The present disclosure generally relates to a transmitter, a network node, methods therefor, and computer programs for implementing the method. In particular, the disclosure relates to providing a wireless signal carrying binary information where the signal has improved properties.
The telecommunications domain has often so forth been accompanied by a significant increase of electrical energy consumption. Demands on performance, such as spectral efficiency or data rate, have been met at the expense of more energy consumption. Advances in analogue and digital electronics have enabled development of low-cost, low-energy wireless nodes. However, energy consumption remains an issue for some applications. Idle mode listening is typically used by devices related to the field commonly referred to as Internet of Things, IoT. Idle mode listening impacts the overall energy consumption for the devices. This is particularly noticeable when the data traffic is very sporadic.
Energy reduction may for example be performed by an approach in which the devices are able to switch off a main radio frequency interface during inactive periods and to switch it on only if a communication demand occurs. For example, by using a wake-up radio, where a wake-up signal is sent by using a transmitter, received and decoded at the device, wherein the main radio is activated, significant energy consumption reduction may be achieved for many applications.
Furthermore, efforts to reduce energy consumption may be made at different levels such as medium access protocols by dynamically adapting the sleep and wake times of main radio protocols. Limited complexity signals and thus decoders for the intermittently presented control signals may improve energy efficiency.
These efforts affect the physical layer, where control mechanisms for activation or deactivation of more energy consuming operations reside, which put demands on lean control signalling.
This disclosure is based on the inventors' understanding that lean signalling benefits from low-complex signals. This disclosure suggests a signal which for example is suitable for wake-up radio signalling or other lean signalling.
As traditional On-Off keying, OOK, which is a typical candidate for low-complexity signalling, provides a signal for the on-state and no signal for the off-signal, there is inherently a limitation either in determining timing of the signal or a limitation in usable sequences to use for which timing may be correctly detectable. Here, the timing relates to start and/or end of the transmission. For example, a sequence starting or ending with an off-state may be ambiguously detected. Another example is under intermittent interference where a part of the transmitted sequence is lost, but the channel encoding, if the timing of the transmission is known, may handle the lost information.
It is therefore suggested an amplitude shift keying, ASK, approach, very similar to the OOK approach with two states, but with the off-state substituted by a low-power state which may be distinguished by the receiver from when no signal is provided. This is particularly advantageous for paging sequences and wake-up signals. Advantages of the disclosed signal may also be present for other applications.
According to a first aspect, there is provided a transmitter arranged to transmit binary information using a binary amplitude shift keying where information symbols are represented by a signal including a first power state and a second power state. The first power state has a higher signal power than the second power state. A ratio in powers between the first and second power states is below a first value. The ratio in powers between the first and second power states is above a second value such that the states are distinguishably decodable.
Above the term power is used as if the power would be constant during the duration the signal is in the corresponding power state. It should here be understood that in case the power is varying, the term power could be interpreted in a slightly wider sense, like for instance average power. Alternatively, the metric of interest could be the energy, i.e., the power integrated over a certain time. In what follows, the term power will be used, but for the reasons elaborated on above it should be obvious for a person skilled in the art that this represents a usable metric rather than a power level that must be constant.
The first value may correspond to less than 30 dB, or 30 dB.
The distinguishable decodable ratio in powers between the first and second power states may be a value corresponding to at least 20 dB.
The signal may be arranged to represent a first binary state of a symbol by the first power state and a second binary state of a symbol by the second power state. The first binary state may be represented by the first power state during a portion of a symbol time and the second power state during a rest of the symbol time, and the second binary state may be represented by the second power state during the whole symbol time.
The signal may be arranged such that a first binary state of a symbol may be represented by the second power state during a first part of a symbol time followed by the first power state during a rest of the symbol time, and a second binary state of a symbol may be represented by the first power state during a first part of the symbol time followed by the second power state during a rest of the symbol time.
The signal may be arranged such that a first binary state of a symbol is represented by the second power state during a first portion of a first part of a symbol time followed by the first power state during a rest of the first part of the symbol time, followed by the second power state during the rest of the symbol time, and a second binary state of a symbol is represented by the second power state during a first part of a symbol time, followed by the second power state during a second portion of the symbol time followed by the first power state during the rest of the symbol time.
The signal may be arranged such that the first part of the symbol time is half the symbol time.
According to a second aspect, there is provided a network node arranged to operate in a communication system having one or more wireless devices operatively associated for communication with the network node. The network node comprises a transmitter according to the first aspect.
The network node may comprise a transceiver for communication with the wireless devices, wherein the transceiver is arranged to operate according to a first protocol or radio access technology with the wireless devices, and the transmitter is arranged to operate according to a second protocol or radio access technology with at least a subset of the wireless devices. The network node may comprise a transceiver for communication with the wireless devices, wherein the transceiver is arranged to operate according to a first protocol or radio access technology with the wireless devices, and the transceiver comprises the transmitter.
According to a third aspect, there is provided a method of transmitting binary information using a binary amplitude shift keying where information symbols are represented by a signal including a first power state and a second power state, where the first power state has a higher signal power than the second power state, a ratio in powers between the first and second power states is below a first value, and the ratio in powers between the first and second power states is above a second value such that the states are distinguishably decodable.
The first value may correspond to less than 30 dB, or to 30 dB.
The distinguishable decodable ratio in powers between the first and second power states may be a value corresponding to at least 20 dB.
The signal may be arranged to represent a first binary state of a symbol by the first power state and a second binary state of a symbol by the second power state. The first binary state may be represented by the first power state during a portion of a symbol time and the second power state during a rest of the symbol time, and the second binary state may be represented by the second power state during the whole symbol time.
The signal may be arranged such that a first binary state of a symbol is represented by the second power state during a first part of a symbol time followed by the first power state during a rest of the symbol time, and a second binary state of a symbol is represented by the first power state during a first part of the symbol time followed by the second power state during a rest of the symbol time.
The signal may be arranged such that a first binary state of a symbol is represented by the second power state during a first portion of a first part of a symbol time followed by the first power state during a first part of the symbol time, followed by the second power state during the rest of the symbol time, and a second binary state of a symbol is represented by the second power state during a first part of a symbol time, followed by the second power state during a second portion of the symbol time followed by the first power state during the rest of the symbol time.
The signal may be arranged such that the first part of the symbol time is half the symbol time.
The method may comprise transmitting the signal as a wake-up signal.
The method may comprise transmitting the signal as a control or paging signal.
According to a fourth aspect, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on a processor of a transmitter or network node, causes the transmitter or network node to perform the method according to the third aspect.
The above, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure, will be better understood through the following illustrative and non-limiting detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, with reference to the appended drawings.
In order to decode OOK, the receiver has to estimate which signal level corresponds to the presence of a signal and which signal level corresponds to the absence of a signal. Manchester Coding is a modulation means used to simplify clock recovery and to simplify demodulation by ensuring that the average signal level of the signal carries no information.
Clock recovery is simplified because there will always be a transition from zero to one or vice versa in the middle of each symbol irrespectively of what the data is.
The decoding of the Manchester coded symbol is essentially done by comparing the first and the second half of the symbols and deciding in favour of a logical one if the first half of the symbol has larger power than the second half of the same symbol, or vice versa. Implementation-wise, a metric, m, is generated as
m=r
0
−r
1,
where r0 and r1 represent the signal during the first and second half of the signalling interval, respectively, see
Since the metric, m, is generated by subtracting the second half of the symbol from the first half, the average signal level will be removed and thus have no impact on the metric used for making the decision.
Because of the properties of the Manchester coding when it comes to being insensitive to the average signal level, it is an attractive approach when the alternative would be to estimate a decision threshold for when to decide in favour of a logical one or a logical zero.
For example, Manchester coded OOK is being standardized within the IEEE 802.11ba task group (TG). TG 802.11ba develops a standard for wake-up radios (WUR), targeting to significantly reduce the power consumption in devices based on the 802.11 standard. It is proposed to generate the wake-up signal (WUS) by using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT), as this block is already available in Wi-Fi transmitters supporting e.g. 802.11a/g/n/ac. Specifically, an approach discussed for generating the OOK is to use the 13 sub-carriers in the centre, possibly excluding the DC carrier, and then populating these with some signal to represent ON and to not transmit anything at all to represent OFF.
As an alternative to textbook Manchester coded OOK as shown in
Hypothetically, the SNR can in this way be made infinite. This is impossible in practice though. There are technical and regulatory aspects that may prevent the SNR from becoming arbitrarily large.
In one embodiment, binary amplitude shift keying is used for transmitting binary information. A logical one is transmitted using a first power and where a logical zero is transmitted using a second power, or vice versa. Assuming equal probability of logical ones and logical zeros such that time duration of high-power state and low-power state are equally present in average, referring to the constants 0.5, the average power of the signal is
P
avg=0.5·P1+0.5·P2,
where Pavg is the average power, P1 is the power applied for the first power, and P2 is the power applied for the second power. Considering the example where ratio between the first and second powers corresponds to 30 dB, i.e.
where PΔ is the ratio, we can see that average power Pavg is
P
avg=0.5·P1+0.5·P2=0.5·P1+0.5·0.001·P1=0.5005·P1.
Hence, the increase in average power of letting the low-power state comprise a small signal compared with P2=0, which would have resulted in Pavg=0.5, is neglectable, but providing advantages as discussed above.
As is recognizable by the skilled reader, when considering
In one embodiment, where the binary information is Manchester coded, i.e., a logical one is transmitted by a signal whose first part is transmitted with a power P1 and the second part is transmitted with a power of P2, and where a logical zero is transmitted by a signal whose first part is transmitted with a power P2 and the second part is transmitted with a power of P1, or vice versa, would inherently give the same result independent on the assumption of equal probability of logical ones and logical zeroes due to the nature of the Manchester coding.
As indicated above, further advantages may be given by modifying the signal such that the part with the high-power state is limited in duration. The modification may be made by modifying the signal such that the part that in a corresponding plain OOK is ON, i.e. here in the high-power state, will be split into two parts having different transmission powers, i.e. one part having the high-power state and another part having the low-power state. Consider a parameter α, where
where THP is duration of high-power state and TS is duration of a symbol. The parameter α denotes the fraction of time the signal is sent with the higher power, assuming equal distribution of the binary symbols. Average power Pavg will thus be
P
avg
=α·P
1+(1−α)·P2,
where P1 is the power applied for the high-power state, and P2 is the power applied for the low-power state. Here, 0<α≤0.5, and if a ratio between usage of P1 and P2 for the symbol including the high-power state selected to e.g. 0.7, i.e. 70% of the symbol time the high-power state is used, the parameter α becomes 0.35, wherein Pavg becomes 0.35075·P1 for a ratio between P1 and P2 of 30 dB, Cf the example above with equal duration of high-power and low-power states. Thus, a considerable energy saving is feasible.
The Manchester coding is based on that the signal is coded such that a first binary state of a symbol is represented by the second power state followed by the first power state during a symbol time, and a second binary state of a symbol is represented by the first power state followed by the second power state during the symbol time, and that the first and second parts of the symbol time are half the symbol time. However, a modified code where first and second parts of the symbol time are not half the symbol time, and the high-power parts are made shorter than half the symbol time, may provide energy savings like those demonstrated above.
The methods according to the present disclosure is suitable for implementation with aid of processing means, such as computers and/or processors, especially for the case where the processing element 708 demonstrated above comprises a processor handling generation of the signal demonstrated above. Therefore, there is provided computer programs, comprising instructions arranged to cause the processing means, processor, or computer to perform the steps of any of the methods according to any of the embodiments described above. The computer programs preferably comprise program code which is stored on a computer readable medium 900, as illustrated in
In
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2018/076087 | 9/26/2018 | WO | 00 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62574464 | Oct 2017 | US |