Patent Application
20240356586
Aspects of the present disclosure relate to wireless communications, and more particularly, to reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) communication.
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, etc. These wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, etc.). Examples of such multiple-access systems include 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, LTE Advanced (LTE-A) systems, code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems, to name a few.
In some examples, a wireless multiple-access communication system may include a number of base stations (BSs), which are each capable of simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, otherwise known as user equipments (UEs). In an LTE or LTE-A network, a set of one or more base stations may define an eNodeB (eNB). In other examples (e.g., in a next generation, a new radio (NR), or 5G network), a wireless multiple access communication system may include a number of distributed units (DUs) (e.g., edge units (EUs), edge nodes (ENs), radio heads (RHs), smart radio heads (SRHs), transmission reception points (TRPs), etc.) in communication with a number of central units (CUs) (e.g., central nodes (CNs), access node controllers (ANCs), etc.), where a set of one or more DUs, in communication with a CU, may define an access node (e.g., which may be referred to as a BS, 5G NB, next generation NodeB (gNB or gNodeB), transmission reception point (TRP), etc.). A BS or DU may communicate with a set of UEs on downlink (DL) channels (e.g., for transmissions from a BS or DU to a UE) and uplink (UL) channels (e.g., for transmissions from a UE to BS or DU).
These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. NR (e.g., new radio or 5G) is an example of an emerging telecommunication standard. NR is a set of enhancements to the LTE mobile standard promulgated by 3GPP. NR is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using OFDMA with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the DL and on the UL. To these ends, NR supports beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.
As the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, there exists a need for further improvements in NR and LTE technology. These improvements should be applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies.
The systems, methods, and devices of the disclosure each have several aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirable attributes. After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading the section entitled “Detailed Description” one will understand how the features of this disclosure provide advantages that include improved communications between devices in a wireless network.
One or more aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a method for wireless communications by a network entity. The method generally includes determining a subset of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) controlled by the network entity to be activated or deactivated; and transmitting, to each RIS of the subset of RISs, signaling activating or deactivating the subset of RISs in accordance with the determination.
One or more aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE ). The method generally includes receiving, from a network entity, signaling to be transmitted to each RIS of a subset of RISs controlled by the network entity, wherein the signaling is used to activate or deactivate the subset of RISs; and forwarding the signaling to each RIS of the subset of RISs.
One or more aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in an apparatus for wireless communication by a network entity. The apparatus generally includes a memory and at least one processor coupled with the memory. The at least one processor coupled with the memory is generally configured to determine a subset of RISs controlled by the network entity to be activated or deactivated; and transmit, to each RIS of the subset of RISs, signaling activating or deactivating the subset of RISs in accordance with the determination.
One or more aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in an apparatus for wireless communication by a UE. The apparatus generally includes a memory and at least one processor coupled with the memory. The at least one processor coupled with the memory is generally configured to receive, from a network entity, signaling to be transmitted to each RIS of a subset of RISs controlled by the network entity, wherein the signaling is used to activate or deactivate the subset of RISs; and forward the signaling to each RIS of the subset of RISs.
One or more aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes means for determining a subset of RISs controlled by the network entity to be activated or deactivated; and means for transmitting, to each RIS of the subset of RISs, signaling activating or deactivating the subset of RISs in accordance with the determination.
One or more aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes means for receiving, from a network entity, signaling to be transmitted to each RIS of a subset of RISs controlled by the network entity, wherein the signaling is used to activate or deactivate the subset of RISs; and means for forwarding the signaling to each RIS of the subset of RISs.
One or more aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a computer readable medium having computer executable code stored thereon. The computer readable medium having computer executable code stored thereon generally includes code for determining a subset of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) controlled by the network entity to be activated or deactivated; and code for transmitting, to each RIS of the subset of RISs, signaling activating or deactivating the subset of RISs in accordance with the determination.
One or more aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a computer readable medium having computer executable code stored thereon. The computer readable medium having computer executable code stored thereon generally includes code for receiving, from a network entity, signaling to be transmitted to each RIS of a subset of RISs controlled by the network entity, wherein the signaling is used to activate or deactivate the subset of RISs; and code for forwarding the signaling to each RIS of the subset of RISs.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or more aspects comprise the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the appended drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative features of the one or more aspects. These features are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of various aspects may be employed.
So that the manner in which the above-recited features of the present disclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to aspects, some of which are illustrated in the drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of this disclosure, and the description may admit to other equally effective aspects.
To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one aspect may be beneficially utilized on other aspects without specific recitation.
Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) may be implemented to improve wireless communication coverage and capacity by intelligently controlling the propagation environment. However, due to the uncontrollable nature of reflections at an RIS when turned on, the likelihood of interference with transmissions from other user equipments (UEs), or from the same UE (e.g., inter-symbol interference), is significantly increased. Further, in systems deploying multiple RISs, channel estimation may be challenging, and in some cases, prohibitively increase the overhead for channel estimation (e.g., given overhead for cascaded channel estimation is based, at least in part, on the number of RIS reflective elements in the system). Thus, for at least these reasons, it may be beneficial to control the selection, or grouping, of RISs that are activated and/or deactivated at a time.
Aspects of the present disclosure provide apparatus, methods, processing systems, and computer readable mediums for activation and/or deactivation of RISs (or groups of RISs) when multiple RISs are available. For example, aspects herein describe the selection of RIS(s), the grouping of RIS(s), and the pairing of one or more RISs to one or more UEs (e.g., UE-RIS pairing) for activation/deactivation. Based upon the selection, grouping, and/or pairing, signaling may be introduced to control the state of one or more RISs. A state of an RIS may be either an awake state where the RIS is activated or a sleep state where the RIS is deactivated. As used herein, activate means to turn on and participate in ongoing activity in an RIS-aided wireless communication system, and more specifically, turn on and aid in the reflection and beamforming of one or more transmissions.
Accordingly, the techniques described herein enable a network entity (e.g., a base station (BS)) to intelligently make decisions regarding the selection and control of RIS(s) in an RIS-aided wireless communication system such that, at least, transmission interference may be avoided or decreased, channel estimation and/or positioning may be accommodated, signaling overhead may be decreased, and power consumption may be saved at the network entity.
The following description provides examples, and is not limiting of the scope, applicability, or examples set forth in the claims. Changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements discussed. Various examples may omit, substitute, or add various procedures or components as appropriate. For instance, the methods described may be performed in an order different from that described, and various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. Also, features described with respect to some examples may be combined in some other examples. For example, an apparatus may be implemented or a method may be practiced using any number of the aspects set forth herein. In addition, the scope of the disclosure is intended to cover such an apparatus or method, which is practiced using other structure, functionality, or structure and functionality in addition to, or other than, the various aspects of the disclosure set forth herein. It should be understood that any aspect of the disclosure disclosed herein may be embodied by one or more elements of a claim. The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects.
In general, any number of wireless networks may be deployed in a given geographic area. Each wireless network may support a particular radio access technology (RAT) and may operate on one or more frequencies. A RAT may also be referred to as a radio technology, an air interface, etc. A frequency may also be referred to as a carrier, a subcarrier, a frequency channel, a tone, a subband, etc. Each frequency may support a single RAT in a given geographic area in order to avoid interference between wireless networks of different RATs.
The techniques described herein may be used for various wireless networks and radio technologies. While aspects may be described herein using terminology commonly associated with 3G, 4G, and/or new radio (e.g., 5G NR) wireless technologies, aspects of the present disclosure can be applied in other generation-based communication systems.
NR access may support various wireless communication services, such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) targeting wide bandwidth (e.g., 80 megahertz (MHz) or beyond), millimeter wave (mmW) targeting high carrier frequency (e.g., 25 gigahertz (GHz) or beyond), massive machine type communications MTC (mMTC) targeting non-backward compatible MTC techniques, and/or mission critical targeting ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC). These services may include latency and reliability requirements. These services may also have different transmission time intervals (TTI) to meet respective quality of service (QOS) requirements. In addition, these services may co-exist in the same subframe. NR supports beamforming and beam direction may be dynamically configured. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmissions with precoding may also be supported. MIMO configurations in the downlink (DL) may support up to 8 transmit antennas with multi-layer DL transmissions up to 8 streams and up to 2 streams per UE. Multi-layer transmissions with up to 2 streams per UE may be supported. Aggregation of multiple cells may be supported with up to 8 serving cells.
As illustrated in
In certain aspects, communication between BS 110a (e.g., next generation NodeB (gNB or gNodeB)) and UE 120a may be blocked by obstacles (e.g., buildings, etc.) and require assistance from a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) 104 (also shown in
RIS controller 103 includes a codebook 132 for applying a beamformer (e.g., precoding weights) according to RIS elements of RIS 104. Codebook 132 includes values of weights to configure each RIS element (or each group of RIS elements) to modify the radio signal re-radiated by each RIS element, such as weight shifting or changing amplitudes.
In an example, when UE 120a is the transmitter and communicates with BS 110a (e.g., over a wireless Uu interface), BS 110a is the receiver that provides RIS controller 103 feedback for selecting beamformer values for the RIS elements. Similarly, when UE 120a establishes a sidelink (e.g., PC5 interface) with UE 120s, UE 120a may be the transmitter and UE 120s may be the receiver that provides RIS controller 103 feedback. Codebook 132 may be generated based on specific settings of BS 110a and UE 120a, and based on different parameters specific to different situations. The feedback from the receiver to the RIS controller 103 allows for the selection of beamformer values for reflecting communications between the transmitter and the receiver. Other configurations in wireless communication system 100 can be similarly setup between the UEs 120 and BSs 110.
BS 110a, UE 120a, and/or UE 120s (including UE 120s) may respectively include an RIS control and grouping manager (e.g., RIS control and grouping manager 112 for BS 110a, RIS control and grouping manager 122a for UE 120a, and RIS control and grouping manager 122s for UE 120s) for controlling activation and/or deactivation of RISs (or groups of RISs) when multiple RISs are available. Further, RIS control and grouping manager 112 may be configured to perform operations 700 of
As illustrated in
In general, any number of wireless networks may be deployed in a given geographic area. Each wireless network may support a particular radio access technology (RAT) and may operate on one or more frequencies. A RAT may also be referred to as a radio technology, an air interface, etc. A frequency may also be referred to as a carrier, a subcarrier, a frequency channel, a tone, a subband, etc. Each frequency may support a single RAT in a given geographic area in order to avoid interference between wireless networks of different RATs. In some cases, NR or 5G RAT networks may be deployed.
A BS 110 may provide communication coverage for a macro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, and/or other types of cells. A macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs 120 with service subscription. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by UEs 120 with service subscription. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access by UEs 120 having an association with the femto cell (e.g., UEs 120 in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG), UEs 120 for users in the home, etc.). A BS 110 for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A BS 110 for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS 110 for a femto cell may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In the example shown in
Wireless communication system 100 may also include relay stations. A relay station is a station that receives a transmission of data and/or other information from an upstream station (e.g., a BS 110 or a UE 120) and sends a transmission of the data and/or other information to a downstream station (e.g., a UE 120 or a BS 110). A relay station may also be a UE 120 that relays transmissions for other UEs 120. In the example shown in
Wireless communication system 100 may be a heterogeneous network that includes BSs of different types, e.g., macro BS, pico BS, femto BS, relays, etc. These different types of BSs may have different transmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different impact on interference in the wireless communication system 100. For example, macro BS may have a high transmit power level (e.g., 20 Watts) whereas pico BS, femto BS, and relays may have a lower transmit power level (e.g., 1 Watt).
Wireless communication system 100 may support synchronous or asynchronous operation. For synchronous operation, the BSs 110 may have similar frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs 110 may be approximately aligned in time. For asynchronous operation, the BSs 110 may have different frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs 110 may not be aligned in time. The techniques described herein may be used for both synchronous and asynchronous operation.
A network controller 130 may couple to a set of BSs 110 and provide coordination and control for these BSs. The network controller 130 may communicate with the BSs 110 via a backhaul. The BSs 110 may also communicate with one another (e.g., directly or indirectly) via wireless or wireline backhaul.
The UEs 120 (e.g., 120a, 120s, 120x, 120y, etc.) may be dispersed throughout the wireless communication system 100, and each UE 120 may be stationary or mobile. A UE 120 may also be referred to as a mobile station, a terminal, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a station, a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), a cellular phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a tablet computer, a camera, a gaming device, a netbook, a smartbook, an ultrabook, an appliance, a medical device or medical equipment, a biometric sensor/device, a wearable device such as a smart watch, smart clothing, smart glasses, a smart wrist band, smart jewelry (e.g., a smart ring, a smart bracelet, etc.), an entertainment device (e.g., a music device, a video device, a satellite radio, etc.), a vehicular component or sensor, a smart meter/sensor, industrial manufacturing equipment, a global positioning system device, or any other suitable device that is configured to communicate via a wireless or wired medium. Some UEs 120 may be considered machine-type communication (MTC) devices or evolved MTC (eMTC) devices. MTC and eMTC UEs include, for example, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, location tags, etc., that may communicate with a BS 110, another device (e.g., remote device), or some other entity. A wireless node may provide, for example, connectivity for or to a network (e.g., a wide area network such as Internet or a cellular network) via a wired or wireless communication link. Some UEs 120 may be considered Internet-of-Things (IOT) devices, which may be narrowband IoT (NB-IOT) devices.
Certain wireless networks (e.g., LTE) utilize orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink (DL) and single-carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the UL. OFDM and SC-FDM partition the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarrier may be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) may be dependent on the system bandwidth. For example, the spacing of the subcarriers may be 15 kilohertz (kHz) and the minimum resource allocation (called a “resource block” (RB)) may be 12 subcarriers (or 180 kHz). Consequently, the nominal Fast Fourier Transfer (FFT) size may be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048 for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz), respectively. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.8 MHz (i.e., 6 RBs), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbands for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 MHz, respectively.
While aspects of the examples described herein may be associated with LTE technologies, aspects of the present disclosure may be applicable with other wireless communications systems, such as NR. NR may utilize OFDM with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the UL and DL and include support for half-duplex operation using time division duplexing (TDD). Beamforming may be supported and beam direction may be dynamically configured. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmissions with beamformer may also be supported. MIMO configurations in the DL may support up to 8 transmit antennas with multi-layer DL transmissions up to 8 streams and up to 2 streams per UE 120. Multi-layer transmissions with up to 2 streams per UE 120 may be supported. Aggregation of multiple cells may be supported with up to 8 serving cells.
In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled. A scheduling entity (e.g., a BS 110) allocates resources for communication among some or all devices and equipment within its service area or cell. The scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more subordinate entities. That is, for scheduled communication, subordinate entities utilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity. BSs 110 are not the only entities that may function as a scheduling entity. In some examples, a UE 120 may function as a scheduling entity and may schedule resources for one or more subordinate entities (e.g., one or more other UEs 120), and the other UEs 120 may utilize the resources scheduled by the UE 120 for wireless communication. In some examples, a UE 120 may function as a scheduling entity in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, and/or in a mesh network. In a mesh network example, UEs 120 may communicate directly with one another in addition to communicating with a scheduling entity.
In
RIS 290 may be reconfigured or controlled by an RIS controller 292. Each RIS element may re-radiate radio signals with certain phase or amplitude changes, such as phase shifts. RIS controller 292 may reconfigure the phase or amplitude changes by applying a beamformer weight to each RIS element or a group of RIS elements to enable RIS 290 to re-radiate an output beam at different directions given a particular input beam. An illustrative deployment example of RIS 290 is shown in
Antennas 252, processors 266, 258, 264, and/or controller/processor 280 of the UE 120 and/or antennas 234, processors 220, 230, 238, and/or controller/processor 240 of the BS 110 may be used to perform the various techniques and methods described herein. Although the present disclosure uses RIS as an example of implementing the beamformer techniques, the techniques may apply to another form of cooperative communications, such as transparent relaying or regenerative relaying implementations. As shown in
At BS 110, a transmit processor 220 may receive data from a data source 212 and control information from a controller/processor 240. The control information may be for the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH), physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel (PHICH), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), group common PDCCH (GC PDCCH), etc. The data may be for the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), etc. The processor 220 may process (e.g., encode and symbol map) the data and control information to obtain data symbols and control symbols, respectively. Processor 220 may also generate reference symbols, e.g., for the primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and cell-specific reference signal (CRS). A transmit (TX) MIMO processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., beamformer) on the data symbols, the control symbols, and/or the reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide output symbol streams to the modulators (MODs) 232a through 232t. Each modulator 232 may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. DL signals from modulators 232a through 232t may be transmitted via the antennas 234a through 234t, respectively.
At UE 120, antennas 252a through 252r may receive the DL signals from BS 110 and may provide received signals to the demodulators (DEMODs) in transceivers 254a through 254r, respectively. Each demodulator may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a respective received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 256 may obtain received symbols from all the demodulators in transceivers 254a through 254r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, and provide detected symbols. A receive processor 258 may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE 120 to a data sink 260, and provide decoded control information to a controller/processor 280.
On the UL, at UE 120, a transmit processor 264 may receive and process data (e.g., for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)) from a data source 262 and control information (e.g., for the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) from the controller/processor 280. The transmit processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for a reference signal (e.g., for the sounding reference signal (SRS)). The symbols from the transmit processor 264 may be precoded by a TX MIMO processor 266 if applicable, further processed by the demodulators in transceivers 254a through 254r (e.g., for SC-FDM, etc.), and transmitted to the BS 110.
At BS 110, the UL signals from UE 120 may be received by the antennas 234, processed by the modulators 232, detected by a MIMO detector 236 if applicable, and further processed by a receive processor 238 to obtain decoded data and control information sent by UE 120. Receive processor 238 may provide the decoded data to a data sink 239 and the decoded control information to controller/processor 240.
The controllers/processors 240 and 280 may direct operations at the BS 110 and the UE 120, respectively. The processor 240 and/or other processors and modules at the BS 110 may perform or direct execution of processes for techniques described herein. The memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for BS 110 and UE 120, respectively. A scheduler 244 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the DL and/or UL.
While communication between UEs (e.g., UE 120a of
In some circumstances, two or more subordinate entities (e.g., UEs) may communicate with each other using sidelink signals. Real-world applications of such sidelink communications may include public safety, proximity services, UE-to-network relaying, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, Internet of Everything (IoE) communications, IoT communications, mission-critical mesh, and/or various other suitable applications. Generally, a sidelink signal may refer to a signal communicated from one subordinate entity (e.g., UE1) to another subordinate entity (e.g., UE2) without relaying that communication through the scheduling entity (e.g., UE or BS), even though the scheduling entity may be utilized for scheduling and/or control purposes. In some examples, the sidelink signals may be communicated using a licensed spectrum (unlike wireless local area networks (WLANs), which typically use an unlicensed spectrum).
Various sidelink channels may be used for sidelink communications, including a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), and a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH). The PSDCH may carry discovery expressions that enable proximal devices to discover each other. The PSCCH may carry control signaling such as sidelink resource configurations and other parameters used for data transmissions, and the PSSCH may carry the data transmissions.
As discussed above, massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) configuration increases throughput. For example, MIMO can achieve high beamforming gain by using active antenna units and can operate with individual radio frequency (RF) chains for each antenna port. To further such advantages and extend coverage, RISs may be deployed to reflect impinging waves in desired directions. In some cases, RISs may operate without substantial power consumption when they operate passively to only reflect or refract beams from a transmitter towards a receiver. In some cases, the reflection or refraction direction may be controlled by a network entity (e.g., base station (BS), next generation NodeB (gNB or gNodeB)) or a monitoring sidelink user equipment (UE).
In general, RISs enhance the coverage and capacity of wireless communication systems with low hardware cost and energy consumption. Moreover, RISs provide additional benefits in several applications, such as for example, with respect to positioning. Because an increasing awareness of objects about their own location is an essential feature of emerging systems and services in wireless communication, e.g., autonomous systems and industrial Internet of Things (IOT), positioning is seen as an integral part of the system design of 5G mobile radio networks. In particular, RISs may aid in positioning techniques because positions of RISs are generally well-known in the wireless environment. Such benefit of using RISs in positioning, for example sidelink positioning, is illustrated in
Although RISs have been recognized as technology which may improve wireless communication coverage and capacity by intelligently controlling the propagation environment, realizing such benefits of implementing RISs requires accurate channel estimation, which may prove to be challenging. This is because in traditional wireless communication systems, the channel state information (CSI) can be estimated by enabling active devices (e.g., BSs, UEs, etc.) to transmit, receive, and process signals. However, in RIS-aided communication systems, an RIS is a passive device with a large number of passive reflective elements, thus there are no active transmitters or receivers at the passive RIS, so the RIS cannot perform active transmitting/receiving and/or signal processing for channel estimation. Thus, channel estimation may be challenging in environments implementing such RISs. Accordingly, to overcome the challenges in channel estimation, one or more proposed solutions involves turning on and off the RIS during specific stages of channel estimation
In addition to channel estimation, techniques for the activation and/or deactivation of RISs (or groups of RISs) when multiple RISs are available may be desired for other reasons, such as, to avoid interference. For example, due to the uncontrollable nature of reflections at an RIS when turned on, the likelihood of interference with transmissions from other UEs, or from the same UE (e.g., inter-symbol interference), is significantly increased. Further, in systems deploying multiple RISs, the chances of interference are even greater. Thus, it may be beneficial to control the selection, or grouping, of RISs that are activated and/or deactivated at a time, to decrease the potential for interference when multiple RISs are available.
The present disclosure provides techniques for the activation and/or deactivation of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) (or groups of RISs) when multiple RISs are available. For example, aspects herein describe the selection of RIS(s), the grouping of RIS(s), and the pairing of one or more RISs to one or more user equipments (UEs) (e.g., UE-RIS pairing) for activation/deactivation. Based upon the selection, grouping, and/or pairing, signaling may be introduced to control the state of one or more RISs. A state of an RIS may be either an awake state where the RIS is activated or a sleep state where the RIS is deactivated. As used herein, activate means to turn on and participate in ongoing activity in an RIS-aided wireless communication system, and more specifically, turn on and aid in the reflection and beamforming of one or more transmissions.
Accordingly, the techniques described herein enable a network entity (e.g., a base station (BS)) to intelligently make decisions regarding the selection and control of RIS(s) in an RIS-aided wireless communication system such that, at least, transmission interference may be avoided and channel estimation and/or positioning may be accommodated. Further, grouping of RISs may help to reduce signaling overhead by avoiding activation/deactivation signaling for each individual RIS deployed in the wireless communication system.
In addition, aspects of the present disclosure may allow a network entity configured to control multiple RISs in the RIS-aided wireless communication system to save power. For example, assuming there are K RISs controlled by the network entity (e g., each RIS is controlled by one network entity and not shared among multiple network entities), where K is an integer greater than one, instead of monitoring all K RISs all the time, the network entity may select (e.g., determine and select) one RIS or a subset of RISs of the K RISs to monitor at a time, thereby reducing power consumption at the network entity.
Operations 700 may be implemented as software components that are executed and run on one or more processors (e.g., controller/processor 240 of
Operations 700 begin, at block 702, by the network entity determining a subset of RISs controlled by the network entity to be activated or deactivated. At block 704, the network entity transmits, to each RIS of the subset of RISs, signaling activating or deactivating the subset of RISs in accordance with the determination. In response to receiving such signaling, each RIS of the subset of RISs may activate or deactivate in accordance with the signaling.
According to certain aspects, in some cases, the network entity transmits, to each RIS of the subset of RISs, signaling activating or deactivating the subset of RISs through a UE. Accordingly, the UE may act as a relay UE that receives the signaling from the upstream network entity and forwards the signaling to one or more downstream RISs. Such a case may occur when the network entity is far away from the RIS(s) for which the signaling is directed for, or when there is communication blockage between the network entity and the RIS(s).
Operations 800 may be implemented as software components that are executed and run on one or more processors (e.g., controller/processor 280 of
Operations 800 begin, at block 802, by a UE receiving, from a network entity, signaling to be transmitted to each RIS of a subset of RISs controlled by the network entity, wherein the signaling is used to activate or deactivate the subset of RISs. At block 804, the network entity forwards the signaling to each RIS of the subset of RISs.
According to certain aspects, signaling transmitted by the network entity to activate or deactivate a subset of RISs (e.g., one or more RISs) may include at least one of radio resource control (RRC) signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) (MAC-CE) signaling, or downlink control information (DCI). In some cases, the signaling may include a DCI having a bitmap corresponding to the RISs controlled by the network entity. The DCI may be a special DCI, a DCI using reserved bits, a DCI scrambled with RIS radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) (e.g., an RNTI defined for an RIS), etc. In cases where the DCI is a DCI scrambled with RIS RNTI, the DCI may include the bitmap and RIS specific parameters. The bitmap may include, for each RIS of the subset of RISs to be activated or deactivated, a bit indicating activation or deactivation. For example, assuming four RISs (e.g., RIS 1, RIS 2, RIS 3, and RIS 4) are controlled by a network entity. A special DCI transmitted by the network entity may include a four-bit bitmap, wherein each bit of the four-bit bitmap corresponds to one of the four RISs controlled by the network entity. Accordingly, where the network entity selects to activate RIS 1 and RIS 3, but not RIS 2 and RIS 4, the bits corresponding to RIS 1 and RIS 3 may indicate to RIS 1 and RIS 3 to activate, while the bits corresponding to RIS 2 and RIS 4 may indicate to RIS 2 and RIS 4 to deactivate. In some cases, the special DCI may be a group common DCI such that all RISs (e.g., RIS controllers) of the group decode the DCI.
In some cases where a relay UE is used to relay the signaling for activation/deactivation from a network entity to a subset of RISs, the signaling may be transmitted by the UE (subsequent to receiving the signaling from the network entity) via RRC signaling, sidelink MAC-CE signaling, or sidelink control information (SCI). As described previously, communication between devices may be referred to as the sidelink.
According to certain aspects, in addition to signaling the activation or deactivation of a subset of RISs, the network entity may also transmit an indication of a duration of the activation, or the deactivation, of the subset of RISs. The indication may be transmitted via the bitmap of a special DCI (where a special DCI is used to transmit signaling activating or deactivating the subset of RISs), RRC signaling, MAC-CE signaling, or a dedicated DCI. In some cases, this indication may be transmitted to the subset of RISs through a relay UE (in addition to the signaling for activating or deactivating the subset of RISs).
In some cases, the duration for activation/deactivation may be defined by a number of slots or frames, such that the RIS(s) receiving the signaling are activated or deactivated for the indicated number of slots or frames. In cases where a bitmap is used (in a dedicated DCI) to indicate the activation/deactivation, the duration may define an amount of time for which the bitmap (indicating whether RIS(s) are on are off) is to take effect. Once the signaling is received, e.g., activation is triggered, RIS(s) selected to be activated and signaled for activation may be activated for the defined duration. Additionally, once the signaling is received, e.g., deactivation is triggered, RIS(s) selected to be deactivated and signaled for deactivation may be deactivated for the defined duration. At the conclusion of the duration, the RIS(s) may return to a configured default state of participation. Specifically, RISs controlled by the network entity may each be configured with a default state of participation. The default state of participation may be one of an awake state (e.g., where the RIS is activated) or a sleep state (e.g., where the RIS is deactivated). In some cases, the default state of participation for an RIS may change based on signaling from the network entity. In some examples, the change in the default state of participation for an RIS may be indicated in the signaling activating and/or deactivating RISs in the subset of RISs. In some other examples, the default state of participation for an RIS may change at the conclusion of the defined duration, or at the expiration of a timer.
According to certain aspects, a network entity may be configured to group RISs controlled by the network entity into one or more groups. Accordingly, the network entity may transmit signaling activating or deactivating RISs in a group of RISs. RISs in the signaled group may activate or deactivate in accordance with the signaling received for the group of RISs.
Grouping of RISs may be used by the network entity in scenarios where there is a need for m active RISs at a time (e.g., where m is an integer greater than or equal to one), for example, in positioning, channel estimation, and similar applications. As an illustrative example, where ten RISs are controlled by a network entity and only two RISs of the ten RISs are needed to be activated at a time (e.g., for positioning), the network entity may group the ten RISs into groups of two RISs each, such that there are five RIS groups.
As mentioned previously, grouping of RISs may help to reduce signaling overhead by avoiding the need for activation/deactivation signaling for each individual RIS deployed in the wireless communication system. Instead, group common DCI (GC-DCI) may be used to activate or deactivate all RISs of a group of RISs. In some other cases, however, two bitmaps may be used where one bitmap is used to indicate a group, and another bitmap is used to indicate which RISs of the group are to be activated and which RISs of the group are to be deactivated.
In some cases, a network entity may configure each RIS controlled by the network entity with an RIS group identifier (ID). For example, RRC signaling may be used to tag (e.g., designate by marking) each RIS controlled by the network entity with their respective RIS group ID. Accordingly, the network entity may group RISs according to the RIS group ID configured for each RIS, where each group is associated with a single RIS group ID. For example, referring back to
According to certain aspects, the network entity may group the RISs controlled by the network entity into groups based, at least in part, on a distance between each RIS controlled by the network entity, a capability of each RIS controlled by the network entity, a distance from each RIS controlled by the network entity to one or more UEs, and/or a threshold number of RIS elements (e.g., requiring the total number of elements per group to be above a threshold number to have a higher capability of controlling the beams). As an illustrative example, the network entity may determine a minimum number of elements per group is fourteen elements. Thus, in a case where four RISs are controlled by the network entity, and the first RIS (RIS 1) has four elements, the second RIS (RIS 2) has seven elements, the third RIS (RIS 3) has eight elements, and the fourth RIS (RIS 4) has ten elements, the network entity may determine to group RIS 1 and RIS 4 such that this group contains a total of fourteen elements (e.g., meeting the minimum of fourteen elements required) and group RIS 2 and RIS 3 such that this group contains a total of fifteen elements (e.g., meeting the minimum of fourteen elements required). As another illustrative example, assuming the same four RISs are controlled by the network entity, where two UEs are deployed in the system, the network entity may determine to group the RISs based on their distance to each UE. For example, if RIS 1, RIS 2, and RIS 3 are all closest in distance to the first UE and RIS 4 is closest in distance to the second UE, the network entity may determine RIS 1, RIS 2, and RIS 3 make up a first RIS group and RIS 4 makes up a second RIS group.
According to certain aspects, the network entity may pair one or more RISs with a UE to create UE-RIS pairs. In some cases, a UE-RIS pair may include at least two RISs paired with a single UE to be served, such that the two RISs (or more which are paired with the same UE) create an RIS group and the UE makes up a UE group. In some cases, a UE-RIS pair may include at least two RISs paired with at least two UEs to be served, such that the two RISs (or more) make up an RIS group and the two UEs (or more) make up a UE group. The latter example is illustrated in
According to certain aspects, a network entity may receive a recommendation of RISs controlled by the network entity to be activated or deactivated. For example, the recommendation may be received from a UE, where the recommendation is based on channel estimations. Accordingly, the network entity may determine the subset of RISs to be activated or deactivated based, at least in part, on the recommendation. The recommendation may be received by the network entity (and transmitted by a UE) via MAC-CE signaling, uplink control information (UCI) in a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or UCI multiplexed with a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).
In some cases, the network entity may receive multiple recommendations from multiple UEs. In such a case, the network entity may determine the subset of RISs to be activated or deactivated in accordance with a majority of the multiple recommendations. For example, assuming five UEs provide the network entity with a recommendation for activation/deactivation, and three of those five recommendations indicate a first RIS group is to be activated (with all other RIS groups deactivated). Regardless of what the other two recommendations indicate, the network entity may determine to activate the first RIS group (and deactivate remaining groups) given three of the five recommendations (e.g., a majority of the recommendations) recommend this activation/deactivation arrangement.
Communications device 1100 includes a processing system 1102 coupled to a transceiver 1108 (e.g., a transmitter and/or a receiver). Transceiver 1108 is configured to transmit and receive signals for the communications device 1100 via an antenna 1110, such as the various signals as described herein. Processing system 1102 may be configured to perform processing functions for communications device 1100, including processing signals received and/or to be transmitted by communications device 1100.
Processing system 1102 includes a processor 1104 coupled to a computer-readable medium/memory 1112 via a bus 1106. In certain aspects, computer-readable medium/memory 1112 is configured to store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) that when executed by processor 1104, cause processor 1104 to perform the operations illustrated in
In certain aspects, computer-readable medium/memory 1112 stores code 1114 for configuring, code 1116 for grouping, code 1118 for receiving, code 1120 for determining, and code 1122 for transmitting.
In some cases, code 1114 for configuring may include code for configuring each RIS controlled by the network entity with an RIS group identifier (ID).
In some cases, code 1116 for grouping may include code for grouping the RISs controlled by the network entity into one or more groups and wherein each RIS of the subset of RISs belongs to a same group of the one or more groups. In some cases, code 1116 for grouping may include code for grouping the RISs controlled by the network entity into the one or more groups based, at least in part, on the RIS group ID configured for each RIS, wherein each group of the one or more groups is associated with a single RIS group ID.
In some cases, code 1118 for receiving may include code for receiving, from a user equipment (UE), a recommendation of RISs controlled by the network entity to be activated or deactivated, and wherein determining the subset of RISs to be activated or deactivated is based, at least in part, on the recommendation. In some cases, code 1118 for receiving may include code for receives multiple recommendations from multiple UEs, wherein determining the subset of RISs to be activated or deactivated is in accordance with a majority of the multiple recommendations.
In some cases, code 1120 for determining may include code for determining a subset of RISs controlled by the network entity to be activated or deactivated.
In some cases, code 1122 for transmitting may include code for transmitting, to each RIS of the subset of RISs, signaling activating or deactivating the subset of RISs in accordance with the determination. In some cases, code 1122 for transmitting may include code for transmitting an indication of a duration for the activation or the deactivation of the subset of RISs, wherein the indication of the duration is transmitted via the bitmap, radio resource control (RRC) signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) (MAC-CE) signaling, or dedicated downlink control information (DCI).
In certain aspects, processor 1104 has circuitry configured to implement the code stored in the computer-readable medium/memory 1112. For example, processor 1104 includes circuitry 1124 for configuring, circuitry 1126 for grouping, circuitry 1128 for receiving, circuitry 1130 for determining, and circuitry 1132 for transmitting.
In some cases, circuitry 1124 for configuring may include circuitry for configuring each RIS controlled by the network entity with an RIS group identifier (ID).
In some cases, circuitry 1126 for grouping may include circuitry for grouping the RISs controlled by the network entity into one or more groups and wherein each RIS of the subset of RISs belongs to a same group of the one or more groups. In some cases, circuitry 1126 for grouping may include circuitry for grouping the RISs controlled by the network entity into the one or more groups based, at least in part, on the RIS group ID configured for each RIS, wherein each group of the one or more groups is associated with a single RIS group ID.
In some cases, circuitry 1128 for receiving may include circuitry for receiving, from a UE, a recommendation of RISs controlled by the network entity to be activated or deactivated, and wherein determining the subset of RISs to be activated or deactivated is based, at least in part, on the recommendation. In some cases, circuitry 1128 for receiving may include circuitry for receives multiple recommendations from multiple UEs, wherein determining the subset of RISs to be activated or deactivated is in accordance with a majority of the multiple recommendations.
In some cases, circuitry 1130 for determining may include circuitry for determining a subset of RISs controlled by the network entity to be activated or deactivated.
In some cases, circuitry 1132 for transmitting may include circuitry for transmitting, to each RIS of the subset of RISs, signaling activating or deactivating the subset of RISs in accordance with the determination. In some cases, circuitry 1132 for transmitting may include circuitry for transmitting an indication of a duration for the activation or the deactivation of the subset of RISs, wherein the indication of the duration is transmitted via the bitmap, RRC signaling, MAC-CE signaling, or dedicated DCI.
In some cases, the operations illustrated in
In some cases, means for transmitting (or means for outputting for transmission) includes a transmitter (such as the transmit processor 220) and/or an antenna(s) 234 or the BS 110 illustrated in
In some cases, means for receiving (or means for obtaining) includes a receiver (such as the receive processor 238) and/or an antenna(s) 234 of the BS 110 illustrated in
In some cases, means for configuring, means for grouping, and means for determining, includes a processing system, which may include one or more processors, such as the receive processor 238, the transmit processor 220, the TX MIMO processor 230, and/or the controller/processor 240 of the BS 110 illustrated in
Communications device 1200 includes a processing system 1202 coupled to a transceiver 1208 (e.g., a transmitter and/or a receiver). Transceiver 1208 is configured to transmit and receive signals for the communications device 1200 via an antenna 1210, such as the various signals as described herein. Processing system 1202 may be configured to perform processing functions for communications device 1200, including processing signals received and/or to be transmitted by communications device 1200.
Processing system 1202 includes a processor 1204 coupled to a computer-readable medium/memory 1212 via a bus 1206. In certain aspects, computer-readable medium/memory 1212 is configured to store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) that when executed by processor 1204, cause processor 1204 to perform the operations illustrated in
In certain aspects, computer-readable medium/memory 1212 stores code 1214 for transmitting, code 1216 for receiving, and code 1218 for forwarding.
In some cases, code 1214 for transmitting may include code for transmitting, to a network entity, a recommendation of RISs controlled by the network entity to be activated or deactivated, and wherein the signaling, received from the network entity, is based, at least in part, on the recommendation.
In some cases, code 1216 for receiving may include code for receiving, from a network entity, signaling to be transmitted to each RIS of a subset of RISs controlled by the network entity, wherein the signaling is used to activate or deactivate the subset of RISs.
In some cases, code 1218 for forwarding may include code for forwarding the signaling to each RIS of the subset of RISs.
In certain aspects, processor 1204 has circuitry configured to implement the code stored in the computer-readable medium/memory 1212. For example, processor 1204 includes circuitry 1224 for transmitting, circuitry 1226 for receiving, and circuitry 1228 for forwarding.
In some cases, circuitry 1224 for transmitting may include circuitry for transmitting, to a network entity, a recommendation of RISs controlled by the network entity to be activated or deactivated, and wherein the signaling, received from the network entity, is based, at least in part, on the recommendation.
In some cases, circuitry 1226 for receiving may include circuitry for receiving, from a network entity, signaling to be transmitted to each RIS of a subset of RISs controlled by the network entity, wherein the signaling is used to activate or deactivate the subset of RISs.
In some cases, circuitry 1228 for forwarding may include circuitry for forwarding the signaling to each RIS of the subset of RISs.
In some cases, the operations illustrated in
In some cases, means for transmitting (or means for outputting for transmission) or means for forwarding includes a transmitter (such as the transmit processor 264) and/or an antenna(s) 252 of the UE 120 illustrated in
In some cases, means for receiving (or means for obtaining) includes a receiver (such as the receive processor 258) and/or an antenna(s) 252 of the UE 120 illustrated in
RIS control and grouping manager 112 and 122 may support wireless communication in accordance with examples as disclosed herein.
RIS control and grouping manager 112 and 122 may be an example of means for performing various aspects described herein. RIS control and grouping manager 112 and 122, or its sub-components, may be implemented in hardware (e.g., in uplink (UL) resource management circuitry). The circuitry may comprise of processor, DSP, an ASIC, a FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described in the present disclosure.
In another implementation, RIS control and grouping manager 112 and 122, or its sub-components, may be implemented in code (e.g., as configuration management software or firmware) executed by a processor, or any combination thereof. If implemented in code executed by a processor, the functions of RIS control and grouping manager 112 and 122, or its sub-components may be executed by a general-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, a FPGA or other programmable logic device.
In some examples, RIS control and grouping manager 112 and 122 may be configured to perform various operations (e.g., receiving, determining, transmitting) using or otherwise in cooperation with the transceiver 1108 or 1208.
RIS control and grouping manager 112 and 122, or its sub-components, may be physically located at various positions, including being distributed such that portions of functions are implemented at different physical locations by one or more physical components. In some examples, RIS control and grouping manager 112 and 122, or its sub-components, may be a separate and distinct component in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. In some examples, RIS control and grouping manager 112 and 122, or its sub-components, may be combined with one or more other hardware components, including but not limited to an input/output (I/O) component, a transceiver, a network server, another computing device, one or more other components described in the present disclosure, or a combination thereof in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.
Implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:
The methods disclosed herein comprise one or more steps or actions for achieving the methods. The method steps and/or actions may be interchanged with one another without departing from the scope of the claims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions is specified, the order and/or use of specific steps and/or actions may be modified without departing from the scope of the claims.
As used herein, a phrase referring to “at least one of” a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including single members. As an example, “at least one of: a, b, or c” is intended to cover a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, and a-b-c, as well as any combination with multiples of the same element (e.g., a-a, a-a-a, a-a-b, a-a-c, a-b-b, a-c-c, b-b, b-b-b, b-b-c, c-c, and c-c-c or any other ordering of a, b, and c).
As used herein, the term “determining” encompasses a wide variety of actions. For example, “determining” may include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in a table, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like. Also, “determining” may include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory) and the like. Also, “determining” may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing and the like.
The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specifically so stated, but rather “one or more.” Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is to be construed under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 112 (f) unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for” or, in the case of a method claim, the element is recited using the phrase “step for.”
The various operations of methods described above may be performed by any suitable means capable of performing the corresponding functions. The means may include various hardware and/or software component(s) and/or module(s), including, but not limited to a circuit, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or processor. Generally, where there are operations illustrated in figures, those operations may have corresponding counterpart means-plus-function components with similar numbering.
The various illustrative logical blocks, modules and circuits described in connection with the present disclosure may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device (PLD), discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any commercially available processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.
If implemented in hardware, an example hardware configuration may comprise a processing system in a wireless node. The processing system may be implemented with a bus architecture. The bus may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specific application of the processing system and the overall design constraints. The bus may link together various circuits including a processor, machine-readable media, and a bus interface. The bus interface may be used to connect a network adapter, among other things, to the processing system via the bus. The network adapter may be used to implement the signal processing functions of the PHY layer. In the case of a user terminal (see
If implemented in software, the functions may be stored or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer readable medium. Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, data, or any combination thereof, whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. The processor may be responsible for managing the bus and general processing, including the execution of software modules stored on the machine-readable storage media. A computer-readable storage medium may be coupled to a processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. By way of example, the machine-readable media may include a transmission line, a carrier wave modulated by data, and/or a computer readable storage medium with instructions stored thereon separate from the wireless node, all of which may be accessed by the processor through the bus interface. Alternatively, or in addition, the machine-readable media, or any portion thereof, may be integrated into the processor, such as the case may be with cache and/or general register files. Examples of machine-readable storage media may include, by way of example, RAM (Random Access Memory), flash memory, ROM (Read Only Memory), PROM (Programmable Read-Only Memory), EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), registers, magnetic disks, optical disks, hard drives, or any other suitable storage medium, or any combination thereof. The machine-readable media may be embodied in a computer-program product.
A software module may comprise a single instruction, or many instructions, and may be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across multiple storage media. The computer-readable media may comprise a number of software modules. The software modules include instructions that, when executed by an apparatus such as a processor, cause the processing system to perform various functions. The software modules may include a transmission module and a receiving module. Each software module may reside in a single storage device or be distributed across multiple storage devices. By way of example, a software module may be loaded into RAM from a hard drive when a triggering event occurs. During execution of the software module, the processor may load some of the instructions into cache to increase access speed. One or more cache lines may then be loaded into a general register file for execution by the processor. When referring to the functionality of a software module below, it will be understood that such functionality is implemented by the processor when executing instructions from that software module.
Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared (IR), radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray® disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Thus, in some aspects computer-readable media may comprise non-transitory computer-readable media (e.g., tangible media). In addition, for other aspects computer-readable media may comprise transitory computer-readable media (e.g., a signal). Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.
Thus, certain aspects may comprise a computer program product for performing the operations presented herein. For example, such a computer program product may comprise a computer-readable medium having instructions stored (and/or encoded) thereon, the instructions being executable by one or more processors to perform the operations described herein. For example, instructions for performing the operations described herein and illustrated in
Further, it should be appreciated that modules and/or other appropriate means for performing the methods and techniques described herein can be downloaded and/or otherwise obtained by a user terminal and/or base station as applicable. For example, such a device can be coupled to a server to facilitate the transfer of means for performing the methods described herein. Alternatively, various methods described herein can be provided via storage means (e.g., RAM, ROM, a physical storage medium such as a compact disc (CD) or floppy disk, etc.), such that a user terminal and/or base station can obtain the various methods upon coupling or providing the storage means to the device. Moreover, any other suitable technique for providing the methods and techniques described herein to a device can be utilized.
It is to be understood that the claims are not limited to the precise configuration and components illustrated above. Various modifications, changes and variations may be made in the arrangement, operation and details of the methods and apparatus described above without departing from the scope of the claims.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2021/126638 | 10/27/2021 | WO |
