Net zero power internet of things remote tag lookup

Abstract

Systems and techniques for wireless communication are provided. For example, a process may include receiving a trigger signal at a first device. The process may also include determining that the first device is separate relative to a second device associated with the first device. The process may also include transmitting a response signal to the trigger signal based on a determination that the first device is separate.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communications. For example, aspects of the present disclosure relate to finding a net zero power Internet of Things remote tag. Background Art

[0002] Wireless communication systems are deployed to provide a variety of telecommunication services including telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, etc. Wireless communication systems have evolved over several generations, including first generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including transitional 2.5G networks), third generation (3G) high-speed data wireless service with Internet capabilities, fourth generation (4G) services (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE), WiMax), and fifth generation (5G) services (e.g., New Radio (NR)). There are many different types of wireless communication systems in use today, including cellular systems and personal communications service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the cellular analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), etc. Summary of the invention

[0003] The following presents a brief overview of one or more aspects disclosed herein. Therefore, the following summary of the invention should neither be considered as an exhaustive overview of all conceived aspects, nor should it be considered to identify key or decisive elements related to all conceived aspects or to delineate the scope associated with any particular aspect. Therefore, the sole purpose of the following summary of the invention is to present certain concepts related to one or more aspects of the mechanisms disclosed herein in a brief form before the detailed embodiments presented below.

[0004] A system, method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium for performing wireless communication are disclosed. According to at least one illustrative example, a first device for wireless communication is provided. The first device includes at least one memory and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory. The at least one processor is configured to: receive a trigger signal; determine that the first device is separated relative to a second device associated with the first device; and based on determining that the first device is separated, send a response signal to the trigger signal.

[0005] As another example, a device for wireless communication is provided. The device includes at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory. The at least one processor is configured to: send a trigger signal for a tag device, the trigger signal including an energy signal for collection by the tag device; receive a response to the trigger signal; obtain a response signal to the trigger signal from the tag device, the response signal including a service address; and forward at least a portion of the response signal to a device location service based on the service address in the response signal.

[0006] In another example, a method for wireless communication is provided. The method includes: receiving a trigger signal at a first device; determining that the first device is detached relative to a second device associated with the first device; and based on determining that the first device is detached, sending a response signal to the trigger signal.

[0007] As another example, a method for wireless communication is provided. The method includes: sending a trigger signal for a tag device, the trigger signal including an energy signal for collection by the tag device; receiving a response to the trigger signal; obtaining a response signal to the trigger signal from the tag device, the response signal including a service address; and forwarding at least a portion of the response signal to a device location service based on the service address in the response signal.

[0008] In another example, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon is provided. The instructions, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to: receive a trigger signal at a first device; determine that the first device is detached relative to a second device associated with the first device; and based on determining that the first device is detached, send a response signal to the trigger signal.

[0009] As another example, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon is provided. When executed by at least one processor, the instructions cause the at least one processor to: send a trigger signal for a tag device, the trigger signal including an energy signal for collection by the tag device; receive a response to the trigger signal; obtain a response signal to the trigger signal from the tag device, the response signal including a service address; and forward at least a portion of the response signal to a device location service based on the service address in the response signal.

[0010] In another example, an apparatus for wireless communication is provided. The apparatus includes: a component for receiving a trigger signal at a first device; a component for determining that the first device is detached relative to a second device associated with the first device; and a component for sending a response signal to the trigger signal based on determining that the first device is detached.

[0011] As another example, an apparatus for wireless communication is provided. The apparatus includes: a component for sending a trigger signal for a tag device, the trigger signal including an energy signal for collection by the tag device; a component for receiving a response to the trigger signal; a component for obtaining a response signal to the trigger signal from the tag device, the response signal including a service address; and a component for forwarding at least a portion of the response signal to a device location service based on the service address in the response signal.

[0012] Aspects generally include methods, apparatus, systems, computer program products, non-transitory computer readable media, user equipment, base stations, wireless communication devices and / or processing systems as fully described herein with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings and description.

[0013] Aspects generally include methods, apparatus, systems, computer program products, non-transitory computer readable media, user equipment, base stations, wireless communication devices and / or processing systems as fully described herein with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings and description.

[0014] The features and technical advantages of examples according to the present disclosure have been outlined quite extensively above so that the following specific embodiments may be better understood. Additional features and advantages will be described below. The disclosed concepts and specific examples may be easily used as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for achieving the same purpose of the present disclosure. Such equivalent constructions do not depart from the scope of the appended claims. The characteristics of the concepts disclosed herein, both in terms of their organization and method of operation, and the associated advantages will be better understood by considering the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Each of the figures in the accompanying drawings is provided for the purpose of illustration and description and not as a definition of limitations to the claims.

[0015] Although various aspects are described in the present disclosure by illustrating some examples, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that such aspects can be implemented in many different arrangements and scenarios. The technology described herein can be implemented using different platform types, devices, systems, shapes, sizes and / or packaging arrangements. For example, some aspects can be implemented via integrated chip implementations or other non-module component-based devices (e.g., end-user devices, vehicles, communication devices, computing devices, industrial equipment, retail / shopping devices, medical devices and / or artificial intelligence devices). Various aspects can be implemented in chip-level components, modular components, non-modular components, non-chip-level components, device-level components and / or system-level components. The devices incorporating the various aspects and features described may include additional components and features for implementing and practicing the various aspects claimed and described. For example, the transmission and reception of wireless signals may include one or more components for analog and digital purposes (e.g., hardware components, including antennas, radio frequency (RF) chains, power amplifiers, modulators, buffers, processors, interleavers, adders and / or summers). The various aspects described herein are intended to be practiced in a variety of devices, components, systems, distributed arrangements and / or end-user devices of various sizes, shapes and configurations.

[0016] Other purposes and advantages associated with the various aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the drawings and detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify the key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used in isolation to determine the scope of the claimed subject matter. This subject matter should be understood with reference to appropriate portions of the entire specification of this patent, any or all drawings, and each claim.

[0017] The foregoing and other features and aspects will become more apparent upon reference to the following description, claims and accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in describing various aspects of the present disclosure and are provided solely for illustration and not limitation of the various aspects.

[0019] Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication network according to some examples;

[0020] Figure 2 is a diagram illustrating a design of a base station and a user equipment (UE) device according to some examples, which enables transmission and processing of signals exchanged between the UE and the base station;

[0021] Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a decomposed base station according to some examples;

[0022] Figure 4is a block diagram illustrating components of a user equipment (UE) according to some examples;

[0023] Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting device according to some examples;

[0024] Figure 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of small signal operation of a Schottky diode barrier according to some examples;

[0025] Fig. 7A is a diagram illustrating example energy harvesting characteristics between input power and harvested power according to some examples;

[0026] Figure 7B is a diagram illustrating examples of energy conversion efficiencies associated with different frequencies and input powers according to some examples;

[0027] Fig. 8A is a diagram illustrating an example of an environment for performing remote (semi-)passive tag localization according to some examples;

[0028] Figure 8B is a diagram illustrating an example of an environment for performing remote (semi-)passive tag localization according to some examples;

[0029] Fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating finding a semi-passive or passive ZP IoT device according to aspects of the present disclosure;

[0030] Fig.10 is a diagram illustrating finding active ZP IoT devices according to aspects of the present disclosure;

[0031] Fig.11 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a process for wireless communication according to some examples;

[0032] Fig.12 is a flow chart illustrating another example of a process for wireless communication according to some examples; and

[0033] Fig.13 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a computing system according to some examples. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] For illustrative purposes, certain aspects of the present disclosure are provided below. Without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, alternative aspects may be designed. Additionally, well-known elements of the present disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted to avoid making the relevant details of the present disclosure difficult to understand. Some aspects described herein may be applied independently, and some of them may be applied in combination, which is obvious to those skilled in the art. In the following description, specific details are set forth for explanation purposes to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of the application. However, it is apparent that various aspects may be implemented without these specific details. Each drawing and description is not intended to be restrictive.

[0035] The following description provides only example aspects and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the present disclosure. Instead, the following description of the example aspects will provide a description that can be used to implement the example aspects to those skilled in the art. It should be understood that various changes may be made to the function and arrangement of the elements without departing from the scope of the present application as set forth in the appended claims.

[0036] Wireless communication networks may be deployed to provide various communication services, such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, any combination thereof, or other communication services. Wireless communication networks may support both access links and side links for communication between wireless devices. An access link may refer to any communication link between a client device (e.g., a user equipment (UE), a station (STA), or other client device) and a base station (e.g., a 3GPP gNB for 5G / NR, a 3GPP eNB for 4G / LTE, a Wi-Fi access point (AP), or other base station). For example, an access link may support uplink signaling, downlink signaling, connection procedures, etc. An example of an access link is a Uu link or interface (also referred to as NR-Uu) between a 3GPP gNB and a UE.

[0037] In various wireless communication networks, various client devices may be utilized that may be associated with different signaling and communication requirements. For example, as 5G networks expand into industrial verticals and the number of deployed Internet of Things (IoT) devices grows, network service categories such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), and massive machine type communications (mMTC) may be extended to better support various IoT devices, which may include passive IoT devices, semi-passive IoT devices, etc.

[0038] For example, passive IoT devices and semi-passive IoT devices are relatively low-cost UEs that can be used to implement one or more sensing and communication capabilities in an IoT network or deployment. In some examples, passive and / or semi-passive IoT sensors (e.g., devices) can be used to provide sensing capabilities for various processes and use cases (such as asset management, logistics, warehousing, manufacturing, etc.). Passive and semi-passive IoT devices can include one or more sensors, a processor or microcontroller, and an energy harvester for generating power from an incident downlink radio frequency (RF) signal received at the passive or semi-passive IoT device.

[0039] Based on harvesting energy from incident downlink RF signals (e.g., transmitted by network devices such as base stations, gNBs, etc.), energy harvesting devices (e.g., such as passive IoT devices, semi-passive IoT devices, etc.) may be provided without energy storage elements and / or may be provided with relatively small energy storage elements (e.g., batteries, capacitors, etc.). Based on the simplification of manufacturing and deployment of energy harvesting devices associated with implementing wireless energy harvesting, energy harvesting devices may be deployed on a large scale.

[0040] In a wireless communication network environment (e.g., a cellular network, etc.), a network device (e.g., a base station or gNB, etc.) may be used to send a downlink RF signal to an energy harvesting device. In an illustrative example, the base station or gNB may read and / or write information stored on the energy harvesting IoT device by sending a downlink RF signal. The downlink RF signal may provide energy to the energy harvesting IoT device and may be used as the basis for an uplink signal carrying information sent back to the network device by the energy harvesting IoT device (e.g., based on reflecting or backscattering a portion of the incident downlink RF signal). The base station or gNB may read the reflected signal sent by the energy harvesting IoT device to decode the information sent by the IoT device (e.g., sensor information collected by one or more sensors included in the IoT device, etc.).

[0041] Net Zero Power IoT (ZP-IoT) devices are devices that rely on energy harvesting and passive communication (also known as low-power communication) technologies such as backscatter communication, such as Figure 1 A and Figure 1As shown in B. With these technologies, low power consumption and low cost of the device can be achieved. Among the legacy commercial communication systems, the ultra-high frequency radio frequency identification (UHF RFID) system has been mature and widely used throughout the world, and it is also based on backscatter communication. However, the current ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID system is not compatible with the 5G / NR system. For example, such RFID systems are typically configured to operate on the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band, while the 5G / NR system is typically configured to operate in a licensed band. In addition, there is currently no defined interference between these two different systems. Therefore, new designs for ZP-IoT devices may be useful.

[0042] In some examples, for a given downlink signal received at an energy harvesting device with a given input RF power, a first portion of the input RF power is provided to an energy harvester of the device (e.g., where a certain percentage is converted to useful power based on the harvester's conversion efficiency, and a remaining percentage is wasted or dissipated as heat, etc.). A remaining second portion of the input RF power may be used in a backscatter uplink transmission (e.g., a second portion of the input power is reflected and modulated by the uplink communication).

[0043] In some cases, the ZP-IoT device can be used to locate lost / misplaced / separated items by attaching the ZP-IoT device to the items that may be lost / misplaced / separated. The ZP-IoT device is an improvement over existing locating tags because the ZP-IoT device can be used without requiring a relatively large power source (such as a user-replaceable or user-rechargeable battery).

[0044] In some cases, when a ZP-IoT tag device is lost / misplaced / separated, the ZP-IoT tag device may be out of the wireless communication range of the associated user device. Since the ZP-IoT tag device may not be able to communicate directly with the associated user device, a solution to detect and communicate the location of the ZP-IoT tag device may be useful.

[0045] Systems, apparatus, processes (also referred to as methods), and computer-readable media (collectively, "systems and techniques") that can be used to locate ZP-IoT devices are described herein. For example, the systems and techniques described herein can be used to provide wireless energy transfer to a ZP-IoT device, determine that a ZP-IoT device has been separated from an associated user device, and send a response signal from the ZP-IoT device that can be received and delivered to a tag location service to assist in locating the ZP-IoT device.

[0046] As an example, a wireless node or wireless device may transmit a trigger signal (e.g., a lost tag signal) to help find a nearby separated ZP-IoT tag device. In some cases, the trigger signal may include an energy signal for powering the ZP-IoT tag device. Upon receipt, the ZP-IoT tag device may determine whether it has been separated from an associated user device. If the ZP-IoT tag device determines that it has been separated from an associated user device, the ZP-IoT tag device may send a response to the trigger signal. This response to the trigger signal may be received by a nearby wireless node or wireless device. In some cases, location information may be provided by the wireless node or wireless device, and the location information along with information from the response to the trigger signal may be transmitted to a device positioning service.

[0047] Additional aspects of the systems and techniques will be described with respect to the accompanying figures.

[0048] As used herein, the phrase "based on" should not be interpreted as a reference to a closed set of information, one or more conditions, one or more factors, etc. In other words, the phrase "based on A" (where "A" can be information, a condition, a factor, etc.) should be interpreted as "based at least on A" unless specifically stated differently.

[0049] As used herein, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "network entity" are not intended to be dedicated to or otherwise limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT), unless otherwise specified. In general, a UE can be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, and / or a tracking device, etc.), a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, smart glasses, a wearable ring, and / or an extended reality (XR) device (such as a virtual reality (VR) headset, an augmented reality (AR) headset or glasses, or a mixed reality (MR) headset)), a vehicle (e.g., a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, etc.), an aircraft (e.g., an airplane, a jet, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone, a helicopter, an airship, a glider, etc.), and / or an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc., for a user to communicate over a wireless communication network. A UE can be mobile or can be stationary (e.g., at certain times) and can communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" may be interchangeably referred to as an "access terminal" or "AT," "client device," "wireless device," "subscriber equipment," "subscriber terminal," "subscriber station," "user terminal" or "UT," "mobile device," "mobile terminal," "mobile station," or variations thereof. Typically, a UE may communicate with a core network via a RAN, and through the core network, the UE may connect to external networks such as the Internet and to other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms for connecting to the core network and / or the Internet are also possible for the UE, such as through a wired access network, a wireless local area network (WLAN) network (e.g., based on IEEE 802.11 communication standards, etc.), and the like.

[0050] The network entity may be implemented in a converged or monolithic base station architecture, or alternatively, in a disaggregated base station architecture, and may include one or more of a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a radio unit (RU), a near real-time (near-RT) RAN intelligent controller (RIC), or a non-real-time (non-RT) RIC. A base station (e.g., having a converged / monolithic base station architecture or a disaggregated base station architecture) may operate in communication with a UE according to one of several RATs depending on the network in which the base station is deployed, and may alternatively be referred to as an access point (AP), a network node, a NodeB (NB), an evolved NodeB (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a new radio (NR) NodeB (also referred to as a gNB or gNodeB), etc. A base station may be primarily used to support wireless access for UEs, including supporting data, voice, and / or signaling connections for the supported UEs. In some systems, a base station may provide edge node signaling functionality, while in other systems, a base station may provide additional control and / or network management functionality. The communication link by which a UE can transmit signals to a base station is called an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). The communication link by which a base station can transmit signals to a UE is called a downlink (DL) or forward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, a broadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term traffic channel (TCH) may refer to an uplink, a reverse or downlink, and / or a forward traffic channel.

[0051] The term "network entity" or "base station" (e.g., having an aggregated / monolithic base station architecture or a disaggregated base station architecture) may refer to a single physical transmit receive point (TRP) or multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be co-located. For example, where the term "network entity" or "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be a base station antenna corresponding to a cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. Where the term "network entity" or "base station" refers to multiple co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRPs may be antenna arrays of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or where the base station employs beamforming). Where the term "base station" refers to multiple non-co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (e.g., a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transmission medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (e.g., a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-co-located physical TRPs may be a serving base station that receives measurement reports from a UE and a neighbor base station whose reference radio frequency (RF) signal (e.g., or simply "reference signal") the UE is measuring. Because, as used herein, a TRP is the point through which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, references to transmitting from or receiving at a base station should be understood to refer to the specific TRP of a base station.

[0052] In some specific implementations of supporting UE positioning, a network entity or base station may not support wireless access by the UE (e.g., may not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections with respect to the UE), but may instead send a reference signal to be measured by the UE to the UE, and / or may receive and measure a signal sent by the UE. Such a base station may be referred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., in the case of sending a signal to the UE) and / or as a position measurement unit (e.g., in the case of receiving and measuring a signal from the UE).

[0053] As described herein, a node (which may be referred to as a node, a network node, a network entity, or a wireless node) may include, may be, or may be included in (e.g., as a component of) a base station (e.g., any base station described herein), a UE (e.g., any UE described herein), a network controller, an apparatus, a device, a computing system, an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, a distributed unit (DU), a central unit (CU), a remote / radio unit (RU) (which may also be referred to as a remote radio unit (RRU)), and / or another processing entity configured to perform any of the techniques described herein. For example, the network node may be a UE. For another example, the network node may be a base station or a network entity. For another example, a first network node may be configured to communicate with a second network node or a third network node. In one aspect of this example, the first network node may be a UE, the second network node may be a base station, and the third network node may be a UE. In another aspect of this example, the first network node may be a UE, the second network node may be a base station, and the third network node may be a base station. In yet other aspects of this example, the first network node, the second network node, and the third network node may be different relative to these examples. Similarly, references to UE, base station, device, equipment, computing system, etc. may include disclosure of UE, base station, device, equipment, computing system, etc. as a network node. For example, a disclosure that a UE is configured to receive information from a base station also discloses that a first network node is configured to receive information from a second network node. Consistent with the present disclosure, once a specific example is expanded according to the present disclosure (e.g., a UE is configured to receive information from a base station also discloses that a first network node is configured to receive information from a second network node), a broader example of a narrower example may be interpreted in reverse, but in a broad, open-ended manner. In the above example that a UE is configured to receive information from a base station also discloses that a first network node is configured to receive information from a second network node, the first network node may refer to a first UE configured to receive information, a first base station, a first device, a first device, a first computing system, a first set of one or more components, a first processing entity, etc.; and the second network node may refer to a second UE, a second base station, a second device, a second device, a second computing system, a second set of one or more components, a second processing entity, etc.

[0054] As described herein, different terms may be used in various aspects to describe the communication of information (e.g., any information, signals, etc.). Disclosure of one communication term includes disclosure of other communication terms. For example, a first network node may be described as being configured to send information to a second network node. In this example and consistent with the present disclosure, disclosure that the first network node is configured to send information to the second network node includes disclosure that the first network node is configured to provide, transmit, output, communicate, or send information to the second network node. Similarly, in this example and consistent with the present disclosure, disclosure that the first network node is configured to send information to the second network node includes disclosure that the second network node is configured to receive, obtain, or decode information provided, transmitted, output, communicated, or sent by the first network node.

[0055] RF signals include electromagnetic waves of a given frequency that transmit information through the space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multipath channels, a receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between a transmitter and a receiver may be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal. As used herein, an RF signal may also be referred to as a "wireless signal" or simply a "signal" where it is clear from the context that the term "signal" refers to a wireless signal or an RF signal.

[0056] Various aspects of the systems and techniques described herein are discussed below with respect to the accompanying drawings. According to various aspects, Figure 1 An example of a wireless communication system 100 is illustrated. The wireless communication system 100 (e.g., which may also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) may include various base stations 102 and various UEs 104. In some aspects, the base stations 102 may also be referred to as "network entities" or "network nodes". One or more of the base stations 102 may be implemented in an aggregated or monolithic base station architecture. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the base stations 102 may be implemented in a decomposed base station architecture and may include one or more of a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a radio unit (RU), a near real-time (near-RT) RAN intelligent controller (RIC), or a non-real-time (non-RT) RIC. The base stations 102 may include macro cell base stations (e.g., high power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (e.g., low power cellular base stations). In one aspect, the macro cell base station may include an eNB and / or an ng-eNB (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to a long term evolution (LTE) network) or a gNB (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an NR network) or a combination of both, and the small cell base station may include a femto cell, a pico cell, a micro cell, etc.

[0057] The base stations 102 may collectively form a RAN and interface with a core network 170 (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC)) through a backhaul link 122, and interface to one or more location servers 172 (e.g., the one or more location servers may be part of the core network 170 or may be external to the core network 170) through the core network 170. Among other functions, the base stations 102 may perform functions related to one or more of the following: delivering user data, radio channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection establishment and release, load balancing, distribution of non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment tracking, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of warning messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC or 5GC) through a backhaul link 134 (which may be wired and / or wireless).

[0058] Base station 102 may communicate wirelessly with UE 104. Each of base stations 102 may provide communication coverage for a corresponding geographic coverage area 110. In one aspect, base station 102 in each coverage area 110 may support one or more cells. A "cell" is a logical communication entity used to communicate with a base station (e.g., on a certain frequency resource, referred to as a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, frequency band, etc.), and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., a physical cell identifier (PCI), a virtual cell identifier (VCI), a cell global identifier (CGI)) to distinguish cells operating via the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or other protocol types) that may provide access to different types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a specific base station, the term "cell" may refer to either or both of the logical communication entity and the base station supporting it, depending on the context. In addition, since a TRP is typically a physical transmission point of a cell, the terms "cell" and "TRP" may be used interchangeably. In some cases, the term "cell" may also refer to a geographic coverage area (eg, a sector) of a base station, as long as a carrier frequency can be detected and used for communications within some portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0059] Although the geographic coverage areas 110 of neighboring macrocell base stations 102 may partially overlap (e.g., in a handover area), some of the geographic coverage areas 110 may substantially overlap with the larger geographic coverage area 110. For example, a small cell base station 102' may have a coverage area 110' that substantially overlaps with the coverage areas 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell base stations and macrocell base stations may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include a home eNB (HeNB), which may provide services to a restricted group called a closed subscriber group (CSG).

[0060] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include uplink (e.g., also referred to as a reverse link) transmissions from the UE 104 to the base station 102 and / or downlink (e.g., also referred to as a forward link) transmissions from the base station 102 to the UE 104. The communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna technology, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. One or more carrier frequencies may be used to provide the communication link 120. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to the downlink and uplink (e.g., a greater number or a lesser number of carriers may be allocated for the downlink than for the uplink).

[0061] Beamforming (which may also be referred to as spatial filtering, directional transmission, or directional reception) is a signal processing technique that may be used at a transmitting device or a receiving device (e.g., one or more of base station 102, UE 104, etc.) to form or direct an antenna beam (e.g., a transmit beam, a receive beam) along a spatial path between the transmitting device and the receiving device. Beamforming may be implemented based on combining signals conveyed via antenna elements of an antenna array so that some signals propagating at a particular orientation relative to the antenna array experience constructive interference, while other signals experience destructive interference. Adjustments to signals conveyed via antenna elements may include the transmitting device or the receiving device applying an amplitude offset, a phase offset, or both to signals carried via antenna elements associated with the device. Adjustments associated with each of these antenna elements may be defined by a set of beamforming weights associated with a particular direction (e.g., relative to the antenna array of the transmitting device or the receiving device or relative to some other direction).

[0062] A transmitting device and / or a receiving device (e.g., such as one or more of a base station 102 and / or a UE 104) may use beam scanning techniques as part of a beamforming operation. For example, a base station 102 (e.g., or other transmitting device) may use multiple antennas or antenna arrays (e.g., antenna panels) to perform beamforming operations for directional communication with a UE 104 (e.g., or other receiving device). Some signals (e.g., synchronization signals, reference signals, beam selection signals, or other control signals) may be transmitted multiple times by the base station 102 (or other transmitting device) in different directions. For example, the base station 102 may transmit signals according to different beamforming weight sets associated with different transmission directions. Transmissions in different beam directions may be used to identify beam directions (e.g., by a transmitting device (such as a base station 102), or by a receiving device (such as a UE 104)) for later transmission or reception by the base station 102.

[0063] Some signals, such as data signals associated with a particular receiving device, may be transmitted by base station 102 in a single beam direction (e.g., a direction associated with a receiving device such as UE 104). In some examples, a beam direction associated with transmission along a single beam direction may be determined based on signals transmitted in one or more beam directions. For example, UE 104 may receive one or more of the signals transmitted by base station 102 in different directions and may report to base station 104 an indication of the signal received by UE 104 with the highest signal quality or other acceptable signal quality.

[0064] In some examples, transmission by a device (e.g., by a base station 102 or a UE 104) may be performed using multiple beam directions, and the device may use a combination of digital precoding or radio frequency beamforming to generate a combined beam for transmission (e.g., from a base station 102 to a UE 104, from a transmitting device to a receiving device, etc.). The UE 104 may report feedback indicating precoding weights for one or more beam directions, and the feedback may correspond to a configured number of beams across a system bandwidth or one or more subbands. The base station 102 may transmit a reference signal (e.g., a cell-specific reference signal (CRS), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), etc.), which may be precoded or unprecoded. The UE 104 may provide feedback for beam selection, which may be a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) or codebook-based feedback (e.g., a multi-panel codebook, a linear combination codebook, a port selection codebook). Although these techniques are described with reference to signals sent by base station 102 in one or more directions, UE 104 may employ similar techniques to send signals multiple times in different directions (e.g., to identify a beam direction for subsequent transmission or reception by UE 104), or to send signals in a single direction (e.g., to send data to a receiving device).

[0065] A receiving device (e.g., UE 104) may try multiple reception configurations (e.g., directional listening) when receiving various signals (such as synchronization signals, reference signals, beam selection signals, or other control signals) from a base station 102. For example, a receiving device may try multiple reception directions by receiving via different antenna subarrays, processing received signals according to different antenna subarrays, receiving according to different reception beamforming weight sets (e.g., different directional listening weight sets) applied to signals received at multiple antenna elements of an antenna array, or processing received signals according to different reception beamforming weight sets applied to signals received at multiple antenna elements of an antenna array, any of which may be referred to as "listening" according to different reception configurations or reception directions. In some examples, a receiving device may use a single reception configuration to receive along a single beam direction (e.g., when receiving a data signal). The single reception configuration may be aligned on a beam direction determined based on listening according to different reception configuration directions (e.g., a beam direction determined to have the highest signal strength, the highest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), or other acceptable signal quality based on listening according to multiple beam directions).

[0066] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a WLAN AP 150 in communication with a WLAN station (STA) 152 via a communication link 154 in an unlicensed spectrum (e.g., 5 gigahertz (GHz)). When communicating in the unlicensed spectrum, the WLAN STA 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) or a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure before communicating to determine whether the channel is available. In some examples, the wireless communication system 100 may include a device (e.g., UE, etc.) that communicates with one or more UEs 104, base stations 102, APs 150, etc. using an ultra-wideband (UWB) spectrum. The UWB spectrum may range from 3.1 GHz to 10.5 GHz.

[0067] The small cell base station 102' can operate in licensed and / or unlicensed spectrum. When operating in the unlicensed spectrum, the small cell base station 102' can adopt LTE or NR technology and use the same 5GHz unlicensed spectrum used by the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base station 102' adopting LTE and / or 5G in the unlicensed spectrum can improve the coverage of the access network and / or increase the capacity of the access network. NR in the unlicensed spectrum can be referred to as NR-U. LTE in the unlicensed spectrum can be referred to as LTE-U, License Assisted Access (LAA) or MulteFire.

[0068] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a millimeter wave (mmW) base station 180, which may operate at mmW frequencies and / or near mmW frequencies to communicate with the UE 182. The mmW base station 180 may be implemented in an aggregated or monolithic base station architecture, or alternatively, in a decomposed base station architecture (e.g., including one or more of a CU, DU, RU, near RT RIC, or non-RT RIC). Extremely high frequency (EHF) is part of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz, with a wavelength between 1 mm and 10 mm. Radio waves in this band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Near mmW may extend down to a frequency of 3 GHz with a wavelength of 100 mm. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz, which is also referred to as centimeter waves. Communications using mmW and / or near mmW radio frequency bands have high path loss and a relatively short range. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 may utilize beamforming (e.g., transmit and / or receive) on the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short range. In addition, it should be understood that in alternative configurations, one or more base stations 102 may also use mmW or near-mmW and beamforming for transmission. Therefore, it should be understood that the foregoing illustrations are merely examples and should not be construed as limiting the various aspects disclosed herein.

[0069] In some aspects related to 5G, the spectrum in which a wireless network node or entity (e.g., base station 102 / 180, UE 104 / 182) operates is divided into multiple frequency ranges: FR1 (e.g., from 450 megahertz (MHz) to 6,000 MHz), FR2 (e.g., from 24,250 MHz to 52,600 MHz), FR3 (e.g., above 52,600 MHz), and FR4 (e.g., between FR1 and FR2). In a multi-carrier system (such as 5G), one of the carrier frequencies is referred to as a "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell", and the remaining carrier frequencies are referred to as "secondary carriers" or "secondary serving cells" or "SCells". In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is a carrier operating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) used by the UE 104 / 182 and the cell in which the UE 104 / 182 performs an initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates an RRC connection reestablishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common control channels as well as UE-specific control channels and can be a carrier in a licensed frequency (however, this is not always the case). The secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2) that can be configured and used to provide additional radio resources once an RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier. In some cases, the secondary carrier may be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. The secondary carrier may contain only necessary signaling information and signals, for example, since the primary uplink carrier and the primary downlink carrier are typically UE-specific, those signaling information and signals that are UE-specific may not be present in the secondary carrier. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. The same is true for the uplink primary carrier. The network can change the primary carrier of any UE 104 / 182 at any time. This is done, for example, to balance the load on different carriers. Since a "serving cell" (e.g., whether PCell or SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency or component carrier that some base station is using to communicate, the terms "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. can be used interchangeably.

[0070] For example, still refer to Figure 1, one of the frequencies used by the macrocell base station 102 may be an anchor carrier (or "PCell"), and the other frequencies used by the macrocell base station 102 and / or the mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers ("SCells"). In carrier aggregation, the base station 102 and / or the UE 104 may use spectrum of up to Y MHz (e.g., 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz, 20 MHz, 100 MHz) bandwidth per carrier, with up to a total of Yx MHz (e.g., x component carriers) in each direction for transmission. The component carriers may or may not be adjacent to each other in the spectrum. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to the downlink and uplink (e.g., a larger or smaller number of carriers may be allocated for the downlink than for the uplink). Simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers enables the UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission and / or reception rate. For example, two 20 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically result in double the data rate (eg, 40 MHz) compared to the data rate achieved with a single 20 MHz carrier.

[0071] In order to operate on multiple carrier frequencies, the base station 102 and / or the UE 104 may be equipped with multiple receivers and / or transmitters. For example, the UE 104 may have two receivers, namely "receiver 1" and "receiver 2", where "receiver 1" is a multi-band receiver that can be tuned to band (e.g., carrier frequency) "X" or band "Y", and "receiver 2" is a single-band receiver that can be tuned to only band "Z". In this example, if the UE 104 is being served in band "X", band "X" will be referred to as the PCell or active carrier frequency, and "receiver 1" will need to tune from band "X" to band "Y" (e.g., SCell) to measure band "Y" (and vice versa). In contrast, regardless of whether the UE 104 is being served in band "X" or band "Y", due to the separate "receiver 2", the UE 104 can measure band "Z" without interrupting the service on band "X" or band "Y".

[0072] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a UE 164, which may communicate with the macrocell base station 102 over the communication link 120 and / or communicate with the mmW base station 180 over the mmW communication link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 may support a PCell and one or more SCells for the UE 164, and the mmW base station 180 may support one or more SCells for the UE 164.

[0073] The wireless communication system 100 may also include one or more UEs (such as UE 190) that are indirectly connected to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links (eg, referred to as “side links”). Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 1 , UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of UEs 104 connected to one of base stations 102 (e.g., UE 190 can indirectly obtain cellular connectivity through the link), and has a D2D P2P link 194 with WLAN STA 152 connected to WLAN AP 150 (e.g., UE 190 can indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity through the link). In an example, D2D P2P links 192 and 194 can use any well-known D2D RAT (such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth ® etc.) to support.

[0074] Figure 2 A block diagram illustrating an example architecture 200 of a base station 102 and a UE 104 that enables sending and processing of signals exchanged between the UE and the base station according to some aspects of the present disclosure. The example architecture 200 includes components of the base station 102 and the UE 104, which may be Figure 1 Illustrated are one of the base stations 102 and one of the UEs 104. The base station 102 may be equipped with T antennas 234a through 234t, and the UE 104 may be equipped with R antennas 252a through 252r, where in general T≧1 and R≧1.

[0075] At the base station 102, the transmit processor 220 may receive data for one or more UEs from the data source 212, select one or more modulation and coding schemes (MCS) for each UE based on a channel quality indicator (CQI) received from the UE, process (e.g., encode and modulate) the data for each UE based on the MCS selected for the UE, and provide data symbols for all UEs. The transmit processor 220 may also process system information (e.g., for semi-static resource partitioning information (SRPI), etc.) and control information (e.g., CQI requests, grants, upper layer signaling, etc.), and provide overhead symbols and control symbols. The transmit processor 220 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals (e.g., cell-specific reference signals (CRS)) and synchronization signals (e.g., primary synchronization signals (PSS) and secondary synchronization signals (SSS)). The transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., pre-decoding) on ​​data symbols, control symbols, overhead symbols, and / or reference symbols, where applicable, and may provide T output symbol streams to T modulators (MODs) 232a to 232t. The modulators 232a to 232t are shown as combined modulator-demodulators (MOD-DEMODs). In some cases, the modulator and demodulator may be separate components. Each modulator in the modulators 232a to 232t may process a corresponding output symbol stream (e.g., for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme, etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator in the modulators 232a to 232t may further process the output sample stream (e.g., convert the output sample stream to analog, amplify, filter, and up-convert) to obtain a downlink signal. The T downlink signals may be sent from the modulators 232a to 232t via T antennas 234a to 234t, respectively. According to certain aspects described in greater detail below, position encoding may be utilized to generate a synchronization signal to convey additional information.

[0076] At UE 104, antennas 252a to 252r may receive downlink signals from base station 102 and / or other base stations, and may provide the received signals to one or more demodulators (DEMOD) 254a to 254r, respectively. Demodulators 254a to 254r are shown as combined modulator-demodulators (MOD-DEMOD). In some cases, the modulator and demodulator may be separate components. Each demodulator in demodulators 254a to 254r may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) the received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator in demodulators 254a to 254r may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. MIMO detector 256 may obtain received symbols from all R demodulators 254a to 254r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols (if applicable), and provide detected symbols. The receive processor 258 may process (e.g., demodulate and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE 104 to a data sink 260, and provide decoded control information and system information to a controller / processor 280. The channel processor may determine a reference signal received power (RSRP), a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), a channel quality indicator (CQI), etc.

[0077] On the uplink, at the UE 104, a transmit processor 264 may receive and process data from a data source 262 and control information (e.g., for reports including RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, CQI, etc.) from a controller / processor 280. The transmit processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for one or more reference signals (e.g., based on a beta value or set of beta values ​​associated with the one or more reference signals). The symbols from the transmit processor 264 may be pre-decoded by the TX MIMO processor 266, further processed by the modulators 254a to 254r (e.g., for DFT-s-OFDM, CP-OFDM, etc.), and sent to the base station 102. At the base station 102, uplink signals from the UE 104 and other UEs may be received by antennas 234a to 234t, processed by demodulators 232a to 232t, detected by a MIMO detector 236 (e.g., where applicable), and further processed by a receive processor 238 to obtain decoded data and control information transmitted by the UE 104. The receive processor 238 may provide the decoded data to a data sink 239 and the decoded control information to a controller (e.g., processor) 240. The base station 102 may include a communication unit 244 and communicate with the network controller 231 via the communication unit 244. The network controller 231 may include a communication unit 294, a controller / processor 290, and a memory 292.

[0078] In some aspects, one or more components of the UE 104 may be included in a housing. The controller 240 of the base station 102, the controller / processor 280 of the UE 104, and / or Figure 2 Any other component of may perform one or more techniques associated with determining an implicit UCI β value for NR.

[0079] Memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for base station 102 and UE 104, respectively. A scheduler 246 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink, uplink, and / or sidelink.

[0080] In some aspects, the deployment of a communication system such as a 5G New Radio (NR) system may be arranged with various components or constituent parts in a variety of ways. In a 5G NR system or network, a network node, a network entity, a mobility element of a network, a radio access network (RAN) node, a core network node, a network element, or a network equipment (such as a base station (BS), or one or more units (or one or more components) that perform base station functionality) may be implemented in an aggregated or decomposed architecture. For example, a BS (e.g., such as a Node B (NB), an evolved NB (eNB), an NR BS, a 5G NB, an access point (AP), a transmit receive point (TRP), or a cell, etc.) may be implemented as an aggregated base station (e.g., also referred to as an independent BS or a monolithic BS) or a decomposed base station.

[0081] A converged base station may be configured to utilize a radio protocol stack that is physically or logically integrated within a single RAN node. A decomposed base station may be configured to utilize a protocol stack that is physically or logically distributed between two or more units (e.g., such as one or more central or centralized units (CUs), one or more distributed units (DUs), or one or more radio units (RUs)). In some aspects, a CU may be implemented within a RAN node, and one or more DUs may be co-located with the CU, or alternatively, may be geographically or virtually distributed in one or more other RAN nodes. A DU may be implemented to communicate with one or more RUs. Each of the CU, DU, and RU may also be implemented as a virtual unit, i.e., a virtual central unit (VCU), a virtual distributed unit (VDU), or a virtual radio unit (VRU).

[0082] Base station type operations or network designs may take into account the aggregated nature of base station functionality. For example, a disaggregated base station may be used in an integrated access backhaul (IAB) network, an open radio access network (O-RAN (e.g., a network configuration such as that initiated by the O-RAN Alliance)), or a virtualized radio access network (e.g., vRAN, also known as a cloud radio access network (C-RAN)). Decomposition may include distributing functionality across two or more units at various physical locations, as well as virtually distributing functionality of at least one unit, which may enable flexibility in network design. Individual units of a disaggregated base station or disaggregated RAN architecture may be configured for wired or wireless communication with at least one other unit.

[0083] Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating an example decomposed base station 300 architecture. The decomposed base station 300 architecture may include one or more central units (CUs) 310 that may communicate directly with a core network 320 via a backhaul link, or indirectly with the core network 320 through one or more decomposed base station units (e.g., such as a near real-time (near-RT) RAN intelligent controller (RIC) 325 via an E2 link, or a non-real-time (non-RT) RIC 315 associated with a service management and orchestration (SMO) framework 305, or both). The CU 310 may communicate with one or more distributed units (DUs) 330 via respective midhaul links, such as an F1 interface. The DU 330 may communicate with one or more radio units (RUs) 340 via respective fronthaul links. The RU 340 may communicate with respective UEs 104 via one or more radio frequency (RF) access links. In some implementations, a UE 104 may be served simultaneously by multiple RUs 340.

[0084] Figure 3Each of the units illustrated and / or described herein (e.g., CU 310, DU 330, RU 340, and near-RT RIC 325, non-RT RIC 315, and SMO framework 305) may include one or more interfaces or be coupled to one or more interfaces, which are configured to receive or send signals, data, or information (e.g., collectively referred to as signals) via a wired or wireless transmission medium. Each of the units or an associated processor or controller that provides instructions to the communication interface of these units may be configured to communicate with one or more of the other units via a transmission medium. For example, the unit may include a wired interface that is configured to receive or send signals to one or more of the other units on a wired transmission medium. Additionally, the unit may include a wireless interface that may include a receiver, a transmitter, or a transceiver (e.g., such as a radio frequency (RF) transceiver) that is configured to receive or send signals or both to one or more of the other units via a wireless transmission medium.

[0085] In some aspects, the CU 310 may host one or more higher layer control functions. Such control functions may include radio resource control (RRC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), or service data adaptation protocol (SDAP), etc. Each control function may be implemented using an interface configured to communicate signals with other control functions hosted by the CU 310. The CU 310 may be configured to handle user plane functionality (e.g., central unit-user plane (CU-UP)), control plane functionality (e.g., central unit-control plane (CU-CP)), or a combination thereof. In some specific implementations, the CU 310 may be logically split into one or more CU-UP units and one or more CU-CP units. When implemented in an O-RAN configuration, the CU-UP unit may communicate bidirectionally with the CU-CP unit via an interface (such as an E1 interface). As needed, the CU 310 may be implemented to communicate with the DU 330 for network control and signaling.

[0086] The DU 330 may correspond to a logical unit that includes one or more base station functions for controlling the operation of one or more RUs 340. In some aspects, the DU 330 may host one or more of a radio link control (RLC) layer, a medium access control (MAC) layer, and one or more high physical (PHY) layers (such as modules for forward error correction (FEC) encoding and decoding, scrambling, modulation and demodulation, etc.) depending on a functional partition (e.g., such as a functional partition defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)). In some aspects, the DU 330 may further host one or more low PHY layers. Each layer (or module) may be implemented using an interface that is configured to communicate signals with other layers (and modules) hosted by the DU 330 or with control functions hosted by the CU 310.

[0087] The lower layer functionality may be implemented by one or more RUs 340. In some deployments, a RU 340 controlled by a DU 330 may correspond to a logical node that hosts RF processing functions or low PHY layer functions (e.g., such as performing Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Inverse FFT (iFFT), digital beamforming, physical random access channel (PRACH) extraction and filtering, etc.), or both, based on a functional split (such as a lower layer functional split). In such an architecture, the RU 340 may be implemented to handle over-the-air (OTA) communications with one or more UEs 104. In some implementations, real-time and non-real-time aspects of communicating with the control plane and user plane of the RU 340 may be controlled by the corresponding DU 330. In some scenarios, this configuration may enable the implementation of the DU 330 and the CU 310 in a cloud-based RAN architecture (such as a vRAN architecture).

[0088] The SMO framework 305 may be configured to support RAN deployment and provisioning of non-virtualized network elements and virtualized network elements. For non-virtualized network elements, the SMO framework 305 may be configured to support the deployment of dedicated physical resources for RAN coverage requirements, which may be managed via an operation and maintenance interface (e.g., such as an O1 interface). For virtualized network elements, the SMO framework 305 may be configured to interact with a cloud computing platform (e.g., such as an open cloud (O-Cloud) 390) to perform network element lifecycle management (e.g., such as instantiating virtualized network elements) via a cloud computing platform interface (e.g., such as an O2 interface). Such virtualized network elements may include, but are not limited to, CU 310, DU 330, RU 340, and near RTRIC 325. In some specific implementations, the SMO framework 305 may communicate with hardware aspects of the 4G RAN (such as an open eNB (O-eNB) 311) via the O1 interface. Additionally, in some implementations, the SMO framework 305 can communicate directly with one or more RUs 340 via the O1 interface. The SMO framework 305 can also include a non-RT RIC 315 configured to support the functionality of the SMO framework 305.

[0089] The non-RT RIC 315 may be configured to include logic functions that enable non-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources, artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) workflows including model training and updating, or policy-based guidance of applications / features in the near-RT RIC 325. The non-RT RIC 315 may be coupled to or in communication with the near-RT RIC 325 (e.g., such as via an A1 interface). The near-RT RIC 325 may be configured to include logic functions that enable near-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources via data collection and actions through an interface (e.g., such as via an E2 interface) that connects one or more CUs 310, one or more DUs 330, or both, and the O-eNB with the near-RT RIC 325.

[0090] In some implementations, in order to generate an AI / ML model to be deployed in the near-RT RIC 325, the non-RT RIC 315 may receive parameters or external enrichment information from an external server. Such information may be utilized by the near-RT RIC 325 and may be received from a non-network data source or from a network function at the SMO framework 305 or the non-RT RIC 315. In some examples, the non-RT RIC 315 or the near-RT RIC 325 may be configured to tune RAN behavior or performance. For example, the non-RT RIC 315 may monitor long-term trends and patterns of performance and employ AI / ML models to perform corrective actions through the SMO framework 305 (e.g., such as via reconfiguration of O1) or via the creation of RAN management policies (e.g., such as A1 policies).

[0091] Figure 4 An example of a computing system 470 of a wireless device 407 is illustrated. The wireless device 407 may include a client device such as a UE (e.g., UE 104, UE 152, UE 190) or other type of device that can be used by an end user (e.g., a station (STA) configured to communicate using a Wi-Fi interface). For example, the wireless device 407 may include a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a tracking device, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, glasses, an extended reality (XR) device (such as a virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (MR) device), etc.), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a vehicle, an aircraft, and / or another device configured to communicate via a wireless communication network. The computing system 470 includes software and hardware components that can be electrically coupled or communicatively coupled via a bus 489 (e.g., or can communicate in other ways, as the case may be). For example, the computing system 470 includes one or more processors 484. One or more processors 484 may include one or more CPUs, ASICs, FPGAs, APs, GPUs, VPUs, NSPs, microcontrollers, dedicated hardware, any combination thereof, and / or other processing devices or systems. One or more processors 484 may use a bus 489 to communicate between cores and / or with one or more memory devices 486.

[0092] The computing system 470 may also include one or more memory devices 486, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs) 482, one or more SIMs 474, one or more modems 476, one or more wireless transceivers 478, an antenna 487, one or more input devices 472 (e.g., a camera, a mouse, a keyboard, a touch-sensitive screen, a touchpad, a keypad, a microphone, etc.), and one or more output devices 480 (e.g., a display, a speaker, a printer, etc.).

[0093] In some aspects, computing system 470 may include one or more RF interfaces configured to send and / or receive radio frequency (RF) signals. In some examples, the RF interface may include components such as modem 476, wireless transceiver 478, and / or antenna 487. One or more wireless transceivers 478 may send and receive wireless signals (e.g., signal 488) from one or more other devices via antenna 487, such as other wireless devices, network devices (e.g., base stations such as eNBs and / or gNBs, Wi-Fi access points (APs) such as routers, range extenders, etc.), cloud networks, etc. In some examples, computing system 470 may include multiple antennas or antenna arrays that may facilitate simultaneous transmission and reception functionality. Antenna 487 may be an omnidirectional antenna so that radio frequency (RF) signals may be received from all directions and transmitted in all directions. Wireless signal 488 may be transmitted via a wireless network. The wireless network may be any wireless network, such as a cellular or telecommunications network (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G, etc.), a wireless local area network (e.g., a Wi-Fi network), a Bluetooth ™ network and / or other networks.

[0094] In some examples, wireless signals 488 may be transmitted directly to other wireless devices using sidelink communications (e.g., using a PC5 interface, using a DSRC interface, etc.). Wireless transceiver 478 may be configured to transmit RF signals via antenna 487 for performing sidelink communications according to one or more transmit power parameters that may be associated with one or more regulatory modes. Wireless transceiver 478 may also be configured to receive sidelink communication signals having different signal parameters from other wireless devices.

[0095] In some examples, one or more wireless transceivers 478 may include an RF front end that includes one or more components such as an amplifier, a mixer for down-converting a signal (e.g., also referred to as a signal multiplier), a frequency synthesizer (e.g., also referred to as an oscillator) that provides a signal to the mixer, a baseband filter, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), one or more power amplifiers, and other components. The RF front end may generally handle the selection of wireless signals 488 and the conversion of the wireless signals to baseband frequencies or intermediate frequencies, and may convert the RF signals to the digital domain.

[0096] In some cases, computing system 470 may include a coding-decoding device (or CODEC) configured to encode and / or decode data transmitted and / or received using one or more wireless transceivers 478. In some cases, computing system 470 may include an encryption-decryption device or component configured to encrypt and / or decrypt data transmitted and / or received by one or more wireless transceivers 478 (e.g., according to the AES and / or DES standards).

[0097] One or more SIMs 474 may each securely store an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number and associated keys assigned to a user of the wireless device 407. The IMSI and keys may be used to identify and authenticate a subscriber when accessing a network provided by a network service provider or operator associated with the one or more SIMs 474. One or more modems 476 may modulate one or more signals to encode information for transmission using one or more wireless transceivers 478. One or more modems 476 may also demodulate signals received by one or more wireless transceivers 478 in order to decode the transmitted information. In some examples, one or more modems 476 may include a Wi-Fi modem, a 4G (or LTE) modem, a 5G (or NR) modem, and / or other types of modems. One or more modems 476 and one or more wireless transceivers 478 may be used to communicate data of one or more SIMs 474.

[0098] The computing system 470 may also include (and / or be in communication with) one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media or storage devices (e.g., one or more memory devices 486), which may include, but are not limited to, local and / or network accessible storage, disk drives, drive arrays, optical storage devices, solid-state storage devices such as RAM and / or ROM, which may be programmable, flash-updatable, etc. Such storage devices may be configured to implement any suitable data storage, including, but not limited to, various file systems, database structures, etc.

[0099] In various aspects, the functionality may be stored as one or more computer program products (e.g., instructions or code) in the memory device 486 and executed by the one or more processors 484 and / or the one or more DSPs 482. The computing system 470 may also include software elements (e.g., located within the one or more memory devices 486) including, for example, an operating system, device drivers, executable libraries, and / or other code, such as one or more applications, which may include computer programs that implement the functionality provided by the various aspects and / or may be designed to implement methods and / or configure systems, as described herein.

[0100] Figure 5is a diagram illustrating an example of an architecture of a radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting device 500 according to some examples. As will be described in more depth below, the RF energy harvesting device 500 can collect RF energy from one or more RF signals received using an antenna 590. As used herein, the term "energy harvesting" can be used interchangeably with "power harvesting". In some aspects, an "energy harvesting device" can be a device capable of performing energy harvesting (EH). For example, as used herein, the term "energy harvesting device" can be used interchangeably with the term "device with EH capabilities" or "device with energy harvesting capabilities". In some aspects, the energy harvesting device 500 can be implemented as an Internet of Things (IoT) device, can be implemented as a sensor, etc., as will be described in more depth below. In other examples, the energy harvesting device 500 can be implemented as a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag or various other RFID devices.

[0101] The energy harvesting device 500 includes one or more antennas 590 that can be used to send and receive one or more wireless signals. For example, the energy harvesting device 500 can use the antenna 590 to receive one or more downlink signals and send one or more uplink signals. The impedance matching component 510 can be used to match the impedance of the antenna 590 to the impedance of one or more (or all) receiving components included in the energy harvesting device 500. In some examples, the receiving components of the energy harvesting device 500 can include a demodulator 520 (e.g., for demodulating the received downlink signal), an energy harvester 530 (e.g., for collecting RF energy from the received downlink signal), a regulator 540, a microcontroller unit (MCU) 550, and a modulator 560 (e.g., for generating an uplink signal). In some cases, the receiving components of the energy harvesting device 500 can also include one or more sensors 570.

[0102] The downlink signal may be received from one or more transmitters. For example, the energy harvesting device 500 may receive the downlink signal from a network node or network entity included in the same wireless network as the energy harvesting device 500. In some cases, the network entity may be a base station, gNB, etc. that communicates with the energy harvesting device 500 using a cellular communication network. For example, the cellular communication network may be implemented in accordance with 3G, 4G, 5G, and / or other cellular standards (e.g., including future standards such as 6G and above).

[0103] In some cases, the energy harvesting device 500 may be implemented as a passive or semi-passive energy harvesting device that performs passive uplink communication by modulating and reflecting downlink signals received via antenna 590. Passive or semi-passive energy harvesting devices may also be referred to as devices with passive or semi-passive EH capabilities, respectively. For example, passive and semi-passive energy harvesting devices may not be able to generate and send uplink signals without first receiving downlink signals that can be modulated and reflected. In other examples, the energy harvesting device 500 may be implemented as an active energy harvesting device that performs active uplink communication using a powered transceiver. The active energy harvesting device is capable of generating and sending uplink signals without first receiving a downlink signal (e.g., by using an on-device power supply to power its powered transceiver).

[0104] An active or semi-passive energy harvesting device (e.g., also referred to as an active EH-capable device or a semi-passive EH-capable device, respectively) may include one or more energy storage elements 585 (e.g., collectively referred to as “energy storage”). For example, the one or more energy storage elements 585 may include a battery, a capacitor, etc. In some examples, the one or more energy storage elements 585 may be associated with a boost converter 580. The boost converter 580 may receive at least a portion of the energy harvested by the energy harvester 530 as an input (e.g., the remainder of the harvested energy is provided as instantaneous power for operating the energy harvesting device 500). In some aspects, the boost converter 580 may be a boost converter that boosts voltage from its input to its output (e.g., and reduces current from its input to its output). In some examples, the boost converter 580 may be used to boost the harvested energy generated by the energy harvester 530 to a voltage level associated with charging the one or more energy storage elements 585. An active or semi-passive energy harvesting device may include one or more energy storage elements 585 and may include one or more boost converters 580. The number of energy storage elements 585 may be the same or different than the number of boost converters 580 included in the active or semi-passive energy harvesting device.

[0105] A passive energy harvesting device (e.g., also referred to as a "passive EH-capable device") does not include an energy storage element 585 or other on-device power source. For example, a passive energy harvesting device may be powered using only RF energy collected from a downlink signal (e.g., using an energy harvester 530). As previously described, a semi-passive energy harvesting device may include one or more energy storage elements 585 and / or other on-device power sources. The energy storage element 585 of a semi-passive energy harvesting device may be used to increase or supplement the RF energy collected from the downlink signal. In some cases, the energy storage element 585 of a semi-passive energy harvesting device may not store enough energy to transmit uplink communications without first receiving downlink communications (e.g., the minimum transmit power of the semi-passive device > the capacity of the energy storage element). An active energy harvesting device may include one or more energy storage elements 585 and / or other on-device power sources that can power uplink communications without using supplemental collected RF energy (e.g., the minimum transmit power of the active device < the capacity of the energy storage element). Energy storage elements 585 included in active energy harvesting devices and / or semi-passive energy harvesting devices may be charged using the harvested RF energy.

[0106] As described above, passive and semi-passive energy harvesting devices send uplink communications by performing backscatter modulation to modulate and reflect received downlink signals. The received downlink signal is used to provide both power (e.g., to perform demodulation, local processing, and modulation) and a carrier for uplink communications (e.g., a reflection of the downlink signal). For example, a portion of the downlink signal will be backscattered as an uplink signal, while the remainder of the downlink signal can be used to perform energy harvesting.

[0107] Active energy harvesting devices can send uplink communications without performing backscatter modulation and without receiving corresponding downlink signals (e.g., active energy harvesting devices include energy storage elements for providing power and include a powered transceiver for generating a carrier for uplink communications). Passive and semi-passive energy harvesting devices cannot send uplink signals (e.g., passive communications) without a downlink signal. Active energy harvesting devices do not rely on receiving a downlink signal to send uplink signals, and can send uplink signals (e.g., active communications) as needed.

[0108] In an example where the energy harvesting device 500 is implemented as a passive or semi-passive energy harvesting device, a continuous carrier downlink signal can be received using an antenna 590 and modulated (e.g., remodulated) for uplink communication. In some cases, a modulator 560 can be used to modulate a reflected (e.g., backscattered) portion of the downlink signal. For example, the continuous carrier can be a continuous sinusoidal wave (e.g., a sine or cosine waveform), and the modulator 560 can perform modulation based on changing one or more of the amplitude and phase of the backscattered reflections. Based on the modulation of the backscattered reflections, the modulator 560 can encode digital symbols (e.g., binary symbols or more complex symbol systems) indicating uplink communications or data messages. For example, the uplink communication can indicate sensor data or other information associated with one or more sensors 570 included in the energy harvesting device 500.

[0109] As previously mentioned, the impedance matching component 510 can be used to match the impedance of the antenna 590 to the receiving components of the energy harvesting device 500 when receiving a downlink signal (e.g., when receiving a continuous carrier). In some examples, during backscatter operation (e.g., when transmitting an uplink signal), modulation can be performed based on intentionally mismatching the antenna input impedance so that a portion of the incident downlink signal is scattered back. The phase and amplitude of the backscatter reflection can be determined based on the impedance loading on the antenna 590. Based on changing the antenna impedance (e.g., changing the impedance mismatch between the antenna 590 and the remaining components of the energy harvesting device 500), digital symbols and / or binary information can be encoded (e.g., modulated) onto the backscatter reflection. Changing the antenna impedance to modulate the phase and / or amplitude of the backscatter reflection can be performed using a modulator 560.

[0110] like Figure 5As illustrated in , a portion of the downlink signal received using antenna 590 may be provided to a demodulator 520 that performs demodulation and provides downlink communications (e.g., carried or modulated on the downlink signal) to a microcontroller unit (MCU) 550 or other processor included in the energy harvesting device 500. The remaining portion of the downlink signal received using antenna 590 may be provided to an energy harvester 530 that harvests RF energy from the downlink signal. For example, the energy harvester 530 may harvest RF energy based on performing AC to DC (alternating current to direct current) conversion, where an AC current is generated from a sinusoidal carrier of the downlink signal and the converted DC current is used to power the energy harvesting device 500. In some aspects, the energy harvester 530 may include one or more rectifiers for performing AC to DC conversion. The rectifier may include one or more diodes or thin film transistors (TFTs). In an illustrative example, the energy harvester 530 may include one or more Schottky diode-based rectifiers. In some cases, the energy harvester 530 may include one or more TFT-based rectifiers.

[0111] The output of the energy harvester 530 is a DC current generated from (e.g., collected from) a portion of the downlink signal provided to the energy harvester 530. In some aspects, the DC current output of the energy harvester 530 can vary with the input provided to the energy harvester 530. For example, an increase in the input current to the energy harvester 530 can be associated with an increase in the output DC current generated by the energy harvester 530. In some cases, the MCU 550 can be associated with a narrow band of acceptable DC current values. The regulator 540 can be used to eliminate or otherwise reduce the variation of the DC current generated by the output of the energy harvester 530. For example, the regulator 540 can eliminate or smooth out spikes (e.g., increases) in the DC current output by the energy harvester 530 (e.g., so that the DC current provided as input to the MCU 550 by the regulator 540 remains below a first threshold). In some cases, regulator 540 may eliminate or otherwise compensate for a drop or reduction in the DC current output by energy harvester 530 (eg, such that the DC current provided by regulator 540 as input to MCU 550 remains above a second threshold).

[0112] In some aspects, the collected DC current (e.g., generated by the energy harvester 530 and regulated up or down by the regulator 540 as needed) can be used to power the MCU 550 and one or more additional components included in the energy harvesting device 500. For example, the collected DC current can also be used to power one or more (or all) of the impedance matching component 510, the demodulator 520, the regulator 540, the MCU 550, the sensor 570, the modulator 560, etc. For example, the sensor 570 and the modulator 560 can receive at least a portion of the collected DC current remaining after the MCU 550 (e.g., not consumed by the MCU 550). In some cases, the collected DC current output by the regulator 540 can be provided to the MCU 550, the modulator 560, and the sensor 570 in series, in parallel, or a combination thereof.

[0113] In some examples, the sensor 570 may be used to obtain sensor data (e.g., such as sensor data associated with the environment in which the energy harvesting device 500 is located). The sensor 570 may include one or more sensors, which may be of the same or different types. In some aspects, one or more (or all) of the sensors 570 may be configured to obtain sensor data based on control information included in a downlink signal received using the antenna 590. For example, one or more of the sensors 570 may be configured based on downlink communication obtained based on demodulating the received downlink signal using the demodulator 520. In an illustrative example, the sensor data may be sent based on modulating the backscattered reflections of a continuous carrier received at the antenna 590 using the modulator 560 (e.g., changing one or more of its amplitude and / or phase). Based on the modulation of the backscattered reflections, the modulator 560 may encode digital symbols (e.g., binary symbols or more complex symbol systems) indicating uplink communication or data messages. In some examples, modulator 560 may generate an uplink backscatter modulated signal based on receiving sensor data directly from sensor 570. In some examples, modulator 560 may generate an uplink backscatter modulated signal based on sensor data received from MCU 550 (e.g., based on MCU 550 receiving sensor data directly from sensor 570).

[0114] Figure 6 600 is a diagram illustrating an example of a small signal rectification operation that may be associated with performing energy harvesting according to some examples. In one illustrative example, the small signal rectification operation may be associated with a Schottky diode barrier (e.g., for performing Figure 5 The energy harvester 530 shown has associated rectifier Schottky diodes associated with it for small signal rectification operation.

[0115] In some cases, the rectification process in a diode barrier (e.g., a Schottky diode or other diode) associated with performing energy harvesting can be categorized as small signal operation and large signal operation. For example, large signal operation is associated with rectifying an input signal (e.g., a downlink signal received at an energy harvesting device including a diode) having a relatively large amplitude signal that causes the diode to operate in its resistance region. Small signal operation (e.g., such as Figure 6 The example small signal operation shown) may be associated with rectifying an input signal (eg, or a portion thereof) having a relatively small amplitude signal such that the diode is not operated in its resistance region.

[0116] For example, the small signal operation of the rectification process in a Schottky diode barrier can be associated with three different operating regions, e.g. Figure 6 As shown. In the first operating region 610, the diode behavior may be approximated by a quadratic relationship. For example, in the first operating region 610, the output signal of the diode may be proportional to the square of the input signal of the diode. In some cases, the first operating region 610 may also be referred to as a square-law region. In the second operating region 620, the diode behavior may become more affected by other contributions, and the relationship between the output-input signal of the diode may transition from quadratic to linear. In some cases, the second operating region 620 may also be referred to as a transition region. In the third operating region 630, the output signal of the diode may be proportional to the input signal of the diode (e.g., a linear relationship between the input signal and the output signal of the diode) and no DC component is generated. The third operating region 630 may also be referred to as a resistance region.

[0117] Fig. 7A is an example of a device that can be used with various energy harvesting devices (e.g., such as the above Figure 5 700 is a diagram of an example of an input power harvesting power conversion model associated with the energy harvesting device 500 illustrated in the example of FIG. 700 includes a first power conversion model 710, a second power conversion model 720, a third power conversion model 730, a fourth power conversion model 740, and a fifth power conversion model 750. In some aspects, different energy harvesting devices may be associated with input power (e.g., a received downlink signal provided to the Figure 5 The power conversion models 710-750 are associated with different models between total RF energy or power of the portion of the energy harvester 530 shown and the harvested power (e.g., RF energy or power harvested and output by the energy harvester 530). In some aspects, the power conversion models 710-750 can be associated with passive, semi-passive, and / or active energy harvesting devices.

[0118] The first power conversion model 710 can be associated with a first type or class of energy harvesting devices. For example, an energy harvesting device having the first power conversion model 710 can provide harvested power as a continuous, linear, increasing function of input RF power.

[0119] The second power conversion model 720 can be associated with a second type or class of energy harvesting devices. For example, an energy harvesting device having the second power conversion model 720 can provide harvested power as a continuous, non-linear, increasing function of the input RF power.

[0120] The third power conversion model 730 can be associated with a third type or class of energy harvesting devices. For example, assuming the input RF power is above the sensitivity threshold ( ), the energy harvesting device with the third power conversion model 730 can provide harvested power as a continuous, linear, increasing function of the input RF power. Sensitivity Threshold may represent the minimum input RF power at which the energy harvesting device is capable of performing harvesting (e.g., capable of harvesting a non-zero amount of power). ), the harvested power is zero.

[0121] A fourth power conversion model 740 may be associated with a fourth type or class of energy harvesting devices. For example, assuming that the input RF power is above the sensitivity threshold and below the saturation threshold , the energy harvesting device with the fourth power conversion model 740 can provide harvested power as a continuous, linear, increasing function of the input RF power. As shown in the figure, the saturation threshold Greater than the sensitivity threshold When the input RF power is below the sensitivity threshold When the input RF power is higher than the saturation threshold When , the harvested power output saturates (eg, remains approximately constant for any input RF power above a saturation threshold).

[0122] The fifth power conversion model 750 may be associated with a fifth type or class of energy harvesting devices. With saturation threshold The energy harvesting device having the fifth power conversion model 750 can provide harvested power as a continuous, non-linear increasing function of the input RF power.

[0123] In some examples, the efficiency of an energy harvesting device can be determined as the percentage of input RF power that is converted into harvested power. Figure 7B7 is a graph illustrating an example of energy conversion efficiency versus frequency (e.g., of an input waveform of an energy harvesting device) for different input powers 770. For example, a first efficiency-frequency relationship 771 is shown for an input RF power of -10 dBm (decibel milliwatts), a second efficiency-frequency relationship 772 is shown for an input RF power of -20 dBm, and a third efficiency-frequency relationship 773 is shown for an input RF power of -30 dBm.

[0124] Figure 7B The three efficiency-frequency relationships 771, 772, 773 shown may each be associated with an optimal operating frequency or an optimal operating frequency band, for which the energy conversion efficiency of the corresponding energy harvesting device is maximized. For example, for an input RF power of -30 dBm, an energy harvesting device having a third energy conversion model 773 may maximize its energy conversion efficiency when the input RF waveform is centered at a frequency of 0.86 GHz. For another example, for an input RF power of -20 dBm, an energy harvesting device having a second energy conversion model 772 may maximize its energy conversion efficiency when the input RF waveform is centered at a frequency of 0.87 GHz. For another example, for an input RF power of -10 dBm, an energy harvesting device having a first energy conversion model 771 may maximize its energy conversion efficiency when the input RF waveform is centered at a frequency of 0.89 GHz.

[0125] In some aspects, the efficiency of an energy harvesting device may vary based on the input RF power (e.g., the RF power of a downlink signal received at an antenna of the energy harvesting device) and the center frequency of the input RF waveform. Figure 7B As shown, the maximum or peak efficiency of an energy harvesting device receiving relatively low input RF power may be less than the maximum or peak efficiency of an energy harvesting device receiving relatively high input RF power (e.g., at -30 dBm, the peak efficiency of energy conversion model 773 is less than 10%, at -20 dBm, the peak efficiency of energy conversion model 772 is about 25%, and at -10 dBm, the peak efficiency of energy conversion model 771 is about 45%). In some cases, the conversion efficiency decreases for frequencies greater than the optimal input center frequency, and the conversion efficiency decreases for frequencies less than the optimal input center frequency.

[0126] In some aspects, the conversion efficiency of the energy harvesting device may be associated with one or more energy conversion characteristics (e.g., also referred to as energy harvesting characteristics). For example, one or more characteristics may indicate a relationship between the conversion efficiency of the energy harvesting device and the input frequency. In one illustrative example, the energy harvesting device may have an approximately constant conversion efficiency over a narrowband operating bandwidth. In such an example, the energy harvesting device may receive RF energy from a multi-frequency sinusoidal downlink wave with a uniform power distribution. In another illustrative example, an energy harvesting device with a broadband operating bandwidth may have a conversion efficiency that is a nonlinear function of the input frequency over a broadband. The broadband bandwidth may be greater than the narrowband bandwidth. In such an example, the energy harvesting device may receive RF energy based on a Gaussian and / or raised cosine filter used in combination with (e.g., on top of) the multi-frequency sinusoidal downlink wave described above for the narrowband operating bandwidth. In some aspects, the broadband bandwidth may be an operating bandwidth (e.g., a message bandwidth) of a communication channel that is greater than the coherence bandwidth of the channel.

[0127] In some aspects, the energy conversion efficiency of the energy harvesting device can vary continuously with the input RF power. For example, for power less than a sensitivity threshold ( ) input power, the energy conversion efficiency may be zero (e.g., based on the fact that the harvested power is equal to zero when the input RF power is below the sensitivity threshold, and conversion efficiency = harvested power / input RF power). In some examples, the energy conversion efficiency of the energy harvesting device may vary at different input frequencies (e.g., as described above with respect to Figure 7B For example, in some cases, for a signal between the sensitivity threshold ( ) and greater than The energy conversion efficiency of the energy harvesting device can be approximately linear with the input RF power for input RF power values ​​between the first input RF power value and the second input RF power value. The energy conversion efficiency can be increased with the input RF power value from and above At input RF powers beyond the linear conversion efficiency region, the energy conversion efficiency of the energy harvesting device may increase and / or decrease nonlinearly with further increases in input RF power. In some examples, in addition to increasing the sensitivity threshold In addition to an initial linear conversion efficiency region starting at , the energy conversion efficiency may also include one or more additional regions where the energy conversion efficiency linearly increases (eg, and / or linearly decreases) with input RF power.

[0128] As previously mentioned, there is a need for systems and techniques that can be used to provide improved wireless energy harvesting and / or backscatter modulation-based communications between energy harvesting devices (e.g., passive, semi-passive, or active IoT devices, etc.) and network nodes or transmitters (e.g., gNBs or base stations). There is also a need for systems and techniques that can be used to provide wireless energy harvesting and backscatter modulation-based communications over a greater range than existing RFID-based methods. For example, a passive or semi-passive IoT device may include one or more sensors and may be used to perform tasks such as asset management, logistics tracking, warehousing, manufacturing, etc. In such examples, the passive (or semi-passive) IoT device may typically be located at a distance greater than 10 meters from the corresponding base station or transmitter.

[0129] One use scenario for net zero power IoT (ZP IoT) devices such as ZP IoT devices 802, 852 is that such devices can be used to locate and / or track lost / misplaced items. For example, a first user may attach a ZP IoT tag device to an item owned by the user. When the item and the attached tag device are close to the user, the tag device can communicate directly with the user's other devices. However, if the item and the attached tag device are misplaced by the user, the problem arises as to how the tag device communicates with the user when the tag device is no longer within the communication coverage of the user's other devices.

[0130] In some cases, the ZP IoT device can utilize the wireless energy harvesting techniques discussed above and / or backscatter modulation (hereinafter referred to as "harvested energy") to harvest and store power. This stored power can be used to send signals to network nodes or relay devices. Fig. 8A and Figure 8B An example network topology of ZP IoT devices in a wireless system according to aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. Fig. 8A In the example, the ZP IoT device 802 can collect energy and use the collected energy to communicate with a network node 806 (e.g., a gNB or a base station) 804. For example, the ZP IoT device 802 can receive a UL / DL schedule, wherein the ZP IoT device 802 can listen to communications from the network node 806 or send data to the network node 806. Figure 8B Includes ZP IoT device 852, which may or may not be related to Fig. 8A The ZP IoT device 802 shown is the same ZP IoT device. Figure 8BThe ZP IoT device 852 in the embodiment may communicate 854 with the relay device 856, and the relay device 856 may relay 858 communications from the ZP IoT device 852 to the network node 860, and vice versa. In some cases, the ZP IoT device 852 may communicate 854 with the relay device 856 using a different radio access technology than the radio access technology used by the ZP IoT device 802 to communicate with the network node 806. For example, the ZP IoT device 852 may communicate with the relay device 856 using Bluetooth low energy technology or another low energy communication protocol instead of a cellular protocol (such as 5GNR, LTE, etc.).

[0131] Fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating retrieving 900 a semi-passive or passive ZP IoT device according to aspects of the present disclosure. Fig. 9 In the example, a ZP IoT tag device 902 (hereinafter referred to as tag device 902) can be remote (e.g., attached to a lost / misplaced item) from a user device 904. In some cases, the user device 904 can be any communication device capable of accessing a location tracking server 906. The tag device 902 can be associated with the user device 904. In some cases, this association can be established during the setup process of the tag device 902. Fig. 9 In the embodiment, the tag device 902 may be a semi-passive or passive (hereinafter referred to as a (semi-) passive) ZPIoT device.

[0132] A (semi) passive ZP IoT device may be a ZP IoT device that is not capable of generating a transmission itself. Instead, the energy from the RF transmission is used to stimulate the (semi) passive ZP IoT device (e.g., tag device 902). In some cases, the stimulated and / or triggered transmission may be a dedicated signal. As an example, a dedicated signal may be used for a lost tag device, such as lost tag signals 908A, 908B (collectively referred to as lost tag signals 908). The dedicated lost tag signal 908 may be sent by a wireless device (such as a wireless node 910, a relay device 912, or other wireless device), and the lost tag signal may include an energy signal for stimulating the tag device 902. The (semi) passive ZP IoT device (e.g., tag device 902) may use the energy collected from the lost tag signal 908 to perform processing, transmission, and / or reception tasks. Therefore, the tag device 902 may use the lost tag signal 908 to trigger the tag device 902 to perform tasks, such as processing, transmitting, and / or receiving data. In some cases, the lost tag signal 908 may include a data / control signal for a tag device, for example in a data portion of the lost tag signal 908 , and the data / control portion may be included after or in conjunction with an energy signal portion of the lost tag signal 908 .

[0133] In some cases, a dedicated signal such as the lost tag signal 908 may be periodic, aperiodic, or semi-periodic (e.g., may be activated / deactivated). As an example, if the lost tag signal 908 is periodic, the lost tag signal 908 may always be sent periodically. If the lost tag signal 908 is aperiodic or semi-periodic, the lost tag signal 908 may be sent based on a request sent by, for example, a server or wireless node 910.

[0134] In some cases, the dedicated signal may be sent via L1, L2, or L3 signaling. In some cases, the dedicated signal may be sent via dedicated time / frequency resources that may be preconfigured for services using ZP IoT devices, such as tag location services. In some cases, the allocated time / frequency resources may be dynamically configured by a wireless device such as a wireless node 910, a relay device 912, or other wireless device.

[0135] As indicated above, in some cases, the lost tag signal 908 may be sent by at least the wireless node 910, the relay device 912, or both. In a first example, for a tag positioning service, the lost tag signal 908A may be sent by the wireless node 910. In some cases, the lost tag signal 908A may be sent by all wireless nodes 910 supporting the tag positioning service of the wireless network operator. In the case where all wireless nodes 910 supporting the tag positioning service send the lost tag signal 908A, the lost tag signal 908A may be sent as a periodic signal in a manner similar to how a synchronization signal block (SSB) is sent. The periodicity of the lost tag signal 908A may be configured, and the configuration may be based on each wireless node 910, each type of wireless node 910, and the like.

[0136] In some cases, the lost tag signal 908A may be sent by a group of wireless nodes 910 supporting tag location services of a wireless network operator. For example, the group of wireless nodes 910 may be statically configured by the wireless network operator to provide uniform coverage of the tag location service in the area. For another example, the group of wireless nodes 910 may be dynamically configured. For example, the wireless node may be dynamically configured to increase the periodicity of the lost tag signal 908A to help track items more closely. In some cases, the adjustment may be based on the location of the wireless node 910, the type of wireless node 910, the processing / radio / memory load on the wireless node 910, etc. As an example, the wireless node may be dynamically configured to adjust the periodicity of the lost tag signal 908A based on the area where the item is believed to be lost, the number of responses to the lost tag signal 908A in the area, the type of area covered by a specific wireless node 901 (e.g., airport / school / company / etc.), the expected density of wireless signals in the area, etc.

[0137] In the case where the lost tag signal 908A is transmitted by the wireless node 910, how to transmit the lost tag signal 908A may be configured based on one or more parameters for configuring the wireless node 910. In some cases, the one or more parameters may be included in an activation signal transmitted to the wireless node 910 to initiate the transmission of the lost tag signal 908A. Examples of parameters for configuring the wireless node 910 may include parameters indicating whether a specific wireless node 910 supports a tag positioning service or whether a specific wireless node 910 should transmit the lost tag signal 908A. In some cases, the wireless node 910 may do so when instructed to transmit the lost tag signal 908A. Another example of a parameter for configuring the wireless node 910 may include a parameter indicating periodicity and time offset information of the lost tag signal 908A. The periodicity and time offset information may determine how often the lost tag signal 908A may be transmitted and the time offset for transmission based on a reference time. As another example, the parameters for configuring the wireless node 910 may indicate the frequency, time slot / resource block (RB) / band information used to transmit the lost tag signal 908A. Another example of a parameter for configuring the wireless node 910 may include a duration for sending the lost tag signal 908A. For example, in the case where the lost tag signal 908A is semi-statically enabled, the wireless node 910 may be configured to send the lost tag signal 908A for the indicated duration. As another example, the parameter for configuring the wireless node 910 may include a transmit power scaling factor for the lost tag signal 908A. For example, the lost tag signal 908A may be boosted by a scaling factor (e.g., where 0 dB means no boost), and the transmit power scaling factor parameter may be used to balance the coverage of the lost tag signal 908A and / or avoid interference with neighboring network nodes.

[0138] In a second example, for a tag positioning service, a lost tag signal 908B may be sent by a relay device 912 such as a UE. In some cases, a relay device 912 that supports the tag positioning service and is allowed (e.g., participates) in sending a lost tag signal 908B may send a lost tag signal 908. In some cases, a relay device 912 that supports / participates in the tag positioning service may send a lost tag signal 908B based on user settings. For example, a user of the UE may decide whether to join the tag positioning service, and the joined UE may participate in the tag positioning service. Such a UE may forward a lost tag response received from a nearby tag device 902 to the tag positioning service. In some cases, the UE may be configured to listen to a lost tag response 914 and / or forward it to a location tracking server 906. In some cases, the UE may be configured not to send a lost tag signal 908B. In some cases, the transmission of a lost tag signal 908B by the UE may be dynamically configured, for example, by an operating mode of the UE (such as an airplane mode, a game mode, etc.), available battery power, etc.

[0139] In some cases, the lost tag signal 908B may be sent by all relay devices 912 that support / participate in the tag positioning service and send the lost tag signal 908B. In the case where all relay devices 912 support / participate in the tag positioning service, the lost tag signal 908B may be sent as a periodic signal in a manner similar to how the side link primary synchronization signal (SPSS) is sent. The periodicity of the lost tag signal 908B may be configured, and the configuration may be based on each relay device 912, each type of relay device 912, etc. In some cases, the lost tag signal 908B may be periodically sent by all supporting / participating relay devices 912, for example, based on an activation signal from a wireless node 910 or a server.

[0140] In some cases, the lost tag signal 908B may be sent by a group of relay devices 912 that support / participate in the tag positioning service. For example, the group of supporting / participating relay devices 912 may periodically send the lost tag signal 908B in a (semi-)static manner. For another example, the group of supporting / participating relay devices 912 may periodically send the lost tag signal 908B based on, for example, an activation signal from a wireless node 910 or a server. In some cases, the group of relay devices 912 may be defined based on the location of the relay device 912, the type of the relay device 912, etc.

[0141] In the case where the lost tag signal 908B is sent by the relay device 912, how to transmit the lost tag signal 908B may be configured based on one or more parameters for configuring the relay device 912. In some cases, the one or more parameters may be included in the activation signal transmitted to the relay device 912. An example of one or more parameters for configuring the relay device 912 to transmit the lost tag signal 980B may include a parameter indicating whether the relay device should send the lost tag signal 908B. In some cases, the relay device 912 may do so when it is instructed to send the lost tag signal 908B. Another example of one or more parameters for configuring the relay device 912 to transmit the lost tag signal 980B may include a parameter indicating the transmission periodicity / time offset information of the lost tag signal 908B. The periodicity and time offset information may determine how often the relay device 912 can send the lost tag signal 908B and the time offset for sending based on the reference time. Another example of one or more parameters for configuring the relay device 912 to transmit the lost tag signal 980B may include a parameter indicating the duration for sending the lost tag signal 908B. Another example of one or more parameters for configuring the relay device 912 to transmit the lost tag signal 980B may include a parameter indicating the frequency, time slot / resource block (RB) / frequency band information used to transmit the lost tag signal 908B by the relay device 912. Another example of one or more parameters for configuring the relay device 912 to transmit the lost tag signal 908B may include a parameter indicating a transmit power scaling factor of the lost tag signal 908B. For example, the lost tag signal 908B may be boosted by a scaling factor (e.g., where 0 dB means no boost), and the transmit power scaling factor parameter may be used to balance the coverage of the lost tag signal 908B and / or avoid interference with neighboring network nodes, other relay devices 912, etc.

[0142] Upon receiving the lost tag signal 908, the tag device 902 may determine whether to respond to the lost tag signal. Initially, the tag device 902 may collect energy for processing the lost tag signal 908 and / or sending lost tag responses 914A, 914B (collectively referred to as lost tag responses 914) based on the lost tag signal 908 transmitted by the wireless node 910 and / or the relay device 912. In some cases, the tag device 902 may also collect and / or store energy from signals sent by other wireless devices.

[0143] In some cases, if the tag device 902 determines to send a lost tag response 914, the tag device 902 may send a lost tag response 914A to the wireless node 910 and / or send a lost tag response 914B to the relay device 912. In some cases, the tag device 902 may determine whether to send a lost tag response 914 based on whether the tag device 902 has been separated from another device (e.g., the user device 904). In some cases, the user device 904 may periodically send an owner beacon. In some cases, the owner beacon may include an identifier of the user device 904. In some cases, the user device identifier is unencrypted. The owner beacon may be sent by the user device 904 together with energy that may be collected by the tag device 902. In some cases, the tag device 902 may store timing information indicating when the tag device 902 last received the owner beacon.

[0144] The tag device 902 may determine that it has been separated from the user device in various ways. As an example, if the tag device 902 does not receive the owner beacon within a first separation threshold amount of time, the tag device 902 may determine that it has been separated from the user device 904 (is remote). In some cases, the tag device 902 may store user device identifier information during the setup process, and the tag device 902 may compare the user device identifier of the received owner beacon with the stored user device identifier to determine whether the received owner beacon is associated with the tag device 902. If the tag device 902 has not received the owner beacon within a certain amount of time (e.g., X seconds / minutes / hours / days) (such as the last hour), the tag device 902 may determine that the tag device 902 has been separated from the user device 904. For example, if the tag device 902 receives a lost tag signal 908, the tag device 902 may compare the current time with the stored timing information, which indicates the time when the tag device 902 last received the owner beacon. If the elapsed time exceeds a first separation threshold amount of time, the tag device 902 may determine that it has been separated from the user device 904. In some cases, the tag device 902 may be associated with multiple user devices 904 (e.g., home devices), and the tag device 902 may compare the user device identifier of the received owner beacon with the associated multiple user devices 904, and determine that the tag device 902 has been separated if more than a second separation threshold amount of time has passed. In some cases, the second separation threshold may be the same as or different from the first separation threshold.

[0145] In some cases, the tag device 902 may determine that it has separated from the user device 904 based on the estimated location. For example, the tag device 902 may be configured to determine that the tag device 902 is separated if the tag device 902 is removed from certain defined geographic areas (e.g., geographic boundaries). The tag device 902 may estimate whether the tag device 902 is within the defined geographic area based on received signals (such as the lost tag signal 908) and comparing the received signals with those signals known to be within the defined geographic area. For example, the tag device 902 may compare identifiers from the received lost tag signal 908 and compare these identifiers with stored identifiers of wireless nodes 910 associated with the defined geographic area.

[0146] In some cases, certain information may be sent in the lost tag response 914. In some cases, the lost tag response 914 may include an encrypted owner's ID. The owner's ID may be associated with an account with the tag location service under which the tag device 902 and the user device 904 are registered. The owner's ID may be encrypted to help enhance privacy.

[0147] In some cases, the lost tag response 914 may include tag ID information. The tag ID information may include, for example, a public key or other shared key associated with the owner. For example, a public key / private key may be created during the setup process of the tag device 902, and the public key may be used to encode information of the owner of the tag device, which may be decoded using the owner's private key. In some cases, the public key may be encrypted, for example, based on a key of a tag location service.

[0148] In some cases, the lost tag response 914 may include an indication of a server address (e.g., URL, URI, etc.) associated with a tag location service, such as a URL to a location tracking server 906. The device receiving the lost tag response 914 may forward the information in the lost tag response 914 based on the indicated server address. In some cases, the lost tag response 914 may also include a location request. The location request may indicate to the device receiving the lost tag response 914 that the tag device 902 is requesting the receiving device to estimate the location of the tag based on the location of the receiving device and forward the estimated location information to the location tracking server 906.

[0149] In some cases, the tag device 902 may use dedicated time / frequency resources to send the lost tag response 914, and these time / frequency resources may be pre-configured for the tag positioning service. In some cases, the tag device 902 may use the allocated time / frequency resources to send the lost tag response 914. For example, the time / frequency resources may be dynamically configured by the wireless node 910 and / or the relay device 912. In some cases, the wireless node 910 may allow / disallow the use of certain frequency resources, such as unlicensed bands, for the tag positioning service.

[0150] In some cases, the allocation of time / frequency resources may be included in the lost tag signal 908. In some cases, the tag device 902 may send a lost tag response 914 to the device that transmitted the lost tag signal 908. For example, if the wireless node 910 transmits the lost tag signal 908A, the tag device 902 may send a lost tag response 914A to the wireless node 910. As another example, if the relay device 912 transmits the lost tag signal 908B, the tag device may send a lost tag response 914B to the relay device 912. The relay device 912 may then relay 916 the lost tag response 914B to the wireless node 910 along with the location information (if requested). In some cases, the relay device 912 may relay 916 the lost tag response 914B to the location tracking server 906, for example, via a data connection through the wireless node 910.

[0151] In some cases, the tag device 902 may send a lost tag response 914 to a specific type of device regardless of where the lost tag signal 908 (or energy signal) is received from. For example, the tag device 902 may receive a lost tag signal 908 (or energy signal) from either (or both) of the wireless node 910 and / or the relay device 912, and the tag device 902 may send a lost tag response 914B to the relay device 912. As another example, the tag device 902 may receive a lost tag signal 908A from the wireless node 910 and only an energy signal from the relay device 912, and the tag device 902 may send a lost tag response 914B to the relay device 912. In some cases, the lost tag signal 908 may indicate to which device the tag device 902 may send the lost tag response 914.

[0152] As indicated above, in some cases, the lost tag response 914 may include a location request requesting that the location information be transmitted to the location tracking server 906 along with the information from the lost tag response 914. In some cases, based on the received location request, the relay device 912 and / or the wireless node 910 may obtain the location information associated with the tag device 902. In some cases, the location information may be the location of the device (e.g., the relay device 912 and / or the wireless node 910) receiving the location request. In some cases, the location information may be provided by a GNSS satellite-based system 918 (such as GPS, GLONASS, GNSS, BDS, etc.). In some cases, the location information may be based at least in part on positioning techniques such as received signal angles, triangulated locations, ranging, etc. In some cases, the location information may be based on the location of the wireless node 910, a zone identifier associated with the wireless network, etc. For example, the relay device 912 may send the location information based on the wireless node 910 to which the relay device 912 is connected. In some cases, additional contextual information may also be provided, such as WiFi identifiers (e.g., BSSIDs of nearby WiFi access points), information associated with vehicle-mounted repeaters (such as bus number, train number, etc.), or other similar contextual information that can be used to locate the tag device.

[0153] In some cases, public signaling may be used to trigger a tag device to transmit a lost tag signal instead of dedicated signaling. For example, a passive ZP IoT device may collect energy from an incoming energy signal, which may be included in a lost tag signal 908 together with dedicated signaling. A semi-passive ZP IoT device may extend the operations that can be performed by a passive ZP-IoT device to also include storing the collected energy. Therefore, a semi-passive ZP IoT device may be able to collect and store energy from other wireless transmissions without using dedicated signaling (such as for energy signals). Therefore, for tag positioning services using semi-passive ZP IoT devices, public signaling (e.g., signaling that can be used to indicate other actions to other wireless devices) may be used instead of lost tag signal 908. Examples of public signaling may include wake-up signals, initial access signals, query commands, etc. In some cases, public signaling may be sent by a wireless node 910 or a relay device 912. As an example, a semi-passive ZP IoT device may monitor a wireless signal for a certain public signal that can be sent by a wireless node 910 (such as a wake-up command transmitted to a semi-passive ZP IoT device). Based on the wake-up command, the semi-passive ZP IoT device may determine whether the device has been separated from the user device 904. In some cases, the common signal may include the parameters discussed above with respect to the lost tag signal 908. In some cases, the semi-passive ZP IoT device may respond to the common signal implicitly or explicitly. For example, if the semi-passive ZP IoT device determines that it has not been separated from the user device 904, the semi-passive ZP IoT device may not respond to the wake-up command. If the semi-passive ZP IoT device determines that it has been separated from the user device 904, the semi-passive ZP IoT device may respond to the wake-up command. In some cases, the response to the wake-up command may include the parameters discussed above with respect to the lost tag response 914. The semi-passive ZP IoT device may be substantially similar to the above in conjunction with the present invention, except that a common signal is used instead of a dedicated signal (such as the lost tag signal 908). Fig. 9 Describe the way to operate.

[0154] In some cases, the tag lookup service may include technology for helping to provide privacy for users and / or participants of the tag lookup service. For example, measures are taken to avoid exposing the identity associated with the tag device and to avoid potential tracking by monitoring the signal sent from the tag or user device. For example, the owner beacon sent from the user device 904 may be encrypted. When the owner beacon is encrypted, only the tag device associated with the user device 904 may be able to decrypt the owner beacon. In some cases, the content of the owner beacon, such as the identifier of the user device 904 or other information, may be periodically changed. For example, pseudo-random numbers and / or random numbers may be added to the information in the owner beacon, which may change the encrypted owner beacon. In some cases, the encryption sequence used to encrypt the owner beacon may be periodically changed.

[0155] In some cases, there may be privacy issues about being tracked by an unknown tag device. To help address such issues, the user device 904 may be configured to listen for a lost tag response 914 from a tag device. If the user device detects a lost tag response 914, the user device may record time and / or location information associated with the lost tag response. If another lost tag response is heard multiple times from the same tag at different locations, or if a lost tag response is received in a certain pattern (e.g., periodically), the user device may determine that the user device is being tracked and may display a warning prompt about the tag device.

[0156] In some cases, the detection of the tag device being separated from the user device may be performed by a server, such as Fig. 9 Location tracking server 906 or Fig.10The location tracking server 1006 of the embodiment of the present invention is a server for detecting the separation of the tag device from the user device. Instead of or in addition to the tag device determining that the tag device has been separated from the user device, server-side separation detection may be performed. In some cases, a server such as a location tracking server may detect whether the tag device is separated based on the reported time / location of the tag device and additional information. For example, a virtual fence or area of ​​interest may be provided as additional information, and the server may determine whether the tag device is separated by comparing the reported location of the tag device and the virtual fence / area of ​​interest. If the tag device is outside the virtual fence / area of ​​interest, the server may determine that the tag device has been separated (e.g., lost). As another example, in some cases, the tag device may report location information to the server, and the server may monitor the time associated with the reported location information. If the location information has not been received within a threshold amount of time, the server may determine that the tag device has been separated. In some cases, the tag device and the user device may report location information to the server. If the location between the tag device and the user device exceeds a threshold distance, the server may determine that the tag device has been separated. In addition, if the tag device indicates that the tag device has not received an owner beacon within a threshold amount of time, the server may determine that the tag device has been separated. In some cases, if the server determines that the tag device has been detached, the server may transmit a notification of the detachment to the user device.

[0157] Fig.10 is a diagram illustrating finding 1000 active ZP IoT devices according to various aspects of the present disclosure. Fig.10 8, an active ZP IoT device 1002 (hereinafter referred to as an active tag device 1002) may be remote from (e.g., attached to a lost / misplaced item) a user device 1004. In some cases, an active ZP IoT device may differ from a (semi-)passive ZP IoT device in that the active ZP IoT device includes a power source, such as a battery, that can be used to power the active ZP IoT device. The active tag device 1002 may then be able to process data, transmit and / or receive without relying on an incentive to transmit, such as the lost tag signal 908 of FIG. 8.

[0158] In some cases, the active tag device 1002 may determine that it has been separated from the user device 1004 in a manner substantially similar to that described above with respect to the tag device 902. Based on determining that the active tag device 1002 has been separated, the active tag device 1002 may broadcast lost beacons 1014A, 1014B (collectively referred to as lost beacons 1014). In some cases, the lost beacon 1014 may be sent using L1, L2, or L3 signaling. In some cases, the lost beacon 1014 may use dedicated time / frequency resources that may be pre-configured for tag positioning services. In some cases, the lost beacon 1014 may use allocated time / frequency resources that may be dynamically configured from the wireless node 1010 and / or the relay device 1012. In some cases, the lost beacon 1014 may be broadcast based on a common signal in a manner substantially similar to that described above with respect to the semi-passive ZPIoT device.

[0159] In some cases, the lost beacon 1014 may include an encrypted owner's ID. The owner's ID may be encrypted to help enhance privacy, and the owner's ID may only be decrypted by the location tracking server 1006. In some cases, the lost beacon 1014 may include tag ID information. The tag ID information may include, for example, a public key or other shared key associated with the owner. For example, a public key / private key may be created during the setup process of the active tag device 1002, and the public key may be used to encode information about the owner of the tag device, which may be decoded using the owner's private key. In some cases, the public key may be encrypted, for example, based on a key of a tag positioning service.

[0160] In some cases, the lost beacon 1014 may include an indication of a server address (e.g., URL, URI, etc.) associated with a tag location service, such as a URL to the location tracking server 1006. A device receiving the lost beacon 1014 may forward the information in the lost beacon 1014 based on the indicated server address. In some cases, the lost beacon 1014 may also include a location request. The location request may indicate to the device receiving the lost beacon 1014 that the active tag device 1002 is requesting the receiving device to estimate the location of the tag based on the location of the receiving device and forward the estimated location information to the location tracking server 1006.

[0161] The lost beacon 1014 may be received by a nearby relay device 1012 and / or wireless node 1010. In some cases, the lost beacon 1014 may include a location request to transmit location information to the location tracking server 1006 along with information from the lost beacon 1014. The relay device 1012 and / or wireless node 1010 may be substantially similar to the above description of the location tracking server 1006. Fig. 91014B to the location tracking server 1006. The user device 1004 may then query the location tracking server 1006 to locate the active tag device 1002.

[0162] Fig.11 1 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a process 1100 for wireless communication. The process 1100 may be performed by a first device or by a component or system (e.g., a chipset) of the first device. The first device may be a ZP IoT device (e.g., Figure 5 The radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting device 500 of FIG. 8 , the ZP IoT device 802 , 852 , Fig. 9 ZP IoT device 902, or Fig.10 The ZPIoT device 1002 of the present invention may be a UE (e.g., a mobile device such as a mobile phone, a networked wearable device such as a watch, an extended reality device such as a virtual reality (VR) device or an augmented reality (AR) device, a vehicle or a component or system of a vehicle, or other types of UEs), or other types of network nodes. In some examples, process 1100 may be performed by a UE and / or an energy harvesting device. In some cases, the UE may be an energy harvesting device. The operations of process 1100 may be implemented as a processor (e.g., Fig.13 In addition, the communication may be performed, for example, via one or more antennas, one or more transceivers (e.g., wireless transceivers) and / or other communication components (e.g., Figure 2 The transmit processor 220, the receive processor 238, the TX MIMO processor 230, the MIMO detector 236, the modulator / demodulator 232a to 232t and / or the antennas 234a to 234t, Fig.13 The communication interface 1340, or other antennas, transceivers and / or components) of the network device in process 1100 can be used to implement the sending and receiving of signals.

[0163] At box 1102, the first device (or its component) may receive a trigger signal at the first device. In some cases, the trigger signal is received together with the energy signal. In various cases, the first device includes an energy collector configured to collect energy from the energy signal. In some cases, the trigger signal is sent to the first device by one of the wireless node or the relay device. In some examples, the first device (or its component) may receive a beacon. In some cases, the first device (or its component) may determine that the identifier in the beacon matches the stored identifier associated with the second device. In some aspects, the stored identifier is an identifier for a home device. In some cases, the trigger signal includes resource allocation information for the first device. In some examples, a response signal is sent based on the resource allocation information. In some cases, the trigger signal is one of the following: a periodic signal, an aperiodic signal, or a semi-periodic signal.

[0164] At block 1104, the first wireless device (or a component thereof) may determine that the first device is separated relative to a second device associated with the first device. In some cases, the first device (or a component thereof) may determine that the first device is separated by determining that a beacon including an identifier of the second device has not been received within a threshold amount of time. In some cases, the first device (or a component thereof) may determine that the first device is separated by estimating a location of the first device. In some cases, the first device (or a component thereof) may determine that the first device is separated by comparing the estimated location to a defined geographic area to determine whether the first device is outside of the defined geographic area.

[0165] At block 1106, the first wireless device (or a component thereof) may send a response signal to the trigger signal based on determining that the first device is detached. In some cases, the response signal includes at least one of: an encrypted identifier associated with the second device; and service address information for a device location service. In some cases, the response signal includes a location request. In some cases, the response signal is sent to at least one of a wireless node or a relay device.

[0166] In some examples, the processes described herein (e.g., process 1100 and / or other processes described herein) can be performed by a computing device or apparatus (e.g., a network node, such as a UE, a base station, a portion of a base station, etc.). For example, as described above, one or more of the processes described herein (e.g., process 1100 and / or other processes described herein) can be performed by a UE and / or an energy harvesting device (e.g., a device with EH capabilities). In some examples, one or more of the processes described herein (e.g., process 1100 and / or other processes described herein) can be performed by a network node having a plurality of nodes or a plurality of nodes connected to the network. Figure 5The EH-capable device architecture shown may be implemented with an EH-capable device of the same or similar architecture.

[0167] Fig.12 1 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a process 1200 for wireless communication. The process 1200 may be performed by a wireless device or by a component or system (eg, a chipset) of a wireless device. The first wireless device may be a network node (eg, Figure 1 Base station 102, AP 150 or mmW BS 180, Fig. 8A Network node 806, Figure 8B Network node 860, Fig. 9 The wireless node 910 or Fig.10 A wireless node 1010 of the present invention, a UE (e.g., a mobile device such as a mobile phone, a network-connected wearable device such as a watch, an extended reality device such as a virtual reality (VR) device or an augmented reality (AR) device, a vehicle or a component or system of a vehicle, or other type of UE), a relay device (e.g., Fig. 9 Relay device 912, Fig.10 In some examples, process 1200 may be performed by a UE. The operations of process 1200 may be implemented as a single processor (e.g., Fig.13 In addition, in the process 1200, the network device may transmit and receive signals through one or more antennas, one or more transceivers (e.g., wireless transceivers) and / or other communication components (e.g., Figure 2 The transmit processor 220, the receive processor 238, the TX MIMO processor 230, the MIMO detector 236, the modulator / demodulator 232a to 232t and / or the antennas 234a to 234t, Fig.13 This may be implemented by the communication interface 1340 or other antennas, transceivers and / or components).

[0168] At block 1202, a wireless device (or a component thereof) may transmit a message for a tag device (eg, Figure 5 The radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting device 500 of FIG. 8 , the ZP IoT device 802 , 852 , Fig. 9 ZP IoT device 902 or Fig.10 In some cases, the trigger signal includes an energy signal for collection by the tag device. In some cases, the device includes a relay device (e.g., Fig. 9 Relay device 912, Fig.10In some cases, the wireless device (or its component) may forward at least a portion of the response signal to the device location service by forwarding the response signal via the wireless network node. In some cases, the wireless device (or its component) may send a trigger signal by receiving one or more parameters for sending a trigger signal. In some cases, the wireless device (or its component) may send a trigger signal by sending a trigger signal based on the one or more parameters. In some cases, the one or more parameters include at least one of the following: an indication of whether to send a trigger signal; a periodicity of the trigger signal; a time offset of the trigger signal; a duration for sending the trigger signal; an indication of time and frequency resources for the trigger signal; and a transmit power scaling factor for the trigger signal.

[0169] At block 1204, the wireless device (or a component thereof) may receive a response to the trigger signal. In some cases, the response signal includes a location request. In some cases, the wireless device (or a component thereof) may obtain location information associated with the tag device. In some cases, the wireless device (or a component thereof) may send the location information to a device location service. In some cases, the location information is obtained based on the location of the wireless node.

[0170] At block 1206, the wireless device (or a component thereof) may obtain a response signal to the trigger signal from the tag device. In some cases, the response signal includes a service address.

[0171] At block 1208, the wireless device (or a component thereof) may forward at least a portion of the response signal to a device location service based on the service address in the response signal.

[0172] In some cases, a computing device or apparatus may include various components, such as one or more input devices, one or more output devices, one or more processors, one or more microprocessors, one or more microcomputers, one or more cameras, one or more sensors, and / or other components configured to perform the steps of the processes described herein. In some examples, a computing device may include a display, one or more network interfaces configured to communicate and / or receive data, any combination thereof, and / or other components. The one or more network interfaces may be configured to communicate and / or receive wired and / or wireless data, including data in accordance with 3G, 4G, 5G, and / or other cellular standards, data in accordance with WiFi (802.11x), data in accordance with Bluetooth ™ Standard data, data according to the Internet Protocol (IP) standard and / or other types of data.

[0173] The components of the computing device may be implemented in circuits. For example, the components may include and / or may be implemented using electronic circuits or other electronic hardware, which may include one or more programmable electronic circuits (e.g., microprocessors, graphics processing units (GPUs), digital signal processors (DSPs), central processing units (CPUs), and / or other suitable electronic circuits), and / or may include and / or may be implemented using computer software, firmware, or any combination thereof for performing the various operations described herein.

[0174] Process 1100 and process 1200 are illustrated as logic flow diagrams, the operations of which represent a series of operations that can be implemented in hardware, computer instructions, or a combination thereof. In the context of computer instructions, each operation represents a computer-executable instruction stored on one or more computer-readable storage media that, when executed by one or more processors, performs the described operation. Generally speaking, computer-executable instructions include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform specific functions or implement specific data types. The order in which the operations are described is not intended to be construed as a limitation, and any number of the described operations may be combined in any order and / or in parallel to implement the process.

[0175] Additionally, process 1100 and process 1200 and / or other processes described herein may be performed under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions and may be implemented as code (e.g., executable instructions, one or more computer programs, or one or more applications) that is executed together on one or more processors, through hardware, or a combination thereof. As noted above, the code may be stored on a computer-readable or machine-readable storage medium, for example, in the form of a computer program that includes a plurality of instructions that can be executed by one or more processors. The computer-readable or machine-readable storage medium may be non-transitory.

[0176] Fig.13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system for implementing certain aspects of the present technology. Specifically, Fig.13 An example of a computing system 1300 is illustrated, which may be any computing device, for example, constituting an internal computing system, a remote computing system, a camera, or any components thereof, wherein the components of the system communicate with each other using a connection 1305. The connection 1305 may be a physical connection using a bus, or a direct connection into the processor 1310, such as in a chipset architecture. The connection 1305 may also be a virtual connection, a networked connection, or a logical connection.

[0177] In some aspects, computing system 1300 is a distributed system in which the functionality described in this disclosure may be distributed within a data center, multiple data centers, a peer-to-peer network, etc. In some aspects, one or more of the described system components represent a number of such components that each perform some or all of the functionality for which the component is described. In some aspects, a component may be a physical or virtual device.

[0178] The example system 1300 includes at least one processing unit (CPU or processor) 1310 and connections 1305 that communicatively couple various system components including system memory 1325, such as read only memory (ROM) 1320 and random access memory (RAM) 1325, to the processor 1310. The computing system 1300 may include a cache 1315 of high-speed memory directly connected to the processor 1310, in close proximity to the processor, or integrated as part of the processor.

[0179] Processor 1310 may include any general purpose processor and hardware or software services such as services 1332, 1334, and 1336 stored in storage device 1330 configured to control processor 1310, as well as a dedicated processor where software instructions are incorporated into the actual processor design. Processor 1310 may essentially be a completely independent computing system containing multiple cores or processors, buses, memory controllers, caches, etc. Multi-core processors may be symmetric or asymmetric.

[0180] To enable user interaction, computing system 1300 includes input devices 1345, which may represent any number of input mechanisms, such as a microphone for voice, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphical input, a keyboard, a mouse, motion input, voice, etc. Computing system 1300 may also include output devices 1335, which may be one or more of a plurality of output mechanisms. In some cases, a multimodal system may enable a user to provide multiple types of input / output to communicate with computing system 1300.

[0181] The computing system 1300 may include a communication interface 1340, which may generally govern and manage user input and system output. The communication interface may perform or facilitate receiving and / or sending wired or wireless communications using wired and / or wireless transceivers, including using an audio jack / plug, a microphone jack / plug, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port / plug, an Apple ™ Lightning ™ Ports / plugs, Ethernet ports / plugs, Fiber optic ports / plugs, Dedicated wired ports / plugs, 3G, 4G, 5G and / or other cellular data network wireless signal delivery, Bluetooth ™ Wireless signal transmission, Bluetooth ™Low energy (BLE) wireless signal transmission, IBEACON ™ Wireless signaling, radio frequency identification (RFID) wireless signaling, near field communication (NFC) wireless signaling, dedicated short range communication (DSRC) wireless signaling, 802.11 Wi-Fi wireless signaling, wireless local area network (WLAN) signaling, visible light communication (VLC), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), infrared (IR) communication wireless signaling, public switched telephone network (PSTN) signaling, integrated services digital network (ISDN) signaling, ad hoc network signaling, radio wave signaling, microwave signaling, infrared signaling, visible light signaling, ultraviolet light signaling, wireless signaling along the electromagnetic spectrum, or some combination thereof. The communication interface 1340 may also include one or more global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers or transceivers for determining the location of the computing system 1300 based on receiving one or more signals from one or more satellites associated with one or more GNSS systems. GNSS systems include, but are not limited to, the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), and Europe's Galileo GNSS. There is no restriction to operating on any particular hardware arrangement, and thus the base features herein may be easily substituted for improved hardware or firmware arrangements as they are developed.

[0182] The storage device 1330 may be a non-volatile and / or non-transitory and / or computer-readable memory device, and may be a hard disk or other type of computer-readable medium that can store data accessible by a computer, such as a magnetic cassette, a flash memory card, a solid-state memory device, a digital versatile disk, a cassette, a floppy disk, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape, a magnetic stripe / magnetic strip, any other magnetic storage medium, a flash memory, a memristor memory, any other solid-state memory, a compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM) optical disk, a rewritable compact disk (CD) optical disk, a digital video disk (DVD) optical disk, a Blu-ray disc (BDD) optical disk, a holographic optical disk, another optical medium, a secure digital (SD) card, a micro secure digital (microSD) card, a Memory Stick ®card, a smart card chip, an EMV chip, a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a mini / micro / nano / pico SIM card, another integrated circuit (IC) chip / card, a random access memory (RAM), a static RAM (SRAM), a dynamic RAM (DRAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a flash EPROM (FLASHEPROM), a cache memory (e.g., a layer 1 (L1) cache, a layer 2 (L2) cache, a layer 3 (L3) cache, a layer 4 (L4) cache, a layer 5 (L5) cache, other (L#) cache), a resistive random access memory (RRAM / ReRAM), a phase change memory (PCM), a spin transfer torque RAM (STT-RAM), another memory chip or box, and / or a combination thereof.

[0183] Storage device 1330 may include software services, servers, services, etc., which, when the code defining such software is executed by processor 1310, causes the system to perform functions. In some aspects, hardware services that perform specific functions may include software components stored in a computer-readable medium that is connected to necessary hardware components (such as processor 1310, connection 1305, output device 1335, etc.) to perform functions. The term "computer-readable medium" includes, but is not limited to, portable or non-portable storage devices, optical storage devices, and various other media capable of storing, containing or carrying instructions and / or data. Computer-readable media may include non-transitory media in which data may be stored and does not include carrier waves and / or transient electronic signals that are propagated wirelessly or through wired connections. Examples of non-transitory media may include, but are not limited to, disks or tapes, optical storage media (such as compact discs (CDs) or digital versatile discs (DVDs)), flash memory, memory, or memory devices. Computer readable media may store thereon code and / or machine executable instructions, which may represent a procedure, function, subprogram, program, routine, subroutine, module, software package, category, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and / or receiving information, data, independent variables, parameters, or memory contents. Information, independent variables, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or sent via any suitable means, including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network sending, etc.

[0184] Specific details are provided in the above description to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects and examples provided herein, but those skilled in the art will recognize that the application is not limited thereto. Thus, although the exemplary aspects of the present application have been described in detail herein, it is to be understood that each inventive concept can be implemented and adopted in various other ways, and the appended claims are not intended to be interpreted as including these variations, unless limited by the prior art. The various features and aspects of the above-mentioned applications can be used individually or in combination. In addition, without departing from the broader scope of the specification, the various aspects can be utilized in any number of environments and applications beyond those described herein. Therefore, the specification and the accompanying drawings should be considered as illustrative rather than restrictive. For the purpose of illustration, each method is described in a specific order. It should be appreciated that, in alternative aspects, each method can be performed in a different order than described.

[0185] For clarity of explanation, in some instances, the present technology may be presented as including separate functional blocks, which include devices, device components, steps or routines in the method embodied in software or a combination of hardware and software. Additional components other than those components shown in the drawings and / or described herein may be used. For example, circuits, systems, networks, processes and other components may be shown as components in block diagram form to avoid confusing these aspects in unnecessary details. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures and techniques may be shown without unnecessary details to avoid confusing various aspects.

[0186] In addition, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the various exemplary logic blocks, modules, circuits and algorithmic steps described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software or a combination of the two. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various exemplary components, blocks, modules, circuits and steps have been generally described above in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints proposed to the entire system. Those skilled in the art can implement the described functions in different ways for each specific application, but such specific implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0187] Various aspects may be described above as a process or method, which is depicted as a flow chart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flow chart may describe an operation as a sequential process, many of the operations may be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be rearranged. The process is terminated when the operations of the process are completed, but the process may have additional steps not included in the accompanying drawings. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, the termination of the process may correspond to the function returning to a calling function or a main function.

[0188] The processes and methods according to the above examples can be implemented using stored computer executable instructions or otherwise available computer executable instructions from a computer readable medium. Such instructions may include, for example, instructions and data that configure a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or a processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Portions of the computer resources used may be accessed via a network. Computer executable instructions may be, for example, binary, intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, firmware, source code. Examples of computer readable media that can be used to store instructions, information used, and / or information created during the method according to the described examples include disks or optical disks, flash memories, USB devices with non-volatile memory, networked storage devices, etc.

[0189] In some aspects, computer readable storage devices, media, and memories may include wired or wireless signals containing bit streams, etc. However, when referred to, non-transitory computer readable storage media specifically excludes media such as power consumption, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals themselves.

[0190] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different techniques and methods. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be mentioned throughout the above description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof in some cases, depending in part on the specific application, in part on the desired design, in part on the corresponding technology, etc.

[0191] The various illustrative logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or executed using hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or any combination thereof, and may be implemented in any of a variety of form factors. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware, or microcode, program code or code segments (e.g., computer program products) for performing necessary tasks may be stored in a computer-readable or machine-readable medium. The processor may perform the necessary tasks. Examples of form factors include: laptops, smartphones, mobile phones, tablet devices, or other small form factor personal computers, personal digital assistants, rack-mounted devices, stand-alone devices, etc. The functions described herein may also be embodied in peripheral devices or add-in cards. By way of further example, such functionality may also be implemented on circuit boards in different chips or different processes executed on a single device.

[0192] Instructions, media for transmitting such instructions, computing resources for executing them, and other structures for supporting such computing resources are example means for providing the functionality described in this disclosure.

[0193] The technology described herein may also be implemented in electronic hardware, computer software, firmware, or any combination thereof. Such technology may be implemented in any of a variety of devices, such as general-purpose computers, wireless communication devices, or integrated circuit devices with multiple uses, including applications in wireless communication devices, mobile phones, and other devices. Any features described as modules or components may be implemented together in an integrated logic device or individually as discrete but interoperable logic devices. If implemented in software, the technology may be implemented at least in part by a computer-readable data storage medium including a program code, which includes instructions for executing one or more of the above methods, algorithms, and / or operations when executed. The computer-readable data storage medium may form part of a computer program product, which may include packaging materials. The computer-readable medium may include a memory or data storage medium, such as a random access memory (RAM) (such as a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM)), a read-only memory (ROM), a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, a magnetic or optical data storage medium, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the techniques may be implemented at least in part by a computer-readable communication medium that carries or communicates program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed, read, and / or executed by a computer, such as a propagated signal or wave.

[0194] The program code may be executed by a processor, which may include one or more processors, such as one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), general-purpose microprocessors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable logic arrays (FPGAs), or other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuits. Such processors may be configured to perform any of the techniques described in this disclosure. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor; however, in an alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors combined with a DSP core, or any other such configuration. Therefore, the term "processor" as used herein may refer to any of the foregoing structures, any combination of the foregoing structures, or any other structure or device suitable for implementing the techniques described herein.

[0195] Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the less than ("<") and greater than (">") symbols or terms used herein may be replaced by less than or equal to (" ”) and greater than or equal to (“ ”) symbol without departing from the scope of this specification.

[0196] Where a component is described as being “configured to” perform certain operations, such configuration may be achieved, for example, by designing electronic circuits or other hardware to perform the operations, by programming programmable electronic circuits (e.g., a microprocessor or other suitable electronic circuits) to perform the operations, or any combination thereof.

[0197] The phrases “coupled to” or “communicatively coupled to” refer to any component being physically connected directly or indirectly to another component, and / or any component being in communication with another component directly or indirectly (e.g., connected to the other component via a wired or wireless connection and / or other suitable communication interface).

[0198] Claim language or other language reciting "at least one of" a set and / or "one or more of" a set indicates that one member of the set or multiple members of the set (in any combination) satisfies the claim. For example, claim language reciting "at least one of A and B" or "at least one of A or B" means A, B, or A and B. In another example, claim language reciting "at least one of A, B, and C" or "at least one of A, B, or C" means A, B, C, or A and B, or A and C, or B and C, A and B and C, or any repetition is information or data (e.g., A and A, B and B, C and C, A and A and B, etc.), or any other ordering, repetition, or combination of A, B, and C. The language "at least one of" a set and / or "one or more of" a set does not limit the set to the items listed in the set. For example, claim language stating "at least one of A and B" or "at least one of A or B" may mean A, B, or A and B, and may additionally include items not listed in the set of A and B.

[0199] Illustrative aspects of the present disclosure include:

[0200] Aspect 1. A first device for wireless communication, the first device comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being coupled to the at least one memory, the at least one processor being configured to: receive a trigger signal at the first device; determine that the first device is separated relative to a second device associated with the first device; and based on determining that the first device is separated, send a response signal to the trigger signal.

[0201] Aspect 2. The first device according to aspect 1, wherein the trigger signal is received together with an energy signal, and wherein the first device includes an energy harvester configured to harvest energy from the energy signal.

[0202] Aspect 3. The first device according to any one of aspects 1 to 2, wherein the trigger signal is sent by one of a wireless node or a relay device.

[0203] Aspect 4. The first device according to any one of aspects 1 to 3, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive a beacon; and determine that an identifier in the beacon matches a stored identifier associated with the second device.

[0204] Aspect 5. The first device according to aspect 4, wherein, to determine that the first device is detached, the at least one processor is configured to determine that the beacon including the identifier of the second device is not received within a threshold amount of time.

[0205] Aspect 6. The first device according to any one of aspects 4 or 5, wherein the stored identifier is an identifier of a home device.

[0206] Aspect 7. A first device according to any one of Aspects 1 to 6, wherein, in order to determine that the first device is separated, the at least one processor is configured to: estimate the location of the first device; and compare the estimated location with a defined geographic area to determine whether the first device is outside the defined geographic area.

[0207] Aspect 8. The first device according to any one of aspects 1 to 7, wherein the response signal comprises at least one of: an encrypted identifier associated with the second device; and service address information of a device location service.

[0208] Aspect 9. The first device according to any one of aspects 1 to 8, wherein the response signal comprises a location request.

[0209] Aspect 10. The first device according to any one of aspects 1 to 9, wherein the response signal is sent to at least one of a wireless node or a relay device.

[0210] Aspect 11. The first device according to any one of aspects 1 to 10, wherein the trigger signal includes resource allocation information of the first device, and wherein the response signal is sent based on the resource allocation information.

[0211] Aspect 12. The first device according to any one of aspects 1 to 11, wherein the trigger signal is one of the following: a periodic signal, a non-periodic signal or a semi-periodic signal.

[0212] Aspect 13. A device for wireless communication, the device comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being coupled to the at least one memory, the at least one processor being configured to: send a trigger signal for a tag device, the trigger signal comprising an energy signal for collection by the tag device; receive a response to the trigger signal; obtain a response signal to the trigger signal from the tag device, the response signal comprising a service address; and forward at least a portion of the response signal to a device positioning service based on the service address in the response signal.

[0213] Aspect 14. The device according to aspect 13, wherein the device comprises a relay device, and wherein, in order to forward at least a portion of the response signal to a device location service, the at least one processor is further configured to forward the response signal via a wireless network node.

[0214] Aspect 15. An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 13 to 14, wherein, in order to send the trigger signal, the at least one processor is further configured to: receive one or more parameters for sending the trigger signal; and send the trigger signal based on the one or more parameters.

[0215] Aspect 16. An apparatus according to Aspect 15, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of the following: an indication of whether to send the trigger signal; the periodicity of the trigger signal; the time offset of the trigger signal; the duration for sending the trigger signal; an indication of the time and frequency resources used for the trigger signal; and a transmission power proportional factor of the trigger signal.

[0216] Aspect 17. A device according to any one of Aspects 13 to 16, wherein the response signal includes a location request, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: obtain location information associated with the tag device; and send the location information to the device positioning service.

[0217] Aspect 18. The apparatus according to aspect 17, wherein the location information is obtained based on a location of a wireless node.

[0218] Aspect 19. A method for wireless communication, the method comprising: receiving a trigger signal at a first device; determining that the first device is separated relative to a second device associated with the first device; and based on determining that the first device is separated, sending a response signal to the trigger signal.

[0219] Aspect 20. The method according to aspect 19, wherein the trigger signal is received together with an energy signal, and wherein the first device includes an energy harvester configured to harvest energy from the energy signal.

[0220] Aspect 21. A method according to any one of aspects 19 to 20, wherein the trigger signal is sent by one of a wireless node or a relay device.

[0221] Aspect 22. The method according to any one of aspects 19 to 21, the method further comprising: receiving a beacon; and determining that an identifier in the beacon matches a stored identifier associated with the second device.

[0222] Aspect 23. The method of aspect 22, wherein determining that the first device is detached comprises determining that the beacon including the identifier of the second device is not received within a threshold amount of time.

[0223] Aspect 24. A method according to any one of Aspects 22 or 23, wherein the stored identifier is an identifier of a home device.

[0224] Aspect 25. A method according to any one of Aspects 19 to 24, wherein determining that the first device is separated includes: estimating the location of the first device; and comparing the estimated location with a defined geographic area to determine whether the first device is outside the defined geographic area.

[0225] Aspect 26. The method according to any one of aspects 19 to 25, wherein the response signal comprises at least one of: an encrypted identifier associated with the second device; and service address information of a device location service.

[0226] Aspect 27. A method according to any one of aspects 19 to 26, wherein the response signal comprises a location request.

[0227] Aspect 28. A method according to any one of aspects 19 to 26, wherein the response signal is sent to at least one of a wireless node or a relay device.

[0228] Aspect 29. The method according to any one of aspects 19 to 26, wherein the trigger signal includes resource allocation information of the first device, and wherein the response signal is sent based on the resource allocation information.

[0229] Aspect 30. A method for wireless communication, the method comprising: sending a trigger signal for a tag device, the trigger signal comprising an energy signal for collection by the tag device; receiving a response to the trigger signal; obtaining a response signal to the trigger signal from the tag device, the response signal comprising a service address; and forwarding at least a portion of the response signal to a device positioning service based on the service address in the response signal.

[0230] Aspect 31. The method of aspect 30, wherein forwarding at least a portion of the response signal to a device location service comprises forwarding the response signal via a wireless network node.

[0231] Aspect 32. The method according to any one of Aspects 30 to 31, wherein sending the trigger signal comprises: receiving one or more parameters for sending the trigger signal; and sending the trigger signal based on the one or more parameters.

[0232] Aspect 33. A method according to Aspect 32, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of the following: an indication of whether to send the trigger signal; the periodicity of the trigger signal; the time offset of the trigger signal; the duration for sending the trigger signal; an indication of the time and frequency resources used for the trigger signal; and a transmission power proportional factor of the trigger signal.

[0233] Aspect 34. A method according to any one of Aspects 30 to 33, wherein the response signal includes a location request, and wherein the method further comprises: obtaining location information associated with the tag device; and sending the location information to the device positioning service.

[0234] Aspect 35. The method according to aspect 34, wherein the location information is obtained based on the location of the wireless node.

[0235] Aspect 36. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to: receive a trigger signal at a first device; determine that the first device is separated relative to a second device associated with the first device; and based on determining that the first device is separated, send a response signal to the trigger signal.

[0236] Aspect 37. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of aspect 36, wherein the trigger signal is received together with an energy signal, and wherein the first device comprises an energy harvester configured to harvest energy from the energy signal.

[0237] Aspect 38. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of aspects 36 to 37, wherein the trigger signal is sent by one of a wireless node or a relay device.

[0238] Aspect 39. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 36 to 38, wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to: receive a beacon; and determine that an identifier in the beacon matches a stored identifier associated with the second device.

[0239] Aspect 40. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to aspect 39, wherein, to determine that the first device is detached, the instructions cause the at least one processor to determine that the beacon including the identifier of the second device has not been received within a threshold amount of time.

[0240] Aspect 41. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of aspects 39 or 40, wherein the stored identifier is an identifier of a home device.

[0241] Aspect 42. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 36 to 41, wherein, in order to determine that the first device is separated, the instructions cause the at least one processor to: estimate the location of the first device; and compare the estimated location with a defined geographic area to determine whether the first device is outside the defined geographic area.

[0242] Aspect 43. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of aspects 36 to 42, wherein the response signal comprises at least one of: an encrypted identifier associated with the second device; and service address information of a device location service.

[0243] Aspect 44. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of aspects 36 to 43, wherein the response signal comprises a location request.

[0244] Aspect 45. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of aspects 36 to 44, wherein the response signal is sent to at least one of a wireless node or a relay device.

[0245] Aspect 46. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of aspects 36 to 45, wherein the trigger signal comprises resource allocation information of the first device, and wherein the response signal is sent based on the resource allocation information.

[0246] Aspect 47. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of aspects 36 to 46, wherein the trigger signal is one of: a periodic signal, a non-periodic signal, or a semi-periodic signal.

[0247] Aspect 48. A non-transitory computer-readable medium of a device, on which instructions are stored, which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to: send a trigger signal for a tag device, the trigger signal comprising an energy signal for collection by the tag device; receive a response to the trigger signal; obtain a response signal to the trigger signal from the tag device, the response signal comprising a service address; and forward at least a portion of the response signal to a device location service based on the service address in the response signal.

[0248] Aspect 49. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Aspect 48, wherein the device comprises a relay device, and wherein, in order to forward at least a portion of the response signal to a device location service, the at least one processor is further configured to forward the response signal via a wireless network node.

[0249] Aspect 50. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 48 to 49, wherein, in order to send the trigger signal, the instructions cause the at least one processor to: receive one or more parameters for sending the trigger signal; and send the trigger signal based on the one or more parameters.

[0250] Aspect 51. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Aspect 50, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of the following: an indication of whether to send the trigger signal; the periodicity of the trigger signal; the time offset of the trigger signal; the duration for sending the trigger signal; an indication of the time and frequency resources used for the trigger signal; and a transmission power scaling factor of the trigger signal.

[0251] Aspect 52. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Aspects 48 to 51, wherein the response signal includes a location request, and wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to: obtain location information associated with the tag device; and send the location information to the device location service.

[0252] Aspect 53. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of aspect 52, wherein the location information is obtained based on a location of a wireless node.

[0253] Aspect 54. An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising one or more components for performing the operations according to any one of Aspects 19 to 35.

Claims

1. A first device for wireless communication, the first device comprising: at least one memory; as well as at least one processor, the at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory, the at least one processor configured to: receiving a trigger signal at the first device; determining that the first device is detached relative to a second device associated with the first device; and Based on determining that the first device is detached, a response signal to the trigger signal is sent. 2 . The first device of claim 1 , wherein the trigger signal is received together with an energy signal, and wherein the first device comprises an energy harvester configured to harvest energy from the energy signal. 3 . The first device according to claim 1 , wherein the trigger signal is sent by one of a wireless node or a relay device.

4. The first device of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receiving beacons; and A determination is made that the identifier in the beacon matches a stored identifier associated with the second device.

5. The first device according to claim 4, wherein: To determine that the first device is detached, the at least one processor is configured to determine that the beacon including the identifier of the second device is not received within a threshold amount of time. The first device of claim 4 , wherein the stored identifier is an identifier of a home device.

7. The first device according to claim 1, wherein: To determine that the first device is detached, the at least one processor is configured to: estimating a position of the first device; as well as The estimated location is compared to a defined geographic area to determine whether the first device is outside of the defined geographic area.

8. The first device of claim 1, wherein the response signal comprises at least one of: an encrypted identifier associated with the second device; and Service address information of the device positioning service.

9. The first device of claim 1, wherein the response signal comprises a location request.

10. The first device of claim 1, wherein the response signal is sent to at least one of a wireless node or a relay device.

11. The first device according to claim 1, wherein the trigger signal comprises resource allocation information of the first device, and wherein the response signal is sent based on the resource allocation information.

12. The first device of claim 1, wherein the trigger signal is one of: Periodic signal, A non-periodic signal, or Half-period signal.

13. A device for wireless communication, the device comprising: at least one memory; as well as at least one processor, the at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory, the at least one processor configured to: Sending a trigger signal for a tag device, the trigger signal comprising an energy signal for being collected by the tag device; receiving a response to the trigger signal; obtaining a response signal to the trigger signal from the tag device, wherein the response signal includes a service address; and At least a portion of the response signal is forwarded to a device location service based on the service address in the response signal.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the device comprises a relay device, and wherein: To forward at least a portion of the response signal to a device location service, the at least one processor is further configured to forward the response signal via a wireless network node.

15. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein: In order to send the trigger signal, the at least one processor is further configured to: receiving one or more parameters for sending the trigger signal; and The trigger signal is sent based on the one or more parameters.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of: an indication of whether to send the trigger signal; the periodicity of the trigger signal; A time offset of the trigger signal; A duration for sending the trigger signal; an indication of time and frequency resources to be used for the trigger signal; and The transmission power proportional factor of the trigger signal.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the response signal comprises a location request, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Obtaining location information associated with the tag device; and The location information is sent to the device location service.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location information is obtained based on a location of a wireless node.

19. A method for wireless communication, the method comprising: receiving a trigger signal at a first device; determining that the first device is detached relative to a second device associated with the first device; as well as Based on determining that the first device is detached, a response signal to the trigger signal is sent.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the trigger signal is received with an energy signal, and wherein the first device comprises an energy harvester configured to harvest energy from the energy signal.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the trigger signal is sent by one of a wireless node or a relay device.

22. The method according to claim 19, further comprising: Receive beacon; as well as A determination is made that the identifier in the beacon matches a stored identifier associated with the second device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein determining that the first device is detached comprises determining that the beacon including the identifier of the second device has not been received within a threshold amount of time.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the stored identifier is an identifier of a home device.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein determining that the first device is detached comprises: estimating a position of the first device; as well as The estimated location is compared to a defined geographic area to determine whether the first device is outside of the defined geographic area.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein the response signal comprises at least one of: an encrypted identifier associated with the second device; and Service address information of the device positioning service.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein the response signal comprises a location request.

28. The method of claim 19, wherein the response signal is sent to at least one of a wireless node or a relay device.

29. The method of claim 19, wherein the trigger signal comprises resource allocation information of the first device, and wherein the response signal is sent based on the resource allocation information.

30. A method for wireless communication, the method comprising: Sending a trigger signal for a tag device, the trigger signal comprising an energy signal for being collected by the tag device; receiving a response to the trigger signal; obtaining a response signal to the trigger signal from the tag device, wherein the response signal includes a service address; and At least a portion of the response signal is forwarded to a device location service based on the service address in the response signal.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein forwarding at least a portion of the response signal to a device location service comprises forwarding the response signal via a wireless network node.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein sending the trigger signal comprises: receiving one or more parameters for sending the trigger signal; as well as The trigger signal is sent based on the one or more parameters.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of: an indication of whether to send the trigger signal; the periodicity of the trigger signal; A time offset of the trigger signal; A duration for sending the trigger signal; an indication of time and frequency resources to be used for the trigger signal; and The transmission power proportional factor of the trigger signal.

34. The method of claim 30, wherein the response signal comprises a location request, and wherein the method further comprises: Obtaining location information associated with the tag device; as well as The location information is sent to the device location service.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the location information is obtained based on a location of a wireless node.

36. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to: receiving a trigger signal at a first device; determining that the first device is detached relative to a second device associated with the first device; and Based on determining that the first device is detached, a response signal to the trigger signal is sent.

37. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 36, wherein the trigger signal is received with an energy signal, and wherein the first device comprises an energy harvester configured to harvest energy from the energy signal.

38. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 36, wherein the trigger signal is sent by one of a wireless node or a relay device.

39. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 36, wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to: receiving beacons; and A determination is made that the identifier in the beacon matches a stored identifier associated with the second device.

40. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 39, wherein: To determine that the first device is detached, the instructions cause the at least one processor to determine that the beacon including the identifier of the second device has not been received within a threshold amount of time.

41. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 39, wherein the stored identifier is an identifier of a home device.

42. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 36, wherein: To determine that the first device is detached, the instructions cause the at least one processor to: estimating a position of the first device; as well as The estimated location is compared to a defined geographic area to determine whether the first device is outside of the defined geographic area.

43. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 36, wherein the response signal comprises at least one of: an encrypted identifier associated with the second device; and Service address information of the device positioning service.

44. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 36, wherein the response signal comprises a location request.

45. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 36, wherein the response signal is sent to at least one of a wireless node or a relay device.

46. ​​The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 36, wherein the trigger signal comprises resource allocation information of the first device, and wherein the response signal is sent based on the resource allocation information.

47. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 36, wherein the trigger signal is one of: Periodic signal, A non-periodic signal, or Half-period signal.

48. A non-transitory computer readable medium of a device having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to: Sending a trigger signal for a tag device, the trigger signal comprising an energy signal for being collected by the tag device; receiving a response to the trigger signal; obtaining a response signal to the trigger signal from the tag device, wherein the response signal includes a service address; and At least a portion of the response signal is forwarded to a device location service based on the service address in the response signal.

49. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 48, wherein the device comprises a relay device, and wherein: To forward at least a portion of the response signal to a device location service, the at least one processor is further configured to forward the response signal via a wireless network node.

50. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 48, wherein: To send the trigger signal, the instructions cause the at least one processor to: receiving one or more parameters for sending the trigger signal; and The trigger signal is sent based on the one or more parameters.

51. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 50, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of: an indication of whether to send the trigger signal; the periodicity of the trigger signal; A time offset of the trigger signal; A duration for sending the trigger signal; an indication of time and frequency resources to be used for the trigger signal; and The transmission power proportional factor of the trigger signal.

52. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 48, wherein the response signal comprises a location request, and wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to: Obtaining location information associated with the tag device; and The location information is sent to the device location service.

53. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 52, wherein the location information is obtained based on a location of a wireless node.

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