MTC Device Scheduling for Link Budget and Power Efficiency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless communication systems face challenges in providing adequate link budget and power efficiency for machine type communication (MTC) devices, particularly those with reduced coverage, such as those deployed in basements, as they require improved link budget and low power consumption while ensuring quick node identification and association with the best access points.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves synchronizing wake-up and transmission cycles of MTC devices with specific schedules to enhance communication intervals, utilizing a tiered architecture with dense deployments of base stations, and implementing single frequency network (SFN) transmissions to provide an additional 20 dB link budget for both downlink and uplink signals while maintaining low power consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If MTC devices use continuous transmission to ensure adequate link budget and coverage, then communication reliability is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic wake-up cycles where MTC devices alternate between sleep and active states. Devices wake up at scheduled intervals to transmit data or receive commands, then return to sleep mode. This periodic operation maintains communication reliability by ensuring devices are periodically available while dramatically reducing average power consumption compared to continuous transmission.
Solution Approach 2:
The network pre-configures wake-up schedules and transmission parameters for MTC devices before they enter sleep mode. By preliminarily establishing communication windows, timing advance values, and resource allocations, the system ensures devices can quickly resume communication when waking without requiring continuous monitoring or lengthy negotiation procedures, thus maintaining reliability while saving power.
2Reliability
If MTC devices deployed in basements or remote locations increase transmit power to improve coverage, then link budget is improved, but power consumption and interference increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuously transmitting at high power, MTC devices transmit at elevated power levels only during scheduled wake-up intervals. The periodic high-power transmissions provide adequate coverage for critical communications while the long sleep intervals between transmissions allow power consumption to remain low on average, resolving the contradiction between coverage and power usage.
3Reliability
If the network continuously monitors and communicates with MTC devices to maintain connection, then connection reliability is improved, but device power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The network implements periodic monitoring and communication with MTC devices according to pre-configured schedules. Rather than continuous monitoring, the network checks in with devices at scheduled intervals, maintaining connection reliability through regular contact while allowing devices to remain in low-power states between intervals.
Solution Approach 2:
MTC devices autonomously manage their own wake-up cycles and transmission timing based on pre-configured parameters. Devices self-determine when to wake, what data to transmit, and when to return to sleep without requiring continuous network control signals, reducing the monitoring overhead and enabling more aggressive power-saving schedules while maintaining reliable communication.
Data Source
AI summary
Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communications by a first access point, comprising determining a first schedule of intervals for the first access point to communicate with a first group of one or more wireless devices, wherein intervals of the first schedule are synchronized with wake up or transmission cycles of the first group of one or more wireless devices and communicating with the first group of one or more wireless devices according to the first schedule.