Mobility handling in environmental internet of things

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention relates to a device, a method, equipment and a computer readable storage medium for mobility processing based on equipment measurement in environmental Internet of Things. The method comprises: at a first device, the first device receiving a polling signal from a second device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal, where the first device enables communication with the second device through a backscatter mechanism; the first device determines a query opportunity for backscatter communication; and the first device initiates an attach procedure to the second device based on at least one of a signal strength measurement of the polling signal or a query opportunity of backscatter communication according to the identifier of the second device.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Various example embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the field of telecommunications, and in particular to apparatuses, methods, devices, and computer-readable storage media for mobility handling in Ambient Internet of Things (AIoT). Background Art

[0002] Energy harvesting-enabled communication services (also referred to as AIoT in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)) have been widely used in various vertical industries including logistics, manufacturing, transportation, energy industry, etc. Enabling AIoT devices in both public and private networks will benefit the entire 5th generation (5G) ecosystem. Therefore, support for passive / ambient IoT using battery-free terminals or terminals with limited energy storage capabilities (e.g., using capacitors) may become a new requirement for existing 3GPP technologies. Summary of the invention

[0003] In a first aspect of the present disclosure, a first device is provided. The first device includes at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the first device to at least: receive a polling signal from a second device, the polling signal at least indicating an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through a backscatter mechanism; determine a query timing for backscatter communication; and initiate an attachment process to the second device based on the identifier of the second device based on at least one of the following: a signal strength measurement of the polling signal, or a query timing for backscatter communication.

[0004] In a second aspect of the present disclosure, a second device is provided. The second device includes: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the second device to at least: transmit a polling signal to a first device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal from the second device, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through energy harvesting; and perform an attachment process for the first device to the second device based on a response generated by the first device at least based on a signal strength measurement of the polling signal.

[0005] In a third aspect of the present disclosure, a method is provided. The method includes: receiving a polling signal at a first device from a second device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through a backscatter mechanism; determining a query timing for backscatter communication; and initiating an attachment process to the second device based on the identifier of the second device based on at least one of: a signal strength measurement of the polling signal, or a query timing for backscatter communication.

[0006] In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, a method is provided. The method includes: transmitting a polling signal from a second device to a first device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal from the second device, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through energy harvesting; and performing an attachment process for the first device to the second device based on a response generated by the first device based at least on a signal strength measurement of the polling signal.

[0007] In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a first device is provided. The first device includes: a component for receiving a polling signal from a second device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through a backscatter mechanism; a component for determining a query timing for backscatter communication; and a component for initiating an attachment process to the second device based on the identifier of the second device based on at least one of: a signal strength measurement of the polling signal, or a query timing for backscatter communication.

[0008] In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, a second device is provided. The second device includes: a component for transmitting a polling signal to a first device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal from the second device, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through energy harvesting; and a component for performing an attachment process for the first device to the second device based on a response generated by the first device at least based on a signal strength measurement of the polling signal.

[0009] In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable medium is provided, wherein the computer-readable medium includes instructions stored thereon, and the instructions are used to cause a device to at least execute the method according to the third aspect.

[0010] In an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable medium is provided, wherein the computer-readable medium includes instructions stored thereon, and the instructions are used to cause a device to at least execute the method according to the fourth aspect.

[0011] It should be understood that the invention summary is not intended to identify the key features or essential features of the embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present invention will become readily understood through the following description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0013] Figure 1 An example communication environment is shown in which example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

[0014] Figure 2 A signaling diagram illustrating an example process of attachment to a second device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0015] Figure 3 shows an example format of a polling signal according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0016] Figure 4 A signaling diagram illustrating an example process of attaching from a third device to a second device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0017] Figure 5 An example process of timestamp-based attachment according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure is shown;

[0018] Figure 6 An example process of counter-based attachment according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure is shown;

[0019] Figure 7 A flowchart showing a method implemented at a first device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0020] Figure 8 A flowchart showing a method implemented at a second device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0021] Fig. 9 shows a simplified block diagram of a device suitable for implementing the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0022] Fig.10 A block diagram of an example computer-readable medium is shown according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0023] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals refer to the same or similar elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] The principle of the present invention will now be described with reference to some exemplary embodiments. It should be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration, and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without implying any limitation to the scope of the present disclosure. In addition to the embodiments described below, the embodiments described herein can be implemented in various ways.

[0025] In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

[0026] In this disclosure, references to "one embodiment," "an embodiment," "an example embodiment," etc. indicate that the described embodiment may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but not every embodiment necessarily includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in conjunction with an embodiment, it is considered to be within the knowledge of those skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in conjunction with other embodiments, whether or not explicitly described.

[0027] It should be understood that, although the terms "first", "second" etc. in front of nouns etc. can be used to describe various elements in this article, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another element, and they do not limit the order of nouns. For example, without departing from the scope of the exemplary embodiment, the first element can be referred to as the second element, and similarly, the second element can be referred to as the first element. As used herein, the term "and / or" includes any and all combinations of one or more listed terms.

[0028] As used herein, “at least one of: ” and “at least one of ” and similar expressions (wherein a list of two or more elements is connected by “and” or “or”) refer to at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all of the elements.

[0029] As used herein, unless explicitly stated, performing a step “in response to A” does not mean performing the step immediately after “A” occurs, but may include one or more intermediate steps.

[0030] The terms used herein are only used for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the exemplary embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that when used herein, the terms "include", "comprise", "have", "contain", "include" and / or "include" specify the presence of features, elements and / or parts, etc., but do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, parts and / or combinations thereof.

[0031] As used in this application, the term "circuitry" may refer to one or more or all of the following: a) hardware circuit implementation only (e.g., implementation only in analog and / or digital circuits), and b) a combination of hardware circuitry and software such as (if applicable): (i) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuitry and software / firmware, and (ii) any portion of a hardware processor (including a digital signal processor) with software, software and memory that work together to enable a device such as a mobile phone or server to perform various functions; and c) A hardware circuit and / or processor that requires software (eg, firmware) for operation, such as a microprocessor or portion of a microprocessor, but the software may not be present when not needed for operation.

[0032] This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of only a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or a portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to a particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in a server, cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

[0033] As used herein, the term "communication network" refers to a network that complies with any suitable communication standard, for example, New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Advanced LTE (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA), Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), etc. In addition, the communication between the terminal device and the network device in the communication network can be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocol, including but not limited to the first generation (1G), second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, fifth generation (5G), sixth generation (6G) communication protocol and / or any other protocol currently known or developed in the future. The embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to various communication systems. In view of the rapid development of communication, there are of course future types of communication technologies and systems that can implement the present disclosure. It should not be considered that the scope of the present disclosure is limited to the above-mentioned system.

[0034] As used herein, the term "network device" refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services from it. A network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), such as a Node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB), a NR NB (also referred to as a gNB), a remote radio unit (RRU), a radio head (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a repeater, an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, a low-power node such as a femto, a micro), a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or a non-terrestrial network device (such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous orbit (GEO) satellite, an aircraft network device, etc.), depending on the terminology and technology applied. In some example embodiments, a radio access network (RAN) split architecture includes a centralized unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. An IAB node includes a mobile terminal (IAB-MT) portion that behaves like a UE toward a parent node, and a DU portion of an IAB node behaves like a base station toward a next-hop IAB node.

[0035] The term "terminal device" refers to any terminal device capable of wireless communication. As an example and not limitation, the terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, a user equipment (UE), a subscriber station (SS), a portable subscriber station, a mobile station (MS) or an access terminal (AT). The terminal device may include, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a tablet computer, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable computer, a desktop computer, an image capture terminal device such as a digital camera, a game terminal device, a music storage and playback facility, a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, a laptop embedded device (LEE), a laptop mounted device (LME), a USB dongle, a smart device, a wireless user equipment (CPE), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a watch or other wearable device, a head mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, medical equipment and applications (e.g., remote surgery), industrial equipment and applications (e.g., robots and / or other wireless devices operating in industrial and / or automatic processing chain environments), consumer electronic devices, equipment operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, etc. The terminal device may also correspond to the mobile terminal (MT) part of an IAB node (eg, a relay node).In the following description, the terms "terminal device", "communication device", "terminal", "user equipment" and "UE" may be used interchangeably.

[0036] As used herein, the terms "resource", "transmission resource", "resource block", "physical resource block" (PRB), "uplink resource" or "downlink resource" may refer to any resource used to perform communication (e.g., communication between a terminal device and a network device), such as a resource in the time domain, a resource in the frequency domain, a resource in the spatial domain, a resource in the code domain, or any other combination of time domain, frequency domain, spatial domain and / or code domain resources to achieve communication. In the following, unless explicitly stated, resources in the frequency domain and the time domain will be used as examples of transmission resources for describing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be noted that the example embodiments of the present disclosure are also applicable to other resources in other domains.

[0037] Figure 1 An example communication environment 100 is shown in which example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. Figure 1 As shown, the communication environment 100 may include a first device 110, a second device 120, and a third device 130. The first device 110 may communicate with the second device 120 within the coverage area 102 and / or the third device 130 within the coverage area 101.

[0038] The first device 110 may operate as an IoT device. In some scenarios, the first device 110 may be based on energy harvesting and may operate in a passive mode and collect energy from both 3GPP and non-3GPP devices. For example, the first device 110 may use energy harvested from radio waves, solar energy / light, or any other form of energy that can be collected in its deployment scenario, and the first device 110 may be expected to operate using ultra-low power ranging from tens of microwatts to hundreds of microwatts.

[0039] As an example, the first device 110 may collect energy and then use active circuits like a transmitter to transmit data. As another example, the first device 110 may operate as a passive device and use backscattering to send information.

[0040] like Figure 1 As shown, the first device 110 located in the coverage area 101 can be illuminated by the energy signal from the third device 130 and backscatter information to the third device 130. The first device 110 located in the coverage area 102 can be illuminated by the energy signal from the second device 120 and backscatter information to the second device 120.

[0041] In some scenarios, the first device 110 may operate as an AIoT device (e.g., a tag). The second device 120 and / or the third device 130 may operate as a radio terminal device (e.g., a UE, which may also be referred to as a reader and / or an activator or a fixed receiver, etc.). As another option, the second device 120 and / or the third device 130 may also operate as a RAN device (e.g., a gNB, a BS, or an eNB).

[0042] In some scenarios, the communication environment 100 may include a fourth device ( Figure 1 If the second device 120 operates as a radio terminal device, the fourth device may be considered to be a RAN device (e.g., a gNB) associated with the second device 120. In some embodiments, for example, when the second device 120 operates as a RAN device, the fourth device may be considered to be the same device as the second device 120.

[0043] The communication in the communication environment 100 may be implemented according to any suitable communication protocol, including but not limited to cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G), second generation (2G), third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), fifth generation (5G), sixth generation (6G), etc., wireless local area network communication protocols such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, etc., and / or any other protocol currently known or developed in the future. In addition, the communication may use any suitable wireless communication technology, including but not limited to: code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division duplex (FDD), time division duplex (TDD), multiple input multiple output (MIMO), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDM), discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and / or any other technology currently known or developed in the future.

[0044] As described above, AIoT devices can use energy harvested from radio waves or any other form of energy that can be harvested in their specific deployment scenarios, and AIoT devices can be expected to operate at ultra-low power in the range of tens of microwatts to hundreds of microwatts. For example, if energy is harvested from radio waves, the output power of the energy harvester will be from a few microwatts to tens of microwatts. If solar panels are used to harvest energy from solar energy / light, the output power will be less than 1 milliwatt due to the small size of the solar panels.

[0045] refer to Figure 1 , a backscatter energy harvesting IoT system may include a first device 110 (e.g., an AIoT device). The first device 110 may be illuminated by an energy signal and backscatter information to a second device 120 or a third device 130 (e.g., an activator). Illumination and signal reception may be performed by the same device (referred to as a single-station configuration) or different devices (referred to as a dual-station configuration).

[0046] The first device 110 (e.g., an AIoT device) may have very strict energy constraints. For example, the AIoT device is connected / attached to the network through a specific reader (i.e., single-station) or an activator / reader pair (i.e., dual-station). Continuous mobility tracking for the AIoT device is not required. Even so, the AIoT device may not always be statically positioned at one location.

[0047] In addition, the first device 110 (e.g., an AIoT device) may have limited device capabilities. Therefore, the first device 110 does not have the ability to detect a timing reference signal (RS) defined by 3GPP from a broadband signal and measure reference signal received power (RSRP) on a forwarding channel. Only the signaling received from the activator can indicate the status of the AIoT device. The activator and the network can identify the AIoT device through a response from the AIoT device.

[0048] Due to activator / AIoT device mobility, the network may no longer be able to connect to the AIoT device through the activator it is attached to. Since such devices supporting use cases such as warehouse inventory management, smart agriculture, etc. do not require "make-before-break" functionality; there is no need to allocate resources in advance and develop mechanisms to maintain continuous connectivity.

[0049] In the case of discontinuous AloT device management, the attachment problem has two parts. One is how to recognize that connectivity to the originally attached activator has been lost, and the other is how to start the reattachment process.

[0050] Since AIoT devices have specific connectivity and mobility requirements, AIoT devices should not be considered as NR UEs. Some steps and functions need to be improved and / or redesigned to ensure their connectivity in 3GPP cellular networks and address the mobility issues of AIoT devices.

[0051] Example embodiments of the present disclosure propose a new solution in which an AloT device initiates an attachment process based on its measurements to handle activator / AloT device mobility. According to some example embodiments of the present disclosure, a first device 110 receives a polling signal from a second device 120, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device 120 and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal. The first device 110 enables communication with the second device 120 through a backscatter mechanism. The first device 110 determines a query timing for backscatter communication. In addition, the first device 110 initiates an attachment process to the second device 120 based on a signal strength measurement of the polling signal and / or a query timing for backscatter communication according to the identifier of the second device.

[0052] In this way, the first device 110 can proactively measure the signal reception power from other activators in advance, and can proactively attach to the activator when it is almost lost from the network, which can reduce the complexity of the tag attachment process.

[0053] Reference now Figure 2 , Figure 2 A signaling diagram 200 is shown of an example process of attaching from a first device 110 to a second device 120 according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. Figure 2 As shown, the signaling diagram 200 includes a first device 110 and a second device 120 .

[0054] like Figure 2 As shown, the first device 110 receives (210) a polling signal from the second device 120. For example, the second device 120 can broadcast the polling signal to all AIoT devices in its coverage area. In some examples, the polling signal is a narrowband signal in the time domain and is much simpler than the reference signal (RS) in 3GPP. For example, the polling signal is a detected low-rate signal and can be measured in the analog domain.

[0055] As described above, the second device 120 may operate as a gNB or a UE. The polling signal may be sent from the second device 120. The gNB may be able to illuminate all AIoT devices in the cell, and the UE will illuminate the AIoT devices in its coverage area. It should be understood that some AIoT devices may be too far away from the gNB for the gNB to illuminate them.

[0056] The polling signal may indicate identification information of the second device 120, for example, an identifier of the second device 120. That is, the first device 110 may identify the second device 120 upon receiving the polling signal.

[0057] The polling signal may also indicate a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal from the second device 120. In other words, the polling signal is periodic, and its periodicity may be defined in the polling signal.

[0058] It is understandable that the polling signals of different devices can be staggered in time and do not interfere with each other. The polling signal of each device can be unique. For example, there are multiple second devices in the environment where the first device 110 is deployed. The multiple second devices individually have unique polling signals.

[0059] In some example embodiments, the polling signal may also indicate at least one of: an identifier of a cell associated with the second device 120 , information of a time reference, or an indication for requesting identification information of the first device 110 .

[0060] Reference now Figure 3 , which shows an example format of the polling signal 300 according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. Figure 3 As shown, the polling signal 300 includes a field 310 that identifies a header of the polling signal.

[0061] Additionally, the polling signal 300 may include one or more fields indicating a source from which the polling signal is received, for example, field 320 indicating an identifier of a cell associated with the second device 120 and field 330 indicating an identifier of the second device 120 (eg, an activator).

[0062] As described, the polling signal 300 may include fields associated with the periodicity of the polling cycle, for example, field 340 indicates the period of the polling cycle referred to as "cylceOfPolling." In addition, the polling signal 300 may include a field indicating a time reference of the first device 110, for example, field 350 "timeReference."

[0063] As shown, fields associated with time (i.e., field 340 "cylceOfPolling" and field 350 "timeReference") are introduced into the polling signal. AIoT devices do not have internal clocks because cheap oscillators are also very inaccurate and require a continuous power supply anyway. In some examples, the "time" value can always be provided by the activator. "timeReference" indicates a "time" that the AloT device is aware of certain opportunities (e.g., query opportunities).

[0064] In one example embodiment, "timeReference" may be defined as an absolute timestamp of the current time. In another example embodiment, "timeReference" may be defined as the superframe number of the polling signal transmission moment.

[0065] Alternatively or additionally, the polling signal 300 may include a field 360 indicating one or more IDs of the corresponding device(s) 110. That is, the second device 120 may expect the device(s) 110 to report its / their status.

[0066] As an example, the second device 120 may broadcast a polling signal to all first devices 110 (e.g., AIoT devices) in its coverage area. In this case, the polling signal may not need to include field 360. If the second device 120 intends to broadcast a polling signal to certain (multiple) first devices 110 (e.g., AIoT devices) and expects to receive a signal from certain (multiple) first devices 110, the polling signal may indicate a list of identifiers of certain (multiple) first devices 110.

[0067] exist Figure 2In the scenario of the process shown in FIG. 1 , the first device 110 can enable communication with the second device 120 through a backscatter mechanism. Using the backscatter mechanism, the first device 110 does not require energy support from a battery, and therefore does not add a crystal oscillator to provide a frequency and time reference. In this way, its cost and complexity can be kept very low.

[0068] Now refer back to Figure 2 , the first device 110 determines (220) a query opportunity for backscatter communication. It is assumed that the first device 110 has no battery and no oscillator. To obtain a time reference, the first device 110 can record its query cycle and the last time it was queried (the query opportunity). The network can periodically query the data of the sensors on the first device 110, and the periodicity can be defined by the query cycle. The moment of the query is defined as the query opportunity.

[0069] Based on the identifier of the second device 120, the first device 110 then initiates (230) an attachment process to the second device 120 based on signal strength measurements of the polling signal and / or query opportunities for backscatter communications.

[0070] For example, the first device 110 may measure the strength of the polling signal. This may be done, for example, by activating the energy measurement module for a short fixed duration after detecting the polling signal.

[0071] Based on the measured signal strength, the first device 110 can determine whether it can attach to the new activator or remain attached to the original activator (if it exists). For example, if the first device 110 determines that the measured signal strength of the polling signal received from the second device 120 meets the threshold (e.g., exceeds the threshold), the first device 110 can initiate the attachment process to the second device 120.

[0072] For example, before measuring the polling signal received from the second device 120, the first device 110 can measure the signal strength of the polling signal from the original activator (if it exists) and determine that the signal strength of the polling signal from the original activator does not meet the threshold.

[0073] If the first device 110 determines that the measured signal strength of the polling signal received from the second device 120 does not meet the threshold (e.g., is below the threshold), the first device 110 may attempt to receive polling signals from other activators until it finds an activator with a satisfactory signal strength. In this case, the first device 110 may lose the polling signal from the original activator.

[0074] As another example, in addition to the measured signal strength of the polling signal (e.g., signal received power (SRP) and / or signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR)), the first device 110 may also consider the duration of the query opportunity and determine whether an attachment process to the second device 120 is to be initiated. For example, in the case where the measured signal strength satisfies a threshold, if the time to the next query opportunity satisfies a predetermined condition, the first device 110 may continue to be attached to the second device 120. This situation will be described in further detail below.

[0075] Reference now Figure 4 , which shows a signaling diagram 400 of an example process of (re)attaching to the second device 120 (eg, from the third device 130) according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. Figure 4 As shown, signaling diagram 400 includes first device 110, second device 120, third device 130, and fourth device 405. First device 110 has established attachment to third device 130. In some cases, fourth device 405 has cells associated with second device 120 and third device 130.

[0076] like Figure 4 As shown, the first device 110 may receive (410) a preconfiguration including a threshold value (e.g., a threshold value of SRP or a threshold value of SINR) from the fourth device 405. The threshold value preconfigured to the first device 110 may be used to identify a better device (e.g., an activator / reader) than the assigned device. The preconfiguration information may be broadcast by the fourth device 405 (e.g., a gNB) via system information (e.g., a system information block (SIB)), or by the activator to information forwarded from the gNB.

[0077] The third device 130 may broadcast a periodic polling signal including information of the polling cycle and the current time (i.e., time reference) when the signal is transmitted. The first device 110 may receive (415) the polling signal from the third device 130. At this point, the third device 130 may be the original / assigned attachment device for the first device 110.

[0078] Additionally, the second device 120 may also broadcast a periodic polling signal including a polling cycle and a time reference, and the first device 110 may receive ( 425 ) the polling signal from the second device 120 .

[0079] The first device 110 may measure ( 420 ) the SRP of the polling signal from the third device 130 .

[0080] If the first device 110 determines that the SRP of the polling signal from the third device 130 is lower than the first threshold, the first device 110 may determine that the first device may be away from the coverage area of ​​the third device 130. The first device 110 may then attempt to measure (430) the SRP of the polling signal from other devices (e.g., from the second device 120).

[0081] If the first device 110 determines that the SRP of the polling signal from the third device 130 is equal to or exceeds the first threshold, the first device 110 may maintain attachment with the third device 130 .

[0082] If the first device 110 determines that the measured signal strength (e.g., SRP) of the polling signal received from the second device 120 satisfies (e.g., exceeds) the second threshold, the first device 110 may determine whether the time to the next query opportunity is less than a predefined time, e.g., N polling cycles. If so, the first device 110 may initiate attachment to the second device 120. For example, Figure 4 As shown, the first device 110 may backscatter (435) a polling signal to the second device 120 and modulate a response message (eg, the UID and any other auxiliary information used for attachment).

[0083] If the time to the next query is greater than the predefined N polling cycles, the first device 110 can ignore the measured signal strength of the polling signal from the second device 120 and wait for the next polling cycle to receive another polling signal from the second device 120 .

[0084] After receiving the backscatter signal from the first device 110, the second device 120 can send 440 the information of the first device 110 (e.g., UID, power) to the fourth device 405. The fourth device 405 can then update 445 the information in the record (e.g., activator ID and UID). The fourth device 405 may send ( 450 ) a confirmation of the update to the second device 120 .

[0085] The second device 120 may then send (455) a confirmation of the attachment to the first device 110. The fourth device 405 may delete (460) the previous attachment associated with the third device 130.

[0086] That is, the fourth device 405 may perform reattachment of the first device 110 to the second device 120 and update the record in the context of the first device 110. The fourth device 405 may send a confirmation / ACK message to the second device 120 and delete the previous attachment record of the third device 130.

[0087] According to the above-described example embodiments, the establishment of attachment can be delayed to avoid frequent disengagement / reattachment between activators due to the movement of the AIoT device. This is a key difference from switching in LTE / NR for general UEs. Because the interval between queries may be long, the AIoT device may move to a site far away from the original activator or even far away from the original cell between two query opportunities. When the AIoT device enters the coverage area of ​​the new activator, if it needs to initiate reattachment anyway, the signaling overhead and interference to other AIoT devices and general UEs are unnecessary. In fact, reattachment only needs to be established before the next query opportunity.

[0088] As described above, in the case where the first device 110 determines that the measured signal strength of the polling signal received from the second device 120 satisfies the threshold, the first device 110 may determine whether the attachment process to the second device is to be initiated based on the determination of the subsequent query timing of the first device 110. For example, the subsequent query timing may be determined by the first device 110 based on the period of the query cycle, which will refer to Figure 5 Description is as follows.

[0089] Figure 5 An example process 500 for absolute timestamp-based attachment according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 5 As shown, the first device 110 may be attached to the third device 130. The query opportunity 503 starts at time point T1 and ends at time point T5 (e.g., 30 minutes). That is, the third device 130 may send a query request every 30 minutes. The period of the polling cycle 505 is, for example, 1 minute. That is, the third device 130 may send its own polling signal once every 1 minute.

[0090] The third device 130 sends a query 501. The first device 110 receives the query 501 and backscatters a query response 502 at time point T1. The third device 130 may periodically send a polling signal to the first device 110 according to a period of the polling cycle 505, such as the polling signal 504, the polling signal 506, etc.

[0091] Due to movement, the first device 110 may miss the polling signal from the third device 130, which can be determined by the first device 110 based on measuring the signal strength of the polling signal from the third device 130, for example, if the signal strength of the polling signal from the third device 130 does not meet a threshold.

[0092] At time point T3, the first device 110 may receive a polling signal 508 from the second device 120. However, even if the first device 110 determines that the measured signal strength of the polling signal 508 satisfies the threshold, if the time to the next query time (e.g., at time point T5) exceeds a predetermined time (e.g., N polling cycles), the first device 110 ignores (509) the polling signal 508 and does not send a polling response to the second device 120. The first device 110 may then continue to receive subsequent polling signals, and if the first device 110 determines that the time to the next query time is less than the predefined time, the first device 110 backscatters (513) a response 512 to the second device 120 (e.g., at time point T4). Then, an attachment establishment (514) may be initiated between the first device 110 and the second device 120. In this manner, the first device 110 may resume network attachment.

[0093] In some example embodiments, the first device 110 may determine a subsequent query opportunity of the first device 110 based on the period of the query cycle. In addition, the first device 110 may count the reception of the polling signal based on the period of the polling cycle of the polling signal. If the first device 110 determines that the counted number of polling signal receptions reaches a predetermined value before the subsequent query opportunity, the first device 110 may initiate attachment. Figure 6 Describe the details.

[0094] Figure 6 An example 600 of counter-based attachment according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 6 As shown, the first device 110 is attached to the third device 130. A counter may be used to delay the establishment of (re)attachment to avoid frequent detachment / reattachment between readers.

[0095] Specifically, the third device 130 sends a query 601. The first device 110 receives the query 601 and backscatters a query response 602. After the first device 110 and the third device 130 are attached, the counter is set to 0. The first device 110 needs to continuously receive the polling signal.

[0096] For example, if the first device 110 receives a polling signal 606 from the third device 130, the counter is set to 1. Since the value of the counter does not reach the predetermined value, the first device 110 ignores (607) the polling signal 606. Subsequently, after the first device 110 receives a polling signal 608 from the second device 120, the counter is set to 2. If the current value of the counter does not reach the predetermined value, the first device 110 ignores (609) the polling signal 608. When the counter is set to 6, until the first device receives a polling signal 610 from the second device 120, if the first device 110 determines that the current value (e.g., 6) of the counter reaches the predetermined value (i.e., 6), then after receiving the next polling signal 611, the first device 110 backscatters (613) a response 612 to the second device 120. Then, an attachment establishment (614) may be initiated between the first device 110 and the second device 120. During this process, the first device 110 may count polling signal reception until a counter for polling signal reception reaches a predetermined value before the time point T5.

[0097] In this way, the first device 110 continuously receives polling signals, whether from the attached activator or other activators. The first device 110 will receive a query message after receiving a fixed number of polling signals. After the first device 110 attaches / reattaches with the best activator, the counter is reset to 0. For each received poll, the counter is increased by 1. When the configured maximum value (e.g., 6) is reached, the first device 110 replies "Response" and initiates reattachment with the network.

[0098] and Figure 5 Compared to the example of absolute timestamp based attachment in Figure 6 The counter-based attachment example in does not require adding a time parameter to the polling signal.

[0099] From the aspect of complexity of AloT attachment, the most important guarantee for the implementation of the present disclosure is that the AloT device needs to be able to perform received signal strength measurement. That is, the complexity of the tag will be higher than that of RFID using backscatter communication mode. Such energy harvesting devices can be used for some advanced use cases, such as agriculture and livestock monitoring.

[0100] As described in the above example, the polling signal is a narrowband low-rate signal in the time domain. The strength of the received signal can be measured in the analog domain. Compared with adding a crystal oscillator, it does not significantly increase the cost and complexity of the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design.

[0101] The AIoT device in this article uses backscatter communication, so it does not require battery energy support, and therefore does not add a crystal oscillator to provide frequency and time reference. Similar to RFID, its cost and complexity can still be kept very low.

[0102] In addition, compared with passive network-based reassociation, AIoT device-based (re)attachment is highly complex, but the AIoT device proactively measures the signal reception power from other activators in advance and can proactively attach to an activator when it is almost lost from the network. On the other hand, device-based (re)attachment may involve lower signaling overhead and shorter information transmission delay than network-based (re)attachment.

[0103] Therefore, based on the solution disclosed in the present invention, some high-end use cases that require high-complexity tags and some scenarios where the network needs to obtain AIoT device information in a timely manner (such as agriculture, livestock, health care, etc.) can be realized.

[0104] Figure 7 A flowchart of an example method 700 implemented at a first device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure is shown. For the purpose of discussion, Figure 1 The method 700 is described from the perspective of the first device 110 (e.g., an AloT device).

[0105] At block 710 , the first device 110 receives a polling signal from a second device indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through a backscatter mechanism.

[0106] At block 720 , the first device 110 determines a query opportunity for backscatter communication.

[0107] At block 730 , the first device 110 initiates an attachment procedure to the second device according to the identifier of the second device based on at least one of: a signal strength measurement of a polling signal, or a query opportunity of backscatter communication.

[0108] In some example embodiments, the polling signal further indicates at least one of: an identifier of a cell associated with the second apparatus, a time reference, or an indication for requesting identification information of the first apparatus.

[0109] In some example embodiments, the method 700 further includes the first device 110 sending a response to the second device by reporting identification information of the first device to the second device and indicating availability of receiving the query message from the second device during the query opportunity.

[0110] In some example embodiments, the method 700 further includes the first device 110 initiating an attach process to the second device based on determining that the measured signal strength of the polling signal satisfies the threshold signal strength.

[0111] In some example embodiments, method 700 further includes: the first device 110 measuring an additional signal strength of an additional polling signal received from the third device; and the first device 110 initiating attachment based on determining that the measured signal strength satisfies the threshold signal strength and / or the additional signal strength does not satisfy the additional threshold signal strength.

[0112] In some example embodiments, the method 700 further comprises: in accordance with determining that the further signal strength satisfies the further threshold signal strength, the first device 110 maintaining attachment to the third device. The threshold signal strength and the further threshold signal strength may be different or the same.

[0113] In some example embodiments, the method 700 further includes the first device 110 initiating an attachment process to the second device based on the signal strength measurement of the polling signal and the period of the inquiry cycle.

[0114] In some example embodiments, method 700 further includes: the first device 110 determining a subsequent query timing of the first device based on a period of the query cycle; and the first device 110 initiating attachment based on determining that a time interval between a current time point and a subsequent query timing is less than a duration of a predetermined number of polling cycles.

[0115] In some example embodiments, method 700 further includes: the first device 110 determines a subsequent query timing of the first device based on a period of the query cycle; the first device 110 counts polling signal reception based on a period of the polling cycle of the polling signal; and the first device 110 initiates attachment based on determining that the counted number of polling signal receptions before the subsequent query timing reaches a predetermined value.

[0116] In some example embodiments, method 700 further includes: the first device 110 ignoring the measured signal strength based on a determination of one of the following: a time interval between a current point in time and a subsequent query opportunity exceeds a duration of a predetermined number of polling cycles; or a counter for polling signal reception does not reach a predetermined value.

[0117] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises an ambient IoT device and the second apparatus comprises a radio terminal device or a radio access network device.

[0118] Figure 8 A flowchart of an example method 800 implemented at a second device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure is shown. For the purpose of discussion, Figure 1Method 800 is described from the perspective of a second device 120 (e.g., a UE or a gNB).

[0119] At block 810 , the second device 120 transmits a polling signal to the first device indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through energy harvesting.

[0120] At block 820 , the second device 120 performs an attach procedure for the first device to the second device based on a response generated by the first device based at least on a signal strength measurement of the polling signal.

[0121] In some example embodiments, the polling signal further indicates at least one of: an identifier of a cell associated with the second apparatus, a time reference, or an indication for requesting identification information of the first apparatus.

[0122] In some example embodiments, the method 800 further includes the second device 120 performing an attach procedure in accordance with determining that the response indicates initiation of an attach procedure from the first device to the second device.

[0123] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises an ambient IoT device and the second apparatus comprises a radio terminal device or a radio access network device.

[0124] In some example embodiments, a first device (eg, Figure 1 The first device 110 in the method 600 may include a component for performing the corresponding operation of the method 600. The component may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the device may be implemented in a circuit system or a software module. The first device may be implemented as or included in Figure 1 In the first device 110.

[0125] In some example embodiments, a first device includes: a component for receiving a polling signal from a second device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through a backscatter mechanism; a component for determining a query timing for backscatter communication; and a component for initiating an attachment process to the second device based on the identifier of the second device based on at least one of: a signal strength measurement of the polling signal, or a query timing for backscatter communication.

[0126] In some example embodiments, the polling signal further indicates at least one of: an identifier of a cell associated with the second apparatus, a time reference, or an indication for requesting identification information of the first apparatus.

[0127] In some example embodiments, the first device further comprises means for sending a response to the second device by reporting identification information of the first device to the second device and indicating availability of receiving the query message from the second device during the query opportunity.

[0128] In some example embodiments, the first device further comprises means for initiating an attach procedure to the second device based on determining that the measured signal strength of the polling signal satisfies a threshold signal strength.

[0129] In some example embodiments, a first device is attached to a third device, and wherein the first device further comprises: a component for measuring an additional signal strength of an additional polling signal received from the third device; and a component for initiating attachment based on determining that the measured signal strength satisfies a threshold signal strength and / or the additional signal strength does not satisfy the additional threshold signal strength.

[0130] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for maintaining attachment to the third apparatus based on determining that the further signal strength satisfies a further threshold signal strength. The threshold signal strength and the further threshold signal strength may be different or the same.

[0131] In some example embodiments, the first device further comprises means for initiating an attach procedure to the second device based on a signal strength measurement of the polling signal and a period of the query cycle.

[0132] In some example embodiments, the first device further includes: a component for determining a subsequent query opportunity for the first device based on a period of a query cycle; and a component for initiating attachment based on determining that a time interval between a current time point and the subsequent query opportunity is less than a predetermined number of durations of the polling cycles.

[0133] In some example embodiments, the first device further includes: a component for determining a subsequent query timing of the first device based on a period of the query cycle; a component for counting polling signal receptions based on a period of the polling cycle of the polling signal; and a component for initiating attachment based on determining that a counted number of polling signal receptions before a subsequent query timing reaches a predetermined value.

[0134] In some example embodiments, the first device further comprises: means for ignoring the measured signal strength based on a determination of one of: a time interval between a current point in time and a subsequent query opportunity exceeding a duration of a predetermined number of polling cycles; or a counter for polling signal reception not reaching a predetermined value.

[0135] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises an ambient IoT device and the second apparatus comprises a radio terminal device or a radio access network device.

[0136] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises means for performing the method 700 or other operations in some example embodiments of the first apparatus 110. In some example embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the performance of the first apparatus.

[0137] In some example embodiments, a second device (eg, Figure 1 The second device 120 in the method 800 may include a component for performing the corresponding operation of the method 800. The component may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the component may be implemented in a circuit system or a software module. The second device may be implemented as or included in Figure 1 In the second device 120.

[0138] In some example embodiments, the second device includes: a component for transmitting a polling signal to the first device indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal from the second device, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through energy harvesting; and a component for performing an attachment process for the first device to the second device based on a response generated by the first device based at least on a signal strength measurement of the polling signal.

[0139] In some example embodiments, the polling signal further indicates at least one of: an identifier of a cell associated with the second apparatus, a time reference, or an indication for requesting identification information of the first apparatus.

[0140] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises means for performing an attach procedure in response to determining that the response indicates initiation of an attach procedure from the first apparatus to the second apparatus.

[0141] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises an ambient IoT device and the second apparatus comprises a radio terminal device or a radio access network device.

[0142] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises means for performing the method 800 or other operations in some example embodiments of the second apparatus 120. In some example embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the performance of the second apparatus.

[0143] Fig. 9 9 is a simplified block diagram of an apparatus 900 suitable for implementing an example embodiment of the present disclosure. The apparatus 900 may be configured to implement a communication apparatus, such as Figure 1The first device 110 or the second device 120 is shown. As shown in the figure, the device 900 includes one or more processors 910, one or more memories 920 coupled to the processor 910, and one or more communication modules 940 coupled to the processor 910.

[0144] The communication module 940 is used for two-way communication. The communication module 940 has one or more communication interfaces to support communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interface may represent any interface necessary for communication with other network elements. In some example embodiments, the communication module 940 may include at least one antenna.

[0145] Processor 910 may be of any type suitable for the local technology network and may include, as non-limiting examples, one or more of: a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), and a processor based on a multi-core processor architecture. Device 900 may have multiple processors, such as application specific integrated circuit chips that are time slaved to a clock of a synchronized main processor.

[0146] The memory 920 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, read-only memory (ROM) 924, electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), flash memory, hard disk, compact disk (CD), digital video disk (DVD), optical disk, laser disk, and other magnetic storage and / or optical storage. Examples of volatile memories include, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM) 922 and other volatile memories that will not persist for the duration of a power outage.

[0147] The computer program 930 includes computer executable instructions executed by the associated processor 910. The instructions of the program 930 may include instructions for performing the operations / actions of some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The program 930 may be stored in a memory such as ROM 924. The processor 910 may perform any suitable actions and processes by loading the program 930 into the RAM 922.

[0148] The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by a program 930 so that the device 900 may execute the Figures 2 to 9 Any process of the present disclosure discussed. The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or a combination of software and hardware.

[0149] In some example embodiments, the program 930 may be tangibly contained in a computer-readable medium, which may be contained in the device 900 (e.g., in the memory 920) or in other storage devices accessible by the device 900. The device 900 may load the program 930 from the computer-readable medium to the RAM 922 for execution. In some example embodiments, the computer-readable medium may include any type of non-transitory storage medium, such as ROM, EPROM, flash memory, hard disk, CD, DVD, etc. The term "non-transitory" as used herein is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal), not a limitation on the persistence of data storage (e.g., RAM vs. ROM).

[0150] Fig.10 An example of a computer readable medium 1000 is shown, which may be in the form of a CD, DVD or other optical storage disk. The computer readable medium 1000 has a program 930 stored thereon.

[0151] Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or dedicated circuits, software, logic, or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, and other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software that may be executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device. Although various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other graphical representations, it should be understood that, as non-limiting examples, the blocks, devices, systems, techniques, or methods described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, dedicated circuits or logic, general hardware or controllers or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0152] Some example embodiments of the present disclosure also provide at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium (such as, non-volatile computer-readable medium). The computer program product includes computer executable instructions, such as those computer executable instructions executed in a device on a target physical or virtual processor included in a program module to perform any method as described above. Typically, a program module includes routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, etc. that perform specific tasks or implement specific abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules can be combined or split between program modules as needed in various embodiments. The machine executable instructions for the program modules can be executed in local or distributed devices. In distributed devices, program modules can be located in local and remote storage media.

[0153] The program code for executing the method of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program code may be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing device, so that when the program code is executed by the processor or controller, the implementation of the functions / operations specified in the flowchart and / or block diagram is realized. The program code may be executed entirely on the machine, partially on the machine, as an independent software package, partially on the machine and partially on a remote machine, or entirely on a remote machine or server.

[0154] In the context of the present disclosure, computer program codes or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable a device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of carriers include signals, computer readable media, etc.

[0155] The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. The computer readable medium may include, but is not limited to, electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor systems, devices, or equipment, or any suitable combination thereof. A more specific example of a computer readable storage medium may include an electrical connection with one or more wires, a portable computer disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage component, a magnetic storage component, or any suitable combination thereof.

[0156] In addition, although the operations are depicted in a specific order, this should not be understood as requiring the specific order shown or in a sequential order to perform these operations, or to perform all described operations, to achieve the desired result. In some cases, multitasking and parallel processing can be advantageous. Similarly, although several specific implementation details are included in the above discussion, these should not be interpreted as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but should be interpreted as descriptions of features that may be specific to a specific embodiment. Unless explicitly stated, certain features described in the context of a separate embodiment may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. On the contrary, unless explicitly stated, the various features described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments individually or in any suitable sub-combination.

[0157] Although the present disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological actions, it should be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or actions described above. Rather, the specific features and actions described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

[0158] In addition, various implementations of the present disclosure may be described with reference to the following clauses, and features thereof may be combined in any reasonable manner.

[0159] Item 1. A first device for communication, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first device to at least: receive a polling signal from a second device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through a backscatter mechanism; determine a query timing for backscatter communication; and initiate an attachment process to the second device based on the identifier of the second device based on at least one of the following: a signal strength measurement of the polling signal, the query timing of the backscatter communication.

[0160] Clause 2. The first device of clause 1, wherein the polling signal further indicates at least one of: an identifier of a cell associated with the second device, a time reference, an indication for requesting identification information of the first device.

[0161] Clause 3. A first device according to clause 1 or 2, wherein the first device is caused to initiate the attachment process by: sending a response to the second device by:

[0162] Reporting identification information of the first device to the second device, and indicating availability of receiving a query message from the second device during the query opportunity.

[0163] Clause 4. The first device of clause 1 or 2, wherein the first device is caused to: initiate the attachment process to the second device based on determining that the measured signal strength of the polling signal satisfies a threshold signal strength.

[0164] Clause 5. A first device according to clause 1 or 2, wherein the first device is attached to a third device, and wherein the first device is caused to: measure an additional signal strength of an additional polling signal received from the third device; and initiate the attachment based on determining that the measured signal strength satisfies a threshold signal strength and / or the additional signal strength does not satisfy an additional threshold signal strength.

[0165] Clause 6. The first device of Clause 5, wherein the first device is caused to: maintain the attachment to the third device based on determining that the additional signal strength satisfies the additional threshold signal strength.

[0166] Clause 7. The first device of clause 1 or 2, wherein the first device is caused to initiate the attachment process to the second device based on the signal strength measurement of the polling signal and a period of an inquiry cycle.

[0167] Clause 8. A first device according to Clause 7, wherein the first device is configured to: determine a subsequent query timing of the first device based on the period of the query cycle; and initiate the attachment based on determining that the time interval between the current time point and the subsequent query timing is less than the duration of a predetermined number of polling cycles.

[0168] Clause 9. A first device according to Clause 7, wherein the first device is configured to: determine a subsequent query timing of the first device based on the period of the query cycle; count polling signal receptions based on the period of the polling cycle of the polling signal; and initiate the attachment based on determining that the counted number of polling signal receptions before the subsequent query timing reaches a predetermined value.

[0169] Clause 10. A first device according to clause 8 or 9, wherein the first device is configured to: ignore the measured signal strength based on determining one of the following: the time interval between the current time point and the subsequent query opportunity exceeds the duration of the predetermined number of polling cycles, or the counter for the polling signal reception does not reach the predetermined value.

[0170] Clause 11. A first apparatus as described in any one of clauses 1 to 9, wherein the first apparatus comprises an ambient Internet of Things device and the second apparatus comprises a radio terminal equipment or a radio access network equipment.

[0171] Item 12. A second device, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second device to at least: send a polling signal to a first device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal from the second device, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through energy harvesting; and perform an attachment process for the first device to the second device based on a response, the response being generated by the first device at least based on a signal strength measurement of the polling signal.

[0172] Clause 13. The second device of clause 12, wherein the polling signal further indicates at least one of: an identifier of a cell associated with the second device, a time reference, an indication for requesting identification information of the first device.

[0173] Clause 14. The second device of clause 12 or 13, wherein the second device is caused to: perform the attach procedure in accordance with determining that the response indicates initiation of the attach procedure from the first device to the second device.

[0174] Clause 15. The second apparatus of any of clauses 12 to 14, wherein the first apparatus comprises an ambient Internet of Things device and the second apparatus comprises a radio terminal equipment or a radio access network equipment.

[0175] Clause 16. A method comprising: receiving a polling signal from a second device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through a backscatter mechanism; determining a query timing for backscatter communication; and initiating an attachment process to the second device based on the identifier of the second device based on at least one of: a signal strength measurement of the polling signal, the query timing of the backscatter communication.

[0176] Clause 17. A method comprising: sending a polling signal to a first device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal from the second device, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through energy harvesting; and performing an attachment process for the first device to the second device based on a response, the response being generated by the first device based at least on a signal strength measurement of the polling signal.

[0177] Item 18. A first device, comprising: a component for receiving a polling signal from a second device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through a backscatter mechanism; a component for determining a query timing for backscatter communication; and a component for initiating an attachment process to the second device based on the identifier of the second device based on at least one of: a signal strength measurement of the polling signal, or the query timing of the backscatter communication.

[0178] Item 19. A second device, comprising: a component for sending a polling signal to a first device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal from the second device, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device through energy harvesting; and a component for performing an attachment process for the first device to the second device based on a response, the response being generated by the first device based at least on a signal strength measurement of the polling signal.

[0179] Clause 20. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method of clause 16 or the method of clause 17.

Claims

1. A first device for communication, comprising: at least one processor; as well as at least one memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first device to at least: receiving a polling signal from a second device, the polling signal indicating at least an identifier of the second device and a period of a polling cycle of the polling signal, wherein the first device enables communication with the second device via a backscatter mechanism; determining a query timing for backscatter communications; and Initiate an attach procedure to the second device based on the identifier of the second device based on at least one of the following: measuring the signal strength of the polling signal, The query timing of the backscatter communication.

2. The first device according to claim 1, wherein the polling signal further indicates at least one of the following: an identifier of a cell associated with the second device, Time reference, An indication for requesting identification information of the first device.

3. The first device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first device is caused to initiate the attachment process by: Sending a response to the second device by: reporting identification information of the first device to the second device, and Indicating an availability to receive a query message from the second device during the query opportunity.

4. The first device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first device is configured to: Based on determining that the measured signal strength of the polling signal satisfies a threshold signal strength, the attach process to the second device is initiated.

5. The first device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first device is attached to a third device, and wherein the first device is caused to: measuring a further signal strength of a further polling signal received from the third device; and The attaching is initiated based on determining that the measured signal strength satisfies a threshold signal strength and / or the further signal strength does not satisfy a further threshold signal strength.

6. The first device according to claim 5, wherein the first device is caused to: Based on determining that the further signal strength satisfies the further threshold signal strength, the attachment to the third device is maintained.

7. The first device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first device is configured to: Based on the signal strength measurement of the polling signal and a period of an inquiry cycle, the attach process to the second device is initiated.

8. The first device according to claim 7, wherein the first device is caused to: Determining a subsequent query opportunity of the first device based on the period of the query cycle; and The attaching is initiated based on determining that a time interval between a current time point and the subsequent query opportunity is less than a duration of a predetermined number of the polling cycles.

9. The first device according to claim 7, wherein the first device is caused to: determining a subsequent query timing of the first device based on the period of the query cycle; counting polling signal receptions based on the period of the polling cycle of the polling signal; and The attaching is initiated based on determining that the counted number of polling signal receptions before the subsequent polling opportunity reaches a predetermined value.

10. The first device according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the first device is caused to: The measured signal strength is ignored based on determining one of the following: The time interval between the current time point and the subsequent query opportunity exceeds the duration of the predetermined number of polling cycles, or The counter for the polling signal reception does not reach the predetermined value.

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