Patent Application
20250087080
The present disclosure is generally related to mobile communications and, more particularly, to wireless sensing in integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) system.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims listed below and are not admitted as prior art by inclusion in this section.
Mobile communication and radar sensing have been advancing independently for decades. Until recently, the coexistence, cooperation, and joint design of the two systems becomes of interest. Motivation for such a topic may include that the use of millimeter waves in 5th generation (5G) and beyond leads to an occupation of adjacent frequency bands, which makes the convergence of the frequency bands used by two systems possible. In addition, with the increasing use of radar sensing in consumer devices and automotive applications, radar systems have entered mass markets. Given that jointly handling communications and sensing on the same architecture or platform would be more cost effective and have lower complexity as compared to two independent platforms, the concept of joint communication and sensing (or called ISAC) is introduced and the beyond 5G (B5G) or 6th Generation (6G) system is envisioned to support sensing service within communication framework.
As the topic is still under study, the new design of air interface for ISAC is not yet defined. For example, how to design procedures for sensing signal configuration or scheduling, sensing resource allocation, and sensing with beam management has become an important issue for the newly developed ISAC system. Therefore, there is a need to provide proper schemes to address this issue.
The following summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be limiting in any way. That is, the following summary is provided to introduce concepts, highlights, benefits and advantages of the novel and non-obvious techniques described herein. Select implementations are further described below in the detailed description. Thus, the following summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
An objective of the present disclosure is to propose solutions or schemes that address the aforementioned issue pertaining to wireless sensing in the ISAC system.
In one aspect, a method may involve an apparatus (e.g., a receiver node) receiving one or more first reference signals (RSs) based on a first sensing RS configuration. The method may also involve the apparatus performing a sensing of a target object based on the first RSs. The method may further involve the apparatus receiving one or more second RSs based on a second sensing RS configuration. The second sensing RS configuration is determined by the apparatus or is received from another apparatus in an event that at least one of a sensing requirement and a channel condition is changed. The method may further involve the apparatus performing the sensing of the target object based on the second RSs.
In one aspect, a method may involve an apparatus (e.g., a transmitter node) transmitting one or more first RSs associated with a first sensing RS configuration for a sensing of a target object. The method may also involve the apparatus transmitting one or more second RSs associated with a second sensing RS configuration for the sensing of the target object. The second sensing RS configuration is determined by the apparatus or is transmitted to another apparatus in an event that at least one of a sensing requirement and a channel condition is changed.
In one aspect, an apparatus may comprise a transceiver which, during operation, wirelessly transmits and receives signals. The apparatus may also comprise a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver. The processor, during operation, may perform operations comprising receiving, via the transceiver, one or more first RSs based on a first sensing RS configuration. The processor may also perform operations comprising performing a sensing of a target object based on the first RSs. The processor may further perform operations comprising receiving, via the transceiver, one or more second RSs based on a second sensing RS configuration. The processor may further perform operations comprising performing the sensing of the target object based on the second RSs.
It is noteworthy that, although description provided herein may be in the context of certain radio access technologies (RATs), networks and network topologies such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, LTE-Advanced Pro, 5G, New Radio (NR), Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), beyond 5G (B5G), and 6th Generation (6G), the proposed concepts, schemes and any variation(s)/derivative(s) thereof may be implemented in, for and by other types of radio access technologies, networks and network topologies. Thus, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the examples described herein.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of the present disclosure. The drawings illustrate implementations of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It is appreciable that the drawings are not necessarily in scale as some components may be shown to be out of proportion than the size in actual implementation in order to clearly illustrate the concept of the present disclosure.
Detailed embodiments and implementations of the claimed subject matters are disclosed herein. However, it shall be understood that the disclosed embodiments and implementations are merely illustrative of the claimed subject matters which may be embodied in various forms. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments and implementations set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments and implementations are provided so that description of the present disclosure is thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. In the description below, details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presented embodiments and implementations.
Implementations in accordance with the present disclosure relate to various techniques, methods, schemes and/or solutions pertaining to wireless sensing in ISAC system. According to the present disclosure, a number of possible solutions may be implemented separately or jointly. That is, although these possible solutions may be described below separately, two or more of these possible solutions may be implemented in one combination or another.
Under certain schemes in accordance with the present disclosure, two types of sensing procedures (including a single-stage sensing procedure and a multiple-stage sensing procedure) are proposed for different sensing use cases, such that Tx configurations and Rx operations may be adaptively adjusted to the change of sensing requirement(s) and/or channel condition(s) during the sensing service.
Specifically, sensing use cases may be classified into the following four scenarios: (i) periodically detecting targets within specified range for a long time, and estimating related information of targets simultaneously (e.g., intrusion detection, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)/car/pedestrian monitor and counting); (ii) with approximate location of target being given, periodically estimating related information of target for a long time (e.g., respiration detection); (iii) detecting targets through a large range scanning, and then tracking the targets and/or making high precision estimation (e.g., target detection and tracking, high precision estimation (of range/velocity/angle); (iv) with approximate location of target being given, making high precision estimation for a long/short time (e.g., gesture recognition). In one example, the single-stage sensing procedure may be applied for the first and second scenarios (e.g., periodic target detection or monitoring), since only one kind of sensing operation is required for the sensing service. In another example, the multiple-stage sensing procedure may be applied for the third and fourth scenarios (e.g., periodic target detection or monitoring and aperiodic target refining or tracking), since multiple kinds of sensing operations, each corresponding to a stage, are required for the sensing service. Additionally, or optionally, link adaptation may be supported in the single-stage sensing procedure and/or the multi-stage sensing procedure, i.e., Tx configurations and Rx operations may be adjusted to the change of sensing requirement(s) and/or channel condition(s) during the single/multi-stage sensing procedure.
During the sensing service, sensing requirement(s) and/or channel condition(s) may be changed (e.g., due to change of sensing purpose). For example, the sensing purpose may change from target detection (e.g., in the first stage of the multi-stage sensing procedure) to target tracking or target refining (e.g., in the second stage of the multi-stage sensing procedure). In such case, exhaustive (coarse) beam sweeping may be used for target detection in the first stage to cover the whole sensing area, and fewer (fine) beams may be used in the second stage based on the sensing results (e.g., the rough sensing target location) of the first stage, which may benefit resource utilization and reduce complexity. Another example is about link adaptation, i.e., when channel condition is changed, sensing RS may need to be reconfigured (e.g., in terms of RS pattern, bandwidth (BW), Tx beam number, or beam direction, etc.) to ensure sensing quality.
Specifically, the sensing requirement(s) and channel condition(s) may include at least one of the following: sensing service type, sensing performance requirements, channel condition, sensing resource constrain, transceiver complexity constrain, etc. The Tx configuration of sensing RS may change responsive to the change of sensing requirement(s) and channel condition(s), and the Rx operations corresponding to the Tx configuration may also change. Tx configuration change may include changes in at least one of the following: sensing RS pattern (i.e., time and frequency domain pattern, sequence), symbol number and interval (within cyclic prefix interval (CPI)), RS period, sub-carrier spacing (SCS), BW, power per resource element (RE), Tx beam width, Tx beam number, and Tx beam direction. Rx operation change may include changes in at least one of the following: sensing algorithms (e.g., two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (2D-FFT), multiple signal classification (MUSIC), and other sensing algorithms) corresponding to different Tx configurations, Rx beam width, Rx beam number, and Rx beam direction.
The change of sensing RS configuration may be realized by RRC reconfiguration or by activating/indicating new sensing RS (e.g., through RRC signaling, medium access control-control element (MAC-CE), or downlink control information (DCI)). Alternatively, similar to using physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to indicate the configuration of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), DCI may be used to directly adjust/change the sensing RS configuration.
Under certain schemes in accordance with the present disclosure, sensing RS resource allocations for ISAC system are proposed, such that coexistence between sensing RS and communication signals can be realized. Specifically, sensing RS may be time-division multiplexed (TDMed) and/or frequency-division multiplexed (FDMed) with communication signals. Additionally, or optionally, sensing RS for different sensing stage (e.g., of multi-stage sensing) may also be TDMed and/or FDMed.
Several types of sensing RS resource allocation are to be described below. Assume periodic sensing RS for single-stage sensing and stage 1 of multi-stage sensing, and aperiodic sensing RS for other stages of multi-stage sensing in the following examples, but it should be noted that these types of sensing RS resource allocation can be applied for P/SP/AP sensing RS.
As for sensing, introducing beam management not only provides Tx and Rx beamforming gain, but also allows scanning target within three-dimensional (3D) region of sensing area through Tx and Rx beam sweeping. As such, under certain schemes in accordance with the present disclosure, “baseline BM procedure” for general sensing BM operations and “low-cost BM procedure” for enhanced BM operations are proposed, so that sensing resource utilization and computational complexity may be efficiently reduced.
In general, sensing RSs may be configured with one or multiple Tx beams to cover the whole sensing area. Configurations of Tx beam number, beamwidth, and beam direction may depend on the used frequency band (e.g., sub6G, mmWave), sensing area, and/or required beamforming gain, etc. Configurations of Rx beam number, beamwidth, and beam direction may depend on the used frequency band (e.g., sub6G, mmWave), required beamforming gain, sensing accuracy requirement, and/or Rx device capability, etc. For baseline BM procedure (e.g., for the case of no prior information regarding correspondence between Tx beams and Rx beams), the receiver may perform Rx beam sweeping for each Tx beam used at the transmitter, and perform sensing operation (e.g., using 2D-FFT, MUSIC or other sensing algorithms) simultaneously on all beam pair links (BPLs). Then, the sensing results on all BPLs may be integrated to determine the related information of the target.
As described above, for multi-stage sensing, the configurations of beam number, beamwidth, and beam direction of Tx beams and Rx beams may be different for different sensing stages. This is because the BM operation result from the previous stage may be useful in determining the Tx beam configurations and Rx beam settings for the next stage. For example, the sensing RS of a stage n (where n>1) may have QCL relationship with the sensing RS of previous stages (e.g., n−1, n−2, etc.), and/or the Rx beams used in stage n may be determined based on the BM operation result of previous stages (e.g., n−1, n−2, etc.). Various options of Tx beam and Rx beam settings for stage 2 are summarized below in Table 1, wherein option 1 is the case depicted in
It is noteworthy that the baseline BM procedure may provide good sensing performance, but may come with the costs of large RS resource utilization and high computational complexity to try all possible BPLs. In the effort to mitigate such costs, several designs of low-cost BM procedure are proposed, including low-cost BM procedure with fixed locations and/or orientations of the transmitter and receiver, low-cost BM procedure with multi-stage sensing, and low-cost BM procedure with RSRP or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) based BM operations.
Another design of low-cost BM procedure is to insert RSRP-based BM operations to the baseline BM procedure, or replace some stages of the baseline BM procedure. Specifically, the RSRP-based BM operations use L1-RSRP/SNR or target-related-SNR (e.g., sensing SNR) as the metric to try all possible BPLs which cover the whole sensing area. The RSRP-based BM operations are similar to the BM operations in mobile communications, and they can be used to find candidate BPLs which cover sensing targets. Based on the candidate BPLs, the following baseline BM procedure may reduce RS resource utilization and computational complexity (e.g., with fewer configured Tx beams, and known corresponding Rx beam for each Tx beam). More specifically, the RS resource utilization may be reduced due to that the calculation of RSRP/SNR requires fewer symbols (e.g., 1 symbol), and thus, the complexity of RSRP/SNR calculation is lower than that of sensing operation (e.g., 2D-FFT).
It should be noted that the RSRP-based BM operations are based on BM RS which may be different with sensing RS (since it doesn't need multiple symbols for coherent processing), but the present disclosure does not exclude the case of sensing RS and BM RS sharing the same RS (although it may not be the most efficient case). In some implementations, sensing BM RS may be shared with communication BM RS, since their operations are quite similar. In some implementations, sensing BM RS may also be specially configured as an individual RS.
Similar to the BM operations in mobile communications, the RSRP-based BM operations may include P1, P2 and P3 for different purposes. For example, P1 may try all BPLs to find the best BPLs; P2 may fix Rx beam to search the best Tx beam; and P3 may fix Tx beam to search the best Rx beam. Even so, there are still some differences between the RSRP-based BM operations and the BM operations in mobile communications. For some sensing modes (e.g., monostatic sensing, and BS-based bistatic sensing), there may not involve BM RS scheduling and BM results reporting procedure.
However, using RSRP/SNR as the metric to select the candidate BPLs may have the possibility of missing sensing target.
Under certain schemes in accordance with the present disclosure, a strategy on selecting specific BM procedure based on sensing use cases, channel conditions, and other conditions is proposed. For example, in monostatic sensing, since the Tx beam and Rx beam direction is the same, the number of possible BPLs are smaller than bistatic sensing. As a result, the required RS resource and computational complexity in monostatic sensing will be less than those in bistatic sensing. Accordingly, for monostatic sensing, baseline BM procedure would be more suitable than low-cost BM procedure. Nevertheless, low-cost BM procedure (e.g., staged procedure) may also be applied for monostatic sensing, especially when Tx beam number is large. On the other hand, in bistatic sensing, if the transmitter and the receiver are fixed in location and orientation (e.g., BS-based bistatic sensing), the Tx beams and Rx beams sweeping direction and order may be predefined, so that the transmitter and the receiver may not need to try all possible BPLs. Accordingly, the low-cost BM procedure with fixed locations and orientations of the transmitter and receiver may be applied for such scenario in bistatic sensing. Otherwise, if the transmitter and the receiver are not fixed in location and orientation, another BM procedure may be selected based on other conditions.
The strategy of BM procedure selection may be broken down into the following steps. Step 1 is to collect all related conditions which may impact the selection of BM procedure. Step 2 is to define procedure selection rule, such as performance-first (i.e., a rule prioritizing performance of BM procedure), cost/complexity first (i.e., a rule prioritizing cost/complexity of BM procedure), or performance and cost/complexity tradeoff (i.e., a rule considering the tradeoff between performance and cost/complexity). Step 3 is to select a specific BM procedure based on the rule. Specifically, the specific BM procedure is selected from: (i) baseline BM procedure, (ii) low-cost BM procedure with fixed locations and/or orientations of the transmitter and receiver, (iii) low-cost BM procedure with multi-stage sensing, and (iv) low-cost BM procedure with RSRP/SNR based BM operations.
In some implementations, the related conditions collected in step 1 of the strategy may at least include sensing mode (e.g., monostatic or bistatic), sensing node information (e.g., whether the sensing node is fixed location/orientation or not), target information (e.g., strong or weak target), requirements of different sensing use cases (e.g., periodic/aperiodic, accuracy, resolution, etc.).
An example of these related conditions is provided below in Table 2.
An example of procedure selection for some typical scenarios (e.g., based on the performance-first selection rule) is provided below in Table 3.
Under certain schemes in accordance with the present disclosure, BM-related RRC configuration and MAC-CE/DCI activation/indication signaling corresponding to the aforementioned sensing procedures are proposed. Sensing signals which are used for sensing operations usually refer to sensing RSs. For example, sensing RSs are TDMed with communication signals. Sensing RS may be a cell-specific signal (e.g., synchronization signal block (SSB), tracking reference signal (TRS) in mobile communications, or RS which is specifically designed for sensing), or a UE-specific signal (e.g., new channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) for sensing). Network may need to indicate sensing RS (e.g., provide sensing RS configuration) to UE, and inform UE to perform sensing operations.
For BM-related capability reporting, Nfactor=8 is defined in communication, which is a fixed value and implies the number of UE Rx beams (e.g., coarse Rx beams). For sensing, there may be a similar parameter to indicate the number of coarse Rx beams used for sensing. The parameter may be configured with a fixed value which is predefined in 3GPP specifications, or may be configured through RRC signaling. Additionally, or optionally, since sensing area may be changed for different use cases or different sensing stages, the value of the parameter may be reconfigured with different values. Moreover, in the communication BM procedure, a UE reports capability of the number of fine Rx beams to inform a gNB of how many resources are allocated for P3. For sensing, the receiver may report similar capability to inform the transmitter, so as to support the scenarios or sensing stages in which the UE needs to sweep fine Rx beams.
Regarding transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state, for communication BM procedure, all TCI states are in tci-StatesToAddModList of PDSCH-config. Since the purpose of communication is for data reception, PDSCH/PDCCH may be used to identify the Rx beam based on TCI states after BM operations on BM RS. For sensing, as there is no PDSCH/PDCCH reception, all operations are based on sensing RS or sensing BM RS. As such, the framework of communication (e.g., P1, P2, P3 procedure) may be reused for sensing, but without PDSCH/PDCCH reception (indicating TCI state). Additionally, or optionally, a sensing configuration may be provided, which includes TCI state for sensing only, and this sensing configuration may indicate the QCL relationships between sensing RSs and sensing BM RSs (e.g., TCI state includes virtual sensing RS (beam angle, beamwidth), sensing RS, sensing BM RS, or no QCL relationship (source RS)).
Regarding BPL reporting and target information maintenance, unlike communication, the receiver in sensing operations should maintain both the Tx beam and Rx beam (instead of just Tx beam) associated with each target, due to that two targets may be associated with the same Tx beam but with different Rx beams. For RS resource configuration, the receiver may report certain information to inform the transmitter to configure enough RS resource for further target tracking/refining. For example, the reported information may indicate the association between each target and corresponding Tx and Rx beams (e.g., Tx beam 1→target 1→Rx beam 1, Tx beam 1→target 2→Rx beam 2, and Tx beam 3→target 3→Rx beam 3, etc.). Additionally, the receiver may locally maintain the reported information for subsequent sensing operations.
Each of apparatus 2110 and apparatus 2120 may be a part of an electronic apparatus, which may be a UE such as a portable or mobile apparatus, a wearable apparatus, a wireless communication apparatus or a computing apparatus (e.g., mounted on vehicles). For instance, apparatus 2110/2120 may be implemented in a smartphone, a smartwatch, a personal digital assistant, a digital camera, or a computing equipment such as a tablet computer, a laptop computer or a notebook computer. Each of apparatus 2110 and apparatus 2120 may also be a part of a machine type apparatus, which may be an IoT, NB-IoT, or IIoT apparatus such as an immobile or a stationary apparatus, a home apparatus, a wire communication apparatus or a computing apparatus. For instance, apparatus 2110/2120 may be implemented in a smart thermostat, a smart fridge, a smart door lock, a wireless speaker or a home control center. Alternatively, each of apparatus 2110 and apparatus 2120 may be a part of an electronic apparatus, which may be a network node such as a BS, a small cell, a router or a gateway. For instance, apparatus 2110/2120 may be implemented in an eNB in an LTE, LTE-Advanced or LTE-Advanced Pro network or in a gNB in a 5G, NR, IoT, NB-IoT or IIoT network. Furthermore, each of apparatus 2110 and apparatus 2120 may be implemented in the form of one or more integrated-circuit (IC) chips such as, for example and without limitation, one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more reduced-instruction set computing (RISC) processors, or one or more complex-instruction-set-computing (CISC) processors. Apparatus 2110/2120 may include at least some of those components shown in
In one aspect, each of processor 2112 and processor 2122 may be implemented in the form of one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, or one or more CISC processors. That is, even though a singular term “a processor” is used herein to refer to processor 2112 and processor 2122, each of processor 2112 and processor 2122 may include multiple processors in some implementations and a single processor in other implementations in accordance with the present disclosure. In another aspect, each of processor 2112 and processor 2122 may be implemented in the form of hardware (and, optionally, firmware) with electronic components including, for example and without limitation, one or more transistors, one or more diodes, one or more capacitors, one or more resistors, one or more inductors, one or more memristors and/or one or more varactors that are configured and arranged to achieve specific purposes in accordance with the present disclosure. In other words, in at least some implementations, each of processor 2112 and processor 2122 is a special-purpose machine specifically designed, arranged and configured to perform specific tasks including wireless sensing between a receiver (e.g., as represented by apparatus 2110) and a transmitter (e.g., as represented by apparatus 2110 in monostatic sensing or apparatus 2120 in bistatic sensing) in accordance with various implementations of the present disclosure.
In some implementations, apparatus 2110 may also include a transceiver 2116 coupled to processor 2112 and capable of wirelessly transmitting and receiving RSs and data signals. In some implementations, transceiver 2116 may be capable of wirelessly communicating with different types of UEs/BSs of different RATs. In some implementations, transceiver 2116 may be equipped with a plurality of antenna ports (not shown) such as, for example, four antenna ports. That is, transceiver 2116 may be equipped with multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communications. In some implementations, apparatus 2120 may also include a transceiver 2126 coupled to processor 2122 and capable of wirelessly transmitting and receiving RSs and data signals. In some implementations, transceiver 2126 may be capable of wirelessly communicating with different types of UEs/BSs of different RATs. In some implementations, transceiver 2126 may be equipped with a plurality of antenna ports (not shown) such as, for example, four antenna ports. That is, transceiver 2126 may be equipped with multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas for MIMO wireless communications. Accordingly, apparatus 2110 and apparatus 2120 may wirelessly communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., by reflection from any target object therebetween) via transceiver 2116 and transceiver 2126, respectively.
In some implementations, apparatus 2110 may further include a memory 2114 coupled to processor 2112 and capable of being accessed by processor 2112 and storing data therein. In some implementations, apparatus 2120 may further include a memory 2124 coupled to processor 2122 and capable of being accessed by processor 2122 and storing data therein. Each of memory 2114 and memory 2124 may include a type of random-access memory (RAM) such as dynamic RAM (DRAM), static RAM (SRAM), thyristor RAM (T-RAM) and/or zero-capacitor RAM (Z-RAM). Alternatively, or additionally, each of memory 2114 and memory 2124 may include a type of read-only memory (ROM) such as mask ROM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM) and/or electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM). Alternatively, or additionally, each of memory 2114 and memory 2124 may include a type of non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) such as flash memory, solid-state memory, ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) and/or phase-change memory.
Each of apparatus 2110 and apparatus 2120 may be a communication entity capable of communicating with each other using various proposed schemes in accordance with the present disclosure. For illustrative purposes and without limitation, a description of operations, functionalities, and capabilities of apparatus 2110, implemented in or as a sensing RS receiver (e.g., a UE or a BS), and apparatus 2120, implemented in or as a sensing RS transmitter (e.g., a UE or a BS), is provided below with processes 2200 and 2300.
At 2210, process 2200 may involve processor 2112 of apparatus 2110 receiving, via transceiver 2116, one or more first RSs based on a first sensing RS configuration. Process 2200 may proceed from 2210 to 2220.
At 2220, process 2200 may involve processor 2112 performing, via transceiver 2116, a sensing of a target object based on the first RSs. Process 2200 may proceed from 2220 to 2230.
At 2230, process 2200 may involve processor 2112 receiving, via transceiver 2116, one or more second RSs based on a second sensing RS configuration, wherein the second sensing RS configuration is determined by apparatus 2110 or is received from apparatus 2120 in an event that at least one of a sensing requirement and a channel condition is changed. Process 2200 may proceed from 2230 to 2240.
At 2240, process 2200 may involve processor 2112 performing, via transceiver 2116, the sensing of the target object based on the second RSs.
In some implementations, the sensing requirement may be changed responsive to a sensing purpose switching from target detection to target tracking or refining.
In some implementations, the first RSs or the second RSs may be TDMed, FDMed, or TDMed and FDMed with communication signals; or the first RSs may be TDMed with the communication signals and the second RSs may be FDMed with the communication signals.
In some implementations, in an event that the first RSs are TDMed with the communication signals and the second RSs are FDMed with the communication signals, the first RSs and the communication signals may be allocated on a first CC in a first FR (e.g., FR1 (i.e., sub6G)) and the second RSs may be allocated on a second CC in a second FR (e.g., FR2 (i.e., mmWave)).
In some implementations, process 2200 may further involve processor 2112 performing, via transceiver 2116, a sweeping of a plurality of coarse Rx beams for receiving the first RSs transmitted on each of a plurality of coarse Tx beams. Additionally, the sensing of the target object based on the first RSs may be performed on each sweeping of the coarse Rx beams to obtain a plurality of first sensing results associated with all first BPLs between the coarse Rx beams and the coarse Tx beams, and the sensing of the target object may include integrating the first sensing results to determine information related to the target object.
In some implementations, the information related to the target object may include at least one of: (i) information regarding at least one of a location, a velocity, and an angle of the target object; (ii) information regarding whether an intrusion of the target object is detected within a range; (iii) information regarding whether a respiration of the target object is detected; and (iv) information regarding whether a gesture of the target object is detected.
In some implementations, process 2200 may further involve processor 2112 selecting one of the coarse Rx beams, corresponding to a strongest BPL among the first BPLs, for receiving the second RSs transmitted on each of a plurality of fine Tx beams or on one of the coarse Tx beams, corresponding to the strongest BPL. Additionally, the sensing of the target object based on the second RSs may be performed on the selected coarse Rx beam to obtain a plurality of second sensing results associated with all second BPLs between the selected coarse Rx beam and the fine Tx beams or associated with the strongest BPL, and the sensing of the target object based on the second RSs may include integrating the second sensing results to determine the information related to the target object.
In some implementations, process 2200 may further involve processor 2112 performing, via transceiver 2116, another sweeping of a plurality of fine Rx beams for receiving the second RSs transmitted on each of a plurality of fine Tx beams or on a single one of the coarse Tx beams, corresponding to a strongest BPL among the first BPLs. Additionally, the sensing of the target object based on the second RSs may be performed on each sweeping of the fine Rx beams to obtain a plurality of second sensing results associated with all second BPLs between the fine Rx beams and the fine Tx beams or between the fine Rx beams and the single one coarse Tx beam, and the sensing of the target object may include integrating the second sensing results to determine the information related to the target object.
In some implementations, process 2200 may further involve processor 2112 selecting one or more candidate BPLs from the first BPLs based on the first sensing results. Additionally, the first sensing results may include RSRP or SNR values, the second sensing RS configuration may be determined based on the first sensing results, and the sensing of the target object based on the second RSs may be performed on one or more Rx beams corresponding to or adjacent to the one or more candidate BPLs.
In some implementations, process 2200 may further involve processor 2112 selecting an Rx beam for receiving the first RSs or the second RSs transmitted on a Tx beam of apparatus 2110 or apparatus 2120 based on location information and orientation information of at least one of apparatus 2110 and apparatus 2120. Additionally, the sensing of the target object based on the first RSs or the second RSs may be performed on the selected Rx beam to obtain one or more sensing results, and the sensing of the target object based on the first RSs or the second RSs may include integrating the sensing results to determine information related to the target object.
At 2310, process 2300 may involve processor 2122 of apparatus 2120 transmitting, via transceiver 2126, one or more first RSs associated with a first sensing RS configuration for a sensing of a target object. Process 2300 may proceed from 2310 to 2320.
At 2320, process 2300 may involve processor 2122 transmitting, via transceiver 2126, one or more second RSs associated with a second sensing RS configuration for the sensing of the target object, wherein the second sensing RS configuration is determined by apparatus 2120 or is transmitted to apparatus 2110 in an event that at least one of a sensing requirement and a channel condition is changed.
In some implementations, the sensing requirement may be changed responsive to a sensing purpose switching from target detection to target tracking or refining.
In some implementations, the first RSs or the second RSs may be TDMed, FDMed, or TDMed and FDMed with communication signals; or the first RSs may be TDMed with the communication signals and the second RSs may be FDMed with the communication signals.
In some implementations, in an event that the first RSs are TDMed with the communication signals and the second RSs are FDMed with the communication signals, the first RSs and the communication signals may be allocated on a first CC in a first FR (e.g., FR1 (i.e., sub6G)) and the second RSs may be allocated on a second CC in a second FR (e.g., FR2 (i.e., mmWave)).
In some implementations, process 2300 may further involve processor 2122 performing, via transceiver 2126, a sweeping of a plurality of coarse Tx beams for transmitting the first RSs to be received on each of a plurality of coarse Rx beams.
Additionally, the sensing of the target object based on the first RSs may be performed on each sweeping of the coarse Rx beams to obtain a plurality of first sensing results associated with all first BPLs between the coarse Rx beams and the coarse Tx beams, and the sensing of the target object may include integrating the first sensing results to determine information related to the target object.
In some implementations, the information related to the target object may include at least one of: (i) information regarding at least one of a location, a velocity, and an angle of the target object; (ii) information regarding whether an intrusion of the target object is detected within a range; (iii) information regarding whether a respiration of the target object is detected; and (iv) information regarding whether a gesture of the target object is detected.
In some implementations, process 2300 may further involve processor 2122 selecting one of the coarse Tx beams, corresponding to a strongest BPL among the first BPLs, for transmitting the second RSs to be received on each of a plurality of fine Rx beams or on one of the coarse Rx beams, corresponding to the strongest BPL. Additionally, the sensing of the target object based on the second RSs may be performed on each sweeping of the fine Rx beams or on the one coarse Rx beam to obtain a plurality of second sensing results associated with all second BPLs between the selected coarse Rx beam and the fine Rx beams or associated with the strongest BPL, and the sensing of the target object based on the second RSs may include integrating the second sensing results to determine the information related to the target object.
In some implementations, process 2300 may further involve processor 2122 performing, via transceiver 2126, another sweeping of a plurality of fine Tx beams for transmitting the second RSs to be received on each of a plurality of fine Rx beams or on a single one of the coarse Rx beams, corresponding to a strongest BPL among the first BPLs. Additionally, the sensing of the target object based on the second RSs may be performed on each sweeping of the fine Rx beams to obtain a plurality of second sensing results associated with all second BPLs between the fine Tx beams and the fine Rx beams or between the fine Tx beams and the single one coarse Rx beam, and the sensing of the target object may include integrating the second sensing results to determine the information related to the target object.
In some implementations, process 2300 may further involve processor 2122 selecting one or more candidate BPLs from the first BPLs based on the first sensing results. Additionally, the first sensing results may include RSRP or SNR values, the second sensing RS configuration may be determined based on the first sensing results, and the sensing of the target object based on the second RSs may be performed on one or more Rx beams corresponding to or adjacent to the one or more candidate BPLs.
In some implementations, process 2300 may further involve processor 2122 selecting a Tx beam for transmitting the first RSs or the second RSs to be received on an Rx beam of apparatus 2120 or apparatus 2110 based on location information and orientation information of at least one of apparatus 2120 and apparatus 2110. Additionally, the sensing of the target object based on the first RSs or the second RSs may be performed on the Rx beam to obtain one or more sensing results, and the sensing of the target object based on the first RSs or the second RSs may include integrating the sensing results to determine information related to the target object.
The herein-described subject matter sometimes illustrates different components contained within, or connected with, different other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are merely examples, and that in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated” such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can be seen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being “operably connected”, or “operably coupled”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewed as being “operably couplable”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but are not limited to physically mateable and/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interacting components and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactable components.
Further, with respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.
Moreover, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims, e.g., bodies of the appended claims, are generally intended as “open” terms, e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to implementations containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an,” e.g., “a” and/or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more;” the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number, e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations. Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc. In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that various implementations of the present disclosure have been described herein for purposes of illustration, and that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the various implementations disclosed herein are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2023/118345 | Sep 2023 | WO | international |
| 202411048827.X | Jul 2024 | CN | national |
The present disclosure is part of a non-provisional application claiming the priority benefit of PCT Application No. PCT/CN2023/118345, filed 12 Sep. 2023, and CN application No. 202411048827.X, filed 31 Jul. 2024. The contents of aforementioned applications are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.
