Methods, architectures, apparatuses, and systems for dedicated energy harvesting

Abstract

A process, method, architecture, apparatus, system, apparatus, and computer program product for dedicated energy harvesting (DEH). A wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU) discovers a first base station of a cell, discovers at least one second base station in the cell, and transmits information indicating a selection of one of the at least one discovered second base station to the first base station.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 440,168, filed January 20, 2023, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0002] The present disclosure relates generally to the fields of communications, software, and coding, including, for example, methods, architectures, devices, and systems related to dedicated energy harvesting (DEH). Summary of the Invention

[0003] In a first aspect, the present principles relate to a method at a wireless transmit / receive unit WTRU, comprising: receiving information indicating at least one second base station configured for dedicated energy transfer from a first base station in a cell; transmitting information indicating a request for energy transfer to the selected second base station; and performing dedicated energy collection from an energy transfer signal received from the second base station.

[0004] In a second aspect, the present principles relate to a wireless transmit / receive unit WTRU comprising a memory coupled to at least one processor, the at least one processor being configured to: receive information indicating at least one second base station configured for dedicated energy transfer from a first base station in a cell; transmit information indicating a request for energy transfer to the selected second base station; and perform dedicated energy collection from an energy transfer signal received from the second base station.

[0005] In a third aspect, the present principles relate to a method at a wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU) comprising: receiving information indicative of a configuration for energy harvesting from a base station; and using the configuration to harvest energy from a signal transmitted by the base station.

[0006] In a fourth aspect, the present principles relate to a wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU) comprising a memory coupled to at least one processor, the at least one processor being configured to: receive information indicating a configuration for energy collection from a base station; and use the configuration to collect energy from a signal transmitted by the base station.

[0007] In a fifth aspect, the present principles relate to a method at a first base station, comprising: receiving information indicating energy collection capabilities of an energy collection device from an energy collection device; transmitting information indicating a configuration to be used to collect energy from a dedicated signal transmitted by the first base station to the energy collection device; and transmitting the dedicated signal.

[0008] In a sixth aspect, the present principles relate to a first base station comprising a memory coupled to at least one processor, the at least one processor being configured to: receive information indicating energy collection capabilities of an energy collection device from an energy collection device; transmit to the energy collection device information indicating a configuration to be used to collect energy from a dedicated signal transmitted by the first base station; and transmit the dedicated signal.

[0009] In a seventh aspect, the present principles relate to a method at a first base station, comprising: receiving information indicating available transmission resources for the first base station from a second base station located in a cell in which the first base station is located; transmitting information based on the available transmission resources and indicating future transmissions of a signal to be used for energy collection to an energy collection device located in the cell; and transmitting a signal to be used for energy collection to the energy collection device.

[0010] In an eighth aspect, the present principles relate to a first base station comprising a memory coupled to at least one processor, the at least one processor being configured to: receive information indicating available transmission resources for the first base station from a second base station located in a cell in which the first base station is located; transmit information indicating future transmissions of a signal to be used for energy collection based on the available transmission resources to an energy collection device located in the cell; and transmit a signal to be used for energy collection to the energy collection device. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] A more detailed understanding can be obtained from the following detailed description given as an example in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Like the detailed description, each figure in such drawings is an example. Therefore, the figures (Figures) and detailed description should not be considered as limiting, and other equally effective examples are possible and desirable. In addition, like reference numerals ("reference") in the drawings indicate like elements, and wherein: Figure 1A is a system diagram illustrating an example communication system; Figure 1B This diagram shows the Figure 1A A system diagram of an example wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU) for use within a communication system is shown in FIG. Figure 1C This diagram shows the Figure 1A A system diagram of an example radio access network (RAN) and an example core network (CN) used within a communication system illustrated in FIG. Figure 1D This diagram shows the Figure 1A A system diagram of a further example RAN and a further example CN for use within the communication system illustrated in FIG. Figure 2The diagram shows the example interactions between the Power Relay Unit (PRU) functional block, the serving gNB, and the NZE equipment within the cell. Figure 3 An example integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network with PRUs is illustrated; Figure 4 illustrates an example of an environment having a PRU associated with a reconfigurable smart surface (RIS); Figure 5 FIGURE 1 illustrates the concept of multiple PRU nodes within a cell according to an embodiment; Figure 6 illustrates a method for DEH node selection during initial access at a UE according to an embodiment; Figure 7 is a sequence diagram illustrating a method of polling from an NZE device of a base station via a PRU; Figure 8 is a sequence diagram illustrating a method in which an NZE-UE device requests a DEH charging signal from a PRU; Figure 9 is a flow chart illustrating a method at an NZE device according to an embodiment; and Figure 10 is a flow chart illustrating a polling process initiated by a PRU. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0012] In the following detailed description, many specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments and / or examples disclosed herein. However, it will be understood that such embodiments and examples can be put into practice without some or all of the specific details set forth herein. In other examples, well-known methods, processes, components, and circuits have not yet been described in detail to avoid blurring the following description. Further, the embodiments and examples that are not specifically described herein can replace or be put into practice in conjunction with the embodiments and other examples described, disclosed, or otherwise explicitly, implicitly, and / or inherently provided (collectively referred to as "providing") as described herein. Although various embodiments in which devices, systems, equipment, etc. and / or any of its elements implement operations, processes, algorithms, functions, etc. and / or any part thereof are described and / or claimed herein, it should be understood that any embodiment described and / or claimed herein prescribes that any device, system, equipment, etc. and / or any of its elements are configured to implement any operation, process, algorithm, function, etc. and / or any part thereof.

[0013] Example Communication System The methods, apparatus, and systems provided herein are well-suited for communications involving both wired and wireless networks. Figures 1A-1DTo provide an overview of various types of wireless devices and infrastructure, wherein various elements of the network can utilize the methods, apparatuses, and systems provided herein, perform the methods, apparatuses, and systems provided herein, are arranged according to the methods, apparatuses, and systems provided herein, and / or are adapted and / or configured for the methods, apparatuses, and systems provided herein.

[0014] Figure 1A 1 is a system diagram illustrating an example communication system 100 in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented. The communication system 100 may be a multiple access system that provides content (such as voice, data, video, messaging, broadcast, etc.) to multiple wireless users. The communication system 100 may enable multiple wireless users to access such content by sharing system resources (including wireless bandwidth). For example, the communication system 100 may employ one or more channel access methods such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), zero tail (ZT) unique word (UW) discrete Fourier transform (DFT) spread OFDM (ZT UW DTS-s OFDM), unique word OFDM (UW-OFDM), resource block filtered OFDM, filter bank multi-carrier (FBMC), etc.

[0015] like Figure 1AAs shown in FIG, a communication system 100 may include wireless transmit / receive units (WTRUs) 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, a radio access network (RAN) 104 / 113, a core network (CN) 106 / 115, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, the Internet 110, and other networks 112, although it will be appreciated that the disclosed embodiments contemplate any number of WTRUs, base stations, networks, and / or network elements. Each of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may be any type of device configured to operate and / or communicate in a wireless environment. By way of example, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d (any of which may be referred to as a “station” and / or “STA”) may be configured to transmit and / or receive wireless signals and may include or be a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a subscription-based unit, a pager, a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smartphone, a laptop, a netbook, a personal computer, a wireless sensor, a hotspot or Mi-Fi device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a watch or other wearable device, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, medical equipment and applications (e.g., remote surgery), industrial equipment and applications (e.g., robots and / or other wireless devices operating in the context of an industrial and / or automated process chain), a consumer electronic device, a device operating on a commercial and / or industrial wireless network, etc. Any of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and 102d may be interchangeably referred to as a UE.

[0016] The communication system 100 may also include a base station 114a and / or a base station 114b. Each of the base stations 114a, 114b may be any type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, for example, to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the CN 106 / 115, the Internet 110, and / or the network 112. By way of example, the base stations 114a, 114b may be any of a base transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B (NB), an eNode-B (eNB), a home Node-B (HNB), a home eNode-B (HeNB), a gNode-B (gNB), an NR Node-B (NR NB), a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless router, and the like. Although the base stations 114a, 114b are each depicted as a single element, it will be appreciated that the base stations 114a, 114b may include any number of interconnected base stations and / or network elements.

[0017] Base station 114a may be part of RAN 104 / 113, which may also include other base stations and / or network elements (not shown), such as a base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller (RNC), relay nodes, etc. Base station 114a and / or base station 114b may be configured to transmit and / or receive wireless signals on one or more carrier frequencies, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown). These frequencies may be in licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, or a combination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum. A cell may provide coverage for wireless services in a specific geographic area, which may be relatively fixed or may change over time. A cell may be further divided into cell sectors. For example, the cell associated with base station 114a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, in one embodiment, base station 114a may include three transceivers, one for each sector of the cell. In one embodiment, base station 114a may employ multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology and may use multiple transceivers for each or any sector of the cell. For example, beamforming may be used to transmit and / or receive signals in desired spatial directions.

[0018] The base stations 114a, 114b may communicate with one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d over an air interface 116, which may be any suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF), microwave, centimeter wave, millimeter wave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, etc.). The air interface 116 may be established using any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

[0019] More specifically, as noted above, the communication system 100 may be a multiple-access system and may employ one or more channel access schemes such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and the like. For example, the base station 114a in the RAN 104 / 113 and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), which may use Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) to establish the air interface 116. WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA) and / or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may include High Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and / or High Speed ​​Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA).

[0020] In one embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), which may establish the air interface 116 using Long Term Evolution (LTE) and / or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and / or LTE-Advanced Pro (LTE-APro).

[0021] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as NR radio access, which may establish the air interface 116 using New Radio (NR).

[0022] In one embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement multiple radio access technologies. For example, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may jointly implement LTE radio access and NR radio access, e.g., using dual connectivity (DC) principles. Thus, the air interface utilized by the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be characterized by multiple types of radio access technologies and / or transmissions sent to / from multiple types of base stations (e.g., eNBs and gNBs).

[0023] In one embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.11 (i.e., Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi)), IEEE 802.16 (i.e., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1X, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), Interim Standard 856 (IS-856), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), etc.

[0024] Figure 1AThe base station 114b in the example may be, for example, a wireless router, a home Node-B, a home eNode-B, or an access point, and may utilize any suitable RAT to facilitate wireless connectivity in a local area, such as a business, a home, a vehicle, a campus, an industrial facility, an air corridor (e.g., for use by drones), a road, and the like. In one embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.11 to establish a wireless local area network (WLAN). In one embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.15 to establish a wireless personal area network (WPAN). In one embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may utilize a cellular-based RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, NR, etc.) to establish any of a small cell, a pico cell, or a femto cell. Figure 1A As shown in FIG, base station 114b may have a direct connection to the Internet 110. Therefore, base station 114b may not be required to access the Internet 110 via CN 106 / 115.

[0025] The RAN 104 / 113 may be in communication with the CN 106 / 115, which may be any type of network configured to provide voice, data, applications, and / or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d. The data may have different quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as different throughput requirements, latency requirements, error tolerance requirements, reliability requirements, data throughput requirements, mobility requirements, etc. The CN 106 / 115 may provide call control, billing services, mobile location-based services, prepaid calling, Internet connectivity, video distribution, etc., and / or perform advanced security functions, such as user authentication. Although Figure 1A Not shown, but it will be appreciated, the RAN 104 / 113 and / or the CN 106 / 115 may be in direct or indirect communication with other RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 / 113 or a different RAT. For example, in addition to being connected to the RAN 104 / 113, which may utilize NR radio technology, the CN 106 / 115 may also be in communication with another RAN (not shown) that may employ any of GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, WiMAX, E-UTRA, or Wi-Fi radio technologies.

[0026] The CN 106 / 115 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 110, and / or other networks 112. The PSTN 108 may include a circuit-switched telephone network that provides plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks and devices that use common communication protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and / or the Internet Protocol (IP) from the TCP / IP internet protocol suite. The networks 112 may include wired and / or wireless communication networks owned and / or operated by other service providers. For example, the networks 112 may include another CN connected to one or more RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 / 114 or a different RAT.

[0027] Some or all of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d in the communication system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities (e.g., the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may include multiple transceivers for communicating with different wireless networks via different wireless links). Figure 1A The WTRU 102c shown in FIG. 1 may be configured to communicate with the base station 114a, which may employ a cellular-based radio technology, and the base station 114b, which may employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

[0028] Figure 1B is a system diagram illustrating an example WTRU 102. Figure 1B , the WTRU 102 may include, among other things, a processor 118, a transceiver 120, a transmit / receive element 122, a speaker / microphone 124, a keypad 126, a display / touchpad 128, non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132, a power supply 134, a global positioning system (GPS) chipset 136, and / or other elements / peripherals 138. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may include any subcombination of the above elements while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

[0029] The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors associated with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine, etc. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input / output processing, and / or any other functionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wireless environment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120, which may be coupled to the transmit / receive element 122. Although Figure 1B The processor 118 and transceiver 120 are depicted as separate components, but it will be appreciated that the processor 118 and transceiver 120 may be integrated together, such as in an electronic package or chip.

[0030] The transmit / receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signals to or receive signals from a base station (e.g., base station 114a) over the air interface 116. For example, in one embodiment, the transmit / receive element 122 may be an antenna configured to transmit and / or receive RF signals. In one embodiment, the transmit / receive element 122 may be an emitter / detector configured to transmit and / or receive, for example, IR, UV, or visible light signals. In one embodiment, the transmit / receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and / or receive both RF and light signals. It will be appreciated that the transmit / receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and / or receive any combination of wireless signals.

[0031] Although the transmit / receive element 122 is Figure 1B Although depicted as a single element in FIG. 1 , the WTRU 102 may include any number of transmit / receive elements 122. For example, the WTRU 102 may employ MIMO technology. Thus, in an embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include two or more transmit / receive elements 122 (e.g., multiple antennas) for transmitting and receiving wireless signals over the air interface 116.

[0032] The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate signals to be transmitted by the transmit / receive element 122 and demodulate signals received by the transmit / receive element 122. As noted above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, for example, the transceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU 102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as NR and IEEE 802.11.

[0033] The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to a speaker / microphone 124, a keypad 126, and / or a display / touchpad 128 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) display unit or an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display unit), and may receive user input data therefrom. The processor 118 may also output user data to the speaker / microphone 124, the keypad 126, and / or the display / touchpad 128. In addition, the processor 118 may access information from and store data in any type of suitable memory, such as non-removable memory 130 and / or removable memory 132. The non-removable memory 130 may include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, or any other type of memory storage device. The removable memory 132 may include a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a memory stick, a secure digital (SD) memory card, or the like. In other embodiments, the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, memory that is not physically located on the WTRU 102, such as on a server or a home computer (not shown).

[0034] The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134 and may be configured to distribute and / or control power to other components in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitable device for powering the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 may include one or more dry cell batteries (e.g., nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel-zinc (NiZn), nickel-metal hydride (NiMH), lithium-ion (Li-ion), etc.), solar cells, fuel cells, etc.

[0035] The processor 118 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset 136, which may be configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude and latitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 102. In addition to or in lieu of information from the GPS chipset 136, the WTRU 102 may receive location information from a base station (e.g., base stations 114a, 114b) over the air interface 116 and / or determine its location based on the timing of signals received from two or more nearby base stations. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may acquire location information by any suitable location-determination method while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

[0036] The processor 118 may be further coupled to other components / peripherals 138, which may include one or more software and / or hardware modules / units that provide additional features, functionality, and / or wired or wireless connectivity. For example, the components / peripherals 138 may include an accelerometer, an electronic compass, a satellite transceiver, a digital camera (e.g., for photos and / or videos), a universal serial bus (USB) port, a vibration device, a television transceiver, a hands-free headset, a Bluetooth module, a frequency modulation (FM) radio unit, a digital music player, a media player, a video game player module, an internet browser, a virtual reality and / or augmented reality (VR / AR) device, an activity tracker, etc. Components / peripherals 138 may include one or more sensors, which may be one or more of the following: a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a Hall effect sensor, a magnetometer, an orientation sensor, a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor, a time sensor, a geo-location sensor, an altimeter, a light sensor, a touch sensor, a magnetometer, a barometer, a gesture sensor, a biometric sensor, and / or a humidity sensor.

[0037] The WTRU 102 may include a full-duplex radio, for which transmission and reception of some or all signals (e.g., associated with specific subframes for both uplink (e.g., for transmission) and downlink (e.g., for reception)) may be concurrent and / or simultaneous. The full-duplex radio may include an interference management unit to reduce and / or substantially eliminate self-interference via hardware (e.g., a choke) or via signal processing performed by a processor (e.g., a separate processor (not shown) or via the processor 118). In an embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include a half-duplex radio, for which transmission and reception of some or all signals (e.g., associated with specific subframes for both uplink (e.g., for transmission) or downlink (e.g., for reception)) may be concurrent and / or simultaneous.

[0038] Figure 1C 1 is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 104 and the CN 106 in accordance with an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 104 may employ an E-UTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 104 may also be in communication with the CN 106.

[0039] The RAN 104 may include eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c, although it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 may include any number of eNode-Bs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, the eNode-B 160a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to, and receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102a.

[0040] Each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, and 160c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in uplink (UL) and / or downlink (DL), etc. Figure 1C As shown in FIG, eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may communicate with each other via an X2 interface.

[0041] Figure 1C The CN 106 shown in FIG may include a mobility management entity (MME) 162, a serving gateway (SGW) 164, and a packet data network (PDN) gateway (PGW) 166. Although each of the foregoing elements is depicted as part of the CN 106, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and / or operated by entities other than the CN operator.

[0042] The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, and 160c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may serve as a control node. For example, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c, activating and deactivating bearers, selecting a particular serving gateway during an initial attach of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c, and the like. The MME 162 may also provide a control plane function for facilitating switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as GSM and / or WCDMA.

[0043] The SGW 164 may be connected to each of the eNode Bs 160a, 160b, 160c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface. The SGW 164 may generally route and forward user data packets to and from the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. The SGW 164 may perform other functions such as anchoring the user plane during inter-eNode B handovers, triggering paging when downlink data is available for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, managing and storing the context of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like.

[0044] The SGW 164 may be connected to the PGW 166, which may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices.

[0045] The CN 106 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and traditional land-line communications devices. For example, the CN 106 may include, or may be in communication with, an IP gateway (e.g., an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as an interface between the CN 106 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to other networks 112, which may include other wired and / or wireless networks owned and / or operated by other service providers.

[0046] Even though the WTRU Figures 1A to 1D Although described as a wireless terminal, it is contemplated that in certain representative embodiments such a terminal may employ (eg, temporarily or permanently) a wired communication interface with a communication network.

[0047] In a representative embodiment, the other network 112 may be a WLAN.

[0048] A WLAN in infrastructure basic service set (BSS) mode may have an access point (AP) for the BSS and one or more stations (STAs) associated with the AP. The AP may have access to or an interface with a distribution system (DS) or another type of wired / wireless network that carries traffic into and / or out of the BSS. Traffic originating from outside the BSS and destined for a STA may arrive through the AP and be delivered to the STA. Traffic from a STA to a destination outside the BSS may be sent to the AP for delivery to the corresponding destination. Traffic between STAs within a BSS may be sent through the AP, for example, where a source STA may send traffic to the AP, and the AP may deliver the traffic to the destination STA. Traffic between STAs within a BSS may be considered and / or referred to as peer-to-peer traffic. Peer-to-peer traffic may be sent between the source and destination STAs (e.g., directly between them) using a direct link setup (DLS). In certain representative embodiments, the DLS may use 802.11e DLS or 802.11z tunneled DLS (TDLS). A WLAN using an independent BSS (IBSS) mode may not have an AP, and STAs (eg, all STAs) within or using the IBSS may communicate directly with each other. The IBSS communication mode may sometimes be referred to herein as an "ad hoc" communication mode.

[0049] When using 802.11ac infrastructure operation mode or a similar operation mode, the AP can transmit beacons on a fixed channel (such as a primary channel). The primary channel can be a fixed width (e.g., a 20 MHz wide bandwidth) or a width dynamically set via signaling. The primary channel can be the operating channel of the BSS and can be used by STAs to establish a connection with the AP. In certain representative embodiments, carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA / CA) can be implemented, for example, in an 802.11 system. For CSMA / CA, STAs (e.g., each STA) including the AP can sense the primary channel. If the primary channel is sensed / detected and / or determined to be busy by a particular STA, the particular STA can back off. One STA (e.g., only one station) can transmit at any given time in a given BSS.

[0050] High throughput (HT) STAs may communicate using a 40 MHz wide channel, for example, via a combination of a primary 20 MHz channel and adjacent or non-adjacent 20 MHz channels to form a 40 MHz wide channel.

[0051] Very high throughput (VHT) STAs can support 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and / or 160 MHz wide channels. 40 MHz and / or 80 MHz channels can be formed by combining consecutive 20 MHz channels. A 160 MHz channel can be formed by combining eight consecutive 20 MHz channels or by combining two non-contiguous 80 MHz channels (which may be referred to as an 80+80 configuration). For the 80+80 configuration, after channel coding, the data can be passed through a segment parser that can divide the data into two streams. Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) processing and time domain processing can be performed separately on each stream. The streams can be mapped onto two 80 MHz channels, and the data can be transmitted by the transmitting STA. At the receiver of the receiving STA, the above operations for the 80+80 configuration can be reversed, and the combined data can be sent to the media access control (MAC) layer, entity, etc.

[0052] The operating mode below 1 GHz is supported by 802.11af and 802.11ah. The channel operating bandwidth and carrier are reduced in 802.11af and 802.11ah relative to the channel operating bandwidth and carrier used in 802.11n and 802.11ac. 802.11af supports 5 MHz bandwidth, 10 MHz bandwidth and 20 MHz bandwidth in the TV White Space (TVWS) spectrum, and 802.11ah supports 1 MHz bandwidth, 2 MHz bandwidth, 4 MHz bandwidth, 8 MHz bandwidth and 16 MHz bandwidth using non-TVWS spectrum. According to a representative embodiment, 802.11ah can support meter type control / machine type communication (MTC), such as MTC devices in macro coverage areas. MTC devices may have certain capabilities, for example, limited capabilities, including support for (e.g., only support for) certain and / or limited bandwidths. MTC devices may include batteries whose battery life is above a threshold (e.g., to maintain very long battery life).

[0053] WLAN systems that can support multiple channels and channel bandwidths (such as 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11af, and 802.11ah) include a channel that can be designated as a primary channel. The primary channel can have a bandwidth equal to the maximum common operating bandwidth supported by all STAs in the BSS. The bandwidth of the primary channel can be set and / or limited by the STA that supports the smallest bandwidth operating mode among all STAs operating in the BSS. In the example of 802.11ah, for a STA that supports (e.g., only supports) a 1 MHz mode (e.g., an MTC-type device), the primary channel can be 1 MHz wide, even if the AP and other STAs in the BSS support 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 8 MHz, 16 MHz, and / or other channel bandwidth operating modes. Carrier sensing and / or network allocation vector (NAV) settings can depend on the status of the primary channel. If the primary channel is busy, for example, due to a STA (which only supports the 1 MHz operating mode) transmitting to the AP, the entire available frequency band may be considered busy, even if most of the frequency band is still idle and may be available.

[0054] In the United States, 802.11ah can use the available frequency band from 902 MHz to 928 MHz. In South Korea, the available frequency band is from 917.5 MHz to 923.5 MHz. In Japan, the available frequency band is from 916.5 MHz to 927.5 MHz. Depending on the country code, the total available bandwidth for 802.11ah ranges from 6 MHz to 26 MHz.

[0055] Figure 1D 1 is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 113 and the CN 115 in accordance with an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 113 may employ NR radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 113 may also be in communication with the CN 115.

[0056] The RAN 113 may include gNBs 180a, 180b, and 180c, although it will be appreciated that the RAN 113 may include any number of gNBs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The gNBs 180a, 180b, and 180c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, and 180c may implement MIMO technology. For example, the gNBs 180a and 180b may utilize beamforming to transmit signals to and / or receive signals from the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c. Thus, the gNB 180a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to and / or receive wireless signals from the WTRU 102a. In one embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, and 180c may implement carrier aggregation techniques. For example, the gNB 180a may transmit multiple component carriers to the WTRU 102a (not shown). A subset of these component carriers may be on unlicensed spectrum, while the remaining component carriers may be on licensed spectrum. In one embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, and 180c may implement coordinated multi-point (CoMP) techniques. For example, the WTRU 102a may receive coordinated transmissions from the gNB 180a and gNB 180b (and / or gNB 180c).

[0057] The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using transmissions associated with scalable numerology. For example, OFDM symbol spacing and / or OFDM subcarrier spacing may vary for different transmissions, different cells, and / or different portions of the wireless transmission spectrum. The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using subframes or transmission time intervals (TTIs) of varying or scalable lengths (e.g., including different numbers of OFDM symbols and / or durations of varying absolute time).

[0058] The gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may be configured to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c in a standalone configuration and / or a non-standalone configuration. In a standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c without also accessing another RAN (e.g., such as the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c). In a standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may utilize one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c as mobility anchors. In a standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using signals in an unlicensed band. In a non-standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate / connect to the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c while also communicating / connecting to another RAN, such as the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c. For example, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement DC principles to communicate with one or more gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c and one or more eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c substantially simultaneously. In a non-standalone configuration, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may serve as mobility anchors for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may provide additional coverage and / or throughput to serve the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c.

[0059] Each of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may be associated with a specific cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in UL and / or DL, support of network slicing, dual connectivity, interworking between NR and E-UTRA, routing of user plane data towards a user plane function (UPF) 184a, 184b, routing of control plane information towards an access and mobility management function (AMF) 182a, 182b, etc. Figure 1D As shown in , gNBs 180a, 180b, and 180c can communicate with each other via the Xn interface.

[0060] Figure 1DThe CN 115 shown in FIG may include at least one AMF 182 a, 182 b, at least one UPF 184 a, 184 b, at least one session management function (SMF) 183 a, 183 b, and at least one data network (DN) 185 a, 185 b. Although each of the aforementioned elements is depicted as part of the CN 115, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and / or operated by entities other than the CN operator.

[0061] The AMF 182a, 182b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 113 via the N2 interface and may act as a control node. For example, the AMF 182a, 182b may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, supporting network slicing (e.g., handling different protocol data unit (PDU) sessions with different requirements), selecting a specific SMF 183a, 183b, managing registration areas, terminating NAS signaling, mobility management, etc. Network slicing may be used by the AMF 182a, 182b, for example, to customize CN support for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c based on the type of service utilized by the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. For example, different network slices may be established for different use cases, such as services relying on ultra-reliable low latency (URLLC) access, services relying on enhanced massive mobile broadband (eMBB) access, services for MTC access, etc. The AMF 162 may provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 113 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, and / or non-3GPP access technologies, such as Wi-Fi.

[0062] The SMFs 183a and 183b can connect to the AMFs 182a and 182b in the CN 115 via the N11 interface. The SMFs 183a and 183b can also connect to the UPFs 184a and 184b in the CN 115 via the N4 interface. The SMFs 183a and 183b can select and control the UPFs 184a and 184b and configure traffic routing through the UPFs 184a and 184b. The SMFs 183a and 183b can perform other functions, such as managing and allocating UE IP addresses, managing PDU sessions, controlling policy enforcement and QoS, and providing downlink data notifications. The PDU session type can be IP-based, non-IP-based, Ethernet-based, and so on.

[0063] The UPFs 184a, 184b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 113 via the N3 interface. These gNBs may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, for example, to facilitate communication between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices. The UPFs 184a, 184b may perform other functions, such as routing and forwarding packets, enforcing user plane policies, supporting multi-homed PDU sessions, handling user plane QoS, buffering downlink packets, providing mobility anchoring, etc.

[0064] The CN 115 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the CN 115 may include, or may communicate with, an IP gateway (e.g., an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) server) that acts as an interface between the CN 115 and the PSTN 108. Additionally, the CN 115 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to other networks 112, which may include other wired and / or wireless networks owned and / or operated by other service providers. In one embodiment, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be connected to a local data network (DN) 185a, 185b through the UPF 184a, 184b via an N3 interface to the UPF 184a, 184b and an N6 interface between the UPF 184a, 184b and the DN 185a, 185b.

[0065] Given that Figures 1A to 1D as well as Figures 1A to 1D

[0066] As described herein, one or more or all of the functionality described herein with respect to any of the following may be performed by one or more emulation elements / devices (not shown): the WTRUs 102a-d, base stations 114a-b, eNode-Bs 160a-c, MMEs 162, SGWs 164, PGWs 166, gNBs 180a-c, AMFs 182a-b, UPFs 184a-b, SMFs 183a-b, DNs 185a-b, and / or any other element / device(s) described herein. The emulation devices may be one or more devices configured to emulate one or more or all of the functionality described herein. For example, the emulation devices may be used to test other devices and / or simulate network and / or WTRU functionality.

[0066] The simulation device can be designed to implement one or more tests of other devices in a laboratory environment and / or in an operator network environment. For example, the one or more simulation devices can perform one or more or all functions while being fully or partially implemented and / or deployed as part of a wired and / or wireless communication network in order to test other devices within the communication network. The one or more simulation devices can perform one or more or all functions while being temporarily implemented / deployed as part of a wired and / or wireless communication network. The simulation device can be directly coupled to another device for testing purposes and / or can use over-the-air wireless communication to perform testing.

[0067] The one or more simulation devices can perform one or more (including all) functions without being implemented / deployed as a part of a wired and / or wireless communication network. For example, the simulation device can be used in a test scenario in a test lab and / or in a non-deployed (e.g., test) wired and / or wireless communication network to realize the test of one or more components. The one or more simulation devices can be test equipment. The direct RF coupling and / or wireless communication carried out via RF circuits (e.g., which can include one or more antennas) can be used by the simulation device to transmit and / or receive data.

[0068] introduce Advances in ultra-low power (ULP) RF component design have made it possible to use RF circuits that can process received RF waveforms acquired via an antenna at the front end of a receiving device without the use of an onboard active power supply. Such devices can harvest energy from the transmitted RF power waveform to power circuits necessary to process other received electrical signals, for example. These passive receivers use RF components such as cascaded capacitors, zero-bias Schottky diodes, or microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to implement the required functions for voltage multipliers or rectifiers, charge pumps, and signal detectors. It should be noted that passive receivers operate in the far field of the antenna and can support a considerable link budget or distance. Hereinafter, the terms "passive receiver" and "near-zero energy (NZE) receiver" may be used interchangeably.

[0069] In order to provide wireless power delivery, it is possible to transmit a dedicated energy harvesting (DEH) signal (i.e., an RF signal). The DEH can be transmitted over a period of time to deliver a certain amount of energy to a device with RF energy harvesting capabilities. As the separation distance between the transmitter and receiver pair increases, longer power signal transmission periods are required to harvest a certain amount of energy, resulting in a significant increase in latency. This may mean that a longer preamble period must precede any data or payload transmission. The use of high gain or directional antennas can partially compensate for the increase in path loss, but at the expense of a reduction in coverage area that may necessitate the use of beam steering techniques.

[0070] The energy burden on the receiver circuitry can be reduced by choosing a low-complexity modulation with lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) requirements. This comes at the expense of a reduction in data rate and a general loss of susceptibility to interfering signals or robustness.

[0071] The short or compact message format reduces the overall energy budget required for data demodulation and processing.Where the transmission of such a short message is followed by a relatively long silent period (eg, to allow for additional DEH time), this arrangement may reduce average throughput.

[0072] Radio channels present additional challenges associated with multipath. Slow and fast fading can affect received power levels. Furthermore, the RF-to-DC conversion efficiency at the energy harvesting receiver tends to decrease with weaker input signals. Using transmit diversity from multiple units can help compensate for these variations in path loss. The trade-off is the additional deployment cost of multiple power nodes to achieve higher signal power levels at the harvesting receiver.

[0073] In 5G NR, for example, a typical WTRU consumes a significant amount of its energy to perform tasks such as control channel monitoring, data transmission, and data reception. 5G devices typically consume tens of milliwatts in the radio resource control (RRC) idle / inactive state and hundreds of milliwatts in the RRC connected state. Energy efficiency is critical for devices that are not equipped with a continuous energy source, while sensors deployed for monitoring and measurement, wearable devices such as smart watches, eHealth and medical monitoring equipment may rely on a limited capacity battery source to operate over an extended period of time.

[0074] Dedicated energy harvesting (DEH), mentioned above, is seen as a promising solution for enabling near-zero-energy mobile communication devices. The total power consumption of an EH device is proportional to the duration of the wake-up period and the frequency of the polling cycle. However, there is a trade-off between battery life or harvesting time and the device's latency or ability to quickly respond to the wake-up signal.

[0075] Therefore, there is a need for an ultra-low power mechanism for supporting low latency in 3GPP Release 18 that is lower than the latency currently specified for discontinuous reception DRX / eDRX.

[0076] However, dedicated EHs have some significant performance limitations. As mentioned, energy harvesting circuits often exhibit poor sensitivity and low conversion efficiency to incoming low-level power signals. Due to health hazard concerns, maximum allowable RF power radiation limits prevent any significant increase in the level of transmitted wake-up signals (WUS) at the base station or gNB. Other losses associated with the physics of the environment and channel conditions include propagation path loss, energy dissipation due to channel fading, and shadowing.

[0077] Some RF EH efficiency improvement methods are available, such as multipath energy routing (MPER), multi-antenna energy transmission, distributed beamforming techniques, and protocol-based optimization for cooperative energy transmission. However, orders of magnitude improvements in collected energy are not achieved with these techniques.

[0078] It will therefore be appreciated that for orders of magnitude increases in harvested power, particularly for devices located at the cell edge or for latency or time critical operations, new mechanisms are needed to deliver more energy within a given time frame.

[0079] Overview As used herein, "a" and "an" and similar phrases should be interpreted as "one or more" and "at least one". Similarly, any term beginning with the prefix "(one or more)" should be interpreted as "one or more" and "at least one". The term "may" should be interpreted as "may, for example". A forward slash " / " sign, symbol or indicium should be interpreted as "and / or", unless specifically stated otherwise, where, for example, "A / B" can mean "A and / or B".

[0080] The present principles provide a power relay unit (PRU) that can improve the received incident power level at an energy harvesting (EH) receiver unit. The PRU can be a standalone device or a functional block residing in other network infrastructure components. It is intended to be located between the gNB and the NZE equipment. Generally, its closer proximity to the UE enables more efficient transfer of signal energy to the NZE equipment compared to a serving gNB with full cell communication coverage.

[0081] Figure 2The diagram illustrates an example interaction between a power relay unit (PRU) 220 (represented as a functional block), a serving gNB 210, and an NZE device 230 within a cell, in accordance with the present principles. In this example, the 5G NR cell can operate in the FR1 band (below 6 GHz) or in the FR2 band with mmWave. Due to its proximity (D2) to the gNB, which can be many kilometers away (D1), the PRU 220 can deliver an order of magnitude higher power waveform to the NZE device 230, along with the signaling necessary to establish a link with the NZE wake-up receiver (WUR) device 230 and network information.

[0082] Figure 3 An example integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network with PRUs according to the present principles is illustrated. The IAB network 300 is connected to a 5G core network 310 via a fiber backhaul 315. The IAB network 300 includes an IAB donor 330 and an IAB node 340 connected via a backhaul 325. In addition to traditional equipment that allows UE connectivity, each IAB entity (e.g., a base station such as a gNB) in the IAB network (i.e., the IAB donor and the IAB node) may also include a PRU. Thus, the IAB entity can provide access to UEs 352, 354 and can also power and communicate with NZE devices 362, 364 via the PRUs.

[0083] By allowing multi-hop backhaul, the IAB network 300 can extend the range of the PRU node within the reach of the NZE devices in the cell.

[0084] Figure 4 An example of an environment with a PRU associated with a reconfigurable smart surface (RIS) is illustrated. In the example, direct communication between a base station, gNB, and NZE device and a UE 430 is blocked or attenuated by an obstacle 440. However, a RIS 450 associated with a RIS controller 460 including the PRU can control EM wave propagation by changing the E / H field characteristics of the reflective surface. Strategic placement of the RIS planar structures enables adjustment of radio channel characteristics in the propagation environment. Improvements in wireless system performance (e.g., received signal strength at the NZE device / UE device antenna in the presence of obstacles) can be achieved by using the RIS, such as Figure 4 Backscatter devices that require harvested energy can also benefit from this arrangement.

[0085] A new PRU that appears in a cell can search for and register with a local serving base station (e.g., gNB). A PRU can be a standalone device or part of a device, such as a functional block of an IAB unit or a roadside unit.

[0086] The PRU may initiate a discovery process, which may use conventional methods, for example. Successful discovery may be followed by a registration process, in which the PRU may exchange information with the base station, such as an ID number and location information. Capability reporting may also occur to exchange information related to capabilities, including, for example, supported RF bands / frequencies, maximum transmit power (or WUS maximum power), and beamforming.

[0087] A list of neighboring PRUs located in the same cell or within reach of the new PRU may be provided by the local base station. This information may be helpful in reducing interference between PRU nodes.

[0088] Figure 5 The concept of multiple PRU nodes within a cell according to an embodiment is illustrated. Within the serving cell of the base station 510, two PRUs 522, 524 form two separate nodes 532, 534 serving multiple NZE devices.

[0089] The PRU may also (in addition or instead) initiate discovery and registration to find other PRUs within range. This discovery may be performed by the new PRU after receiving a list of local PRU locations and ID numbers from the serving base station control information carried on a control signal.

[0090] The UE may be provided with DEH information from the network (e.g., base station, PRU). The DEH information may include configuration parameters for dedicated energy harvesting via broadcast signaling (e.g., in its SIB signals such as SIB N). Similarly, the UE may receive configuration parameters for DEH from the network via dedicated signaling (e.g., RRC signaling, MAC CE signaling, PHY signaling, or a combination thereof).

[0091] Configuration parameters may include DEH signal / preamble carrier frequency (e.g., subband, BWP, component carrier), transmission periodicity, preamble format (such as duration and waveform of each DEH preamble), and configuration parameters for time-frequency resources for transmission of DEH signal / preamble. The configuration of DEH signal / preamble may be specific to DEH signal / preamble or specific to a group of DEH signal / preambles.

[0092] The configuration parameters may also (alternatively or additionally) include information related to the configuration for PRU discovery, for example, information related to the PRU discovery signal and time-frequency resources for monitoring of the PRU discovery signal.

[0093] The PRU may receive information including configuration parameters for dedicated energy harvesting from the network (e.g., a base station) via system information broadcast signaling, dedicated RRC signaling, or a combination of dedicated RRC signaling, MAC CE signaling, or PHYDCI signaling.

[0094] The PRU configuration for DEH may include configuration parameters of the DEH signal / preamble to be transmitted to the UE supporting energy harvesting, such as, for example, one or more carrier frequencies (e.g., subband, BWP, component carriers), transmission periodicity, preamble format (such as duration of each DEH preamble, waveform, etc.), time-frequency resources for transmission of the DEH signal / preamble, minimum or maximum transmit power, and the required minimum or maximum receive power from the UE served for DEH. The configuration of the DEH signal / preamble may be specific to the DEH signal / preamble, or specific to a group of DEH signals / preambles, or UE-specific, or a combination thereof.

[0095] The PRU configuration for DEH may also (alternatively or additionally) include the following information: the information includes configuration parameters for PRU discovery. Such configuration parameters may include PRU discovery signals and time-frequency resources for monitoring of the PRU discovery signals.

[0096] The UE may trigger the network for DEH configuration by signaling its DEH capability to the network or by transmitting an explicit DEH configuration request. The DEH capability information may include supported DEH frequency information (e.g., subband, BWP, component carriers), supported DEH signal / preamble information (e.g., preamble duration), supported waveform(s), support for PRUs, etc.

[0097] The UE may report its DEH capability to the base station during the RRC connection or via other signaling. The UE's DEH capability information may include one or more of the following: frequency band, modulation, data rate, required EH level and preamble duration, UE location, QCL information, preferred beam, and estimated path loss.

[0098] Similarly, the PRU can trigger the network for DEH configuration by signaling its DEH capability to the network or by transmitting an explicit DEH configuration request. DEH capability information may include supported DEH frequency information (e.g., subband, BWP, component carriers), DEH signal / preamble information, waveform, support for PRU, discovery capabilities such as supported discovery frequencies, supported time-frequency discovery resources, etc.

[0099] Figure 6 A method for DEH node selection during initial access at a UE according to an embodiment is illustrated.

[0100] Generally speaking, the method 600 includes three phases. In the first phase, the UE obtains DEH configuration information, in the second phase, the UE searches for (one or more) PRUs and registers to one or more of them, and in the third phase, a local ID number is assigned to the UE (e.g., Figure 5 ). The NZE device energy harvesting needs, the beam number associated with its current location within the node, and other supported features are associated with this ID.

[0101] In step S602, the UE performs a cell search (SSB / PBCH acquisition) to discover a base station (e.g., gNB).

[0102] In step S604, the UE acquires information (eg, the master information block MIB and the system information block SIB) to obtain DEH configuration information, as already described.

[0103] In one example, the UE may receive a list of local PRU(s) from the base station, such as via a SIB N that carries basic information for dedicated energy collection.

[0104] In step S606 , the UE determines whether it has received a list of local PRU(s).

[0105] In case the UE does not receive a list of local PRU(s), it initiates a blind search for PRUs within range in step S608.

[0106] In step S610, the UE may find at least one PRU with a signal strength above a minimum threshold. The UE may select a number of these PRUs (eg, one, a subset, or all).

[0107] In step S620 , the UE may report the selected PRU(s) to the base station.

[0108] In case the UE has received the list of local PRU(s), in step S612 it determines whether the location of the PRU(s) is provided.

[0109] If the PRU location is provided, the UE may select a preferred local PRU (or multiple PRUs) in step S614. For example, the UE may determine the preferred PRU based on the PRU location information and the UE's location. The UE may then report the selected PRU(s) to the base station in step S620.

[0110] If the UE does not receive the location of the local PRU(s), it may measure the signaling strength of the PRUs in the list in step S616 and select the PRU(s) with the highest signal strength in step S618. The UE may then report the selected PRU(s) to the base station in step S620.

[0111] The base station may forward information related to the selected PRU(s) to the PRUs (eg, the selected PRUs or all PRUs in a cell) for registration of the new UE.

[0112] When several preferred PRUs are reported to the base station, the base station may (Option 1) indicate to the PRU which the UE should register in step S622. The UE may then send registration signaling to the indicated PRU and be registered there. Alternatively (Option 2), the base station may forward the newly registered UE information to the PRU in step S624 to complete the registration.

[0113] In one embodiment, once the UE selects a PRU, it can directly send registration signaling to the PRU and register with it. The PRU can further forward the newly registered UE information to the gNB.

[0114] In one embodiment, in step S620, the UE may report the selected PRUs together with the signal strength measurement results for at least the selected PRUs. The base station may assume that the reported PRU(s) are the PRU(s) to which the UE is registered, and the base station may further indicate to the PRU(s) that the new UE is registered to the PRU(s).

[0115] In one embodiment, the base station may make a decision on which PRU the UE should register with and notify the UE accordingly. The UE may then send registration signaling to the indicated PRU for registration. The base station may forward the newly registered UE information to the PRU to complete the registration.

[0116] In one embodiment, the UE may report its location to the base station and have the base station determine which PRU the UE should connect to. The base station may indicate PRU information to the UE and indicate the UE information to the associated PRU. The UE may further send registration signaling to the indicated PRU for registration.

[0117] In phase 3, once the UE is registered with the PRU, a new ID may be generated for the UE by the base station or by the PRU, which may be further exchanged between them from the generating node to another node.

[0118] The ID can be an ID assigned to each NZE device within the PRU node. Since the primary method for the PRU to contact a UE in idle-inactive mode is to transmit a WUS (including a preamble carrying energy for harvesting), it will typically need to know which beam to use and other resources allocated for that UE (DEH / preamble duration based on distance and the amount of energy required before waking up), and this information can be associated with the ID. When the NZE device is shipped to another node, this arrangement can, for example, allow the (potentially portable) ID to be used to transfer associated NZE device information from the current PRU to the new PRU.

[0119] Control, data, existing and / or dedicated signaling can be used to generate a DEH signal or waveform at the PRU to provide a certain level of energy collection for NZE devices. DEH signaling can be transmitted according to a specific schedule and generated based on one or a combination of resources. The frequency resources used to transmit DEH signaling can be indicated by the base station or PRU through cell-specific signaling (e.g., SIB or other broadcast signaling) or through UE-specific signaling (e.g., UE-specific RRC configuration, MAC control element (MAC-CE), downlink control information (DCI), etc.).

[0120] The amount of energy E_h that can be harvested by a DEH-capable device is given by the following relationship: E_h≈ηβα×B×P_rx×T(1) where η is the device energy harvesting efficiency, β is the fractional bandwidth allocated by the base station for DEH, and α is the fraction of time that active energy transfer occurs, B is the device EH bandwidth, P_rx represents the received average power density at the device, and T is the total harvesting time.

[0121] Resource selection may be based on an assigned combination of parameters from equation (1).It may also depend on the resources already allocated or used by the base station / PRU.

[0122] The PRU may reserve one or more resources for energy transfer, where the number of resources may depend on the NZE device capabilities.

[0123] Furthermore, a frequency pattern may be predefined in the standard, and the UE may be configured with an index of the predefined pattern for determining frequency and bandwidth resources.

[0124] DEH signaling can be transmitted periodically by the PRU in a broadcast manner so that UEs within its proximity (or DEH coverage) can use it, for example, to charge their own batteries. DEH signaling can be transmitted in a UE-specific manner, for example, targeting DEH signaling to a UE. The time pattern of DEH signaling can be indicated by the base station or PRU through cell-specific signaling (e.g., SIB or other broadcast signaling) or through UE-specific signaling (e.g., UE-specific RRC configuration, MAC-CE, DCI, etc.).

[0125] DEH signaling can also be transmitted on demand. The transmission of DEH signaling can be triggered by a request sent by the UE. Such a request can be an explicit DEH signaling transmission request sent by the UE to the PRU to request transmission. The transmission can be triggered by a low energy state reported by the UE or when the base station or PRU needs to communicate with the UE. For example, when the polling decision is made by the PRU or base station, the PRU / base station can first send DEH signaling to the UE (e.g., in a broadcast manner or in a UE-specific manner) to allow energy collection before subsequent processes.

[0126] DEH signaling can be scheduled to transmit a certain amount of energy within a certain time. DEH signaling transmission scheduling can help limit interference to other devices and manage overall network power consumption. The base station, along with the PRU, can be responsible for scheduling updates to adapt to changes in cell traffic.

[0127] The polling may be initiated by a base station / PRU. The base station / PRU may transmit a DEH polling signal to (one or more) UEs in broadcast, groupcast or unicast mode. The polling signal may be transmitted in a periodic or aperiodic manner. In aperiodic mode, the DEH polling signal may be transmitted or repeated K times. Upon receiving a DEH poll (or DEH polling signal) from a base station or PRU, the NZE UE may respond to the sending node with a polling response message or signal. Such a polling response may include one or more of the following: a quantized report of the energy state at the NZE device; a 1-bit indication that the NZE device requires dedicated energy collection from the base station / PRU; and detailed information of the requested dedicated energy collection from the base station / PRU, which may include modulation, data rate, required EH level and preamble duration, UE location, QCL information, preferred beam, estimated path loss, etc.

[0128] The UE may transmit its response to the DEH polling signal directly to the base station. Alternatively, the UE may respond to the base station polling message to the PRU, and the PRU may further forward such information to the base station, for example, when the device is unable to respond directly to the base station due to low battery conditions or transmission capabilities (e.g., weak backscatter for low-power IoT devices), or when the UE wants to save more power by responding to the PRU, etc.

[0129] Downlink control signaling or MAC-CE can be used as a DEH polling signal to trigger a DEH polling response at the NZE device. The downlink control signaling or MAC-CE signal can include a polling field set to an active state to indicate a request for a DEH poll from the NZE device. In addition, a poll retransmission bit or state can indicate a request for retransmission of the polled information based on a retransmission timer.

[0130] Existing DCI formats (e.g., as defined in 3GPP Release 18) can be reused to carry DEH polls to UEs. New fields can be added to carry the information mentioned above, such as a poll field and / or a poll retransmission field. One or more existing unused fields can be repurposed and used to carry this information. A new DCI format can be defined for the purpose of polling UEs, and the new DCI format can carry this information.

[0131] In addition to DCI and MAC-CE, the DEH poll response at the NZE device can also be triggered by a reference signal, a preamble, or some predefined sequence. For example, a low-power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) can be used for this purpose. The UE can transmit its DEH poll response to the base station or PRU using preconfigured resources (e.g., preconfigured periodic resources). Alternatively, the UE can transmit its DEH poll response using resources indicated by the base station or PRU (e.g., via LP-WUS, etc.).

[0132] Upon satisfactory receipt of a polling response from the NZE-UE(s), the transmitting PRU or base station may stop the transmission (periodic and / or aperiodic) of the multicast / unicast DEH polling signal and / or reset both the Poll Request and Poll Retransmission fields to "Not Requested".

[0133] DEH capabilities may require the use of control signaling between the UE and the base station / PRU. The NZE UE device may need to send messages to the base station or PRU, such as, for example: signaling with information listing supported DEH capabilities (such as RF bands, bandwidths, waveforms, etc.), signaling with information reporting the current DEH charging status, and a request for a certain amount of energy to be delivered over a duration.

[0134] Similarly, the base station / PRU may need to communicate messages to the NZE device, such as, for example: signaling to approve or deny the DEH transmission request, signaling to approve the DEH request with updated collection parameters (i.e., amount of energy or duration, frequency, and bandwidth of transmission), and signaling to relay the DEH transmission schedule and transmission window.

[0135] In one embodiment, the PRU sends a DEH poll signal to the NZE device and waits for a response. The DEH poll signal consists of a power waveform and an optional data field. The duration of the power waveform can be proportional to the separation distance or path loss between the PRU and the NZE UE device. The duration of the power waveform can also depend on the power state of the NZE device. The power waveform can be a simple CW tone or a power-optimized waveform (POW) with a high peak-to-average ratio.

[0136] The PRU may receive a response from the NZE device within a predetermined time window. The response may come from the NZE device primary TRX, or in the case of an NZE IoT device, for example, the response may come from backscatter, if supported.

[0137] If no response is received within the expected time window, the PRU may optionally retransmit the polling signal with the same power waveform preamble or a preamble of longer duration or a waveform preamble with higher power to account for potential fluctuations in path loss, for example.

[0138] The PRU can relay messages from the base station to the ULP-UE or NZE-UE device, or the base station can send the message directly to the ULP / NZE device. The UE device can respond directly to the base station on the assigned channel and time slot or RB, or indirectly to the base station via the PRU (e.g., a low-power IoT device).

[0139] Upon receiving a UE response to the DEH polling signal, the base station / PRU will begin DEH signal transmission to provide EH to the NZE UE. This transmission can have a dynamically allocated duration for each DEH session, which will be signaled to the NZE UE via control signaling from the base station / PRU. Alternatively, each DEH transmission has a fixed or semi-statically configured duration.

[0140] The NZE-UE device may monitor its charge or energy level during communication with the base station. If necessary, the UE may request additional power signaling from the PRU (e.g., a low power IoT device application).

[0141] The base station / PRU may send a transmit end signal to the NZEUE indicating the end of power waveform transmission to the UE device. Transmission may also be stopped once the scheduled transmission is correctly received or when no further DEH signaling request is sent by the UE to the PRU, or when the UE sends an indication that DEH signaling is not required (e.g., because the UE is fully charged or when the UE moves to another PRU).

[0142] In one embodiment, a timer may be triggered when DEH signaling transmission is initiated by the PRU or base station. The timer may be reset whenever a DEH signaling request is received from the UE or when transmission is required for the UE at the PRU. Once the timer expires, the PRU may stop DEH signaling transmission. The timer duration may be configured by the base station / PRU or may be determined based on the DEH capability reported by the NZE-UE.

[0143] The PRU may monitor the activity level within its node by measuring the noise level or SNR level in the node or in its current transmit direction (i.e., current beam direction). If the measured noise or SNR exceeds a predetermined level, the PRU may dynamically reduce its DEH transmit signal level to reduce interference in the node or in the current transmit direction. The PRU may also receive a request from the base station to dynamically reduce its transmit power level due to a change / increase in data traffic within its node. Alternatively, if the data traffic level, as measured by changes in noise or SNR levels in the RF band, falls below a predetermined level within a preset duration, the PRU may increase the DEH signal power level or revert to its original / initial setting.

[0144] The NZE-UE may receive an updated energy collection schedule from the PRU upon an adjustment or upcoming adjustment in transmit DEH power level.The NZE-UE may be required to collect energy for a longer period to compensate for the reduction in receive DEH power.

[0145] The base station may aperiodically or periodically request the transmission of a test DEH signal from the PRU to measure its potential impact in the current cell or in a specific direction. Alternatively, the PRU may request a measurement of its own contribution to the noise or interference in the cell to determine its maximum allowable transmit signal power within the current cell or in a specific direction.

[0146] In one embodiment, the NZE UE may periodically measure its battery voltage level and determine that it has dropped below a predetermined threshold. The NZE UE may also determine that its current battery charge level may not fully support upcoming communications.

[0147] The NZE may then report its current battery charge level or amount of power or energy required and may use its primary TRX to request delivery of DEH power from the serving base station or PRU, or the response may come from backscatter, for example in the case of an NZE IoT device.

[0148] The NZE device may then receive the schedule and time / frequency resource blocks for the upcoming delivery of the DEH signal.The NZE-UE may then configure its power receiver to harvest RF energy from the serving PRU / base station.

[0149] The NZE device can receive a DEH consisting of a power waveform. The duration of the power waveform can be proportional to the separation distance or path loss between the PRU and the NZE-UE device. The power waveform can consist of a simple CW tone or a power optimized waveform (POW) with a high peak-to-average ratio.

[0150] The NZE device may periodically monitor its battery charge level and report it to the PRU / base station when a predetermined charge or voltage threshold has been reached or exceeded.

[0151] The NZE may receive DCI or MAC CE or higher layer signaling from the PRU / base station indicating that the resources (time, frequency and beam) allocated to the EH process have been released or are no longer available for DEH.

[0152] The periodic DEH preamble transmitted by the base station and (one or more) PRUs can also be regarded as a polling signal. When the DEH preamble is detected, the UE can respond. The polling period can be adapted according to the response or activity level.

[0153] When the UE reports low energy, aperiodic DEH may be triggered as indicated.

[0154] The polling process can be initiated by the NZE device. The NZE-UE device can use its primary TRX to send a DEH request signal / message to the base station or PRU. The DEH signal / message may include one or more of the following: NZE-UE ID, current battery charge status, updated (GPS) location, current beam number / direction, minimum / maximum amount of charge requested, and path loss estimate based on received signal strength from the base station / PRU.

[0155] The NZE-UE(s) may also use backscatter based communication to provide feedback to the serving base station / PRU.Backscatter technology is generally suitable for feedback only and may not be suitable for initiating control signaling from the NZE-UE, except in ambient backscatter scenarios.

[0156] The energy transfer request may be initiated using a polling message generated from the base station / PRU in a broadcast / multicast / unicast backscatter configuration followed by a carrier transmission.

[0157] The NZE-UE can derive the timing used to modulate the backscatter signal transmitted from the serving base station / PRU based on the receipt of an NZE control message from the serving base station / PRU. The timing can be based on, for example, one or more of: the receipt of NZE signaling based on a schedule configured on the NZE or primary interface, the NZE-UE device ID, the request for a response, and a timing delay in the NZE control message. The timing delay can be used to make a relative comparison to a reference marker. The NZE control message can include an end-of-message symbol or code to indicate to the NZE the receipt of the complete NZE control message.

[0158] It may be preferred that the base station / PRU ensure that backscatter feedback operation does not interfere with regular downlink transmissions scheduled by the network for legacy information UEs. This can be made possible by optimizing frequency and time resource allocation with sufficient guard bands between the frequency resources allocated for backscatter operation and regular downlink transmissions.

[0159] Figure 7 is a sequence diagram illustrating a method of polling from an NZE device of a base station via a PRU.

[0160] Starting in active mode, in step S702 the primary TRX 78 discovers the PRU and reports its collection and other capabilities and receives configuration information. In step S704 the primary TRX 78 registers the NZE 76 with the PRU 74 (and conversely the PRU 74 registers the NZE 76).

[0161] In step S706, the PRU 74 may transmit a message for reporting the presence of the new NZE-UE to the serving base station (gNB) 72, and the serving base station (gNB) 72 transmits a positive response in step S708.

[0162] In step S710, the primary TRX 78 may provide the receive configuration parameters to the NZE device 76 and may enter an idle mode in step S712.

[0163] When the base station wishes to poll an NZE-UE, the base station 72 may forward control signaling intended for the NZE-UE to the local PRU in step S714. The base station may receive a positive acknowledgement from the PRU in step S716. The PRU may load configuration settings in step S718 and transmit a DEH signal to the intended NZE-UE unit in step S720. Upon receiving the dedicated energy signal, the NZE receiver 76 may harvest energy to trigger its primary TRX 78 in step S722 and instruct it (e.g., by sending a WUS) in step S724 to respond directly to the serving gNB or via the local PRU. In step S726, the primary TRX 78 goes into active mode and transmits a response to the PRU 74 or the base station 72 in step S728, for example, to notify the PRU 74 of the NZE battery charging.

[0164] Figure 8 is a sequence diagram illustrating a method in which an NZE-UE device requests a DEH charging signal from a PRU.

[0165] As the battery charge level of the NZE 86 drops below a minimum threshold, it may trigger or wake up its primary TRX 88 from an idle state in step S802. In step S804, the TRX 88 may go to active mode and request energy transfer from its PRU 84 in step S806.

[0166] In step S808, the PRU 84 may request an (updated) list of available resources from the base station 82 with the intention of minimizing interference in the cell. In step S810, the base station 82 may transmit the list to the PRU 84, which may send an acknowledgement to the base station 82 in step S812 and update its resource table in step S814.

[0167] In step S816, the PRU 84 may transmit a grant for the energy transfer request to the primary TRX 88, and in step S818 transmit the schedule and available resources.

[0168] In step S820, the primary TRX 88 may communicate the configuration settings to (or directly configure) the NZE receiver 86 using the provided settings and go to idle mode in step S822.

[0169] In step S824, the PRU 84 prepares for DEH transmission by loading its configuration and sends the scheduled DEH signal in step S826. In step S828, the NZE 86 harvests energy from the received DEH signal.

[0170] In step S830, the PRU 84 may transmit a request for battery or charge level status to the NZE 86. Upon receiving the request, in step S832, the NZE 86 may transmit a request to the primary TRX 88 to transmit the battery status.

[0171] In step S834, the primary TRX 88 may go to active mode and transmit a message including information indicating the state of charge level of the battery to the PRU 84 in step S836. Then, after receiving a “positive acknowledgement” message from the PRU in step S838 or after the timer has expired, the primary TRX 88 of the UE may return to idle mode in step S840.

[0172] Figure 9 is a flow chart illustrating a method at an NZE device according to an embodiment, wherein the NZE device requests and receives a polling signal via a PRU. Figure 9 In the description, the NZE equipment is assumed to include the main TRX.

[0173] In step S902, the NZE device detects a low battery condition and triggers the primary TRX to switch to active mode in step S904. In step S906, the primary TRX switches to active mode and sends a request for energy (charging, DEH) to the PRU in step S908. In step S910, the primary TRX receives authorization confirmation and receiver configuration settings for receiving DEH signals from the PRU. In step S912, the NZE prepares for DEH reception by loading the configuration settings and setting them. In step S914, the primary TRX can switch back to idle mode, and the NZE-UE can prepare to harvest energy transmitted from the PRU.

[0174] In step S916 , the NZE Rx receives the DEH, from which it collects energy.

[0175] In step S918 , the NZE determines whether it has received a charging status request from the PRU.

[0176] If this is not the case (i.e. no request is received), then in step S920 the NZE may determine whether the battery charge level is above a threshold (i.e. whether the battery is sufficiently charged). In the event that the battery level is not above the threshold, the NZE returns to harvesting energy (in step S916).

[0177] In case the NZE has received the charge status request (S918) or in case the battery is sufficiently charged (S920), it sends a trigger (eg, WUS) to the primary TRX to go to active mode in step S922.

[0178] In step S924 , the primary TRX goes to active mode and transmits a message including information indicating the battery charging status to the PRU.

[0179] In step S926 , the primary TRX may receive an acknowledgement from the PRU and may also receive a command message from the PRU.

[0180] In step S928 , the NZE determines whether the message includes information indicating the end of charging of the PRU.

[0181] In case the information does not indicate the end of charging, the NZE may return to collecting energy (in step S916 ).

[0182] In the case that the information indicates that charging is completed, in step S930 , the NZE may end energy collection.

[0183] Figure 10 is a flow chart illustrating a polling process initiated by a PRU.

[0184] In step S1002, the PRU sends a polling signal to the NZE device requesting a status report of its battery or charging condition. The polling signal may include a preamble or power optimized waveform (POW) followed by a data or payload field.

[0185] In step S1004 , upon receiving the DEH signal, the NZE UE may trigger its primary TRX to active mode to initiate a response to the PRU.

[0186] In step S1006, the PRU receives a response including information indicating the battery charge status. In step S1008, the PRU may determine whether DEH transmission is required and its configuration and duration based on the information received from the NZE. In step S1010, the PRU transmits a DEH signal for a predetermined duration.

[0187] In step S1012 , the NZE receives the DEH signal and collects energy from it.

[0188] In step S1014, the PRU determines whether the charging timer has expired (ie, whether the duration has passed). In the case where the timer has not expired, the DEH signal transmission continues.

[0189] If the timer has expired, the PRU may send another polling signal to assess the battery charging progress in step S1016. In step S1018, the primary TRX goes into active mode and reports the battery charging status to the PRU. In step S1020, the PRU may determine whether more charging is required by the NZE. If more charging is required, the PRU resumes DEH transmission (i.e., the method returns to step S1010). However, if more charging is not required, for example, if the battery is fully charged, the PRU may transmit a charge end message to the NZE-UE in step S1022.

[0190] in conclusion Although features and elements are provided above in specific combinations, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that each feature or element can be used alone or in any combination with other features and elements. The present disclosure is not limited in terms of the specific embodiments described in this application, which are intended to be illustrative of various aspects. Many modifications and variations can be made without departing from its spirit and scope, which will be obvious to those skilled in the art. None of the elements, actions or instructions used in the specification of this application should be understood as being essential or essential to the present invention unless so explicitly stated. In addition to those listed herein, functionally equivalent methods and devices within the scope of the present disclosure will be obvious to those skilled in the art from the description above. Such modifications and variations are intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims. The present disclosure is limited only by the terms of the appended claims and the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. It should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to a particular method or system.

[0191] For simplicity, the above embodiments are discussed with respect to the terminology and structure of infrared-enabled devices (i.e., infrared transmitters and receivers). However, the embodiments discussed are not limited to these systems, but can be applied to other systems that use other forms of electromagnetic waves or non-electromagnetic waves (such as sound waves).

[0192] It should also be understood that the terms used herein are used only to describe specific embodiments and are not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the term "video" or the term "imagery" may mean any of a snapshot, a single image, and / or a plurality of images displayed on a time basis. As another example, when referred to herein, the term "user equipment" and its abbreviation "UE", the term "remote" and / or the term "head mounted display" or its abbreviation "HMD" may mean or include (i) a wireless transmit and / or receive unit (WTRU); (ii) any of many embodiments of a WTRU; (iii) a wirelessly enabled and / or wired enabled device (e.g., shareable via a mobile phone) configured with, among other things, some or all of the structure and functionality of a WTRU; (iii) a wirelessly enabled and / or wired enabled device configured with less than all of the structure and functionality of a WTRU; (iv) and the like. This document is about Figures 1A to 1D Details are provided for an example WTRU that can represent any WTRU described herein. As another example, various disclosed embodiments are described above and below herein as utilizing a head-mounted display. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that devices other than head-mounted displays can be utilized and that some or all of the present disclosure and various disclosed embodiments can be modified accordingly without undue experimentation. Examples of such other devices may include drones or other devices configured to stream information to provide an adapted reality experience.

[0193] In addition, the method provided herein can be incorporated into a computer program, software or firmware for a computer or processor to perform. The example of a computer readable medium includes an electronic signal (transmitted by a wired or wireless connection) and a computer readable storage medium. The example of a computer readable storage medium includes but is not limited to a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a register, a cache memory, a semiconductor memory device, a magnetic medium (such as an internal hard disk and a removable disk), a magneto-optical medium and an optical medium (such as a CD-ROM disk and a digital versatile disk (DVD)). The processor associated with the software can be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for a WTRU, a UE, a terminal, a base station, an RNC or any host computer.

[0194] Variations of the methods, devices, and systems provided above are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. In view of the wide variety of embodiments that can be applied, it should be understood that the illustrated embodiments are merely examples and should not be considered as limiting the scope of the appended claims. For example, the embodiments provided herein include handheld devices that can include or be utilized with any suitable voltage source (such as a battery, etc.) to provide any suitable voltage.

[0195] In addition, in the embodiments provided above, processing platforms, computing systems, controllers and other devices including processors are mentioned. These devices may include at least one central processing unit ("CPU") and memory. According to the practice of those skilled in the art of computer programming, reference to the symbolic representation of actions and operations or instructions can be performed by various CPUs and memories. Such actions and operations or instructions can be referred to as "being executed," "being executed by a computer," or "being executed by a CPU."

[0196] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that actions and symbolically represented operations or instructions comprise manipulation of electrical signals by the CPU. The electrical system represents data bits, which can result in a resulting transformation or reduction of the electrical signal and maintain the data bits at memory locations in the memory system, thereby reconfiguring or otherwise changing the operation of the CPU, as well as other processing of the signal. The memory location where the data bits are maintained is a physical location having specific electrical, magnetic, optical, or organic properties corresponding to or representing the data bits. It should be understood that the embodiments are not limited to the platforms or CPUs mentioned above, and other platforms and CPUs may support the provided methods.

[0197] The data bits may also be maintained on computer-readable media, including magnetic disks, optical disks, and any other volatile (e.g., random access memory (RAM)) or non-volatile (e.g., read-only memory (ROM)) mass storage systems that can be read by a CPU. The computer-readable media may include cooperating or interconnected computer-readable media that reside exclusively on the processing system or distributed among multiple interconnected processing systems that may be local or remote to the processing system. It should be understood that the embodiments are not limited to the memories mentioned above, and other platforms and memories may support the provided methods.

[0198] In an illustrative embodiment, any operations, processes, etc. described herein may be implemented as computer-readable instructions stored on a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable instructions may be executed by a processor of a mobile unit, a network element, and / or any other computing device.

[0199] There is little distinction between hardware and software implementations of aspects of the system. The use of hardware or software is typically (but not always, as the choice between hardware and software may become important in certain contexts) a design choice that represents a cost versus efficiency trade-off. There may be a variety of vehicles by which the processes and / or systems and / or other technologies described herein can be implemented (e.g., hardware, software, and / or firmware), and the preferred vehicle may vary with the context in which the processes and / or systems and / or other technologies are deployed. For example, if an implementer determines that speed and accuracy are most important, the implementer may select a primarily hardware and / or firmware vehicle. If flexibility is most important, the implementer may select a primarily software implementation. Alternatively, the implementer may select some combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware.

[0200] The above detailed description has been described using block diagrams, flow charts and / or examples to illustrate various embodiments of the device and / or process. Since such block diagrams, flow charts and / or examples include one or more functions and / or operations, those skilled in the art will understand that each function and / or operation within such block diagrams, flow charts or examples can be implemented individually and / or collectively by a variety of hardware, software, firmware or almost any combination thereof. In one embodiment, several portions of the subject matter described herein can be implemented via an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP) and / or other integrated formats. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein can be equivalently implemented in whole or in part in an integrated circuit as one or more computer programs running on one or more computers (e.g., implemented as one or more programs running on one or more computer systems), as one or more programs running on one or more processors (e.g., implemented as one or more programs running on one or more microprocessors), as firmware or almost any combination thereof, and in view of the present disclosure, designing circuits and / or writing code for software and / or firmware will be well within the skills of those skilled in the art. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the mechanisms of the subject matter described herein can be distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that the illustrative embodiments of the subject matter described herein are applicable regardless of the particular type of signal-bearing medium used to actually implement the distribution. Examples of signal-bearing media include, but are not limited to, the following: recordable media such as floppy disks, hard drives, CDs, DVDs, digital tapes, computer memories, and the like; and transmission media such as digital and / or analog communication media (e.g., fiber optic cables, waveguides, wired communication links, wireless communication links, and the like).

[0201] Those skilled in the art will recognize that it is common in the art to describe devices and / or processes in the manner set forth herein, and subsequently use engineering practices to integrate such described devices and / or processes into data processing systems. That is, at least a portion of the devices and / or processes described herein can be integrated into data processing systems via a reasonable amount of experimentation. Those skilled in the art will recognize that a typical data processing system can typically include one or more of the following: a system unit housing, a video display device, a memory (such as, volatile and non-volatile memory), a processor (such as, a microprocessor and a digital signal processor), a computing entity (such as, an operating system, a driver, a graphical user interface and an application), one or more interactive devices (such as, a touchpad or screen) and / or a control system including a feedback loop and a control motor (e.g., feedback for sensing position and / or speed, a control motor for moving and / or adjusting components and / or quantity). A typical data processing system can be implemented using any suitable commercially available component, such as those components typically found in data computing / communication and / or network computing / communication systems.

[0202] The subject matter described herein sometimes illustrates different components that are included in or connected to different other components. It should be understood that this depicted architecture is merely an example, and in fact, many other architectures that implement the same function can be implemented. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components that implement the same function is effectively "associated" so that the desired function can be achieved. Therefore, any two components that are combined to implement a specific function herein can be considered to be "associated" with each other so that the desired function is achieved, regardless of the architecture or intermediate components. Similarly, any two components that are so associated can also be considered to be "operably connected" or "operably coupled" to each other to achieve the desired function, and any two components that can be so associated can also be considered to be "operably coupled" to each other to achieve the desired function. The specific examples of operable coupling include, but are not limited to, components that can be physically paired and / or physically interacted and / or components that can be wirelessly interacted and / or wirelessly interacted and / or components that logically interact and / or can logically interact.

[0203] With respect to the use of substantially any plural and / or singular terms herein, those skilled in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and / or from the singular to the plural as appropriate to the context and / or application. For purposes of clarity, various singular / plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein.

[0204] Those skilled in the art will understand that, in general, the terms used herein and particularly in the appended claims (e.g., the bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended to be "open" terms (e.g., the term "including" should be interpreted as "including but not limited to," the term "having" should be interpreted as "having at least," the term "comprising" should be interpreted as "including but not limited to," etc.). Those skilled in the art will further understand that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such intent will be expressly recited in the claim, and if no such recitation is made, such intent does not exist. For example, where only one item is intended, the term "single" or similar language may be used. As an aid to understanding, the appended claims and / or the description herein may include the use of the introductory phrases "at least one" and "one or more" to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be understood to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite article "a" or "an" will include any particular claim of such introduced claim recitation limited to embodiments including only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases "one or more" or "at least one" and an indefinite article such as "a" or "an" (e.g., "a" and / or "an" should be interpreted as meaning "at least one" or "one or more"). The same applies to the use of definite articles to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if specific numbers of introduced claim recitations are explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted as meaning at least the recited numbers (e.g., the unmodified recitation of "two recitations" without other modifiers means at least two recitations or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention similar to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, generally speaking, such construction is intended in the sense that one skilled in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include, but is not limited to, a system having only A, a system having only B, a system having only C, a system having A and B together, a system having A and C together, a system having B and C together, and / or a system having A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention similar to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, generally speaking, such construction is intended in the sense that one skilled in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include, but is not limited to, a system having only A, a system having only B, a system having only C, a system having A and B together, a system having A and C together, a system having B and C together, and / or a system having A, B, and C together, etc.).Those skilled in the art will further understand that, whether in the specification, claims or drawings, almost any disjunctive word and / or phrase presenting two or more interchangeable terms should be understood to consider the possibility of including one of the terms, any one of the two terms, or both of the terms. For example, the phrase "A or B" will be understood to include the possibility of "A" or "B" or "A and B". Further, as used herein, the term "any of..." followed by a list of multiple items and / or multiple categories of items is intended to include "any one," "any combination," "any multiple," and / or "any combination of multiple" of the items and / or categories, either alone or in combination with other items and / or other categories of items. In addition, as used herein, the term "set" is intended to include any number of items, including zero. Additionally, as used herein, the term "number" is intended to include any number, including zero. Moreover, as used herein, the term "multiple" is intended to be synonymous with "plurality."

[0205] In addition, where features or aspects of the disclosure are described in terms of Markush groups, those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosure is also thereby described in terms of any individual member or subgroup of members of the Markush group.

[0206] As will be understood by those skilled in the art, for any and all purposes, such as providing a written description, all ranges disclosed herein also encompass any and all possible subranges and combinations thereof. Any listed range can be easily identified as fully describing the same range and enabling the same range to be decomposed into at least equal halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, tenths, etc. As a non-limiting example, each range discussed herein can be easily decomposed into a lower third, a middle third, and an upper third, etc. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, all language such as "up to," "at least," "greater than," and "less than" includes the recited number and refers to a range that can subsequently be decomposed into the subranges discussed above. Finally, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, a range includes each individual member. Thus, for example, a group having 1 to 3 units refers to a group having 1, 2, or 3 units. Similarly, a group having 1 to 5 units refers to a group having 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 units, and so on.

[0207] Furthermore, the claims should not be read as limited to the order or elements provided unless so stated. Furthermore, the use of the term "means for..." in any claim is intended to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112, 6 or “means-plus-function” claim format, and any claim without the term “means for…” is not intended to be so.

Claims

1. A method at a wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU), comprising: receiving, from a first base station in the cell, information indicating at least one second base station configured for dedicated energy transfer; transmitting information indicating a request for energy transfer to the selected second base station; as well as Dedicated energy harvesting from energy transfer signals received from the second base station is performed.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, before receiving: Information indicative of a request for energy transfer is transmitted to the first base station.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: Information indicative of selection of the selected second base station is transmitted to the first base station.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, before executing: receiving, from the first base station, information for registering with the selected second base station; and Register with the selected second base station.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: measuring received signal strengths of signals respectively received from a plurality of second base stations in the at least one second base station; as well as The second base station having the highest received signal strength is selected.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the information indicating at least one second base station further comprises information indicating a location of the at least one second base station, The method further comprises: The second base station is selected based on at least one of a location of the second base station and a proximity to the second base station.

7. A wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU), comprising: a memory coupled to at least one processor, the at least one processor configured to: receiving, from a first base station in the cell, information indicating at least one second base station configured for dedicated energy transfer; transmitting information indicating a request for energy transfer to the selected second base station; as well as Dedicated energy harvesting from energy transfer signals received from the second base station is performed.

8. The WTRU of claim 7, wherein the at least one processor is further configured, prior to receiving: to transmit information indicating a request for energy transfer to the first base station.

9. The WTRU of claim 7, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Information indicative of selection of the selected second base station is transmitted to the first base station.

10. The WTRU of claim 7, wherein the at least one processor is further configured, prior to executing: receiving information from the first base station for registering with the selected second base station; and Register with the selected second base station.

11. The WTRU of claim 7, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: measuring received signal strengths of signals respectively received from a plurality of second base stations among the at least one second base station; and The second base station having the highest received signal strength is selected.

12. The WTRU of claim 7 , wherein the information indicating the at least one second base station further comprises information indicating a location of the at least one second base station, Wherein the at least one processor is further configured to select the second base station based on at least one of a location of the second base station and a proximity to the second base station.

13. A method at a wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU), comprising: receiving information indicating a configuration for energy harvesting from a base station; as well as The configuration is used to harvest energy from signals transmitted by the base station.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising, before receiving: The energy harvesting capability of the WTRU is reported to the base station.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein reporting and receiving are performed using a transmitter / receiver and harvesting energy is performed using an energy harvesting circuit.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: The transmitter / receiver is set to an idle mode upon receiving information indicating a configuration for energy harvesting.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising: The transmitter / receiver is set to an active mode upon receipt of a signal transmitted by the base station.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising: A message is transmitted to the base station using the transmitter / receiver.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein: The message includes information indicating the charge level of the WTRU's battery.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein: The message is transmitted upon receipt of a request received from the base station.

21. The method of claim 15, further comprising: The message is transmitted to a further base station using the transmitter / receiver.

22. The method of claim 15, further comprising: Information indicative of a request for energy transfer is transmitted to the base station.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein information indicative of a request for energy transfer is transmitted prior to receiving.

24. A wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU), comprising: a memory coupled to at least one processor, the at least one processor configured to: receiving information indicating a configuration for energy harvesting from a base station; and The configuration is used to harvest energy from signals transmitted by the base station.

25. The WTRU of claim 24, wherein the at least one processor is further configured, prior to receiving: The energy harvesting capability of the WTRU is reported to the base station.

26. The WTRU of claim 25, wherein reporting and receiving are performed using a transmitter / receiver and harvesting energy is performed using energy harvesting circuitry.

27. The WTRU of claim 26, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: The transmitter / receiver is set to an idle mode upon receiving information indicating a configuration for energy harvesting.

28. The WTRU of claim 27, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: The transmitter / receiver is set to an active mode upon receipt of a signal transmitted by the base station.

29. The WTRU of claim 26, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: A message is transmitted to the base station using the transmitter / receiver.

30. The WTRU of claim 29, wherein: The message includes information indicating the charge level of the WTRU's battery.

31. The WTRU of claim 29, wherein: The message is transmitted upon receipt of a request received from the base station.

32. The WTRU of claim 26, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: The message is transmitted to a further base station using the transmitter / receiver.

33. The WTRU of claim 26, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Information indicative of a request for energy transfer is transmitted to the base station.

34. The WTRU of claim 33, wherein the information indicating the request for energy transfer is transmitted prior to receiving.

35. A method at a first base station, comprising: receiving, from an energy harvesting device, information indicative of energy harvesting capabilities of the energy harvesting device; transmitting, to the energy harvesting device, information indicating a configuration to be used for harvesting energy from a dedicated signal transmitted by the first base station; as well as The dedicated signal is transmitted.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising: transmitting information indicating an identifier and a location of the energy harvesting device to a second base station associated with the first base station; as well as receiving, from the second base station, information indicating control signaling to be used for the energy harvesting device; and The dedicated signal conveys information indicative of a control signal.

37. A first base station comprising a memory coupled to at least one processor, the at least one processor configured to: receive information from an energy harvesting device indicating energy harvesting capabilities of the energy harvesting device; transmitting, to the energy harvesting device, information indicating a configuration to be used for harvesting energy from a dedicated signal transmitted by the first base station; as well as The dedicated signal is transmitted.

38. The first base station of claim 37, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: transmitting information indicating an identifier and a location of the energy harvesting device to a second base station associated with the first base station; and receiving information from the second base station indicating control signaling to be used for the energy harvesting device; and The dedicated signal conveys information indicative of a control signal.

39. A method at a first base station, comprising: receiving, from a second base station located in a cell in which the first base station is located, information indicating available transmission resources for the first base station; transmitting information based on the available transmission resources and indicative of future transmissions of signals to be used for energy harvesting to energy harvesting devices located in the cell; as well as A signal is transmitted to the energy harvesting device to be used for energy harvesting.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising: Information indicative of a request for energy transfer is received from the energy harvesting device.

41. The method of claim 39, further comprising: Information indicative of a request for information indicative of available transmission resources is transmitted to the second base station.

42. The method of claim 39, wherein: The information indicative of future transmissions of signals to be used for energy harvesting includes information indicative of at least one of a transmission schedule and resources to be used for the future transmissions.

43. The method of claim 39, further comprising: Upon transmission of a signal to be used for energy harvesting, information indicative of a request for a battery charge level of the energy harvesting device is transmitted to the energy harvesting device.

44. The method of claim 43, further comprising: Upon transmission of the signal to be used for energy harvesting, information indicating an end of the transmission of the signal to be used for energy harvesting is transmitted to the energy harvesting device.

45. The method of claim 43, further comprising: Information indicative of a charge level of a battery of the energy harvesting device is received from the energy harvesting device.

46. ​​A first base station comprising a memory coupled to at least one processor, the at least one processor configured to: receive information indicating available transmission resources for the first base station from a second base station located in a cell in which the first base station is located; transmitting information based on the available transmission resources and indicative of future transmissions of signals to be used for energy harvesting to energy harvesting devices located in the cell; as well as A signal is transmitted to the energy harvesting device to be used for energy harvesting.

47. The first base station of claim 46, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Information indicative of a request for energy transfer is received from the energy harvesting device.

48. The first base station of claim 46, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Information indicative of a request for information indicative of available transmission resources is transmitted to the second base station.

49. The first base station of claim 46, wherein: The information indicative of future transmissions of signals to be used for energy harvesting includes information indicative of at least one of a transmission schedule and resources to be used for the future transmissions.

50. The first base station of claim 46, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Upon transmission of a signal to be used for energy harvesting, information indicative of a request for a battery charge level of the energy harvesting device is transmitted to the energy harvesting device.

51. The first base station of claim 50, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Upon transmission of the signal to be used for energy harvesting, information indicating an end of the transmission of the signal to be used for energy harvesting is transmitted to the energy harvesting device.

52. The first base station of claim 50, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Information indicative of a charge level of a battery of the energy harvesting device is received from the energy harvesting device.

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