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WO2024212215A1 - Procédé et appareil de planification de ressources pour ue desservi par ris - Google Patents

Procédé et appareil de planification de ressources pour ue desservi par ris Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2024212215A1
WO2024212215A1 PCT/CN2023/088374 CN2023088374W WO2024212215A1 WO 2024212215 A1 WO2024212215 A1 WO 2024212215A1 CN 2023088374 W CN2023088374 W CN 2023088374W WO 2024212215 A1 WO2024212215 A1 WO 2024212215A1
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WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
ris
served
scheduling
scheduled
occasion
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
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PCT/CN2023/088374
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English (en)
Inventor
Zhenguo Ma
Zhan Zhang
Ming Li
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Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
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Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
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Priority to PCT/CN2023/088374 priority Critical patent/WO2024212215A1/fr
Publication of WO2024212215A1 publication Critical patent/WO2024212215A1/fr
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Pending legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04B—TRANSMISSION
    • H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
    • H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
    • H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
    • H04B7/04013—Intelligent reflective surfaces
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04B—TRANSMISSION
    • H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
    • H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
    • H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
    • H04B7/06—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station
    • H04B7/0686—Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and simultaneous transmission
    • H04B7/0695—Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and simultaneous transmission using beam selection
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W72/00—Local resource management
    • H04W72/12—Wireless traffic scheduling
    • H04W72/121—Wireless traffic scheduling for groups of terminals or users

Definitions

  • the non-limiting and exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the technical field of communications, and specifically to method and apparatus for resources scheduling for RIS (reconfigurable intelligent surface) served user equipment (UE) .
  • RIS reconfigurable intelligent surface
  • UE served user equipment
  • Massive multiple-input multiple-output constitutes promising techniques for future wireless communications.
  • massive MIMO schemes provide a substantial power gain and improve spectral efficiency by orders of magnitude.
  • Conventional phased arrays may be used for beamforming.
  • RIS is a node that receives a signal from a transmitter and then re-radiates it with controllable time-delays.
  • RIS may comprise many small elements that can be assigned with different time-delays and thereby synthesize a scattering behavior of an arbitrarily shaped object of the same size. This feature can, for instance, be used to improve coverage.
  • FIG. 1a illustrates an example user scenario of communication over RIS according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
  • UE1 and UE2 can be served by a base station such as next generation NodeB (gNodeB or gNB) directly, but UE3 and UE4 have a coverage issue from the base station due to a block of tree.
  • gNodeB next generation NodeB
  • UE3 and UE4 can have better Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) from the RIS refection signal.
  • RSRP Reference Signal Receiving Power
  • RIS may be a full-duplex transparent relay node since the signals may be processed in an analog domain and the surface of RIS can receive and re-transmit waves simultaneously. A very large surface area can then capture an unusually large fraction of the signal power and use the large aperture to re-radiate narrow beams to desired UEs.
  • Radio access network node such as gNB
  • Medium Access Control (MAC) scheduling could conduct the following resource assignments: time/frequency/space domain multiplexing of different UEs and combined time/frequency/space domain of different UEs.
  • gNB Radio access network node
  • MAC Medium Access Control
  • a current MAC scheduling algorithm is proposed in for example reference 1: M. Naeem, S.Bashir, M. U. Khan and A. A. Syed, "Modified SINR based user selection for MU-MIMO systems" , 2015 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies (ICICT) , 2015, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/ICICT. 2015.7469587.
  • FIG. 1b illustrates a system model for multiple user (MU) -MIMO with 4 transmit antennas at base station (BS) and 1 receive antenna at each UE, which is same as Figure 1 of reference 1.
  • MU multiple user
  • a core algorithm is “User selection algorithm to select subset of users” .
  • a main target of user selection algorithm is to achieve a better cell capacity and ensure fairness between users.
  • a current user selection algorithm will consider introducing one or combination of some criteria, such as signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) , signal to leakage plus noise ratio (SLNR) , channel semi orthogonal to each other.
  • SINR signal to interference plus noise ratio
  • SLNR signal to leakage plus noise ratio
  • channel semi orthogonal channel semi orthogonal to each other.
  • a queue is setup to make the user with higher priority to be scheduled firstly, and the user priority will be updated frame by frame according to the newest scheduling results, such as the user scheduled in this frame will get a lower priority in a next frame, and the user have not been scheduled in this frame will be promoted to a higher priority in a next frame.
  • a current RIS system can only forward the received signal to a certain direction at a time duration for a signal spreading within certain frequency range or band, consequently changes to another direction at another time instance or time duration.
  • TRPs Transmission and Reception Points
  • a RIS system is intended to be part of the signal propagation path between a RAN node such as gNB and a UE.
  • the embodiments of the present disclosure propose a solution for resources scheduling for RIS served UE.
  • a method performed by a network node may comprise classifying a user equipment (UE) served by the network node as a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) served UE or a non-RIS served UE.
  • the method may further comprise generating a radio resource allocation decision for a scheduling occasion such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by a RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the method may further comprise, when the UE is to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion, sending radio resource allocation information in the scheduling occasion to the UE based on the radio resource allocation decision.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • a time-division multiplexing may be used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs or one or more UE sets served by the RIS and/or in a scheduling occasion, a frequency-division multiplexing may be used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs in a UE set served by the RIS.
  • only one UE or one UE set with a highest priority served by the RIS may be inserted into a scheduling queue comprising one or more non-RIS served UEs.
  • the one UE or the one UE set may be removed from the scheduling queue.
  • the method may further comprise changing a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • uplink transmission and downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in a same scheduling occasion.
  • the method may further comprise changing a priority of uplink/downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS when downlink/uplink transmission of the UE or UE set served by the RIS is decided to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion such that the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • At least one RIS served UE holding or granted with a same beam direction as RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion may be granted with additional scheduling priority weight to make sure the at least one RIS-served UE has a highest priory in a RIS served UE queue.
  • the additional scheduling priority weight of the at least one RIS served UE may be removed.
  • the method may further comprise determining a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS.
  • the method may further comprise sending the dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS to the RIS.
  • the determining a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS may comprise when a number of UEs in a first UE set served by the RIS is greater than a number of UEs in a second UE set served by the RIS, a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the first UE set may be determined as longer than a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the second UE set, and/or when a total number of resources to be scheduled in a third UE set served by the RIS is greater than a total number of resources to be scheduled in a fourth UE set served by the RIS, a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the third UE set may be determined as longer than a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the fourth UE set.
  • a scheduling of a UE set served by the RIS in the scheduling occasion may comprise at least one UE in the UE set is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the method may further comprise determining a beam direction of the RIS based on the radio resource allocation decision such that the beam direction of the RIS points to one UE or one UE set served by the RIS scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the method may further comprise sending the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion to the RIS.
  • At least one of downlink control information transmission in physical downlink control channel, physical downlink shared channel transmission for service data, or uplink feedback in physical uplink control channel or physical uplink shared channel may be scheduled in the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion.
  • the method may further comprise determining a first number of slots between physical downlink shared channel scheduling and hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement feedback based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure the UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • the method may further comprise determining a second number of slots between uplink downlink control channel and physical uplink shared channel scheduling based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure the UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • the radio resource allocation information comprises the first number of slots and/or the second number of slots.
  • the radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated based on at least one of a UE priority first scheduling method, or a RIS beam direction first scheduling method.
  • a spatial multiplexing may be used for scheduling the RIS served UE and the non-RIS served UE.
  • a channel state information-reference signal may be configured as a UE specific CSI-RS for a RIS served UE.
  • a method performed by a RIS may comprise receiving a beam direction of the RIS in a scheduling occasion from a network node.
  • the method may further comprise transceiving a signal in the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion.
  • a radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • a time-division multiplexing may be used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs or one or more UE sets served by the RIS and/or in a scheduling occasion, a frequency-division multiplexing may be used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs in a UE set served by the RIS.
  • only one UE or one UE set with a highest priority served by the RIS may be inserted into a scheduling queue comprising one or more non-RIS served UEs.
  • the one UE or the one UE set may be removed from the scheduling queue.
  • a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be changed such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • uplink transmission and downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be scheduled in a same scheduling occasion.
  • a priority of uplink/downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be changed when downlink/uplink transmission of the UE or UE set served by the RIS is decided to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion such that the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • At least one RIS served UE holding or granted with a same beam direction as RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion may be granted with additional scheduling priority weight to make sure the at least one RIS-served UE has a highest priory in a RIS served UE queue.
  • the additional scheduling priority weight of the at least one RIS served UE may be removed.
  • the method may further comprise receiving a dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS from the network node.
  • the method may further comprise applying the dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS.
  • a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the first UE set may be longer than a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the second UE set.
  • a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the third UE set may be longer than a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the fourth UE set.
  • a scheduling of a UE set served by the RIS in the scheduling occasion may comprise at least one UE in the UE set is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • At least one of downlink control information transmission in physical downlink control channel, physical downlink shared channel transmission for service data, or uplink feedback in physical uplink control channel or physical uplink shared channel may be scheduled in the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion.
  • a first number of slots between physical downlink shared channel scheduling and hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement feedback may be determined based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure a RIS served UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • a second number of slots between uplink downlink control channel and physical uplink shared channel scheduling may be determined based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure a RIS served UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • the radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated based on at least one of a UE priority first scheduling method, or a RIS beam direction first scheduling method.
  • a spatial multiplexing may be used for scheduling the RIS served UE and the non-RIS served UE.
  • a channel state information-reference signal is configured as a UE specific CSI-RS for a RIS served UE.
  • a method performed by a UE may comprise receiving radio resource allocation information in a scheduling occasion from a network node.
  • the method may further comprise transceiving a signal based on the radio resource allocation information in the scheduling occasion.
  • a radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by a RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • a time-division multiplexing may be used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs or one or more UE sets served by the RIS and/or in a scheduling occasion, a frequency-division multiplexing is used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs in a UE set served by the RIS.
  • only one UE or one UE set with a highest priority served by the RIS may be inserted into a scheduling queue comprising one or more non-RIS served UEs.
  • the one UE or the one UE set may be removed from the scheduling queue.
  • a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be changed such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • uplink transmission and downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be scheduled in a same scheduling occasion.
  • a priority of uplink/downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be changed when downlink/uplink transmission of the UE or UE set served by the RIS is decided to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion such that the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • At least one RIS served UE holding or granted with a same beam direction as RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion may be granted with additional scheduling priority weight to make sure the at least one RIS-served UE has a highest priory in a RIS served UE queue.
  • the additional scheduling priority weight of the at least one RIS served UE is removed.
  • a scheduling of a UE set served by the RIS in the scheduling occasion may comprise at least one UE in the UE set is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • At least one of downlink control information transmission in physical downlink control channel, physical downlink shared channel transmission for service data, or uplink feedback in physical uplink control channel or physical uplink shared channel may be scheduled in the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion.
  • a first number of slots between physical downlink shared channel scheduling and hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement feedback may be determined based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure a RIS served UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • a second number of slots between uplink downlink control channel and physical uplink shared channel scheduling may be determined based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure a RIS served UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • the radio resource allocation information may comprise the first number of slots and/or the second number of slots.
  • the radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated based on at least one of a UE priority first scheduling method, or a RIS beam direction first scheduling method.
  • a spatial multiplexing may be used for scheduling the RIS served UE and the non-RIS served UE.
  • a channel state information-reference signal is configured as a UE specific CSI-RS for a RIS served UE.
  • a network node comprising a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. Said memory contains instructions executable by said processor.
  • the network node is operative to classify a user equipment (UE) served by the network node as a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) served UE or a non-RIS served UE.
  • the network node is further operative to generate a radio resource allocation decision for a scheduling occasion such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by a RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node is further operative to, when the UE is to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion, send radio resource allocation information in the scheduling occasion to the UE based on the radio resource allocation decision.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • a reconfigurable intelligent surface comprising a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. Said memory contains instructions executable by said processor.
  • the RIS is operative to receive a beam direction of the RIS in a scheduling occasion from a network node.
  • the RIS is further operative to transceive a signal in the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion.
  • a radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • a user equipment UE
  • the UE comprises a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. Said memory contains instructions executable by said processor.
  • the UE is operative to receive radio resource allocation information in a scheduling occasion from a network node.
  • the UE is further operative to transceive a signal based on the radio resource allocation information in the scheduling occasion.
  • a radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by a RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node may comprise a classifying module configured to classify a user equipment (UE) served by the network node as a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) served UE or a non-RIS served UE.
  • the network node may further comprise a generating module configured to generate a radio resource allocation decision for a scheduling occasion such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by a RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node may further comprise a first sending module configured to, when the UE is to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion, send radio resource allocation information in the scheduling occasion to the UE based on the radio resource allocation decision.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node may further comprise a first changing module configured to change a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a first changing module configured to change a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node may further comprise a second changing module configured to change a priority of uplink/downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS when downlink/uplink transmission of the UE or UE set served by the RIS is decided to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion such that the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a second changing module configured to change a priority of uplink/downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS when downlink/uplink transmission of the UE or UE set served by the RIS is decided to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion such that the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node may further comprise a first determining module configured to determine a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS.
  • the network node may further comprise a second sending module configured to send the dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS to the RIS.
  • the network node may further comprise a second determining module configured to determine a first number of slots between physical downlink shared channel scheduling and hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement feedback based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure the UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • the network node may further comprise a third determining module configured to determine a second number of slots between uplink downlink control channel and physical uplink shared channel scheduling based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure the UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • the radio resource allocation information may comprise the first number of slots and/or the second number of slots.
  • a RIS may comprise a first receiving module configured to receive at least one first reference signal from a network node.
  • the RIS may further comprise a transceiving module configured to transceive a signal in the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion.
  • a radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • the RIS may further comprise a second receiving module configured to receive a dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS from the network node.
  • the RIS may further comprise an applying module configured to apply the dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS.
  • a UE may comprise a first receiving module configured to receive radio resource allocation information in a scheduling occasion from a network node.
  • the UE may further comprise a transceiving module configured to transceive a signal based on the radio resource allocation information in the scheduling occasion.
  • a radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by a RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • a computer program product comprising instructions which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method according to any one of the first, second and third aspects.
  • a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method according to any one of the first, second and third aspects.
  • Embodiments herein may provide many advantages, of which a non-exhaustive list of examples follows.
  • the proposed solution can address a particular issue of RIS assisted transmission: RIS’s frequency-flat beamforming limits its support on frequency-selective forwarding.
  • RIS may be fully utilized in (e.g. all) transmission occasions.
  • the proposed solution can facilitate transmission fairness and efficiency.
  • the proposed solution may be fully compatible with traditional scheduling methods.
  • the proposed solution can consider (e.g. all) possible cases involving (e.g. all) relevant physical channels.
  • the proposed solution can enable a practical deployment of RIS.
  • the embodiments herein are not limited to the features and advantages mentioned above. A person skilled in the art will recognize additional features and advantages upon reading the following detailed description.
  • FIG. 1a illustrates an example user scenario of communication over RIS according to an embodiment of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 1b illustrates a system model for MU-MIMO with 4 transmit antennas at BS and 1 receive antenna at each UE;
  • FIG. 2a schematically shows a high level architecture in a 4G network
  • FIG. 2b schematically shows a high level architecture in the fifth generation network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 2c schematically shows a system overview according to an embodiment of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 3a shows a flowchart of a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 3b shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 3c shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.
  • FIG. 3d shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 3e shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 3f shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.
  • FIG. 4a shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 4b shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 6 shows a scheduling example of RIS served UE and non-RIS served UE according to another embodiment of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an apparatus suitable for practicing some embodiments of the disclosure.
  • FIG. 8a is a block diagram showing a network node according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
  • FIG. 8b is a block diagram showing a RIS according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
  • FIG. 8c is a block diagram showing a UE according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
  • FIG. 9 shows an example of a communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
  • FIG. 10 shows a UE in accordance with some embodiments
  • FIG. 11 shows a network node in accordance with some embodiments
  • FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a host according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
  • FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized.
  • FIG. 14 shows a communication diagram of a host communicating via a network node with a UE over a partially wireless connection according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
  • the term “network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards such as new radio (NR) , long term evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced, wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) , high-speed packet access (HSPA) , Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , Time Division Multiple Address (TDMA) , Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) , Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) , Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) and other wireless networks.
  • NR new radio
  • LTE long term evolution
  • WCDMA wideband code division multiple access
  • HSPA high-speed packet access
  • CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
  • TDMA Time Division Multiple Address
  • FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access
  • OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access
  • SC-FDMA Single carrier frequency division multiple access
  • a CDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) , etc.
  • a TDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) .
  • GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
  • An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA) , Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) , IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) , IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) , IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMA, Ad-hoc network, wireless sensor network, etc.
  • E-UTRA Evolved UTRA
  • UMB Ultra Mobile Broadband
  • IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi
  • IEEE 802.16 WiMAX
  • IEEE 802.20 Flash-OFDMA
  • Ad-hoc network wireless sensor network
  • the terms “network” and “system” can be used interchangeably.
  • the communications between two devices in the network may be performed according to any suitable communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the communication protocols as defined by a standard organization such as 3GPP.
  • the communication protocols may comprise the first generation (1G) , 2G
  • network device or “network node” or “network function” refers to any suitable function which can be implemented in a network entity (physical or virtual) of a communication network.
  • the network function can be implemented either as a network element on a dedicated hardware, as a software instance running on a dedicated hardware, or as a virtualized function instantiated on an appropriate platform, e.g. on a cloud infrastructure.
  • the 5G system may comprise a plurality of NFs such as AMF (Access and Mobility Management Function) , SMF (Session Management Function) , AUSF (Authentication Service Function) , UDM (Unified Data Management) , PCF (Policy Control Function) , AF (Application Function) , NEF (Network Exposure Function) , UPF (User plane Function) and NRF (Network Repository Function) , RAN (radio access network) , SCP (service communication proxy) , NWDAF (network data analytics function) , NSSF (Network Slice Selection Function) , NSSAAF (Network Slice-Specific Authentication and Authorization Function) , etc.
  • AMF Access and Mobility Management Function
  • SMF Session Management Function
  • AUSF Authentication Service Function
  • UDM Unified Data Management
  • PCF Policy Control Function
  • AF Application Function
  • NEF Network Exposure Function
  • UPF User plane Function
  • NRF Network Repository Function
  • RAN radio
  • the 4G system may include MME (Mobile Management Entity) , HSS (home subscriber server) , Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) , Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) , PGW control plane (PGW-C) , Serving gateway (SGW) , SGW control plane (SGW-C) , E-UTRAN Node B (eNB) , etc.
  • MME Mobile Management Entity
  • HSS home subscriber server
  • PCRF Policy and Charging Rules Function
  • PGW Packet Data Network Gateway
  • PGW-C PGW control plane
  • SGW Serving gateway
  • SGW-C SGW control plane
  • the network function may comprise different types of NFs for example depending on a specific network.
  • the network device may be an access network device with accessing function in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses to the network and receives services therefrom.
  • the access network device may include a base station (BS) , an access point (AP) , a multi-cell/multicast coordination entity (MCE) , a controller or any other suitable device in a wireless communication network.
  • BS base station
  • AP access point
  • MCE multi-cell/multicast coordination entity
  • the BS may be, for example, a node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a next generation NodeB (gNodeB or gNB) , a remote radio unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, a remote radio head (RRH) , a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth.
  • NodeB or NB node B
  • eNodeB or eNB evolved NodeB
  • gNodeB or gNB next generation NodeB
  • RRU remote radio unit
  • RH radio header
  • IAB Integrated Access and Backhaul
  • RRH remote radio head
  • a relay a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth.
  • the access network device comprise multi-standard radio (MSR) radio equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs) , base transceiver stations (BTSs) , transmission points, transmission nodes, positioning nodes and/or the like.
  • MSR multi-standard radio
  • RNCs radio network controllers
  • BSCs base station controllers
  • BTSs base transceiver stations
  • transmission points transmission nodes
  • positioning nodes positioning nodes and/or the like.
  • the network node may represent any suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to enable and/or provide a terminal device access to a wireless communication network or to provide some service to a terminal device that has accessed to the wireless communication network.
  • terminal device refers to any end device that can access a communication network and receive services therefrom.
  • the terminal device refers to a mobile terminal, user equipment (UE) , or other suitable devices.
  • the UE may be, for example, a Subscriber Station (SS) , a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS) , or an Access Terminal (AT) .
  • SS Subscriber Station
  • MS Mobile Station
  • AT Access Terminal
  • the terminal device may include, but not limited to, a portable computer, an image capture terminal device such as a digital camera, a gaming terminal device, a music storage and a playback appliance, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a tablet, a wearable device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , a portable computer, a desktop computer, a wearable terminal device, a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE) , a laptop-mounted equipment (LME) , a USB dongle, a smart device, a wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE) and the like.
  • a portable computer an image capture terminal device such as a digital camera, a gaming terminal device, a music storage and a playback appliance
  • a mobile phone a cellular phone, a smart phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone
  • a terminal device may represent a UE configured for communication in accordance with one or more communication standards promulgated by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) , such as 3GPP’ LTE standard or NR standard.
  • 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
  • a “user equipment” or “UE” may not necessarily have a “user” in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device.
  • a terminal device may be configured to transceive information without direct human interaction.
  • a terminal device may be designed to transmit information to a network on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the communication network.
  • a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but that may not initially be associated with a specific human user.
  • a terminal device may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another terminal device and/or network equipment.
  • the terminal device may in this case be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as a machine-type communication (MTC) device.
  • M2M machine-to-machine
  • MTC machine-type communication
  • the terminal device may be a UE implementing the 3GPP narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) standard.
  • NB-IoT narrow band internet of things
  • a terminal device may represent a vehicle or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.
  • references in the specification to “one embodiment, ” “an embodiment, ” “an example embodiment, ” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.
  • first and second etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments.
  • the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed terms.
  • the phrase “at least one of A and B” or “at least one of A or B” should be understood to mean “only A, only B, or both A and B. ”
  • the phrase “A and/or B” should be understood to mean “only A, only B, or both A and B” .
  • a communication system may further include any additional elements suitable to support communication between terminal devices or between a wireless device and another communication device, such as a landline telephone, a service provider, or any other network node or terminal device.
  • the communication system may provide communication and various types of services to one or more terminal devices to facilitate the terminal devices’ access to and/or use of the services provided by, or via, the communication system.
  • FIG. 2a schematically shows a high level architecture in a 4G network, which is same as Figure 4.2-1a of 3GPP TS 23.682 V17.3.0, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
  • the system architecture of FIG. 2a may comprise some exemplary elements such as SCS (services capability server) , AS (application server) , SCEF, HSS (home subscriber server) , UE, RAN (Radio Access Network) , SGSN (Serving GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Support Node) , MME (Mobile Management Entity) , MSC (Mobile Switching Centre) , S-GW (Serving Gateway) , GGSN/P-GW (Gateway GPRS Support Node/PDN (Packet Data Network) Gateway) , MTC-IWF (Machine Type Communications-InterWorking Function) CDF/CGF (Charging Data Function/Charging Gateway Function) , MTC-AAA (Machine Type Communications-authentication, authorization and
  • FIG. 2b schematically shows a high level architecture in the fifth generation network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
  • the fifth generation network may be 5GS.
  • the architecture of FIG. 2b is same as Figure 4.2.3-1 of 3GPP TS 23.501 V18.0.0, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
  • 2b may comprise some exemplary elements such as AUSF, AMF, DN (data network) , NEF, NRF, NSSF, PCF, SMF, UDM, UPF, AF, UE, (R) AN, SCP (Service Communication Proxy) , NSSAAF (Network Slice-Specific Authentication and Authorization Function) , NSACF (Network Slice Admission Control Function) , Edge Application Server Discovery Function (EASDF) , etc.
  • the UE can establish a signaling connection with the AMF over the reference point N1, as illustrated in FIG. 2b.
  • This signaling connection may enable NAS (Non-access stratum) signaling exchange between the UE and the core network, comprising a signaling connection between the UE and the (R) AN and the N2 connection for this UE between the (R) AN and the AMF.
  • the (R) AN can communicate with the UPF over the reference point N3.
  • the UE can establish a protocol data unit (PDU) session to the DN (data network, e.g. an operator network or Internet) through the UPF over the reference point N6.
  • PDU protocol data unit
  • the exemplary system architecture also contains the service-based interfaces such as Nnrf, Nnef, Nausf, Nudm, Npcf, Namf, Nnsacf, Neasdf and Nsmf exhibited by NFs such as the NRF, the NEF, the AUSF, the UDM, the PCF, the AMF, the NSACF, the EASDF and the SMF.
  • FIG. 2b also shows some reference points such as N1, N2, N3, N4, N6 and N9, which can support the interactions between NF services in the NFs.
  • these reference points may be realized through corresponding NF service-based interfaces and by specifying some NF service consumers and providers as well as their interactions in order to perform a particular system procedure.
  • a beam direction reflected by RIS may be (e.g., only) required to serve one direction at a whole bandwidth at a time duration, this matches RIS’s frequency-flat beamforming feature perfectly.
  • a RIS e.g., only
  • the RAN node such as gNB
  • scheduling performance will be sharply degraded as RIS cannot handle the cases where more than one served UE requiring RIS involvement is scheduled simultaneously at different subcarriers by the RAN node such as gNB.
  • Current frequency selective scheduling or cochannel MU-MIMO scheduling algorithm and solution needs to be updated to consider if RIS is needed in the propagation path.
  • a set (s) of RIS compatible mechanism (s) is (are) introduced and added into the scheduling scheme and algorithm.
  • FIG. 2c schematically shows a system overview according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
  • RIS user markup module is added in the system.
  • user scheduling module is introduced to replace user selection module in legacy solutions depending on the RIS user markup results.
  • the power allocation module, the beamforming setting module and the base station MAC module may be same/similar as/to the corresponding modules of the prior art.
  • the RIS user markup module may be used to classify the UEs in relationship to a RIS.
  • the RAN node such as gNB contains a (logic function) module which separates or classifies or groups all scheduling candidate users to RIS served/non RIS served users.
  • RIS served users can be tagged as UE with RIS tag, on other hand, non RIS served users can be tagged as UE with non-RIS tag.
  • UEs with RIS/non-RIS tag are scheduled differently according to one or more following manner/strategic solutions.
  • a time-division multiplexing may be used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs or one or more UE sets served by the RIS.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • a frequency-division multiplexing may be used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs in a UE set served by the RIS.
  • the RAN node such as gNB may preferably (optionally) schedule radio resources for multiple UEs served by different RISs or without RIS’s forwarding by frequency or spatial division multiplexing (MU-MIMO) to optimize either bandwidth utility or minimize the scheduling latency in general.
  • MU-MIMO frequency or spatial division multiplexing
  • scheduling may couple the uplink (UL) /downlink (DL) transmissions for UEs with a same RIS service if DL/UL transmission (in current standardization) has an implicit time-relationship, such as UL transmission (TX) is happening after a specific time of DL TX (standardized in current Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specifications) , such as Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) transmissions.
  • DL/UL transmission in current standardization
  • 3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project
  • HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request
  • the RAN node such as gNB may configure or instruct measurement reports by UE, such as Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) , RSRP, Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI) , the UL transmission, e.g., Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) containing measurement reports, the RAN node such as gNB may assess and determine the RIS time-selective beamforming feature for UEs with RIS service.
  • CQI Channel Quality Indicator
  • RSRP Precoding Matrix Indicator
  • PMI Precoding Matrix Indicator
  • the UL transmission e.g., Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) containing measurement reports
  • the RAN node such as gNB may assess and determine the RIS time-selective beamforming feature for UEs with RIS service.
  • the RAN node may instruct RIS about beamforming directions.
  • RIS may be notified with the mapping between beam coefficients and the associated time instances in advance by the RAN node such as gNB after UE’s selection, to prepare and enable beam direction in the expected time duration, e.g., slot.
  • the RAN node may instruct and/or observe the RIS beam sweeping patterns in scheduling.
  • a new simplified version is introduced that scheduling is associated with the beam sweeping of RIS.
  • RIS sweeps beam directions to angles which are pre-defined or configured by the RAN node such as gNB.
  • the time duration of beam direction kept to each angle may be equal or unequal wise.
  • FIG. 3a shows a flowchart of a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be performed by an apparatus implemented in or at or as a network node or communicatively coupled to the network node.
  • the apparatus may provide means or modules for accomplishing various parts of the method 300 as well as means or modules for accomplishing other processes in conjunction with other components.
  • the network node may classify a user equipment (UE) served by the network node as a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) served UE or a non-RIS served UE.
  • UE user equipment
  • RIS reconfigurable intelligent surface
  • the network node may be any suitable node which can implement radio function.
  • the network node may be an access network device.
  • the network node may be NodeB, eNodeB, gNodeB, etc.
  • the RIS may be any surface which can receive a signal from a transmitter and then re-radiates it with controllable time-delays.
  • the RIS may be any suitable RIS either currently known or to be developed in the future.
  • the network node may classify a UE served by the network node as a RIS served UE or a non-RIS served UE in various ways and the present disclosure has no limit on it.
  • a general criterion could include the RIS served UE can get positive performance gain from RIS refection compared to the same UE without RIS service.
  • RIS served UE can be marked up depending on UE positions and/or UE measurement of path loss to the RIS and serving network node such as gNB.
  • the RIS served UE can be marked up based on machine learning.
  • the network node may classify a UE served by the network node as a RIS served UE or a non-RIS served UE.
  • the network node may classify a UE served by the network node as a RIS served UE or a non-RIS served UE when a trigger event occurs or periodically.
  • the trigger event may comprise a change of UE location, a change of UE measurement of path loss to the RIS and serving network node, etc.
  • all UEs served by the network node may be attached a label, named RIS served UE or non-RIS served UE after determining which UEs needs RIS assistance.
  • the criterion to determine a UE needs RIS may be any suitable criterion and the present disclosure has no limit on it.
  • a general criterion could include RIS served UE can get positive performance gain from RIS refection compared to the same UE without RIS service.
  • RIS served UE can be marked up depending on UE positions and UE measurement of path loss to the RIS and serving RAN node such as gNB.
  • the network node may generate a radio resource allocation decision for a scheduling occasion such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by a RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the scheduling occasion may be defined in various ways for example depending on a specific communication system.
  • the scheduling occasion may be a scheduled slot.
  • the radio resource allocation decision may be represented in various manners.
  • the radio resource allocation decision may represent a final allocation of resources (such as Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) ) to users/UEs for the scheduling occasion.
  • PRBs Physical Resource Blocks
  • the radio resource allocation decision may be for uplink transmission.
  • the uplink transmission may refer to the transmission from the UE to the network node.
  • the radio resource allocation decision may be for downlink transmission.
  • the downlink transmission may refer to the transmission from the network node to the UE.
  • the radio resource allocation decision may be for both downlink transmission and downlink transmission.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • the at most one UE may be a UE holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • radio resources for multiple UEs via a same RIS may use time-division multiplexing. That means in one scheduling occasion, only one RIS served UE can be scheduled. Furthermore, the UEs holding or granted with the same beam direction with RIS reflection direction in the scheduled target time slot can be grouped in one set, which may be named as target UE set. In a scheduling occasion, a frequency-division multiplexing may be used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs in a UE set served by the RIS.
  • the RAN node such as gNB may assess and configure a same beam direction with RIS reflection direction for a target UE set containing more than one UE when scheduling. Given that, in one scheduling occasion, one UE set can be scheduled.
  • a scheduling of a UE set served by the RIS in the scheduling occasion may comprise at least one UE in the UE set is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node may generate the radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion in various ways and the present disclosure has no limit on it so long as at most one UE or at most one UE set served by a RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated based on at least one of a UE priority first scheduling method or a RIS beam direction first scheduling method.
  • each RIS served UE or non-RIS served UE may have a priority.
  • the priority of UE may be adjusted or configured in various ways and the present disclosure has no limit on it.
  • the UE with the highest priority may be scheduled first.
  • one UE or one UE set served by one RIS may be configured with the highest priority such that the one UE or the one UE set served by the RIS may be scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a UE set configured with the highest priority may means that all UEs in the UE set may be configured with the highest priority.
  • only one UE or one UE set with a highest priority served by the RIS may be inserted into a scheduling queue comprising one or more non-RIS served UEs.
  • the one UE or one UE set may be removed from the scheduling queue.
  • each RIS may be inserted into the scheduling queue.
  • it can use two priority queues’ technics or equivalent solutions to generate the radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion.
  • in legacy method to fulfill the fairness between users/UEs, it may have one priority queue.
  • the user/UE with the highest priority may be scheduled first.
  • UEs with RIS/non-RIS tag may be scheduled differently according to one or more manner/strategic solutions.
  • two priority queues may be used.
  • One queue is used for RIS served user/UE, and another queue (normal queue) is used for non RIS served user/UE.
  • another queue normal queue
  • the priority-based scheduling method is applicable for all UEs in the normal queue. After scheduling, if RIS served UE is not scheduled, then this UE may be picked up from the normal queue and inserted back into the RIS-served queue. If RIS served UE is scheduled, then no special operations.
  • it can keep one queue but to change the RIS served UE priority to make sure at most one RIS-served UE or at most one UE set can be scheduled in one scheduling occasion.
  • a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be changed such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • At least one RIS served UE holding or granted with a same beam direction as RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion may be granted with additional scheduling priority weight to make sure the at least one RIS-served UE has a highest priory in a RIS served UE queue.
  • the additional scheduling priority weight of the at least one RIS served UE may be removed.
  • RIS reflection beam switching strategy may use sweeping beam in RIS. Then accordingly, a check may be done for UE in the RIS served UE queue.
  • the UEs holding or granted with the same beam direction with RIS reflection direction in the scheduled target time slot can be grouped in one set, which may be named as a target UE set.
  • the UE in the target UE set may be granted with additional scheduling priority weight to make sure at least one UE have highest priory in the RIS-served UE queue. After UL/DL scheduling in this scheduling occasion, the additional scheduling priority weight of the UE in the target UE set may be removed.
  • the sequence of sweeping beam can be round-robin or based pre-defined rule or configured by RAN node such as gNB.
  • the dwelling time for the beam direction may be pre-defined or configured by RAN node such as gNB. In an example, if the number of UEs in one UE set is greater than a threshold, the dwelling time for the beam direction to the UE set can be longer or scaled up compared to the dwelling time for other beam directions.
  • the dwelling time for the beam direction to the UE set can be longer or scaled up compared to the dwelling time for other beam directions.
  • a spatial multiplexing may be used for scheduling the RIS served UE and the non-RIS served UE.
  • At least one of downlink control information (DCI) transmission in physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) , physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission for service data, or uplink feedback in physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) may be scheduled in the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion.
  • DCI downlink control information
  • PDCH physical downlink control channel
  • PDSCH physical downlink shared channel
  • PUCCH physical uplink control channel
  • PUSCH physical uplink shared channel
  • a complete DL scheduling may include 3 steps: (1) DCI transmission in PDCCH channel, (2) PDSCH transmission for service data, and (3) UL feedback in PUCCH/PUSCH.
  • RIS beam direction may be corrected tuned in assigned time slot. There may be two solutions to ensure this.
  • the first solution is using UE-priority first solution.
  • the above 3 steps may be scheduled according to the UE priority, and then the RIS beam direction may be configured according to the scheduling results.
  • the second solution is RIS beam direction first solution.
  • the above 3 steps may be scheduled according to the RIS beam direction, then the K1 (the number of slots between PDSCH scheduling and HARQ-ACK feedback) , K2 (the number of slots between UL DCI and PUSCH scheduling) value may be changed according to the schedule result to ensure the UE is scheduled in the correct time slot.
  • a channel state information-reference signal is configured as a UE specific CSI-RS for a RIS served UE.
  • CSI-RS could not be received in every time slot due to RIS beam direction limitation.
  • CSI-RS should be configured as UE specific CSI-RS for RIS served UE. That means CSI-RS resource may be separated into multiple resource sets. Every UE may be associated with one CSI-RS resource set. Every CSI-RS resource set may be separated into different time slot. Every CSI-RS resource set may be associated with one RIS beam direction in later scheduling.
  • the network node may send radio resource allocation information in the scheduling occasion to the UE based on the radio resource allocation decision.
  • the radio resource allocation information may comprise the radio resource allocation information for the UE.
  • the radio resource allocation information may comprise radio resource allocation information for UL and/or DL.
  • FIG. 3b shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be performed by an apparatus implemented in or at or as a network node or communicatively coupled to the network node.
  • the apparatus may provide means or modules for accomplishing various parts of the method 310 as well as means or modules for accomplishing other processes in conjunction with other components.
  • the description thereof is omitted here for brevity.
  • the network node may change a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the UE or the UE set served by the RIS may be the UE or the UE set holding or granted with the same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node may change a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS, which holds or is granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion, to the highest priority or a predefined priority such that the UE or the UE set may be scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node may change a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS, which does not hold or is not granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion, to the lowest priority or a predefined priority such that the UE or the UE set is not scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • block 312 may be performed between blocks 302 and 304 of FIG. 3a.
  • FIG. 3c shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be performed by an apparatus implemented in or at or as a network node or communicatively coupled to the network node.
  • the apparatus may provide means or modules for accomplishing various parts of the method 320 as well as means or modules for accomplishing other processes in conjunction with other components.
  • the description thereof is omitted here for brevity.
  • the network node may change a priority of uplink/downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS when downlink/uplink transmission of the UE or UE set served by the RIS is decided to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion such that the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • uplink transmission and downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be scheduled in a same scheduling occasion.
  • the network node may change a priority of uplink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS in the scheduling occasion to for example the highest priority when downlink transmission of the UE or UE set served by the RIS is decided to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node may change a priority of downlink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS in the scheduling occasion to for example the highest priority when uplink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS is decided to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • UL scheduling and DL scheduling have weak dependency.
  • the DL scheduling and UL scheduling have separate priority queues and separate priority rules.
  • unified spatial/direction-oriented UL scheduling and DL scheduling may take time-division multiplexing of RIS into account.
  • the RAN node such as gNB may arrange certain time slot for UL transmission of one UE, when the UE relies on RIS reflection and has same beam direction to DL transmission for the UE.
  • the RAN node such as gNB may arrange certain time slot for UL transmission of one UE, when the UE relies on RIS reflection and has same beam direction to DL transmission for the UE.
  • the RAN node such as gNB may schedule DL HARQ/CQI/PMI/Rank Indication (RI) feedback for DL within UL in the same time slot to DL transmission.
  • RI Rank Indication
  • One benefit is improving the RIS’s efficiency on data transmission.
  • Another benefit is preventing UL feedback loss due to wrong RIS reflection direction.
  • the RAN node such as gNB may adjust the RIS-served UE UL priority according to the DL feedback scheduling.
  • all RIS served UEs may be checked by the RAN node such as gNB, the UE with DL HARQ or aperiodic CQI/PMI/RI feedback in the scheduled slot, when RIS configures proper beam direction to the UE, may be granted the highest priority. If no RIS-served UE with DL HARQ or aperiodic CQI/PMI/RI feedback is planned to be scheduled in this slot, then the UE with highest priority in RIS-served UE UL queue may be considered to be scheduled.
  • FIG. 3d shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be performed by an apparatus implemented in or at or as a network node or communicatively coupled to the network node.
  • the apparatus may provide means or modules for accomplishing various parts of the method 330 as well as means or modules for accomplishing other processes in conjunction with other components.
  • the description thereof is omitted here for brevity.
  • the network node may determine a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS.
  • the network node may determine the dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS in various ways and the present disclosure has no limit on it. For example, the network node may determine the dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS based on the radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion, the number of UEs in the beam direction, a total number of resources to be scheduled in the beam direction, etc.
  • a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the first UE set may be determined as longer than a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the second UE set, and/or
  • a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the third UE set may be determined as longer than a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the fourth UE set.
  • the network node may send the dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS to the RIS. Then the RIS may apply the dwelling time for the beam direction.
  • FIG. 3e shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be performed by an apparatus implemented in or at or as a network node or communicatively coupled to the network node.
  • the apparatus may provide means or modules for accomplishing various parts of the method 340 as well as means or modules for accomplishing other processes in conjunction with other components.
  • the description thereof is omitted here for brevity.
  • the network node may determine a beam direction of the RIS based on the radio resource allocation decision such that the beam direction of the RIS points to one UE or one UE set served by the RIS scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node After generating the radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion, the network node knows one UE or one UE set served by the RIS scheduled in the scheduling occasion. Then the network node may determine the beam direction of the RIS such that the beam direction of the RIS points to or covers the one UE or one UE set served by the RIS scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node may send the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion to the RIS. Then the RIS may apply the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion.
  • FIG. 3f shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be performed by an apparatus implemented in or at or as a network node or communicatively coupled to the network node.
  • the apparatus may provide means or modules for accomplishing various parts of the method 350 as well as means or modules for accomplishing other processes in conjunction with other components. For some parts which have been described in the above embodiments, the description thereof is omitted here for brevity.
  • the network node may determine a first number of slots between physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduling and hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure the UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • PDSCH physical downlink shared channel
  • HARQ-ACK hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement
  • the network node may determining a second number of slots between uplink downlink control channel (DCI) and physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduling based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure the UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • DCI downlink control channel
  • PUSCH physical uplink shared channel
  • the radio resource allocation information may comprise the first number of slots and/or the second number of slots.
  • FIG. 4a shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be performed by an apparatus implemented in or at or as a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) or communicatively coupled to the RIS.
  • the apparatus may provide means or modules for accomplishing various parts of the method 400 as well as means or modules for accomplishing other processes in conjunction with other components. For some parts which have been described in the above embodiments, the description thereof is omitted here for brevity.
  • the RIS may receive a beam direction of the RIS in a scheduling occasion from a network node.
  • the RIS may transceive a signal based on the radio resource allocation information in the scheduling occasion.
  • the signal may be a signal from the UE or from the network node.
  • the RIS may receive a signal from the network node in the scheduling occasion and reflect or beamform the signal according to the beam direction of the RIS.
  • the RIS may receive a signal from the UE in the scheduling occasion and reflect or beamform the signal to the network node.
  • the radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • a time-division multiplexing may be used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs and/or one or more UE sets served by the RIS.
  • a frequency-division multiplexing may be used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs in a UE set served by the RIS.
  • only one UE or one UE set with a highest priority served by the RIS may be inserted into a scheduling queue comprising one or more non-RIS served UEs.
  • the one UE or one UE set may be removed from the scheduling queue.
  • a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be changed such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • uplink transmission and downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be scheduled in a same scheduling occasion.
  • a priority of uplink/downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be changed when downlink/uplink transmission of the UE or UE set served by the RIS is decided to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion such that the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • At least one RIS served UE holding or granted with a same beam direction as RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion may be granted with additional scheduling priority weight to make sure the at least one RIS-served UE has a highest priory in a RIS served UE queue.
  • the additional scheduling priority weight of the at least one RIS served UE may be removed.
  • a scheduling of a UE set served by the RIS in the scheduling occasion may comprise at least one UE in the UE set is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • At least one of downlink control information transmission in physical downlink control channel, physical downlink shared channel transmission for service data, or uplink feedback in physical uplink control channel or physical uplink shared channel may be scheduled in the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion.
  • a first number of slots between physical downlink shared channel scheduling and hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement feedback may be determined based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure a RIS served UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • a second number of slots between uplink downlink control channel and physical uplink shared channel scheduling may be determined based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure a RIS served UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • the radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated based on at least one of a UE priority first scheduling method, or a RIS beam direction first scheduling method.
  • a spatial multiplexing may be used for scheduling the RIS served UE and the non-RIS served UE.
  • a channel state information-reference signal may be configured as a UE specific CSI-RS for a RIS served UE.
  • FIG. 4b shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be performed by an apparatus implemented in or at or as a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) or communicatively coupled to the RIS.
  • the apparatus may provide means or modules for accomplishing various parts of the method 410 as well as means or modules for accomplishing other processes in conjunction with other components. For some parts which have been described in the above embodiments, the description thereof is omitted here for brevity.
  • the RIS may receive a dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS from the network node.
  • the RIS may receive apply the dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS.
  • a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the first UE set may be longer than a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the second UE set.
  • a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the third UE set may be longer than a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS to the fourth UE set.
  • FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be performed by an apparatus implemented in or at or as a UE or communicatively coupled to the UE.
  • the apparatus may provide means or modules for accomplishing various parts of the method 500 as well as means or modules for accomplishing other processes in conjunction with other components.
  • the description thereof is omitted here for brevity.
  • the UE may receive radio resource allocation information in a scheduling occasion from a network node.
  • the UE may transceive a signal based on the radio resource allocation information in the scheduling occasion.
  • a radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by a RIS may be scheduled in the scheduling occasion,
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • a time-division multiplexing is used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs or one or more UE sets served by the RIS and/or in a scheduling occasion, a frequency-division multiplexing may be used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs in a UE set served by the RIS.
  • only one UE or one UE set with a highest priority served by the RIS may be inserted into a scheduling queue comprising one or more non-RIS served UEs.
  • the one UE or the one UE set may be removed from the scheduling queue.
  • a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be changed such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • uplink transmission and downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be scheduled in a same scheduling occasion.
  • a priority of uplink/downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS may be changed when downlink/uplink transmission of the UE or UE set served by the RIS is decided to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion such that the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • At least one RIS served UE holding or granted with a same beam direction as RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion may be granted with additional scheduling priority weight to make sure the at least one RIS-served UE has a highest priory in a RIS served UE queue.
  • the additional scheduling priority weight of the at least one RIS served UE may be removed.
  • a scheduling of a UE set served by the RIS in the scheduling occasion may comprise at least one UE in the UE set is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • At least one of downlink control information transmission in physical downlink control channel, physical downlink shared channel transmission for service data, or uplink feedback in physical uplink control channel or physical uplink shared channel may be scheduled in the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion.
  • a first number of slots between physical downlink shared channel scheduling and hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement feedback may be determined based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure a RIS served UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • a second number of slots between uplink downlink control channel and physical uplink shared channel scheduling is determined based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure a RIS served UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • the radio resource allocation information may comprise the first number of slots and/or the second number of slots.
  • the radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated based on at least one of a UE priority first scheduling method, or a RIS beam direction first scheduling method.
  • a spatial multiplexing may be used for scheduling the RIS served UE and the non-RIS served UE.
  • a channel state information-reference signal may be configured as a UE specific CSI-RS for a RIS served UE.
  • FIG. 6 shows a scheduling example of RIS served UE and non-RIS served UE according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.
  • the RIS served UE queue comprises UE3 and UE5.
  • the non-RIS served UE queue comprises UE2, UE1, UE7, UE 4 and UE6.
  • UE3 in the RIS served UE queue is scheduled since UE3 is with the highest priority.
  • UE2 in the non RIS served UE queue is scheduled since UE2 is with the highest priority.
  • UE5 in the RIS served UE queue cannot be scheduled though UE5 has a higher priority.
  • the other UEs in the non RIS served UE queue can be scheduled, i.e., UE1 and UE 7.
  • UE5 in the RIS served UE queue is scheduled since UE5 is with the highest priority.
  • the other UEs in the non RIS served UE queue can be scheduled, i.e., UE4 and UE6.
  • resources for RIS served UE cannot be scheduled frequency division multiplexing with other resources for RIS served UE.
  • a frequency-division multiplexing may be used for scheduling at least one radio resource for one or more UEs in a UE set served by the RIS
  • Embodiments herein may provide many advantages, of which a non-exhaustive list of examples follows.
  • the proposed solution can address a particular issue of RIS assisted transmission: RIS’s frequency-flat beamforming limits its support on frequency-selective forwarding.
  • RIS may be fully utilized in (e.g. all) transmission occasions.
  • the proposed solution can facilitate transmission fairness and efficiency.
  • the proposed solution may be fully compatible with traditional scheduling methods.
  • the proposed solution can consider (e.g. all) possible cases involving (e.g. all) relevant physical channels.
  • the proposed solution can enable a practical deployment of RIS.
  • the embodiments herein are not limited to the features and advantages mentioned above. A person skilled in the art will recognize additional features and advantages upon reading the following detailed description.
  • FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an apparatus suitable for practicing some embodiments of the disclosure.
  • any one of the UE, the RIS or the network node described above may be implemented as or through the apparatus 700.
  • the apparatus 700 comprises at least one processor 721, such as a digital processor (DP) , and at least one memory (MEM) 722 coupled to the processor 721.
  • the apparatus 700 may further comprise a transmitter TX and receiver RX 723 coupled to the processor 721.
  • the MEM 722 stores a program (PROG) 724.
  • the PROG 724 may include instructions that, when executed on the associated processor 721, enable the apparatus 700 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure.
  • a combination of the at least one processor 721 and the at least one MEM 722 may form processing means 725 adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.
  • Various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by computer program executable by one or more of the processor 721, software, firmware, hardware or in a combination thereof.
  • the MEM 722 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memories and removable memories, as non-limiting examples.
  • the processor 721 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples.
  • general purpose computers special purpose computers
  • microprocessors microprocessors
  • DSPs digital signal processors
  • processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples.
  • the memory 722 contains instructions executable by the processor 721, whereby the UE operates according to any of the methods related to the UE as described above.
  • the memory 722 contains instructions executable by the processor 721, whereby the network node operates according to any of the methods related to the network node as described above.
  • the memory 722 contains instructions executable by the processor 721, whereby the RIS operates according to any of the methods related to the RIS as described above.
  • FIG. 8a is a block diagram showing a network node according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
  • the network node 800 may comprise a classifying module 801 configured to classify a user equipment (UE) served by the network node as a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) served UE or a non-RIS served UE.
  • the network node 800 may further comprise a generating module 802 configured to generate a radio resource allocation decision for a scheduling occasion such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by a RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node 800 may further comprise a first sending module 803 configured to, when the UE is to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion, send radio resource allocation information in the scheduling occasion to the UE based on the radio resource allocation decision.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node 800 may further comprise a first changing module 804 configured to change a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a first changing module 804 configured to change a priority of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node 800 may further comprise a second changing module 805 configured to change a priority of uplink/downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS when downlink/uplink transmission of the UE or UE set served by the RIS is decided to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion such that the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a second changing module 805 configured to change a priority of uplink/downlink transmission of a UE or a UE set served by the RIS when downlink/uplink transmission of the UE or UE set served by the RIS is decided to be scheduled in the scheduling occasion such that the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission of the UE or the UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node 800 may further comprise a first determining module 806 configured to determine a dwelling time for a beam direction of the RIS.
  • the network node 800 may further comprise a second sending module 807 configured to send the dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS to the RIS.
  • the network node 800 may further comprise a second determining module 808 configured to determine a first number of slots between physical downlink shared channel scheduling and hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement feedback based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure the UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • a second determining module 808 configured to determine a first number of slots between physical downlink shared channel scheduling and hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement feedback based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure the UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • the network node 800 may further comprise a third determining module 809 configured to determine a second number of slots between uplink downlink control channel and physical uplink shared channel scheduling based on the radio resource allocation decision to ensure the UE is scheduled in a correct time slot.
  • the radio resource allocation information may comprise the first number of slots and/or the second number of slots.
  • FIG. 8b is a block diagram showing a RIS according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
  • the RIS 850 may comprise a first receiving module 851 configured to receive at least one first reference signal from a network node.
  • the RIS 850 may further comprise a transceiving module 852 configured to transceive a signal in the beam direction of the RIS in the scheduling occasion.
  • a radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by the RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • the RIS 850 may further comprise a second receiving module 853 configured to receive a dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS from the network node.
  • the RIS 850 may further comprise an applying module 854 configured to apply the dwelling time for the beam direction of the RIS.
  • FIG. 8c is a block diagram showing a UE according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
  • the UE 880 may comprise a first receiving module 881 configured to receive radio resource allocation information in a scheduling occasion from a network node.
  • the UE 880 may further comprise a transceiving module 882 configured to transceive a signal based on the radio resource allocation information in the scheduling occasion.
  • a radio resource allocation decision for the scheduling occasion may be generated such that at most one UE or at most one UE set served by a RIS is scheduled in the scheduling occasion.
  • a UE set served by the RIS may comprise one or more UEs holding or granted with a same beam direction as a RIS reflection direction in the scheduling occasion.
  • the network node, the RIS or the UE may not need a fixed processor or memory, any computing resource and storage resource may be arranged from the network node, the RIS or the UE in the communication system.
  • the introduction of virtualization technology and network computing technology may improve the usage efficiency of the network resources and the flexibility of the network.
  • the exemplary overall commutation system including the terminal device (such as the UE) and the network node (such as the network node or the RIS) will be introduced as below.
  • FIG. 9 shows an example of a communication system QQ100 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the communication system QQ100 includes a telecommunication network QQ102 that includes an access network QQ104, such as a radio access network (RAN) , and a core network QQ106, which includes one or more core network nodes QQ108.
  • the access network QQ104 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes QQ110a and QQ110b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes QQ110) , or any other similar 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP access points.
  • 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
  • a network node is not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor.
  • the telecommunication network QQ102 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes.
  • ORAN Open-RAN
  • An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network QQ102 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the telecommunication network QQ102, including one or more network nodes QQ110 and/or core network nodes QQ108.
  • ORAN Open-RAN
  • Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU) , an open distributed unit (O-DU) , an open central unit (O-CU) , including an O-CU control plane (O-CU-CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP) , a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non-real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real time control application (e.g., rApp) , or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification) .
  • a near-real time control application e.g., xApp
  • rApp non-real time control application
  • the network node may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an A1, F1, W1, E1, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface.
  • an ORAN access node may be a logical node in a physical node.
  • an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized.
  • the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface defined by the O-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies.
  • the network nodes QQ110 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE) , such as by connecting UEs QQ112a, QQ112b, QQ112c, and QQ112d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs QQ112) to the core network QQ106 over one or more wireless connections.
  • UE user equipment
  • Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transceiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors.
  • the communication system QQ100 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and/or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signals whether via wired or wireless connections.
  • the communication system QQ100 may include and/or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and/or other similar type of system.
  • the UEs QQ112 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes QQ110 and other communication devices.
  • the network nodes QQ110 are arranged, capable, configured, and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs QQ112 and/or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network QQ102 to enable and/or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and/or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network QQ102.
  • the core network QQ106 connects the network nodes QQ110 to one or more hosts, such as host QQ116. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts.
  • the core network QQ106 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node QQ108) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and/or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node QQ108.
  • Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) , Mobility Management Entity (MME) , Home Subscriber Server (HSS) , Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) , Session Management Function (SMF) , Authentication Server Function (AUSF) , Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF) , Unified Data Management (UDM) , Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP) , Network Exposure Function (NEF) , and/or a User Plane Function (UPF) .
  • MSC Mobile Switching Center
  • MME Mobility Management Entity
  • HSS Home Subscriber Server
  • AMF Access and Mobility Management Function
  • SMF Session Management Function
  • AUSF Authentication Server Function
  • SIDF Subscription Identifier De-concealing function
  • UDM Unified Data Management
  • SEPP Security Edge Protection Proxy
  • NEF Network Exposure Function
  • UPF User Plane Function
  • the host QQ116 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network QQ104 and/or the telecommunication network QQ102, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider.
  • the host QQ116 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio/video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.
  • the communication system QQ100 of FIG. 9 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts.
  • the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) ; Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) ; Long Term Evolution (LTE) , and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G) ; wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi) ; and/or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) , Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and/or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.
  • GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
  • UMTS Universal
  • the telecommunication network QQ102 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network QQ102 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network QQ102. For example, the telecommunications network QQ102 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and/or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) /Massive IoT services to yet further UEs.
  • URLLC Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication
  • eMBB Enhanced Mobile Broadband
  • mMTC Massive Machine Type Communication
  • the UEs QQ112 are configured to transceive information without direct human interaction.
  • a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network QQ104 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network QQ104.
  • a UE may be configured for operating in single-or multi-RAT or multi-standard mode.
  • a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) , such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio –Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) .
  • MR-DC multi-radio dual connectivity
  • the hub QQ114 communicates with the access network QQ104 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE QQ112c and/or QQ112d) and network nodes (e.g., network node QQ110b) .
  • the hub QQ114 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs.
  • the hub QQ114 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network QQ106 for the UEs.
  • the hub QQ114 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs.
  • the hub QQ114 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data.
  • the hub QQ114 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub QQ114 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub QQ114 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and/or after adding additional local content.
  • the hub QQ114 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy IoT devices.
  • the hub QQ114 may have a constant/persistent or intermittent connection to the network node QQ110b.
  • the hub QQ114 may also allow for a different communication scheme and/or schedule between the hub QQ114 and UEs (e.g., UE QQ112c and/or QQ112d) , and between the hub QQ114 and the core network QQ106.
  • the hub QQ114 is connected to the core network QQ106 and/or one or more UEs via a wired connection.
  • the hub QQ114 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network QQ104 and/or to another UE over a direct connection.
  • UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes QQ110 while still connected via the hub QQ114 via a wired or wireless connection.
  • the hub QQ114 may be a dedicated hub –that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to/from the UEs from/to the network node QQ110b.
  • the hub QQ114 may be a non-dedicated hub –that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node QQ110b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and/or end point for certain data channels.
  • FIG. 10 shows a UE QQ200 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other UEs.
  • Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA) , wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE) , laptop-mounted equipment (LME) , smart device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE) , vehicle, vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded/integrated wireless device, etc.
  • VoIP voice over IP
  • PDA personal digital assistant
  • LME laptop-embedded equipment
  • CPE wireless customer-premise equipment
  • UEs identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) , including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.
  • 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
  • NB-IoT narrow band internet of things
  • MTC machine type communication
  • eMTC enhanced MTC
  • a UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) , vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) , vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) , or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) .
  • D2D device-to-device
  • DSRC Dedicated Short-Range Communication
  • V2V vehicle-to-vehicle
  • V2I vehicle-to-infrastructure
  • V2X vehicle-to-everything
  • a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device.
  • a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller) .
  • a UE may
  • the UE QQ200 includes processing circuitry QQ202 that is operatively coupled via a bus QQ204 to an input/output interface QQ206, a power source QQ208, a memory QQ210, a communication interface QQ212, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof.
  • Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in FIG. 10. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.
  • the processing circuitry QQ202 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory QQ210.
  • the processing circuitry QQ202 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) , application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) , etc. ) ; programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP) , together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above.
  • the processing circuitry QQ202 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs) .
  • the input/output interface QQ206 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and/or output devices.
  • Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof.
  • An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE QQ200.
  • Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.
  • the presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user.
  • a sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof.
  • An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.
  • USB Universal Serial Bus
  • the power source QQ208 is structured as a battery or battery pack.
  • Other types of power sources such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet) , photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used.
  • the power source QQ208 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source QQ208 itself, and/or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE QQ200 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source QQ208.
  • Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source QQ208 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE QQ200 to which power is supplied.
  • the memory QQ210 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM) , read-only memory (ROM) , programmable read-only memory (PROM) , erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) , electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) , magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth.
  • the memory QQ210 includes one or more application programs QQ214, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data QQ216.
  • the memory QQ210 may store, for use by the UE QQ200, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.
  • the memory QQ210 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID) , flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM) , synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) , external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs) , such as a USIM and/or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof.
  • RAID redundant array of independent disks
  • HD-DVD high-density digital versatile disc
  • HDDS holographic digital data storage
  • DIMM external mini-dual in-line memory module
  • SDRAM synchronous dynamic random access memory
  • the UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC) , integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card. ’
  • the memory QQ210 may allow the UE QQ200 to access instructions, application programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data.
  • An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory QQ210, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.
  • the processing circuitry QQ202 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface QQ212.
  • the communication interface QQ212 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna QQ222.
  • the communication interface QQ212 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network) .
  • Each transceiver may include a transmitter QQ218 and/or a receiver QQ220 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth) .
  • the transmitter QQ218 and receiver QQ220 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna QQ222) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.
  • communication functions of the communication interface QQ212 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof.
  • GPS global positioning system
  • Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and/or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR) , UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) , synchronous optical networking (SONET) , Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) , QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) , and so forth.
  • CDMA Code Division Multiplexing Access
  • WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
  • WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
  • GSM Global System for Mobile communications
  • LTE Long Term Evolution
  • NR New Radio
  • UMTS Universal Mobile communications
  • WiMax Ethernet
  • TCP/IP transmission control protocol/internet protocol
  • SONET synchronous optical networking
  • ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode
  • QUIC Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  • HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  • a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface QQ212, via a wireless connection to a network node.
  • Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE.
  • the output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature) , random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors) , in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent) , in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request) , or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient) .
  • a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection.
  • the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change.
  • the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.
  • a UE when in the form of an Internet of Things (IoT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare.
  • IoT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door/window sensor, a flood/moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head-mounted display for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) , a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal-or
  • AR Augmented
  • a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another UE and/or a network node.
  • the UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device.
  • the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard.
  • a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.
  • any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case.
  • a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone.
  • the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed.
  • the first and/or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above.
  • a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.
  • FIG. 11 shows a network node QQ300 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and/or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network.
  • network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points) , base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs) ) , O-RAN nodes or components of an O-RAN node (e.g., O-RU, O-DU, O-CU) .
  • APs access points
  • BSs base stations
  • eNBs evolved Node Bs
  • gNBs NR NodeBs
  • Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations.
  • a base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay.
  • a network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units, distributed units (e.g., in an O-RAN access node) and/or remote radio units (RRUs) , sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) .
  • RRUs remote radio units
  • Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio.
  • Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS) .
  • DAS distributed antenna system
  • network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs) , base transceiver stations (BTSs) , transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities (MCEs) , Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs) ) , and/or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs) .
  • MSR multi-standard radio
  • RNCs radio network controllers
  • BSCs base station controllers
  • BTSs base transceiver stations
  • OFDM Operation and Maintenance
  • OSS Operations Support System
  • SON Self-Organizing Network
  • positioning nodes e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location
  • the network node QQ300 includes a processing circuitry QQ302, a memory QQ304, a communication interface QQ306, and a power source QQ308.
  • the network node QQ300 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc. ) , which may each have their own respective components.
  • the network node QQ300 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components)
  • one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs.
  • each unique NodeB and RNC pair may in some instances be considered a single separate network node.
  • the network node QQ300 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs) .
  • some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory QQ304 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna QQ310 may be shared by different RATs) .
  • the network node QQ300 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node QQ300, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node QQ300.
  • RFID Radio Frequency Identification
  • the processing circuitry QQ302 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node QQ300 components, such as the memory QQ304, to provide network node QQ300 functionality.
  • the processing circuitry QQ302 includes a system on a chip (SOC) .
  • the processing circuitry QQ302 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry QQ312 and baseband processing circuitry QQ314.
  • the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry QQ312 and the baseband processing circuitry QQ314 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips) , boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units.
  • part or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ312 and baseband processing circuitry QQ314 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.
  • the memory QQ304 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM) , read-only memory (ROM) , mass storage media (for example, a hard disk) , removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD) ) , and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and/or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry QQ302.
  • volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM) , read-only memory (ROM) , mass storage media (for example, a hard disk) , removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a
  • the memory QQ304 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and/or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry QQ302 and utilized by the network node QQ300.
  • the memory QQ304 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry QQ302 and/or any data received via the communication interface QQ306.
  • the processing circuitry QQ302 and memory QQ304 is integrated.
  • the communication interface QQ306 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and/or data between a network node, access network, and/or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface QQ306 comprises port (s) /terminal (s) QQ316 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection.
  • the communication interface QQ306 also includes radio front-end circuitry QQ318 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna QQ310. Radio front-end circuitry QQ318 comprises filters QQ320 and amplifiers QQ322. The radio front-end circuitry QQ318 may be connected to an antenna QQ310 and processing circuitry QQ302.
  • the radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna QQ310 and processing circuitry QQ302.
  • the radio front-end circuitry QQ318 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection.
  • the radio front-end circuitry QQ318 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters QQ320 and/or amplifiers QQ322.
  • the radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna QQ310.
  • the antenna QQ310 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry QQ318.
  • the digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry QQ302.
  • the communication interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.
  • the network node QQ300 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry QQ318, instead, the processing circuitry QQ302 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna QQ310. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry QQ312 is part of the communication interface QQ306. In still other embodiments, the communication interface QQ306 includes one or more ports or terminals QQ316, the radio front-end circuitry QQ318, and the RF transceiver circuitry QQ312, as part of a radio unit (not shown) , and the communication interface QQ306 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry QQ314, which is part of a digital unit (not shown) .
  • the antenna QQ310 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals.
  • the antenna QQ310 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry QQ318 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly.
  • the antenna QQ310 is separate from the network node QQ300 and connectable to the network node QQ300 through an interface or port.
  • the antenna QQ310, communication interface QQ306, and/or the processing circuitry QQ302 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna QQ310, the communication interface QQ306, and/or the processing circuitry QQ302 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and/or any other network equipment.
  • the power source QQ308 provides power to the various components of network node QQ300 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component) .
  • the power source QQ308 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node QQ300 with power for performing the functionality described herein.
  • the network node QQ300 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source QQ308.
  • the power source QQ308 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.
  • Embodiments of the network node QQ300 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIG. 11 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and/or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein.
  • the network node QQ300 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node QQ300 and to allow output of information from the network node QQ300. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node QQ300.
  • FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a host QQ400, which may be an embodiment of the host QQ116 of FIG. 9, in accordance with various aspects described herein.
  • the host QQ400 may be or comprise various combinations hardware and/or software, including a standalone server, a blade server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, a virtual machine, container, or processing resources in a server farm.
  • the host QQ400 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.
  • the host QQ400 includes processing circuitry QQ402 that is operatively coupled via a bus QQ404 to an input/output interface QQ406, a network interface QQ408, a power source QQ410, and a memory QQ412.
  • processing circuitry QQ402 that is operatively coupled via a bus QQ404 to an input/output interface QQ406, a network interface QQ408, a power source QQ410, and a memory QQ412.
  • Other components may be included in other embodiments. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the terminal devices, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of host QQ400.
  • the memory QQ412 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs QQ414 and data QQ416, which may include user data, e.g., data generated by a UE for the host QQ400 or data generated by the host QQ400 for a UE.
  • Embodiments of the host QQ400 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown.
  • the host application programs QQ414 may be implemented in a container-based architecture and may provide support for video codecs (e.g., Versatile Video Coding (VVC) , High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) , Advanced Video Coding (AVC) , MPEG, VP9) and audio codecs (e.g., FLAC, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) , MPEG, G. 711) , including transcoding for multiple different classes, types, or implementations of UEs (e.g., handsets, desktop computers, wearable display systems, heads-up display systems) .
  • VVC Versatile Video Coding
  • HEVC High Efficiency Video Coding
  • AVC Advanced Video Coding
  • MPEG MPEG
  • VP9 Video Coding
  • audio codecs e.g., FLAC, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) , MPEG, G. 711
  • UEs e.g., handsets, desktop computers, wearable display systems, heads-up display systems
  • the host application programs QQ414 may also provide for user authentication and licensing checks and may periodically report health, routes, and content availability to a central node, such as a device in or on the edge of a core network. Accordingly, the host QQ400 may select and/or indicate a different host for over-the-top services for a UE.
  • the host application programs QQ414 may support various protocols, such as the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) , Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) , Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH) , etc.
  • FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment QQ500 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized.
  • virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources.
  • virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components.
  • Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments QQ500 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host.
  • VMs virtual machines
  • the virtualization environment QQ500 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloud environment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface.
  • Applications QQ502 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc. ) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.
  • Hardware QQ504 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and/or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and/or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input/output interface, and so forth.
  • Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers QQ506 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs) ) , provide VMs QQ508A and QQ508B (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs QQ508) , and/or perform any of the functions, features and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein.
  • the virtualization layer QQ506 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs QQ508.
  • the VMs QQ508 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer QQ506.
  • Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance QQ502 may be implemented on one or more of VMs QQ508, and the implementations may be made in different ways.
  • Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV) .
  • NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.
  • a VM QQ508 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine.
  • Each of the VMs QQ508, and that part of hardware QQ504 that executes that VM be it hardware dedicated to that VM and/or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements.
  • a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs QQ508 on top of the hardware QQ504 and corresponds to the application QQ502.
  • Hardware QQ504 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware QQ504 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware QQ504 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration QQ510, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications QQ502. In some embodiments, hardware QQ504 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas.
  • Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station.
  • some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system QQ512 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.
  • FIG. 14 shows a communication diagram of a host QQ602 communicating via a network node QQ604 with a UE QQ606 over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments.
  • Example implementations, in accordance with various embodiments, of the UE (such as a UE QQ112a of FIG. 9) , network node (such as network node QQ110a of FIG. 9) , and host (such as host QQ116 of FIG. 9 and/or host QQ400 of FIG. 12) discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to FIG. 14.
  • host QQ602 Like host QQ400, embodiments of host QQ602 include hardware, such as a communication interface, processing circuitry, and memory.
  • the host QQ602 also includes software, which is stored in or accessible by the host QQ602 and executable by the processing circuitry.
  • the software includes a host application that may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as the UE QQ606 connecting via an over-the-top (OTT) connection QQ650 extending between the UE QQ606 and host QQ602.
  • OTT over-the-top
  • a host application may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection QQ650.
  • the network node QQ604 includes hardware enabling it to communicate with the host QQ602 and UE QQ606.
  • the connection QQ660 may be direct or pass through a core network (like core network QQ106 of FIG. 9) and/or one or more other intermediate networks, such as one or more public, private, or hosted networks.
  • an intermediate network may be a backbone network or the Internet.
  • the UE QQ606 includes hardware and software, which is stored in or accessible by UE QQ606 and executable by the UE’s processing circuitry.
  • the software includes a client application, such as a web browser or operator-specific “app” that may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE QQ606 with the support of the host QQ602.
  • a client application such as a web browser or operator-specific “app” that may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE QQ606 with the support of the host QQ602.
  • an executing host application may communicate with the executing client application via the OTT connection QQ650 terminating at the UE QQ606 and host QQ602.
  • the UE's client application may receive request data from the host's host application and provide user data in response to the request data.
  • the OTT connection QQ650 may transfer both the request data and the user data.
  • the UE's client application may interact with
  • the OTT connection QQ650 may extend via a connection QQ660 between the host QQ602 and the network node QQ604 and via a wireless connection QQ670 between the network node QQ604 and the UE QQ606 to provide the connection between the host QQ602 and the UE QQ606.
  • the connection QQ660 and wireless connection QQ670, over which the OTT connection QQ650 may be provided, have been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host QQ602 and the UE QQ606 via the network node QQ604, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices.
  • the host QQ602 provides user data, which may be performed by executing a host application.
  • the user data is associated with a particular human user interacting with the UE QQ606.
  • the user data is associated with a UE QQ606 that shares data with the host QQ602 without explicit human interaction.
  • the host QQ602 initiates a transmission carrying the user data towards the UE QQ606.
  • the host QQ602 may initiate the transmission responsive to a request transmitted by the UE QQ606.
  • the request may be caused by human interaction with the UE QQ606 or by operation of the client application executing on the UE QQ606.
  • the transmission may pass via the network node QQ604, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. Accordingly, in step QQ612, the network node QQ604 transmits to the UE QQ606 the user data that was carried in the transmission that the host QQ602 initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step QQ614, the UE QQ606 receives the user data carried in the transmission, which may be performed by a client application executed on the UE QQ606 associated with the host application executed by the host QQ602.
  • the UE QQ606 executes a client application which provides user data to the host QQ602.
  • the user data may be provided in reaction or response to the data received from the host QQ602.
  • the UE QQ606 may provide user data, which may be performed by executing the client application.
  • the client application may further consider user input received from the user via an input/output interface of the UE QQ606. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE QQ606 initiates, in step QQ618, transmission of the user data towards the host QQ602 via the network node QQ604.
  • step QQ620 in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the network node QQ604 receives user data from the UE QQ606 and initiates transmission of the received user data towards the host QQ602. In step QQ622, the host QQ602 receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the UE QQ606.
  • the proposed solution can address a particular issue of RIS assisted transmission: RIS’s frequency-flat beamforming limits its support on frequency-selective forwarding.
  • RIS may be fully utilized in (e.g. all) transmission occasions.
  • the proposed solution can facilitate transmission fairness and efficiency.
  • the proposed solution may be fully compatible with traditional scheduling methods.
  • the proposed solution can consider (e.g. all) possible cases involving (e.g. all) relevant physical channels.
  • the proposed solution can enable a practical deployment of RIS.
  • factory status information may be collected and analyzed by the host QQ602.
  • the host QQ602 may process audio and video data which may have been retrieved from a UE for use in creating maps.
  • the host QQ602 may collect and analyze real-time data to assist in controlling vehicle congestion (e.g., controlling traffic lights) .
  • the host QQ602 may store surveillance video uploaded by a UE.
  • the host QQ602 may store or control access to media content such as video, audio, VR or AR which it can broadcast, multicast or unicast to UEs.
  • the host QQ602 may be used for energy pricing, remote control of non-time critical electrical load to balance power generation needs, location services, presentation services (such as compiling diagrams etc. from data collected from remote devices) , or any other function of collecting, retrieving, storing, analyzing and/or transmitting data.
  • a measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve.
  • the measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection may be implemented in software and hardware of the host QQ602 and/or UE QQ606.
  • sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with other devices through which the OTT connection QQ650 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software may compute or estimate the monitored quantities.
  • the reconfiguring of the OTT connection QQ650 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not directly alter the operation of the network node QQ604. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art.
  • measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling that facilitates measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like, by the host QQ602.
  • the measurements may be implemented in that software causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection QQ650 while monitoring propagation times, errors, etc.
  • computing devices described herein may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
  • processing circuitry may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
  • computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components.
  • a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and/or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface.
  • non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.
  • processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.
  • some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner.
  • the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and/or by end users and a wireless network generally.
  • Embodiment 1 A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising:
  • processing circuitry configured to provide user data
  • a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data to a network node in a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE) , the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations related to the network node as described above to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.
  • UE user equipment
  • Embodiment 2 The host of the previous embodiment, wherein:
  • the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application that provides the user data
  • the UE comprises processing circuitry configured to execute a client application associated with the host application to receive the transmission of user data from the host.
  • Embodiment 3 A method implemented in a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE) , the method comprising:
  • the network node performs the operations related to the network node as described above to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.
  • Embodiment 4 The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising, at the network node, transmitting the user data provided by the host for the UE.
  • Embodiment 5 The method of any of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein the user data is provided at the host by executing a host application that interacts with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.
  • a communication system configured to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the communication system comprising:
  • a host comprising:
  • processing circuitry configured to provide user data for a user equipment (UE) , the user data being associated with the over-the-top service;
  • a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data toward a cellular network node for transmission to the UE, the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations related to the network node as described above to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.
  • Embodiment 7 The communication system of the previous embodiment, further comprising:
  • Embodiment 8 The communication system of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein:
  • the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data
  • the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.
  • Embodiment 9 A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising:
  • processing circuitry configured to initiate receipt of user data
  • a network interface configured to receive the user data from a network node in a cellular network, the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations related to the network node as described above to receive the user data from the UE for the host.
  • Embodiment 10 The host of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein:
  • the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data
  • the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.
  • Embodiment 11 The host of they of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein the initiating receipt of the user data comprises requesting the user data.
  • Embodiment 12 A method implemented by a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE) , the method comprising:
  • the host initiating receipt of user data from the UE, the user data originating from a transmission which the network node has received from the UE, wherein the network node performs the operations related to the network node as described above to receive the user data from the UE for the host.
  • Embodiment 13 The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising at the network node, transmitting the received user data to the host.
  • Embodiment 14 A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising:
  • Embodiment 15 The host of the previous embodiment, wherein the cellular network further includes a network node configured to communicate with the UE to transmit the user data to the UE from the host.
  • Embodiment 16 The host of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein:
  • the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data
  • the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.
  • Embodiment 17 A method implemented by a host operating in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE) , the method comprising:
  • the UE initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the network node, wherein the UE performs any of the operations related to the UE as described above to receive the user data from the host.
  • Embodiment 18 The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising:
  • a host application associated with a client application executing on the UE to receive the user data from the UE.
  • Embodiment 19 The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising:
  • the user data is provided by the client application in response to the input data from the host application.
  • Embodiment 20 A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising:
  • processing circuitry configured to utilize user data
  • a network interface configured to receipt of transmission of the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE) ,
  • UE user equipment
  • the UE comprises a communication interface and processing circuitry, the communication interface and processing circuitry of the UE being configured to perform any of the operations related to the UE as described above to transmit the user data to the host.
  • Embodiment 21 The host of the previous embodiment, wherein the cellular network further includes a network node configured to communicate with the UE to transmit the user data from the UE to the host.
  • Embodiment 22 The host of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein:
  • the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data
  • the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.
  • Embodiment 23 A method implemented by a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE) , the method comprising:
  • the host receiving user data transmitted to the host via the network node by the UE, wherein the UE performs any of the operations related to the UE as described above to transmit the user data to the host.
  • Embodiment 24 The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising:
  • a host application associated with a client application executing on the UE to receive the user data from the UE.
  • Embodiment 25 The method of the previous embodiments, further comprising:
  • the user data is provided by the client application in response to the input data from the host application.
  • unit or module may have conventional meaning in the field of electronics, electrical devices and/or electronic devices and may include, for example, electrical and/or electronic circuitry, devices, modules, processors, memories, logic solid state and/or discrete devices, computer programs or instructions for carrying out respective tasks, procedures, computations, outputs, and/or displaying functions, and so on, as such as those that are described herein.
  • a computer program product being tangibly stored on a computer readable storage medium and including instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out any of the methods as described above.
  • a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out any of the methods as described above.
  • the present disclosure may also provide a carrier containing the computer program as mentioned above, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or computer readable storage medium.
  • the computer readable storage medium can be, for example, an optical compact disk or an electronic memory device like a RAM (random access memory) , a ROM (read only memory) , Flash memory, magnetic tape, CD-ROM, DVD, Blue-ray disc and the like.
  • an apparatus implementing one or more functions of a corresponding apparatus described with an embodiment comprises not only prior art means, but also means for implementing the one or more functions of the corresponding apparatus described with the embodiment and it may comprise separate means for each separate function, or means that may be configured to perform two or more functions.
  • these techniques may be implemented in hardware (one or more apparatuses) , firmware (one or more apparatuses) , software (one or more modules) , or combinations thereof.
  • firmware or software implementation may be made through modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
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Abstract

Des modes de réalisation de la présente divulgation concernent un procédé et un appareil de planification de ressources pour un UE desservi par RIS. Un procédé mis en œuvre par un nœud de réseau peut comprendre la classification d'un UE desservi par le nœud de réseau en tant qu'UE desservi par RIS ou UE non desservi par RIS. Le procédé peut en outre consister à générer une décision d'attribution de ressources radio pour une occasion de planification de telle sorte qu'au plus un UE ou au plus un ensemble d'UE desservi par RIS est planifié dans l'occasion de planification. Le procédé peut en outre consister, lorsque l'UE est destiné à être programmé dans l'occasion de planification, à envoyer des informations d'attribution de ressources radio dans l'occasion de planification à l'UE sur la base de la décision d'attribution de ressources radio. Un ensemble d'UE desservi par RIS peut comprendre un ou plusieurs UE ayant ou ayant reçu une direction de faisceau identique à une direction de réflexion de RIS dans l'occasion de planification.
PCT/CN2023/088374 2023-04-14 2023-04-14 Procédé et appareil de planification de ressources pour ue desservi par ris Pending WO2024212215A1 (fr)

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Citations (5)

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Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN114080036A (zh) * 2020-08-19 2022-02-22 华为技术有限公司 资源分配方法及装置
US20220377730A1 (en) * 2021-05-24 2022-11-24 Qualcomm Incorporated Configuration and utilization of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces for sidelink communication
US11540089B1 (en) * 2021-09-23 2022-12-27 Qualcomm Incorporated Reconfigurable intelligent surface enabled sidelink positioning
US20230057620A1 (en) * 2021-08-23 2023-02-23 Qualcomm Incorporated Reconfigurable intelligent surface assisted sidelink ranging
WO2023055704A1 (fr) * 2021-09-29 2023-04-06 Interdigital Patent Holdings, Inc. Procédé et appareil de séparation de canaux permettant une transmission sur la base d'une surface réfléchissante intelligente (irs)

Patent Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN114080036A (zh) * 2020-08-19 2022-02-22 华为技术有限公司 资源分配方法及装置
US20220377730A1 (en) * 2021-05-24 2022-11-24 Qualcomm Incorporated Configuration and utilization of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces for sidelink communication
US20230057620A1 (en) * 2021-08-23 2023-02-23 Qualcomm Incorporated Reconfigurable intelligent surface assisted sidelink ranging
US11540089B1 (en) * 2021-09-23 2022-12-27 Qualcomm Incorporated Reconfigurable intelligent surface enabled sidelink positioning
WO2023055704A1 (fr) * 2021-09-29 2023-04-06 Interdigital Patent Holdings, Inc. Procédé et appareil de séparation de canaux permettant une transmission sur la base d'une surface réfléchissante intelligente (irs)

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