Subgroup based random access

Abstract

Various aspects of the present disclosure relate to subgroup based random access. Given a large population of Ambient Internet of Things (IoT) devices, a subpopulation of Ambient IoT devices for random access and to transmit data is selected. Different subpopulations are selected at different times, allowing all of the Ambient IoT devices in the population (e.g., in a factory) to eventually be able to perform random access and transmit data, although not necessarily all devices in the population concurrently. An NE (e.g., a base station) configures resources for random access and transmission of Ambient IoT device data to a node (e.g., the base station or another device, such as a UE). The base activates (e.g., triggers) a sub-population of Ambient IoT devices to enable transmission within a time window duration (e.g., a frame size).

Description

SUBGROUP BASED RANDOM ACCESSRELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 63 / 554,072 filed February 15, 2024 entitled “SUBGROUP BASED RANDOM ACCESS,” the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to subgroup based random access.BACKGROUND

[0003] A wireless communications system may include one or multiple network communication devices, such as base stations, which may otherwise be known as network equipment (NE), supporting wireless communications for one or multiple user communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE), or other suitable terminology. The wireless communications system may support wireless communications with one or multiple user communication devices by utilizing resources of the wireless communication system (e.g., time resources (e.g., symbols, slots, subframes, frames, or the like) or frequency resources (e.g., subcarriers, carriers, or the like)). Additionally, the wireless communications system may support wireless communications across various radio access technologies including third generation (3G) radio access technology, fourth generation (4G) radio access technology, fifth generation (5G) radio access technology, among other suitable radio access technologies beyond 5G (e.g., sixth generation (6G)).SUMMARY

[0004] An article “a” before an element is unrestricted and understood to refer to “at least one” of those elements or “one or more” of those elements. The terms “a,” “at least one,” “one or more,” and “at least one of one or more” may be interchangeable. As used herein, including in the claims, “or” as used in a list of items (e.g., a list of items prefaced by a phrase such as “at least one of’ or “one or more of’ or “one or both of’) indicates an inclusive list such that, for example, a list of atleast one of A, B, or C means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C). By way of another example, a list of at least one of A; B; or C means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C). Also, as used herein, the phrase “based on” shall not be construed as a reference to a closed set of conditions. For example, an example step that is described as “based on condition A” may be based on both a condition A and a condition B without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In other words, as used herein, the phrase “based on” shall be construed in the same manner as the phrase “based at least in part on”. Further, as used herein, including in the claims, a “set” may include one or more elements.

[0005] An apparatus (e.g., a UE or Ambient Internet of Things (loT) device) for wireless communication is described. The apparatus may be configured to, capable of, or operable to perform one or more operations as described herein. For example, the apparatus may be configured to, capable of, or operable to receive an indication of a trigger for random access, wherein the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and transmit a random access transmission in an occasion within a frame in response to the trigger.

[0006] A processor (e.g., a standalone processor chipset, or a component of a UE or of an Ambient loT device) for wireless communication is described. The processor may be configured to, capable of, or operable to perform one or more operations as described herein. For example, the processor may be configured to, capable of, or operable to receive an indication of a trigger for random access, wherein the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and transmit a random access transmission in an occasion within a frame in response to the trigger.

[0007] A method performed or performable by an apparatus (e.g., a UE or Ambient loT device) for wireless communication is described. The method may include receiving, an indication of a trigger for random access, wherein the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and transmitting a random access transmission in an occasion within a frame in response to the trigger.

[0008] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable,or operable to transmit the random access transmission in response to the trigger including an identifier activating the subgroup of the group of devices, wherein the apparatus is part of the subgroup.

[0009] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to randomly choose an occasion within the frame based at least in part on the frame size.

[0010] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the identifier comprises a set of mask bits and the apparatus, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to determine that the apparatus is part of the subgroup in response to the set of mask bits matching an electronic packet code identifier (EPC ID) of the apparatus.

[0011] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the trigger includes an input parameter and the apparatus, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to determine at least one of the frame or the occasion based at least in part on a formula, wherein the input parameter is an input to the formula.

[0012] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the formula is known to the apparatus and a NE from which the indication of the trigger is received.

[0013] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to randomly choose an occasion in the frame based at least in part on the frame size.

[0014] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to receive a configuration that indicates multiple transmission resources each including a random access channel (RACH) resource and one or more uplink (UL) resources for a group of devices that includes the apparatus.

[0015] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to receive a configuration that indicates a sequence length for binary Golay spreading sequences having two phases; and transmit the random access transmission using the binary Golay spreading sequences.

[0016] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the random access transmission includes a random access binary pattern preconfigured in the apparatus.

[0017] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to receive a configuration that indicates a random access binary pattern; and include the random access binary pattern in the random access transmission.

[0018] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to start a timer in response to transmitting the random access transmission to a NE, the timer indicating an amount of time within which a contention resolution response from the NE is expected.

[0019] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to map the virtual frame number to a physical frame; and transmit the random access transmission in the physical frame.

[0020] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus comprises an Ambient loT device.

[0021] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus comprises a passive device or semi-passive device using a backscattering transmission technique.

[0022] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus comprises an active device that generates and amplifies an UL signal internally.

[0023] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to transmit the random access transmission to a NE.

[0024] In some implementations of the apparatus, processor, and method described herein, the apparatus, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to transmit the random access transmission to a UE.

[0025] An NE (e.g., a base station) for wireless communication is described. The NE may be configured to, capable of, or operable to perform one or more operations as described herein. For example, the NE may be configured to, capable of, or operable to transmit an indication of a trigger for random access, wherein the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and receive a random access transmission in a frame and an occasion based at least in part on the trigger.

[0026] A processor (e.g., a standalone processor chipset, or a component of a NE (e.g., a base station)) for wireless communication is described. The processor may be configured to, capable of, or operable to perform one or more operations as described herein. For example, the processor may be configured to, capable of, or operable to transmit an indication of a trigger for random access, wherein the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and receive a random access transmission in a frame and an occasion based at least in part on the trigger.

[0027] A method performed or performable by an NE (e.g., a base station) for wireless communication is described. The method may include transmitting an indication of a trigger for random access, wherein the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and receiving a random access transmission in a frame and an occasion based at least in part on the trigger.

[0028] In some implementations of the NE, the processor, and the method described herein, the trigger includes an identifier activating the subgroup of the group of devices, wherein the random access transmission is received from a device that is part of the subgroup.

[0029] In some implementations of the NE, the processor, and the method described herein, the identifier comprises a set of mask bits for the device to determine the device is part of the subgroup in response to the set of mask bits matching an EPC ID of the device.

[0030] In some implementations of the NE, the processor, and the method described herein, the trigger includes an input parameter usable by the device to determine at least one of the frame or the occasion based at least in part on a formula, wherein the input parameter is an input to the formula.

[0031] In some implementations of the NE, the processor, and the method described herein, the formula is known to the base station and the device.

[0032] In some implementations of the NE, processor, and method described herein, the NE, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to transmit, to the device, a configuration that indicates multiple transmission resources each including a RACH resource and one or more UL resources for the group of devices that includes the device.

[0033] In some implementations of the NE, processor, and method described herein, the NE, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to transmit, to the device, a configuration that indicates a sequence length for binary Golay spreading sequences having two phases; and receive the random access transmission using the binary Golay spreading sequences.

[0034] In some implementations of the NE, the processor, and the method described herein, the random access transmission includes a random access binary pattern preconfigured in the device.

[0035] In some implementations of the NE, processor, and method described herein, the NE, processor, and method may further be configured to, capable of, performed, performable, or operable to transmit a configuration that indicates a random access binary pattern, wherein the random access transmission includes the random access binary pattern.

[0036] In some implementations of the NE, the processor, and the method described herein, the device comprises an Ambient loT device.

[0037] In some implementations of the NE, the processor, and the method described herein, the device comprises a passive device or semi-passive device using a backscattering transmission technique.

[0038] In some implementations of the NE, the processor, and the method described herein, the device comprises an active device that generates and amplifies an UL signal internally.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0039] Figure 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communications system in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0040] Figure 2 illustrates an example of a wireless communications system, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0041] Figures 3, 4, and 5 illustrate example RACH slot structures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0042] Figure 6 illustrates an example RACH frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0043] Figure 7 illustrates an example multi-slot RACH and data frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0044] Figure 8 illustrates an example of resources for Ambient loT communication in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0045] Figure 9 illustrates an example message exchange in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0046] Figure 10 illustrates an example of an interlace configuration in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0047] Figure 11 illustrates an example of UE resource spread in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0048] Figure 12 illustrates an example of an apparatus in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0049] Figure 13 illustrates an example of a processor in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0050] Figure 14 illustrates an example of a NE in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0051] Figure 15 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by an apparatus in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0052] Figure 16 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by a NE in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0053] For various applications, numerous (e.g., billions) of loT devices are expected to be deployed in a wireless communications system. However, it is difficult to power this large number of devices with batteries that need to be replaced for re-charging, which leads to high maintenance cost. Accordingly, devices that consume very low power and / or rely on harvesting the energy are considered. One example of such a device is a device (e.g., referred to as a passive device) that has no energy storage, no independent signal generation, and uses backscattering transmission. Another example of such a device is a device (e.g., referred to as a semi-passive device) that has energy storage, no independent signal generation, and uses backscattering transmission. Use of stored energy can include amplification for reflected signals. Another example of such a device is a device (e.g., referred to as an active device) that has energy storage, has independent signal generation (e.g., an active RF component for transmission), and may use backscattering transmission.

[0054] loT devices may include Ambient loT devices. An Ambient loT device refers to a low- power (e.g., self-powered) sensor or device, which is typically small and / or low-cost. For example, Ambient loT devices may include an energy harvester with an output power of from 1 microwatt (pW) to a few hundreds of pW. Ambient loT devices also typically do not include a subscriber identity module (SIM) card. There are different topologies and deployment scenarios of Ambient loT devices. Examples of these topologies include a topology where a base station acts as reader and as source of a carrier wave, a topology where the base station acts as a reader but another device is used as a source of the carrier wave, a topology where the base station acts as a controller and another intermediate node is used as a reader and as a source of the carrier wave, and so forth.

[0055] In some scenarios, there can be a large number of Ambient loT devices (e.g., as many as 150 devices per 100 square meters (m2)), such as in an indoor factory area where Ambient loT devices are attached to objects (e.g., products, boxes, pallets) being tracked. These devices do random access and data transmission for transmitting, e.g., an electronic product code ID to the network. Traditional radio frequency identification (RFID) techniques use an aloha protocol, a tree protocol, a Q protocol, and so forth to access the channel, resolves collision and transmit data. However, traditional new radio (NR) uses the RACH Zadoff-chu sequence based preamble, cyclic shifts which may not be sufficient to handle the density of Ambient loT devices in the network.

[0056] The techniques discussed herein select a subpopulation of Ambient loT devices for random access and to transmit data. Different subpopulations are selected at different times, allowing all of the Ambient loT devices in the population (e.g., in the factory) to eventually be able to perform random access and transmit data, although not necessarily all devices in the population concurrently. An NE (e.g., a base station) configures resources for random access and transmission of Ambient loT device data to a node (e.g., the base station or another device, such as a UE). The base activates (e.g., triggers) a sub-population of Ambient loT devices to enable transmission within a time window duration (e.g., a frame size). The NE configures multiple transmission resources containing a RACH resource and one or more UL resources as a transmission occasion for the Ambient loT devices.

[0057] Selecting a subset of population of Ambient loT devices reduces the number of Ambient loT devices to be inventoried, thereby reducing the collision from Ambient loT devices that are not in the subset. This allows a large population of Ambient loT devices to be inventoried or managed using NR techniques.

[0058] Reference is made herein to communicating data or information, such as signaling communication resources and / or communications that are transmitted or received between devices. It is to be appreciated that other terms may be used interchangeably with communicating, such as signaling, transmitting, receiving, outputting, forwarding, retrieving, obtaining, and so forth.

[0059] Aspects of the present disclosure are described in the context of a wireless communications system.

[0060] Figure 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communications system 100 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless communications system 100 may include one or more NE 102, one or more UE 104, and a core network (CN) 106. The wireless communications system 100 may support various radio access technologies. In some implementations, the wireless communications system 100 may be a 4G network, such as an LTE network or an LTE- Advanced (LTE-A) network. In some other implementations, the wireless communications system 100 may be a new radio (NR) network, such as a 5G network, a 5G-Advanced (5G-A) network, or a 5G ultrawideband (5G-UWB) network. In other implementations, the wireless communications system 100 may be a combination of a 4G network and a 5G network, or other suitable radio access technology including Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20. The wireless communications system 100 may support radio access technologies beyond 5G, for example, 6G. Additionally, the wireless communications system 100 may support technologies, such as time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), or code division multiple access (CDMA), etc.

[0061] The one or more NE 102 may be dispersed throughout a geographic region to form the wireless communications system 100. One or more of the NE 102 described herein may be or include or may be referred to as a network node, a base station, a network element, a network function, a network entity, a radio access network (RAN), a NodeB, an eNodeB (eNB), a nextgeneration NodeB (gNB), or other suitable terminology. An NE 102 and a UE 104 may communicate via a communication link, which may be a wireless or wired connection. For example, an NE 102 and a UE 104 may perform wireless communication (e.g., receive signaling, transmit signaling) over a Uu interface.

[0062] An NE 102 may provide a geographic coverage area for which the NE 102 may support services for one or more UEs 104 within the geographic coverage area. For example, an NE 102 and a UE 104 may support wireless communication of signals related to services (e.g., voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc.) according to one or multiple radio access technologies. In some implementations, an NE 102 may be moveable, for example, a satellite associated with a nonterrestrial network (NTN). In some implementations, different geographic coverage areas associated with the same or different radio access technologies may overlap, but the different geographic coverage areas may be associated with different NE 102.

[0063] The one or more UE 104 may be dispersed throughout a geographic region of the wireless communications system 100. A UE 104 may include or may be referred to as a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a remote device, a subscriber device, a transmitter device, a receiver device, or some other suitable terminology. In some implementations, the UE 104 may be referred to as a unit, a station, a terminal, or a client, among other examples. Additionally, or alternatively, the UE 104 may be referred to as an Internet-of-Things (loT) device, an Internet-of- Everything (loE) device, or machine-type communication (MTC) device, among other examples.

[0064] A UE 104 may be able to support wireless communication directly with other UEs 104 over a communication link. For example, a UE 104 may support wireless communication directly with another UE 104 over a device-to-device (D2D) communication link. In some implementations, such as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) deployments, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) deployments, or cellular-V2X deployments, the communication link may be referred to as a sidelink. For example, a UE 104 may support wireless communication directly with another UE 104 over a PC5 interface.

[0065] An NE 102 may support communications with the CN 106, or with another NE 102, or both. For example, an NE 102 may interface with other NE 102 or the CN 106 through one or more backhaul links (e.g., SI, N2, N6, or other network interface). In some implementations, the NE 102 may communicate with each other directly. In some other implementations, the NE 102 may communicate with each other indirectly (e.g., via the CN 106). In some implementations, one or more NE 102 may include subcomponents, such as an access network entity, which may be an example of an access node controller (ANC). An ANC may communicate with the one or more UEs 104 through one or more other access network transmission entities, which may be referred to as a radio heads, smart radio heads, or transmission-reception points (TRPs).

[0066] The CN 106 may support user authentication, access authorization, tracking, connectivity, and other access, routing, or mobility functions. The CN 106 may be an evolved packet core (EPC), or a 5G core (5GC), which may include a control plane entity that manages access and mobility (e.g., a mobility management entity (MME), an access and mobility management functions (AMF)) and a user plane entity that routes packets or interconnects to external networks (e.g., a serving gateway (S-GW), a packet data network (PDN) gateway (P-GW), or a user plane function (UPF)). In some implementations, the control plane entity may manage non-access stratum (NAS) functions, such as mobility, authentication, and bearer management (e.g.,data bearers, signal bearers, etc.) for the one or more UEs 104 served by the one or more NE 102 associated with the CN 106.

[0067] The CN 106 may communicate with a packet data network over one or more backhaul links (e.g., via an SI, N2, N6, or other network interface). The packet data network may include an application server. In some implementations, one or more UEs 104 may communicate with the application server. A UE 104 may establish a session (e.g., a protocol data unit (PDU) session, or the like) with the CN 106 via an NE 102. The CN 106 may route traffic (e.g., control information, data, and the like) between the UE 104 and the application server using the established session (e.g., the established PDU session). The PDU session may be an example of a logical connection between the UE 104 and the CN 106 (e.g., one or more network functions of the CN 106).

[0068] In the wireless communications system 100, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may use resources of the wireless communications system 100 (e.g., time resources (e.g., symbols, slots, subframes, frames, or the like) or frequency resources (e.g., subcarriers, carriers)) to perform various operations (e.g., wireless communications). In some implementations, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support different resource structures. For example, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support different frame structures. In some implementations, such as in 4G, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support a single frame structure. In some other implementations, such as in 5G and among other suitable radio access technologies, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support various frame structures (i.e., multiple frame structures). The NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support various frame structures based on one or more numerologies.

[0069] One or more numerologies may be supported in the wireless communications system 100, and a numerology may include a subcarrier spacing and a cyclic prefix. A first numerology (e.g., / r=0) may be associated with a first subcarrier spacing (e.g., 15 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix. In some implementations, the first numerology (e.g., / r=0) associated with the first subcarrier spacing (e.g., 15 kHz) may utilize one slot per subframe. A second numerology (e.g., / r=l) may be associated with a second subcarrier spacing (e.g., 30 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix. A third numerology (e.g., / r=2) may be associated with a third subcarrier spacing (e.g., 60 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix or an extended cyclic prefix. A fourth numerology (e.g., / r=3) may be associated with a fourth subcarrier spacing (e.g., 120 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix. A fifthnumerology (e.g., / r=4) may be associated with a fifth subcarrier spacing (e.g., 240 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix.

[0070] A time interval of a resource (e.g., a communication resource) may be organized according to frames (also referred to as radio frames). Each frame may have a duration, for example, a 10 millisecond (ms) duration. In some implementations, each frame may include multiple subframes. For example, each frame may include 10 subframes, and each subframe may have a duration, for example, a 1 ms duration. In some implementations, each frame may have the same duration. In some implementations, each subframe of a frame may have the same duration.

[0071] Additionally or alternatively, a time interval of a resource (e.g., a communication resource) may be organized according to slots. For example, a subframe may include a number (e.g., quantity) of slots. The number of slots in each subframe may also depend on the one or more numerologies supported in the wireless communications system 100. For instance, the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth numerologies (i.e., / r=0, jU=l , / r=2, / r=3, / r=4) associated with respective subcarrier spacings of 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz, 120 kHz, and 240 kHz may utilize a single slot per subframe, two slots per subframe, four slots per subframe, eight slots per subframe, and 16 slots per subframe, respectively. Each slot may include a number (e.g., quantity) of symbols (e.g., OFDM symbols). In some implementations, the number (e.g., quantity) of slots for a subframe may depend on a numerology. For a normal cyclic prefix, a slot may include 14 symbols. For an extended cyclic prefix (e.g., applicable for 60 kHz subcarrier spacing), a slot may include 12 symbols. The relationship between the number of symbols per slot, the number of slots per subframe, and the number of slots per frame for a normal cyclic prefix and an extended cyclic prefix may depend on a numerology. It should be understood that reference to a first numerology (e.g., / r=0) associated with a first subcarrier spacing (e.g., 15 kHz) may be used interchangeably between subframes and slots.

[0072] In the wireless communications system 100, an electromagnetic (EM) spectrum may be split, based on frequency or wavelength, into various classes, frequency bands, frequency channels, etc. By way of example, the wireless communications system 100 may support one or multiple operating frequency bands, such as frequency range designations FR1 (410 MHz - 7.125 GHz), FR2 (24.25 GHz - 52.6 GHz), FR3 (7.125 GHz - 24.25 GHz), FR4 (52.6 GHz - 114.25 GHz), FR4a or FR4-1 (52.6 GHz - 71 GHz), and FR5 (114.25 GHz - 300 GHz). In some implementations, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may perform wireless communications over one ormore of the operating frequency bands. In some implementations, FR1 may be used by the NEs 102 and the UEs 104, among other equipment or devices for cellular communications traffic (e.g., control information, data). In some implementations, FR2 may be used by the NEs 102 and the UEs 104, among other equipment or devices for short-range, high data rate capabilities.

[0073] FR1 may be associated with one or multiple numerologies (e.g., at least three numerologies). For example, FR1 may be associated with a first numerology (e.g., / r=0), which includes 15 kHz subcarrier spacing; a second numerology (e.g., / r=l), which includes 30 kHz subcarrier spacing; and a third numerology (e.g., / r=2), which includes 60 kHz subcarrier spacing. FR2 may be associated with one or multiple numerologies (e.g., at least 2 numerologies). For example, FR2 may be associated with a third numerology (e.g., / r=2), which includes 60 kHz subcarrier spacing; and a fourth numerology (e.g., / r=3), which includes 120 kHz subcarrier spacing.

[0074] In some cases, a cell refers to a radio access node in communication with a base station or including a base station. A cell typically has a coverage area, which is a geographic area in which the cell provides wireless connectivity to devices within. Different cells may operate on defined frequencies or frequency bands, referred to as subcarriers. In some examples, a UE 104 establishes a wireless connection with a cell, and subsequently that cell may be referred to as a serving cell of the UE 104.

[0075] In one or more implementations, the wireless communications system 100 also includes one or more Ambient loT devices. The techniques discussed herein allow a NE 102 select a subpopulation of Ambient loT devices for random access and to transmit data. Different subpopulations are selected at different times, allowing all of the Ambient loT devices in the population (e.g., in the factory) to eventually be able to perform random access and transmit data. An NE 102 (e.g., a base station) configures resources for random access and transmission of Ambient loT device data to a node (e.g., a base station or a UE 104). The NE 102 activates (e.g., triggers) a sub-population of Ambient loT devices to enable transmission within a time window duration (e.g., a frame size). The NE 102 configures multiple transmission resources containing a RACH resource and one or more UL resources as a transmission occasion for the Ambient loT devices.

[0076] Figure 2 illustrates an example of a wireless communications system 200, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In some examples, the wireless communications system 200 implements aspects of the wireless communications system 100. For example, the wireless communications system 200 includes a NE 202 (e.g., a base station), and multiple low power (e.g., Ambient loT devices) 204.

[0077] Each Ambient loT device 204 may be classified or defined as a low power device if a power consumption level of the Ambient loT device 204 satisfies (e.g., is less than) a threshold value. The Ambient loT device 204 may include a low power processor to reduce the power consumption level of the Ambient loT device 204. A low power processor may be a processor that operates with a power consumption level that satisfies (e.g., is less than) a threshold value. A low power processor and / or the Ambient loT device 204 may have reduced functionality when compared with a processor or other wireless device that operates at a power consumption level that is greater than the threshold values. For example, the low power processor and / or the Ambient loT device 204 may have reduced processing capabilities for decoding and generating signaling, may have reduced transmission and / or reception capabilities (e.g., transmission and / or reception range, among others), reduced energy storage capabilities (e.g., smaller battery), or the like when compared with a processor or wireless device that operates at a power consumption level that is greater than the threshold values.

[0078] In one or more implementations, the Ambient loT device 204 may be a sensor (e.g., a tag), an actuator, an appliance, or another device capable of connecting to a wireless network. In some examples, the Ambient loT device 204 is categorized according to a set of components and / or capabilities of the Ambient loT devices, where the categories include one or more of an active Ambient loT device category, a semi-passive Ambient loT device category, and / or a passive Ambient loT device category. An active Ambient loT device includes a power source and an active radio frequency component, such as a transmitter and / or receiver component, for signal generation. The transmitter and / or receiver component may include one or more antennas for transmitting and receiving signaling. A semi-passive Ambient loT device may have energy storage capabilities but may not include an active radio frequency component for signal generation. A passive Ambient loT device may not have energy storage capabilities or an active radio frequency component.

[0079] In some cases, semi-passive Ambient loT devices and passive Ambient loT devices use backscattering techniques and / or energy harvesting for transmitting and / or receiving transmissions. In variations, an active Ambient loT device may use a transmitter and / or receiver component for transmitting or receiving transmissions and / or may use backscattering techniques for transmitting and / or receiving transmissions. Semi-passive Ambient loT devices may use the stored energy to amplify a signal when using backscattering techniques. Backscattering techniques include receiving signaling from a source (e.g., a node such as the NE 202 or a UE) and modulating a reflection of the incoming signaling towards a destination (e.g., a node such as the NE 202 or a UE). Thus, the Ambient loT device 204 may not use an active receiver and / or transmitter component for receiving and transmitting signaling, which reduces a power consumption level of the device.

[0080] In some examples, the Ambient loT device 204 may be capable of energy harvesting using energy harvesting techniques. For example, the Ambient loT device 204 may extract energy from transmission waves from a source device (e.g., the NE 202) to power the Ambient loT device 204. The source device may transmit the signaling using a continuous wave waveform in which the signaling has a constant amplitude and frequency and / or a carrier wave waveform in which the signaling has a periodic variation in amplitude, duration, and position. Signaling transmitted using a continuous wave waveform may be referred to as a continuous wave transmission, while signaling transmitted using a carrier wave waveform may be referred to as a carrier wave transmission. If the Ambient loT device 204 includes an energy storage component, then the Ambient loT device 204 may store the extracted energy for later use (e.g., to amplify a reflection of signal or to generate a new signal).

[0081] In recent years, loT has attracted much attention in the wireless communication world. More things are expected to be interconnected for improving productivity, efficiency, and increasing comforts of life. Further reduction of size, complexity, and power consumption of loT devices can enable the deployment of tens or even hundreds of billion loT devices for various applications and provide added value across the entire value chain. It is impractical to power all the loT devices by batteries that need to be replaced or recharged manually, which leads to high maintenance cost, serious environmental issues, and even safety hazards for some use cases (e.g., wireless sensor in electric power and petroleum industry).

[0082] Many existing wireless communication devices are powered by battery that needs to be replaced or recharged manually. The automation and digitalization of various industries open numbers of new markets considering new loT technologies of supporting battery-less devices with no energy storage capability or devices with energy storage that do not need to be replaced or recharged manually. The form factor of such devices are expected to be reasonably small to convey the validity of target use cases.

[0083] Various use cases, traffic scenarios, device constraints of ambient power-enabled Internet of Things are considered and identification of new potential service requirements as well as new KPIs are considered. Devices being battery-less or with limited energy storage capability (e.g., using a capacitor) are considered and the energy is provided through the harvesting of radio waves, light, motion, heat, or any other power source .

[0084] Considering the limited size and complexity required by practical applications for battery-less devices with no energy storage capability or devices with limited energy storage that do not need to be replaced or recharged manually, the output power of energy harvester is typically from 1 microwatt (pW) to a few hundreds of pW. Existing cellular devices may not work well with energy harvesting due to their peak power consumption of higher than 10 milliwatts (mW).

[0085] An example type of application is asset identification, which presently resorts mainly to barcode and RFID in most industries. An advantage of these two technologies is the ultra-low complexity and small form factor of the tags. However, the limited reading range of a few meters usually requires handheld scanning which leads to labor intensive and time-consuming operations, or RFID portals or gates, which leads to costly deployments. Moreover, the lack of interference management scheme results in severe interference between RFID readers and capacity problems, especially in case of dense deployment. It is difficult to support large-scale network with seamless coverage for RFID.

[0086] Since existing technologies cannot meet all the requirements of target use cases, a new loT technology is desired to open new markets within 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) systems, whose number of connections and / or device density can be orders of magnitude higher than existing 3GPP loT technologies. The new loT technology is expected to provide complexity and power consumption orders of magnitude lower than the existing 3 GPP low power wide area(LPWA) technologies (e.g., narrowband (NB)-IoT and enhanced machine type communication (eMTC)), and is expected to address use cases and scenarios that cannot otherwise be fulfilled based on existing 3GPP LPWA loT technologies.

[0087] Assessment of Ambient loT suitable for deployment in a 3GPP system that relies on ultra-low complexity devices with ultra-low power consumption for the very-low end loT applications is taken into consideration. Addressing use cases and scenarios that cannot otherwise be fulfilled based on existing 3GPP LPWA loT technology, e.g., NB-IoT including with reduced peak Tx power is taken into consideration.

[0088] A harmonized air interface design with reduced (e.g., minimized) differences (where appropriate) for Ambient loT to enable the following devices is considered: a) an approximately 1 pW peak power consumption, has energy storage, initial sampling frequency offset (SFO) up to 10xppm, neither downlink (DL) nor UL amplification in the device, where X is to be decided; the device’s UL transmission is backscattered on a carrier wave provided externally; b) less than or equal to a few hundred pW peak power consumption, has energy storage, initial SFO up to 10xppm, both DL and / or UL amplification in the device, where X is to be decided; the device’s UL transmission may be generated internally by the device, or be backscattered on a carrier wave provided externally. The coverage design target is a largest distance of 10-50 meters with device indoors. Devices where a UE operates as an intermediate node under network (e.g., base station) control), with no RRC states, no mobility (e.g., at least no cell selection or re-selection -like function), no hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), no automatic repeat request (ARQ), is considered.

[0089] Deployment scenarios with the following characteristics are considered. A deployment and topology scenario with a base station and coexistence characteristics of micro-cell, co-site. A deployment and topology scenario with a UE as an intermediate node, under network (e.g., base station) control and base station and coexistence characteristics of macro-cell, co-site; and the location is of intermediate node is indoor. FR1 licensed spectrum in frequency division duplex (FDD). Spectrum deployment in-band to NR, in guard-band to LTE / NR, in one or more standalone bands. Traffic types DO-DTT, device-terminated (DT), with focus on rUCl (indoor inventory) and rUC4 (indoor command). Whether the harmonized air interface design can address the deviceoriginated autonomous (DO-A) use case is also considered.

[0090] The occurrence of transmission from Ambient loT device (including backscattering when used) at least in UL spectrum is considered.

[0091] The following is considered: applicable largest (e.g., maximum) distance target values(s); latency suitable for use in RAN; 2-dimensional (2D) distribution of devices; deployment scenarios for coverage and coexistence evaluations; identify basic blocks or components of possible Ambient loT device architectures, taking into account implementations of low-power low- complexity devices which meet the RAN design target for power consumption and complexity; link budget calculation for coverage, including whether or how to model carrier wave from one or more nodes inside or outside the connectivity topology.

[0092] The following is considered: appropriate and feasible solutions for Ambient loT, including decisions on which functions, procedures, etc. are used, and providing at least desired (e.g., required) functionalities; positioning , restricted to functionalities which would have no, or little, specification impact; the feasibility and desired (e.g., required) functionalities for proximity determination.

[0093] For the Ambient loT DL and UL, the following is considered: frame structure, synchronization and timing, random access; numerologies, bandwidths, and multiple access; waveforms and modulations; channel coding; downlink channel / signal aspects; uplink channel / signal aspects; scheduling and timing relationships; characteristics of carrier-wave waveform for a carrier wave provided externally to the Ambient loT device, including for interference handling at Ambient loT UL receiver, and at NR base station.

[0094] The following is also considered: functions used for an Ambient loT compact protocol stack and lightweight signaling procedure to enable DO-DTT and DT data transmission; for example, paging, random access, data transmission, including radio resource control aspects, interactions with upper layers.

[0095] The following is also considered: impacts on signaling and procedures for CN-RAN interface, to enable paging, device context management, data transport; RAN architecture aspects, including whether support for split architecture is used; solutions for locating an Ambient loT device with no specification impact, e.g., reusing existing user location report, or reduced (e.g., minimal) specification impact to convey location information to core network.

[0096] The following is also considered: coexistence of Ambient loT and NR / LTE; RF for Ambient loT, including Ambient loT base station transmission and reception, Ambient loT Device transmission and reception, intermediate node (e.g., UE), transmission and reception.

[0097] With respect to multiple access for Ambient loT devices, there are two hierarchical steps to reduce the collisions due to connection density (e.g., 150 devices per 100m2 for indoor scenarios). Firstly, identifying and selecting the Ambient loT devices from multiple Ambient loT devices to perform inventory. Selecting a subset of population of tags to the inventory round reduces the number of devices to inventoried thereby reducing the collision from devices that need not be inventoried. Secondly, handling of device collision within the inventory round when multiple devices are to be inventoried within a latency bound.

[0098] Anti-collision systems are procedures used to manage the reading from several Ambient loT devices simultaneously. The design of the wireless communications system is expected to prevent the overlapping radio waves, emitted by different Ambient loT devices, which end up creating destructive interference. The design of the wireless communications system is expected to manage the reading and writing of a larger number of Ambient loT devices using the anti-collision algorithms, thereby regulating the time intervals and frequencies to read and write into the Ambient loT device. With such techniques, the interference from collision can be managed and the risk of receiving incorrect or inaccurate information can be avoided.

[0099] Secondly, an efficient mechanism to schedule the devices within an inventory round is used due to the larger number of Ambient loT devices. The efficiency is determined by the number of available occasions to the number of Ambient loT devices for scheduling. If the available slots are more than the number of devices, then the efficiency is lower and if the available slots are less than the number of devices then more collisions happen. The Ambient loT collision problem can be addressed by studying suitable multiple access methodology such as space (SDMA), time (TDMA), frequency (FDMA), code (CDMA) and a hybrid combination thereof. Such multiple access applied at the reader is transparent to the device tag due to the complexity. Multiple access methodologies are described below.

[0100] For a spatial division multiple access technique, the radio waves from a node are directed at different areas or sectorized to achieve spatially separated channel to read Ambient loTdevices and reuse frequencies. This technique depends on the indoor Sub 1 GHz antenna and sectorization configuration.

[0101] For a frequency division multiple access technique, the Ambient loT devices are configured to transmit in different frequency channels. This technique manages frequency between nodes otherwise creating interference.

[0102] For a code division multiple access technique, devices transmit simultaneously in the same frequency channel by code-multiplexing using a pseudo random sequence. This technique introduces complexity to the device side but increases the efficiency.

[0103] For a frame slotted Aloha - TDMA technique, the Ambient loT devices are activated to read or write one by one in slotted time domain manner. This technique is expected to handle collision when two devices try to transmit in the same slot otherwise the efficiency is lower.

[0104] For a dynamic frame slotted Aloha technique, the size of the frame available for device transmission is changed according to the number of devices. This technique iteratively adjusts frame size according to the collision. The reader does not move to the next frame until it finishes the current frame.

[0105] For a Q protocol technique, the device selects a random time slot within a time duration window provided by the reader for transmission. Q protocol is used in RFID and iteratively adjusts the frame size according to the collision. Since the slots are randomly chosen for transmission and when the frame size is larger than the number of devices it creates vacant slots affecting the efficiency.

[0106] For a query tree technique, devices respond with their IDs when the query command with binary prefix bit of 0 or 1 transmitted by the reader matches the device EPC ID. With this technique a high number of collisions occur particularly at the beginning of the identification procedure.

[0107] For a query window tree technique, the reader transmits the number of bits and devices respond with the query command. With this technique the command from reader uses a higher number of bits.

[0108] For a collision tree technique, improvement to the query tree protocol is made by identifying the collided bits and its location. This technique uses processing at the reader.

[0109] An Ambient loT device can include any of various receiver types. In one or more implementations, an Ambient loT device receiver is a heterodyne envelope detector implemented at intermediate frequency (IF) level. Additionally or alternatively, the receiver is a homodyne / zero-IF envelope detector at the baseband (BB). Additionally or alternatively, the receiver is the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based sequence or signal with time domain or frequency domain correlation .

[0110] In one or more implementations, an anti-collision protocol addressing the collision due to many Ambient loT devices in an area contending for resource is used, which includes a base station (or other NE) configuring resources for random access and transmission of Ambient loT device data to the base station and then the base station activates a sub-population of Ambient loT devices to enable transmission within a time window duration, e.g., frame size. The base station configures multiple (‘N’) transmission resources each containing a RACH resource and one or more UL resources as a transmission occasion for the Ambient loT devices.

[0111] In one or more implementations, the anti-collision approach uses a periodic multicast trigger message transmitted by the base station to Ambient loT devices to activate a group or subgroup of Ambient loT devices at the beginning of each frame. The trigger message may contain a prefix containing mask bits for EPC ID or group id, which may also be a most significant bit (MSB) or least significant bit (LSB) of a group id, EPC ID, or subgroup id. A group can be further divided into ‘N’ subgroups. The group id or subgroup id differentiates ambient loT devices. This way, e.g., Ambient loT devices in only part of the factory are triggered. In one or more examples it is also possible to trigger only a selected group or subgroup of Ambient loT devices (e.g., through broadcasting a group ID, sub-group id), or to trigger the Ambient loT devices for specific actions (e.g., receive information instead of broadcasting an ID) or to trigger the Ambient loT devices in a selected area or location within a warehouse.

[0112] Additionally or alternatively, information about a time duration window, e.g., frame size, is provided so that the Ambient loT device can randomly (or pseudo randomly) choose the transmission occasion number, e.g., slot number, and resources within the frame for transmission.

[0113] Additionally or alternatively, the trigger may provide second transmission opportunity by indicating the second frame with ‘X’ ms time gap from the first frame so that the Ambient loT devices may transmit in the second frame if the transmission fails in the first frame, collides, has not harvested enough energy to transmit, and so forth.

[0114] Additionally or alternatively, an Ambient loT device may choose the frame number for transmission according to a basis function, e.g., a formula known at the base station and the ambient loT device while the base station may provide an input parameter to the formula in the trigger message to the Ambient loT device to determine the frame number or transmission occasion within the frame number from the frame size and / or a prefix bits. Furthermore, the trigger may provide information related to the transmission opportunity for the Ambient loT devices within the same frame or in the subsequent second frame such as an exemplary example, example of frame cycle is system frame number (SFN) 1024. Examples of such a formula include at least one of: frame index = (subgroup id % frame cycle) + i * frame cycle for 0 < i < x ; where x = number of opportunities and “%” refers to the modulo operator, or frame index = ((EPC ID / group id & prefix) % frame cycle) + i * frame cycle for 0 < i < x ; where x = number of opportunities and “%” refers to the modulo operator, or transmission occasion index = (subgroup id % frame size), where “%” refers to the modulo operator.The second transmission occasions may be within the same frame or in a subsequent second frame.

[0115] Additionally or alternatively, the trigger may provide the request for the transmission of RACH and / or data to the network and time window duration, e.g., frame duration. RACH can be transmitted in any slot randomly chosen within the window and the header contains an indication to distinguish the RACH from other user data slot.

[0116] Figure 3 illustrates an example RACH slot structure 300 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The slot structure 300 includes a first guard period, a RACH pattern, a synchronization (sync) word, and a second guard period. The slot structure 300 may start and end with a guard period, which can be a known preconfigured pattern. A sync word is a known pattern of, e.g., 8 bits to provide byte level synchronization within the slot such that the sync word may identify the start of the RACH pattern or end of the RACH pattern. In the slot structure 300, thesync word identifies the end of the RACH pattern. In Figure 3, time is along the horizontal axis in microseconds (ps).

[0117] Figure 4 illustrates an example RACH slot structure 400 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The slot structure 400 is similar to the slot structure 300 of Figure 3, except that in the slot structure 400 the sync word identifies the start of the RACH pattern rather than the end of the RACH pattern. In Figure 4, time is along the horizontal axis in microseconds (ps).

[0118] Figure 5 illustrates an example RACH slot structure 500 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The slot structure 500 is similar to the slot structure 400 of Figure 4, except that in the slot structure 500 a frame header is situated between the first guard period and the sync word. The frame header (also referred to as control header) may contain a control message to help decode the slot, may indicate the presence or absence of RACH pattern or type of slot (e.g., RACH or user data), type of pattern which may be the configuration index or pattern index and RACH duration, etc., within the frame. In Figure 5, time is along the horizontal axis in microseconds (ps).

[0119] Figure 6 illustrates an example RACH frame structure 600 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The RACH frame structure 600 includes first and second guard periods, a RACH pattern, and a sync word analogous to the RACH slot structure 300 of Figure 3. However, the RACH frame structure 600 also includes a data packet following the RACH pattern. The data packet is a short packet of data that can be transmitted in the UL transmission. The sync word is placed in between to distinguish the end of the RACH pattern and beginning of the data.

[0120] Figure 7 illustrates an example multi-slot RACH and data frame structure 700 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The RACH and data frame structure 700 includes a RACH portion with a first guard period, a RACH pattern, and a second guard period. The RACH and data frame structure 700 also includes a data portion with a preamble, sync word, header, and data. The sync word is a sync word analogous to the discussion above regarding Figures 3 through 6. The header is, for example, a frame header or control header analogous to the discussion above regarding Figure 5. A guard period at the beginning of the data portion can also be a preamble with a known pattern. The user data can be transmitted following the RACH slot in a consecutive multislot manner and the slot header may indicate the consecutive multi-slot transmission as illustrated in Figure 7. Additionally or alternatively, for the multi-slot configuration, the preamble for the secondconsecutive slot may be configured not to be transmitted due to presence of preamble for synchronization in the first slot. For multi-slot data frame for downlink and / or uplink contains a first slot containing preamble, sync word, header, user data containing trigger or application data for downlink or uplink data from tag, guard period and in the second frame containing sync word, user data while header indicates the multi-slot slot, command or user data or system information. The downlink trigger contains type of trigger whether it is inventory, select, access, kill etc., while the payload contains the data from the client.

[0121] With respect to configuration of resources, in one or more implementations, the base station configures ‘N’ transmission resources each containing a RACH resource and one or more UL resources as a transmission occasion for the Ambient loT devices within one or more transmission frames and the trigger is transmitted by the base station at the beginning of every frame periodically within one inventory round to activate a subgroup of Ambient loT devices for transmission.

[0122] Figure 8 illustrates an example 800 of resources for Ambient loT communication in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In the example 800, TDM and frequency division multiplexing (FDM) of UL resources for Ambient loT communication are illustrated at 802 (with different frequencies fl and f2) and TDM of UL resources for Ambient loT communication are illustrated at 804. The period trigger is illustrated as a down arrow at the beginning of a transmission frame. The RACH resources are illustrated with cross hatching and the UL data resources are illustrated with diagonal lines. UL data resources with left to right downward diagonal lines are one frequency whereas UL data resources with left to right upward diagonal lines are a different frequency.

[0123] The Ambient loT device selects and transmits a random access binary pattern using a waveform such as on-off keying (OOK), frequency shift keying (FSK), phase shift keying (PSK), and so forth,, using binary Golay spreading sequences having only two phases and the sequence length is provided (e.g., by the base station), which can be suitable for low cost Ambient loT devices. The peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the binary Golay spreading sequence is low, allowing devices to be equipped with cost-effective amplifiers if desired. Since the correlation property of the Golay sequences are very good, multiple Ambient loT devices may choose to transmit in the same transmit occasion but with different orthogonal spreading sequence to help thebase station distinguish the devices without causing collision. The spreading sequence is preconfigured to each of the Ambient loT devices or Ambient loT devices randomly (or pseudo randomly) choose the spreading sequence from the pool.

[0124] Multiple predefined binary patterns for random access may be provided, and as an example can provided to the Ambient loT device or preconfigured in the memory of the Ambient loT device. An example of a binary pattern for random access is alternating "1" and "0" (e.g., 101010...), where each symbol "1" or "0" is OOK modulated. Another example of a binary pattern for random access is a group of multiple "Is" followed by a single "0," such as " 110110110...," where each symbol is OOK modulated for passive and semi-passive Ambient loT device, while the active Ambient loT device may transmit an orthogonal Golay sequence, or Zadoff-chu sequence. Each group or subgroup may be assigned a Zadoff-chu or a Golay sequence preamble which may be contained within the trigger or preconfigured at the Ambient loT device for each group / subgroup id while each device within the group uses different cyclic shifts to differentiate each other and to produce orthogonal codes to avoid collision, those cyclic shifts may be preconfigured at the Ambient loT device or randomly chosen from a pool of cyclic shifts available to the Ambient loT devices. The trigger may contain one or more RACH occasions and / or base sequence / base sequence id for each group of devices and then the device may chose the occasion randomly from the indicated occasions or using a basis function with different cyclic shifts. The RACH occasions may be separately configured for passive / semi-passive and active devices. In another implementation, each ambient loT device may be configured with a frequency shift value in its memory to apply in the RACH resource for transmission to avoid collision.

[0125] When the base station transmits the trigger to activate a subgroup of devices with parameters including subgroup id, frame size which provides information related to the time window duration until the group of Ambient loT devices is to transmit and the resource configuration index containing an index to the table containing the bitmap of transmission occasions in terms of slot number, and the symbols or durations within the slot, number of binary spreading sequence to be used for each resource, FDM’ed resource in the occasion if present, etc., a subset from the physical random access channel (PRACH) configuration table from 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) technical specification (TS) 38.211 may be used or the table may beupdated accordingly for Ambient loT. Additionally or alternatively, a separate configuration table for the Ambient loT device may be created.

[0126] The selection of resource for transmission from multiple of occasions involves randomly selecting an occasion and there may be a timer running in the device after transmitting the RACH pattern to receive the contention resolution response from the base station, containing the binary pattern itself or pattern id to the device and any further resource for transmitting the UL from the device, if used. There may be a preconfigured UL resource configured as configured grant associated with the RACH resource after a time gap for processing and downlink reception.

[0127] Figure 9 illustrates an example message exchange 900 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The example message exchange is a message exchange for random access and data transmission between a base station 902 and an Ambient loT device 904. As illustrated, the base station transmits a trigger 906 to the Ambient loT device 904. The trigger 906 includes a subgroup id, frame size, resource configuration index, or combination thereof.

[0128] At 908, the Ambient loT device 904 selects a transmission resource. The transmission resource may be selected, for example, by the Ambient loT device 904 finding a random (or pseudo random) transmission occasion within the frame, or by the Ambient loT device 904 calculating the transmission occasion within the frame (e.g., using a known formula).

[0129] At 910, the Ambient loT device 904 transmits a random access transmission to the base station 902.

[0130] At 912, the base station 902 responds to the random access transmission 910 with a random access response and optionally resource for UL transmission.

[0131] At 914, the Ambient loT device 904 transmits an EPC ID to the base station 902.

[0132] Figure 10 illustrates an example 1000 of an interlace configuration in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In the example 1000, the virtual occasions are illustrated at 1002 and the physical occasions are illustrated at 1004. The RACH resources are illustrated with cross hatching and the UL data resources are illustrated with diagonal lines (left to right upward diagonal lines).

[0133] The transmission occasions may be interlaced from the physical occasion to the virtual occasion number so that each device subgroup is allocated to one of these virtual frames. The mapping of virtual to physical resource occasion may be preconfigured at the Ambient loT device memory or provided by the resource configuration index. This methodology allows multiple triggers to trigger multiple subgroups and each trigger indicates a separate virtual frame number and those physical frames are multiplexed in time as shown in the example 1000. Additionally or alternatively, one trigger may request transmissions from multiple subgroups.

[0134] Figure 11 illustrates an example 1100 of UL resource spread in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The example 1100 illustrates where UL resources are not uniformly spread.

[0135] The UL resource of one occasion for transmitted may not be uniformly distributed after the RACH as shown in the example 1100. Rather, the UL resource may be spread across a second occasion so that the Ambient loT device may perform multiple transmissions due to segmentation, interleaving or repetition, and so forth. In one or more implementations, the non-uniform distribution of resource follows a predefined distribution pattern. The first block in each occasion is a RACH resource and the remaining blocks are UL data resources. The RACH resource in Transmission occasion#!) is illustrated with left to right upward diagonal lines, and UL data resources in Transmission occasion#!) and Transmission occasion#! associated with the RACH resource in Transmission occasion#!) are also illustrated with left to right upward diagonal lines.

[0136] Accordingly, the techniques discussed herein describe an anti-collision protocol by periodic transmission of multiple trigger messages transmitted within an inventory round where the trigger contains subgroup id, frame size, configuration index, or a combination thereof.

[0137] Additionally or alternatively, an Ambient loT device may choose the frame number for transmission according to a basis function, e.g., a formulae known at the base station and the Ambient loT device while the base station may provide an input parameter to the formula in the trigger message.

[0138] Additionally or alternatively, the base station configures multiple (e.g., ‘N’) transmission resources containing a RACH resource and one or more UL resources as a transmission occasion for the Ambient loT devices within one or more transmission frames.

[0139] Additionally or alternatively, the Ambient loT device selects and transmits a random access binary pattern using a waveform such as OOK, FSK, PSK, and so forth, using binary Golay spreading sequences having only two phases and the sequence length is provided.

[0140] Additionally or alternatively, multiple predefined binary patterns for random access may be provided to the Ambient loT device or preconfigured in its memory.

[0141] Additionally or alternatively, the selection of resource for transmission from multiple occasions involves randomly selecting an occasion and there may be a timer running in the Ambient loT device after transmitting the RACH pattern to receive the contention resolution response from the base station, containing the binary pattern itself or pattern id to the device and any further resource for transmitting the UL from the device, if used.

[0142] Additionally or alternatively, the transmission occasions may be interlaced from the physical occasion to the virtual occasion number so that each device subgroup is allocated to one of these virtual frames.

[0143] Figure 12 illustrates an example of an apparatus 1200 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The apparatus 1200 may include a processor 1202, a memory 1204, a controller 1206, and a transceiver 1208. The processor 1202, the memory 1204, the controller 1206, or the transceiver 1208, or various combinations thereof or various components thereof may be examples of means for performing various aspects of the present disclosure as described herein. These components may be coupled (e.g., operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, electrically) via one or more interfaces. The apparatus 1200 may be an Ambient loT device or a UE discussed above.

[0144] The processor 1202, the memory 1204, the controller 1206, or the transceiver 1208, or various combinations or components thereof may be implemented in hardware (e.g., circuitry). The hardware may include a processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or other programmable logic device, or any combination thereof configured as or otherwise supporting a means for performing the functions described in the present disclosure.

[0145] The processor 1202 may include an intelligent hardware device (e.g., a general-purpose processor, a DSP, a CPU, an ASIC, an FPGA, or any combination thereof). In someimplementations, the processor 1202 may be configured to operate the memory 1204. In some other implementations, the memory 1204 may be integrated into the processor 1202. The processor 1202 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory 1204 to cause the apparatus 1200 to perform various functions of the present disclosure.

[0146] The memory 1204 may include volatile or non-volatile memory. The memory 1204 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code including instructions when executed by the processor 1202 cause the apparatus 1200 to perform various functions described herein. The code may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium such as the memory 1204 or another type of memory. Computer-readable media includes both non-transitory computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A non-transitory storage medium may be any available medium that may be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer.

[0147] In some implementations, the processor 1202 and the memory 1204 coupled with the processor 1202 may be configured to cause the apparatus 1200 to perform one or more of the functions described herein (e.g., executing, by the processor 1202, instructions stored in the memory 1204). For example, the processor 1202 may support wireless communication at the apparatus 1200 in accordance with examples as disclosed herein. The apparatus 1200 may be configured to or operable to support a means for receiving an indication of a trigger for random access, where the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and transmitting a random access transmission in an occasion within a frame in response to the trigger.

[0148] Additionally, the apparatus 1200 may be configured to support any one or combination of transmitting the random access transmission in response to the trigger including an identifier activating the subgroup of the group of devices, where the apparatus is part of the subgroup; randomly choosing an occasion within the frame based at least in part on the frame size; where the identifier comprises a set of mask bits and further including determining that the apparatus is part of the subgroup in response to the set of mask bits matching an EPC ID of the apparatus; where the trigger includes an input parameter and further including determining at least one of the frame or the occasion based at least in part on a formula, where the input parameter is an input to the formula; where the formula is known to the apparatus and a NE from which the indication of thetrigger is received; randomly choosing an occasion in the frame based at least in part on the frame size; receiving, from the node, a configuration that indicates multiple transmission resources each including a RACH resource and one or more UL resources for the subgroup that includes the apparatus; receiving a configuration that indicates a sequence length for binary Golay spreading sequences having two phases; and transmitting the random access transmission using the binary Golay spreading sequences; where the random access transmission includes a random access binary pattern preconfigured in the apparatus; receiving a configuration that indicates a random access binary pattern; and including the random access binary pattern in the random access transmission; starting a timer in response to transmitting the random access transmission to the NE, the timer indicating an amount of time within which a contention resolution response from the NE is expected; mapping the virtual frame number to a physical frame; and transmitting the random access transmission in the physical frame; where the apparatus comprises an Ambient loT device; where the apparatus comprises a passive device or semi-passive device using a backscattering transmission technique; where the apparatus comprises an active device that generates and amplifies an UL signal internally; where the transmitting comprises transmitting the random access transmission to a NE; where the transmitting comprises transmitting the random access transmission to a UE.

[0149] Additionally, the apparatus 1200 may be configured to support any one or combination of receive an indication of a trigger for random access, where the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and transmit a random access transmission in an occasion within a frame in response to the trigger.

[0150] Additionally, or alternatively, the apparatus 1200 may support at least one memory (e.g., the memory 1204) and at least one processor (e.g., the processor 1202) coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the apparatus to: transmit the random access transmission in response to the trigger including an identifier activating the subgroup of the group of devices, where the apparatus is part of the subgroup; randomly choose an occasion within the frame based at least in part on the frame size; where the identifier comprises a set of mask bits and the at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the apparatus to determine that the apparatus is part of the subgroup in response to the set of mask bits matching an EPC ID of the apparatus; where the trigger includes an input parameter and the at least one processor coupledwith the at least one memory and configured to cause the apparatus to determine at least one of the frame or the occasion based at least in part on a formula, where the input parameter is an input to the formula; where the formula is known to the apparatus and an NE from which the indication of the trigger is received; randomly choose an occasion in the frame based at least in part on the frame size; receive a configuration that indicates multiple transmission resources each including a RACH resource and one or more UL resources for the subgroup of devices that includes the apparatus; receive a configuration that indicates a sequence length for binary Golay spreading sequences having two phases; and transmit the random access transmission using the binary Golay spreading sequences; where the random access transmission includes a random access binary pattern preconfigured in the apparatus; receive a configuration that indicates a random access binary pattern; and include the random access binary pattern in the random access transmission; start a timer in response to transmitting the random access transmission to a NE, the timer indicating an amount of time within which a contention resolution response from the NE is expected; where the trigger indicates a virtual frame number and the at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to map the virtual frame number to a physical frame; and transmit the random access transmission in the physical frame; where the apparatus comprises an Ambient loT device; where the apparatus comprises a passive device or semi-passive device using a backscattering transmission technique; where the apparatus comprises an active device that generates and amplifies an UL signal internally; where transmit the random access transmission to a NE; where transmit the random access transmission to a UE.

[0151] The controller 1206 may manage input and output signals for the apparatus 1200. The controller 1206 may also manage peripherals not integrated into the apparatus 1200. In some implementations, the controller 1206 may utilize an operating system such as iOS®, ANDROID®, WINDOWS®, or other operating systems. In some implementations, the controller 1206 may be implemented as part of the processor 1202.

[0152] In some implementations, the apparatus 1200 may include at least one transceiver 1208. In some other implementations, the apparatus 1200 may have more than one transceiver 1208. The transceiver 1208 may represent a wireless transceiver. The transceiver 1208 may include one or more receiver chains 1210, one or more transmitter chains 1212, or a combination thereof.

[0153] A receiver chain 1210 may be configured to receive signals (e.g., control information, data, packets) over a wireless medium. For example, the receiver chain 1210 may include one or more antennas to receive a signal over the air or wireless medium. The receiver chain 1210 may include at least one amplifier (e.g., a low-noise amplifier (LNA)) configured to amplify the received signal. The receiver chain 1210 may include at least one demodulator configured to demodulate the receive signal and obtain the transmitted data by reversing the modulation technique applied during transmission of the signal. The receiver chain 1210 may include at least one decoder for decoding the demodulated signal to receive the transmitted data.

[0154] A transmitter chain 1212 may be configured to generate and transmit signals (e.g., control information, data, packets). The transmitter chain 1212 may include at least one modulator for modulating data onto a carrier signal, preparing the signal for transmission over a wireless medium. The at least one modulator may be configured to support one or more techniques such as amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), or digital modulation schemes like phaseshift keying (PSK) or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The transmitter chain 1212 may also include at least one power amplifier configured to amplify the modulated signal to an appropriate power level suitable for transmission over the wireless medium. The transmitter chain 1212 may also include one or more antennas for transmitting the amplified signal into the air or wireless medium.

[0155] Figure 13 illustrates an example of a processor 1300 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The processor 1300 may be an example of a processor configured to perform various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. The processor 1300 may include a controller 1302 configured to perform various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. The processor 1300 may optionally include at least one memory 1304, which may be, for example, an L1 / L2 / L3 cache. Additionally, or alternatively, the processor 1300 may optionally include one or more arithmetic-logic units (ALUs) 1306. One or more of these components may be in electronic communication or otherwise coupled (e.g., operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, electrically) via one or more interfaces (e.g., buses).

[0156] The processor 1300 may be a processor chipset and include a protocol stack (e.g., a software stack) executed by the processor chipset to perform various operations (e.g., receiving, obtaining, retrieving, transmitting, outputting, forwarding, storing, determining, identifying,accessing, writing, reading) in accordance with examples as described herein. The processor chipset may include one or more cores, one or more caches (e.g., memory local to or included in the processor chipset (e.g., the processor 1300) or other memory (e.g., random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), magnetic RAM (MRAM), resistive RAM (RRAM), flash memory, phase change memory (PCM), and others).

[0157] The controller 1302 may be configured to manage and coordinate various operations (e.g., signaling, receiving, obtaining, retrieving, transmitting, outputting, forwarding, storing, determining, identifying, accessing, writing, reading) of the processor 1300 to cause the processor 1300 to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. For example, the controller 1302 may operate as a control unit of the processor 1300, generating control signals that manage the operation of various components of the processor 1300. These control signals include enabling or disabling functional units, selecting data paths, initiating memory access, and coordinating timing of operations.

[0158] The controller 1302 may be configured to fetch (e.g., obtain, retrieve, receive) instructions from the memory 1304 and determine subsequent instruction(s) to be executed to cause the processor 1300 to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. The controller 1302 may be configured to track memory addresses of instructions associated with the memory 1304. The controller 1302 may be configured to decode instructions to determine the operation to be performed and the operands involved. For example, the controller 1302 may be configured to interpret the instruction and determine control signals to be output to other components of the processor 1300 to cause the processor 1300 to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. Additionally, or alternatively, the controller 1302 may be configured to manage flow of data within the processor 1300. The controller 1302 may be configured to control transfer of data between registers, ALUs 1306, and other functional units of the processor 1300.

[0159] The memory 1304 may include one or more caches (e.g., memory local to or included in the processor 1300 or other memory, such as RAM, ROM, DRAM, SDRAM, SRAM, MRAM, flash memory, etc. In some implementations, the memory 1304 may reside within or on a processorchipset (e.g., local to the processor 1300). In some other implementations, the memory 1304 may reside external to the processor chipset (e.g., remote to the processor 1300).

[0160] The memory 1304 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code including instructions that, when executed by the processor 1300, cause the processor 1300 to perform various functions described herein. The code may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium such as system memory or another type of memory. The controller 1302 and / or the processor 1300 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory 1304 to cause the processor 1300 to perform various functions. For example, the processor 1300 and / or the controller 1302 may be coupled with or to the memory 1304, the processor 1300, and the controller 1302, and may be configured to perform various functions described herein. In some examples, the processor 1300 may include multiple processors and the memory 1304 may include multiple memories. One or more of the multiple processors may be coupled with one or more of the multiple memories, which may, individually or collectively, be configured to perform various functions herein.

[0161] The one or more ALUs 1306 may be configured to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, the one or more ALUs 1306 may reside within or on a processor chipset (e.g., the processor 1300). In some other implementations, the one or more ALUs 1306 may reside external to the processor chipset (e.g., the processor 1300). One or more ALUs 1306 may perform one or more computations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division on data. For example, one or more ALUs 1306 may receive input operands and an operation code, which determines an operation to be executed. One or more ALUs 1306 may be configured with a variety of logical and arithmetic circuits, including adders, subtractors, shifters, and logic gates, to process and manipulate the data according to the operation. Additionally, or alternatively, the one or more ALUs 1306 may support logical operations such as AND, OR, exclusive-OR (XOR), not-OR (NOR), and not-AND (NAND), enabling the one or more ALUs 1306 to handle conditional operations, comparisons, and bitwise operations.

[0162] The processor 1300 may support wireless communication in accordance with examples as disclosed herein. The processor 1300 may be configured to or operable to support at least one controller (e.g., the controller 1302) coupled with at least one memory (e.g., the memory 1304) and configured to cause the processor to: receive an indication of a trigger for random access, where thetrigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and transmit a random access transmission in an occasion within a frame in response to the trigger.

[0163] Additionally, the processor 1300 may be configured to or operable to support any one or combination of the at least one controller is configured to cause the processor to transmit the random access transmission in response to the trigger including an identifier activating the subgroup of the group of devices, where the processor is included in an apparatus that is part of the subgroup; the at least one controller is further configured to cause the processor to randomly choose an occasion within the frame based at least in part on the frame size; where the identifier comprises a set of mask bits and the at least one controller is configured to cause the processor to determine that an apparatus that includes the processor is part of the subgroup in response to the set of mask bits matching an EPC ID of the apparatus; the at least one controller is further configured to cause the processor to where the trigger includes an input parameter and the at least one controller is further configured to cause the processor to determine at least one of the frame or the occasion based at least in part on a formula, where the input parameter is an input to the formula the at least one controller is configured to cause the processor to where the formula is known to an apparatus that includes the processor and an NE from which the indication of the trigger is received; where the at least one controller is further configured to cause the processor to randomly choose an occasion in the frame based at least in part on the frame size; where the at least one controller is further configured to cause the processor to receive a configuration that indicates multiple transmission resources each including a RACH resource and one or more UL resources for the subgroup of devices that includes an apparatus that includes the processor; where the at least one controller is further configured to cause the processor to: receive a configuration that indicates a sequence length for binary Golay spreading sequences having two phases; and transmit the random access transmission using the binary Golay spreading sequences; where the random access transmission includes a random access binary pattern preconfigured in an apparatus that includes the processor; where the at least one controller is further configured to cause the processor to: receive a configuration that indicates a random access binary pattern; and include the random access binary pattern in the random access transmission; where the at least one controller is further configured cause the processor to start a timer in response to transmitting the random access transmission to anNE, the timer indicating an amount of time within which a contention resolution response from the NE is expected; the at least one controller is configured to cause the processor to where the trigger indicates a virtual frame number and the at least one controller is further configured to cause the processor to: map the virtual frame number to a physical frame; and transmit the random access transmission in the physical frame; where the processor is included in an Ambient loT device; where the processor is included in a passive device or semi-passive device using a backscattering transmission technique; where the processor is included in an active device that generates and amplifies an UL signal internally; where the at least one controller is further configured cause the processor to transmit the random access transmission to an NE; where the at least one controller is further configured cause the processor to transmit the random access transmission to a UE.

[0164] Additionally, or alternatively, processor 1300 may be configured to or operable to support at least one controller (e.g., the controller 1302) coupled with at least one memory (e.g., the memory 1304) and configured to cause the processor to: transmit an indication of a trigger for random access, where the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and receive a random access transmission in a frame and an occasion based at least in part on the trigger.

[0165] Additionally, the processor 1300 may be configured to or operable to support any one or combination of the at least one controller is configured to cause the processor to where the trigger includes an identifier activating the subgroup of the group of devices, where the random access transmission is received from a device that is part of the subgroup; where the identifier comprises a set of mask bits for the device to determine the device is part of the subgroup in response to the set of mask bits matching an EPC ID of the device; where the trigger includes an input parameter usable by the device to determine at least one of the frame or the occasion based at least in part on a formula, where the input parameter is an input to the formula; where the formula is known to the base station and the device; transmit, to the device, a configuration that indicates multiple transmission resources each including a RACH resource and one or more UL resources for the group of devices that includes the device; transmit, to the device, a configuration that indicates a sequence length for binary Golay spreading sequences having two phases; and receive the random access transmission using the binary Golay spreading sequences; where the random access transmission includes a random access binary pattern preconfigured in the device; transmit aconfiguration that indicates a random access binary pattern, where the random access transmission includes the random access binary pattern; where the device comprises an Ambient loT device; where the device comprises a passive device or semi-passive device using a backscattering transmission technique; where the device comprises an active device that generates and amplifies an UL signal internally.

[0166] Figure 14 illustrates an example of a NE 1400 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The NE 1400 may include a processor 1402, a memory 1404, a controller 1406, and a transceiver 1408. The processor 1402, the memory 1404, the controller 1406, or the transceiver 1408, or various combinations thereof or various components thereof may be examples of means for performing various aspects of the present disclosure as described herein. These components may be coupled (e.g., operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, electrically) via one or more interfaces.

[0167] The processor 1402, the memory 1404, the controller 1406, or the transceiver 1408, or various combinations or components thereof may be implemented in hardware (e.g., circuitry). The hardware may include a processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or other programmable logic device, or any combination thereof configured as or otherwise supporting a means for performing the functions described in the present disclosure.

[0168] The processor 1402 may include an intelligent hardware device (e.g., a general-purpose processor, a DSP, a CPU, an ASIC, an FPGA, or any combination thereof). In some implementations, the processor 1402 may be configured to operate the memory 1404. In some other implementations, the memory 1404 may be integrated into the processor 1402. The processor 1402 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory 1404 to cause the NE 1400 to perform various functions of the present disclosure.

[0169] The memory 1404 may include volatile or non-volatile memory. The memory 1404 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code including instructions when executed by the processor 1402 cause the NE 1400 to perform various functions described herein. The code may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium such as the memory 1404 or another type of memory. Computer-readable media includes both non-transitory computer storage media andcommunication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A non-transitory storage medium may be any available medium that may be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer.

[0170] In some implementations, the processor 1402 and the memory 1404 coupled with the processor 1402 may be configured to cause the NE 1400 to perform one or more of the functions described herein (e.g., executing, by the processor 1402, instructions stored in the memory 1404). For example, the processor 1402 may support wireless communication at the NE 1400 in accordance with examples as disclosed herein. The NE 1400 may be configured to support a means for transmitting an indication of a trigger for random access, where the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and receiving a random access transmission in a frame and an occasion based at least in part on the trigger.

[0171] Additionally, the NE 1400 may be configured to support any one or combination of where the trigger includes an identifier activating the subgroup of the group of devices, where the random access transmission is received from a device that is part of the subgroup; where the identifier comprises a set of mask bits for the device to determine the device is part of the subgroup in response to the set of mask bits matching an EPC ID of the device; where the trigger includes an input parameter usable by the device to determine at least one of the frame or the occasion based at least in part on a formula, where the input parameter is an input to the formula; where the formula is known to the base station and the device; transmitting, to the device, a configuration that indicates multiple transmission resources each including a RACH resource and one or more UL resources for the group of devices that includes the device; further including: transmitting a configuration that indicates a sequence length for binary Golay spreading sequences having two phases; and receiving the random access transmission using the binary Golay spreading sequences; where the random access transmission includes a random access binary pattern preconfigured in the device; transmitting a configuration that indicates a random access binary pattern, where the random access transmission includes the random access binary pattern; where the device comprises an Ambient loT device; where the device comprises a passive device or semi-passive device using a backscattering transmission technique; where the device comprises an active device that generates and amplifies an UL signal internally.

[0172] Additionally, or alternatively, the NE 1400 may support at least one memory (e.g., the memory 1404) and at least one processor (e.g., the processor 1402) coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the NE to: transmit an indication of a trigger for random access, where the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and receive a random access transmission in a frame and an occasion based at least in part on the trigger.

[0173] Additionally, the NE 1400 may be configured to support any one or combination of the at least one processor is configured to cause the NE to where the trigger includes an identifier activating the subgroup of the group of devices, where the random access transmission is received from a the device that is part of the subgroup; where the identifier comprises a set of mask for the device to determine the device is part of the subgroup in response to the set of mask bits matching an EPC ID of the device; where the trigger includes an input parameter usable by the device to determine at least one of the frame or the occasion based at least in part on a formula, where the input parameter is an input to the formula; where the formula is known to the base station and the device; transmit, to the device, a configuration that indicates multiple transmission resources each including a RACH resource and one or more UL resources for the group of devices that includes the device; transmit, to the device, a configuration that indicates a sequence length for binary Golay spreading sequences having two phases; and receive the random access transmission using the binary Golay spreading sequences; where the random access transmission includes a random access binary pattern preconfigured in the device; transmit a configuration that indicates a random access binary pattern, where the random access transmission includes the random access binary pattern; where the device comprises an Ambient loT device; where the device comprises a passive device or semi -passive device using a backscattering transmission technique; where the device comprises an active device that generates and amplifies an UL signal internally.

[0174] The controller 1406 may manage input and output signals for the NE 1400. The controller 1406 may also manage peripherals not integrated into the NE 1400. In some implementations, the controller 1406 may utilize an operating system such as iOS®, ANDROID®, WINDOWS®, or other operating systems. In some implementations, the controller 1406 may be implemented as part of the processor 1402.

[0175] In some implementations, the NE 1400 may include at least one transceiver 1408. In some other implementations, the NE 1400 may have more than one transceiver 1408. The transceiver 1408 may represent a wireless transceiver. The transceiver 1408 may include one or more receiver chains 1410, one or more transmitter chains 1412, or a combination thereof.

[0176] A receiver chain 1410 may be configured to receive signals (e.g., control information, data, packets) over a wireless medium. For example, the receiver chain 1410 may include one or more antennas to receive a signal over the air or wireless medium. The receiver chain 1410 may include at least one amplifier (e.g., a low-noise amplifier (LNA)) configured to amplify the received signal. The receiver chain 1410 may include at least one demodulator configured to demodulate the receive signal and obtain the transmitted data by reversing the modulation technique applied during transmission of the signal. The receiver chain 1410 may include at least one decoder for decoding the demodulated signal to receive the transmitted data.

[0177] A transmitter chain 1412 may be configured to generate and transmit signals (e.g., control information, data, packets). The transmitter chain 1412 may include at least one modulator for modulating data onto a carrier signal, preparing the signal for transmission over a wireless medium. The at least one modulator may be configured to support one or more techniques such as amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), or digital modulation schemes like phaseshift keying (PSK) or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The transmitter chain 1412 may also include at least one power amplifier configured to amplify the modulated signal to an appropriate power level suitable for transmission over the wireless medium. The transmitter chain 1412 may also include one or more antennas for transmitting the amplified signal into the air or wireless medium.

[0178] Figure 15 illustrates a flowchart of a method in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of the method may be implemented by an apparatus, such as an Ambient loT device or UE as described herein. In some implementations, the Ambient loT device or UE may execute a set of instructions to control the function elements of the Ambient loT device or UE to perform the described functions.

[0179] At 1502, the method may include receiving an indication of a trigger for random access, wherein the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of agroup of devices to transmit. The operations of 1502 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1502 may be performed by an apparatus as described with reference to Figure 12, such as an Ambient loT device.

[0180] At 1504, the method may include transmitting a random access transmission in an occasion within a frame in response to the trigger. The operations of 1504 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1504 may be performed by an apparatus as described with reference to Figure 12, such as an Ambient loT device.

[0181] It should be noted that the method described herein describes a possible implementation, and that the operations and the steps may be rearranged or otherwise modified and that other implementations are possible.

[0182] Figure 16 illustrates a flowchart of a method in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of the method may be implemented by a NE as described herein. In some implementations, the NE may execute a set of instructions to control the function elements of the NE to perform the described functions.

[0183] At 1602, the method may include transmitting, to a device, a first signaling that indicates a trigger for random access, wherein the trigger includes at least one of a subgroup identifier, a frame size, or a configuration index. The operations of 1602 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1602 may be performed by a NE as described with reference to Figure 14.

[0184] At 1604, the method may include receiving a random access transmission in a frame and an occasion based at least in part on the trigger. The operations of 1604 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1604 may be performed by a NE as described with reference to Figure 14.

[0185] It should be noted that the method described herein describes a possible implementation, and that the operations and the steps may be rearranged or otherwise modified and that other implementations are possible.

[0186] The description herein is provided to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be apparent to a person having ordinary skill in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the broadest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to: receive an indication of a trigger for random access, wherein the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and transmit a random access transmission in an occasion within a frame in response to the trigger.

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to transmit the random access transmission in response to the trigger including an identifier activating the subgroup of the group of devices, wherein the UE is part of the subgroup.

3. The UE of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to randomly choose an occasion within the frame based at least in part on the frame size.

4. The UE of claim 2, wherein the identifier comprises a set of mask bits and the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine that the UE is part of the subgroup in response to the set of mask bits matching an electronic packet code identifier (EPC ID) of the UE.

5. The UE of claim 1, wherein the trigger includes an input parameter and the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine at least one of the frame or the occasion based at least in part on a formula, wherein the input parameter is an input to the formula.

6. The UE of claim 5, wherein the formula is known to the UE and a network equipment (NE) from which the indication of the trigger is received.

7. The UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to randomly choose an occasion in the frame based at least in part on the frame size.

8. The UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to receive a configuration that indicates multiple transmission resources each including a random access channel (RACH) resource and one or more uplink (UL) resources for the subgroup that includes the UE.

9. The UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to: receive a configuration that indicates a sequence length for binary Golay spreading sequences having two phases; and transmit the random access transmission using the binary Golay spreading sequences.

10. The UE of claim 1, wherein the random access transmission includes a random access binary pattern preconfigured in the UE.

11. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to: receive a configuration that indicates a random access binary pattern; and include the random access binary pattern in the random access transmission.

12. The UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to start a timer in response to transmitting the random access transmission to a network entity (NE), the timer indicating an amount of time within which a contention resolution response from the NE is expected.

13. The UE of claim 1, wherein the trigger indicates a virtual frame number and the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to: map the virtual frame number to a physical frame; and transmit the random access transmission in the physical frame.

14. The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE comprises at least one of an Ambient Internet of Things (loT) device, a passive device or semi-passive device using a backscattering transmission technique, or an active device that generates and amplifies an uplink (UL) signal internally.

15. A method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: receiving an indication of a trigger for random access, wherein the trigger includes a subgroup identifier, a frame size, or a configuration index to a table, or a combination thereof; and transmitting a random access transmission in an occasion within a frame in response to the trigger.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising transmitting the random access transmission in response to the trigger including an identifier activating a subgroup of a group of devices, wherein the UE is part of the subgroup.

17. A base station for wireless communication, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the base station to: transmit an indication of a trigger for random access, wherein the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and receive a random access transmission in a frame and an occasion based at least in part on the trigger.

18. The base station of claim 17, wherein the trigger includes an identifier activating the subgroup of the group of devices, wherein the random access transmission is received from a device that is part of the subgroup, and wherein the identifier comprises a set of mask bits for the device to determine the device is part of the subgroup in response to the set of mask bits matching an electronic packet code identifier (EPC ID) of the device.

19. A method performed by a base station, the method comprising: transmitting an indication of a trigger for random access, wherein the trigger includes a frame size indicating a time window duration for a subgroup of a group of devices to transmit; and receiving a random access transmission in a frame and an occasion based at least in part on the trigger.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the trigger includes an input parameter usable by the base station to determine at least one of the frame or the occasion based at least in part on a formula, wherein the input parameter is an input to the formula.

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