Control information acquisition based on backscatter for broadband channels

Abstract

Systems and techniques for wireless communication are provided. For example, a network device can transmit a radio frequency (RF) signal. Each of the RF signals is associated with a respective one of the sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth. The network device is capable of receiving backscatter RF signals from an energy harvesting (EH) capable device. Each of the backscatter RF signals is associated with a respective one of the RF signals. Each backscatter RF signal and each respective RF signal are associated with a respective one of the sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth. The network device can determine control information associated with the broadband bandwidth based on the backscatter RF signal.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. For example, aspects of the present disclosure relate to obtaining control information (channel state information (CSI) or other control information) based on backscattering for a broadband channel. Background Art

[0002] Wireless communication systems are deployed to provide various telecommunication services including telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasting, etc. Wireless communication systems have evolved through 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)). Currently, many different types of wireless communication systems are in use, including cellular systems and Personal Communication Service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include 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] A simplified summary of one or more aspects related to what is disclosed herein is presented below. Accordingly, the following summary is not to be considered an exhaustive overview of all contemplated aspects, nor is it to be considered identifying key or critical elements of all contemplated aspects or delineating the scope associated with any particular aspect. Thus, the sole purpose of the following summary is to present some concepts related to one or more aspects related to the mechanisms disclosed herein in a simplified form prior to the detailed description that follows.

[0004] Systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable media for performing wireless communication are disclosed. According to at least one illustrative example, a network entity for wireless communication is provided. The network entity 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: transmit a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals, wherein each of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a respective subband included in a broadband bandwidth; receive a first plurality of backscattered RF signals from a device having energy harvesting (EH) capabilities, wherein each of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a respective one of the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal and each respective RF signal are associated with a respective subband included in a broadband bandwidth; and determine control information associated with the broadband bandwidth based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0005] In another illustrative example, a method of wireless communication performed by a network entity is provided. The method includes: transmitting a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals, where each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a corresponding sub-band among a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; receiving, from a device having energy harvesting (EH) capabilities, a first plurality of backscattered RF signals, where each backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding RF signal among the plurality of RF signals, and where each backscattered RF signal and each corresponding RF signal are associated with a corresponding sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth; and determining control information associated with the broadband bandwidth based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0006] In another example, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions is provided, the instructions when executed by at least one processor cause the at least one processor to: transmit a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals, where each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a corresponding sub-band among a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; receive, from a device having energy harvesting (EH) capabilities, a first plurality of backscattered RF signals, where each backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding RF signal among the plurality of RF signals, and where each backscattered RF signal and each corresponding RF signal are associated with a corresponding sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth; and determine control information associated with the broadband bandwidth based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0007] In another example, an apparatus for wireless communication is provided. The apparatus includes: means for transmitting a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals, where each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a corresponding sub-band among a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; means for receiving, from a device having energy harvesting (EH) capabilities, a first plurality of backscattered RF signals, where each backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding RF signal among the plurality of RF signals, and where each backscattered RF signal and each corresponding RF signal are associated with a corresponding sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth; and means for determining control information associated with the broadband bandwidth based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0008] In another illustrative example, a device with energy harvesting (EH) capabilities for wireless communication is provided. The device with EH capabilities 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 plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals from a network entity, wherein each of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a corresponding sub-band among a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; and transmit a plurality of backscattered RF signals to the network entity, wherein each of the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal and each corresponding RF signal are associated with a corresponding sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth.

[0009] In another example, a method for wireless communication performed by a device with energy harvesting (EH) capabilities is provided. The method includes: receiving a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals from a network entity, wherein each of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a corresponding sub-band among a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; and transmitting a plurality of backscattered RF signals to the network entity, wherein each of the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal and each corresponding RF signal are associated with a corresponding sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth.

[0010] In another example, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions is provided, the instructions when executed by at least one processor cause the at least one processor to: receive a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals from a network entity, wherein each of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a corresponding sub-band among a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; and transmit a plurality of backscattered RF signals to the network entity, wherein each of the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal and each corresponding RF signal are associated with a corresponding sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth.

[0011] In another example, an apparatus for wireless communication is provided. The apparatus includes: means for receiving a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals from a network entity, wherein each of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a corresponding sub-band among a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; and means for transmitting a plurality of backscattered RF signals to the network entity, wherein each of the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal and each corresponding RF signal are associated with a corresponding sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth.

[0012] Aspects generally include methods, apparatuses, 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 the accompanying drawings and the specification and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings and the specification.

[0013] Aspects generally include methods, apparatuses, 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 the accompanying drawings and the specification and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings and the specification.

[0014] The features and technical advantages of examples in accordance with the present disclosure have been outlined rather broadly above so that the detailed description that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages will be described below. The disclosed concepts and specific examples may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes 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 as to their organization and method of operation, as well as associated advantages, will be better understood from the following description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Each of the drawings provided in the accompanying drawings is for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not to be construed as a definition of the limits of the claims.

[0015] Although aspects are described herein by way of illustration of some examples, those skilled in the art will understand that such aspects may be implemented in many different arrangements and scenarios. The techniques described herein may be implemented using different platform types, devices, systems, shapes, sizes, and / or packaging arrangements. For example, some aspects may be embodied via an integrated chip 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). Aspects may be implemented in chip-level components, modular components, non-modular components, non-chip-level components, device-level components, and / or system-level components. Devices incorporating the described aspects and features may include additional components and features for implementing and practicing the claimed and described aspects. 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 aspects described herein are intended to be practiced in a wide variety of devices, components, systems, distributed arrangements, and / or end-user devices of various sizes, shapes, and configurations.

[0016] Based on the accompanying drawings and the specific embodiments, other objects and advantages associated with the aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. This summary is not intended to identify 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. The subject matter should be understood in reference to the appropriate portions of the entire specification of this patent, any or all of the drawings, and each claim.

[0017] The foregoing as well as other features and aspects will become more apparent when reference is made to the following specification, claims, and appended drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] The accompanying drawings are provided to assist in describing the various aspects of the present disclosure, and the drawings are provided for illustration only and not to limit the aspects.

[0019] Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication network in accordance with some examples;

[0020] Figure 2 is a diagram illustrating the design of a base station and a user equipment (UE) device in accordance with some examples, the design enabling the transmission and processing of signals exchanged between the UE and the base station;

[0021] Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a distributed base station in accordance with some examples;

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

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

[0024] Figure 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the small-signal operation of a Schottky diode barrier in accordance with some examples;

[0025] Figure 7A is a diagram illustrating an example of the energy harvesting characteristics between input power and harvested power in accordance with some examples;

[0026] Figure 7B is a diagram illustrating an example of the energy conversion efficiency associated with different frequencies and input powers in accordance with some examples;

[0027] Figure 8A is a diagram illustrating an example of a wideband bandwidth divided into three subbands in accordance with some examples;

[0028] Figure 8Bis a diagram illustrating an example of communication between an energy transmitter and an energy receiver for determining control information associated with a wideband bandwidth according to some examples;

[0029] Figure 9 is a diagram illustrating an example time - frequency grid corresponding to communication between an energy transmitter and an energy receiver for determining control information associated with a wideband bandwidth according to some examples;

[0030] Figure 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of channel coefficients associated with sub - bands of a wideband bandwidth according to some examples;

[0031] Figure 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a sub - band divided into multiple physical resource groups (PRGs) according to some examples;

[0032] Figure 12 is a diagram illustrating another example of communication between an energy transmitter and an energy receiver for determining control information associated with a wideband bandwidth according to some examples;

[0033] Figure 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process for wireless communication according to some examples;

[0034] Figure 14 is a flowchart illustrating another example of a process for wireless communication according to some examples; and

[0035] Figure 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a computing system according to some examples. Detailed Description

[0036] For illustrative purposes, certain aspects of the present disclosure are provided below. Alternative aspects can be designed without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Additionally, well - known elements of the present disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted so as not to obscure the relevant details of the present disclosure. Some aspects described herein can be applied independently, and some of them can be applied in combination, which will be apparent to those skilled in the art. In the following description, specific details are set forth for purposes of explanation to provide a thorough understanding of the aspects of the present application. However, it is evident that the aspects can be practiced without these specific details. The drawings and the description are not intended to be restrictive.

[0037] 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 those skilled in the art with a description that can be used to implement the example aspects. It should be understood that various changes can be made to the functions and arrangements of the elements without departing from the scope of the present application as set forth in the appended claims.

[0038] A wireless communication network can be deployed to provide various communication services, such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcasting, any combination thereof, or other communication services. The wireless communication network can support both access links and sidelinks for communication between various wireless devices. An access link can 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 can support uplink signaling, downlink signaling, connection procedures, etc. An example of an access link is the Uu link or interface (also referred to as NR-Uu) between a 3GPP gNB and a UE.

[0039] In various wireless communication networks, various client devices can be utilized that can 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 communication (URLLC), and massive machine type communication (mMTC) can be extended to better support various IoT devices, which can include passive IoT devices, semi-passive IoT devices, etc.

[0040] 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, processors or microcontrollers, and an energy harvester for generating power from incident downlink radio frequency (RF) signals received at the passive or semi-passive IoT device.

[0041] Based on harvesting energy from incident downlink RF signals (e.g., sent by network devices such as base stations, gNBs, etc.), energy harvesting devices (e.g., such as passive IoT devices, semi-passive IoT devices, etc.) can be provided as not having an energy storage element and / or can be provided as having a relatively small energy storage element (e.g., a battery, a capacitor, etc.). Based on the simplification of the manufacturing and deployment of energy harvesting devices associated with implementing wireless energy harvesting, energy harvesting devices can be deployed on a large scale.

[0042] In a wireless communication network environment (e.g., a cellular network, etc.), a network device (e.g., a base station or a gNB, etc.) can be used to send a downlink RF signal to an energy harvesting device. In an illustrative example, a base station or a gNB can read and / or write information stored on an energy harvesting IoT device by sending a downlink RF signal. The downlink RF signal can provide energy to the energy harvesting IoT device and can be used as a basis for an uplink signal carrying information sent back by the energy harvesting IoT device to the network device (e.g., based on reflecting or backscattering a portion of the incident downlink RF signal). The base station or gNB can 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.).

[0043] 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 the energy harvester of the device (e.g., where a certain percentage is converted into useful power based on the conversion efficiency of the harvester, while the remaining percentage is wasted or dissipated as heat, etc.). The remaining second portion of the input RF power can be used for backscattering in the uplink transmission (e.g., the second portion of the input power is reflected and modulated via uplink communication).

[0044] There is a need to improve the energy conversion efficiency associated with energy harvesting devices (e.g., including passive and semi - passive IoT devices). In some cases, there is a further need to provide a greater communication range associated with passive and / or semi - passive energy harvesting devices (e.g., passive and / or semi - passive IoT devices).

[0045] This document describes systems, apparatuses, processes (also referred to as methods), and computer - readable media (collectively referred to as "systems and technologies") that can be used to provide improved wireless energy harvesting and / or communication based on backscatter modulation between an energy harvesting device (e.g., a passive, semi - passive, or active IoT device, etc.) and a network node or transmitter (e.g., a gNB or a base station). For example, the systems and technologies described herein can be used to provide wireless energy transfer with an improved (e.g., greater) communication range or distance. In some cases, the range of wireless energy transfer can be improved based on channel selection, frequency selection, and / or spatial beamforming performed by an energy transmitter (e.g., a network node).

[0046] For example, channel or frequency selection and / or spatial beamforming can be performed based on control information associated with one or more channels between an energy transmitter (e.g., a network node) and an energy receiver (e.g., an energy harvesting device). In some cases, the control information can include channel state information (CSI) associated with a broadband channel between the energy transmitter and the energy receiver. In some examples, the energy transmitter can send multiple radio frequency (RF) signals to the energy receiver (e.g., an energy harvesting device). Each RF signal included in the multiple RF signals can be associated with a different sub-band of a broadband bandwidth (e.g., a broadband channel for which CSI or other control information can be determined).

[0047] The multiple RF signals can be sent using time division multiplexing (TDM). For example, the broadband channel can be divided into three different sub-bands, and three RF signals can be sent using TDM (e.g., send the first RF signal, send the second RF signal after the first RF signal, and send the third RF signal after the second RF signal). The respective RF signals included in the multiple RF signals can be the same or can be different.

[0048] Based on receiving the respective RF signals included in the multiple RF signals, the energy receiving device can generate and send backscattered reflected RF signals. For example, the energy receiving device can use a first frequency sub-band to receive the RF signal and backscatter the received RF signal by introducing a frequency shift into a different sub-band. In some examples, the backscattered reflected RF signal can be frequency-shifted to an adjacent sub-band and / or can be circularly shifted. Based on the respective frequency-shifted RF signals of backscattering reflection sent for each input RF signal received at the energy receiver, the energy transmitter can determine control information (e.g., CSI) of the broadband channel between the energy transmitter and the energy receiver.

[0049] Additional aspects of the systems and techniques will be described with respect to the drawings.

[0050] As used herein, the phrase "based on" should not be construed to mean 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 construed as "at least based on A", unless stated otherwise specifically differently.

[0051] 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, router, tablet computer, laptop computer, and / or tracking device, etc.), a wearable device (e.g., a smartwatch, smart glasses, 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, motorcycle, bicycle, etc.), an aircraft (e.g., an airplane, jet, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone, helicopter, airship, glider, etc.), and / or an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc., for a user to communicate via a wireless communication network. The 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" can be interchangeably referred to as "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 variants thereof. Generally, a UE can communicate with a core network via a RAN, and through the core network, the UE can connect to an external network 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 via a wired access network, a wireless local area network (WLAN) network (e.g., based on the IEEE 802.11 communication standard, etc.).

[0052] A network entity may be implemented in a centralized or monolithic base station architecture, or alternatively, in a split 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 centralized / monolithic base station architecture or a split base station architecture) may operate according to one Radio Access Technology (RAT) out of several RATs for communicating with a UE (which depends on the network in which it 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) Node B (also referred to as gNB or gNodeB), etc. A base station may be mainly used to support the wireless access of a UE, including supporting data, voice, and / or signaling connections of the supported UE. In some systems, a base station may provide edge node signaling functions, while in other systems, a base station may provide additional control and / or network management functions. The communication link by which a UE may transmit signals to a base station is referred to as 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 may transmit signals to a UE is referred to as a Downlink (DL) or a 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, reverse, or downlink, and / or a forward traffic channel.

[0053] The term "network entity" or "base station" (e.g., having an integrated / monolithic base station architecture or a disaggregated base station architecture) can refer to a single physical transmit-receive point (TRP) or multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be co-located. For example, in the case where the term "network entity" or "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP can be the base station antenna corresponding to a cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. In the case where the term "network entity" or "base station" refers to multiple co-located physical TRPs, these physical TRPs can be an antenna array of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or when beamforming is employed at the base station). In the case where the term "base station" refers to multiple non-co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRPs can 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 can be the serving base station that receives measurement reports from the UE and a neighbor base station whose reference radio frequency (RF) signal (e.g., or simply "reference signal") the UE is measuring. Since, as used herein, a TRP is the point by which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, a reference to transmission from or reception at a base station should be understood to refer to a particular TRP of the base station.

[0054] In some specific implementations that support UE positioning, the network entity or base station may not support wireless access of the UE (e.g., may not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections regarding the UE), but instead may alternatively send a reference signal to be measured by the UE and / or may receive and measure signals transmitted by the UE. Such a base station can be referred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., in the case of sending a signal to the UE) and / or be referred to as a position measurement unit (e.g., in the case of receiving and measuring signals from the UE).

[0055] As described herein, a node (which may be referred to as a node, network node, network entity, or wireless node) may include, be, or be included in (e.g., as a component of) the following: a base station (e.g., any base station described herein), a UE (e.g., any UE described herein), a network controller, a device, an apparatus, 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, a network node may be a UE. As another example, a network node may be a base station or a network entity. As yet 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 from these examples. Similarly, references to a UE, a base station, a device, an apparatus, a computing system, etc. may include the disclosure of a UE, a base station, a device, an apparatus, or a computing system, etc. as a network node. For example, the 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 this disclosure, once a particular example has been extended in accordance with this disclosure (e.g., the 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), the broader example of the narrower example may be interpreted in reverse, but in a broad, open-ended manner. In the above example where the 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, the first network node may refer to a first UE, a first base station, a first device, a first apparatus, a first computing system, a first set of one or more components, or a first processing entity, etc. configured to receive information; and the second network node may refer to a second UE, a second base station, a second device, a second apparatus, a second computing system, a second set of one or more components, or a second processing entity, etc.

[0056] As described herein, different terms may be used in various aspects to describe the conveyance of information (e.g., any information, signal, etc.). The disclosure of one communication term includes the 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, the disclosure that the first network node is configured to send information to the second network node includes the disclosure that the first network node is configured to provide, transmit, output, convey, or send information to the second network node. Similarly, in this example and consistent with the present disclosure, the disclosure that the first network node is configured to send information to the second network node includes the disclosure that the second network node is configured to receive, obtain, or decode the information provided, transmitted, output, conveyed, or sent by the first network node.

[0057] An RF signal includes an electromagnetic wave of a given frequency that transmits information through the space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may send a single “RF signal” or multiple “RF signals” to a receiver. However, due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through a multipath channel, a receiver may receive multiple “RF signals” corresponding to each transmitted RF signal. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between the transmitter and the receiver may be referred to as a “multipath” RF signal. As used herein, when the context clearly indicates that the term “signal” refers to a wireless signal or an RF signal, an RF signal may also be referred to as a “wireless signal” or simply a “signal”.

[0058] Various aspects of the systems and techniques described herein will be discussed below with reference to the figures. According to various aspects, Figure 1 An example of a wireless communication system 100 is illustrated. The wireless communication system 100 (e.g., 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, a base station 102 may also be referred to as a “network entity” or a “network node”. 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 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. The base stations 102 may include macrocell 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, a macrocell 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 a New Radio (NR) network), or a combination of both, and a small cell base station may include a femtocell, a picocell, a microcell, etc.

[0059] Base stations 102 can jointly form a RAN and interface with a core network 170 (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or 5G core (5GC)) via a backhaul link 122, and interface to one or more location servers 172 (e.g., the one or more location servers can be part of the core network 170 or external to the core network 170) via the core network 170. Among other functions, base stations 102 can 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. Base stations 102 can communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., via the EPC or 5GC) via a backhaul link 134, which can be wired and / or wireless.

[0060] Base stations 102 can communicate wirelessly with UEs 104. Each base station among base stations 102 can provide communication coverage for a corresponding geographic coverage area 110. In one aspect, base stations 102 in each coverage area 110 can support one or more cells. A "cell" is a logical communication entity for communicating with a base station (e.g., on a certain frequency resource, referred to as a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, frequency band, etc.), and can be associated with an identifier (e.g., a physical cell identifier (PCI), virtual cell identifier (VCI), cell global identifier (CGI)) to distinguish cells operating via the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells can be configured according to different protocol types that can provide access for different types of UEs (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or other protocol types). Since a cell is supported by a specific base station, the term "cell" can, depending on the context, refer to either or both the logical communication entity and the base station that supports it. Additionally, since a TRP is typically the physical transmission point of a cell, the terms "cell" and "TRP" can be used interchangeably. In some cases, the term "cell" can also refer to the geographic coverage area (e.g., a sector) of a base station, provided that a carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within a certain part of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0061] Although the geographical coverage areas 110 of adjacent macro cell base stations 102 may partially overlap (e.g., in a handover area), some areas within the geographical coverage area 110 may substantially overlap with a larger geographical 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 macro cell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell base stations and macro cell base stations may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. The heterogeneous network may also include a home eNB (HeNB) that may serve a restricted group known as a closed subscriber group (CSG).

[0062] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include an uplink (e.g., also referred to as a reverse link) transmission from the UE 104 to the base station 102 and / or a downlink (e.g., also referred to as a forward link) transmission 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 the uplink (e.g., a greater or lesser number of carriers may be allocated to the downlink compared to the uplink).

[0063] 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 the base station 102, the 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 by combining signals communicated via the antenna elements of an antenna array such that some signals propagating in a particular orientation relative to the antenna array experience constructive interference while other signals experience destructive interference. The adjustment of the signals communicated via the antenna elements may include the transmitting device or the receiving device applying an amplitude offset, a phase offset, or both to the signals carried via the antenna elements associated with the device. The adjustment 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).

[0064] A transmitting device and / or a receiving device (e.g., one or more of such as base station 102 and / or UE 104) may use beam scanning techniques as part of beamforming operations. For example, 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 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 by base station 102 (or other transmitting device) multiple times in different directions. For example, base station 102 may transmit signals according to different sets of beamforming weights associated with different transmission directions. Transmissions in different beam directions may be used to identify (e.g., by the transmitting device such as base station 102, or by the receiving device such as UE 104) the beam direction so that base station 102 can perform subsequent transmissions or receptions.

[0065] Some signals (such as data signals associated with a specific receiving device) may be transmitted by base station 102 in a single beam direction (e.g., the direction associated with the receiving device such as UE 104). In some examples, the beam direction associated with the 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 an indication of the signal received by UE 104 with the highest signal quality or other acceptable signal quality to base station 104.

[0066] In some examples, the transmission performed by a device (e.g., by base station 102 or UE 104) may use 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 base station 102 to UE 104, from the transmitting device to the receiving device, etc.). 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 the system bandwidth or one or more subbands. Base station 102 may transmit reference signals (e.g., cell-specific reference signal (CRS), channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), etc.), which may or may not be precoded. UE 104 may provide feedback for beam selection, which may be a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) or codebook-based feedback (e.g., multi-panel type codebook, linear combination type codebook, port selection type codebook). Although these techniques are described with reference to signals transmitted by base station 102 in one or more directions, UE 104 may employ similar techniques to transmit signals multiple times in different directions (e.g., for identifying beam directions for subsequent transmissions or receptions by UE 104), or to transmit signals in a single direction (e.g., for transmitting data to a receiving device).

[0067] A receiving device (e.g., UE 104) may attempt multiple receiving 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, the receiving device may attempt multiple receiving directions by receiving via different antenna sub-arrays, processing the received signals according to different antenna sub-arrays, receiving according to different sets of receiving beamforming weights (e.g., different directional listening weight sets) applied to the signals received at multiple antenna elements of the antenna array, or processing the received signals according to different sets of receiving beamforming weights applied to the signals received at multiple antenna elements of the antenna array. Any of these may be referred to as "listening" according to different receiving configurations or receiving directions. In some examples, the receiving device may use a single receiving configuration to receive along a single beam direction (e.g., when receiving a data signal). The single receiving configuration may be aligned in a beam direction determined based on listening according to different receiving 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).

[0068] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a WLAN AP 150 that is 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 listen-before-talk (LBT) process before communication to determine whether the channel is available. In some examples, the wireless communication system 100 may include devices (e.g., UEs, etc.) that communicate with one or more UEs 104, base stations 102, APs 150, etc. using the ultra-wideband (UWB) spectrum. The range of the UWB spectrum may be from 3.1 GHz to 10.5 GHz.

[0069] The small cell base station 102' may operate in licensed and / or unlicensed spectrum. When operating in the unlicensed spectrum, the small cell base station 102' may adopt LTE or NR technologies and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum as that used by the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base station 102' adopting LTE and / or 5G in the unlicensed spectrum may boost the coverage of the access network and / or increase the capacity of the access network. NR in the unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as NR-U. LTE in the unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as LTE-U, licensed-assisted access (LAA), or MulteFire.

[0070] 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 disaggregated 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 a part of RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz, with wavelengths between 1 millimeter and 10 millimeters. 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 millimeters. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz, which is also referred to as centimeter waves. Communication using mmW and / or near mmW radio frequency bands has high path loss and a relatively short range. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 may utilize beamforming (e.g., transmitting and / or receiving) on the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short range. Additionally, it should be understood that in an alternative configuration, one or more of the 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.

[0071] 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 the "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 the carrier operating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) used by the UE 104 / 182 and the cell, where the UE 104 / 182 performs the initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates the RRC connection reconstruction procedure in this cell. 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 the carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2), which 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 can be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. The secondary carrier may only contain necessary signaling information and signals. For example, since the primary uplink carrier and the primary downlink carrier are usually UE-specific, those UE-specific signaling information and signals may not exist in the secondary carrier. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell can have different downlink primary carriers. The same holds for the uplink primary carriers. 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 it is a PCell or an SCell) corresponds to the carrier frequency or component carrier that some base station is using for communication, the terms "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. can be used interchangeably.

[0072] For example, still referring to Figure 1, one of the frequencies used by macro cell base station 102 can be an anchor carrier (or "PCell"), and other frequencies used by macro cell base station 102 and / or mmW base station 180 can be secondary carriers ("SCell"). In carrier aggregation, base station 102 and / or UE 104 can use up to Y MHz (e.g., 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz, 20 MHz, 100 MHz) of spectrum bandwidth per carrier, with up to a total of Yx MHz (e.g., x component carriers) in each direction for transmission. The component carriers can be adjacent to each other in the spectrum or may not be adjacent to each other. The allocation of carriers can be asymmetric with respect to the downlink and the uplink (e.g., more or fewer carriers can be allocated to the downlink compared to the uplink). Simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers enables UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission and / or reception rate. For example, compared to the data rate obtained with a single 20 MHz carrier, two 20 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically result in a doubling of the data rate (e.g., 40 MHz).

[0073] To operate on multiple carrier frequencies, base station 102 and / or UE 104 can be equipped with multiple receivers and / or transmitters. For example, UE 104 can 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 UE 104 is being served in band "X", then band "X" will be referred to as the PCell or active carrier frequency, and "Receiver 1" will need to be tuned from band "X" to band "Y" (e.g., SCell) to measure band "Y" (and vice versa). In contrast, regardless of whether UE 104 is being served in band "X" or band "Y", due to the separate "Receiver 2", UE 104 can measure band "Z" without interrupting the service on band "X" or band "Y".

[0074] Wireless communication system 100 can further include UE 164, which can communicate with macro cell base station 102 on communication link 120 and / or communicate with mmW base station 180 on mmW communication link 184. For example, macro cell base station 102 can support a PCell and one or more SCell for UE 164, and mmW base station 180 can support one or more SCell for UE 164.

[0075] The wireless communication system 100 may also include one or more UEs, such as UE 190, which is indirectly connected to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links (e.g., referred to as "sidelinks"). In Figure 1 the example of, UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of the UEs in UE 104 that is connected to one of the base stations in base station 102 (e.g., UE 190 can indirectly obtain cellular connectivity through this link), and has a D2D P2P link 194 with WLAN STA 152 that is connected to WLAN AP 150 (e.g., UE 190 can indirectly obtain a WLAN-based Internet connection through this link). In one example, D2D P2P links 192 and 194 can use any well-known D2D RAT (such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), Wi-Fi Direct (Wi-Fi-D), etc.) to support.

[0076] Figure 2 A block diagram illustrating an example architecture 200 of base station 102 and UE 104 in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure, which enables the transmission and processing of signals exchanged between the UE and the base station. Example architecture 200 includes components of base station 102 and UE 104, and the base station and the UE can be Figure 1 one of the base stations in base station 102 shown and one of the UEs in UE 104. Base station 102 may be equipped with T antennas 234a to 234t, and UE 104 may be equipped with R antennas 252a to 252r, where typically T≥1 and R≥1.

[0077] At base station 102, transmit processor 220 may receive data for one or more UEs from data source 212, select one or more modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) for a UE based on channel quality indicators (CQIs) received from each UE, process (e.g., encode and modulate) the data for the UE based on the selected MCSs for each UE, and provide data symbols for all UEs. 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. Transmit processor 220 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals (e.g., cell-specific reference signals (CRSs)) and synchronization signals (e.g., primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS)). Transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, control symbols, overhead symbols, and / or reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide T output symbol streams to T modulators (MODs) 232a through 232t. Modulators 232a through 232t are shown as combined modulator-demodulators (MOD-DEMODs). In some cases, the modulator and demodulator may be separate components. Each of modulators 232a through 232t may process the corresponding output symbol stream (e.g., for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme, etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each of modulators 232a through 232t may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and up-convert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. The T downlink signals may be transmitted from modulators 232a through 232t via T antennas 234a through 234t, respectively. According to certain aspects described in more detail below, position coding may be utilized to generate synchronization signals to convey additional information.

[0078] At the UE 104, antennas 252a through 252r may receive downlink signals from the base station 102 and / or other base stations and may provide the received signals to one or more demodulators (DEMOD) 254a through 254r, respectively. Demodulators 254a through 254r are shown as combined modulator-demodulators (MOD-DEMOD). In some instances, the modulator and the demodulator may be separate components. Each of demodulators 254a through 254r may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, down-convert, and digitize) the received signals to obtain input samples. Each of demodulators 254a through 254r may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. The MIMO detector 256 may obtain the received symbols from all R demodulators 254a through 254r, perform MIMO detection (if applicable) on the received symbols, and provide the detected symbols. The receive processor 258 may process (e.g., demodulate and decode) the detected symbols, provide the decoded data for the UE 104 to the data sink 260, and provide the decoded control information and system information to the controller / processor 280. The channel processor may determine reference signal received power (RSRP), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), channel quality indicator (CQI), etc.

[0079] On the uplink, at the UE 104, the transmit processor 264 may receive and process data from the data source 262 and control information from the controller / processor 280 (e.g., for reports including RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, CQI, etc.). 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). Symbols from the transmit processor 264 may be precoded by the TX MIMO processor 266, further processed by the modulators 254a through 254r (e.g., for DFT-s-OFDM, CP-OFDM, etc.), and transmitted 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 through 234t, processed by demodulators 232a through 232t, detected (e.g., if applicable) by the MIMO detector 236, and further processed by the receive processor 238 to obtain the decoded data and control information transmitted by the UE 104. The receive processor 238 may provide the decoded data to the data sink 239 and provide the decoded control information to the 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.

[0080] 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 components may perform one or more techniques associated with the determination of implicit UCI β values for NR.

[0081] The memories 242 and 282 may store data and program code for the base station 102 and the UE 104, respectively. The scheduler 246 may schedule the UE for data transmission on the downlink, uplink, and / or sidelink.

[0082] In some aspects, the deployment of a communication system such as a 5G New Radio (NR) system may be arranged in various ways with various components or parts. In a 5G NR system or network, network nodes, network entities, mobility elements of the network, radio access network (RAN) nodes, core network nodes, network elements, or network equipment (such as a base station (BS)) or one or more units (or one or more components) performing base station functions may be implemented in an aggregated or disaggregated architecture. For example, a BS (e.g., such as a Node B (NB), evolved NB (eNB), NR BS, 5G NB, access point (AP), transmit-receive point (TRP), or cell, etc.) may be implemented as an aggregated base station (e.g., also referred to as a stand-alone BS or monolithic BS) or a disaggregated base station.

[0083] An aggregated base station may be configured to utilize a radio protocol stack physically or logically integrated within a single RAN node. A disaggregated base station may be configured to utilize a protocol stack 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).

[0084] Base station type operations or network design may consider the aggregation characteristics of base station functionality. For example, a split base station can be used in an integrated access backhaul (IAB) network, an open radio access network (O-RAN (e.g., a network configuration such as those advocated by the O-RAN Alliance)), or a virtualized radio access network (e.g., vRAN, also known as cloud radio access network (C-RAN)). The split may include distributing functions across two or more units at various physical locations and virtually distributing the functions of at least one unit, which can achieve flexibility in network design. Various units of a split base station or a split RAN architecture can be configured for wired or wireless communication with at least one other unit.

[0085] Figure 3 FIG. is an illustration showing the architecture of a split base station 300. The split base station 300 architecture may include one or more CUs 310. The one or more central units (CUs) may communicate directly with the core network 320 via a backhaul link or indirectly with the core network 320 through one or more split base station units (e.g., 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 a respective midhaul link (such as an F1 interface). The DU 330 may communicate with one or more radio units (RUs) 340 via a respective fronthaul link. The RU 340 may communicate with a respective UE 104 via one or more radio frequency (RF) access links. In some specific implementations, the UE 104 may be served simultaneously by multiple RUs 340.

[0086] Figure 3Each of these units shown and / or described herein (e.g., CU 310, DU 330, RU 340, and the near RT RIC 325, non-RT RIC 315, and SMO framework 305) may include one or more interfaces, or may be coupled to one or more interfaces configured to receive or transmit signals, data, or information (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 interfaces of these units, may be configured to communicate with one or more of the other units via the transmission medium. For example, the units may include a wired interface configured to receive or transmit signals to one or more of the other units via a wired transmission medium. Additionally, the unit may include a wireless interface, which may include a receiver, transmitter, or transceiver (e.g., such as a radio frequency (RF) transceiver), configured to receive or transmit signals, or both, to or from one or more of the other units via a wireless transmission medium.

[0087] 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), service data adaptation protocol (SDAP), etc. Each control function may utilize 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 embodiments, 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 units may communicate bidirectionally with the CU-CP units via an interface (such as the E1 interface). As needed, the CU 310 may be implemented to communicate with the DU 330 for network control and signaling.

[0088] 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 the radio link control (RLC) layer, the media 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 the functional split (e.g., such as the functional split defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)). In some aspects, the DU 330 may also 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 the control functions hosted by the CU 310.

[0089] The lower layer functionality may be implemented by one or more RUs 340. In some deployments, the RUs 340 controlled by the DU 330 may correspond to logical nodes that host 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 RUs 340 may be implemented to handle over-the-air (OTA) communication with one or more UEs 104. In some embodiments, the real-time and non-real-time aspects of the control plane and user plane communication with the RUs 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).

[0090] The SMO framework 305 can be configured to support the RAN deployment and orchestration of non-virtualized network elements and virtualized network elements. For non-virtualized network elements, the SMO framework 305 can be configured to support the deployment of dedicated physical resources for RAN coverage requirements, and these dedicated physical resources can be managed via an operation and maintenance interface (e.g., such as the O1 interface). For virtualized network elements, the SMO framework 305 can be configured to interact with a cloud computing platform (e.g., such as the 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 the O2 interface). Such virtualized network elements can include, but are not limited to, the CU 310, DU 330, RU 340, and near RT RIC 325. In some specific implementations, the SMO framework 305 can communicate with the hardware aspect of the 4G RAN (such as the Open eNB (O-eNB) 311) via the O1 interface. Additionally, in some specific 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.

[0091] The non-RT RIC 315 can be configured to include a logical function that can enable non-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources, artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) workflows including model training and update, or policy-based guidance of applications / features in the near RT RIC 325. The non-RT RIC 315 can be coupled to or communicate with the near RT RIC 325 (e.g., such as via the A1 interface). The near RT RIC 325 can be configured to include a logical function that can enable near-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources through an interface (e.g., such as via the E2 interface) via data collection and actions, and this interface connects one or more CUs 310, one or more DUs 330, or both, and the O-eNB to the near RT RIC 325.

[0092] In some specific implementations, to generate the AI / ML models 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 can be utilized by the near-RT RIC 325 and can be received from non-network data sources or from network functions 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 an AI / ML model to perform corrective actions through the SMO framework 305 (e.g., reconfiguration such as via O1) or via the creation of RAN management policies (e.g., such as A1 policies).

[0093] Figure 4 An example of a computing system 470 of the 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 types of devices 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 smartwatch, 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 may be electrically coupled or communicatively coupled (e.g., or may communicate in other ways, as appropriate) via a bus 489. For example, the computing system 470 includes one or more processors 484. The 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. The one or more processors 484 may use the bus 489 to communicate between cores and / or with one or more memory devices 486.

[0094] 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, and / or a printer, etc.).

[0095] In some aspects, computing system 470 may include one or more RF interfaces configured to transmit and / or receive radio frequency (RF) signals. In some examples, the RF interface may include components such as a modem 476, a wireless transceiver 478, and / or an antenna 487. One or more wireless transceivers 478 may transmit and receive wireless signals (e.g., signal 488) via antenna 487 from one or more other devices, 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, and the like. In some examples, computing system 470 may include multiple antennas or antenna arrays that may facilitate simultaneous transmit and receive functionality. Antenna 487 may be an omnidirectional antenna such 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 TM network and / or other networks.

[0096] In some examples, wireless signal 488 may be directly transmitted to other wireless devices using sidelink communication (e.g., using a PC5 interface, using a DSRC interface, etc.). The wireless transceiver 478 may be configured to transmit RF signals via antenna 487 according to one or more transmit power parameters that may be associated with one or more regulatory modes for performing sidelink communication. The wireless transceiver 478 may also be configured to receive sidelink communication signals from other wireless devices having different signal parameters.

[0097] In some examples, one or more wireless transceivers 478 may include an RF front end that includes one or more components such as amplifiers, mixers for downconverting signals (e.g., also referred to as signal multipliers), frequency synthesizers (e.g., also referred to as oscillators) that provide signals to the mixers, baseband filters, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), one or more power amplifiers, and other components. The RF front end generally may handle the selection of wireless signal 488 and the conversion of the wireless signal to a baseband frequency or an intermediate frequency, and may convert the RF signal to the digital domain.

[0098] In some cases, computing system 470 may include a codec (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 AES and / or DES standards).

[0099] 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 the subscriber when accessing a network provided by a network service provider or carrier 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 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.

[0100] The computing system 470 may also include one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media or storage devices (e.g., one or more memory devices 486) (and / or communicate with them), 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-updateable, etc. Such storage devices may be configured to implement any suitable data storage, including but not limited to various file systems, database structures, etc.

[0101] In various aspects, functionality may be stored as one or more computer program products (e.g., instructions or code) in the memory device 486 and executed by one or more processors 484 and / or one or more DSPs 482. The computing system 470 may also include software elements (e.g., located within 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 implementing the functionality provided by various aspects, and / or may be designed to implement methods and / or configure systems as described herein.

[0102] Figure 5FIG. is an illustration of an example architecture of a radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting device 500 according to some examples. As will be described in more detail below, the RF energy harvesting device 500 can harvest RF energy from one or more RF signals received using the 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 detail below. In other examples, the energy harvesting device 500 can be implemented as a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag or various other RFID devices.

[0103] The energy harvesting device 500 includes one or more antennas 590 that can be used to transmit 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 transmit one or more uplink signals. The impedance matching component 510 can be used to match the impedance of the antenna 590 with the impedance of one or more (or all) of the 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 signals), an energy harvester 530 (e.g., for harvesting RF energy from the received downlink signals), a regulator 540, a microcontroller unit (MCU) 550, a modulator 560 (e.g., for generating uplink signals). In some cases, the receiving components of the energy harvesting device 500 can also include one or more sensors 570.

[0104] The downlink signals can be received from one or more transmitters. For example, the energy harvesting device 500 can receive downlink signals 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 can 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 can be implemented according to 3G, 4G, 5G, and / or other cellular standards (e.g., including future standards such as 6G and above).

[0105] In some cases, the energy harvesting device 500 can be implemented as a passive or semi - passive energy harvesting device that performs passive uplink communication by modulating and reflecting the downlink signal received via the antenna 590. The passive or semi - passive energy harvesting device can also be referred to as a device with passive or semi - passive EH capabilities, respectively. For example, the passive and semi - passive energy harvesting devices may not be able to generate and transmit an uplink signal without first receiving a downlink signal that can be modulated and reflected. In other examples, the energy harvesting device 500 can be implemented as an active energy harvesting device that uses a powered transceiver to perform active uplink communication. The active energy harvesting device is capable of generating and transmitting an uplink signal without first receiving a downlink signal (e.g., by using a power source on the device to power its powered transceiver).

[0106] An active or semi - passive energy harvesting device (e.g., also referred to as a device with active EH capabilities or a device with semi - passive EH capabilities, respectively) can include one or more energy storage elements 585 (e.g., collectively referred to as "energy reservoirs"). For example, the one or more energy storage elements 585 can include batteries, capacitors, etc. In some examples, the one or more energy storage elements 585 can be associated with a boost converter 580. The boost converter 580 can receive at least a portion of the energy harvested by the energy harvester 530 as an input (e.g., the remaining portion of the harvested energy is provided as instantaneous power for operating the energy harvesting device 500). In some aspects, the boost converter 580 can be a boost converter that raises the voltage from its input to its output (e.g., and reduces the current from its input to its output). In some examples, the boost converter 580 can be used to raise 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 can include one or more energy storage elements 585 and can include one or more boost converters 580. The number of energy storage elements 585 can be the same as or different from the number of boost converters 580 included in the active or semi - passive energy harvesting device.

[0107] A passive energy harvesting device (e.g., also referred to as a "device with passive EH capability") does not include an energy storage element 585 or a power source on other devices. For example, a passive energy harvesting device can be powered only by RF energy collected from a downlink signal (e.g., using an energy harvester 530). As previously mentioned, a semi-passive energy harvesting device can include one or more energy storage elements 585 and / or a power source on other devices. The energy storage element 585 of the semi-passive energy harvesting device can be used to increase or supplement the RF energy collected from the downlink signal. In some cases, the energy stored in the energy storage element 585 of the semi-passive energy harvesting device may not be sufficient to transmit an uplink communication without first receiving a downlink communication (e.g., the minimum transmit power of the semi-passive device > the capacity of the energy storage element). An active energy harvesting device can include one or more energy storage elements 585 and / or a power source on other devices, which can power an uplink communication without using supplementary collected RF energy (e.g., the minimum transmit power of the active device < the capacity of the energy storage element). The energy storage element 585 included in the active energy harvesting device and / or the semi-passive energy harvesting device can be charged using the collected RF energy.

[0108] As mentioned above, passive and semi-passive energy harvesting devices transmit uplink communications by performing backscatter modulation to modulate and reflect the received downlink signal. The received downlink signal is used for both providing power (e.g., performing demodulation, local processing, and modulation) and a carrier for uplink communication (e.g., reflection of the downlink signal). For example, a portion of the downlink signal will be backscattered as an uplink signal, while the remaining portion of the downlink signal can be used for energy harvesting.

[0109] An active energy harvesting device can transmit an uplink communication without performing backscatter modulation and without receiving a corresponding downlink signal (e.g., the active energy harvesting device includes an energy storage element for providing power and a powered transceiver for generating a carrier for uplink communication). Without a downlink signal, passive and semi-passive energy harvesting devices cannot transmit an uplink signal (e.g., passive communication). An active energy harvesting device does not rely on receiving a downlink signal to transmit an uplink signal and can transmit an uplink signal as needed (e.g., active communication).

[0110] In an example where the energy harvesting device 500 is implemented as a passive or semi - passive energy harvesting device, an antenna 590 can be used to receive a continuous carrier downlink signal and modulate it (e.g., re - modulate) for uplink communication. In some cases, a modulator 560 can be used to modulate the reflected (e.g., backscattered) portion of the downlink signal. For example, the continuous carrier can be a continuous sine wave (e.g., 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 reflection. Based on the modulation of the backscattered reflection, the modulator 560 can encode digital symbols (e.g., binary symbols or more complex symbol systems) indicating uplink communication 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.

[0111] As previously mentioned, an impedance matching component 510 can be used to match the impedance of the antenna 590 to the receiving component 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 backscattered reflection can be determined based on the impedance load 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 backscattered reflection. A modulator 560 can be used to perform the change in antenna impedance to modulate the phase and / or amplitude of the backscattered reflection.

[0112] As Figure 5As illustrated, a portion of the downlink signal received using antenna 590 can be provided to demodulator 520, which performs demodulation and provides the downlink communication (e.g., carried or modulated on the downlink signal) to microcontroller unit (MCU) 550 or other processors included in energy harvesting device 500. The remaining portion of the downlink signal received using antenna 590 can be provided to energy harvester 530, which harvests RF energy from the downlink signal. For example, energy harvester 530 can harvest RF energy based on performing AC to DC (alternating current to direct current) conversion, where an AC current is generated from the sine carrier of the downlink signal and the converted DC current is used to power energy harvesting device 500. In some aspects, energy harvester 530 can include one or more rectifiers for performing AC to DC conversion. The rectifier can include one or more diodes or thin film transistors (TFTs). In an illustrative example, energy harvester 530 can include one or more Schottky diode-based rectifiers. In some cases, energy harvester 530 can include one or more TFT-based rectifiers.

[0113] The output of energy harvester 530 is a DC current generated (e.g., harvested) from the portion of the downlink signal provided to energy harvester 530. In some aspects, the DC current output of energy harvester 530 can vary with the input provided to energy harvester 530. For example, an increase in the input current to energy harvester 530 can be associated with an increase in the output DC current generated by energy harvester 530. In some cases, MCU 550 can be associated with a narrow band of acceptable DC current values. Regulator 540 can be used to eliminate or otherwise reduce variations in the DC current generated by the output of energy harvester 530. For example, regulator 540 can eliminate or smooth spikes (e.g., increases) in the DC current output by energy harvester 530 (e.g., such that the DC current provided as input to MCU 550 by regulator 540 remains below a first threshold). In some cases, regulator 540 can eliminate or otherwise compensate for a decrease or reduction in the DC current output by energy harvester 530 (e.g., such that the DC current provided as input to MCU 550 by regulator 540 remains above a second threshold).

[0114] In some aspects, the DC current collected (e.g., generated by the energy harvester 530 and regulated up or down by the regulator 530 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 additionally be used to power one or more (or all) of the impedance matching 510, demodulator 520, regulator 540, MCU 550, sensor 570, 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, modulator 560, and sensor 570 in series, parallel, or a combination thereof.

[0115] In some examples, the sensor 570 can be used to obtain sensor data (e.g., sensor data associated with the environment in which the energy harvesting device 500 is located). The sensor 570 can include one or more sensors, which can be of the same or different types. In some aspects, one or more (or all) of the sensors in the sensor 570 can be configured to obtain sensor data based on control information included in the downlink signal received using the antenna 590. For example, one or more of the sensors in the sensor 570 can be configured based on downlink communication obtained by demodulating the received downlink signal using the demodulator 520. In an illustrative example, sensor data can be transmitted based on modulating the backscatter reflection (e.g., changing one or more of its amplitude and / or phase) of a continuous carrier received at the antenna 590 using the modulator 560. Based on the modulation of the backscatter reflection, the modulator 560 can encode digital symbols (e.g., binary symbols or more complex symbol systems) indicating uplink communication or data messages. In some examples, the modulator 560 can generate an uplink backscatter modulation signal based on directly receiving sensor data from the sensor 570. In some examples, the modulator 560 can generate an uplink backscatter modulation signal based on sensor data received from the MCU 550 (e.g., based on the MCU 550 directly receiving sensor data from the sensor 570).

[0116] Figure 6 FIG. 600 is a diagram illustrating an example of a small-signal rectification operation that can be associated with performing energy harvesting according to some examples. In an illustrative example, the small-signal rectification operation can be a small-signal rectification operation associated with a Schottky diode barrier (e.g., a Schottky diode used to perform rectification associated with the Figure 5 energy harvester 530 shown).

[0117] In some cases, the rectification process in a diode barrier associated with performing energy harvesting (e.g., a Schottky diode or other diode) can be classified as small-signal operation and large-signal operation. For example, large-signal operation is associated with rectifying an input signal having a relatively large amplitude signal (e.g., a downlink signal received at an energy harvesting device including a diode), the relatively large amplitude signal causing the diode to operate in its resistive region. Small-signal operation (e.g., such as the example small-signal operation shown in Figure 6 ) can be associated with rectifying an input signal having a relatively small amplitude signal (e.g., or a portion thereof), such that the diode does not operate in its resistive region.

[0118] For example, the small-signal operation of the rectification process in a Schottky diode barrier can be associated with three different operating regions, as shown in Figure 6 . In a first operating region 610, the diode behavior can approximate a quadratic relationship. For example, in the first operating region 610, the output signal of the diode can be proportional to the square of the input signal of the diode. In some cases, the first operating region 610 can also be referred to as the square-law region. In a second operating region 620, the diode behavior can become more influenced by other contributions, and the relationship between the output-input signals of the diode can transition from quadratic to linear. In some cases, the second operating region 620 can also be referred to as the transition region. In a third operating region 630, the output signal of the diode can 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 can also be referred to as the resistive region.

[0119] FIG. 7 is a diagram 700 illustrating an example of an input power-harvested power conversion model that can be associated with various energy harvesting devices (e.g., such as the energy harvesting device 500 illustrated in the example above in Figure 5 ). The diagram 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 can be associated with different models between the input power (e.g., the total RF energy or power of the portion of the received downlink signal provided to the energy harvester 530 shown in Figure 5 ) and the harvested power (e.g., the 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.

[0120] The first power conversion model 710 may be associated with a first type or category of energy harvesting device. For example, an energy harvesting device having the first power conversion model 710 may provide harvested power as a continuous, linear, increasing function of the input RF power.

[0121] The second power conversion model 720 may be associated with a second type or category of energy harvesting device. For example, an energy harvesting device having the second power conversion model 720 may provide harvested power as a continuous, non-linear, increasing function of the input RF power.

[0122] The third power conversion model 730 may be associated with a third type or category of energy harvesting device. For example, assuming the input RF power is above a sensitivity threshold an energy harvesting device having the third power conversion model 730 may provide harvested power as a continuous, linear, increasing function of the input RF power. The sensitivity threshold may represent the minimum input RF power at which the energy harvesting device is able to perform harvesting (e.g., able to harvest a non-zero amount of power). When the input RF power is below the sensitivity threshold the harvested power is zero.

[0123] The fourth power conversion model 740 may be associated with a fourth type or category of energy harvesting device. For example, assuming the input RF power is above the sensitivity threshold and below the saturation threshold an energy harvesting device having the fourth power conversion model 740 may provide harvested power as a continuous, linear, increasing function of the input RF power. As shown, the saturation threshold is greater than the sensitivity threshold When the input RF power is below the sensitivity threshold the harvested power is zero. When the input RF power is above the saturation threshold the harvested power output saturates (e.g., remains approximately constant for any input RF power above the saturation threshold).

[0124] The fifth power conversion model 750 may be associated with a fifth type or category of energy harvesting device. For example, for input RF power between the sensitivity threshold and the saturation threshold an energy harvesting device having the fifth power conversion model 750 may provide harvested power as a continuous, non-linear increasing function of the input RF power.

[0125] In some examples, the efficiency of the energy harvesting device may be determined as the percentage of the input RF power that is converted into harvested power. Figure 7BFIG. 770 is a diagram illustrating an example of a comparison of energy conversion efficiency for different input powers (e.g., frequencies of the input waveform of an energy harvesting device). For example, a first efficiency-frequency relationship 771 is shown for an input RF power of -10 dBm (decibel milliwatt), 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.

[0126] Figure 7B The three shown efficiency-frequency relationships 771, 772, 773 can 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 the third energy conversion model 773 can maximize its energy conversion efficiency when the input RF waveform is centered at a frequency of 0.86 GHz. As another example, for an input RF power of -20 dBm, an energy harvesting device having the second energy conversion model 772 can maximize its energy conversion efficiency when the input RF waveform is centered at a frequency of 0.87 GHz. As another example, for an input RF power of -10 dBm, an energy harvesting device having the first energy conversion model 771 can maximize its energy conversion efficiency when the input RF waveform is centered at a frequency of 0.89 GHz.

[0127] In some aspects, the efficiency of an energy harvesting device can vary based on the input RF power (e.g., the RF power of a downlink signal received at the antenna of the energy harvesting device) and the center frequency of the input RF waveform. For example, as Figure 7B illustrated, the maximum or peak efficiency of an energy harvesting device receiving a relatively low input RF power can be less than the maximum or peak efficiency of an energy harvesting device receiving a relatively high input RF power (e.g., at -30 dBm, the peak efficiency of the energy conversion model 773 is less than 10%, at -20 dBm, the peak efficiency of the energy conversion model 772 is about 25%, and at -10 dBm, the peak efficiency of the energy conversion model 771 is about 45%). In some cases, for frequencies greater than the optimal input center frequency, the conversion efficiency decreases, and for frequencies less than the optimal input center frequency, the conversion efficiency decreases.

[0128] In some aspects, the conversion efficiency of an 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 the 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 examples, the energy harvesting device may receive RF energy from a multi-frequency sinusoidal downlink wave having a uniform power distribution. In another illustrative example, an energy harvesting device having a broadband operating bandwidth may have a conversion efficiency that is a non-linear function of the input frequency over the broadband. The broadband bandwidth may be greater than the narrowband bandwidth. In such examples, 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 the operating bandwidth of a communication channel (e.g., message bandwidth), which is greater than the coherence bandwidth of the channel.

[0129] In some aspects, the energy conversion efficiency of an energy harvesting device may vary continuously with the input RF power. For example, for input powers less than a sensitivity threshold , 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 the 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 ) and may also vary at different input RF powers. For example, in some cases, for input RF power values between the sensitivity threshold and a first input RF power value greater than , the energy conversion efficiency of the energy harvesting device may be approximately linear with the input RF power. The energy conversion efficiency may increase linearly with input RF power 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 non-linearly with a further increase in the input RF power. In some examples, in addition to an initial linear conversion efficiency region starting at the sensitivity threshold , the energy conversion efficiency may also include one or more additional regions where it increases linearly (e.g., and / or decreases linearly) with the input RF power.

[0130] In some cases, existing methods of wireless energy harvesting (e.g., energy harvesting associated with RFID tags and / or RFID devices) are associated with short - range embodiments. For example, RFID devices (and / or passive IoT devices that implement RFID - based communication and energy harvesting) can support wireless energy harvesting and backscatter modulation over distances of 10 meters or less. For transmitters and energy - harvesting devices separated by more than 10 meters, wireless energy harvesting and backscatter modulation can be difficult to achieve due to insufficient link - budget issues.

[0131] 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 communication between an energy - harvesting device (e.g., a passive, semi - passive, or active IoT device, etc.) and a network node or transmitter (e.g., a gNB or a base station). There is also a need for systems and techniques that can be used to provide wireless energy harvesting and backscatter - modulation - based communication over a greater range than existing RFID - based methods. For example, a passive or semi - passive IoT device can include one or more sensors and can be used to perform tasks such as asset management, logistics tracking, warehousing, manufacturing, etc. In such examples, a passive (or semi - passive) IoT device is typically located at a distance greater than 10 meters from a corresponding base station or transmitter.

[0132] As will be discussed in more depth below, the systems and techniques described herein can be used to determine control information associated with a channel between an energy transmitter (e.g., a gNB, a base station, etc.) and an energy receiver (e.g., an energy - harvesting device, a passive or semi - passive IoT device, etc.). For example, the systems and techniques can be used to determine control information associated with a broadband channel based on transmitting RF signals in each respective sub - band of a plurality of sub - bands included in the broadband channel. Each RF signal can be backscatter - modulated (e.g., reflected) by the energy receiver. In one illustrative example, the backscattered RF signal can be frequency - shifted to a sub - band different from the sub - band in which the corresponding RF signal is transmitted by the energy transmitter. For example, an energy receiver (e.g., an energy - harvesting device) can frequency - shift an input RF signal from a first sub - band to a second sub - band. In some examples, the first sub - band and the second sub - band can be adjacent. In some cases, the energy - harvesting device can apply a cyclic shift to generate a frequency - shifted backscatter reflection. Based on receiving frequency - shifted backscattered RF signals in each sub - band of the broadband bandwidth, an energy transmitter (e.g., a base station, a gNB, etc.) can determine control information associated with the channel between the energy transmitter and the energy receiver, as will be described in more depth below. For example, the systems and techniques can determine control information associated with the broadband bandwidth based on multiple backscattered RF signals. In some cases, the systems and techniques can determine control information associated with the broadband bandwidth based on jointly processing the respective backscattered RF signals among multiple RF signals. In some aspects, the control information can be channel state information (CSI).

[0133] Figure 8A FIG. is an illustration showing an example of a wideband bandwidth 800a including a plurality of sub-bands 812, 814, 816. In some examples, the wideband bandwidth 800a may represent a wideband bandwidth available for wireless communication between an energy transmitter (e.g., a base station, a gNB, etc.) and an energy harvesting device (e.g., an energy receiver). In one illustrative example, an energy transmitter (ET) may divide a given wideband bandwidth into n sub-bands. For example, the ET may divide the wideband bandwidth 800a into three sub-bands 812 (e.g., B0), 814 (e.g., B1), 816 (B2). In some cases, the n sub-bands may be non-overlapping and / or equal in size (e.g., the bandwidth of each of the n sub-bands may be the wideband bandwidth / n). In some aspects, a given wideband bandwidth may be divided into n sub-bands, where n is greater than or equal to 3.

[0134] In one illustrative example, the ET may transmit n wideband signals in the n sub-bands. For example, as Figure 8B illustrated, the ET 840 may transmit n wideband signals by transmitting a corresponding wideband signal in each of the sub-bands included in the n sub-bands. The first transmitted signal 842 (e.g., x0) may be transmitted using the first sub-band. For example, the signal x0 may be transmitted in the Figure 8A illustrated first sub-band B0. The second transmitted signal 844 (e.g., x1) may be transmitted using the second sub-band (e.g., Figure 8A the illustrated second sub-band B1). The third transmitted signal 848 (e.g., x n-1 (e.g., x2 for n = 3)) may be transmitted using the third sub-band (e.g., Figure 8A the illustrated third sub-band B2), and so on.

[0135] In some aspects, the ET 840 may transmit n wideband signals (e.g., x0, x1,..., x n-1 ) in a TDM manner. Each of the wideband signals included in the n wideband signals may be transmitted separately in the corresponding sub-band among the n sub-bands over time. For example, the first wideband signal x0 may be transmitted by the ET 840 at the first time t0, the second wideband signal x1 may be transmitted by the ET 840 at the second time t1,..., and the nth wideband signal x n-1 may be transmitted by the ET 840 at the nth time t n-1 . In some aspects, each of the n wideband signals may be the same. For example, x0 = x1 = x n-1= x. In some cases, one or more (or all) of the n broadband signals may be different. In some examples, the ET 840 may send n broadband signals to an energy receiver (ER). For example, the ET 840 may send n broadband signals to the ER 870. In some examples, the ET 840 may broadcast n broadband signals, and the n broadband signals may be received by one or more ERs (e.g., including the ER 870).

[0136] The energy receiver (ER) 870 may receive each broadband signal at a corresponding time and in a corresponding subband (e.g., the subband in which the ET 840 sent the corresponding broadband signal). The energy receiver may be an energy harvesting device, a passive or semi - passive IoT device, an active IoT device, and / or other UEs or wireless communication devices including a backscatter transmitter. As Figure 8B illustrated, the ER 870 may backscatter (e.g., reflect) each broadband signal x received from the ET 840 n . In an illustrative example, the ER 870 may introduce a predetermined frequency shift to the backscattered RF signal.

[0137] (e.g., among the multiple backscattered RF signals generated by the ER 870) each backscattered RF signal may be associated with a corresponding RF signal. For example, the backscattered RF signal may be associated with the corresponding RF signal that the ER 870 backscatter - modulates to generate the backscattered RF signal. For example, the ER 870 may receive a first broadband signal x0 in a first subband (e.g., B0) and send a backscattered RF signal y0 that is frequency - shifted to a different subband (e.g., B1). The backscattered RF signal y0 may be associated with the first broadband signal x0. The ER 870 may then receive a second broadband signal x1 in a second subband (e.g., B1) (e.g., based on the ET 840 using TDM to send the broadband signal x n ) and send a backscattered RF signal y1 that is frequency - shifted to a different subband (e.g., B1). The backscattered RF signal y1 may be associated with the second broadband signal x1. The ER 870 may then receive a third broadband signal x n-1 and send a backscattered RF signal y n-1 . The backscattered RF signal y n-1 may be associated with the third broadband signal x n-1 .

[0138] In an illustrative example, the frequency shift introduced by the ER 870 may be based on configuration information 841 received from the ET 840 (e.g., sent by the ET 840). In some cases, the configuration information 841 may be sent by the ET 840 when sending the n broadband signals x nPreviously sent by ET 840 (e.g., and received by ER 870). For example, configuration information 841 may be received by ER 870 before ET 840 sends the first broadband signal x0. The configuration information 841 may indicate one or more frequency shifts associated with one or more ERs (e.g., including ER 870). For example, ET 840 may be associated with multiple ERs (e.g., including ER 870) and may generate and send configuration information 841 that indicates the frequency shift information for each corresponding ER included in the multiple ERs. In some aspects, the configuration information 841 may include an identifier for each corresponding ER included in the multiple ERs, where each identifier is associated with a frequency shift to be applied by the corresponding ER (e.g., the corresponding ER identified by the corresponding identifier included in the configuration information 841). In some cases, some (or all) of the ERs included in the multiple ERs may apply the same frequency shift. In some examples, some (or all) of the ERs included in the multiple ERs may apply different frequency shifts.

[0139] Based on the frequency shift information indicated by the configuration information 841, ER 870 may generate a corresponding frequency shift backscatter reflection signal y for each broadband input signal x received by ER 870 n n . Based on each backscatter reflection y n being frequency shifted to a subband different from the subband in which ET840 sends the corresponding input signal x n , ET 840 may receive the backscatter reflection y n without interference from the corresponding transmitted signal x n . For example, if ET 840 uses the first subband B0 to send the first broadband signal x0 and uses the second subband B1 to receive the corresponding frequency shift backscatter reflection y0, then ET 840 may receive y0 without interference from the transmission of x0.

[0140] As will be described in more depth below, based on receiving each broadband subband signal x n (e.g., Figure 8B the transmitted signals 842, 844,..., 848 illustrated), the corresponding frequency shift backscatter RF signal y n (e.g., Figure 8B ​For the exemplified backscattered RF signals 872, 874, ..., 878), ET 840 can estimate the CSI of the channel between ET 840 and ER 870. Based on the wideband CSI estimation, ET 840 can generate and transmit an energy signal 850 using optimized channel selection, frequency selection, and / or spatial beamforming determined based on the estimated wideband CSI. In some aspects, an "energy signal" (e.g., such as energy signal 850) may also be referred to herein as a signal for energy harvesting and / or an RF signal for energy harvesting. For example, energy signal 850 can be used to perform energy harvesting (e.g., an energy receiver such as ER 870 can receive the RF signal 850 for energy harvesting and perform energy harvesting based on the received RF signal 850 for energy harvesting). By matching the energy signal 850 with the wideband CSI estimation, ET 840 can generate the energy signal at the corresponding ER 870 with an improved transmission range and / or improved energy harvesting efficiency.

[0141] Figure 9 FIG. 900 is a diagram illustrating an example time - frequency grid corresponding to a communication for determining control information (e.g., CSI) associated with a wideband bandwidth between an energy transmitter (ET) 940 and an energy receiver (ER) 970 according to some examples. In some aspects, ET 940 and ER 970 can be the same as or similar to ET 840 and ER 870 illustrated and described above. In some aspects, Figure 8B the transmitted signals 942, 944, 946 illustrated can be the same as Figure 9 the transmitted signals 842, 844, 848 illustrated (e.g., the signals x0, x1, x Figure 8B transmitted in FIGS. 9 and 10 can be the same). In some examples, Figure 8B and Figure 9 the frequency - shifted backscattered RF signals 972, 974, 976 illustrated can be the same as n-1 the frequency - shifted backscattered RF signals 872, 874, 878 illustrated (e.g., the frequency - shifted backscattered RF signals y0, y1, y Figure 9 transmitted in FIGS. 21 and 22 can be the same). Figure 8B In some examples, Figure 8B and Figure 9 the frequency - shifted backscattered RF signals y0, y1, y n-1 / y2 can be the same).

[0142] Figure 9The illustrated time-frequency grid 900 includes a plurality of time-frequency resources. For example, time is represented on the horizontal axis of the time-frequency grid 900, and frequency is represented on the vertical axis of the time-frequency grid 900. Subbands included in the wideband bandwidth between ET 940 and ER970 may each be associated with a different set of one or more frequency resources. For example, the first subband B0 is associated with the top row of the frequency resources included in the time-frequency grid 900, the second subband B1 is associated with the middle row of the frequency resources included in the time-frequency grid 900, and the third subband B2 is associated with the bottom row of the frequency resources included in the time-frequency grid 900.

[0143] In one illustrative example, the signal received at ET 940 after backscatter reflection performed by ER 970 may be the multiplication of the transmitted signal with the channel coefficients of the forward channel and the reverse channel. Based on the input signal x from ET 940 to ER 970 n Using the frequency-shifted backscatter reflection signal y from ER 970 to ET 940 n To send using different subbands, the forward channel coefficient and the reverse channel coefficient may be different.

[0144] For example, the first subband B0 may be used as the forward channel to send the first transmitted signal x0 from ET 940 to ER 970. B0 may be associated with the channel coefficient H0 (and the second subband B1 may be associated with the channel coefficient H1, the third subband B2 may be associated with the channel coefficient H2, etc.). As Figure 9 Illustrated, ER 970 receives x0*H0, which represents the signal transmitted by ET 940 multiplied by the corresponding channel coefficient of the forward channel (e.g., a subband of the wideband bandwidth) used by ET940 for transmission.

[0145] ER 970 then uses the second subband B1 as the reverse channel to frequency-shift and backscatter the received signal x0H0. The backscattered RF signal received at ET 940 (e.g., y0) is x0H0H1, i.e., the received signal (e.g., x0H0) multiplied by the reverse channel coefficient (e.g., H1). As Figure 9 Illustrated, ER 970 may implement a frequency shift of one subband. In some aspects, ER970 may frequency-shift the backscattered RF signal to an adjacent subband of a specific subband associated with a specific RF signal (e.g., the RF signal backscattered as the backscattered RF signal). For example, ER 970 may frequency-shift the backscattered RF signal to an adjacent subband of the subband used for transmitting (e.g., transmitted by ET 940) and receiving (e.g., received by ER 970) the input RF signal being backscattered. For example, ER 970 may by multiplying the corresponding input signal x nFrequency shift to adjacent sub - bands to generate each frequency - shifted backscatter RF signal y n . In some cases, the cyclic frequency shift can be performed at the edge sub - bands of the wide - band bandwidth (e.g., the frequency shift from B2 to B0 or vice versa). The cyclic frequency shift can also be referred to as cyclic frequency shifting. For example, the ER 970 can frequency - shift the backscatter signal to the cyclic - shifted sub - band of a specific sub - band associated with a specific RF signal (e.g., the RF signal backscattered as the backscatter signal).

[0146] Based on a similar multiplication between each transmitted signal and the corresponding forward and reverse channel coefficients, the ET 940 can receive the frequency - shifted backscatter RF signals generated and transmitted by the ER 970, since y0 = H0H1x0; y1 = H1H2x1; and y2 = H2H0x2. For example, the first frequency - shifted backscatter RF signal y0 can be associated with the first input signal x0, the second frequency - shifted backscatter RF signal y1 can be associated with the second input signal x1, and the third frequency - shifted backscatter RF signal y2 can be associated with the third input signal x2. In some examples, the signals transmitted on each sub - band can be the same. For example, the ET 940 can transmit the same wide - band signal x in each of the n sub - bands, such that x0 = x1 = x2 = x. For example, the frequency - domain allocation pattern for transmission within each of the n sub - bands can be the same (e.g., for each of the n sub - bands, the number of sub - carriers and the allocation of the signal to the sub - carriers can be the same, and different sub - carrier frequencies are used for each of the n sub - bands). When the same wide - band signal is transmitted in each sub - band, the ET 940 can receive the frequency - shifted backscatter reflected signals generated and transmitted by the ER 970, since y0 = H0H1x; y1 = H1H2x; and y2 = H2H0x.

[0147] H0, H1, and H2 can be diagonal matrices with diagonal entries indicating the channel coefficients of the corresponding channels (e.g., the corresponding sub - bands B0, B1, B2 included in the wide - band bandwidth). For example, Figure 10 is a figure illustrating an example of the channel coefficients associated with the sub - bands included in the wide - band bandwidth. In Figure 10 's example, each sub - band has four sub - carriers, but note that a larger or smaller number of sub - carriers can also be utilized per band and / or per sub - band. For example, in some cases, the number of sub - carriers included in each sub - band can be 156, in which case the channel coefficient matrix H n can be given as a 156x156 matrix, where the channel gain associated with each sub - carrier is indicated by the corresponding element in the 156 diagonal elements of H n .

[0148] The first diagonal matrix 1010 can represent the channel coefficient H0 associated with the first sub-band B0, and the second diagonal matrix 1020 can represent the channel coefficient H1 associated with the second sub-band B1. As illustrated, the off-diagonal entries of matrices 1010, 1020 are zero, and the diagonal entries represent the channel coefficients of the corresponding sub-bands B0 and B-1. The transmitted input sequence x is indicated at 1030.

[0149] The frequency-shift backscattered reflected signal y0 received at ET 940 in response to transmitting the first wideband signal 942 can be given as y0 = H0H1x (e.g., as described above). As Figure 10 illustrated, y0 can include the matrix multiplication of the H0 matrix 1010, the H1 matrix 1020, and the transmitted sequence (e.g., x) matrix / vector 1030. The resulting y0 matrix 1050 includes non-zero diagonal entries and zero-valued off-diagonal entries.

[0150] Assuming that the channel reciprocity and reflection coefficients of ER 970 are known, ET 940 can use the frequency-shift backscattered RF signals y0, y1, y2 to determine the channel coefficient matrices H0, H1, H2 for the three sub-bands B0, B1, B2 included in the wideband bandwidth. In some aspects, the channel coefficient matrix can also be referred to as "control information" associated with the wideband bandwidth. In some examples, the channel coefficient matrix can additionally or alternatively be referred to as CSI associated with the wideband bandwidth. In some examples, the control information associated with the wideband bandwidth can be determined based on multiple backscattered RF signals. For example, the channel coefficient matrices H0, H1, H2 can be determined based on the multiple backscattered RF signals y0, y1, y2. In some cases, the control information associated with the wideband bandwidth (e.g., the channel coefficient matrices H0, H1, H2) can be determined based on jointly processing multiple backscattered RF signals (e.g., y0, y1, y2). For example, ET940 can determine the channel coefficient H0 of the channel (e.g., the channel coefficient associated with the first sub-band B0) as The remaining channel coefficients H1 and H2 can be continuously determined based on H0.

[0151] For example, ET 940 can determine the channel coefficient H2 of the channel (e.g., the channel coefficient associated with the third sub-band B2) as And can determine the channel coefficient H1 of the channel (e.g., the channel coefficient associated with the second sub-band B1) as

[0152] In some aspects, for a given wideband bandwidth divided into n sub-bands (where n is odd) between ET 940 and ER 970, ET 940 can use sub-band B m- to transmit each wideband signal x and can use sub-band Bmod(m+1,n) to receive each frequency-shifted backscatter reflected signal y (e.g., from ER 970). The channel coefficient H0 associated with the first sub-band B0 can be determined as and as described above, the remaining channel coefficients H1, ..., H associated with the remaining sub-bands B1, ..., B can be successively determined from H0 m-1 associated. m-1 .

[0153] In some examples, the CSI information (e.g., H0, ..., H m-1 ) can be determined using only the frequency-shifted backscatter reflected signals y0, ..., y received at ET 940 from ER 970 n-1 . In some aspects, ER 970 can send the backscatter reflected signal y without decoding the corresponding input broadband signal x. For example, ER 970 can frequency-shift and reflect the input signal without performing decoding of the incoming signal.

[0154] In an illustrative example, ET 940 can achieve full-duplex operation by transmitting a broadband signal on a first sub-band and receiving the reflection of the broadband signal on a different sub-band. For example, the broadband signal x0 transmitted by ET 940 on B0 and the frequency-shifted backscatter reflected signal y0 received by ET 940 on B1 can at least partially overlap in time. Based on x0 and y0 being on different sub-bands of the broadband bandwidth between ET 940 and ER 970, self-interference can be minimized or avoided during the full-duplex operation performed by ET 940.

[0155] In some examples, the systems and techniques can be used to determine control information (e.g., CSI) for multiple ERs associated with a given ET. For example, ET 940 can be associated with multiple ERs that are the same as or similar to ER 970. In an illustrative example, ET 940 can determine the CSI for multiple ERs based on the multiplexing of frequency-shifted backscatter RF signals from each respective ER among the multiple ERs. For example, ET 940 can use a given sub-band in the sub-bands to transmit the broadband signal x to each ER included in the multiple ERs. Each ER can apply a different frequency shift such that the corresponding backscatter RF signal y transmitted by each ER is frequency-shifted to a different sub-band.

[0156] In an illustrative example, the ET 940 may use the first subband B0 to send the broadband signal x to the first ER and the second ER 970. The first ER may be configured to apply a frequency shift (e.g., cyclic frequency shift) of one subband and use the subband B1 to send the backscattered reflection signal. The second ER may be configured to apply a different frequency shift from the first ER. For example, the second ER may apply a frequency shift of two subbands (e.g., cyclic frequency shift) and use the subband B2 to send the backscattered reflection signal.

[0157] In some aspects, the systems and techniques described herein may be used to multiplex a certain number of ERs up to one less than the number of subbands (e.g., n). For example, if the ET 940 divides the broadband bandwidth into n different subbands, the ET 940 may multiplex n - 1 ERs onto the broadband bandwidth. In the example of FIGS. 8 and Figure 9 n = 3 and the ET 940 may multiplex up to 3 - 1 = 2 different ERs together onto the broadband bandwidth. For n = 4 subbands, the ET 940 may multiplex up to 4 - 1 = 3 different ERs together onto the broadband bandwidth, and so on.

[0158] In some examples, the different frequency shifts to be applied by multiple ERs (e.g., multiplexed ERs) may be indicated using Figure 8B the illustrated configuration information 841. When multiple ERs are multiplexed onto the broadband bandwidth, the ER 940 may jointly determine respective channel estimates for each ER, as described above. For example, based on each of the multiple ERs applying a different frequency shift when backscattering and reflecting each of the n broadband signals x transmitted by the ET 940, the ET 940 may distinguish the corresponding reflection signals y transmitted by the multiple ERs at each time step.

[0159] In some examples, based on determining control information (e.g., CSI) associated with a broadband bandwidth, the ET may generate and transmit an adaptive multi-sine waveform determined using the CSI. For example, the energy signal 850 illustrated in FIG. 8 (e.g., also referred to as an RF signal for energy harvesting) may be an adaptive multi-sine waveform generated using the CSI determined for or otherwise associated with H0, H1, H2. The adaptive multi-sine waveform may be generated by adjusting (e.g., using ET 840) the power levels assigned to multiple sine frequencies based on known channel gains. In some cases, the power levels associated with each sine frequency (e.g., corresponding transmit power levels) may be determined based on the CSI and / or channel gain information associated with the channel used to transmit each sine frequency. For example, the transmit power level associated with a first sine frequency (e.g., transmitted using a first channel) may be determined based on the corresponding CSI and / or channel gain information determined for the first channel. For example, ET 840 may generate the energy signal 850 as an adaptive single sine wave by allocating all of the total transmit power to a single sine wave having a frequency associated with the maximum channel gain as determined from the CSI (e.g., H0, H1, H2). In some examples, ET 840 may allocate the available transmit power across multiple sine wave frequencies proportional to the corresponding channel gains of each frequency (e.g., matched filters) as determined from the CSI (e.g., H0, H1, H2). In an example where the ET multiplexes multiple ERs onto a broadband bandwidth, the ET may generate the energy signal 850 by selecting a channel (e.g., sub-band or frequency) that optimizes and / or maximizes the average energy signal efficiency over all of the multiple ERs or by selecting a channel that optimizes and / or maximizes the average energy signal efficiency over a set of ERs having the lowest channel gains (including among the multiple ERs).

[0160] As described above, in some examples where the broadband bandwidth includes n different sub-bands, the ET may multiplex up to (n - 1) different ERs onto the broadband bandwidth. For example, the ET may use one of the n sub-bands to transmit a signal x, and the remaining n - 1 sub-bands may be used for backscatter reflection of the ER frequency-shifted signal x. In such examples, each of the remaining n - 1 sub-bands may support the multiplexing of a single ER.

[0161] In an illustrative example, the number of ERs that can be multiplexed onto a wideband bandwidth can be increased by further dividing each subband into a plurality of physical resource groups (PRGs), each including m subcarriers. By using the subband shifting described above (e.g., shifting the received signal x by one or more subbands) and by using a relatively small subcarrier shift within the subband (e.g., shifting the received signal x by one or more subcarriers within each PRG included in the subband), a plurality of ERs can be multiplexed onto a single subband. As will be described in more depth below, the use of subband frequency shifting within the wideband bandwidth between the ET and the ER and subcarrier frequency shifting within each subband can be exploited to multiplex up to (n - 1)*m different ERs onto the wideband bandwidth.

[0162] Figure 11 FIG. is an illustration showing an example of signal allocation in a single subband 1100 including a plurality of PRGs, each including m subcarriers. The single subband 1100 can be a subband included in the wideband bandwidth between the ET and one or more ERs. For example, the subband 1100 can be the same as or similar to one or more (or all) of the subbands B0, B1, B2, ..., B Figure 10 described above with respect to FIGS. 8 to n-1 one or more (or all) of which.

[0163] In some aspects, the PRGs can be selected or determined such that the channel variation within each PRG is relatively small. In some examples, each subband included in the wideband bandwidth between the ET and one or more ERs can be divided into g PRGs. For example, the subband 1100 includes a first PRG 1110 (e.g., "PRG 1"), a second PRG 1120 (e.g., "PRG 2"), ..., and a gth PRG 1130 (e.g., "PRG g"). Each PRG can include the same number (m) of subcarriers.

[0164] The signal transmitted using the subband 1100 (e.g., the signal x or x n or the frequency-shifted backscattered reflection signal y transmitted by the ER) can be transmitted on each PRG included in the subband 1100. For example, the signal transmitted using the subband 1100 can be transmitted on one subcarrier in each of the g PRGs of the subband (e.g., for transmission on the subband 1100, the ET or the ER transmits g signals on g different subcarriers within the subband 1100).

[0165] In some aspects, the signal transmitted using the subband 1100 is transmitted using the same subcarriers (e.g., the same subcarrier positions) within each of the g PRGs included in the subband 1100. For example, as Figure 11Illustratively, the signal s may be transmitted using the first sub - carrier of PRG 1, the first sub - carrier of PRG 2, …, and the first sub - carrier of PRG g. The signal transmitted on a sub - band including g PRGs may be transmitted using g different sub - carriers.

[0166] In one illustrative example, the ER may use a relatively large frequency shift of one or more sub - bands to frequency - shift the received signal x0 received in the first sub - band B0 (e.g., shift the backscattered reflection y0 to B1, B2, …, or B n-1 ), as described above with respect to Figures 8A to 9 The ER may additionally perform a relatively small frequency shift of one or more sub - carriers within each PRG.

[0167] For example, the first ER may receive the sub - band signal 1100 depicted in Figure 11 on sub - band B0 and perform a relatively large frequency shift to sub - band B−1 (or sub - bands B2, …, B n-1 ). The frequency - shifted signal in sub - band B1 will utilize the same sub - carrier positioning within each PRG as the originally received signal did in sub - band B1. For example, the signal received on sub - band B0 may be received on the first sub - carrier of each PRG within sub - band B0 and may be frequency - shifted to the first sub - carrier of each PRG within sub - band B1.

[0168] Additional ERs may receive the same signal on the first sub - carrier of each PRG within sub - band B0 and may apply a relatively large frequency shift of one or more sub - bands (e.g., from B0 to B1), and may additionally apply a relatively small frequency shift of one or more sub - carriers (e.g., from the first sub - carrier of each PRG to the second sub - carrier of each PRG).

[0169] In some aspects, the process described above for relatively small sub - carrier shifts may be repeated until the sub - carriers of each PRG in the frequency - shifted sub - band are fully saturated (e.g., the frequency - shifted signal s is presented on each sub - carrier included in the frequency - shifted sub - band). For example, the small frequency shift within a PRG may range from 0 to (m−1)Δf, where Δf is the sub - carrier spacing. If m = 4 (e.g., each PRG included in each sub - band includes four sub - carriers), then a given sub - band may be used to multiplex up to m different ERs.

[0170] Continuing with the above example, for m = 4, the signal x transmitted on the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B0 can be shifted by the first ER to the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B1, by the second ER to the second sub - carrier of each PRG in B1, by the third ER to the third sub - carrier of each PRG in B1, and by the fourth ER to the fourth sub - carrier of each PRG in B1. By saturating (e.g., transmitting signals thereon) each sub - carrier available for n sub - bands spanning the wide - band bandwidth between the ET and the multiple ERs, the number of ERs that can be multiplexed onto the wide - band bandwidth can be increased to (n - 1)*m.

[0171] Figure 12 FIG. is an illustration showing an example of multiplexed communication based on sub - band frequency shift and sub - carrier frequency shift between an energy transmitter (ET) and multiple ERs (ER1, ER2, ER3, ER4). The wide - band bandwidth can be divided into n = 3 sub - bands depicted as sub - bands B0, B1, and B2. Each sub - band can include g PRGs, and each PRG includes m = 2 sub - carriers. The width of each PRG can be given as 2Δf (e.g., mΔf), and the width of each sub - band can be given as 2gΔf.

[0172] The ET can transmit (e.g., broadcast) selection information that can be the same as or similar to the configuration information 841 illustrated in FIG. 8. For example, the configuration information transmitted by the ET can indicate the frequency shift associated with each ER included in the multiple ERs to be multiplexed onto the wide - band bandwidth. The configuration information can indicate different frequency shifts associated with each ER included in the multiple ERs. For example, each frequency shift can be a different combination of sub - band shift and sub - carrier shift.

[0173] As Figure 12 illustrated, for n = 3 and m = 2, up to (3 - 1)*2 = 4 different ERs can be multiplexed onto the wide - band bandwidth associated with the ET. For example, the ET can use the same sub - carrier position within each PRG included in sub - band B0 (e.g., the first sub - carrier position of each of the three PRGs included in B0) to transmit (e.g., broadcast) a first signal on sub - band B0.

[0174] ER1 can apply a frequency shift of one sub - band (e.g., 2gΔf) to the right and shift the received signal from the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B0 to the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B1.

[0175] ER2 can apply a frequency shift of one sub - band and one sub - carrier (e.g., (2g + 1)Δf) to the right and shift the received signal from the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B0 to the second sub - carrier of each PRG in B1.

[0176] ER3 can apply a frequency shift of two sub - bands (e.g., 4gΔf) to the right and shift the received signal from the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B0 to the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B2.

[0177] ER4 can apply a frequency shift of two sub - bands and one sub - carrier (e.g., (4g + 1)Δf) to the right and shift the received signal from the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B0 to the second sub - carrier of each PRG in B2.

[0178] ET can use again the same sub - carrier positions (e.g., the first sub - carrier of each PRG) included in each PRG in B1 to transmit (e.g., broadcast) a second signal on sub - band B1. ER1 can apply a frequency shift of one sub - band (e.g., 2gΔf) to the right and shift the received signal from the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B1 to the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B2. ER2 can apply a frequency shift of one sub - band and one sub - carrier (e.g., (2g + 1)Δf) to the right and shift the received signal from the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B1 to the second sub - carrier of each PRG in B2. ER3 can apply a frequency shift of one sub - band (e.g., - 2gΔf) to the left and shift the received signal from the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B1 to the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B0. ER4 can apply a frequency shift of one sub - band and one sub - carrier (e.g., (- 2g - 1)Δf) to the left and shift the received signal from the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B1 to the second sub - carrier of each PRG in B0.

[0179] ET can use again the same sub - carrier positions (e.g., the first sub - carrier of each PRG) included in each PRG in B2 to transmit (e.g., broadcast) a third signal on sub - band B2. ER1 can apply a frequency shift of two sub - bands (e.g., - 4gΔf) to the left and shift the received signal from the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B2 to the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B0. ER2 can apply a frequency shift of two sub - bands and one sub - carrier (e.g., (2g + 1)Δf) to the left and shift the received signal from the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B2 to the second sub - carrier of each PRG in B0. ER3 can apply a frequency shift of one sub - band (e.g., - 2gΔf) to the left and shift the received signal from the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B2 to the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B1. ER4 can apply a frequency shift of one sub - band and one sub - carrier (e.g., (- 2g - 1)Δf) to the left and shift the received signal from the first sub - carrier of each PRG in B2 to the second sub - carrier of each PRG in B1.

[0180] Figure 13is a flowchart illustrating an example of process 1300 for wireless communication. Process 1300 may be performed by a first network node or by a component or system of the first network node (e.g., a chipset). The first network node may be 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 types of UEs) or other types of network nodes. In some examples, process 1300 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 1300 may be implemented as software components executed and run on one or more processors (e.g., Figure 15 processor 1510 of Figure 2 or other processors). Additionally, in process 1300, the transmission and reception of signals by the network device may be implemented, for example, by one or more antennas, one or more transceivers (e.g., wireless transceivers), and / or other communication components (e.g., Figure 15 transmission processor 220, reception processor 238, TX MIMO processor 230, MIMO detector 236, modulator / demodulator 232a to 232t, and / or antennas 234a to 234t of

[0181] or other antennas, transceivers, and / or components of

[0182] At block 1302, process 1300 includes transmitting a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals, where each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a corresponding sub-band among a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth. For example, a network entity (or its component) may transmit a plurality of RF signals to a device having energy harvesting (EH) capabilities, where each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a corresponding sub-band among a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth. Figure 8B In some examples, the network entity may be an ET that is the same as or similar to one or more of the Figure 9 illustrated ET 840, Figure 12 illustrated ET 940, and / or Figure 8A illustrated RF signal 810, Figure 8B illustrated transmitted RF signals 842 to 848, Figure 9 illustrated transmitted RF signals 942 to 946, and / or Figure 12 illustrated transmitted RF signals B0, B1, B2. In some examples, the corresponding sub-bands among the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth may be the same as or similar to the following: Figure 8AOne or more of the illustrated subbands 812 (B0), 814 (B1), and 816 (B2); in Figure 9 One or more of the subbands represented as band 0, band 1, and band 2; and / or Figure 12 One or more of the illustrated subbands.

[0183] In some examples, a device with EH capabilities may be a passive or semi - passive device with EH capabilities. A device with EH capabilities may also be referred to as an energy harvesting device, and vice versa. In some cases, a device with EH capabilities may be an active device with EH capabilities. A device with EH capabilities may additionally or alternatively be provided as a passive or semi - passive IoT device. In some examples, a device with EH capabilities may be the same as or similar to the device with EH capabilities implementing Figure 5 the illustrated device - with - EH - capabilities architecture 500. In some cases, a device with EH capabilities may be the same as or similar to Figure 8B the illustrated energy receiver (ER) 870, Figure 9 the illustrated ER 970, and Figure 12 one or more (or all) of the illustrated ER1, ER2, ER3, ER4. For example, an energy receiver (ER) may each be a device with EH capabilities.

[0184] In some examples, multiple RF signals may be transmitted using time - division multiplexing (TDM), where the multiple RF signals do not overlap in time. In some cases, each RF signal of the multiple RF signals may be transmitted using corresponding non - overlapping subbands included in a wideband bandwidth. In some examples, the multiple subbands include three or more subbands of the wideband bandwidth. In some examples, each RF signal of the multiple RF signals may be transmitted using the same sub - carrier allocation pattern. For example, Figure 8B the three transmitted RF signals 842, 844, 848 illustrated may be the same RF signal X (e.g., X0 = X1 = X2 = X).

[0185] In some examples, a network entity (or its component) may transmit configuration information indicating one or more frequency shifts for the transmission of multiple backscatter RF signals. For example, the network entity may send configuration information indicating one or more frequency shifts for the transmission of a first multiple backscatter RF signals to a first device with EH capabilities. For example, the configuration information may be the same as or similar to Figure 8B the illustrated configuration information 841 and / or Figure 12 the illustrated "selection" information.

[0186] At block 1304, process 1300 includes receiving a first plurality of backscattered RF signals from a device having energy harvesting (EH) capabilities, where each backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding RF signal of a plurality of RF signals, and where each backscattered RF signal and each corresponding RF signal are associated with a corresponding subband of a plurality of subbands included in a broadband bandwidth. For example, a network entity (or its component) may receive a corresponding backscattered RF signal for each corresponding RF signal of the plurality of RF signals from a device having EH capabilities. In some examples, each backscattered RF signal may be the same or similar to one or more of Figure 8B the exemplified backscattered RF signals 872, 874, 878, Figure 9 one or more of the exemplified backscattered RF signals 972, 974, 976, and / or Figure 12 one or more of the exemplified backscattered RF signals.

[0187] In some examples, each corresponding backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals includes a frequency-shifted backscatter of an RF signal of the plurality of RF signals. For example, the frequency-shifted backscatter of an RF signal of the plurality of RF signals may be received using an adjacent subband of a subband used to transmit the RF signal. In some cases, the frequency-shifted backscatter reflection of an RF signal included in the plurality of RF signals may be received using a cyclic shift subband of a subband used to transmit the RF signal.

[0188] In some examples, to receive the first plurality of backscattered RF signals, a network device may receive a specific frequency-shifted backscatter of a specific RF signal via an adjacent subband of a specific subband associated with the specific RF signal, where the plurality of subbands includes the specific subband, and where the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal. For example, a network device may receive a specific frequency-shifted backscattered signal 872 of a specific RF signal 842 via an adjacent subband 814 of a specific subband 812 associated with the specific RF signal 842, as Figure 8B exemplified. The network device may receive a specific frequency-shifted backscattered signal 874 of a specific RF signal 844 via an adjacent subband 816 of a specific subband 814 associated with the specific RF signal 844, as Figure 8B exemplified.

[0189] In some examples, to receive a first plurality of backscattered RF signals, a network device may receive a specific frequency-shifted backscatter of a specific RF signal via a cyclic shift subband of a specific subband associated with the specific RF signal, where the plurality of subbands includes the specific subband, and where the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal. For example, the network device may receive a specific frequency-shifted backscatter signal 878 of a specific RF signal 848 via a cyclic shift subband 812 of a specific subband 816 associated with the specific RF signal 848, as Figure 8B illustrated.

[0190] In some examples, each backscattered RF signal in the first plurality of backscattered RF signals may be frequency-shifted to a corresponding subband in the plurality of subbands. For example, the corresponding backscattered RF signal may be frequency-shifted based on configuration information for one or more frequency shifts applied by each respective device having EH capabilities. For example, each respective backscattered RF signal received from a device having EH capabilities may be associated with a first frequency shift away from a first corresponding RF signal associated with each backscattered RF signal. For example, Figure 8B the illustrated backscattered RF signal 872 may be associated with a first frequency shift away from the transmitted RF signal 842 associated with the backscattered RF signal 872.

[0191] In some examples, a network device may receive a second plurality of backscattered RF signals from a second EH-capable device, where each backscattered RF signal in the second plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals, and where each backscattered RF signal in the second plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a subband in the plurality of subbands that is different from the subband associated with each backscattered RF signal in the first plurality of backscattered RF signals. For example, the network device may use a first subband 812 to send (e.g., broadcast) a first RF signal 842 to an EH-capable device and a second EH-capable device. The network device may receive a first plurality of backscattered RF signals from the EH-capable device that includes a first backscattered RF signal 872 associated with a second subband 814, and may receive a second plurality of backscattered RF signals from the second EH-capable device that includes a first backscattered RF signal associated with a third subband 816. The first backscattered RF signal received from the EH-capable device and the first backscattered RF signal received from the second EH-capable device may each include a backscattering of the first RF signal 842 sent using the first subband 812, where each of the first backscattered RF signals is frequency-shifted to a different subband in the subbands (e.g., the second subband 814 and the third subband 816, respectively) (and received using that different subband). Each second backscattered RF signal received from the second EH-capable device may be associated with a second frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal, where the second frequency shift is different from the first frequency shift.

[0192] In some examples, each backscattered RF signal in the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a first frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals. Each backscattered RF signal in the second plurality of backscattered RF signals may be associated with a second frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals, where the second frequency shift is different from the first frequency shift. In some cases, the plurality of EH-capable devices includes an EH-capable device and a second EH-capable device. The network device may send (e.g., broadcast) configuration information to the plurality of EH-capable devices that indicates one or more corresponding frequency shifts to be applied by each corresponding EH-capable device in the plurality of EH-capable devices.

[0193] In some examples, each backscattered RF signal may be associated with a corresponding plurality of subcarriers included in a corresponding subband. For example, each backscattered RF signal may be associated with Figure 11 one or more subcarriers among the plurality of subcarriers illustrated as being included in subband 1100. In some cases, the plurality of subcarriers includes subcarriers included in each physical resource group (PRG) among a plurality of PRGs included in the corresponding subband. For example, the plurality of PRGs may be associated with Figure 11The PRGs 1110, 1120, 1130 illustrated as being included in the respective subbands 1100 are the same or similar. In some cases, each of the plurality of PRGs includes the same number of subcarriers, and each subcarrier included in the respective plurality of subcarriers may be associated with the same subcarrier position. For example, the plurality of subcarriers may include a first subcarrier (e.g., represented as "s") of each of the PRGs (e.g., the illustrated PRGs 1110, 1120, 1130). Figure 11 of each of the PRGs (e.g., the illustrated PRGs 1110, 1120, 1130).

[0194] In some examples, each of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a first frequency shift away from the respective RF signal of the plurality of RF signals and a second frequency shift away from the respective RF signal. For example, the first frequency shift may include a subband frequency shift of one or more subbands included in the broadband bandwidth, and the second frequency shift may include a subcarrier frequency shift of one or more subcarriers included in each of the plurality of PRGs. For example, as Figure 12 illustrated, the backscattered RF signal received from ER2 may be associated with a first frequency shift of 2gΔf (including the subband frequency shift of one subband) and may be associated with a second frequency shift of 1Δf (including the subcarrier frequency shift of one subcarrier in each PRG). In another example, as Figure 12 illustrated, the backscattered RF signal received from ER4 may be associated with a first frequency shift of 4gΔf (including the subband frequency shift of two subbands) and may be associated with a second frequency shift of 1Δf (including the subcarrier frequency shift of one subcarrier in each PRG).

[0195] At block 1306, process 1300 includes determining control information associated with the broadband bandwidth based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals. In some examples, determining control information associated with the broadband bandwidth may include determining first control information associated with the network entity and the device with EH capabilities based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals, and determining second control information associated with the network entity and the second device with EH capabilities based on the second plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0196] For example, the control information may include channel state information (CSI). In some examples, to determine control information (e.g., CSI) associated with the broadband bandwidth, the network device (or its components) may determine one or more first channel coefficients associated with a first subband of the plurality of subbands based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals. For example, the one or more first channel coefficients may be associated with Figure 9The exemplified channel coefficients H0 associated with the first sub-band (band 0) are the same or similar. In some cases, the network device may determine one or more second channel coefficients associated with a second sub-band among multiple sub-bands based on one or more first channel coefficients. For example, the network device may determine one or more second channel coefficients H1 associated with the second sub-band frequency band 1 based on Figure 9 the exemplified one or more first channel coefficients H0. In some examples, the network entity may determine one or more second channel coefficients associated with the second sub-band by determining one or more second channel coefficients based on the backscattered RF signals received using the second sub-band. The backscattered RF signals received using the second sub-band may include the backscattering of the corresponding RF signals transmitted using the first sub-band.

[0197] In some examples, the network device may determine a specific sub-band among multiple sub-bands based on control information, and may use the specific sub-band to send RF signals for energy harvesting to a device with EH capabilities. For example, the RF signals for energy harvesting may be the same or similar to the RF signals 850 for energy harvesting (e.g., energy signals) exemplified in FIG. 8. In some cases, the RF signals for energy harvesting may be an adaptive multi-sine waveform including one or more sine frequencies, where each of the one or more sine frequencies is associated with a corresponding transmission power level, and each corresponding transmission power level is based on the control information. In some examples, the network device may determine each corresponding transmission power level based on the channel gain information included in the control information. For example, the network device may determine each corresponding transmission power level based on Figure 9 the exemplified channel gain information H0, H1, H2.

[0198] Figure 14 is a flowchart exemplifying an example of process 1400 for wireless communication. Process 1400 may be performed by a device with EH capabilities (e.g., an energy harvesting device) or by a component or system (e.g., a chipset) of a device with EH capabilities. The device with EH capabilities may be an IoT device, a sensor, an RFID tag, 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 types of UEs) or other types of energy harvesting devices. In some cases, the UE may be a device with EH capabilities. The operations of process 1400 may be implemented on one or more processors (e.g., Figure 4software components that are executed and run on a processor 484 as shown in FIG. 16, processor 1610 in FIG. 16, or other processors). Additionally, in process 1400, the sending and receiving of signals by the network device can be implemented, for example, through one or more antennas, one or more transceivers (e.g., wireless transceivers), and / or other communication components (e.g., Figure 2 the sending processor 264, receiving processor 258, TX MIMO processor 266, MIMO detector 256, modulator / demodulator 254a to 254t, and / or antennas 252a to 252t of Figure 4 antenna 487 of Figure 4 wireless transceiver 478 of Figure 15 communication interface 1540 of

[0199] At block 1402, a device with EH capabilities (or its components) can receive multiple radio frequency (RF) signals from a network entity, where each of the multiple RF signals is associated with a corresponding sub - band among multiple sub - bands included in a broadband bandwidth. In some examples, the device with EH capabilities can be a passive or semi - passive device with EH capabilities. A device with EH capabilities can also be referred to as an energy harvesting device, and vice versa. In some cases, the device with EH capabilities can be an active device with EH capabilities. The device with EH capabilities can additionally or alternatively be provided as a passive or semi - passive IoT device. In some examples, the device with EH capabilities can be the same as or similar to the device with EH capabilities implementing Figure 5 the EH - capable device architecture 500 illustrated. In some cases, the device with EH capabilities can be the same as or similar to Figure 8B the energy receiver (ER) 870 illustrated, Figure 9 the ER 970 illustrated, and Figure 12 one or more (or all) of the ER1, ER2, ER3, ER4 illustrated. For example, each energy receiver (ER) can be a device with EH capabilities.

[0200] In some examples, the network entity can be an ET that is the same as or similar to Figure 8B the ET 840 illustrated, Figure 9 the ET 940 illustrated, and / or Figure 12 one or more of the energy transmitters (ETs) illustrated. In some examples, the multiple RF signals can be the same as Figure 8A the RF signal 810 illustrated, Figure 8B the transmitted RF signals 842 to 848 illustrated, Figure 9 the transmitted RF signals 942 to 946 illustrated, and / or Figure 12The exemplified transmitted RF signals B0, B1, and B2 are the same or similar. In some examples, each of the respective subbands included in the wideband bandwidth may be the same or similar to the following: Figure 8A One or more of the exemplified subbands 812 (B0), 814 (B1), and 816 (B2); in Figure 9 One or more of the subbands represented as band 0, band 1, and band 2 in; and / or Figure 12 One or more of the exemplified subbands.

[0201] In some examples, a device with EH capabilities may receive multiple RF signals transmitted using time division multiplexing (TDM), where the multiple RF signals do not overlap in time. In some cases, each of the multiple RF signals may be received using a respective non-overlapping subband included in the wideband bandwidth. In some examples, the multiple subbands include three or more subbands of the wideband bandwidth. In some examples, each of the multiple RF signals may be received using the same subcarrier allocation pattern. For example, Figure 8B The three exemplified received RF signals 842, 844, and 848 may be the same RF signal X (e.g., X0 = X1 = X2 = X).

[0202] In some examples, a device with EH capabilities (or its components) may receive configuration information indicating one or more frequency shifts for the transmission of multiple backscatter RF signals. For example, a device with EH capabilities may receive (e.g., from a network device) configuration information indicating one or more frequency shifts for the transmission of a first plurality of backscatter RF signals. For example, the configuration information may be the same or similar to Figure 8B The exemplified configuration information 841 and / or Figure 12 The exemplified "selection" information.

[0203] At block 1404, a device with EH capabilities (or its components) may send multiple backscatter RF signals to a network entity, where each of the multiple backscatter RF signals is associated with a respective RF signal among the multiple RF signals, and where each backscatter RF signal and each respective RF signal are associated with a respective subband among the multiple subbands included in the wideband bandwidth. In some examples, each backscatter RF signal may be the same or similar to Figure 8B One or more of the exemplified backscatter RF signals 872, 874, and 878, Figure 9 One or more of the exemplified backscatter RF signals 972, 974, and 976, and / or Figure 12 One or more of the exemplified backscatter RF signals.

[0204] In some examples, each respective backscattered RF signal among a plurality of backscattered RF signals includes a frequency-shifted backscattering of an RF signal among the plurality of RF signals. For example, the frequency-shifted backscattering of an RF signal among the plurality of RF signals may be received using an adjacent subband of a subband among a plurality of subbands used for transmitting the RF signal. In some cases, the frequency-shifted backscattering reflection of an RF signal included among the plurality of RF signals may be received using a cyclic shift subband of a subband among the plurality of subbands used for transmitting the RF signal.

[0205] In some examples, to transmit a plurality of backscattered RF signals, a device with EH capabilities may transmit a specific frequency-shifted backscattering of a specific RF signal via an adjacent subband of a specific subband associated with the specific RF signal, where the plurality of subbands includes the specific subband and where the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal. For example, a device with EH capabilities may transmit a specific frequency-shifted backscattering signal 872 of a specific RF signal 842 (e.g., to a network entity) via an adjacent subband 814 of a specific subband 812 associated with the specific RF signal 842, as Figure 8B illustrated. A device with EH capabilities may transmit a specific frequency-shifted backscattering signal 874 of a specific RF signal 844 (e.g., to a network entity) via an adjacent subband 816 of a specific subband 814 associated with the specific RF signal 844, as Figure 8B illustrated.

[0206] In some examples, to transmit a plurality of backscattered RF signals, a device with EH capabilities may transmit a specific frequency-shifted backscattering of a specific RF signal via a cyclic shift subband of a specific subband associated with the specific RF signal, where the plurality of subbands includes the specific subband and where the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal. For example, a device with EH capabilities may transmit a specific frequency-shifted backscattering signal 878 of a specific RF signal 848 via a cyclic shift subband 812 of a specific subband 816 associated with the specific RF signal 848, as Figure 8B illustrated.

[0207] In some examples, each backscattered RF signal among the plurality of backscattered RF signals may be frequency-shifted to a respective subband among the plurality of subbands. For example, the respective backscattered RF signal may be frequency-shifted based on configuration information for one or more frequency shifts applied by a device with EH capabilities. For example, each respective backscattered RF signal transmitted by a device with EH capabilities may be associated with a first frequency shift away from a first respective RF signal associated with each backscattered RF signal. For example, Figure 8B the illustrated backscattered RF signal 872 may be associated with a first frequency shift away from the RF signal 842 associated with the backscattered RF signal 872.

[0208] In some examples, each of the plurality of backscattered RF signals may be associated with a corresponding plurality of subcarriers included in a corresponding subband. Figure 11 1100 as being associated with one or more subcarriers of the plurality of subcarriers included in the subband 1100. In some cases, the plurality of subcarriers include subcarriers included in each of a plurality of physical resource groups (PRGs) included in the corresponding subband. For example, the plurality of PRGs may be associated with Figure 11 1100, 1120, 1130 are identical or similar to the PRGs 1110, 1120, 1130 illustrated as being included in the corresponding subband 1100. In some cases, each of the plurality of PRGs includes the same number of subcarriers, and each subcarrier included in the corresponding plurality of subcarriers may be associated with the same subcarrier position. For example, the plurality of subcarriers may include PRGs (e.g., Figure 11 The first subcarrier (eg, denoted as "s") of each of the illustrated PRGs 1110, 1120, 1130).

[0209] In some examples, each backscattered RF signal in the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a first frequency shift away from a corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals and a second frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal. For example, the first frequency shift may include a subband frequency shift of one or more subbands included in the broadband bandwidth, and the second frequency shift may include a subcarrier frequency shift of one or more subcarriers included in each of the plurality of PRGs. For example, Figure 12 As illustrated, the backscattered RF signal received from ER2 may be associated with a first frequency shift of 2gΔf (including a subband frequency shift of one subband), and may be associated with a second frequency shift of 1Δf (including a subcarrier frequency shift of one subcarrier in each PRG). Figure 12 As illustrated, the backscattered RF signal received from ER4 may be associated with a first frequency shift of 4gΔf (including a subband frequency shift of two subbands) and may be associated with a second frequency shift of 1Δf (including a subcarrier frequency shift of one subcarrier in each PRG).

[0210] In some examples, the processes described herein (e.g., process 1300, process 1400, and / or other processes described herein) may be performed by a computing device or apparatus (e.g., a network node such as a UE, a base station, a part of a base station, etc.). For example, as indicated above, one or more of the processes described herein (e.g., process 1300, process 1400, and / or other processes described herein) may 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 1300, process 1400, and / or other processes described herein) may be performed by an energy harvesting device having an architecture that is the same as or similar to the architecture of the energy harvesting device shown in Figure 5 an energy harvesting device having the EH-capable device architecture shown.

[0211] In some cases, the 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, the 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. One or more network interfaces may be configured to communicate and / or receive wired and / or wireless data, including data according to 3G, 4G, 5G, and / or other cellular standards, data according to the WiFi (802.11x) standard, data according to the Bluetooth TM standard, data according to the Internet Protocol (IP) standard, and / or other types of data.

[0212] The components of the computing device may be implemented in circuitry. For example, the components may include electronic circuits or other electronic hardware and / or may be implemented using electronic circuits or other electronic hardware, which may include one or more programmable electronic circuits (e.g., a microprocessor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a central processing unit (CPU), and / or other suitable electronic circuits), and / or may include computer software, firmware, or any combination thereof for performing the various operations described herein and / or may be implemented using computer software, firmware, or any combination thereof for performing the various operations described herein.

[0213] Processes 1300 and 1400 are illustrated as logic flowcharts, and the operations of these logic flowcharts represent sequences of operations that can be implemented in hardware, computer instructions, or a combination thereof. In the context of computer instructions, the operations represent computer-executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media that, when executed by one or more processors, perform the recited operations. In general, computer-executable instructions include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular functions or implement particular 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 can be combined in any order and / or in parallel to implement the process.

[0214] Additionally, process 1300, process 1400, and / or other processes described herein can be executed under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions and can be implemented as code (e.g., executable instructions, one or more computer programs, or one or more applications) executed jointly on one or more processors, implemented in hardware, or a combination thereof. As indicated above, the code can be stored on a computer-readable or machine-readable storage medium, e.g., in the form of a computer program comprising a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors. The computer-readable or machine-readable storage medium can be non-transitory.

[0215] Figure 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system for implementing certain aspects of the present technology. Specifically, Figure 15 an example of a computing system 1500 is illustrated, which can be any computing device, such as a computing device that constitutes an internal computing system, a remote computing system, a camera, or any component thereof, where the components of the system communicate with each other using connection 1505. Connection 1505 can be a physical connection using a bus or a direct connection into processor 1510, such as in a chipset architecture. Connection 1505 can also be a virtual connection, a networked connection, or a logical connection.

[0216] In some aspects, computing system 1500 is a distributed system, where the functions described in this disclosure can 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 many such components that each perform some or all of the functions the component is described for. In some aspects, the components can be physical or virtual devices.

[0217] Example system 1500 includes at least one processing unit (CPU or processor) 1510 and a connection 1505 that communicatively couples various system components including system memory 1515 (such as read only memory (ROM) 1520 and random access memory (RAM) 1525) to the processor 1510. Computing system 1500 may include a cache 1515 of high-speed memory that is directly connected to, in close proximity to, or integrated as part of the processor 1510.

[0218] Processor 1510 may include any general-purpose processor and hardware services or software services such as services 1532, 1534, and 1536 stored in storage device 1530 that are configured to control processor 1510 and special-purpose processors in which software instructions are incorporated into the actual processor design. Processor 1510 can be substantially a complete stand-alone computing system that contains multiple cores or processors, buses, memory controllers, caches, etc. Multicore processors can be symmetric or asymmetric.

[0219] To enable user interaction, computing system 1500 includes an input device 1545 that can 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 1500 may also include an output device 1535 that can be one or more of a number of output mechanisms. In some instances, a multimodal system may enable a user to provide multiple types of input / output to communicate with computing system 1500.

[0220] Computing system 1500 may include a communication interface 1540 that generally can govern and manage user input and system output. The communication interface may execute or facilitate receiving and / or sending wired or wireless communications using a wired and / or wireless transceiver, including using an audio jack / plug, a microphone jack / plug, a universal serial bus (USB) port / plug, Apple TM Lightning TM port / plug, an Ethernet port / plug, a fiber optic port / plug, a proprietary wired port / plug, 3G, 4G, 5G, and / or other cellular data network wireless signaling, Bluetooth TM wireless signaling, Bluetooth TM low energy (BLE) wireless signaling, iBeacon TMThose communications of wireless signal transmission, radio frequency identification (RFID) wireless signal transmission, near field communication (NFC) wireless signal transmission, dedicated short range communication (DSRC) wireless signal transmission, 802.11 Wi-Fi wireless signal transmission, wireless local area network (WLAN) signal transmission, visible light communication (VLC), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), infrared (IR) communication wireless signal transmission, public switched telephone network (PSTN) signal transmission, integrated services digital network (ISDN) signal transmission, ad hoc network signal transmission, radio wave signal transmission, microwave signal transmission, infrared signal transmission, visible light signal transmission, ultraviolet light signal transmission, wireless signal transmission along the electromagnetic spectrum, or some combination thereof. The communication interface 1540 may also include one or more global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers or transceivers for determining the location of the computing system 1500 based on one or more signals received 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 are no restrictions on operating on any particular hardware arrangement, and thus the underlying features here can be easily replaced to obtain improved hardware or firmware arrangements as they are developed.

[0221] The storage device 1530 can be a non-volatile and / or non-transitory and / or computer-readable memory device and can be a hard disk or other type of computer-readable medium that can store data accessible by a computer, such as cassette tapes, flash memory cards, solid state memory devices, digital versatile discs, cartridges, floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tapes, magnetic strips / magnetic stripes, any other magnetic storage medium, flash memory, memristor memory, any other solid state memory, compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) optical discs, rewritable compact discs (CD) optical discs, digital video disc (DVD) optical discs, Blu-ray disc (BDD) optical discs, holographic optical discs, another optical medium, secure digital (SD) cards, micro secure digital (microSD) cards, Memory Cards, smart card chips, EMV chips, subscriber identity module (SIM) cards, mini / micro / nano / pico SIM cards, other integrated circuit (IC) chips / cards, random access memory (RAM), static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash EPROM (FLASHEPROM), cache memory (e.g., level 1 (L1) cache, level 2 (L2) cache, level 3 (L3) cache, level 4 (L4) cache, level 5 (L5) cache, other (L#) cache), resistive random access memory (RRAM / ReRAM), phase change memory (PCM), spin transfer torque RAM (STT-RAM), other memory chips or cartridges and / or combinations thereof.

[0222] The storage device 1530 may include software services, servers, services, etc., and when the code defining such software is executed by the processor 1510, the code causes the system to perform functions. In some aspects, the hardware services that perform specific functions may include software components stored in a computer-readable medium that is connected to the necessary hardware components (such as the processor 1510, connection 1505, output device 1535, etc.) to perform the 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 that can store, contain, or carry instructions and / or data. The computer-readable medium may include non-transitory media in which data can be stored and does not include carrier waves and / or transient electronic signals propagated wirelessly or through a wired connection. Examples of non-transitory media may include, but are not limited to, magnetic disks or tapes, optical storage media (such as compact discs (CDs) or digital versatile discs (DVDs)), flash memory, memory, or memory devices. The computer-readable medium may have code and / or machine-executable instructions stored thereon, and the code and / or machine-executable instructions may represent a process, function, subroutine, program, routine, subroutine, module, software package, class, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. By passing and / or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents, a code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or sent via any suitable means, including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

[0223] In the foregoing description, specific details are provided to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects and examples provided herein, but those skilled in the art will recognize that this application is not limited thereto. Thus, although the exemplary aspects of this application have been described in detail herein, it is to be understood that the various inventive concepts can be implemented and employed in other various ways, and the appended claims are not to be construed as including such variations, unless limited by the prior art. The various features and aspects of the applications described above can be used singly or in combination. Additionally, without departing from the broader scope of the specification, the aspects can be utilized in any number of environments and applications beyond those described herein. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. For purposes of illustration, the methods are described in a particular order. It should be appreciated that in alternative aspects, the methods can be performed in a different order than that described.

[0224] For clarity of explanation, in some instances, the present technology can be presented as including separate functional blocks that include devices, device components, steps, or routines in a method embodied in software or a combination of hardware and software. Additional components other than those shown in the drawings and / or described herein can be used. For example, circuits, systems, networks, processes, and other components can be shown as components in block diagram form to avoid obscuring these aspects in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques can be shown without unnecessary detail to avoid obscuring the aspects.

[0225] Furthermore, those skilled in the art will understand that the various exemplary logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, the various exemplary components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system. The skilled person can implement the described functionality in a different manner for each particular application, but such specific implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0226] The various aspects may be described above as a process or method, which is depicted as a flowchart, a process diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe operations as a sequential process, many of the operations in the operations may be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be rearranged. When the operations of a process are completed, the process is terminated, but the process may have additional steps not included in the 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 the calling function or the main function.

[0227] The processes and methods according to the examples described above may be implemented using computer-executable instructions stored or otherwise available from a computer-readable medium. Such instructions may include, for example, instructions and data that cause or otherwise configure a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or a processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Part of the computer resources used may be accessed through a network. The computer-executable instructions may be, for example, binary, intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, firmware, source code. Examples of computer-readable media that may be used to store instructions, the information used, and / or the information created during the methods according to the described examples include magnetic disks or optical disks, flash memories, USB devices with non-volatile memories, networked storage devices, etc.

[0228] In some aspects, computer-readable storage devices, media, and memories may include cables or wireless signals containing bitstreams, etc. However, when mentioned, non-transitory computer-readable storage media specifically exclude media such as power consumption, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals themselves.

[0229] Those skilled in the art should understand that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and methods. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be mentioned throughout the above description may in some cases be represented, in part, depending on the specific application, in part, depending on the desired design, in part, depending on the corresponding technology, etc., by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, optical fields or optical particles, or any combination thereof.

[0230] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed using hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or any combination thereof, and may be in any of a variety of form factors. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware, or microcode, the program code or code segments for performing the necessary tasks (e.g., a computer program product) may be stored in a computer-readable or machine-readable medium. The processor may execute the necessary tasks. Examples of form factors include: laptop devices, smart phones, 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 plug-in cards. By further example, such functions may also be implemented on a circuit board among different chips or different processes executed on a single device.

[0231] Instructions, the medium for conveying such instructions, the computing resources for executing them, and other structures for supporting such computing resources are example components for providing the functions described in this disclosure.

[0232] The techniques described herein may also be implemented in electronic hardware, computer software, firmware, or any combination thereof. Such techniques may be implemented in any of a variety of devices, such as general-purpose computers, wireless communication device handsets, or integrated circuit devices with multiple uses, including applications in wireless communication device handsets and other devices. Any features described as modules or components may be implemented together in an integrated logic device or separately as discrete but interoperable logic devices. If implemented in software, the techniques may be at least partially realized by a computer-readable data storage medium including program code that includes instructions for performing one or more of the methods, algorithms, and / or operations described above 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 random access memory (RAM) (such as synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM)), read-only memory (ROM), non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, magnetic or optical data storage media, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the techniques may be at least partially realized by a computer-readable communication medium that carries or conveys 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.

[0233] The program code can be executed by a processor, which can include one or more processors, such as one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), general-purpose microprocessors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuits. Such a processor can be configured to perform any of the techniques described in this disclosure. A general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor; but in an alternative, the processor can be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor can 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 in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration. Thus, the term "processor" as used herein can refer to any of the foregoing structures, any combination of the foregoing structures, or any other structure or apparatus suitable for implementing the techniques described herein.

[0234] Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the less than ("<") and greater than (">") symbols or terms used herein can be replaced, respectively, with the less than or equal to ("≤") and greater than or equal to ("≥") symbols without departing from the scope of this description.

[0235] In cases where a component is described as "configured to" perform certain operations, such configuration can be implemented, for example, by designing electronic circuitry or other hardware to perform the operations, by programming a programmable electronic circuit (e.g., a microprocessor or other suitable electronic circuit) to perform the operations, or any combination thereof.

[0236] The phrase "coupled to" or "communicatively coupled to" refers to any component being physically connected to another component directly or indirectly, and / or any component being in communication with another component directly or indirectly (e.g., connected to that other component via a wired or wireless connection and / or other suitable communication interface).

[0237] Claim language that recites "at least one" of a set and / or "one or more" of a set, or other language, indicates that one member of the set or multiple members of the set (in any combination) satisfy the claim. For example, claim language that recites "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 that recites "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 that 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 that recites "at least one of A and B" or "at least one of A or B" can mean A, B, or A and B, and can additionally include items not listed in the set of A and B.

[0238] Exemplary aspects of the present disclosure include:

[0239] Aspect 1. A network entity for wireless communication, the network entity comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being coupled to the at least one memory and configured to: transmit a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals, wherein each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a respective sub-band of a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; receive a first plurality of backscattered RF signals from a device having energy harvesting (EH) capabilities, wherein each backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a respective RF signal of the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal and each respective RF signal are associated with a respective sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth; and determine control information associated with the broadband bandwidth based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0240] Aspect 2. The network entity according to clause 1, wherein the control information includes channel state information (CSI).

[0241] Aspect 3. The network entity according to any one of clauses 1 or 2, wherein, to determine the control information associated with the broadband bandwidth, the at least one processor is configured to: determine one or more first channel coefficients associated with a first sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals; and determine one or more second channel coefficients associated with a second sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands based on the one or more first channel coefficients.

[0242] Aspect 4. The network entity according to clause 3, wherein, in order to determine the one or more second channel coefficients associated with the second sub-band, the at least one processor is configured to: determine the one or more second channel coefficients based on the backscattered RF signal received using the second sub-band.

[0243] Aspect 5. The network entity according to clause 4, wherein the backscattered RF signal received using the second sub-band includes the backscattering of the corresponding RF signal transmitted using the first sub-band.

[0244] Aspect 6. The network entity according to any one of clauses 1 to 5, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: determine a specific sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands based on the control information; and use the specific sub-band to transmit an RF signal for energy harvesting to the device with EH capabilities.

[0245] Aspect 7. The network entity according to clause 6, wherein the RF signal for energy harvesting is an adaptive multi-sine waveform including one or more sine frequencies, wherein each of the one or more sine frequencies is associated with a corresponding transmission power level, and wherein each corresponding transmission power level is based on the control information.

[0246] Aspect 8. The network entity according to clause 7, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine each corresponding transmission power level based on the channel gain information included in the control information.

[0247] Aspect 9. The network entity according to any one of clauses 1 to 8, wherein each corresponding backscattered RF signal in the first plurality of backscattered RF signals includes the corresponding frequency-shifted backscattering of the RF signal in the plurality of RF signals.

[0248] Aspect 10. The network entity according to clause 9, wherein, in order to receive the first plurality of backscattered RF signals, the at least one processor is configured to receive the specific frequency-shifted backscattering of the specific RF signal via an adjacent sub-band of the specific sub-band associated with the specific RF signal, wherein the plurality of sub-bands includes the specific sub-band, and wherein the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal.

[0249] Aspect 11. The network entity according to clause 9, wherein, in order to receive the first plurality of backscattered RF signals, the at least one processor is configured to receive the specific frequency-shifted backscattering of the specific RF signal via a cyclic shift sub-band of the specific sub-band associated with the specific RF signal, wherein the plurality of sub-bands includes the specific sub-band, and wherein the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal.

[0250] Aspect 12. The network entity according to any one of clauses 1 to 11, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: send configuration information to the device with EH capability, the configuration information indicating one or more frequency shifts for the transmission of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0251] Aspect 13. The network entity according to any one of clauses 1 to 12, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive a second plurality of backscattered RF signals from a second device with EH capability, wherein each backscattered RF signal in the second plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal in the second plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a subband in the plurality of subbands that is different from the subband associated with each backscattered RF signal in the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0252] Aspect 14. The network entity according to clause 13, wherein, in order to determine the control information associated with the broadband bandwidth, the at least one processor is configured to: determine first control information associated with the network entity and the device with EH capability based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals; and determine second control information associated with the network entity and the second device with EH capability based on the second plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0253] Aspect 15. The network entity according to any one of clauses 13 or 14, wherein: each backscattered RF signal in the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a first frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals; and each backscattered RF signal in the second plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a second frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals, the second frequency shift being different from the first frequency shift.

[0254] Aspect 16. The network entity according to any one of clauses 13 to 15, wherein the plurality of devices with EH capability includes the device with EH capability and the second device with EH capability, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to: send configuration information to the plurality of devices with EH capability, the configuration information indicating one or more corresponding frequency shifts to be applied by each respective device with EH capability in the plurality of devices with EH capability.

[0255] Aspect 17. The network entity according to any one of clauses 1 to 16, wherein, in order to transmit the plurality of RF signals, the at least one processor is configured to: transmit the plurality of RF signals using time-division multiplexing (TDM), wherein the plurality of RF signals do not overlap in time.

[0256] Aspect 18. The network entity according to any one of clauses 1 to 17, wherein, in order to transmit the plurality of RF signals, the at least one processor is configured to: transmit each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals using a respective non-overlapping sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth.

[0257] Aspect 19. The network entity according to any one of clauses 1 to 18, wherein the plurality of sub-bands include three or more sub-bands of the broadband bandwidth.

[0258] Aspect 20. The network entity according to any one of clauses 1 to 19, wherein each backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a respective plurality of sub-carriers included in the respective sub-band.

[0259] Aspect 21. The network entity according to clause 20, wherein the respective plurality of sub-carriers include sub-carriers included in each physical resource group (PRG) among the plurality of physical resource groups included in the respective sub-band.

[0260] Aspect 22. The network entity according to clause 21, wherein: each PRG of the plurality of PRGs includes the same number of sub-carriers; and each sub-carrier included in the respective plurality of sub-carriers is associated with the same sub-carrier position.

[0261] Aspect 23. The network entity according to any one of clauses 21 or 22, wherein each backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a first frequency shift away from the respective RF signal of the plurality of RF signals and a second frequency shift away from the respective RF signal.

[0262] Aspect 24. The network entity according to clause 23, wherein: the first frequency shift includes a sub-band frequency shift of one or more sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth; and the second frequency shift includes a sub-carrier frequency shift of one or more sub-carriers included in each PRG of the plurality of PRGs.

[0263] Aspect 25. A device with energy harvesting (EH) capabilities for wireless communication, the device with energy harvesting (EH) capabilities 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 plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals from a network entity, wherein each of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a corresponding subband among a plurality of subbands included in a broadband bandwidth; and transmit a plurality of backscattered RF signals to the network entity, wherein each of the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of RF signals, wherein each backscattered RF signal and each corresponding RF signal are associated with a corresponding subband among the plurality of subbands included in the broadband bandwidth.

[0264] Aspect 26. The device with EH capabilities according to clause 25, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: use a specific subband among the plurality of subbands to receive an RF signal for energy harvesting from the network entity, wherein the specific subband is associated with control information associated with the broadband bandwidth.

[0265] Aspect 27. The device with EH capabilities according to clause 26, wherein the control information includes channel state information (CSI).

[0266] Aspect 28. The device with EH capabilities according to any one of clauses 26 or 27, wherein the RF signal is an adaptive multi-sine waveform including one or more sine frequencies, wherein each sine frequency included in the one or more sine frequencies is associated with a corresponding transmit power level determined based on the control information.

[0267] Aspect 29. The device with EH capabilities according to any one of clauses 25 to 28, wherein each corresponding backscattered RF signal among the plurality of backscattered RF signals includes a corresponding frequency-shifted backscattering of an RF signal among the plurality of RF signals.

[0268] Aspect 30. The device with EH capabilities according to clause 29, wherein a specific frequency-shifted backscattering of a specific RF signal is received using an adjacent subband of the specific subband associated with the specific RF signal, wherein the plurality of subbands includes the specific subband, and wherein the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal.

[0269] Aspect 31. The device with EH capability according to clause 29, wherein the specific frequency shift backscattering of a specific RF signal is received using a cyclic shift sub - band of a specific sub - band associated with the specific RF signal, wherein the plurality of sub - bands includes the specific sub - band, and wherein the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal.

[0270] Aspect 32. The device with EH capability according to any one of clauses 25 to 31, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive configuration information from the network entity, the configuration information indicating one or more frequency shifts for the transmission of the plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0271] Aspect 33. The device with EH capability according to any one of clauses 25 to 32, wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive each RF signal included in the plurality of RF signals on corresponding non - overlapping sub - bands among the plurality of sub - bands included in the broadband bandwidth.

[0272] Aspect 34. The device with EH capability according to any one of clauses 25 to 33, wherein the plurality of sub - bands includes three or more sub - bands of the broadband bandwidth.

[0273] Aspect 35. The device with EH capability according to any one of clauses 25 to 34, wherein each backscattered RF signal among the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding plurality of sub - carriers included in the corresponding sub - band.

[0274] Aspect 36. The device with EH capability according to clause 35, wherein the corresponding plurality of sub - carriers includes sub - carriers included in each physical resource group (PRG) among the plurality of PRGs included in the corresponding sub - band.

[0275] Aspect 37. The device with EH capability according to clause 36, wherein: each PRG among the plurality of PRGs includes the same number of sub - carriers; and each sub - carrier included in the corresponding plurality of sub - carriers is associated with the same sub - carrier position.

[0276] Aspect 38. The device with EH capability according to any one of clauses 36 or 37, wherein each backscattered RF signal among the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a first frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal among the plurality of RF signals and a second frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal.

[0277] Aspect 39. The device with EH capability according to clause 38, wherein: the first frequency shift includes a sub-band frequency shift of one or more sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth; and the second frequency shift includes a sub-carrier frequency shift of one or more sub-carriers included in each PRG of the plurality of PRGs.

[0278] Aspect 40. A method for wireless communication performed by a network entity, the method comprising: transmitting a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals, wherein each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a respective sub-band of a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; receiving a first plurality of backscattered RF signals from a device with energy harvesting (EH) capability, wherein each backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a respective RF signal of the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal and each respective RF signal are associated with a respective sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth; and determining control information associated with the broadband bandwidth based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0279] Aspect 41. The method according to clause 40, wherein the control information includes channel state information (CSI).

[0280] Aspect 42. The method according to any one of clauses 40 or 41, wherein determining the control information associated with the broadband bandwidth includes: determining one or more first channel coefficients associated with a first sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals; and determining one or more second channel coefficients associated with a second sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands based on the one or more first channel coefficients.

[0281] Aspect 43. The method according to clause 42, wherein determining the one or more second channel coefficients associated with the second sub-band includes: determining the one or more second channel coefficients based on backscattered RF signals received using the second sub-band.

[0282] Aspect 44. The method according to clause 43, wherein the backscattered RF signals received using the second sub-band include backscattering of a corresponding RF signal transmitted using the first sub-band.

[0283] Aspect 45. The method according to any one of clauses 40 to 44, the method further comprising: determining a specific sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands based on the control information; and using the specific sub-band to transmit an RF signal for energy harvesting to the device with EH capability.

[0284] Aspect 46. The method according to clause 45, wherein the RF signal for energy harvesting is an adaptive multi-sine waveform including one or more sine frequencies, wherein each of the one or more sine frequencies is associated with a corresponding transmit power level, and wherein each corresponding transmit power level is based on the control information.

[0285] Aspect 47. The method according to clause 46, the method further comprising determining each corresponding transmit power level based on channel gain information included in the control information.

[0286] Aspect 48. The method according to any one of clauses 40 to 47, wherein each corresponding backscattered RF signal in the first plurality of backscattered RF signals includes a corresponding frequency-shifted backscattering of an RF signal in the plurality of RF signals.

[0287] Aspect 49. The method according to clause 48, wherein receiving the first plurality of backscattered RF signals includes receiving a specific frequency-shifted backscattering of the specific RF signal via adjacent sub-bands of a specific sub-band associated with the specific RF signal, wherein the plurality of sub-bands includes the specific sub-band, and wherein the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal.

[0288] Aspect 50. The method according to clause 48, wherein receiving the first plurality of backscattered RF signals includes receiving a specific frequency-shifted backscattering of the specific RF signal via a cyclic-shifted sub-band of a specific sub-band associated with the specific RF signal, wherein the plurality of sub-bands includes the specific sub-band, and wherein the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal.

[0289] Aspect 51. The method according to any one of clauses 40 to 50, the method further comprising: sending configuration information to the device with EH capability, the configuration information indicating one or more frequency shifts for transmission of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0290] Aspect 52. The method according to any one of clauses 40 to 51, the method further comprising: receiving a second plurality of backscattered RF signals from a second device with EH capability, wherein each backscattered RF signal in the second plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal in the second plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a sub-band in the plurality of sub-bands that is different from the sub-band of each backscattered RF signal in the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0291] Aspect 53. The method according to clause 52, wherein determining the control information associated with the broadband bandwidth includes: determining first control information associated with the network entity and the device with EH capabilities based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals; and determining second control information associated with the network entity and the second device with EH capabilities based on the second plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0292] Aspect 54. The method according to any one of clauses 52 or 53, wherein: each backscattered RF signal in the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a first frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals; and each backscattered RF signal in the second plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a second frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals, the second frequency shift being different from the first frequency shift.

[0293] Aspect 55. The method according to any one of clauses 52 to 54, wherein the plurality of devices with EH capabilities includes the device with EH capabilities and the second device with EH capabilities, and the method further includes: sending configuration information to the plurality of devices with EH capabilities, the configuration information indicating one or more corresponding frequency shifts to be applied by each respective device with EH capabilities in the plurality of devices with EH capabilities.

[0294] Aspect 56. The method according to any one of clauses 40 to 55, wherein sending the plurality of RF signals includes: using time-division multiplexing (TDM) to send the plurality of RF signals, wherein the plurality of RF signals do not overlap in time.

[0295] Aspect 57. The method according to any one of clauses 40 to 56, wherein sending the plurality of RF signals includes: using respective non-overlapping subbands included in the broadband bandwidth to send each RF signal in the plurality of RF signals.

[0296] Aspect 58. The method according to any one of clauses 40 to 57, wherein the plurality of subbands includes three or more subbands of the broadband bandwidth.

[0297] Aspect 59. The method according to any one of clauses 40 to 58, wherein each backscattered RF signal in the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding plurality of subcarriers included in the corresponding subband.

[0298] Aspect 60. The method according to clause 59, wherein the corresponding plurality of subcarriers includes subcarriers included in each physical resource group (PRG) included in the corresponding subband.

[0299] Aspect 61. The method according to clause 60, wherein: each of the plurality of PRGs includes the same number of subcarriers; and each subcarrier included in the corresponding plurality of subcarriers is associated with the same subcarrier position.

[0300] Aspect 62. The method according to any one of clauses 60 or 61, wherein each of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a first frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal among the plurality of RF signals and a second frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal.

[0301] Aspect 63. The method according to clause 62, wherein: the first frequency shift includes a subband frequency shift of one or more subbands included in the broadband bandwidth; and the second frequency shift includes a subcarrier frequency shift of one or more subcarriers included in each of the plurality of PRGs.

[0302] Aspect 64. A method of wireless communication performed by a device having energy harvesting (EH) capabilities, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals from a network entity, wherein each of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a corresponding subband among a plurality of subbands included in a broadband bandwidth; and transmitting a plurality of backscattered RF signals to the network entity, wherein each of the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with the corresponding RF signal among the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal and each corresponding RF signal are associated with the corresponding subband among the plurality of subbands included in the broadband bandwidth.

[0303] Aspect 65. The method according to clause 64, the method further comprising: using a specific subband among the plurality of subbands to receive an RF signal for energy harvesting from the network entity, wherein the specific subband is associated with control information associated with the broadband bandwidth.

[0304] Aspect 66. The method according to clause 65, wherein the control information includes channel state information (CSI).

[0305] Aspect 67. The method according to any one of clauses 65 or 66, wherein the RF signal is an adaptive multi-sine waveform including one or more sine frequencies, and each sine frequency included in the one or more sine frequencies is associated with a corresponding transmission power level determined based on the control information.

[0306] Aspect 68. The method according to any one of clauses 64 to 67, wherein each corresponding backscattered RF signal among the plurality of backscattered RF signals includes a corresponding frequency shift backscattering of the RF signal among the plurality of RF signals.

[0307] Aspect 69. The method according to clause 68, wherein specific frequency shift backscattering of a specific RF signal is received using an adjacent sub-band of a specific sub-band associated with the specific RF signal, wherein the plurality of sub-bands includes the specific sub-band, and wherein the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal.

[0308] Aspect 70. The method according to clause 68, wherein specific frequency shift backscattering of a specific RF signal is received using a cyclic shift sub-band of a specific sub-band associated with the specific RF signal, wherein the plurality of sub-bands includes the specific sub-band, and wherein the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal.

[0309] Aspect 71. The method according to any one of clauses 64 to 70, the method further comprising: receiving configuration information from the network entity, the configuration information indicating one or more frequency shifts for transmission of the plurality of backscattered RF signals.

[0310] Aspect 72. The method according to any one of clauses 64 to 71, the method further comprising receiving each RF signal included in the plurality of RF signals on respective non-overlapping sub-bands included in the wideband bandwidth.

[0311] Aspect 73. The method according to any one of clauses 64 to 72, wherein the plurality of sub-bands includes three or more sub-bands of the wideband bandwidth.

[0312] Aspect 74. The method according to any one of clauses 64 to 73, wherein each backscattered RF signal among the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a respective plurality of sub-carriers included in the respective sub-band.

[0313] Aspect 75. The method according to clause 74, wherein the respective plurality of sub-carriers includes sub-carriers included in each physical resource group (PRG) among the plurality of PRGs included in the respective sub-band.

[0314] Aspect 76. The method according to clause 75, wherein: each PRG among the plurality of PRGs includes the same number of sub-carriers; and each sub-carrier included in the respective plurality of sub-carriers is associated with the same sub-carrier position.

[0315] Aspect 77. The method according to any one of clauses 75 or 76, wherein each backscattered RF signal among the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a first frequency shift away from a respective RF signal among the plurality of RF signals and a second frequency shift away from the respective RF signal.

[0316] Aspect 78. The method according to clause 77, wherein: the first frequency shift includes a sub-band frequency shift of one or more sub-bands included in the wideband bandwidth; and the second frequency shift includes a sub-carrier frequency shift of one or more sub-carriers included in each of the plurality of PRGs.

[0317] Aspect 79. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the operations according to any one of aspects 40 to 63.

[0318] Aspect 80. An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus including one or more components for performing the operations according to any one of aspects 40 to 63.

[0319] Aspect 81. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the operations according to any one of aspects 64 to 78.

[0320] Aspect 82. An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus including one or more components for performing the operations according to any one of aspects 64 to 78.

Claims

1. A network entity for wireless communication, the network entity comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory, the at least one processor being configured to: transmit a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals, wherein each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a corresponding sub-band among a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; receive a first plurality of backscattered RF signals from a device having energy harvesting (EH) capabilities, wherein each backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal and each corresponding RF signal are associated with a corresponding sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth; and determine control information associated with the broadband bandwidth based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

2. The network entity according to claim 1, wherein the control information includes channel state information (CSI).

3. The network entity according to claim 1, wherein To determine the control information associated with the broadband bandwidth, the at least one processor is configured to: determine one or more first channel coefficients associated with a first sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals; and determine one or more second channel coefficients associated with a second sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands based on the one or more first channel coefficients.

4. The network entity according to claim 3, wherein, To determine the one or more second channel coefficients associated with the second sub-band, the at least one processor is configured to: determine the one or more second channel coefficients based on the backscattered RF signals received using the second sub-band.

5. The network entity according to claim 4, wherein the backscattered RF signals received using the second sub-band include backscattering of the corresponding RF signals transmitted using the first sub-band.

6. The network entity according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: determine a specific sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands based on the control information; and use the specific sub-band to transmit an RF signal for energy harvesting to the device having EH capabilities.

7. The network entity according to claim 6, wherein the RF signal for energy harvesting is an adaptive multi-sine waveform including one or more sine frequencies, wherein each of the one or more sine frequencies is associated with a corresponding transmit power level, and wherein each corresponding transmit power level is based on the control information.

8. The network entity according to claim 7, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine each corresponding transmit power level based on channel gain information included in the control information.

9. The network entity according to claim 1, wherein each corresponding backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals includes corresponding frequency-shifted backscattering of an RF signal among the plurality of RF signals.

10. The network entity according to claim 9, wherein, To receive the first plurality of backscattered RF signals, the at least one processor is configured to receive a specific frequency-shifted backscattering of the specific RF signal via an adjacent sub-band of a specific sub-band associated with the specific RF signal, wherein the plurality of sub-bands includes the specific sub-band, and wherein the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal.

11. The network entity according to claim 9, wherein, To receive the first plurality of backscattered RF signals, the at least one processor is configured to receive a specific frequency-shifted backscattering of the specific RF signal via a cyclic shift sub-band of a specific sub-band associated with the specific RF signal, wherein the plurality of sub-bands includes the specific sub-band, and wherein the plurality of RF signals includes the specific RF signal.

12. The network entity according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Send configuration information to the device with EH capability, the configuration information indicating one or more frequency shifts for the transmission of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

13. The network entity according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Receive a second plurality of backscattered RF signals from a second device with EH capability, wherein each backscattered RF signal in the second plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal in the second plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a sub-band in the plurality of sub-bands that is different from the sub-band of each backscattered RF signal in the first plurality of backscattered RF signals.

14. The network entity according to claim 13, wherein, To determine the control information associated with the broadband bandwidth, the at least one processor is configured to: Determine first control information associated with the network entity and the device with EH capability based on the first plurality of backscattered RF signals; And Determine second control information associated with the network entity and the second device with EH capability based on the second plurality of backscattered RF signals.

15. The network entity according to claim 13, wherein: Each backscattered RF signal in the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a first frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals; and Each backscattered RF signal in the second plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a second frequency shift away from the corresponding RF signal in the plurality of RF signals, the second frequency shift being different from the first frequency shift.

16. The network entity according to claim 13, wherein the plurality of devices with EH capability includes the device with EH capability and the second device with EH capability, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to: Send configuration information to the plurality of devices with EH capability, the configuration information indicating one or more corresponding frequency shifts to be applied by each respective device with EH capability in the plurality of devices with EH capability.

17. The network entity according to claim 1, wherein, To transmit the plurality of RF signals, the at least one processor is configured to: Time-division multiplexing (TDM) is used to transmit the plurality of RF signals, where the plurality of RF signals do not overlap in time.

18. The network entity according to claim 1, wherein, To transmit the plurality of RF signals, the at least one processor is configured to: Transmit each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals using a respective non-overlapping sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth.

19. The network entity according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of sub-bands includes three or more sub-bands of the broadband bandwidth.

20. The network entity according to claim 1, wherein each backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a respective plurality of sub-carriers included in the respective sub-band.

21. The network entity according to claim 20, wherein the respective plurality of sub-carriers includes sub-carriers included in each physical resource group (PRG) of the plurality of physical resource groups included in the respective sub-band.

22. The network entity according to claim 21, wherein: Each PRG of the plurality of PRGs includes the same number of sub-carriers; and Each sub-carrier included in the respective plurality of sub-carriers is associated with the same sub-carrier position.

23. The network entity according to claim 21, wherein each backscattered RF signal of the first plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a first frequency shift away from the respective RF signal of the plurality of RF signals and a second frequency shift away from the respective RF signal.

24. The network entity according to claim 23, wherein: The first frequency shift includes a sub-band frequency shift of one or more sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth; and The second frequency shift includes a sub-carrier frequency shift of one or more sub-carriers included in each PRG of the plurality of PRGs.

25. A device with energy harvesting (EH) capabilities for wireless communication, the device with energy harvesting (EH) capabilities comprising: At least one memory; And At least one processor, the at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory, the at least one processor being configured to: Receive a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals from a network entity, where each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a respective sub-band of a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; And Transmit a plurality of backscattered RF signals to the network entity, where each backscattered RF signal of the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with the respective RF signal of the plurality of RF signals, where each backscattered RF signal and each respective RF signal are associated with a respective sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth.

26. The EH-capable device according to claim 25, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Use a specific sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands to receive an RF signal for energy harvesting from the network entity, where the specific sub-band is associated with control information associated with the broadband bandwidth.

27. The EH-capable device according to claim 26, wherein the control information includes channel state information (CSI).

28. The device with EH capability according to claim 25, wherein each respective backscattered RF signal of the plurality of backscattered RF signals comprises a respective frequency-shifted backscattering of an RF signal of the plurality of RF signals.

29. A method for wireless communication performed by a network entity, the method comprising: Transmitting a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals, wherein each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a respective sub-band among a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; Receiving a plurality of backscattered RF signals from a device with energy harvesting (EH) capability, wherein each backscattered RF signal of the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a respective RF signal of the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal and each respective RF signal are associated with a respective sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth; and Determining control information associated with the broadband bandwidth based on the plurality of backscattered RF signals.

30. A method for wireless communication performed by a device with energy harvesting (EH) capability, the method comprising: Receiving a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals from a network entity, wherein each RF signal of the plurality of RF signals is associated with a respective sub-band among a plurality of sub-bands included in a broadband bandwidth; And Transmitting a plurality of backscattered RF signals to the network entity, wherein each backscattered RF signal of the plurality of backscattered RF signals is associated with a respective RF signal of the plurality of RF signals, and wherein each backscattered RF signal and each respective RF signal are associated with a respective sub-band among the plurality of sub-bands included in the broadband bandwidth.

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