Method for network-assisted beamforming energy harvesting signaling and corresponding apparatus

Abstract

A wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU) may include an energy harvesting device (EH), a zero energy transceiver (ZE), and a main transceiver. The WTRU may use the main transceiver to initialize operation and receive beam detection configuration and mapping information. The WTRU may use the ZE transceiver to initialize a beam (re)selection procedure, use the received beam detection configuration to determine detectable beam IDs, and use the received mapping information to obtain an EH signaling configuration. The WTRU determines expected EH performance for each detected beam and selects the beam with the best expected EH performance. Provided that the WTRU determines the need for dynamic EH signaling for the selected beam, it proceeds with a presence declaration procedure and requests optimized dynamic EH signaling. The WTRU utilizes control signaling channel parameters to dynamically receive the optimized EH signal configuration, configure its EH circuitry, and harvest energy.

Description

[Background technology]

[0001] In recent years, many compelling use cases for long battery life devices have emerged. These devices include various IoT devices, such as small form factor handsets, wearable devices, and embedded devices. Passive and semi-passive receivers are considered to be the key to enabling these emerging use cases. These new classes of passive and semi-passive devices require both energy and information to be delivered over wireless networks. In the future, networks will have to accommodate a heterogeneous mix of active, semi-passive, and passive devices. Networks will have to simultaneously transmit signals carrying information and signals optimized to deliver power. In many deployment scenarios, these different types of signals may have to be supported in the same frequency band. Summary of the Invention

[0002] The present disclosure describes, inter alia, a method and design for utilizing beamforming energy harvesting signal transmission and introducing frequency resource randomization per beam to improve energy harvesting (EH) efficiency without degrading information transmission performance. For example, the EH device may receive a semi-static frequency resource (EH band) hopping scheme per beam that may be selected by the serving eNB to improve energy harvesting efficiency using historical information transfer statistics. For example, the EH device may dynamically receive a dedicated configuration per beam to further optimize energy harvesting efficiency based on real-time information signal transmission. The dedicated configuration may be as simple as a frequency resource (EH sub-band) hopping scheme or a combination of EH sub-band randomization and auxiliary signal boosting.

[0003] Among other things, a method is disclosed for use in a wireless transmit / receive unit, the method comprising: - receiving first configuration information from a network indicating an energy harvesting signal configuration for at least one transmit beam; - receiving second configuration information from the network, the second configuration information including an indicator for measuring information and an energy transfer quality metric for at least one transmission beam, the second configuration information including a criterion for reporting the measured information and the energy transfer quality metric to the network; - determining an information and energy transfer quality metric for the at least one transmit beam based on the received first configuration information and the second configuration information; - transmitting a report to the network including the determined information and energy transmission quality metrics for the at least one transmission beam, on condition that the determined information and energy transmission quality metrics for the at least one transmission beam meet a criterion for the report.

[0004] Among other things, a wireless receive / transmit unit device is disclosed that includes at least one processor, the at least one processor comprising: - receiving first configuration information from a network indicating an energy harvesting signal configuration for at least one transmit beam; - receiving second configuration information from the network, the second configuration information including an indicator for measuring information and an energy transfer quality metric for at least one transmission beam, the second configuration information including a criterion for reporting the measured information and the energy transfer quality metric to the network; - determining an information and energy transfer quality metric for the at least one transmit beam based on the received first configuration information and the second configuration information; - transmitting to the network a report including the determined information and energy transmission quality metrics for the at least one transmission beam, on condition that the determined information and energy transmission quality metrics for the at least one transmission beam satisfy a criterion for the report. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0005] Additionally, like reference numbers in the drawings refer to like elements. [Figure 1A] FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating an example communication system in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented. [Figure 1B] 1A is a system diagram illustrating an example wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU) that may be used within the communications system illustrated in FIG. 1A, according to one embodiment. [Figure 1C] FIG. 1B is a system diagram illustrating an example radio access network (RAN) and an example core network (CN) that may be used within the communication system illustrated in FIG. 1A, according to one embodiment. [Figure 1D] FIG. 1B is a system diagram illustrating a further exemplary RAN and a further exemplary CN that may be used within the communication system illustrated in FIG. 1A, according to one embodiment. [Diagram 2] 1 shows the power received by a diode rectifier-based energy harvesting passive rectifier as a function of received signal power and type of received signal. [Diagram 3] 1 shows the conversion efficiency of a diode rectifier-based energy harvesting passive receiver as a function of received power and type of received waveform. [Figure 4] 1 shows the simultaneous delivery of energy and information to multiple energy and information receivers (a) and the simultaneous delivery of energy and information to multiple energy and information receivers co-located in the same device (b). [Diagram 5]1 illustrates a possible antenna interface for an energy harvester and an information receiver co-located in the same device. [Figure 6] 1 illustrates an exemplary network supporting three beam transmissions per cell. [Figure 7] FIG. 1 is an exemplary diagram illustrating EH sub-bands grouped into multiple EH frequency bands. [Figure 8] 1 illustrates exemplary frequency allocation options for default EH signals and common signals. [Figure 9] 1A-1C are diagrams of different periodicity configurations of the default EH signaling channel and corresponding signaling channels. [Figure 10] A timing schedule of some exemplary common signaling channels and default EH signaling channels for time-switched beam transmission is shown. [Figure 11] 13 shows timing schedules of some exemplary common signaling channels and default EH signaling channels for simultaneous beam transmission. [Figure 12] 1 is an illustrative example of a mix of time-switched and simultaneous beam transmissions. [Figure 13] 1 shows timing schedules of some exemplary common signaling channels and default EH signaling channels for mixing simultaneous and time-switched beam transmissions. [Figure 14] A fixed subband signal enhancement approach to maximize the EH signal PAPR is presented. [Figure 15] Using a sample codebook of length M ∈ {1, 5, 10, 50}, we present the PAPR CDF for enhancing the QPSK modulated base information signal. [Figure 16] We present the PAPR CDF using an auxiliary signal codebook of length M ∈ {1, 5, 10, 50} to enhance the 16-QAM modulated base information signal. [Figure 17]1 is a sample realization of the EH signal, a 2 RB portion of a 16-QAM based information signal, in the time domain before auxiliary signal enhancement. [Figure 18] 1 is a sample realization of the EH signal, a 2-RB portion of a 16-QAM based information signal, in the time domain after auxiliary signal enhancement. [Figure 19] FIG. 1 is a diagram of an adaptive subband hopping approach for PAPR maximization of an EH signal. [Figure 20] 13 shows the PAPR CDF using independent / non-overlapping subband frequency hopping for system RB support fraction ρ ∈ {1, 1 / 2, 1 / 10} and a 16-QAM modulated signal. [Figure 21] FIG. 13 is a diagram of adaptive subband hopping with auxiliary signal enhancement approach to maximize the PAPR of an EH signal. [Figure 22] 11 is a flow chart illustrating one embodiment of a WTRU decision sequence for optimized beamforming energy harvesting. [Diagram 23] 13 is a flow chart illustrating a further embodiment of a WTRU decision sequence for optimized beamforming energy harvesting. [Figure 24] 1 is an example system configuration showing a potential distribution of EH bands and their frequency allocations. [Diagram 25] 1 is an exemplary EH band, EH sub-band, common and default EH signaling channels, and dynamic EH enhancement configurations. [Figure 26] 1 is an exemplary NLOS information / energy transfer scenario in which the optimal information transfer link is different from the energy transfer link. [Figure 27] 13 is a flow chart illustrating a decision sequence for a WTRU capable of dedicated EH signaling configuration request for optimized beamforming energy harvesting when the WTRU is equipped with an omni-directional receive antenna. [Figure 28]13 is a flowchart illustrating a WTRU decision sequence for optimized beamforming energy harvesting when the WTRU is capable of simultaneous reception via two or more beams. [Figure 29] 13 is a flowchart illustrating a WTRU decision sequence for optimized beamforming energy harvesting when the WTRU is capable of time switching based beamforming reception. [Diagram 30] 13 is a flowchart illustrating a WTRU decision sequence for optimized beamforming energy harvesting when the WTRU is capable of time switching based beamforming reception and dedicated EH signaling configuration requests. [Diagram 31] 13 is a simplified flow chart illustrating a WTRU decision sequence for optimized beamforming EH when the WTRU is capable of time switching based beamforming reception and dedicated EH signaling configuration requests. [Diagram 32] 13 is an alternative simplified flowchart illustrating a WTRU decision sequence for optimized beamforming EH when the WTRU is capable of time switching based beamforming reception and dedicated EH signaling configuration requests. [Diagram 33] 13 is an alternative simplified flowchart illustrating a WTRU decision sequence for optimized beamforming EH when the WTRU is capable of time switching based beamforming reception but not capable of dedicated EH signaling configuration requests. [Diagram 34] 13 is a simplified flowchart illustrating a WTRU decision sequence for optimized beamforming EH when the WTRU is capable of time-switching based beamforming reception and dedicated EH signaling configuration requests utilizing joint performance metrics. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0006] Exemplary Network for Implementing the Embodiments FIG. 1A illustrates 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, broadcasts, etc., to multiple wireless users. The communication system 100 may enable the multiple wireless users to access such content through sharing of system resources, including wireless bandwidth. For example, the communication system 100 may be a multiple access system that utilizes a variety of access techniques, including code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), single carrier frequency division multiple access (SDMA), or other similar access techniques. Multiple access (single-carrier FDMA, SC-FDMA), zero-tailed unique word discrete Zero-tail unique-word DFT-Spread OFDM (ZT One or more channel access methods may be employed, such as UW DTS-s OFDM, unique word OFDM (UW-OFDM), resource block filtered orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, and filter bank multicarrier (FBMC).

[0007] As shown in FIG. 1A, the communication system 100 includes wireless transmit / receive units (WTRUs) 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, a RAN 104 / 113, a CN 106 / 115, and a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108. 110, the Internet 110, and other networks 112, although it will be understood 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 user equipment (UE), mobile stations, fixed or mobile subscriber units, subscription-based units, pagers, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones, laptop computers, netbook computers, personal computers, wireless sensors, hotspots or Mi-Fi devices, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, watches or other wearable devices, head-mounted displays (HMDs), vehicles, drones, medical devices and applications (e.g., remote surgery), industrial devices and applications (e.g., robots and / or other wireless devices operating in industrial and / or automated process chain contexts), consumer electronics devices, devices operating in commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, and the like. Any of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and 102d may be referred to interchangeably as a UE.

[0008] 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 to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the CN 106 / 115, the Internet 110, and / or other networks 112. By way of example, the base stations 114a, 114b may be a base transceiver station (BTS), a Node B, an eNodeB, a Home Node B, a Home eNodeB, a gNB, a NR NodeB, a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless router, etc. Although the base stations 114a, 114b are each shown as a single element, it will be understood that the base stations 114a, 114b may include any number of interconnected base stations and / or network elements.

[0009] The base station 114a includes a base station controller (BSC), The base station 114a and / or the base station 114b may be part of the RAN 104 / 113, which may also include other base stations and / or network elements (not shown), such as radio network controllers (RNCs), relay nodes, etc. The base station 114a and / or the 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 cells (not shown). These frequencies may be licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, or a combination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum. A cell may provide wireless service coverage for a particular 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 the base station 114a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, in one embodiment, the base station 114a may include three transceivers, i.e., one transceiver for each sector of the cell. In one embodiment, the base station 114a may employ multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) technology and may utilize multiple transceivers for each sector of the cell. For example, beamforming may be used to transmit and / or receive signals in a desired spatial direction.

[0010] 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, micrometer wave, infrared, etc.). (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, etc.) The base station 116 may support any suitable radio access technology (RAT). It can be established using

[0011] More specifically, as noted above, the communications system 100 may be a multiple access system and may employ one or more channel access schemes, such as, for example, CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, etc. For example, the base stations 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c in the RAN 104 / 113 may implement a radio technology such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA)). However, this is a system that uses wideband CDMA (WCDMA) to communicate over the air interface. WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High-Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA) and / or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may include High-Speed ​​Downlink (DL) Packet Access (HSDPA) and / or High-Speed ​​Uplink (HSPAP) Packet Access (HSPAP+). This may include packet access (High-Speed ​​UL Packet Access, HSUPA).

[0012] In one embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c are UMTS terrestrial radio access (E-UTR) based. A), 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).

[0013] In one embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c establish the air interface 116 using New Radio (NR) technology. In some embodiments, the wireless LAN may implement a wireless technology such as NR radio access.

[0014] 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 implement dual connectivity (DC) or other wireless technologies. The principles may be used to implement LTE and NR radio access together. 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).

[0015] In another embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be IEEE 802.11 (i.e., Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) , IEEE802.16 (i.e., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, WiMAX), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1X, CDM Radio technologies such as A2000 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), and GSM EDGE radio access network (GERAN) may be implemented.

[0016] The base station 114b in FIG. 1A may be, for example, a wireless router, a Home Node B, a Home eNode B, or an access point, and may be used in an office, home, vehicle, campus, industrial facility, or other facility. Any suitable RAT may be utilized to facilitate wireless connectivity in a localized area, such as a location of a facility, an air corridor (e.g., for use by drones), a road, etc. 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). 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 yet another embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may establish a picocell or femtocell using a cellular-based RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, LTE-APro, NR, etc.). As shown in FIG. 1A, the base station 114b may have a direct connection to the Internet 110. Thus, the base station 114b may not need to access the Internet 110 via the CN 106 / 115.

[0017] The RAN 104 / 113 may communicate with the CN 106 / 115, which may include voice, data, applications, and / or voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The CN 106 / 115 may be any type of network configured to provide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d. The data may have various quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as, for example, 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 high-level security functions such as user authentication. Although not shown in FIG. 1A, it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 / 113 and / or the CN 106 / 115 may communicate directly or indirectly with other RANs employing 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 communicate with another RAN (not shown) employing GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, WiMAX, E-UTRA, or WiFi radio technology.

[0018] The CN 106 / 115 may also act 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 public switched telephone network that provides plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks and devices, which communicate using the transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), and / or TCP / IP Internet Protocol switches. Common communication protocols, such as the Internet Protocol (IP) for The network 112 may include wired and / or wireless communication networks owned and / or operated by other service providers. For example, the network 112 may include another CN connected to one or more RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 / 113 or a different RAT.

[0019] Some or all of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d in the communications 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 over different wireless links). For example, the WTRU 102c shown in FIG. 1A may be configured to communicate with a base station 114a that can use a cellular-based wireless technology and a base station 114b that can use an IEEE 802 wireless technology.

[0020] 1B is a system diagram illustrating an example WTRU 102. As shown in FIG. 1B, the WTRU 102 includes, among other components, 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 source 134, a global positioning system (GPS) chipset 136, and / or a wireless LAN (WAN) 138. or other peripherals 138. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the foregoing elements while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

[0021] The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors associated with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (AS), or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). IC), Field Programmable Gate Array (F 1B depicts the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 as separate components, it will be understood that the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package or chip. 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 FIG. 1B depicts the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 as separate components, it will be understood that the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package or chip.

[0022] 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 yet another 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.

[0023] 1B as a single element, the WTRU 102 may include any number of transmit / receive elements 122. More specifically, the WTRU 102 may use MIMO technology. Thus, in one 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.

[0024] The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate signals transmitted by the transmit / receive element 122 and demodulate signals received by the transmit / receive element 122. As mentioned above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, the transceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers to enable the WTRU 102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as, for example, NR and IEEE 802.11.

[0025] The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to and may receive user-entered data from 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). The processor 118 may also output user data to the speaker / microphone 124, the keypad 126, and / or the display / touchpad 128. Additionally, 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, etc. In other embodiments, the processor 118 may access information and store data in memory that is not physically located on the WTRU 102, such as on a server or home computer (not shown).

[0026] The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134, but may be configured to distribute and / or control the power to other components in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitable device for providing power to the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 may include one or more dry batteries (e.g., nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel-zinc (NiZn), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium-ion (Li-ion), etc.), solar cells, fuel cells, etc.

[0027] The processor 118 may also be coupled to a GPS chipset 136, which may be configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude and latitude) regarding a 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 being received from two or more nearby base stations. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may obtain location information by way of any suitable location-determination method while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

[0028] The processor 118 may further be coupled to other peripherals 138, which may include one or more software and / or hardware modules that provide additional features, functionality, and / or wired or wireless connectivity. For example, the peripherals 138 may include an accelerometer, an electronic compass, a satellite transceiver, a digital camera (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 modulated (FM) radio unit, Digital music players, media players, video game player modules, Internet browsers, Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality, VR / AR devices, activity trackers, etc. Peripherals 138 may include one or more sensors, which may be one or more of a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a Hall effect sensor, a magnetometer, an orientation sensor, a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor, a time sensor, a geolocation sensor, an altimeter, a light sensor, a touch sensor, a magnetometer, a barometer, a gesture sensor, a biometric sensor, and / or a humidity sensor.

[0029] The WTRU 102 may include a full-duplex radio where the transmission and reception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated with a particular subframe for both the uplink (e.g., for transmission) and downlink (e.g., for reception)) may be parallel 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., chokes) or signal processing via a processor (e.g., via a separate processor (not shown) or processor 118). In one embodiment, the WRTU 102 may include a half-duplex radio for the transmission and reception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated with a particular subframe for either the uplink (e.g., for transmission) or downlink (e.g., for reception)).

[0030] 1C is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 104 and the CN 106 according to one embodiment. As mentioned above, the RAN 104 may communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116 using E-UTRA radio technology. The RAN 104 may also communicate with the CN 106.

[0031] The RAN 104 may include eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c, although it will be understood 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 an embodiment, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, the eNode-B 160a may, for example, use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to and / or receive wireless signals from the WTRU 102a.

[0032] Each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 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, etc. in the UL and / or DL. As shown in FIG 1C, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may communicate with each other via an X2 interface.

[0033] The CN 106 shown in FIG. 1C includes a mobility management entity (MME) 162, a serving gateway (SGW) 163, and a 64, and packet data network (PDN) gateways (or PGW) 166. Although each of the foregoing elements is depicted as part of the CN 106, it will be understood that any of these elements may be owned and / or operated by an entity other than the CN operator.

[0034] The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 162a, 162b, 162c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may function as a control node. For example, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, activating / deactivating bearers, selecting a particular serving gateway during initial attach of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, etc. The MME 162 may provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as GSM and / or WCDMA.

[0035] 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 / 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 DL data is available to the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and managing and storing the context of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c.

[0036] The SGW 164 may be connected to a 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.

[0037] 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 communicate 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. Additionally, 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.

[0038] Although the WTRU is depicted in FIGS. 1A-1D as a wireless terminal, it is contemplated that in certain representative embodiments such a terminal may use a wired communications interface (e.g., temporarily or permanently) with the communications network.

[0039] In an exemplary embodiment, the other network 112 may be a WLAN.

[0040] Infrastructure Basic Service Set (BSS) mode A WLAN may have an access point (AP) of a BSS and one or more stations (STAs) associated with the AP. The AP may have access or interface to 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 to a STA may arrive through the AP and be delivered to the STA. Traffic originating from a STA to a destination outside the BSS may be sent to the AP and transmitted to the respective destination. Traffic between STAs within a BSS may be transmitted, for example, through the AP, where a source STA may send traffic to the AP, which 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 transmitted in a direct link setup (DLS) between a source STA and a destination STA (e.g., directly between them). Certain representative In various embodiments, the DLS may use 802.11e DLS or 802.11z tunneled DLS (TDLS). A WLAN using the IBSS mode may not have an AP, and STAs within or using the IBSS (e.g., all of the STAs) may communicate directly with each other. The IBSS mode of communication may be referred to herein as an "ad-hoc" communication mode.

[0041] When using an 802.11ac infrastructure mode of operation or a similar mode of operation, an AP may transmit beacons on a fixed channel, such as a primary channel. The primary channel may be a fixed width (e.g., a 20 MHz wide bandwidth) or a width that is dynamically set via signaling. The primary channel may be the operating channel of the BSS and may be used by STAs to establish a connection with the AP. In some representative embodiments, for example, in an 802.11 system, a carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Avoidance) is used. A CSMA / CA (combined CSMA / CA) may be implemented. With CSMA / CA, STAs (e.g., all STAs) including the AP may sense the primary channel. If the primary channel is sensed / detected and / or determined to be busy by a particular STA, the particular STA may back off. One STA (e.g., only one station) may transmit at any given time in a given BSS.

[0042] High Throughput (HT) STA uses 40 MHz bandwidth for communication. A 40 MHz wide channel may be used, but this 40 MHz wide channel may be formed, for example, through a combination of a primary 20 MHz channel and adjacent or non-adjacent 20 MHz channels.

[0043] A Very High Throughput (VHT) STA may support 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and / or 160 MHz wide channels. The 40 MHz and / or 80 MHz wide channels may be formed by combining consecutive 20 MHz channels. A 160 MHz channel may be formed by combining eight consecutive 20 MHz channels or by combining two non-consecutive 80 MHz channels, which may be referred to as an 80+80 configuration. For the 80+80 configuration, after channel encoding, the data may pass through a segment parser that may split the data into two streams. Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) processing and time domain processing may be performed separately on each stream. The streams may be mapped to two 80 MHz channels and the data may be transmitted by the transmitting STA. At the receiver of the receiving STA, the operations described above for the 80+80 configuration may be reversed and the combined data may be transmitted to the Medium Access Control (MAC).

[0044] Sub-1 GHz operating modes are supported by 802.11af and 802.11ah. Channel operating bandwidths and carriers are reduced in 802.11af and 802.11ah compared to those used in 802.11n and 802.11ac. 802.11af supports 5 MHz, 10 MHz, and 20 MHz bandwidths in the TV White Space (TVWS) spectrum, and 802.11ah supports 1 MHz, 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 8 MHz, and 16 MHz bandwidths using non-TVWS spectrum. According to representative embodiments, 802.11ah may support meter-type control / machine-type communication, such as MTC devices in macro coverage areas. MTC devices may have limited capabilities, including, for example, support for (e.g., support only for) specific and / or limited bandwidths. MTC devices may include batteries with battery life above a threshold (e.g., to maintain very long battery life).

[0045] WLAN systems that may support multiple channels and channel bandwidths, such as 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11af, and 802.11ah, include a channel that may be designated as a primary channel. The primary channel may have a bandwidth equal to the maximum common operating bandwidth supported by all STAs in the BSS. The bandwidth of the primary channel may be set and / or limited by the STA from among all STAs operating in the BSS that support the minimum bandwidth operating mode. In an 802.11ah example, the primary channel may be 1 MHz wide for STAs (e.g., MTC type devices) that support (e.g., only support) the 1 MHz mode, 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) may be used to designate the primary channel. V) The setting may depend on the state of the primary channel. For example, if the primary channel is busy due to STAs (that only support 1 MHz mode of operation) transmitting to the AP, the entire available frequency band may be considered busy, even though most of the frequency band may remain idle and available.

[0046] In the United States, the available frequency band that can be used by 802.11ah is 902-928MHz. In South Korea, the available frequency band is 917.5-923.5MHz. In Japan, the available frequency band is 916.5-927.5MHz. The total bandwidth available for 802.11ah is 6-26MHz depending on the country code.

[0047] 1D is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 113 and the CN 115 according to one embodiment. As mentioned above, the RAN 113 may communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116 using NR radio technology. The RAN 113 may also communicate with the CN 115.

[0048] The RAN 113 may include gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c, although it will be understood that the RAN 113 may include any number of gNBs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In an embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement MIMO technology. For example, the gNBs 180a, 108b may utilize beamforming to transmit and / or receive signals to the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c. Thus, the gNB 180a may transmit wireless signals to and / or receive wireless signals from the WTRU 102a, for example, using multiple antennas. In one embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement carrier aggregation technology. 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 an unlicensed spectrum, and the remaining component carriers may be on a licensed spectrum. In one embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) technology. For example, the WTRU 102a may transmit multiple component carriers to the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c. It is possible to receive cooperative transmissions from gNB180a and gNB180b (and / or gNB180c).

[0049] The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using transmissions associated with a scalable numerology. For example, the 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 different or scalable lengths (e.g., including different numbers of OFDM symbols and / or lasting different lengths of absolute time).

[0050] 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 accessing another RAN (e.g., eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c, etc.). In a standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may utilize one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c as mobility anchor points. In a standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using signals in unlicensed bands. In a non-standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with and connect to a gNB 180a, 180b, 180c while also communicating with and connecting to another RAN, such as an eNode-B 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 act as mobility anchors for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, while the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may provide additional coverage and / or throughput for serving the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c.

[0051] Each of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and is responsible for radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the UL and / or DL, supporting network slicing, dual connectivity, interworking between NR and E-UTRA, and routing of user plane data to User Plane Functions (UPFs) 184a, 184b. ,Access and Mobility Management Function (AM F) may be configured to handle routing of control plane information to 182a, 182b, etc. As shown in FIG. 1D, gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may communicate with each other via an Xn interface.

[0052] The CN 115 shown in FIG. 1D includes at least one AMF 182a, 182b, at least one UPF 184a, 184b, at least one Session Management Function (SMF) 183a, 183b, and possibly a data network. The CN 115 may include a Data Network (DN) 185a, 185b. Although each of the foregoing elements is depicted as part of the CN 115, it will be understood that any of these elements may be owned and / or operated by an entity other than the CN operator.

[0053] The AMF 182a, 182b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 113 via an N2 interface and may function 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 PDU sessions with different requirements), selecting a particular SMF 183a, 183b, managing registration areas, terminating NAS signaling, mobility management, etc. The network slices may be used by the AMF 182a, 182b to customize the CN support of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c based on the type of service utilizing the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. For example, different network slices may be used for services that rely on ultra-reliable low latency (URLLC) access, enhanced massive mobile broadband (EMB) access, and other services that rely on enhanced massive mobile broadband (EMB) access. , eMBB) access, services for machine type communication (MTC) access, and / or the like. The AMF 162 may provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 113 and other RANs (not shown) employing other radio technologies, such as, for example, LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, and / or non-3GPP access technologies, such as, for example, WiFi.

[0054] The SMFs 183a, 183b may be connected to the AMFs 182a, 182b in the CN 115 via an N11 interface. The SMFs 183a, 183b may also be connected to the UPFs 184a, 184b in the CN 115 via an N4 interface. The SMFs 183a, 183b may select and control the UPFs 184a, 184b and configure the routing of traffic through the UPFs 184a, 184b. The SMFs 183a, 183b may perform other functions such as managing and assigning UE IP addresses, managing PDU sessions, controlling policy enforcement and QoS, providing downlink data notification, etc. The PDU session type may be IP-based, non-IP-based, Ethernet-based, etc.

[0055] The UPFs 184a, 184b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 113 via an N3 interface, 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. The UPFs 184, 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.

[0056] The CN 115 may facilitate communication with other networks. For example, the CN 115 may include or communicate with an IP gateway (e.g., an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) server) that serves 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 an embodiment, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be connected to local Data Networks (DNs) 185a, 185b through the UPFs 184a, 184b via an N3 interface to the UPFs 184a, 184b and an N6 interface between the UPFs 184a, 184b and the DNs 185a, 185b.

[0057] 1A-1D and the corresponding description thereof, one or more or all of the functions described herein with respect to one or more of the WTRUs 102a-d, base stations 114a-b, eNode-Bs 160a-c, MME 162, SGW 164, PGW 166, gNBs 180a-c, AMFs 182a-b, UPFs 184a-b, SMFs 183a-b, DNs 185a-b, and / or any other devices described herein may be performed by one or more emulation devices (not shown). The emulation devices may be one or more devices configured to emulate one or more or all of the functions described herein. For example, the emulation devices may be used to test other devices and / or to simulate network and / or WTRU functions.

[0058] The emulation devices may be designed to implement one or more tests of other devices in a lab environment and / or an operator network environment. For example, one or more emulation devices may perform one or more or all functions while fully or partially implemented and / or deployed as part of a wired and / or wireless communication network to test other devices in the communication network. One or more emulation devices may perform one or more or all functions while temporarily implemented / deployed as part of a wired and / or wireless communication network. The emulation devices may be directly coupled to another device for testing purposes and / or may perform testing using terrestrial wireless communication.

[0059] The one or more emulation devices may perform one or more functions, inclusive, while not being implemented / deployed as part of a wired and / or wireless communication network. For example, the emulation devices may be utilized in test scenarios in a test lab and / or in an undeployed (e.g., test) wired and / or wireless communication network to implement testing of one or more components. The one or more emulation devices may be test equipment. Direct RF coupling and / or wireless communication via RF circuitry (which may include, for example, one or more antennas) may be used by the emulation devices to transmit and / or receive data.

[0060] In state-of-the-art wireless technologies such as cellular and WLAN, the RF front-end is usually a mix of passive and active components. For example, passive components include the Rx antenna, the Tx / Rx path switches, and the filters. These components require little, if any, power to function. On the other hand, active components require power to function. For example, the oscillator that tunes to the carrier frequency, the low noise amplifier, and the A / D converter in the Rx path are active components.

[0061] Advances in RF component design over the past few years have made it possible to use new types of RF circuits that can process received RF waveforms collected by a receiving device through an antenna front end in the absence of an active power source. For example, such devices can harvest energy from the received RF waveform to perform the necessary circuitry to process the signal. These passive receivers use RF components such as Schottky diodes or MEMS RF transformers to implement the functions required for voltage amplification, voltage multiplication, and signal rectification. It is worth considering that passive receivers can operate in the antenna far-field and support large link budgets. This allows them to receive wireless signals over significant distances. In the following, the terms passive receiver and zero-energy receiver may be used interchangeably. Furthermore, the terms energy harvester, energy harvesting passive receiver, and energy receiver may be used interchangeably.

[0062] Operating range and energy harvesting efficiency are important features of passive receivers. The power received by a diode rectifier-based energy harvesting passive receiver as a function of distance from the transmitter and type of transmitted waveform is shown in Figure 3. It can be seen that for a desired received power level, the operating distance can be optimized by appropriately selecting the parameters (number of tones) of the power optimized waveform (POW), for example. The operating range of the energy receiver can be increased by increasing the number of tones used in the transmitted POW or equivalently increasing the PAPR of the POW.

[0063] The efficiency of the diode rectifier based energy harvesting passive receiver as a function of received signal power and type of received signal is shown in Fig. 2. Also shown are the reference curves (1-tone) 201, 4-tone POW 202, and 8-tone POW 203. It can be seen in Fig. 3(a) that the highest level of RF to DC conversion efficiency is achieved with the chaotic signal 301. The PAPR of the various test signals is shown in Fig. 3(b). It can be seen that the chaotic signal 301 delivers the highest PAPR.

[0064] Consider the systems shown in Figures 4(a) and 4(b). In Figure 4(a), an eNB 401 serves two mobile users, one of which (402) is in an energy harvesting mode and the other mobile (403) is in an information reception mode. The objective of the eNB is to transmit appropriate signals to simultaneously provide energy harvesting for WTRU-1 (wireless transmit / receive unit) while enabling information reception for WTRU-2 in the same band. Alternatively, for pre-specified fixed information requirements of WTRU-2, the objective of the eNB is to maximize energy harvesting for WTRU-1.

[0065] In Figure 4(b), the energy harvester and information receiver are collocated in the same device 404. The goal here is to maximize energy harvesting for a fixed information delivery rate requirement, or to maximize information delivery rate for a fixed energy transfer rate requirement.

[0066] It should be noted that the information requirements of the co-located scenario can be obtained by appropriate power division 502, time division 501 between the information and energy harvesting receivers, or individual antennas 503, 504 for the information receiver 505, and the energy receiver 506, as shown in FIG.

[0067] In conventional communication systems, one of the key parameters that a transmitter must minimize is the peak average to power ratio (PAPR). The main reason for this is to maximize power amplifier efficiency and minimize undesired signal distortion. Thus, a conventional information receiver is expected to receive a signal with a relatively low PAPR. Meanwhile, the energy harvesting efficiency of the device depends on the PAPR of the received signal. A higher received PAPR results in a higher energy harvesting efficiency. In conventional communication systems, there is an inherent energy transfer and information transfer tradeoff associated with an eNB that simultaneously serves a heterogeneous mix of two or more energy receiving devices and information receiving devices. These devices may be in spatial proximity to each other, co-located in the same device, or located anywhere within the cell.

[0068] - Beamforming default EH and common signaling channel In this section, we consider different configurations that may be supported by the network to provide efficient beamforming energy transfer. In order for the network to provide / support EH in a more efficient manner, a set of information may be exchanged with the served WTRU. The set of information may be per WTRU-specific and / or beam-specific EH signal configurations, where a subset may provide a common EH signal configuration and another subset may be used to provide a WTRU / group-specific EH signal configuration. The following provides details on how this may be done via mapping information. In this way, a BS / eNB / gNB may support up to N beams, and a special case is shown in FIG. 6 for an example where N=3. Each beam (1), (2), and (3) with references 601, 602, and 603, respectively, carries default EH signaling, which has semi-static configuration(s) that may have a direct mapping with a beam identifier, which may be unique within a single cell or across multiple cells. Additionally, each beam is associated with a particular common signaling channel that may be utilized to convey information regarding a beam identifier and / or an optimized EH signaling configuration. Mapping information between the beam identifier and the default EH signaling channel configuration and the common signaling channel configuration may be provided to the WTRU served by the network upon connection over the Uu air interface and after authentication to restrict unauthorized access to the network's resources. The beam identifier detected on the ZE air interface may then be used to obtain information regarding the default EH signaling channel configuration and the common signaling channel configuration associated with the identified beam.

[0069] In this section, we consider three different cases of beam transmission configurations based on the capabilities supported by the considered BS / eNB / gNB: time-switched beam transmission, simultaneous beam transmission, and mixed beam transmission with time-switched and simultaneous beam transmission. In time switched transmission, a BS / eNB / gNB may support default EH signal transmission and / or common signal transmission on only one beam at a time. In simultaneous beam transmission, a BS / eNB / gNB can support transmission of EH-related signaling on all available beams at the same time. In this mixed beam transmission, each beam is split into sub-beams and transmission may occur simultaneously on sub-beams from different beams, while transmission on different sub-beams is performed using a time switching option.

[0070] For all transmission configurations,

[0071]

number

[0072]

number

[0073] The following describes various optional frequency and time resources that may be assigned / scheduled for each of the common signaling channels and the default EH signaling channel according to the supported beam transmission scheme.

[0074] -- Time-switched beam transmission This section focuses on scenarios where a BS / eNB / gNB may support the transmission of a single beam of beamwidth φ at any particular time. Thus, the BS needs to switch between at least N=2π / φ beams over N time slots to provide full 360° cell coverage. Allowing each beam to carry a default or optimized EH signal can significantly improve power transfer efficiency compared to omnidirectional power transfer options. As mentioned above, the WTRU can identify the currently serving beam using a beam detection configuration provided by the network over the Uu air interface. The beam identifier can be transmitted over a common signaling channel or encoded on a power optimized waveform over the default EH signaling channel. Here, options for frequency and / or time multiplexing of the two channels are described.

[0075] --- Frequency allocation options for common signalling channels and default EH signalling channels For simplicity, we focus on the frequency allocation of common signaling channels and default EH signaling channels across the EH subbands, and ignore the discussion of the criteria for EH subband grouping into EH bands, where n=Σ j m j Consider that subbands are available for transmission of the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel, each centered on a carrier frequency f_i, where i∈{0,...,n-1}.

[0076] The common (or default EH) signaling channel of each beam supported by the BS / eNB / gNB may be assigned frequency resources according to one of the following options: a. A single EH subband is shared by the common (or default EH) signaling channel of all beams, and may or may not be dedicated only to the common (or default EH) signaling channel. b. The EH sub-bands are dedicated to the common (or default EH) signaling channel of each beam, and may or may not be shared with the default EH (or common) signaling channel. c. One or more EH sub-band(s) are assigned to the common signaling channel of a single beam and shared among a subset of the common signaling channels of the remaining beams. The EH sub-band(s) may also be shared with the default EH signaling channel.

[0077] Subsequently, the default EH signaling channel of a particular beam may or may not be frequency multiplexed within the same EH subband, with common signaling channels of the same beam, or with a subset (or the entire set) of beams supported by the BS / eNB / gNB.

[0078] To enumerate some of the possible frequency allocation and multiplexing scenarios for the common and default EH signaling channels, without being limiting, consider n EH sub-bands and N different beams that are switched in time, where n is equal to or greater than N. Based on the above list of options, one of the following five different scenarios among others may be considered:

[0079] In the first scenario, the common signaling channels of all beams may exclusively share the same EH sub-band that is dedicated only to the common signaling channel, while each of the default EH signaling channels may be exclusively assigned its own dedicated EH sub-band. For example, a special case of n=4 and N=3 is shown in Figure 8(a), where the EH sub-band with carrier f_0 is dedicated only to the common signaling channel and is shared among all beams in the cell, and each of the default EH signaling channels of the three beams is assigned one of the EH sub-bands with carrier ∈{f1, f2, f3}.

[0080] In a second scenario, the common signaling channels of all beams 801 may exclusively share the same EH subband that is dedicated only to the common signaling channel, while the default EH signaling channels 802 of all beams exclusively share another dedicated EH subband. For example, a special case of n=4 and N=3 is shown in FIG. 8(b), where an EH subband 803 with carrier f0 is dedicated only to the common signaling channel 801 and is shared by all beams in the cell, and the default EH signaling channels 804 of three more beams share a dedicated EH subband with carrier f1 805.

[0081] In the third scenario, the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel of each beam are frequency multiplexed within a single EH subband that is dedicated to that beam only. For example, the special case of n=4 and N=3 is shown in FIG. 8(c), where carrier f i , i∈{1,2,3} (806-808) is dedicated for the common signaling channel 809 of beam i and the default EH signaling channel 810, with two channels per beam being frequency multiplexed within that EH subband.

[0082] In a fourth scenario, the common 811 and default 812 EH signaling channels of all beams share the same EH sub-band 813, and the common and default EH signaling channels are frequency multiplexed within the same EH sub-band. For example, a special case of n=4 and N=3 is shown in FIG. 8(d), where an EH sub-band with carrier f1 is shared by the common signaling channel of all beams and the default EH signaling channel, and the two common signaling channels and the default EH signaling channel are frequency multiplexed within that EH sub-band.

[0083] In a fifth scenario, the default EH signaling channel of a particular beam may be exclusively (without the default EH signaling channel of other beams) assigned a designated EH sub-band. The common signaling channel of that beam may be repeatedly assigned to each of the EH sub-bands assigned to the default EH signaling channels of other beams. Then, the default EH signaling channel of that beam shares the same EH sub-band with the common signaling channels of all other beams, but all signaling channels are spatially multiplexed, and frequency multiplexing may also be considered for the default EH signaling channel and the common signaling channel. For example, the transmission of the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel of beam (1) for the special case of n=4 and N=3 is shown in FIG. 8(e), in which in this embodiment, the default EH signaling channel 815 of beam (i) includes f i , i∈{1, 2, 3}, and the common signaling channel 816 of beam (i) is

[0084]

number

[0085] --- Time scheduling aspects of the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel Since the beams are time switched, simultaneous transmission of two channels from two different beams is prohibited. Therefore, transmissions over the common (and / or default EH) signaling channel of different beams must be consecutive in time, i.e., transmissions of the common signaling channel 1002 and the default EH signaling channel 1001 of the same beam may be simultaneous or time multiplexed with other beam transmissions as shown in Figures 10(a) and 10(b), respectively. The duration during which the transmission of the common signaling channel from all beams occurs is the common signal receive on duration T ON The common signaling channel transmission may be considered to be periodic, with a period that may be the same as or different from the period of the default EH signaling channel transmission. The period of the common signal is defined as the time difference between the start of two consecutive ON durations.

[0086] The timing schedule of the common signaling channel may depend on one or more of the following parameters: a. Transmission periodicity of the default EH signaling channel for each beam: Across different beams, the transmission of the default EH signaling channel may or may not have the same periodicity. b. Frequency allocation format for the common signaling channel and default EH signaling channel for each beam.

[0087] If the default EH signaling channels 901 of all beams have the same transmission periodicity p, the periodicity of the common signaling channel 902 may be selected as Lp, where L is any integer, as shown in Figure 9(a). On the other hand, if the default EH signaling channels 903 for each beam have different transmission periodicities, e.g., p i, the period (p0) of the common signaling channel 904 is the least common multiple of all the default EH signaling channel periods, i.e., LCM(p i ), or their greatest common divisor, i.e., GCD(p i ) may be determined as - LCM may be reasonable if it is desired that the common signaling channel have a lower transmission rate than the default EH signaling channel, e.g., if the common signaling channel is considered to be a waste of resources, i.e., it consumes a lot of resources without improving the energy transfer efficiency. - GCD may be more appropriate if it is desired that the common signaling channel have a higher transmission rate than the default EH signaling channel, e.g. if the common signaling channel has other tasks such as carrying the number of beam transitions per period as an indication of the mobility state.

[0088] Secondly, the frequency allocation of the different signaling channels (common signaling channel and default EH signaling channel) may affect the timing schedule of the common signaling channel. The common signaling channel of a particular beam may be transmitted simultaneously with the default EH signaling channel of the same beam if both channels are assigned different EH sub-bands. They may also be transmitted simultaneously if they are modulated so that they can be correctly detected. For example, when both are frequency multiplexed within the same front-end bandwidth (EH sub-band), when AM modulation is considered for the common signaling channel, when OOK is considered for the default EH signaling channel, and when a self-mixing architecture is used. If the ability to distinguish between the transmission of the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel of the same beam is not available, both channels are assigned the same EH sub-band and the common signaling channel of that beam should not be scheduled simultaneously with the default EH signaling channel of the same beam. In the case of consecutive transmissions of the common signaling channel, when the beam is time switched, the transmission of the common signaling channel 1002 must occur within the gaps between the transmissions of the default EH signaling channel 1001, as shown in Figures 10(b) and 10(c).

[0089] Considering the same transmission periodicity for the default EH signaling channels of all beams, based on the frequency allocation scenarios described above, the following is a non-exhaustive set of example time scheduling possibilities.

[0090] For the first, second, and fifth frequency allocation scenarios described above, the default EH signaling channel may be scheduled for time-contiguous transmission with beam time switching, and the common signaling channel transmissions may be scheduled for simultaneous transmissions, each transmitted with a corresponding default EH signaling channel transmission in the same beam, as shown in Figure 10(a). Alternatively, the common signaling channel transmissions may be scheduled to transmit during gaps between default EH signaling channel transmissions, as shown in Figures 10(b)-(c) or portions thereof.

[0091] In the third and fourth frequency allocation scenarios mentioned above, two different cases may be considered when establishing the timing schedule. In one case, if the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel of each beam cannot be detected simultaneously, the default EH signaling channel and the common signaling channel of the same beam should be scheduled for time-sequential transmission. There are different options for the timing adjustment between the transmission of the common signaling channel and the transmission of the default EH signaling channel across all beams. One option is to schedule the transmission of the common signaling channel of all beams consecutively in time, followed by the transmission of the default EH signaling channel consecutively, as shown in FIG. 10(b), with the gap between the last transmitted default EH signaling and the next first default EH signaling being longer than the on duration T ONAnother option is to schedule the transmission of the common signaling channel of a particular beam before the transmission of the default EH signaling channel of the same beam, where the gap between the transmission of the default EH signaling channel of two consecutive time-switched beams must be greater than the duration of one common signaling channel transmission, as shown in Fig. 10(c). Other options may include a combination of the two previous options. In another case, when the signaling channels (default EH signaling channel and common signaling channel) are transmitted with simultaneous detection capability, the timing schedule may be established as discussed in the previous embodiment.

[0092] -- Simultaneous beam transmission This subsection focuses on the discussion on time scheduling of the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel, assuming the ability of the BS to support simultaneous transmission of all beams providing overall cell coverage. Note that there is no difference on how frequencies can be assigned to the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel among beams, compared to the case assuming beam time switching, due to the fact that the transmissions of different beams are already spatially multiplexed.

[0093] --- Time scheduling aspects of the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel Unlike time-switched beam transmission, the restriction on simultaneous transmission via multiple beams is relaxed. This provides more flexibility in time scheduling of transmission of any channel (whether common signaling channel or default EH signaling channel) transmitted regardless of the associated beam. Subsequently, transmission via common (and / or default EH) signaling channel across different beams can be performed simultaneously or consecutively in time.

[0094] The duration during which the transmission of the common signaling channel from all beams occurs is still the common signal reception on duration T, similar to the time-switched beam transmission. ON The transmission of the common signaling channel may also be considered to be periodic, with a period that may be the same as or different from the period of the default EH signaling channel transmission, which may be determined in the same way as in the case of the transmission of the time-switched beam.

[0095] Compared to time-switched beam transmission, the same time scheduling aspects can still be considered for simultaneous beam transmission, in addition to the applicability of simultaneous transmission for all default EH signaling channels 1101 (and / or common signaling channels 1102) across all beams as shown in Fig. 11(a). Another possibility can be the applicability of time-contiguous scheduling of simultaneous transmission across common signaling channels and / or default EH signaling channels of a subset of beams.

[0096] Without being limiting, the same set of time scheduling examples as described in the case of time-switched beams are considered under the assumption that transmissions on the default EH (common) signaling channel of all beams are scheduled simultaneously. In this special case, the ON duration of the common signal reception is the same as the duration of any single common signaling channel transmission, i.e., T ON =T C It is.

[0097] Transmission of common signaling channels and default EH signaling channels specific to simultaneous beams associated with the first, second, and fifth frequency allocation scenarios described above, when transmission of the common (default EH) signaling channels of all beams is scheduled simultaneously, is shown in Figure 11(a).

[0098] In the second example described in the section on time-switched beams and associated with the third and fourth frequency allocation scenarios above, two different cases can still be considered when establishing the timing schedule. In one case, if the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel of each beam cannot be detected simultaneously, the default EH signaling channel and the common signaling channel of the same beam should be scheduled for time-continuous transmission. This timing schedule may be established such that the common signaling channels of all beams are transmitted simultaneously, and then the common signaling channels of all beams are transmitted simultaneously, with a gap (T ) between the transmission of the two default EH signaling 1101, as shown in FIG. 11(b). G ) is the ON duration (T ON ) to ensure that information transmitted separately over the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel is correctly detected. In other cases, when the signaling channels (the default EH signaling channel and the common signaling channel) are transmitted with simultaneous detection capability, a timing schedule can be established as in the first example and as shown in FIG. 10(a).

[0099] -- Mixed transmission of time-switched transmission and simultaneous beam transmission Besides the cases of time-switched beam transmission and simultaneous beam transmission, a mixture of the two cases can also be considered. In this transmission scheme, each of the N beams may be divided into M sub-beams, and each sub-beam i∈{1,2,...,M} in each beam may be switched on simultaneously, and simultaneous transmission over all of them is feasible. More generally, the beams may be thought of as sectors, with each sector i∈{1,2,...,N} having a bandwidth of

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[0101] As a special case, M i =M, each of which may be considered to have N beams / sectors {b1, b2, ..b N}, i.e., s i ={b 1,i ,b 2,i ,...,b N,i}, i∈{1, 2, ..., M}, where b n,m denotes sub-beam m in beam / sector n. Transmissions within each subset are simultaneous, while transmissions across different subsets are scheduled to be consecutive in time. In the example where N=M=3, the subsets of sub-beams are denoted by s1={b 1,1 ,b 2,1 ,b 3,1}, s2={b 1,2 ,b 2,2 ,b3 ,2}, and s3={b 1,3 ,b 2,3 ,b 3,3}, which is as shown in Error! Reference source not found., where the transmissions on the sub-beams in s1 are simultaneous and the transmissions associated with subsets s1, s2, and s3 are scheduled to be consecutive in time.

[0102] The transmission characteristics / configuration (e.g., EH band / frequency allocation, EH band hopping pattern, EH extension approach, etc.) set by the BS / eNB / gNB for the signaling channel (default EH signaling channel or common signaling channel) associated with a particular sub-beam may be the same across all sub-beams in one particular beam / sector, or each may have its own unique configuration. For example, the BS may assign a particular EH sub-band for the default EH signaling channel in beam i, and as a result, the same transmission characteristics / configuration (e.g., EH band / frequency allocation, EH band hopping pattern, EH extension approach, etc.) across all sub-beams in that beam.

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[0104] --- Time scheduling aspects of the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel Similar to the simultaneous beam transmission case and the time-switched beam transmission case, the time scheduling of the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel depends on the transmission period(s) of the default EH signaling channel and the frequency allocation across different EH sub-bands. The time scheduling of the mixed transmission case should take into account the limitations imposed by the time-switched beam transmission and the flexibility provided by the simultaneous transmission case.

[0105] For example, the subset s iAll sub-beams within may follow the time scheduling rules for the simultaneous beam transmission case described above, so that transmissions over the common (and / or default EH) signaling channels associated with those sub-beams may be scheduled simultaneously or consecutively in time.

[0106] Also, the transmissions over the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel of a particular sub-beam may be scheduled simultaneously if both channels are assigned different EH sub-bands or if they are modulated to enable correct detection of both of them, for example, if both are frequency multiplexed within the same front-end bandwidth (EH sub-bands), if AM modulation is considered for the common signaling channel, if OOK is considered for the default EH signaling channel, and if a self-mixing architecture is used. Alternatively, the transmissions over the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel of a particular sub-beam may be scheduled to be consecutive in time if both channels are assigned the same EH sub-bands and a self-mixing architecture is not a viable option. In this latter case, the transmissions of the common signaling channel need to be within the gaps between the default EH signaling channel transmissions, as shown in Figure 13(b).

[0107] On the other hand, the time scheduling across the different subsets is established similarly to the time-switched beam transmission case, where the transmissions over the common (and / or default EH) signaling channel associated with each subset of sub-beams are scheduled to be consecutive in time. Considering a two-tiered scheduling architecture, i.e., time scheduling across subsets and across sub-beams within each subset, we define two common signaling reception durations instead of just one. This first on-duration is the first on-duration for each subset.

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[0110] For the following set of illustrative examples, without limiting other configuration possibilities, the following two assumptions are considered.

[0111] The transmissions over the common (or default EH) signaling channel of the sub-beams in each subset are scheduled simultaneously, i.e.

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[0113] The transmissions over the default EH signaling channel in each subset are periodic and have the same period.

[0114] Here, an example of simultaneous beam-specific common signaling channel and default EH signaling channel transmission associated with the first, second and fifth frequency allocation scenarios mentioned above is illustrated in Fig. 13(a) for the case where the transmission of the common signaling channel 1302 (default EH signaling channel 1301) for sub-beams in a certain subset is scheduled at the same time, i.e., for the specific scenario shown in Fig. 12. In this case, s1 = {b 1, 1,b 2,1 ,b 3,1} (wherein b1 is beam (1) 1201, b2 is beam (2) 1202, and b3 is beam (3) 1203, and b 1,1 The N=M=3 channels associated with sub-beams in beam (1)(1) (1201-1 (referred to as “(1201)(1)”), etc.) are scheduled simultaneously and successively in time, with s2={b 1,2 ,b 2,2 ,b 3,2}, the transmission of the channels associated with the sub-beams in s3={b 1,3 ,b 2,3 ,b 3,3}, transmission is performed on channels associated with the sub-beams in

[0115] In the second example described in the section on time-switched beams and associated with the third and fourth frequency allocation scenarios above, two different cases can still be considered when establishing the timing schedule. In one case, if the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel of each sub-beam cannot be detected simultaneously, the default EH signaling channel and the common signaling channel of the same sub-beam in any subset should be scheduled for consecutive transmissions in time. This timing schedule may be established such that the common signaling channels of all sub-beams in a particular subset are transmitted simultaneously, followed by simultaneous transmissions via the default EH signaling channels in all sub-beams, and then the schedule is repeated for all other subsets, with the gap (T G ) is the ON duration of subset-specific common signaling channels

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[0117] [Number] In other cases, when transmitted with the ability to simultaneously detect the signaling channels (default EH signaling channel and common signaling channel), the timing schedule can be established as in the first example and as shown in FIG. 13(a).

[0118] - EH efficiency improvement approach This section focuses on solutions that optimize the energy harvesting capabilities / efficiency of an energy harvesting device that may or may not be collocated with an information receiver, where the device may harvest energy via one or more EH sub-bands, each of which has a bandwidth significantly smaller than the system bandwidth in the beam-specified EH band. The EH band configuration per beam is covered in more detail later in this document in the section "Procedures for supporting beamformed EH signal transmission." The system bandwidth may include one or more EH bands, which may be allocated contiguously or separated by a frequency gap. The system bandwidth may also be dedicated to a single information receiver or shared between two or more information receivers. For example, an EH device may be limited to harvesting energy from a specific 200 KHz sub-band in a 1 MHz EH band at a time due to the design of the MEMS RF transformer, while the information channel is configured with a bandwidth of 20 MHz.

[0119] -- EH signal characteristics The energy harvesting signal design method and parameters may be adaptive and based on the current reported circuit capabilities of the served energy harvesting device. Thus, the EH signal design may be the sole responsibility of the serving cell, or a joint responsibility of the serving cell and the served EH device and / or the autonomous EH support device. The energy harvesting method may be one or a combination of the following options:

[0120] Fixed EH Sub-band with Auxiliary Signal Augmentation: The serving base station designs the EH signal by superimposing an auxiliary signal onto the information signal in a fixed sub-band, where the auxiliary signal is selected / optimized to maximize the resulting signal PAPR in that sub-band.

[0121] EH subband dynamic hopping: each hop is performed for a duration T that maximizes the PAPR of the resulting signal in each period. h For a certain time T p The serving base station designs the EH signal by selecting / optimizing the subband hopping pattern across the .

[0122] EH subband hopping with auxiliary signal augmentation: Each hop is performed for a duration T that maximizes the PAPR of the resulting signal in each period. h For a certain time T p The serving base station designs the EH signal by selecting / optimizing the subband hopping pattern over the 100 MHz band. The serving base station supplements the selected subband information signal with an auxiliary signal to further enhance the resulting signal PAPR.

[0123] For EH devices, the sub-band filtered signal does not need to carry the complete decodable information, since the information signal may span a bandwidth larger than the EH bandwidth considered. However, the EH device is not concerned with receiving any information via the filtered sub-bands, but only with receiving a signal characterized by a high PAPR so that its energy harvesting efficiency is maximized. Due to the variability / randomness in the part of the information signal carried via the filtered sub-bands, the resulting information time domain signal does not necessarily need to be characterized by a high PAPR, per se. Thus, the three aforementioned approaches have been proposed, and we now extend our discussion of these approaches to optimize the filtered sub-band signals for energy harvesting purposes.

[0124] --- Fixed sub-band signal enhancement In this approach, it is assumed that the EH device has limited ability to adapt its EH subbands or is specifically configured to harvest energy from a single subband within the considered channel / system bandwidth. Due to the variability / randomness in the portion of the information signal carried over this designated subband, the resulting time domain signal does not necessarily feature a high PAPR. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 14, we consider an auxiliary signal 1402 that may be superimposed on the portion of the information signal 1401 spanning the frequency subband 1403 considered by the EH device. The goal of the auxiliary signal would be to maximize the PAPR of the time domain signal resulting from the superposition with the above information signal portion.

[0125] There are a few features that are of interest when considering the augmentation of narrowband base information signals using auxiliary signals. First, given the much smaller bandwidth considered for PAPR enhancement compared to the overall bandwidth of the system / base information signal, the PAPR characteristics of the overall time domain signal generated at the transmitter / BS are not expected to change significantly. This is especially important to preserve the efficiency of the transmitter / BS power amplifiers. Second, the flexibility of narrowband resource scheduling allows backward compatibility with information receivers that do not support advanced auxiliary signal mitigation techniques.

[0126] The auxiliary signal may be constructed as a signal from a set of predefined signals such that the average / minimum PAPR of a set of one or more OFDM symbols, slots, subframes, or frames is maximized. Furthermore, the set of predefined signals may also be selected such that the variance of the PAPR is minimized. Depending on the selected optimization period, i.e. the period corresponding to the considered OFDM symbol / slot / subframe / frame, the selected auxiliary signal needs to be signaled accordingly to the information receiver.

[0127] For example, consider an OFDM system with 100 RBs. Each RB consists of 12 SCs with SCS of 15 KHz, and 2 RBs are dedicated to EH. This generates a codebook of M vectors, where each vector of length 24 (2 RBs × 12 SCs) represents a potential auxiliary signal to enhance the base information signal and enhance the PAPR of the combined auxiliary and base information signal in the frequency domain before the IFFT module. The above M vectors are generated randomly, where they are obtained as follows: N Using elements of: e i =1-s i , i∈{1,2,...,2 N} (In the formula, 2 N is the QAM modulation order of the base information signal, and s i is the sequence of base information signals. For each OFDM symbol, an auxiliary signal vector is selected from the codebook such that the PAPR of the time-domain signal corresponding to the two EH-dedicated RBs is maximized. Sample PAPR CDFs for M ∈ {1 (1503), 5 (1504), 10 (1505), 50 (1506)} and assuming QPSK and 16-QAM modulation are shown in Figures 15 and 16, respectively.

[0128] It should be noted that the PAPR enhancement gain relationship between different codebook sizes in FIG. 15 and FIG. 16 is not consistent between QPSK and 16-QAM modulation scenarios due to the random generation of the codebooks as described above. However, for a well-designed codebook, this PAPR enhancement gain relationship between codebooks of different sizes is expected to be consistent between the two modulation scenarios. Higher (or at least similar) PARP enhancement gains are also expected for the base signal PAPR values ​​using a well-designed auxiliary signal codebook of the same size as the randomly generated one. In FIG. 16, it can be observed that the minimum PAPR of the 16-QAM base signal can be enhanced by at least 5 dB utilizing a randomly generated auxiliary signal codebook of length (50). This may correspond to an improvement in RF-DC conversion efficiency of over 8 dB for input powers smaller than -3 dB, as suggested in FIG. 3(a), which compares an OFDM signal with a chaotic signal with a maximum PAPR difference of 2.8 dB. The PAPR increase 1502 shown in the figure is also expected to be 1.0 dB for a codebook of length M=2. 24×N It should also be noted that this could be achieved using a well-designed auxiliary signal codebook of N×N bits, but this would require signaling overhead proportional to 24×N bits.

[0129] Sample realizations of the generated OFDM symbol time domain signal before and after base information signal enhancement using the auxiliary signal are shown in Figures 17 and 18, respectively, for a 16-QAM modulated signal. From the examples in these two figures, it is clear how the auxiliary signal can enhance the PAPR of the combined time domain signal, with the maximum instantaneous power increasing by about 157% in a specific example.

[0130] --- Adaptive subband hopping If we assume that the EH device can adapt / switch its EH sub-bands within the considered channel bandwidth in a reasonable period of time, an alternative approach involves the BS / eNB / gNB configuring the EH device with a sub-band hopping pattern. The goal of the hopping pattern would be to maximize the average / minimum PAPR and, optionally, minimize the variance of the PAPR. The duration of each hop depends on the capabilities of the EH device, i.e., how quickly it can hop between sub-bands, how closely it is synchronized to the serving BS / eNB / gNB's transmissions, and also on the signaling and configuration options. Meanwhile, the overall duration of the hopping pattern depends on the information signal schedule and the level of processing complexity / capability that the radio access network will support, i.e., the capabilities of the BS / eNB / gNB to perform the optimization of the hopping pattern over several OFDM symbols / slots / subframes / frames.

[0131] In this approach, the subband hopping pattern can be agnostic to the information receiver since it does not affect its signal detection efficiency. On the other hand, the subband hopping pattern is of primary importance to maximize the EH efficiency of the EH device. An illustration of the approach is shown in Figure 19.

[0132] Given the example of an OFDM system described for the fixed subband signal enhancement approach, the 100 RBs of the system, together with the two EH RBs, result in a total of 50 mutually independent / non-overlapping subbands. It may be the case that the EH device can only support a small fraction of those subbands, p. Figure 20 shows the PAPR CDF of the optimal subband hopping pattern that maximizes the EH signal PAPR, assuming 16-QAM modulation and where the EH device supports p ∈ {1(2004), 1 / 2(2003), 1 / 10(2002)}. It is clear from this figure that as the size of the frequency resource pool increases (i.e., the number of EH subbands available for hopping increases), the effective PAPR experienced by the EH device increases, and moreover, the effective PAPR experienced by the EH device is generally higher with EH subband hopping than with fixed subband energy harvesting.

[0133] --- Adaptive subband hopping with signal enhancement Another approach may consider a combination of sub-band hopping and information signal PAPR enhancement using auxiliary signals. This approach is expected to provide the greatest level of design flexibility, which may result in improved energy harvesting efficiency at the EH device, but potentially at the expense of processing complexity and signaling overhead. The serving BS / eNB / gNB may jointly optimize the sub-band hopping pattern and the auxiliary signal selected at each hop to maximize energy harvesting efficiency. Alternatively, to reduce processing complexity, it may decide to separate the optimization problem into two mutually independent problems, but potentially at the expense of loss of energy harvesting efficiency. An illustration of the approach is shown in FIG. 21.

[0134] In this approach, the subband hopping pattern as well as the selected auxiliary signal (2101) for each hop needs to be signaled to the information receiver for efficient information signal decoding, whereas only the subband hopping pattern needs to be signaled to the EH device.

[0135] -- EH device configuration An EH device is responsible for accurately providing / declaring its EH capabilities to the serving BS / eNB / gNB to help optimize energy harvesting operations. EH capability information may include one or a combination of the following features: a. Supported energy harvesting subband bandwidth, number of subbands that can be supported simultaneously, and a list of all subbands that can be supported for a device with a fixed configuration. The overall channel bandwidth can be considered as a special case. For example, in a 20 MHz channel, an EH device may report support for two simultaneous subbands, each two RBs wide (24 x 15 kHz = 360 kHz bandwidth), with a gap spacing of three RBs between the supported subbands (i.e., for a channel with 100 RBs, the total number of supported subbands would be 20). b. EH Sub-band Adaptation / Switching Capability, e.g., the total number of supported sub-bands in a particular channel and their characterization (e.g., their center frequencies), the time required for the EH device to switch between any two of the supported sub-bands. For example, an EH device may declare a minimum switching time equivalent to one slot of an OFDM system with a 15KHz SCS. c. A mapping between the EH signal format and the device's achievable energy harvesting efficiency, e.g., the minimum PAPR to achieve a particular efficiency. For example, an EH device may declare / request a 30% harvesting efficiency and use a standardized mapping to determine the minimum required PAPR for the EH signal to achieve that efficiency. Alternatively, the EH device may directly declare / request the minimum required PAPR.

[0136] The device's EH capability information may be signaled / provided to the serving BS / eNB / gNB using one of the following options: As part of an existing PUCCH / UCI format transmission over the Uu air interface, i.e., as an information element / field, e.g., in a scheduling request and / or a CSI report. For example, the WTRU may transmit PUCCH format 4 as K CSI The UCI bit and

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[0138] The BS / eNB / gNB serving the EH device needs to utilize the capability information of the served device to find an optimal resource-efficient allocation of subbands to deliver the EH signal to the serving device. The BS then needs to signal the selected configuration parameters to the EH device. The BS's EH signaling information may be conveyed using any of the options and may include any of the information elements presented therein in addition to any of the following: a. The selected EH signaling approach, namely fixed subband signal enhancement, adaptive subband hopping, or adaptive subband hopping with signal enhancement. b. A list of subbands to be considered for EH signal transmission, for example as a list of center frequencies or a list of indexes associated with a set of preconfigured parameters, e.g., a BS signaling a subcarrier / PRB reference number, such as PRB#0, and an index to a set of preconfigured parameters, such as 2PRB subband bandwidth and 18PRB spacing between subbands assigned for EH. Alternatively, a BS signaling a list of indexes, where a first index corresponds to the subband starting at subcarrier#0 and has a 1PRB equivalent bandwidth, and a second index corresponds to the subband starting at subcarrier#48 and has a bandwidth equivalent to 2PRB.

[0139] c. Subcarrier bandwidth / number and / or target PAPR / efficiency associated with each of the subbands considered for auxiliary signal superposition. For example, the BS signaling a list of discretized EH efficiencies corresponding to each assigned EH subband or a single value applicable to all subbands.

[0140] d. Subband hopping pattern signaled as one of the following options: - a sequence of explicitly signaled subband indices - An index to a row in the table, which is either preconfigured in the EH device or signaled as part of a separate control or system information message that contains the sequence of subband indexes. - A mapping function selected from a set of pre-configured functions in the EH device. The mapping function may use as an argument the index / index(s) of the current OFDM symbol / slot / subframe / frame and / or one or more arguments signaled to the EH device. - A seed for the random sequence generator and the corresponding sequence type. e. The duration or number of OFDM symbols / slots / subframes / ... etc. associated with each hop in the subband hopping approach. f. A number identifying the number of hops in the subband hopping pattern. g. The number of times the subband hopping pattern is expected to be repeated for a given / particular information signal transmission.

[0141] -- Information receiver signal detection support Modification of part or the whole of the information signal bandwidth is a source of interference for the information receiver. The modification may be the introduction / addition of a specific auxiliary signal in a fixed subband(s) over the information signal transmission period, as in the fixed subband signal enhancement approach, or the introduction / addition of a specific auxiliary signal in a subband that adaptively changes according to some pattern over the period of the information signal transmission, as in the adaptive subband hopping approach with signal enhancement.

[0142] In order for the information receiver to efficiently decode the received information signal, it needs to obtain assistance information from the serving BS / eNB / gNB on how to effectively eliminate / cancel the interference source. The assistance information can be any considered assistance signal introduced in the information signal frequency spectrum, plus a sub-band hopping pattern delivered using one of the options described in the previous section "EH Device Configuration". The assistance signal(s) and parameters of its (their) adaptation can be signaled to the information receiver as: a. An index in a table of auxiliary signals that are preconfigured in the information receiver or signaled as part of the system information b. Argument and mapping functions that are selected from a set of functions that are pre-configured in the information receiver or signaled as part of the system information.

[0143] The information receiver can receive information only about the subband hopping pattern and use blind decoding / detection to determine the transmitted auxiliary signal(s). However, this comes at the cost of more processing requirements / complexity at the information receiver, which increases as the number of auxiliary signals to be detected increases. For example, for the information receiver to match the performance of a codebook requiring 5-bit signaling using blind decoding, it would require blind detection of 32 different auxiliary signals, assuming the information receiver already knows the subbands in its assigned resources that are considered for auxiliary signal enhancement. If the information receiver does not know the location of the EH subbands, the complexity becomes significant and impractical. For example, assuming an EH device can support 10 different EH subbands within the bandwidth assigned to the information receiver, the information receiver would require blind detection of 32 different auxiliary signals to blindly detect the auxiliary signal and offset it from the received signal. 10 It is necessary to examine the combination of

[0144] - (Re)selection of (sub)beams A WTRU that is within the coverage of several (sub)beams and needs to (re)select a (sub)beam calculates a figure of merit (FO) for each (sub)beam. A WTRU will perform a FOM calculation to select among the available (sub)beams that can support it. A WTRU under the coverage of n (sub)beams may calculate the FOM for each of the n (sub)beams. The WTRU receives a unique preamble for each of the (sub)beams that cover the WTRU and then measures the strength of each signal transmitted from each (sub)beam. For each (sub)beam, the WTRU measures the received signal strength along with other received and / or stored parameters, e.g., EH signal configuration, number of EH opportunities, corresponding resources, and POW format within the configured window, based on m parameters {p i,1 ),p i,2 ,...,p i,m}, where i is the (sub)beam index. Based on these parameters, the WTRU computes the FOM for each (sub)beam (FOM i ) The FOM may be defined in several ways according to the WTRU capabilities. For example, the FOM may be defined as follows: 1) For each (sub)beam i, the FOM i is the parameter p i Based on a predefined set of i =f(p i,1 ,p i,2 ,...,p i,m ), where f(·) is a predefined mapping function at the WTRU. The mapping function may be different for each WTRU, and the WTRU may change it from time to time. For example, the mapping function may be a sum of the parameters

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[0151] - Procedures to support beamforming EH signal transmission This section covers procedures to support beamformed EH signal transmission with optimized energy harvesting efficiency, covering beam detection aspects, per-beam semi-static default EH signal configuration (e.g., EH band hopping pattern, hop duration, pattern duration, etc.), and dynamic configuration of per-beam / EH band optimized EH signals (e.g., control signaling configuration, optimization methods, and parameters associated with EH optimization methods).

[0152] In one embodiment, in a first step, a WTRU equipped with an EH device receives configuration parameters related to serving beam detection over a ZE air interface using the Uu air interface. In a second step, the WTRU operates over the ZE air interface using its ZE receiver to harvest energy and / or perform IDLE / INACTIVE mode operation. In a third step, the WTRU uses the beam detection configuration to identify serving beams while moving around in the network.

[0153] The serving beam detection may be based on signaling received over the ZE common channel defined in section "Beamforming EH Signaling Channel and Common Signaling Channel" and may use one or a combination of the following parameters as configuration to assist the WTRU in beam detection: a. A fixed or beam-dependent common channel configuration consisting of one of the following parameters: - a global index for the EH subband within the system bandwidth dedicated to the common ZE signaling; - a local index for the EH subband within the beam-dependent EH band, which may be fixed or dynamically changing; - carrier frequency indicator, together with the associated considered bandwidth, - OFDM subcarrier index and the number of subcarriers in the system bandwidth b. ZE common signaling channel and default EH signal multiplexing configuration consisting of one or a combination of the following parameters: - Multiplexing options, i.e. whether the considered EH sub-band (or defined common signalling channel band) is dedicated only to common ZE signalling or shared between common ZE signalling and default EH signalling. - The multiplexing method, e.g. time multiplexing, frequency multiplexing, code multiplexing, or frequency and modulation type multiplexing. - The modulation type(s), coding type(s) and transmission rate(s) to be considered for the common channel signals and the default EH signal. c. Beam discrimination parameters, consisting of one or a combination of the following: - Whether the channel used to carry beam identification signaling is a common ZE signaling channel or the default EH signaling channel. - A unique sequence type and length for each beam - A unique sequence type and length assigned to every beam and the order of time-multiplexed beam transmission within the correlation window. - Synchronization frame / preamble characteristics used to identify the start of the sequence correlation window, e.g., frame duration, frame / preamble format / sequence, modulation type, transmission data rate. - correlation window duration and gap between individual beam transmissions - A frame format that includes the beam identifier as an explicit index.

[0154] In another embodiment, in a first step, a WTRU equipped with an EH device reports its EH circuit capabilities using the Uu air interface to assist the serving cell(s) in determining suitable / flexible EH signal design / parameters. In a second step, the WTRU receives a beam detection configuration over the Uu air interface. In a third step, the WTRU uses its ZE receiver to operate over the ZE air interface to harvest energy and / or perform IDLE / INACTIVE mode operation. In a fourth step, the WTRU uses the beam detection configuration to identify the serving beam while moving around in the network. In a fifth step, the WTRU may use the main transceiver or backscatter techniques to report the detected serving beam (i.e., declare the WTRU's presence in a particular beam coverage) and enable the serving BS to optimize the EH signal characteristics in the detected beam.

[0155] A WTRU equipped with an EH device may report the capabilities of its EH circuitry / ZE receiver using one or a combination of the following parameters: a. The number of EH subbands supported and their parameters, e.g., the bandwidth associated with each subband and the distribution of the subbands across the system bandwidth. b. Number of simultaneously supported EH sub-bands c. Synchronization capabilities and requirements, eg, a preamble of a particular duration and format is required to achieve a level of synchronization equivalent to a slot duration in an OFDM system with 15 Khz subcarrier spacing. d. EH subband switching delay, eg, a duration equivalent to two OFDM symbols is required by a ZE receiver to switch between two different EH subbands. e. Energy harvesting efficiency associated with each EH sub-band of a particular EH signal format.

[0156] In one technical implementation, a WTRU may utilize its ZE transceiver to report the serving beams detected using backscattering techniques. In a first step, the WTRU receives a polling message with the backscattering configuration (e.g., offset duration, backscattering resource grid configuration, collision or collision-free resource access criteria). In a second step, the WTRU uses the backscattering configuration to determine when and on which frequency (carrier / EH subband) it may declare its presence. In a third step, the WTRU declares its presence under the coverage of a particular beam by backscattering a unique identifier (e.g., C-RNTI, I-RNTI, s-TMSI, or a uniquely assigned ZE identifier) ​​using the interrogation carrier(s) at the determined time slot. Alternatively, the identifier need not be specific to the WTRU, but rather specific to the WTRU capabilities.

[0157] The polling messages reporting beam detection may be transmitted over the ZE common signaling channel or using the default EH signal transmission configuration. The backscatter configuration and reporting procedure may follow any of the known techniques. The beam detection reports or declaration of the presence of a WTRU under the coverage of a particular beam may be of interest to WTRUs characterized by low or zero mobility.

[0158] In another embodiment, a WTRU equipped with an EH device / ZE receiver utilizes its main transceiver to receive beam detection configuration and (beam identifier) ​​and perform (semi-static default EH signal configuration) mapping over the Uu air interface, where the beam identifier may be unique within a single cell or across multiple cells. The semi-static default EH signal configuration may be optimized by the BS to provide efficient energy harvesting for served WTRUs based on historical traffic and scheduling statistics of transmitted information signals per beam. Alternatively, the semi-static configuration may be utilized by the network to restrict unauthorized access to its resources for energy harvesting purposes. The mapping information may include one or a combination of the following elements: a. Beam support for dynamic optimization of energy harvesting efficiency based on the information signal to be transmitted within the considered EH band b. Common signaling channel configuration, e.g., EH subband index within the assigned EH band, modulation and coding type, transmission rate c. Default EH signaling configuration, e.g., type of multiplexing with common signaling channels, modulation and coding type, transmission rate d. The EH band hopping pattern, consisting of the EH band index, the duration of each hop, and the pattern period. e. The configuration of the EH bands in the hopping pattern, e.g., the bandwidth of each band, the number of EH subbands in each band, the bandwidth of each subband f. Validity period of mapping information for each beam g. Index information for multiple mappings associated with the same beam

[0159] A WTRU that detects a beam identifier and determines support for a beam for dynamic optimization of energy harvesting efficiency may be associated with the EH efficiency enhancement approach and may receive any of the information elements / parameters raised in the above section "EH Device Configuration" via either a ZE common signaling channel or a default EH signaling channel to determine optimized EH signal transmission characteristics that maximize energy harvesting efficiency.

[0160] In another embodiment illustrated as a flow chart in FIG. 22, a WTRU equipped with an EH device / ZE receiver and supporting beamforming energy harvesting initializes cellular operation using its primary transceiver over the Uu air interface at 222. At 223, the WTRU reports its EH circuitry and ZE receiver capabilities to the serving BS / network. At 224, the WTRU receives one-to-one or one-to-many mapping information from beam identifiers to EH control and signaling configurations. In addition, the WTRU receives beam identifier detection configuration (225). At 226, the WTRU switches to the ZE air interface and utilizes the ZE receiver / transceiver to perform energy harvesting and / or IDLE / INACTIVE mode operation. At 227, the WTRU utilizes the beam identifier detection configuration (which may or may not be beam-specific) to search / select a serving beam. At 228, the WTRU may detect and select a new beam identifier and utilize the mapping information at 229 to determine a semi-static EH control and signaling configuration. A WTRU that supports presence declaration / reporting under the coverage of a particular beam may then determine serving BS / network support of that function, and if supported ("yes" at 2290), then utilizes its main transceiver or backscatter transmitter to declare itself within the coverage of the detected beam (2291). Alternatively, if the WTRU does not support presence declaration / reporting under the coverage of a particular beam ("no" at 2290), the WTRU checks for its support of dynamic EH signal configuration and serving BS / network support (2293). At 2292, a WTRU that supports dynamic EH signal configuration ("yes" at 2293) utilizes control signaling channel parameters to receive a dynamically optimized EH signal configuration. In a ninth step, the WTRU configures 2294 its EH circuitry using the semi-statically or dynamically optimized EH signal parameters and begins energy harvesting.

[0161] In a different embodiment shown in FIG. 23, the WTRU initializes operation using the primary transceiver over the Uu air interface (230). The WTRU receives beam detection configuration at 231 and mapping information at 232. At 233, the WTRU initializes a beam (re)selection procedure using the ZE transceiver. At 234, the WTRU utilizes the received beam detection configuration to determine a detectable beam ID, where detectability may be determined based on a beam-specific received reference signal strength greater than a threshold. Then, at 237, the WTRU utilizes the received (available) mapping information to obtain an EH signaling configuration, e.g., a semi-static default EH signaling configuration, support for dynamic EH signaling, and a dynamic EH signaling configuration. At 234, the WTRU determines expected EH performance for each detected beam, e.g., utilizing received signal strength measurements and the determined EH signaling configuration. At 235, the WTRU selects the beam with the best expected EH performance based on the configured number of EH opportunities / resources, the additional EH resource margin, and the measured received signal strength ("Yes" at 236). Alternatively, the selection at 235 can be based on an optimized EH signal configuration (semi-static / default and / or dynamic) for the WTRU's device capabilities at the measured received signal strength ("No" at 236). Then, subject to "Yes" at 238, the WTRU determines the need for dynamic EH signaling for the selected beam, e.g., based on an evaluation of the actual EH performance, proceeds to a presence declaration procedure at 238a to request optimized dynamic EH signaling. Alternatively, proceeding to a presence declaration may be contingent on the WTRU determining that it is beneficial in terms of overall EH performance, e.g., taking into account the current mobility status and the expected power consumption associated with a presence declaration (PD) (e.g., determining that there is an expected EH performance gain over a case where PD is not performed (e.g., the ratio of expected EH performance with PD to without PD is greater than a threshold value)).At 238b, the WTRU dynamically receives an optimized EH signal configuration using the control signaling channel parameters and configures its EH circuitry and harvests energy at 239. Alternatively ("NO" at 238), the WTRU configures (239) its EH circuitry and harvests energy using a semi-static default EH signal configuration.

[0162] For the next technical implementation, the following system configuration is considered, defined by the network: Each cell in the network supports a total of N=5 beams with beam IDs ∈{0,1,...,4} that can transmit simultaneously, and a system bandwidth of 20 MHZ (2407) divided into 50 sub-bands of 400 KHz each, each consisting of 4 sub-bands, with a total bandwidth of 1.6 MHz for each band (2406). An exemplary system configuration is shown in Figure 24. The configuration of EH bands, sub-bands, common signaling channels, and default EH signaling channels is provided by the network as a fixed configuration or is periodically updated based on the reported energy harvesting circuit capabilities of the served UEs.

[0163] Furthermore, without loss of generality, assume that beam(0) has the following semi-static EH signaling configuration without dynamic EH signaling support: a. An EH band hopping pattern having a sub-band (3) dedicated to both common channel and default EH signaling

[0164] Beam (i) is assumed to have the following semi-static and dynamic EH signaling configurations: a. An EH band hopping pattern having sub-band (1) identified for both common channel and default EH signaling b. EH subband (1) may be shared by EH signaling transmissions and information signal transmissions. c. EH subband hopping is selected as a dynamic EH enhancement approach in which information signal transmission is utilized to optimize the transmission of power.

[0165] Further assume that beam(N-1) has the following semi-static and dynamic EH signaling configurations: a. An EH band hopping pattern having sub-band (2) identified for both common channels and default EH signaling b. The EH subband (2) may be shared by EH signaling and information signal transmission. c. A fixed EH sub-band with auxiliary signal enhancement is selected as a dynamic EH expansion approach, in which the information signal transmission in the selected EH sub-band is complemented by the auxiliary signal to optimize the power transfer efficiency.

[0166] FIG. 25 illustrates the exemplary system, EH bands, sub-bands, common signaling channel, default EH signaling channel, and dynamic EH expansion approach described above.

[0167] In the following set of technical implementations, the following set of steps are assumed to be common: A WTRU under the coverage of a certain beam (i) utilizes its main transceiver to report its EH circuitry and ZE receiver capabilities over the Uu air interface. The WTRU then receives one-to-one or one-to-many mapping information from different beam identifiers to a semi-static common signaling configuration and a default EH signaling configuration, as well as a beam identifier detection configuration over the Uu air interface. The WTRU then switches to utilize a ZE receiver and operate over the ZE air interface.

[0168] In a first technical implementation, consider a WTRU located under the coverage of beam (0), where the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel are transmitted over the same EH sub-band but are time multiplexed. The WTRU utilizes the beam identifier detection configuration and mapping information to determine that for beam (0), the beam identifier is encoded as a sequence transmitted over the common signaling channel. In a second step, the WTRU uses the beam detection configuration to track the currently serving beam. Then, in a third step, the WTRU utilizes the mapping information associated with beam (0) to determine a semi-static configuration of the default EH signaling. In a fourth step, the WTRU determines that the currently serving beam does not support dynamic EH enhancement. In a final step, the WTRU configures its EH circuitry and starts energy harvesting from the default EH signaling channel.

[0169] In a second technical implementation, consider a WTRU located under the coverage of beam (i), where the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel are transmitted over the same EH subband but are frequency multiplexed. In a first step, the WTRU utilizes the beam identifier detection configuration and mapping information to determine for beam (i), the beam identifier is encoded as a sequence that is AM modulated and transmitted over the common signaling channel, and the optimized EH signal configuration is dynamically transmitted over the default EH signaling channel using OOK modulation. In a second step, the WTRU utilizes the AM demodulator to detect the beam identifier and track the currently serving beam. In a third step, the WTRU utilizes the mapping information associated with beam (i) to determine that the currently serving beam supports dynamic EH enhancement. In a fourth step, the WTRU decodes / detects the control signal transmitted over the default EH signaling channel using a self-mixing architecture (which can enhance detection of the OOK signal in the presence of nearby strong narrowband interferers, i.e., AM modulated co-channel signals) and determines an optimized EH signal configuration, e.g., sub-band hopping pattern and hop duration. In a fifth step, the WTRU configures its EH circuitry and starts energy harvesting using the optimized EH signal configuration. Alternatively, the WTRU can attempt to harvest energy from both the default and optimized EH signals.

[0170] In a third technical implementation, a WTRU located under the coverage of beam (i) is considered, where the common signaling channel and the default EH signaling channel are transmitted over the same EH sub-band, but frequency multiplexed. Specifically, EH sub-band (1) includes the default EH signal from beam (i) and sequence-encoded beam identifier(s) of all other beams b∈{0,1,...,N-1} / i transmitted over the common signaling channel. In a first step, the WTRU utilizes mapping information associated with beam (i) to determine that the currently serving beam supports dynamic EH enhancement. In a second step, the WTRU decodes / detects the control signal transmitted over the default EH signaling channel and determines an optimized EH signal configuration, e.g., sub-band hopping pattern and hop duration. In a third step, the WTRU configures its EH circuitry and starts energy harvesting using the optimized EH signal configuration. Then, in a fourth step, the WTRU continues to track the level of harvested energy until it falls below a preconfigured or periodically signaled threshold. In a fifth step, the WTRU uses a common signaling channel in the EH subband (1) to detect the beam identifier of the new serving beam (0). In a final step, the WTRU uses the mapping information to determine that the new serving beam supports only default EH signaling, determines a semi-static configuration for its default EH signaling, configures its EH circuitry, and starts energy harvesting.

[0171] In another embodiment, the WTRU periodically initiates a (sub)beam (re)selection procedure or detects that the FOM of its serving beam is above / below a certain threshold. In a first step, the WTRU receives a reference signal from the nearest (sub)beam, where each (sub)beam transmits its own reference signal. In a second step, the WTRU determines the strength of the received signal from each (sub)beam based on the received reference signal. In a third step, the WTRU obtains and / or receives a set of parameters for each (sub)beam, such as an EH signal configuration consisting of the number of EH opportunities, the corresponding resources, and the POW format within the configured window. In a fourth step, the WTRU maps the information of each (sub)beam to a set of parameters used to calculate the FOM of each (sub)beam, similar to what was done in the previous section “(sub)beam (re)selection”. In a fifth step, the WTRU determines, according to its capabilities, the best way to perform the FOM calculation, such as the example in the previous section "(sub)beam (re)selection". In a sixth step, according to the criteria used in the FOM calculation, the WTRU selects a new (sub)beam or selects to keep the currently serving (sub)beam. If a new (sub)beam is selected, in a seventh step, the WTRU retrieves a semi-static default EH signal configuration for the selected (sub)beam from the mapping information; if a new (sub)beam is not selected, the WTRU skips to a ninth step. If the WTRU and the network support dynamic EH signaling, in an eighth step, the WTRU receives a beam-specific common control message with dynamically changing parameters of the optimized EH signal (e.g., the hopping pattern of the EH subbands along with the bandwidth and duration of each hop and the pattern length); if the WTRU and the network do not support dynamic EH signaling, the WTRU skips to a ninth step. In a ninth step, the WTRU configures the EH circuitry for harvesting energy from the default semi-static EH signal and / or the dynamically optimized EH signal.

[0172] In one embodiment, the WTRU initiates a beam (re)selection procedure periodically or based on the EH performance indicator (PI) of the currently serving beam. In a first step, the WTRU utilizes a beam detection configuration to determine the identities of nearby beams to be considered for evaluation. In a second step, the WTRU utilizes a beam-specific reference signal configuration to measure the received signal strength of the detected nearby beams. In a third step, the WTRU utilizes available mapping information to obtain an EH signaling configuration, e.g., a semi-static default EH signaling configuration, dynamic EH signaling support, and dynamic EH signaling configuration. In a fourth step, the WTRU utilizes the received signal strength measurements and the EH signaling configuration to determine the EH PI of each beam. The WTRU then determines the beam with the maximum EH PI, obtains its semi-static EH signaling configuration, determines the dynamic EH signaling support, and obtains its common channel signaling configuration. In a fifth step, the WTRU receives a common control message indicating the WTRU's declaration of presence (PD) requirement for the beam to initiate dynamic EH signaling. In a sixth step, the WTRU evaluates the EH PI of the beam using only its semi-static EH signaling configuration. If a default semi-static EH signaling configuration is sufficient, e.g., the signaled or pre-configured threshold T c For EH PI>T c , the WTRU selects a beam and proceeds to energy harvesting from the default semi-static only. Otherwise, the WTRU selects a beam and proceeds to energy harvesting from the default semi-static only when considering the PD. s The WTRU determines the EH PI taking into account its mobility status associated with the PD and the PD energy requirements.

[0173]

number

[0174] - EH aware RRC connection state beam management This section describes procedures to support beam management for a WTRU in an RRC connected state, taking into account the EH requirements of the WTRU. This is in contrast to the beam tracking procedures in RRC idle / inactive states presented in the previous section. The objective of this section is to enable efficient and optimized beamforming information and energy transfer when the WTRU is in an RRC connected state. This is in conjunction with the utilization of beam-specific default EH signaling configurations with directional transmit and receive beams in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments, as discussed in the previous section. This is of particular concern when the WTRU is operating in a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environment due to the fact that use may result in a mismatch between information transfer goals and energy transfer goals. As an example, consider the scenario shown in FIG. 26 where a UE / WTRU (2605) can receive signals from a serving BS (2600) via two different links (Link 1 (262) consisting of transmit beam 1 (2601) and receive beam 1 (2603), and Link 2 (263) consisting of transmit beam 2 (2602) and receive beam 2 (2604)). In this example, the measured received signal strength determined by L1-RSRP for Link 1 may be greater than the corresponding signal strength for Link 2, but the expected EH PI associated with Link 1 may be worse than that associated with Link 2 due to the different EH signaling configurations associated with transmit beams 1 and 2. Thus, Link 1 may be optimal for information transfer, while Link 2 may be optimal for energy transfer. Furthermore, in this example, for simplicity, it is assumed that the WTRU can only consider one beam for a single function, but this need not always be the case.

[0175] According to one embodiment, a WTRU equipped with an EH device and currently in RRC_Connected state (e.g., see step 2700 of FIG. 27) in a first step (e.g., see step 2701 of FIG. 27) reports its EH circuit capabilities as part of its WTRU capabilities over the Uu air interface and receives configuration parameters for beam detection, measurement, and reporting, as well as any mapping information for default / dynamic energy harvesting over the ZE air interface (e.g., see step 2703 of FIG. 27). In a second step, corresponding to an initialization operation in the RRC Connected state (e.g., step 2700 of FIG. 27), the WTRU utilizes its ZE receiver / transceiver and operates over the ZE air interface to harvest energy and / or perform connected mode operation. Alternatively, the WTRU may utilize the ZE air interface only for energy harvesting, while the Uu air interface is utilized for conventional RRC_Connected state operation. In a third step (which is a summary of further steps occurring in any of the technical implementations below), the WTRU utilizes the beam detection, measurements, and reporting configuration to assist the serving cell with beam decision and direction as part of a beam management procedure.

[0176] Beam measurement reports may utilize the Uu air interface or the ZE air interface, where backscatter techniques may be utilized with the ZE air interface. Parameters corresponding to the beam detection and measurement configuration over the ZE air interface and EH circuitry / ZE receiver capabilities are presented in the previous section, "Procedures to Support Beamformed EH Signal Transmission."

[0177] For the purposes of describing the following set of embodiments corresponding to technical implementations, the set of steps of the previous embodiment is assumed to be general and will not be described again when discussing the following set of embodiments shown in Figures 27-33. Therefore, the step numbering in the text describing Figures 27-33 restarts at 1 (e.g., "first step").

[0178] In a first technical implementation shown in FIG. 27, an omni-directional receiving WTRU is considered, which requests a dedicated EH signaling configuration (i.e., a configuration based on its subscription or class) and can optimize energy transfer when the scheduled resources of information transfer mainly collide with the default semi-static / dynamic EH signaling resources of the serving transmission beam. In step 2704, the WTRU optimizes the received signal strength of the transmission beam using a P2 beam sweeping procedure while receiving the information transfer scheduling information. In step 2705, the WTRU utilizes the beam-to-EH signaling mapping information and the power division between the information receiver and the energy receiver to optimize the energy transfer. Then, in step 2706, the WTRU utilizes the default semi-static / dynamic EH signaling configuration and / or the dedicated EH signaling configuration for energy transfer while receiving information. In step 2707, the WTRU determines the average energy transfer efficiency over a predetermined / configured period of time with a desired / specified information transfer quality. Next, in step 2708, the WTRU calculates the determined average energy transfer E T and current battery status / level B L Evaluate conditions over a predefined / configured threshold, T e and B. th For E T >T e and the battery level is B L >B thIf the condition is met (step 2709-YES), the WTRU repeats steps 2704-2708. Otherwise (step 2709-NO), in step 2710, the WTRU transmits a control message via the PUCCH requesting a dedicated EH signaling configuration on the serving transmit beam, where the control message may include additional information / measurements such as the current received signal strength for the transmit / receive beam pair, the current battery state / level, the power splitting ratio considered, and / or the average amount of energy harvesting currently being experienced.

[0179] In a second technical implementation, also shown in FIG. 27, an omni-directional receiving WTRU is considered, but the WTRU requests a dedicated EH signaling configuration (i.e., a configuration based on its subscription or class) and can optimize energy transfer when the scheduled resource of information transfer conflicts with the default semi-static / dynamic EH signaling resource of the serving transmission beam in the time / frequency domain, but not in the frequency / time domain. In step 2704, the WTRU optimizes the received signal strength of the transmission beam using a P2 beam sweeping procedure while receiving the information transfer scheduling information. In step 2705, the WTRU optimizes the information transfer / energy transfer by utilizing the beam-to-EH signaling mapping information and band filtering / time switching techniques to separate the power associated with information transfer / energy transfer, respectively, between the information receiver / energy receiver. Then, in step 2706, the WTRU utilizes the default semi-static / dynamic EH signaling configuration and / or the dedicated EH signaling configuration for energy transfer while receiving information. In step 2707, the WTRU determines an average energy transfer efficiency, over a predefined / configured time period, at a desired / specified information transfer quality. Then (in step 2708), the WTRU calculates the determined average energy transfer efficiency E T and current battery status / level B L Evaluate conditions over a predefined / configured threshold, Te and B. th For E T >T e and the battery level is B L >B th If the condition is met (step 2709-YES), the WTRU repeats steps 2704-2708. Otherwise (step 2709-NO), in step 2710, the WTRU transmits a control message via the PUCCH requesting a dedicated EH signaling configuration on the serving transmit beam, where the control message may include additional information / measurements such as the current received signal strength for the transmit / receive beam pair, the current battery state / level, the power splitting ratio considered, and / or the average amount of energy harvesting currently being experienced.

[0180] In a third technical implementation shown in Figure 28, a WTRU is considered that may not require a dedicated EH signaling configuration (i.e., a configuration based on its subscription or class) to optimize energy transfer, but is capable of simultaneous reception of two or more beams. In step 2804, the WTRU optimizes the received signal strength of the transmit / receive beams using a P2 / P3 beam sweeping procedure while receiving the signaling scheduling information. In step 2805, the WTRU optimizes the energy transfer using one or a combination of the following approaches based on the beam-to-(default) EH signaling mapping information and one of the corresponding scenarios: - power division between information and energy receivers when scheduled information and energy transfer resources completely / almost overlap in both time and frequency on the same receiving beam; - frequency band (e.g. one or more resource blocks) filtering, where the scheduled information and energy transfer resources fully / almost overlap in time, but not in frequency, on the same receive beam; - time switching between information transfer and energy transfer utilizing the same or different receive beams when the scheduled information transfer time resources and energy transfer time resources do not overlap; - Beam multiplexing where optimal information and energy transfer correspond to different optimal receiving beams, regardless of the time / frequency scheduled resource configuration for both information and energy transfer.

[0181] The WTRU then utilizes default semi-static / dynamic EH signaling for energy transfer while receiving information on the same or different receiving beams in step 2806. In step 2807, the WTRU determines the average energy transfer efficiency at the desired / specified information transfer quality over a predefined / configured period of time. The WTRU then (in step 2808) calculates the average energy transfer efficiency (EAE) of the determined average energy transfer EH. T Evaluate conditions over a predefined / configured threshold, T e For E T >T e If the condition is met (step 2808-YES), the WTRU repeats steps 2804-2807. Otherwise (step 2808-NO), in step 2809, the WTRU evaluates the condition for the EH signaling configuration of the current and adjacent transmit beams at the current received signal strength and battery condition / level. For example,

[0182]

number

[0183] In a fourth technical implementation shown in Figure 29, a WTRU that cannot require a dedicated EH signaling configuration (i.e., a configuration based on its subscription or class) but is capable of time-switching based beamforming reception is considered to optimize energy transfer. The WTRU receives signaling scheduling information in step 2904 while optimizing the received signal strength of the transmit / receive beam pair using a P2 / P3 beam sweep procedure. In step 2905, the WTRU optimizes energy transfer using one or a combination of the following approaches based on the beam-to-(default) EH signaling mapping information and one of the corresponding scenarios: - power division between information and energy receivers when scheduled information and energy transfer resources completely / almost overlap in both time and frequency on the same receiving beam; - frequency band (e.g. one or more resource blocks) filtering, where the scheduled information and energy transfer resources fully / almost overlap in time, but not in frequency, on the same receive beam; - Time switching between information transfer and energy transfer utilizing the same or different receive beams when the scheduled information transfer time resources and energy transfer time resources do not overlap.

[0184] The WTRU then utilizes default semi-static / dynamic EH signaling for energy transfer in step 2906 while receiving information on the same or different receiving beams, switching beams over time. In step 2907, the WTRU determines the experienced average energy transfer efficiency at the desired / specified information transfer quality over a predefined / configured period of time. The WTRU then (in step 2908) calculates the average energy transfer efficiency experienced over the determined average energy transfer EH signaling. T Evaluate conditions over a predefined / configured threshold, T e For E T >T e If the condition is met (step 2908: YES), the WTRU repeats steps 2904-2907. Otherwise, in step 2909, the WTRU evaluates the condition of the EH signaling configuration of the current and adjacent transmit beams with the current received signal strength and battery condition / level. For example,

[0185]

number

[0186] In an alternative example of a fourth technical implementation shown in Figure 30, a WTRU that can request a dedicated EH signaling configuration (i.e., a configuration based on its subscription or class) and is capable of time-switching based beamforming reception is considered in order to optimize the energy transfer. The WTRU is then determined in step 3010 based on the determined average energy transfer E T and current battery status / level B L Evaluate conditions over a predefined / configured threshold, T e and B. th,min For E T >T e and / or (E T <T e and battery level B L th,min Evaluate the condition E as follows: T >T e ​If condition E is satisfied (arrow coming from the right of decision 3008), the WTRU repeats steps 3004-3007. T <T e and battery level B L th,min If B is satisfied (arrow coming from the left of decision 3008), then in step 3009 the WTRU transmits a control message over the PUCCH to request a dedicated EH signaling configuration on the currently serving transmit beam, where the control message may include additional information / measurements, such as the current received signal strength for the transmit / receive pair, the current battery state / level, the power split ratio considered, and / or the currently experienced harvested average energy, and returns to step 3004. Otherwise (3008 "No"), in step 3010 the WTRU evaluates the conditions for the EH signaling configuration of the current and neighboring transmit beams at the current received signal strength and battery state / level. For example, a predefined / configured threshold, B th,min and B. th,max In contrast,

[0187]

number

[0188] In the example embodiment described above in the fourth technical implementation and shown in the simplified flowchart of FIG. 31, the WTRU: - Initialize RRC connection state, report capabilities, receive beam measurements, and report configuration and mapping to default EH signaling configuration information (3100). ​​​- receiving / determining (3101) information / energy (default and / or dedicated) transmission scheduling information while optimizing / maintaining transmit / receive beam pair(s) using a P-2 / P-3 beam sweep procedure or receiving a beam indication after a P-1 beam sweep process; - Based on the scheduled resource configuration of information / energy, use one or a combination of the following approaches to optimize information / energy transfer (3102): a. Power division, frequency domain filtering, or time switching between information transfer and energy transfer using the same or different receive beams - configuring a receiver circuit and decoding data / harvesting energy (3103); - Due to the quality of the information transfer that is configured, the energy transfer E experienced T Determine E T Conditions and current battery status / level B L (3104) - If the condition(s) is / are not met ("else" in 3105), the current received signal strength RSSI c and battery level B L Evaluate (3107) the condition for the EH signaling configuration of the current and adjacent transmit beams at . For example, with a defined function f(·) and a threshold B th,min and B. th,max In contrast,

[0189]

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[0190] In another example embodiment, shown as a flow chart in FIG. 32, a WTRU capable of time switching based beamforming reception and dedicated EH signaling configuration request: - Initializing the RRC connection state, reporting capabilities, receiving beam measurements, and reporting configuration and mapping to default EH signaling configuration information (320); - receiving / determining (321) information / energy (default and / or dedicated) transmission scheduling information while optimizing / maintaining the transmit / receive beam pair(s) using the P-2 / P-3 beam sweep procedure or receiving a beam indication after the P-1 beam sweep process; - Based on the scheduled resource configuration of information / energy and the configured / desired quality, use one or a combination of the following approaches to optimize the information / energy transfer (322): a. Power division, frequency domain filtering, or time switching between information transfer and energy transfer using the same or different receive beams - configuring the receiver circuitry and decoding the data / harvesting the energy (323); - Experienced energy transfer E for the configured / desired information transfer quality T is measured and determined (324). The arrow from step 324 to step 321 represents a loop indicating the duration over which measurements and experienced energy transfer decisions may occur. - Current received signal strength RSSI c and battery level B L The experienced energy transfer E T and evaluate the condition for the EH signaling configuration of the adjacent transmit beams (325). For example, th,min and T EH In contrast,

[0191]

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[0192] In another example embodiment, shown as a flow chart in FIG. 33, a WTRU capable of time switching based beamforming reception but not capable of dedicated EH signaling configuration requests: - Initializing the RRC connection state, reporting capabilities, receiving beam measurements, and reporting configuration and mapping to default EH signaling configuration information (step 330); - receiving / determining (331) information / energy (default) transmission scheduling information while optimizing / maintaining the transmit / receive beam pair(s) using the P-2 / P-3 beam sweep procedure or receiving a beam indication after the P-1 beam sweep process; - Based on the scheduled resource configuration and the configured / desired quality of information / energy, use one or a combination of the following approaches to optimize the information / energy transfer (332): a. Power division, frequency domain filtering, or time switching between information transfer and energy transfer using the same or different receive beams - configuring the receiver circuitry and decoding the data / harvesting the energy (333); - Experienced energy transfer E for the configured / desired information transfer quality T is measured and determined (334). The arrow from step 334 to step 331 represents a loop indicating the duration over which measurements and experienced energy transfer decisions may occur. - Utilizing the P-1 procedure (step 335) to measure the L1-RSRP and determine the optimal information / energy transfer approach and evaluate the actual EH PI for each beam pair based on the current information / energy transfer scheduling information; - For the current EH beam pair c,

[0193]

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[0194] In another example embodiment, shown as a flow chart in FIG. 34, a WTRU capable of time switching based beamforming reception and dedicated EH signaling configuration request: - receiving (3400) beam-specific EH signal configurations, measurement configurations, and reporting criteria; - determining performance optimization information and utilizing transmit / receive beam pair(s) for simultaneous transfer of information and energy (3401); - Determine a metric for the co - transmission quality of information and energy (3402) based on the received signal strength measurement value, the current battery state, the desired / specified information and EH performance quality, the EH performance indicator metric, and the performance optimization information. - The co - transmission quality metric Q of information and energy s Evaluate the conditions for Q and determine an appropriate action (3403). - When the co - quality metric Q is below the first threshold s Under the condition <T1>, use the P - 1 procedure to measure the L1 - RSRP, determine the optimal information / energy transmission approach, and generate a measurement report (3406). - Transmit a measurement report including the co - performance metric for each transmission beam and the corresponding optimization information (3407). - When the co - quality metric T1 < Q is between the first threshold and the second threshold s Under the condition <T2>, transmit a control message requesting a dedicated EH signaling configuration including information / measurement values on the serving transmission beam. The information / measurement values include the current received signal strength for the transmit / receive beam pair, the current battery state / level, the considered power splitting ratio / time switching ratio, and / or the currently experienced harvested average energy amount E. T And further, configure the information and energy transmission circuit. - Otherwise, determine the detectable beams and select the EH beam pair with the best EH performance indicator as described above (3405). - Update the transmit / receive beam pair(s) for information and energy transmission and configure the information transceiver and the energy harvesting device (3408).

[0195] -- Reference signals, measurement metrics, and report formats The remaining part of this section expands on the measurement and reporting steps described / referred to in any of the embodiments of the "EH - aware RRC connected state beam management" section.

[0196] According to one embodiment, the WTRU utilizes conventional reference signals for L1-RSRP measurements and a default EH signaling configuration for EH PI measurement evaluation. The PI may be any of the metrics defined in sections "(Sub)beam (Re)selection" and "Procedures for Supporting Beam-Formed EH Signaling". The determined EH PI value may depend on the scheduled resources for information transfer, how they relate to the scheduled resources for EH signaling, and the optimization approach considered at the WTRU. For example, the WTRU may determine that for a particular transmit / receive beam pair, the current scheduled resources for information transfer (IT) overlap with the default EH signaling resources in both time and frequency. Thus, the WTRU determines that a power split in a particular ratio between the information receiver and the energy receiver is optimal for energy transfer (ET) at a particular IT quality, e.g., BLER. The WTRU then utilizes the configured measurement reports and feeds back L1-RSRP measurements for each beam pair or a subset of beam pairs depending on the report configuration, the corresponding EH PI metric, and the parameters considered for ET / IT optimization.

[0197] According to an alternative embodiment, the WTRU receives a per WTRU / UE specific reference signal that can be utilized for joint RSRP and EH PI measurement / evaluation. The reference signal may be beam specific and has a specific waveform that depends on the default EH signaling configuration and can result in accurate EH PI evaluation and representative RSRP measurement, representative EH PI evaluation and accurate RSRP measurement, representative RSRP and EH PI measurement / evaluation, or accurate RSRP and EH PI measurement / evaluation. The reference signal can also be used by the WTRU for dedicated EH while performing measurement / metric evaluation. The WTRU can then utilize the configured reference signal to measure L1-RSRP separately, evaluate / determine EH PI measurement metrics, or determine Q, a new joint service quality metric that can convey information about both information transfer quality (represented by L1-RSRP measurement) and energy transfer quality (represented by EH PI measurement metrics). s For example, a joint metric may be used based on the reference signal characteristics / waveforms and the optimization approach considered by the WTRU, showing: - Q s >T Q,2 suitability for both information and energy transfer, - T Q,2 >Q s >T Q,1 In the case of - T Q,1 >Q s >T Q,0 In the case of - Q s <T Q,0 In the case of, incompatibility with information or energy transmission.

[0198] The WTRU may then decide to report only the wideband / subband joint metric or the joint metric together with the optimization approach parameters, for example, depending on the measurement reporting configuration and the capabilities of the WTRU.

[0199] According to an alternative embodiment, the WTRU receives on-demand specific reference signals for each WTRU / UE that can be utilized for individual or joint RSRP and EH PI measurements / evaluation. In a second step, the WTRU detects a condition requiring information and / or measurements to optimize the energy transfer experience. Then, in a third step, the WTRU requests initiation / enablement of on-demand reference signal transmission and receives network confirmation. In a fourth step, the WTRU utilizes the configured reference signals to individually measure L1-RSRP and evaluate / determine EH PI metrics or joint quality of service metric Q. s The WTRU may also consider valid reference signal(s) for energy harvesting. The WTRU may then decide to report only the wideband / subband joint metric or the joint metric together with optimization approach parameters, for example, depending on the measurement report configuration and the capabilities of the WTRU.

[0200] According to another embodiment, the WTRU may be configured to report the measurements of the last N wideband and / or subband beam pairs, or functions / filtered values ​​thereof, periodically or aperiodically. Aperiodic measurement reports may be triggered by an event detected by the network or by the WTRU. The trigger event may be based on one or a combination of the following criteria: - the joint conditions of the beam pairs in service for information and energy transfer, e.g. a.

[0201]

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[0202]

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[0203]

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[0204]

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[0205]

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[0206]

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[0207]

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[0208] According to another embodiment, the content of the measurement report may be configured to be generic or conditional with respect to the measurements and / or trigger events. For example, the WTRU may be configured to report any of the following, among other options / conditions / criteria: - the last N measurements / values / parameters or functions thereof, or the wideband and / or sub-band L1-RSRP measurements per beam pair, the corresponding EH PI values, and e.g., the trigger event, IT and M ET , and f min (M IT ,M ET ) <T report,min Optimized approach parameters if joint conditions for those involving. - The last N measurements / values / parameters or a function thereof or, for example, a trigger event IT and M ET , and f max (M IT ,M ET )>T report,max where M is the joint condition for the pair of beams with the largest wideband and / or subband L1-RSRP measurements. - The last N measurements / values / parameters or a function thereof or, for example, a trigger event IT and M ET , and f max (M IT ,M ET )>T report,max and M IT <T IT,ref where M is the joint condition for the pair of beams with the largest wideband and / or subband L1-RSRP measurements. - The last N measurements / values / parameters or a function thereof or, for example, a trigger event IT and M ET , and f max (M IT ,M ET )>T report,max and M ET <T ET,refIf the joint condition for the one with, then the function of the M beam pairs with the largest EH PI values. - The last N measurements / values / parameters or a function thereof, e.g., the trigger event is M IT and M ET , and f min (M IT ,M ET ) <T report,min where M1 is the beam pair with the largest wideband and / or sub-band L1-RSRP measurement and M2 is the beam pair with the largest EH PI value. - The last N measurements / values / parameters or a function thereof, e.g., the trigger event is M IT and M ET , and f min (M IT ,M ET ) <T report,min and M ET >T ET,ref where M is the joint condition for the pair of beams with the largest wideband and / or subband L1-RSRP measurements. - The last N measurements / values / parameters or a function thereof or, for example, a trigger event IT and M ET , and f min (M IT ,M ET ) <T report,min and M IT >T IT,ref If the joint condition for the one with, then the function of the M beam pairs with the largest EH PI values. - the last N measurements / values / parameters, or a function thereof, joint metric measurement Q per beam pair s and, for example, the trigger event is M IT and M ET , and f min (M IT ,M ET ) <T report,min In the case of joint conditions for those involving, optimized approach parameters. - The last N measurements / values / parameters or a function thereof or, for example, a trigger event IT and M ET , and f max (M IT ,M ET )>T report,max If the joint condition for s There are M beam pairs with - Note that f min and f max is any joint measure of the quality of information and energy transfer in the beam during service, e.g., Q s and the joint condition trigger events can simply be replaced by representative independent conditions for the in-service beam measurements.

[0209] The contents of the following references are incorporated herein by reference: A. Collado, and A. Georgiades, “Optimal Waveforms for Efficient Wireless Power Transmission”, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, Vol. 24, No. 5, May 2014.

[0210] Although not explicitly stated, the embodiments described herein may be used in any combination or subcombination. For example, the principles described herein are not limited to the variations described, and any arrangement of variations and embodiments may be used. Furthermore, the principles described herein are not limited to the channel access methods described, and any other types of channel access methods having different priority levels are compatible with the present principles.

[0211] Additionally, any features, variations, or embodiments described in the methods are compatible with an apparatus device including means for processing the disclosed methods, compatible with a device with a processor configured to process the disclosed methods, compatible with a computer program product including program code instructions, and compatible with a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing the program instructions.

[0212] Although the features and elements are described above in certain combinations, one skilled in the art will understand that each feature or element may be used alone or in any combination with the other features and elements. Furthermore, the methods described herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware embodied in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computer or processor. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), registers, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks and digital versatile disks (DVDs). A processor in association with software may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for use in the WTRU 102, a WTRU, a terminal, a base station, an RNC, or any host computer.

[0213] Furthermore, in the above embodiments, processing platforms, computing systems, controllers, and other devices including processors are described. These devices may include at least one central processing unit ("CPU") and memory. In accordance with the practices of those skilled in the art of computer programming, references to operations and symbolic representations of operations or instructions may be performed by various CPUs and memories. Such operations and operations or instructions may be referred to as being "executed," "computer-executed," or "CPU-executed."

[0214] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the operations and symbolically represented operations or instructions include the manipulation of electrical signals by the CPU. The electrical system represents data bits that cause the resulting transformation or reduction of electrical signals and the maintenance of the data bits at storage locations within the memory system, which may reconfigure or otherwise alter the CPU's operations and other processing of the signals. The storage locations in which the data bits are maintained are physical locations that have particular electrical, magnetic, optical, or organic properties that correspond to or represent the data bits. It should be understood that representative embodiments are not limited to the platforms or CPUs mentioned above, and that other platforms and CPUs may support the provided methods.

[0215] The data bits may also be maintained on a computer readable medium, 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 system readable by a CPU. The computer readable medium may include cooperating or interconnected computer readable media that resides solely on a processing system or that is distributed among multiple interconnected processing systems, which may be local or remote to the processing system. It will be appreciated that representative embodiments are not limited to the memories discussed above, and that other platforms and memories may support the methods described.

[0216] In an example embodiment, any of the 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.

[0217] There is little difference between hardware and software implementations of aspects of the system. The use of hardware or software is generally a design choice that implies a trade-off between cost versus efficiency (e.g., in certain situations, but not always, the choice between hardware and software may be significant). There may be a variety of implementations (e.g., hardware, software, and / or firmware) in which the processes and / or systems and / or other techniques described herein may be implemented, but the preferred implementation may vary depending on the context in which the processes and / or systems and / or other techniques are deployed. For example, if an implementer determines that speed and accuracy are paramount, the implementer may select a primarily hardware and / or firmware implementation. If flexibility is paramount, the implementer may select a primarily software implementation. Alternatively, the implementer may select some combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware.

[0218] The foregoing detailed description describes various embodiments of devices and / or processes through the use of block diagrams, flow charts, and / or examples. To the extent that such block diagrams, flow charts, and / or examples include one or more functions and / or operations, those skilled in the art will appreciate that each function and / or operation within such block diagrams, flow charts, or examples may be individually and / or collectively implemented by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, or substantially any combination thereof. Suitable processors include, by way of example, general purpose processors, special purpose processors, conventional processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors associated with a DSP core, controllers, microcontrollers, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application specific standard products (ASSPs), field programmable gate array (FPGA) circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), and / or state machines.

[0219] Although features and elements are provided above in specific combinations, one skilled in the art will understand that each feature or element may be used alone or in any combination with other features and elements. The present disclosure should not be limited in terms of the specific embodiments described in this application, which are intended as examples of various aspects. As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, many modifications and variations can be made without departing from its spirit and scope. No element, act, or instruction used in the description of this application should be construed as vital or essential to the invention unless expressly provided as such. In addition to those enumerated herein, functionally equivalent methods and apparatuses within the scope of the present disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing description. Such modifications and variations are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. The present disclosure should be limited only by the language of the appended claims, and by the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. It should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to any particular method or system.

[0220] It should also be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, when referred to herein, "station" and its abbreviation "STA", "user equipment" and its abbreviation "WTRU" include (i) a wireless transmit and / or receive unit (WTRU) such as the described infrastructure, (ii) any of the several embodiments of a WTRU such as the described infrastructure, (iii) a wireless-enabled and / or wired-enabled (e.g., tethered) device configured with some or all of the structure and functionality of a WTRU as illustrated (e.g., the described infrastructure), (iii) a wireless-enabled and / or wired-enabled device configured with less than all of the structure and functionality of a WTRU as described (e.g., the described infrastructure), or (iv) the like. Details of an exemplary WTRU that may represent any WTRU enumerated herein are provided below with respect to Figures 1A-1D.

[0221] In certain representative embodiments, some portions of the subject matter described herein may be implemented via application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors (DSPs), and / or other integrated formats. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein may equivalently be implemented, in whole or in part, as one or more computer programs running on one or more computers (e.g., 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., as one or more programs running on one or more microprocessors), as firmware, or as substantially any combination thereof. Those skilled in the art will also recognize that designing circuitry and / or writing software and / or firmware code is well within the skill of those of ordinary skill in the art in light of this disclosure. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the mechanisms of the subject matter described herein may be distributed as a program product in various forms, and that exemplary embodiments of the subject matter described herein may be applied regardless of the particular type of signal-bearing medium used to actually effect the distribution. Examples of signal bearing media include, but are not limited to, recordable-type media, such as floppy disks, hard disk drives, CDs, DVDs, digital tape, computer memory, and transmission-type media, such as digital and / or analog communications media (e.g., fiber optic cables, wave guides, wired communications links, wireless communications links, etc.).

[0222] The subject matter described herein may depict different components contained within or connected to different other components. It should be understood that such depicted architectures are merely examples, and that in fact many other architectures that achieve the same functionality may be implemented. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively "associated" such that the desired functionality may be achieved. Thus, any two components combined herein to achieve a particular functionality may be viewed as "associated" with one another such that the desired functionality is achieved, regardless of architecture or intermediate components. Similarly, any two components so associated may also be considered to be "operably connected" or "operably coupled" with one another to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components that may be so associated may also be considered to be "operably coupled" with one another to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably coupled include, but are not limited to, components that are physically matable and / or physically interacting, and / or components that wirelessly interact and / or wirelessly interacting, and / or components that logically interact and / or logically interacting.

[0223] With respect to the use of substantially any plural and / or singular term herein, one of ordinary skill in the art may translate from the plural to the singular and / or from the singular to the plural as appropriate to the context and / or application. For clarity, the various singular / plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein.

[0224] Those of ordinary skill in the art will generally understand that terms used in this specification, and particularly in the appended claims (e.g., the body of the appended claims), are generally intended as "open" terms (e.g., the term "including" should be interpreted as "including at least (The term "having" should be interpreted as "having at least," the term "includes" should be interpreted as "including but not limited to," etc.) One of ordinary skill in the art will further understand that where a specific number is intended in an introduced claim recitation, such intention will be expressly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation, no such intention exists. For example, where only one item is intended, the term "single" or similar language may be used. As an aid to understanding, the following appended claims and / or 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 construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation with the indefinite article "a" or "an" limits any particular claim that includes such an introduced claim recitation to embodiments that include only one of such recitations, even if the same claim includes the introductory phrase "one or more" or "at least one" and the indefinite article "a" or "an" (e.g., "a" and / or "an" should be interpreted to mean "at least one" or "one or more"). The same applies to the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. Moreover, even if a particular number is explicitly recited in an introduced claim recitation, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that such a recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., "two somethings" without other modifiers means at least two somethings or more than two somethings).

[0225] Furthermore, when conventional language similar to "at least one of A, B, and C, etc." is used, such syntax is generally intended to mean that one of ordinary skill in the art would understand the conventional language (e.g., "a system having at least one of A, B, and C" includes, but is not limited to, systems having only A, only B, only C, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and / or A, B, and C together). Furthermore, when conventional language similar to "at least one of A, B, or C, etc." is used, such syntax is generally intended to mean that one of ordinary skill in the art would understand the conventional language (e.g., "a system having at least one of A, B, or C" includes, but is not limited to, systems having only A, only B, only C, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and / or A, B, and C together). It will be further understood by those skilled in the art that substantially any declarative word and / or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the specification, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibility of including one of those terms, either of those terms, or both of those terms. For example, the phrase "A or B" will be understood to include the possibility of "A", or "B", or "A and B". Furthermore, as used herein, the term "any of" preceding a list of a plurality of items and / or a plurality of categories of items is intended to include "any", "any combination", "any combination of ...

[0226] Additionally, when features or aspects of the disclosure are described using Markush group terms, those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosure is also described with respect to any individual members or subgroups of members of the Markush group.

[0227] As will be understood by those skilled in the art, for any and all purposes, such as with respect to providing a written description, all ranges disclosed herein also encompass any and all possible subranges and combinations thereof. Any recited range can be readily recognized as being fully descriptive and allowing the same range to be broken down into at least two, three, five, ten, etc. As a non-limiting example, each range discussed herein may be readily broken down into a lower third, a middle third, and an upper third, etc. Also, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, all words such as "up to," "at least," "greater than," "less than," etc. refer to ranges that are inclusive of the recited numbers and that can then be broken down into subranges as described 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 cells refers to a group having 1 cell, 2 cells, or 3 cells. Similarly, a group having 1 to 5 cells refers to a group having 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 cells, etc.

[0228] Moreover, the claims should not be read as limited to the provided order or to the provided elements unless specifically so stated. Moreover, the use of the term "means for" in any claim is intended to invoke 35 U.S.C. 112, paragraph 6, or means-plus-function claim format, and no claim without the term "means for" is intended to do so.

[0229] A processor in association with software may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for use in a wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU), user equipment (WTRU), terminal, base station, mobility management entity (MME) or evolved packet core (EPC), or any host computer. The WTRU may be used in conjunction with modules implemented in hardware and / or software, such as, for example, a software defined radio (SDR), and may be implemented in other components, such as a camera, a video camera module, a video phone, a speaker phone, a vibration device, a speaker, a microphone, a television transceiver, a hands-free headset, a keyboard, a Bluetooth module, a frequency modulation (FM) radio unit, a near field communication (NFC) module, an LCD display unit, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display unit, a digital music player, a media player, a video game player module, an Internet browser, and / or a wireless local area network (WLAN) or ultra-wideband (UWB) module.

[0230] Although the present invention has been described with respect to a communications system, it is contemplated that the system may be implemented in software on a microprocessor / general purpose computer (not shown). In particular embodiments, one or more of the functions of the various components may be implemented in software controlling a general purpose computer.

[0231] Moreover, although the invention is illustrated and described herein with reference to specific embodiments, the invention is not intended to be limited to the details shown, but rather various modifications can be made in the details within the scope of the claims and equivalents thereof without departing from the invention.

[0232] Throughout this disclosure, those skilled in the art will appreciate that certain representative embodiments may be used in the alternative or in combination with other representative embodiments.

[0233] Although the features and elements are described above in certain combinations, one skilled in the art will understand that each feature or element may be used alone or in any combination with the other features and elements. Furthermore, the methods described herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware embodied in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computer or processor. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), registers, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks and digital versatile disks (DVDs). A processor in association with software may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for use in a WTRU, a WTRU, a terminal, a base station, an RNC, or any host computer.

[0234] Furthermore, in the above embodiments, processing platforms, computing systems, controllers, and other devices including processors are described. These devices may include at least one central processing unit ("CPU") and memory. In accordance with the practices of those skilled in the art of computer programming, references to operations and symbolic representations of operations or instructions may be performed by various CPUs and memories. Such operations and operations or instructions may be referred to as being "executed," "computer-executed," or "CPU-executed."

[0235] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the operations and symbolically represented operations or instructions include the manipulation of electrical signals by the CPU. The electrical system represents data bits that cause the resulting transformation or reduction of electrical signals and the maintenance of the data bits in storage locations within the memory system, thereby reconfiguring or otherwise altering the CPU's operations and other processing of the signals. The storage locations in which the data bits are maintained are physical locations that have particular electrical, magnetic, optical, or organic properties that correspond to or represent the data bits.

[0236] The data bits may also be maintained on a computer readable medium, 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 system readable by a CPU. The computer readable medium may include cooperating or interconnected computer readable media that resides solely on a processing system or that is distributed among multiple interconnected processing systems, which may be local or remote to the processing system. It will be appreciated that representative embodiments are not limited to the memories discussed above, and that other platforms and memories may support the methods described.

[0237] Suitable processors include, by way of example, a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors associated with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an application specific standard product (ASSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), and / or a state machine.

[0238] Although the present invention has been described with respect to a communications system, it is contemplated that the system may be implemented in software on a microprocessor / general purpose computer (not shown). In particular embodiments, one or more of the functions of the various components may be implemented in software controlling a general purpose computer.

[0239] Moreover, although the invention is illustrated and described herein with reference to specific embodiments, the invention is not intended to be limited to the details shown, but rather various modifications can be made in the details within the scope of the claims and equivalents thereof without departing from the invention.

Claims

1. 1. A method for use in a wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU), the method comprising: receiving first configuration information from a network indicating an energy harvesting signal configuration for at least one transmit beam; receiving second configuration information from the network, the second configuration information including an indicator for measuring a transmission quality metric of information and energy for the at least one transmission beam and including a criterion for reporting the measured transmission quality metric of information and energy to the network; determining a transmission quality metric of the information and energy for the at least one transmit beam based on the received first configuration information and the received second configuration information; and transmitting a report to the network including the determined information and energy transmission quality metric for the at least one transmission beam, provided that the determined information and energy transmission quality metric for the at least one transmission beam satisfies the criterion for reporting.

2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined information and energy transfer quality metrics of the at least one transmit beam meet the criterion for reporting if the determined information and energy transfer quality metrics for all of the at least one transmit beam are below a first threshold.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising receiving a specific reference signal for measuring a reference signal received power and an energy harvesting performance indicator to determine the information and energy transfer quality metrics.

4. 3. The method of claim 2, comprising: transmitting a control message to the network requesting a dedicated energy harvesting signaling configuration on condition that the determined information and energy transmission quality metric is between the first threshold and a second threshold higher than the first threshold for at least one of the at least one transmit beam.

5. The control message is a received signal strength for the at least one transmit beam of the at least one transmit beam, the determined information and energy transfer quality metric being between the first and second thresholds; the current battery status of the WTRU; The power division ratio / time switching ratio considered, The method of claim 4 , further comprising at least one of a current experienced amount of energy harvesting.

6. 3. The method of claim 2, comprising: selecting a transmission beam having a best expected energy harvesting performance indicator from the at least one transmission beam, where the determined information and energy transmission quality metric for the at least one transmission beam is between the second threshold and the third threshold, provided that the determined information and energy transmission quality metric is between a second threshold higher than the first threshold and a third threshold higher than the second threshold, for at least one transmission beam of the at least one transmission beam; and configuring the WTRU for information and energy transmission using the selected transmission beam.

7. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information and energy transmission quality metrics include at least one of a received signal strength measurement of a signal received at the WTRU, a current battery status of the WTRU, desired and / or specified information and energy harvesting capabilities of the WTRU, energy harvesting capabilities of the WTRU, and performance optimization information for the WTRU.

8. 1. A wireless receive / transmit unit device (WTRU), comprising: receiving first configuration information from a network indicating an energy harvesting signal configuration for at least one transmit beam; receiving second configuration information from the network, the second configuration information including an indicator for measuring a transmission quality metric of information and energy for the at least one transmission beam and including a criterion for reporting the measured transmission quality metric of information and energy to the network; determining a transmission quality metric of the information and energy for the at least one transmit beam based on the received first configuration information and the received second configuration information; A WTRU comprising at least one processor configured to: transmit a report to the network including the determined information and energy transmission quality metric for the at least one transmission beam, on the condition that the determined information and energy transmission quality metric for the at least one transmission beam satisfies the criterion for reporting.

9. 10. The WTRU of claim 8, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine that the information and energy transmission quality metrics of the at least one transmission beam meet the criterion for reporting if the determined information and energy transmission quality metrics for all of the at least one transmission beam are below a first threshold.

10. 10. The WTRU of claim 8, wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive a specific reference signal for measuring a reference signal received power and an energy harvesting performance indicator to determine a transmission quality metric of the information and energy.

11. 10. The WTRU of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is configured to transmit a control message to the network requesting a dedicated energy harvesting signaling configuration on condition that the determined information and energy transmission quality metric is between the first threshold and a second threshold higher than the first threshold for at least one of the at least one transmit beam.

12. The control message is a received signal strength for the at least one transmit beam of the at least one transmit beam, the determined information and energy transfer quality metric for the at least one transmit beam being between the first and second thresholds; the current battery status of the WTRU; The power division ratio / time switching ratio considered, The WTRU of claim 11 , further comprising at least one of a current experienced amount of energy harvesting.

13. The WTRU of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is configured to select a transmission beam having a best expected energy harvesting performance indicator from the at least one transmission beam, where the determined information and energy transmission quality metric for the at least one transmission beam is between the second threshold and the third threshold, under the condition that the determined information and energy transmission quality metric is between a second threshold higher than the first threshold and a third threshold higher than the second threshold, for at least one transmission beam of the at least one transmission beam, and configure the WTRU for information and energy transmission using the selected transmission beam.

14. The WTRU of claim 9, wherein the information and energy transmission quality metrics include at least one of a received signal strength measurement of a signal received at the WTRU, a current battery status of the WTRU, desired and / or specified information and energy harvesting performance of the WTRU, energy harvesting performance of the WTRU, and performance optimization information for the WTRU.

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