmitter 52 can receive outgoing data 60 to be transmitted via one or more antennas 55 in the form of a digital signal. The digital filter 61 (e.g., filter circuit and / or software) of the transmitter 52 can remove components outside the desired frequency range from the digital signal. In some cases, the digital filter 61 can be tuned to a specific frequency range or a fixed step size (e.g., filter components outside a specific frequency range or a fixed step size), such as a radio frequency (RF) channel bandwidth (e.g., 5MHz, 10MHz, etc.). In other cases, the digital filter 61 can be tuned to any allocatable bandwidth (e.g., 1MHz or less, 5MHz or less, 10MHz or less, etc.). The digital filter 61 may include any suitable filter for performing digital signal processing, including, for example, a linear filter, a causal filter, a time-invariant filter, a stable filter, a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, etc. The digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 62 of the transmitter 52 may convert the digital signal into an analog signal, and the modulator 64 may combine the converted analog signal with a carrier signal to generate a radio wave. The power amplifier (PA) 66 receives the modulated signal from the modulator 64. The power amplifier 66 may amplify the modulated signal to a suitable level to drive the transmission of the signal via one or more antennas 55. The analog filter 68 (e.g., filter circuit and / or software) of the transmitter 52 may then remove the undesired noise from the amplified signal to generate the transmitted signal 70 to be transmitted via one or more antennas 55. The analog filter 68 may include any suitable one or more filters such as a bandpass filter, a bandstop filter, a low-pass filter, a high-pass filter, and / or a decimation filter to remove the undesired noise from the amplified signal. In addition, the transmitter 52 may include any suitable additional components not shown, or may not include some of the components shown, so that the transmitter 52 can transmit the outgoing data 60 via one or more antennas 55. For example, the transmitter 52 may include a mixer and / or a digital up-converter. As another example, transmitter 52 may not include analog filter 68 if power amplifier 66 outputs an amplified signal within or approximately within a desired frequency range (such that filtering the amplified signal may not be necessary).

[0040] Figure 48 is a schematic diagram of a receiver 54 (e.g., receiving circuit) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown, the receiver 54 can receive a received signal 80 from one or more antennas 55 in the form of an analog signal. A low noise amplifier (LNA) 82 can amplify the received analog signal to a suitable level for processing by the receiver 54. An analog filter 84 (e.g., a filter circuit and / or software) can remove unwanted noise from the received signal, such as cross-channel interference. The analog filter 84 can also remove additional signals received by one or more antennas 55 at a frequency different from the desired signal. The analog filter 84 may include any suitable filter for removing unwanted noise or signals from the received signal, such as a bandpass filter, a bandstop filter, a low-pass filter, a high-pass filter, and / or a decimation filter. A demodulator 86 can remove a radio frequency envelope from the filtered signal and / or extract a demodulated signal from the filtered signal for processing. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 88 can receive a demodulated analog signal and convert the signal into a digital signal. The digital filter 89 (e.g., filter circuitry and / or software) of the receiver 54 can remove components outside of a desired frequency range from the digital signal to generate incoming data 90 to be further processed by the user equipment 10. In some cases, the digital filter 89 can be tuned to a specific frequency range or fixed step size (e.g., filter components outside of a specific frequency range or fixed step size), such as an RF channel bandwidth (e.g., 5 MHz, 10 MHz, etc.). In other cases, the digital filter 89 can be tuned to any allocatable bandwidth (e.g., 1 MHz or less, 5 MHz or less, 10 MHz or less, etc.). The digital filter 89 can include any suitable filter that performs digital signal processing, including, for example, a linear filter, a causal filter, a time-invariant filter, a stable filter, a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, etc. In addition, the receiver 54 can include any suitable additional components not shown, or can exclude some of the components shown, so that the receiver 54 can receive the received signal 80 via one or more antennas 55. For example, the receiver 54 can include a mixer and / or a digital down converter.

[0041] Figure 5is a schematic diagram of a wake-up signal receiver 56 (e.g., a wake-up signal receiving circuit) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown, the wake-up signal receiver 56 may receive a wake-up signal 100 in the form of an analog signal from one or more antennas 55. It should be understood that the one or more antennas 55 may be the same, different, or overlapping with the one or more antennas 55 from which the receiver 54 receives the received signal 80 and / or the transmitter 52 uses to transmit the transmitted signal 70. A low noise amplifier (LNA) 82 may amplify the received analog signal to a suitable level for processing by the wake-up signal receiver 56. An analog filter 84 (e.g., a filter circuit and / or software) may remove undesired noise, such as cross-channel interference, from the received signal. The analog filter 84 may also remove additional signals received by one or more antennas 55 at a frequency different from the desired signal. The analog filter 84 may include any suitable filter for removing undesired noise or signals from the received signal, such as a bandpass filter, a bandstop filter, a lowpass filter, a highpass filter, and / or a decimation filter. The analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 88 may receive the filtered analog signal and convert the signal into a digital signal that causes the processor 12 of the user equipment 10 to activate or power up the receiver 54 (e.g., the cellular activation signal 101). In addition, the wake-up signal receiver 56 may include any suitable additional components not shown, or may not include some of the components shown, so that the wake-up signal receiver 56 may receive the wake-up signal 100 via one or more antennas 55. For example, the wake-up signal receiver 56 may include a demodulator, a mixer, and / or a digital downconverter. As another example, the wake-up signal receiver 56 may not include the LNA 82, the analog filter 84, and / or the ADC 88.

[0042] The wake-up signal receiver 56 includes a low-complexity radio that receives a device-specific (e.g., to the user equipment 10) wake-up signal 100 to initiate a transition of the receiver 54 (e.g., cellular modem) from a power saving mode to an active state (e.g., to receive a network paging message, to receive and respond to a network command, to receive data, etc.). The wake-up signal receiver 56 can save power by avoiding waking up or activating the receiver 54 and its corresponding baseband functions / components. For a less complex wake-up signal receiver 56, the wake-up signal 100 can include a narrow bandwidth, such as 300 kilohertz (kHz) or less, 100 kHz or less, 50 kHz or less, 30 kHz or less, 15 kHz or less, etc. The wake-up signal 100 can also encode a device-specific identification without modulation, enabling detection based on power thresholds, with relaxed multi-user coexistence, relaxed timing / processing timelines, with signal power level and sensitivity requirements, etc.

[0043] Figure 61 is a schematic diagram of a communication system 102 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the communication system including a wireless communication network 103 (e.g., a cellular or mobile broadband network) communicatively coupled to a wake-up signal network 106 supported by wake-up signal nodes 108A, 108B (collectively, 108) and supported by base stations 104A, 104B (collectively, 104). Figure 1 In some embodiments, the base station 104 may include an evolved NodeB (eNodeB) base station and may provide 4G / LTE coverage to the user equipment 10 via the wireless communication network 103. Each of the base stations 104 may include a 5G / New Radio (NR) base station. The base station 104 may include any suitable electronic device, such as a communication hub or node, to facilitate, support and / or implement the network 103. In some embodiments, the base station 104 may include an evolved NodeB (eNodeB) base station and may provide 4G / LTE coverage to the user equipment 10 via the wireless communication network 103. Each of the base stations 104 may include Figure 1 and Figure 2 At least some of the components of the user equipment 10 shown include one or more processors 12, memory 14, storage 16, transceiver 30, transmitter 52, receiver 54, and Figure 4 104. It should be understood that although the present disclosure may use 5G / NR as an example specification or standard, the embodiments disclosed herein may be applicable to other suitable specifications or standards (e.g., such as 4G / LTE specifications). In addition, the network 103 may include any suitable number of base stations 104 (e.g., one or more base stations 104, four or more base stations 104, ten or more base stations 104, etc.).

[0044] The wake-up signal network 106 may operate independently and / or at least partially overlap or cover the same geographic area as the network 103. The cellular network 103 and the wake-up signal network 106 may be operated by the same or different operators. In some embodiments, the interconnection between the two networks 103, 106 may enable the cellular operator to transmit the wake-up signal 100 to the user equipment 10 (e.g., according to a defined configuration).

[0045] If the wake-up signal network 106 and the cellular network 103 do not share the same operator, a mechanism may be implemented for the user equipment 10 to fall back to another wake-up signal carrier (e.g., of the wake-up signal network 106) or to cellular paging (e.g., of the cellular network 103) if the user equipment 10 loses coverage of the wake-up signal network 106. The user equipment 10 may maintain two independent cell reselection processes: one for the wake-up signal layer and one for the cellular layer. Once configured with a wake-up signal channel, the user equipment 10 may maintain a signal strength metric (e.g., measurement), the user equipment 10 may be configured with an additional wake-up signal channel for monitoring, so as to enable mobility on the wake-up signal layer, and the cellular network 103 may allocate resources for the user equipment 10 to report wake-up signal layer measurements (e.g., signal strength, signal quality, etc.). Mobility across wake-up signal nodes 108 may be defined based on a reselection threshold for the user equipment 10 to the wake-up signal node 108. For example, the wake-up signal node 108 reselection threshold may be defined based on the signal strength of the currently configured wake-up signal channel (e.g., reference signal receiver power (RSRP)). That is, if the signal strength of the currently configured wake-up signal channel is less than the reselection threshold, a reselection process may be performed by the user equipment 10. For example, if the user equipment 10 is in sleep mode (e.g., the wake-up signal receiver 56 is active), and if the wake-up signal node 108 reselection threshold is triggered (e.g., the signal strength of the currently configured wake-up signal channel is less than the reselection threshold), the user equipment 10 (e.g., the cellular receiver 54) may wake up to receive a cellular paging (e.g., from the cellular network 103), or to send a wake-up signal node 108 reselection event (e.g., via a medium access control (MAC) header bit) and then receive a new wake-up signal configuration (e.g., from a new wake-up signal node 108).

[0046] In some embodiments, if the user equipment 10 is configured to listen for the wake-up signal 100 (e.g., its wake-up receiver 56 is active), the user equipment 10 may monitor or be able to detect the presence of the wake-up signal network 106. Depending on the design of the wake-up signal 100, the user equipment 10 may reselect from one wake-up node 108 to another wake-up node. For example, the user equipment 10 may select a first wake-up signal node 108 for coverage of the wake-up signal network 106, determine that the coverage of the wake-up signal network 106 provided by the first wake-up signal node 108 is lost, and select a second wake-up signal node 108 for coverage of the wake-up signal network 106. As a result, the user equipment 10 may receive the wake-up signal 100 from the second wake-up signal node 108.

[0047] If the wake-up signal network 106 coverage is lost, the user equipment 10 may fall back to a normal cellular network 103 reselection process (e.g., as provided under the cellular technical specifications) or page and / or transmit an indication to the cellular network 103 (e.g., via a normal radio resource control (RRC) recovery process) indicating that it has switched from a mode of listening for wake-up signals 100 to cellular network paging (e.g., using its cellular receiver 54 to listen for cellular signals). For example, the user equipment 10 may select the wake-up signal node 108 for coverage of the wake-up signal network 106, determine that coverage of the wake-up signal network 106 provided by the wake-up signal node 108 is lost, activate the cellular receiver 54 and deactivate the wake-up signal receiver 56 based on the loss of coverage of the wake-up signal network 106 provided by the wake-up signal node 108, and cause the cellular receiver 54 to receive a cellular signal (e.g., a cellular network paging signal) from the base station 104 or cause the cellular transmitter 52 to send a cellular signal to the base station 104 (indicating to the cellular network 103 (e.g., via an RRC recovery process) that it has switched from a mode of listening for wake-up signals 100 to a cellular network paging).

[0048] In addition, the wake-up signal network 106 via the wake-up signal node 108 may operate on a low frequency spectrum (e.g., 1 gigahertz or less, 800 megahertz (MHz) or less, in the range of 500 MHz to 680 MHz, etc.). Therefore, in some embodiments, the coverage range (e.g., of a cell) of each wake-up signal node 108 may be greater than the coverage range of the base station 104. For example, Figure 7 As shown, that is, a schematic diagram of the coverage area or cell 120 of the base station 104 of the network 103 and the coverage area or cell 122 of the wake-up signal node 108 of the wake-up signal network 106, it can be observed that the cell 122 of the wake-up signal node 108 is larger in coverage than the cell 120 of the base station 104. Specifically, each base station 104 provides network services (e.g., connection) to each (e.g., three) cells 120 it contacts, while each wake-up signal node 108 provides network services (e.g., connection) to each cell 122 of which it is the center.

[0049] Although the cellular signal (e.g. Figure 4 It is possible to embed the wake-up signal 100 in the received signal 80 of the cell 120, but the wake-up signal 100 may cause undesirable interference to the cellular signal. For example, the wake-up signal 100 may become an in-channel blocking signal of constant amplitude. In addition, the wake-up signal 100 may reduce the overall spectral efficiency of the cell 120, and the wake-up signal 100 may interfere with the downlink / uplink cellular services (e.g., including Figure 3Any coordination between the transmitted signal 70 and the received signal 80 may further reduce efficiency. Therefore, it may be advantageous to avoid frequency ranges used for cellular communications (e.g., certain frequency ranges within 400 MHz to 71 GHz).

[0050] Therefore, the present disclosure includes dedicating spectrum to wake-up signal 100, thereby realizing low complexity reception solution and avoiding reducing spectrum efficiency of cellular communication by not configuring wake-up signal 100 in the channel with expected data. In fact, licensed spectrum can be reused for broadcast operation. In some embodiments, wake-up signal 100 can be broadcast on a channel of TV white space (e.g., the frequency range between TV channels, including guard band). For example, TV channels 19 to 36 span the frequency range of 500MHz to 608MHz. Each TV channel is 6MHz wide, with a guard band of 0.309MHz on each side (e.g., to prevent interference between TV channels). A total of 11.14MHz is available in the guard band spectrum. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stipulates (in FCC-19-24A1_Rcd) that the FCC's Part 15 rules allow unlicensed white space devices to operate at locations where frequencies are not used by licensed services. Specifically, the FCC authorizes operation of unlicensed devices in unused channels of the broadcast television spectrum, in the guard band between the television spectrum and the 600 MHz downlink service, in the guard band between the 600 MHz service band uplink and downlink (e.g., the 600 MHz duplex gap), and in television channel 37. Therefore, it is contemplated that any of these authorized white spaces may be used to broadcast the wake-up signal 100.

[0051] Figure 81 is a frequency diagram of the wake-up signal channelization of the wake-up signal band 130 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The wake-up signal band 130 may correspond to a frequency span allocated by regulation for terrestrial broadcast operations. For example, the wake-up signal band 130 may include a television white space spectrum between 500 MHz and 608 MHz. The wake-up signal band 130 may include a plurality of wake-up signal channels 132A, 132B (collectively referred to as 132), two of which are shown. Each wake-up signal channel 132 may correspond to a grouping of a plurality of wake-up signal resources allocated to different user equipment 10 within the wake-up signal band 130. Specifically, each wake-up signal channel 132 may include a plurality of wake-up signal raster points 134, which may correspond to frequencies used by a wake-up signal 100 associated with a particular user equipment 10. The wake-up signal raster points 134 may be defined in a specification (e.g., a 3GPP specification or an ITU protocol) or by a configuration (e.g., of a wake-up signal network 106 and / or user equipment 10). When defined by configuration, the wake-up signal raster points 134 may also be set based on user equipment capabilities indicating a preferred raster density (eg, frequency differences 136 between the wake-up signal raster points 134 ).

[0052] As an example, if the wake-up signal frequency band 130 includes a TV white space spectrum between 500 MHz and 608 MHz, the start 138 of the wake-up signal frequency band 130 may be set at 500 MHz, and the end 140 of the wake-up signal frequency band 130 may be set at 608 MHz. Each wake-up signal channel 142 bandwidth may be any suitable bandwidth that is less than the bandwidth of the wake-up signal frequency band 130, such as 50 MHz or less, 30 MHz or less, 10 MHz or less, 1 MHz or less, 600 kHz or less, 500 kHz or less, 100 kHz or less, etc. The frequency difference 136 between the wake-up signal raster points 134 may be any suitable frequency difference that is less than the frequency difference of each wake-up signal channel bandwidth 142 (such as 1 MHz or less, 500 kHz or less, 300 kHz or less, 100 kHz or less, 50 kHz or less, 30 kHz or less, 10 kHz or less, etc.).

[0053] Since each wake-up signal channel 132 can be disposed within a guard band between television channels, television channels can be disposed at frequency regions 144 between wake-up signal channels 132. As illustrated by the sparse comb-like availability of guard bands in the television white space spectrum, the wake-up signal channels 132 can be distributed across multiple narrow frequency bands in the frequency domain (e.g., wake-up signal bands 130). The wake-up signal bands 130 can be defined to span a number of these narrow frequency bands, with the wake-up signal channels 132 being designated as allowed or applicable in the frequency sub-ranges of the wake-up signal bands 130.

[0054] Fig. 9 1 is a flow chart of a method 180 for activating a wake-up signal receiver 56 of a user equipment 10 when the user equipment 10 is in a connected state according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Any suitable device (e.g., a controller) that can control components of the user equipment (UE) 10, the cellular network 103, the base station (e.g., gNB) 104, the wake-up signal (WUS) network 106, and / or the wake-up signal node 108 (such as the processor 12) can perform the method 180. In some embodiments, the method 180 can be implemented by using the processor 12 to execute instructions stored in a tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium such as a memory 14 or a storage device 16. For example, the method 180 can be performed at least in part by one or more software components such as an operating system of the user equipment 10, the cellular network 103, the base station 104, the wake-up signal network 106 and / or the wake-up signal node 108, one or more software applications of the user equipment 10, the network 103, the base station 104, the wake-up signal network 106 and / or the wake-up signal node 108, etc. Although method 180 is described using a particular order of steps, it should be understood that the present disclosure contemplates that the described steps may be performed in an order different than shown, and that certain described steps may be skipped or not performed at all.

[0055] In addition, it should be understood that the signal transmission by the user equipment 10, the base station 104 and / or the wake-up signal node 108 may be transmitted by the transmitter 52 of the user equipment 10, the base station 104 and / or the wake-up signal node 108, respectively, and the signal reception by the user equipment 10, the base station 104 and / or the wake-up signal node 108 may be transmitted by the receiver 54 of the user equipment 10, the base station 104 and / or the wake-up signal node 108, respectively. In addition, the user equipment 10 may receive the wake-up signal 100 transmitted by the wake-up signal node 108 through the wake-up signal receiver 56.

[0056] In process block 182, user equipment 10 and base station 104 perform an initial access procedure. For example, when user equipment 10 enters a coverage area of ​​base station 104 (e.g., a geographic area for which base station 104 provides network coverage), user equipment 10 may detect base station 104 (e.g., a cell of base station 104) by receiving a radio frequency (RF) signal. The RF signal may include timing alignment information and other information. User equipment 10 may then synchronize with base station 104 (e.g., a cell of base station 104) by aligning its timing with the timing alignment information of base station 104.

[0057] In process block 184, the user equipment 10 sends an indication of the capability of its wake-up signal receiver 56 to the base station 104. Specifically, the user equipment 10 may send an indication that it has a wake-up signal receiver 56, an operating characteristic of the wake-up signal receiver 56, a configuration of the wake-up signal receiver 56, a setting of the wake-up signal receiver 56, etc. For example, when operating in a connected state, an idle state, and / or an inactive state, the user equipment 10 may send an indication of its support for the wake-up signal receiver. As another example, the user equipment 10 may send an indication of its preferred grating density. In process block 186, the user equipment 10 and the base station 104 perform a radio resource control (RRC) establishment process. Specifically, the user equipment 10 may send a request to establish an RRC connection with the base station 104 so that the user equipment 10 and the base station 104 can transmit user data, and the base station 104 can establish an RRC connection.

[0058] In process block 188, the base station 104 sends a request for resources for the wake-up signal receiver 56 (e.g., a wake-up signal receiver provides a request) to the wake-up signal node 108. The resources may include the wake-up signal raster point 134 of the wake-up signal channel 132. The wake-up signal node 108 may then send a wake-up signal 100 having a frequency or centered about the wake-up signal raster point 134, which is intended for the user equipment 10. Thus, the wake-up signal receiver provides a request may include an identifier associated with the user equipment 10 and / or the wake-up signal receiver 56 of the user equipment 10. The wake-up signal network 106 may allocate resources to the user equipment 10, or decide not to allocate resources to the user equipment. In process block 190, the wake-up signal node 108 sends a response (e.g., a wake-up signal receiver provides a response) to (e.g., confirming or rejecting) the request to the base station 104.

[0059] In process block 192, when the user equipment 10 is in a connected and / or idle state, the base station 104 sends one or more configurations for the wake-up signal receiver 56. When in a connected state, the user equipment 10 is connected to the base station 104 and is known by the base station, and can send user data to the base station 104 and receive user data from the base station. When in an idle state, the user equipment 10 is not connected to the base station 104 or is not known by the base station, although the user equipment 10 can be connected to the cellular network 103 or is not known by the cellular network. For example, the user equipment 10 can monitor paging and broadcast channels to maintain a connection with the network 103, select a new cell when it moves, notify the network 103 of the new area it enters (e.g., based on the broadcast information received from the base station 104), etc. Therefore, when in an idle state, the user equipment 10 may neither send user data to the base station 104 nor receive user data from the base station. In some embodiments, the connected state and the idle state may be states defined in the 5G specification. Additionally or alternatively, the idle state may include an inactive state, wherein, after a first period of time from when the user equipment 10 was in the active state without activity, if a second longer period of time without activity, the UE suspends the RRC session before moving to the idle state. Thus, when in the inactive state, the user equipment 10 may neither send user data to the base station 104 nor receive user data from the base station. In additional or alternative embodiments, when the user equipment 10 is in the inactive state, the base station 104 may send a configuration for the wake-up signal receiver 56.

[0060] The base station 104 and / or the cellular network 103 may configure the user equipment 10 with a wake-up signal receiver configuration including a wake-up signal frequency band 130, a wake-up signal channel 142, and / or a wake-up signal raster point 134 to facilitate identification of the frequency domain location of the wake-up signal 100 associated with the user equipment 10. Thus, the wake-up signal node 108 may broadcast the wake-up signal 100 using or having the wake-up signal frequency band 130, the wake-up signal channel 142, and / or the wake-up signal raster point 134 to ensure that the wake-up signal 100 is received by the wake-up signal receiver 56 of the user equipment 10. In another example, the base station 104 and / or the cellular network 103 may configure the user equipment 10 with a wake-up signal receiver configuration including a time trigger or a time offset and a periodicity to monitor the configured wake-up signal resource. Thus, the base station 104 may transmit an indication of any of these configurations to the wake-up signal node 108.

[0061] In process block 194, the user equipment 10 and the base station 104 are in a connected state session. Therefore, the user equipment 10 can send user data to the base station 104 and receive user data from the base station. In process block 196, the base station 104 sends an initialization request for activating the wake-up signal receiver 56 to the wake-up signal node 108. The base station 104 may send the request because it determines that the receiver 54 of the user equipment 10 should enter a power saving mode (e.g., a low power mode, an inactive mode, a sleep mode, etc.). In some embodiments, the base station 104 may determine that the receiver 54 should enter a power saving mode because it has not been active for a threshold duration, has not received a signal or user data for a threshold duration, etc. In additional or alternative embodiments, the base station 104 may determine that the receiver 54 should enter a power saving mode because the user equipment 10 has less than a threshold battery or power supply life remaining. In any such case, such conditions for which the base station 104 determines that the receiver 54 should enter a power save mode, and parameters for such conditions (such as a threshold duration or a threshold battery or power life remaining) may be configurable by the user equipment 10 (e.g., by a user, by default, by a machine learning algorithm).

[0062] In process block 198, the wake-up signal node 108 sends an initialization response to the base station 104. That is, the wake-up signal node 108 may indicate to the base station 104 that it has availability and resources to broadcast the wake-up signal 100 in the future, and therefore, the wake-up signal receiver 56 of the user equipment 10 may be activated. If the wake-up signal node 108 does not have such availability or resources, it may indicate so. In process block 200, the base station 104 sends an indication to activate the wake-up signal receiver 56 to the user equipment 10. Therefore, in process block 202, the user equipment 10 enters a sleep mode. Specifically, the user equipment 10 may at least put its receiver 54 into a power saving or low power mode, and activate its wake-up signal receiver 56, ready to receive the wake-up signal 100 from the wake-up signal node 108. In this way, when the user equipment 10 is in a connected state, the method 180 may activate the wake-up signal receiver 56 of the user equipment 10.

[0063] Fig.102 is a flow chart of a method 210 for activating a wake-up signal receiver 56 of a user equipment 10 when the user equipment 10 is in an idle state according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Any suitable device (e.g., a controller) that can control components of the user equipment (UE) 10, the cellular network 103, the base station (e.g., gNB) 104, the wake-up signal (WUS) network 106, and / or the wake-up signal node 108 (such as the processor 12) can perform the method 210. In some embodiments, the method 210 can be implemented by using the processor 12 to execute instructions stored in a tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium such as a memory 14 or a storage device 16. For example, the method 210 can be performed at least in part by one or more software components such as an operating system of the user equipment 10, the cellular network 103, the base station 104, the wake-up signal network 106 and / or the wake-up signal node 108, one or more software applications of the user equipment 10, the network 103, the base station 104, the wake-up signal network 106 and / or the wake-up signal node 108, etc. Although method 210 is described using a particular order of steps, it should be understood that the present disclosure contemplates that the described steps may be performed in an order different than shown, and that certain described steps may be skipped or not performed at all.

[0064] References Fig. 9 The method 180 of 100 describes process blocks 182-194. In process block 212, the user equipment 10 enters an idle state. In additional or alternative embodiments, the user equipment 10 may enter an inactive state. In either case, the user equipment 10 may deactivate the receiver 54 and therefore not receive user data from the base station 104. In addition, the user equipment 10 may activate the wake-up signal receiver 56. In process block 214, the base station 104 sends an initialization request to the wake-up signal node 108 to activate the wake-up signal receiver 56 with a periodic wake-up configuration. As Fig. 9196, the base station 104 may send the request because it determines that the receiver 54 of the user equipment 10 should enter a power saving mode (e.g., a low power mode, a deactivated mode, a sleep mode, etc.). Specifically, the base station 104 may determine that the receiver 54 should enter the power saving mode when it has entered an idle state (or an inactive state). In an additional or alternative embodiment, the base station 104 may determine that the receiver 54 should enter the power saving mode because the user equipment 10 has been in an idle state (or an inactive state) for a threshold time period. In any such case, such conditions for which the base station 104 determines that the receiver 54 should enter the power saving mode and the parameters for such conditions (such as the state or threshold time period in which the user equipment 10 is operating) may be configured by the user equipment 10 (e.g., by the user, by default, by a machine learning algorithm). The periodic wake-up configuration may cause the wake-up signal node 108 to broadcast the wake-up signal 100 at a periodicity (e.g., every 1 millisecond (ms) or less, every 10 ms or less, every 100 ms or less, every 1 second or less, every 10 seconds or less, every 1 minute or less, every 10 minutes or less, every 10 minutes or less, etc.) to ensure that the user equipment 10 receives the wake-up signal 100, and the periodicity may be determined by the wake-up signal network 106, the cellular network 103, and / or the user equipment 10. In addition, as opposed to first receiving a wake-up signal receiver wake-up request signal from the base station 104 and broadcasting the wake-up signal 100 in response to receiving the wake-up signal receiver wake-up request signal, with the periodic wake-up configuration, the wake-up signal node 108 may initiate broadcasting the wake-up signal 100 itself.

[0065] It should be understood that the periodic wake-up configuration is included as an example embodiment, and in additional or alternative embodiments, similar to Fig. 9 At process block 196, the base station 104 may send an initialization request for activating the wake-up signal receiver 56 without a periodic wake-up configuration. Similarly, instead of sending an initialization request for activating the wake-up signal receiver 56 without a periodic wake-up configuration, Fig. 9 Process block 196 of method 180 may send an initialization request for activating a wake-up signal receiver 56 having a periodic wake-up configuration, such as Fig.10 214. In process block 216, the wake-up signal node 108 sends an initialization response to the base station 104. That is, the wake-up signal node 108 may indicate to the base station 104 that it has the availability and resources to broadcast the wake-up signal 100 in the future using a periodic wake-up configuration, and therefore, the wake-up signal receiver 56 of the user equipment 10 may be activated. If the wake-up signal node 108 does not have such availability or resources, it may indicate so.

[0066] In process block 218, the user equipment 10 enters the sleep mode after the sleep mode activation period expires. That is, after the sleep mode activation period, which may be any suitable amount of time after the user equipment enters the idle mode (e.g., 1 second or more, 10 seconds or more, 30 seconds or more, 1 minute or more, 5 minutes or more, 10 minutes or more, etc.), the user equipment 10 may enter the sleep mode. Specifically, the user equipment 10 may at least cause its receiver 54 to enter a power saving or low power mode and cause its wake-up signal receiver 56 to be activated, ready to receive the wake-up signal 100 from the wake-up signal node 108. It should be understood that the base station 104 may not be as Fig. 9 As shown in process block 200 of the method 210, an indication to activate the wake-up signal receiver 56 is sent to the user equipment 10 to put the user equipment 10 into sleep mode, because the user equipment 10 is already in an idle state and may not receive such an indication. In this way, when the user equipment 10 is in an idle state, the method 210 may activate the wake-up signal receiver 56 of the user equipment 10.

[0067] When the wake-up signal receiver 56 is activated and the cellular receiver 54 is disabled (e.g., or in a low power mode), the user equipment 10 may activate its cellular receiver 54 in response to receiving the wake-up signal 100 from the wake-up signal node 108 or automatically activate its cellular receiver to receive wireless signals (e.g., user data) from the base station 104. Fig.11 1 is a flow chart of a method 230 for activating a cellular receiver 54 in response to receiving a wake-up signal 100 by causing a wake-up signal node 108 to broadcast a wake-up signal 100 based on a base station 104 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Any suitable device (e.g., a controller) that can control components of a user equipment (UE) 10, a cellular network 103, a base station (e.g., a gNB) 104, a wake-up signal (WUS) network 106, and / or a wake-up signal node 108 (such as a processor 12) can perform the method 230. In some embodiments, the method 230 can be implemented by using the processor 12 to execute instructions stored in a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium such as a memory 14 or a storage device 16. For example, the method 230 can be performed at least in part by one or more software components such as an operating system of the user equipment 10, a cellular network 103, a base station 104, a wake-up signal network 106, and / or a wake-up signal node 108, one or more software applications of the user equipment 10, the network 103, the base station 104, the wake-up signal network 106, and / or the wake-up signal node 108, etc. Although method 230 is described using a particular order of steps, it should be understood that the present disclosure contemplates that the described steps may be performed in an order different than shown, and that certain described steps may be skipped or not performed at all.

[0068] In process block 232, the user equipment enters a sleep mode, such as Fig. 9 Process block 202 of method 180 or Fig.10 That is, the user equipment 10 has accessed the cell 120 of the base station 104 and provided its wake-up signal receiver capabilities to the base station 104, the base station 104 and the wake-up signal node 108 have exchanged wake-up signal receiver offers, and the wake-up signal receiver 56 has been activated (e.g., when the user equipment 10 is in a state such as Fig. 9 When the user equipment 10 is in the connection state described in the method 180 or when the user equipment 10 is in the connection state described in the method 180 Fig.10 in the idle state described in method 210).

[0069] In process block 234, the base station 104 and / or the cellular network 103 receives data (e.g., user data) to be sent to the user equipment 10, or determines that the sleep mode of the user equipment 10 has expired. For example, another device (e.g., a user equipment or a computing device of the cellular network 103) can send data with the user equipment 10 as a destination. As another example, when the user equipment 10 enters the sleep mode in process block 232, the base station 104 and / or the cellular network 103 may initiate a timer. Once the timer reaches a threshold expiration time (e.g., 5 seconds or less, 10 seconds or less, 1 minute or less, 5 minutes or less, 10 minutes or less, 10 minutes or more, etc.), the base station 104 and / or the cellular network 103 may determine that the user equipment 10 should exit the sleep mode.

[0070] In process block 236, the base station 104 sends a wake-up signal receiver wake-up request to the wake-up signal node 108. The wake-up signal receiver wake-up request may cause the wake-up signal node 108 to broadcast a wake-up signal 100 targeted at the user equipment 10. Thus, the wake-up signal receiver wake-up request may include an identifier associated with the user equipment 10 and / or the wake-up signal receiver 56 of the user equipment 10. In process block 238, the wake-up signal node 108 broadcasts the wake-up signal 100 targeted at the user equipment 10. Thus, the wake-up signal 100 may include an identifier corresponding to the wake-up signal 100 targeted at the user equipment 10. Any user equipment within the cell 122 of the wake-up signal node 108 may receive the broadcast signal, although only the wake-up signal receiver 56 of the user equipment 10 corresponding to the identifier in the wake-up signal 100 may activate or wake up the cellular receiver 54 in the user equipment 10.

[0071] In process block 240, the wake-up signal receiver 56 activates the receiver 54 in the user equipment 10, and the wake-up signal receiver 56 may be deactivated. That is, the receiver 54 and / or the user equipment 10 exits a sleep or power saving mode. The user equipment 10 then uses the receiver 54 to reacquire the cell 120 of the base station 104 or reconnect with the base station (or another cell 120 of another base station 104, if, for example, the other cell 120 has better signal characteristics (e.g., power and / or quality) or if the user equipment 10 has moved to another cell 120). In process block 242, the user equipment 10 and the base station 104 enter a connected state session in which the user equipment 10 and the base station 104 may exchange data (e.g., user data), including data for the user equipment 10 as referenced in process block 234. In this way, the method 230 activates the cellular receiver 54 in response to receiving the wake-up signal 100 based on the base station 104 causing the wake-up signal node 108 to broadcast the wake-up signal 100.

[0072] Fig.12 2 is a flow chart of a method 250 for activating a cellular receiver 54 in response to receiving a wake-up signal 100 based on the wake-up signal node 108 initiating a broadcast of the wake-up signal 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Any suitable device (e.g., a controller) that can control components of a user equipment (UE) 10, a cellular network 103, a base station (e.g., a gNB) 104, a wake-up signal (WUS) network 106, and / or a wake-up signal node 108 (such as a processor 12) can perform the method 250. In some embodiments, the method 250 can be implemented by using the processor 12 to execute instructions stored in a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium such as a memory 14 or a storage device 16. For example, the method 250 can be performed at least in part by one or more software components such as an operating system of the user equipment 10, a cellular network 103, a base station 104, a wake-up signal network 106, and / or a wake-up signal node 108, one or more software applications of the user equipment 10, the network 103, the base station 104, the wake-up signal network 106, and / or the wake-up signal node 108, etc. Although method 250 is described using a particular order of steps, it should be understood that the present disclosure contemplates that the steps may be performed in an order different than that shown, and that certain steps may be skipped or not performed at all.

[0073] In process block 232, the user equipment enters a sleep mode, such as Fig. 9 Process block 202 of method 180 or Fig.10 In process block 252, the wake-up signal node 108 performs a periodic wake-up trigger based on a configuration associated with the user equipment 10. For example, in Fig. 9 or Fig.10In the capability of the wake-up signal receiver 56 transmitted by the user equipment 10 to the base station 104 as described in process block 184 of Fig. 9 or Fig.10 In the wake-up signal receiver provision request transmitted by the base station 104 to the wake-up signal node 108 as described in process block 188 of , the wake-up signal node 108 may receive a configuration of a periodic wake-up trigger associated with the user equipment 10. The configuration may include a periodicity (e.g., every 1 millisecond (ms) or less, every 10 ms or less, every 100 ms or less, every 1 second or less, every 10 seconds or less, every 1 minute or less, every 10 minutes or less, every 10 minutes or more, etc.) to perform the wake-up trigger and / or other parameters of the wake-up trigger. The wake-up trigger may cause the wake-up signal node 108 to broadcast a wake-up signal 100 targeted at the user equipment 10.

[0074] Thus, in process block 238, the wake-up signal node 108 broadcasts a wake-up signal 100 targeted at the user equipment 10. In process block 240, the wake-up signal receiver 56 activates the receiver 54 in the user equipment 10, and the wake-up signal receiver 56 may be deactivated. That is, the receiver 54 and / or the user equipment 10 exit a sleep or power saving mode. The user equipment 10 then uses the receiver 54 to reacquire the cell 120 of the base station 104 (or another cell 120 of another base station 104, if, for example, the other cell 120 has better signal characteristics (e.g., power and / or quality) or if the user equipment 10 has moved to another cell 120). In process block 254, the user equipment 10 receives a paging from the base station 104. For example, the paging may include a request, message, and / or content from the base station 104 and / or the cellular network 103 targeted or addressed to the user equipment 10. It should be understood that the paging is included as an example, and in additional or alternative embodiments, the process block 254 may alternatively include a connection state session, such as Fig.11 242. Similarly, Fig.11 Process block 242 may alternatively include user equipment 10 receiving a page, as depicted in process block 254. As such, method 250 activates cellular receiver 54 in response to receiving wake-up signal 100 based on wake-up signal node 108 initiating broadcast of wake-up signal 100.

[0075] Fig.132 is a flow chart of a method 270 for user equipment 10 to activate a cellular receiver 54 when a wake-up signal receiver 56 is activated according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Any suitable device (e.g., a controller) that can control components of the user equipment (UE) 10, the cellular network 103, the base station (e.g., gNB) 104, the wake-up signal (WUS) network 106, and / or the wake-up signal node 108 (such as the processor 12) can perform the method 270. In some embodiments, the method 270 can be implemented by using the processor 12 to execute instructions stored in a tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium such as a memory 14 or a storage device 16. For example, the method 270 can be performed at least in part by one or more software components such as an operating system of the user equipment 10, the cellular network 103, the base station 104, the wake-up signal network 106 and / or the wake-up signal node 108, one or more software applications of the user equipment 10, the network 103, the base station 104, the wake-up signal network 106 and / or the wake-up signal node 108, etc. Although method 270 is described using a particular order of steps, it should be understood that the present disclosure contemplates that the described steps may be performed in an order different than shown, and that certain described steps may be skipped or not performed at all.

[0076] In process block 232, the user equipment enters a sleep mode, such as Fig. 9 Process block 202 of method 180 or Fig.10 2. The method 210 of claim 10 may be described in process block 218 of the method 210 of claim 10. In process block 272, the user equipment 10 determines that it has data (e.g., user data) to send to the cellular network 103. For example, the user equipment 10 may determine that it must upload data to a website or database, transmit a message (e.g., an email, a short message service (SMS) text message), make a voice call, etc. In process block 240, the user equipment 10 activates its cellular receiver 54 and may deactivate the wake-up signal receiver 56. The user equipment 10 then uses the receiver 54 to reacquire the cell 120 of the base station 104 (or another cell 120 of another base station 104 if, for example, the other cell 120 has better signal characteristics (e.g., power and / or quality) or if the user equipment 10 has moved to another cell 120).

[0077] The base station 104 receives an indication that the user equipment 10 has reacquired its cell 120, and in process block 274, sends a wake-up signal receiver stop request to the wake-up signal node 108. That is, because the user equipment has activated its cellular receiver 54 and deactivated its wake-up signal receiver 56, the base station 104 notifies the wake-up signal node 108 that the wake-up signal 100 is no longer necessary. The wake-up signal receiver stop request may include an identifier associated with the user equipment 10 and / or the wake-up signal receiver 56 of the user equipment 10. In response to receiving the wake-up signal receiver stop request, in process block 276, the wake-up signal node 108 removes the provision for the user equipment 10. That is, it de-allocates or releases the wake-up signal raster point 134 assigned to the wake-up signal channel 132 of the user equipment 10. In this way, the method 270 enables the user equipment 10 to activate its cellular receiver 54 when the wake-up signal receiver 56 is activated.

[0078] In embodiments where the cellular network 103 can communicate with the wake-up signal network 106 (such as when they share an operator), this relationship can be exploited to achieve better and more efficient communication. For example, when the user equipment 10 is inactive, the radio access network (RAN) (e.g., including the base station and / or the cellular network 103) may have received the context of the user equipment 10, and therefore, the RAN may know that the user equipment 10 is configured with the wake-up signal receiver 56, and therefore, the wake-up signal paging may be used to communicate with the user equipment 10. Therefore, when the user equipment 10 is inactive, the RAN may send a signal to the user equipment via the wake-up signal network 106 or receive a signal from the user equipment. As another example, when the user equipment 10 is in an idle state, the user equipment 10 context may be received by the core network (e.g., including the cellular network 103), although it may not be received by the RAN. Therefore, when paging is initiated by the core network, the core network should know whether cellular paging or wake-up signal paging should be used to indicate paging information to the RAN and / or the wake-up signal node 108 that can send a paging message.

[0079] The specific embodiments described above have been shown by way of example, and it should be understood that these embodiments are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms. It should also be understood that the claims are not intended to be limited to the specific forms disclosed, but are intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives that fall within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

[0080] The technology presented and claimed herein is cited and applied to specific examples of a physical and practical nature that significantly improves the art and is therefore not abstract, intangible, or purely theoretical. In addition, if any claim appended at the end of this specification contains one or more elements designated as "means for [performing] [the function] ..." or "steps for [performing] [the function] ...", it is intended that such elements should be interpreted in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f). However, for any claim containing elements designated in any other manner, it is intended that such elements should not be interpreted in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f).

[0081] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of the authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

Claims

1. A user equipment, comprising: Cellular transmitter; Cellular receiver; Wake-up signal receiver; and a processing circuit communicatively coupled to the cellular transmitter, the cellular receiver, and the wake-up signal receiver, the processing circuit being configured to cause the cellular transmitter to send an indication of the wake-up signal receiver to a base station, deactivating the cellular receiver and activating the wake-up signal receiver, enabling the wake-up signal receiver to receive a wake-up signal, activating the cellular receiver and deactivating the wake-up signal receiver based on the wake-up signal, and The cellular receiver is caused to receive a cellular signal from the base station.

2. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to cause the cellular receiver to receive a wake-up signal receiver activation signal from the base station, and to deactivate the cellular receiver and activate the wake-up signal receiver based on the wake-up signal receiver activation signal. 3 . The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to enter an idle state by deactivating the cellular receiver and activating the wake-up signal receiver. 4 . The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the cellular signal comprises a first frequency in a first frequency range and the wake-up signal comprises a second frequency in a second frequency range, the second frequency range not overlapping the first frequency range.

5. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to: select a first wake-up signal node for coverage of a wake-up signal network, determine that the coverage of the wake-up signal network provided by the first wake-up signal node is lost, and select a second wake-up signal node for the coverage of the wake-up signal network, the wake-up signal being received from the second wake-up signal node.

6. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to: select a wake-up signal node for coverage of a wake-up signal network, determine a loss of coverage of the wake-up signal network provided by the wake-up signal node, and activate the cellular receiver and deactivate the wake-up signal receiver to perform cellular paging or activate the cellular transmitter and deactivate the wake-up signal receiver to send an indication of the cellular paging.

7. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the cellular receiver includes one or more components that the wake-up signal receiver does not include.

8. A method comprising: receiving, at a base station, from a user equipment, an indication of a wake-up signal receiver; The base station sends a provision request for the wake-up signal receiver to a wake-up signal node; sending, by the base station, a wake-up signal receiver initiation request to the wake-up signal node, wherein the user equipment enters a power saving mode; receiving, by the base station, an indication that the user equipment has reconnected to the base station based on the user equipment exiting the power save mode; as well as The base station sends data to the user equipment or the base station receives data from the user equipment. 9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the indication of the wake-up signal receiver comprises one or more capabilities of the wake-up signal receiver.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein the one or more capabilities of the wake-up signal receiver include an indication of: support for the wake-up signal receiver when the user equipment operates in a connected state, support for the wake-up signal receiver when the user equipment operates in an idle state, support for the wake-up signal receiver when the user equipment operates in an inactive state, or any combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more capabilities of the wake-up signal receiver include an indication of a preferred grating density.

12. The method of claim 8, comprising sending, by the base station, a wake-up signal receiver activation signal to the user equipment, the wake-up signal receiver activation signal causing the user equipment to enter the power saving mode.

13. The method according to claim 8, comprising sending the provision request by the base station when the base station is in a connected state with the user equipment.

14. The method of claim 8, comprising sending, by the base station, the provision request based on the user equipment being in an idle state. 15 . The method of claim 8 , comprising receiving, by the base station, a provision response from the wake-up signal receiver based on the provision request. 16 . The method of claim 15 , comprising sending, by the base station, one or more configurations for the wake-up signal receiver based on the providing response.

17. One or more tangible non-transitory machine-readable media storing instructions configured to cause a processing circuit of a wake-up signal node to: receiving a provisioning request for user equipment from a base station; allocating resources to the user equipment; receiving an initialization request for activating a wake-up signal receiver of the user equipment; as well as A wake-up signal associated with the user equipment is broadcast.

18. The one or more tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 17, wherein the resource comprises a frequency associated with the wake-up signal.

19. The one or more tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 17, wherein the initialization request is received from a base station.

20. The one or more tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 17, wherein the initialization request is received periodically based on a configuration associated with the user equipment.

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