CN111656822B

CN111656822B - Method, apparatus and system for transmitting wake-up signal in wireless communication

Info

Publication number: CN111656822B
Application number: CN201880087657.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 杨维维; 戴博; 方惠英; 刘锟; 陈宪明
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2018-02-13
Filing date: 2018-02-13
Publication date: 2022-05-13
Anticipated expiration: 2038-02-13
Also published as: WO2019157616A1; CN111656822A

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses, and systems for transmitting a wake-up signal in wireless communications are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method performed by a wireless communication node is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: transmitting a first signal to a plurality of wireless communication devices, wherein the first signal indicates whether to transmit a plurality of downlink control signals associated with the first signal; and determining at least one second signal based on the first signal, wherein each second signal indicates whether to transmit a single downlink control signal associated with the second signal.

Description

Method, apparatus and system for transmitting wake-up signal in wireless communication

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly, to methods, apparatuses, and systems for transmitting a wake-up signal in wireless communications.

Background

Machine Type Communication (MTC), also known as Machine to Machine (M2M) communication, is a major application form of the internet of things. Currently, MTC devices deployed in the market are mainly based on Global System for Mobile communications (GSM). In recent years, due to the high spectral efficiency of LTE (long term evolution)/LTE-a (LTE-advanced), more and more mobile operators have chosen LTE/LTE-a as the evolution direction of future broadband wireless communication systems. MTC multi-type data services based on LTE/LTE-a would also be more attractive. Several technologies applicable to cellular Internet Of things (Comb-Internet Of things, C-IOT) have been disclosed, with narrowband Internet Of things (NB-IOT) technology being the most attractive. The NB-IOT system focuses on low complexity and low throughput radio access technologies. The main research directions include: improved indoor coverage, large-scale low-throughput user equipment support, low delay sensitivity, ultra-low equipment cost, low equipment power consumption, and network architecture.

A network or Base Station (BS), e.g., eNB, may transmit pages to terminals (user equipments, UEs) that are idle and connected. The paging procedure may be triggered by the core network to inform a certain UE of receiving a paging request, and may also be triggered by the eNB to inform of system information updates. In the existing NB-IoT/MTC system, the procedure for acquiring the paging message by the terminal is as follows: the terminal detects a corresponding Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) at a Paging Occasion (PO) to determine whether a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) indicated by the PDCCH carries a paging message or an indication of a change of a system message corresponding to the terminal. If the terminal does not detect the corresponding PDCCH at a PO, it indicates that there is no paging message corresponding to the terminal at this PO. The terminal will not detect again until the next PO. The terminal attempts to decode the PDCCH according to all downlink control information formats. If it cannot decode the PDCCH, the terminal continues to try the next subframe until the PDCCH is decoded. This consumes unnecessary power of the terminal.

Thus, existing systems and methods for performing paging procedures in wireless communications are not entirely satisfactory.

Disclosure of Invention

Example embodiments disclosed herein are directed to solving problems associated with one or more of the problems presented in the prior art, and providing additional features that will become apparent when reference is made to the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In accordance with various embodiments, exemplary systems, methods, devices, and computer program products are disclosed herein. It is to be understood, however, that these embodiments are presented by way of example, and not limitation, and that various modifications to the disclosed embodiments may be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading this disclosure, while remaining within the scope of the present disclosure.

In one embodiment, a method performed by a wireless communication node is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: transmitting a first signal to a plurality of wireless communication devices, wherein the first signal indicates whether to transmit a plurality of downlink control signals associated with the first signal; and determining at least one second signal based on the first signal, wherein each second signal indicates whether to transmit a single downlink control signal associated with the second signal.

In another embodiment, a method performed by a wireless communication node is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: transmitting a third signal to the plurality of wireless communication devices, wherein the third signal indicates whether the at least one downlink control signal is associated with the third signal, wherein the presence of the third signal is monitored by at least one of the plurality of wireless communication devices; and notifying the plurality of wireless communication devices of validity information through higher layer signaling, wherein the validity information is at least one of: the back-off position information and the transmission power of the third signal.

In a further embodiment, a method performed by a wireless communication device is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: receiving a first signal from a wireless communication node; determining, based on the first signal, whether to detect at least one downlink control signal associated with the first signal and corresponding to the wireless communication device; and determining whether to detect at least one second signal based on the first signal, wherein each second signal indicates whether to detect a single downlink control signal associated with the second signal and corresponding to the wireless communication device.

In various embodiments, a method performed by a wireless communication device is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: receiving validity information from the wireless communication node, wherein the validity information is received via higher layer signaling and includes information related to a fallback position; detecting a downlink control signal associated with a fallback position; a third signal is received from the wireless communication node outside of the fallback position, wherein the third signal is used to indicate whether to detect at least one downlink control signal corresponding to the wireless communication device.

In yet another embodiment, a method performed by a wireless communication device is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: receiving, via higher layer signaling, validity information from the wireless communication node, wherein the validity information comprises information related to a transmit power of the third signal; and determining whether to detect a third signal based on the validity information, wherein the third signal is used to indicate whether to detect at least one downlink control signal corresponding to the wireless communication device.

In yet another embodiment, a method performed by a wireless communication device is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: receiving a fourth signal from the wireless communication node; and determining whether to detect a third signal based on the fourth signal, wherein the third signal is used for indicating whether to detect at least one downlink control signal corresponding to the wireless communication device.

In various embodiments, a wireless communication node configured to carry out the disclosed methods in some embodiments is disclosed.

In yet another embodiment, a wireless communication device configured to carry out the disclosed methods in some embodiments is disclosed.

In yet another embodiment, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing the disclosed methods in some embodiments is disclosed.

Drawings

Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawings are provided for purposes of illustration only and merely depict exemplary embodiments of the disclosure to facilitate the reader's understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, the drawings are not to be considered limiting of the breadth, scope, or applicability of the present disclosure. It should be noted that for clarity and ease of illustration, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.

Fig. 1 illustrates an exemplary communication network in which techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a Base Station (BS) in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of a method performed by a base station for transmitting a wake-up signal in wireless communication, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a User Equipment (UE) in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a method performed by a UE for detecting a wake-up signal in wireless communication, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example method for transmitting two types of wake-up signals to a UE in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example method for transmitting a type of wake-up signal to a UE in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 illustrates an exemplary method for receiving two types of wake-up signals according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 illustrates an example method for transmitting three types of wake-up signals to a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Various exemplary embodiments of the disclosure are described below with reference to the drawings to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the disclosure. As will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading this disclosure, various changes or modifications can be made to the examples described herein without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, the present disclosure is not limited to the exemplary embodiments and applications described and illustrated herein. Additionally, the particular order and/or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed herein is merely exemplary of the methods. Based upon design preferences, the particular order or hierarchy of steps in the methods or processes disclosed may be rearranged while remaining within the scope of the present disclosure. Thus, one of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the methods and techniques disclosed herein present the various steps or actions in a sample order, and the disclosure is not limited to the particular order or hierarchy presented unless specifically indicated otherwise.

A typical wireless communication network includes one or more base stations (often referred to as "BSs"), each providing geographic radio coverage, and one or more wireless user equipment (often referred to as "UEs") that can transmit and receive data within the radio coverage. To reduce the number of times a terminal blindly detects a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) signal during paging, and to save power consumption of the terminal, the present disclosure provides a method for transmitting at least one wake-up signal (WUS) that may indicate whether a PDCCH signal associated with the wake-up signal is to be transmitted. For example, before each Paging Occasion (PO) or PDCCH, the BS transmits a signal, e.g., WUS, indicating detection of the PDCCH. The terminal first detects the WUS and determines whether to detect the PDCCH according to the detection result. When detecting that the WUS has an awake state, the terminal detects a PDCCH corresponding to the WUS; otherwise, the terminal does not detect the PDCCH. The introduction of the WUS signal reduces the number of times the PDCCH is detected by the terminal, thereby saving the power consumption of the terminal. The method is applicable to any wireless communication procedure in which a paging signal or another signal is monitored by a terminal and/or needs to be detected by the terminal.

The methods disclosed in the present teachings may be implemented in a wireless communication network in which a BS and a UE may communicate with each other via communication, e.g., via a downlink radio frame from the BS to the UE or via an uplink radio frame from the UE to the BS. In various embodiments, a BS in the present disclosure may be referred to as a network side and may include or be implemented as a next generation node b (gnb), an E-UTRAN node b (ebn), a transmission/reception point (TRP), an Access Point (AP), etc.; and a UE in the present disclosure may be referred to as a terminal and may include or be implemented as a Mobile Station (MS), a Station (STA), and the like. In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, a BS and a UE may be described herein as non-limiting examples of "wireless communication nodes" and "wireless communication devices", respectively, that may practice the methods disclosed herein and are capable of wireless and/or wired communication.

Fig. 1 illustrates an exemplary communication network 100 in which techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, according to an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in fig. 1, the exemplary communication network 100 includes a Base Station (BS)101 and a plurality of UEs, UE 1110, UE 2120 …, UE 3130, wherein the BS 101 may communicate with the UEs according to a wireless protocol. These UEs have been selected into the cellular network of the BS 101 based on a cell selection procedure. When the BS 101 has data or any information to transmit to any UE, the BS 101 may start the paging procedure. The paging procedure may be triggered by the BS 101 to inform the UE of receiving a paging request, or by the BS 101 to inform the

UE

110, 120, 130 of a system information update. The paging message is scheduled by PDCCH information scrambled by a paging Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) and transmitted in the PDSCH. Since the PDCCH is relatively long, blind detection of the PDCCH signal by the terminal during the paging procedure may consume a large amount of unnecessary power. Thus, BS 101 may broadcast a wake-up signal to

UEs

110, 120, 130 to indicate detection of PDCCH. Each UE first detects a wake-up signal and then determines whether to detect the PDCCH according to the detection result. The wake-up signal may correspond to two states: awake state and sleep state. In this case, the UE will only detect the PDCCH when detecting the wake-up signal and having the wake-up state. As will be discussed in detail later, according to various embodiments, there are different types of wake-up signals depending on the relationship between the wake-up signal and its corresponding one or more PDCCH signals.

Fig. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a Base Station (BS)200 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. BS 200 is an example of a device that may be configured to implement the various methods described herein. As shown in fig. 2, BS 200 includes a housing 240, which housing 240 contains a system clock 202, a processor 204, a memory 206, a transceiver 210 including a transmitter 212 and a receiver 214, a power module 208, a first signal configurator 220, a second signal configurator 222, a validity information generator 224, and a downlink control signal generator 226.

In the present embodiment, system clock 202 provides timing signals to processor 204 for controlling the timing of all operations of BS 200. Processor 204 controls the general operation of BS 200 and may include one or more processing circuits or modules, such as any combination of Central Processing Units (CPUs) and/or general purpose microprocessors, microcontrollers, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), controllers, state machines, gating logic, discrete hardware components, dedicated hardware finite state machines, or any other suitable circuits, devices, and/or structures that can perform calculations or other manipulations of data.

Memory 206, which may include Read Only Memory (ROM) and Random Access Memory (RAM), may provide instructions and data to processor 204. A portion of the memory 206 may also include non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM). The processor 204 typically performs logical and arithmetic operations based on program instructions stored in the memory 206. Instructions stored in the memory 206 (also referred to as software) may be executed by the processor 204 to perform the methods described herein. The processor 204 and the memory 206 together form a processing system that stores and executes software. As used herein, "software" refers to any type of instructions, whether software, firmware, middleware, microcode, etc., that can configure a machine or device to perform one or more desired functions or processes. The instructions may include code (e.g., in source code format, binary code format, executable code format, or any other suitable code format). When executed by one or more processors, the instructions cause the processing system to perform the various functions described herein.

Transceiver 210, which includes transmitter 212 and receiver 214, allows BS 200 to transmit and receive data to and from a remote device (e.g., a BS or another UE). An antenna 250 is typically attached to the housing 240 and electrically coupled to the transceiver 210. In various embodiments, BS 200 includes (not shown) multiple transmitters, multiple receivers, and multiple transceivers. In one embodiment, the antenna 250 is replaced by a multi-antenna array 250, the multi-antenna array 250 may form a plurality of beams, each of the beams pointing in a different direction. The transmitter 212 may be configured to wirelessly transmit packets having different packet types or functionalities, such packets being generated by the processor 204. Similarly, the receiver 214 is configured to receive packets having different packet types or functionalities, and the processor 204 is configured to process packets having a plurality of different packet types. For example, the processor 204 may be configured to determine the type of packet and process the packet and/or fields of the packet accordingly.

In wireless communication, BS 200 may initiate a paging procedure by transmitting a wake-up signal to a terminal or UE to indicate that one or more downlink control signals (e.g., PDCCH signals) associated with the wake-up signal are transmitted to the UE. For example, the first signal configurator 220 may generate and configure a first signal as a wake-up signal to indicate whether to transmit a plurality of downlink control signals, e.g., PDCCH signals, associated with the first signal. The first signal configurator 220 may transmit a first signal to the plurality of UEs via the transmitter 212. The first signal configurator 220 may inform the plurality of UEs of the location information of the first signal through higher layer signaling. Then, the first signal configurator 220 may periodically transmit the first signal to the plurality of UEs based on the location information including the transmission period of the first signal. The presence of the first signal may be monitored by at least one of the plurality of UEs.

In one embodiment, the first signal configurator 220 may determine a first number of the plurality of downlink control signals associated with the first signal and notify the plurality of UEs of the first number via higher layer signaling. The first signal configurator 220 may also determine a second number of downlink control signals to be transmitted within the transmission period of the first signal. The first signal configurator 220 sends both the first number and the second number to the second signal configurator 222 for determining whether to transmit the second wake-up signal.

In another embodiment, the first signal configurator 220 may determine the enabled period of the first signal and inform the plurality of UEs of the enabled period of the first signal via higher layer signaling. The first signal may indicate transmission of any downlink control signal during the enable period. The first signal configurator 220 sends both the enable period and the transmission period of the first signal to the second signal configurator 222 for determining whether to transmit the second wake-up signal.

In yet another embodiment, the first signal configurator 220 may configure the first signal as a synchronization signal such that the first signal is used for synchronization of a plurality of UEs. Since the first signal is transmitted periodically, it can be used as both an indicator and a synchronization signal. The first signal or any wake-up signal is shorter than the downlink control signal, since the indicator need not carry as much information as the downlink control signal (e.g. PDCCH signal). Thus, the UE may first detect a shorter signal to determine if a longer signal needs to be detected, as compared to directly detecting a longer signal, thereby saving power consumption.

The second signal configurator 222 in this example may determine the at least one second signal based on the first signal. Each second signal is a wake-up signal that indicates whether a single downlink control signal associated with the second signal is transmitted. The presence of each second signal may also be monitored by at least one of the plurality of UEs.

Because the second signal also serves as an indicator, it need not carry as much information as its associated downstream control signal, which is shorter than its associated downstream control signal. Thus, the UE may first detect a shorter signal to determine whether a long signal needs to be detected, as compared to directly detecting a longer signal, thereby saving power consumption.

In addition, BS 200 may modify the ratio between the first signal and the second signal to further control and balance the power consumption of the UE due to the detection of the downlink control signal and the resource consumption of BS 200 to transmit the wake-up signal. For example, when the first signal configurator 220 determines that there is no or little change of the paging message or the system message within the next period of time, the first signal configurator 220 may configure a first signal enable period longer than a transmission period of the first signal. In this case, there will be no second signal or there will be much less second signal than the first signal in order to save transmission resources at the BS 200. In another example, when the first signal configurator 220 determines that there will be many or frequent changes of paging messages or system messages within the next time period, the first signal configurator 220 may configure a first signal enable period that is shorter than a transmission period of the first signal. In this case, there will be more second signals than first signals, which saves power consumption of the UE due to detection of the downlink control signal during the enable period. This is because when the first signal has an awake state; it indicates that at least one of the downlink control signals in the enabled period carries paging information, and the UE needs to detect all downlink control signals in the enabled period.

In one embodiment, the second signal configurator 222 may receive both the first number and the second number from the first signal configurator 220 and determine whether to transmit the second wake-up signal based on a comparison of the first number and the second number. After comparing the two numbers, if the first number is less than the second number, the second signal configurator 222 may determine that there are one or more downlink control signals to be transmitted within the transmission period of the first signal and not indicated by the first signal. Thus, the second signal configurator 222 may generate and configure one second signal corresponding to each downlink control signal to be transmitted within the transmission period of the first signal and not indicated by the first signal, and transmit each second signal to the UE to indicate transmission of a single downlink control signal corresponding to the second signal.

In another embodiment, the second signal configurator 222 may receive both the enable period and the transmission period of the first signal from the first signal configurator 220 and determine whether to transmit the second wake-up signal based on a comparison of the enable period and the transmission period. After comparing the two periods, if the transmission cycle is longer than the enable cycle, the second signal configurator 222 may determine that there are one or more downlink control signals to be transmitted within the transmission cycle of the first signal and not indicated by the first signal. Thus, the second signal configurator 222 may generate and configure one second signal corresponding to each downlink control signal to be transmitted within the transmission period of the first signal and not indicated by the first signal, and transmit each second signal to the UE to indicate transmission of a single downlink control signal corresponding to the second signal.

The validity information generator 224 in this example may be optional and may generate validity information, such as a first signal generated by the first signal configurator 220 or a second signal generated by the second signal configurator 222. Since each wake-up signal is an indicator for the UE to determine whether to detect a long signal (e.g., downlink control signal), it is important for the UE to know whether the received wake-up signal is valid. The validity information will be used by multiple UEs to determine whether to detect a wake-up signal. The validity information generator 224 may inform the validity information of the wake-up signal to a plurality of UEs through higher layer signaling.

In one embodiment, the validity information includes information related to fallback position information. Validity information for instructing the UE to detect the at least one downlink control signal is directly associated with the fallback position information.

In another embodiment, the validity information includes information related to a transmit power of the wake-up signal. For example, the UE may determine the path loss based on the received power of the wake-up signal and the transmit power of the wake-up signal. Based on the path loss, the UE may determine whether the validity of the wake-up signal is below a predetermined threshold. If so, the UE may directly detect the downlink control signal(s) regardless of the indication of the wake-up signal.

The downlink control signal generator 226 in this example may generate downlink control signals, e.g., PDCCH signals, and transmit them to the UE via the transmitter 212. For example, each downlink control signal carries a first message via a PDCCH signal, which indicates a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) signal carrying a second message. The first message includes at least one of: scheduling information of PDSCH and scheduling information of Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), and the second message is at least: a paging message.

In one embodiment, the downlink control signal generator 226 generates a plurality of downlink control signals associated with the first signal based on the first number determined by the first signal configurator 220, and generates the downlink control signals to be transmitted within the transmission period of the first signal based on the second number determined by the first signal configurator 220. In response to each second signal being transmitted by the second signal configurator 222, the downstream control signal generator 226 transmits, via the transmitter 212, a single downstream control signal associated with the second signal and outside of the plurality of downstream control signals associated with the first signal during the transmission period of the first signal.

In another embodiment, the downlink control signal generator 226 generates a plurality of downlink control signals based on the enable period of the first signal configured by the first signal configurator 220 and transmits the plurality of downlink control signals to the UE within or outside the enable period of the first signal according to the first signal. In response to each second signal being transmitted by the second signal configurator 222, the downstream control signal generator 226 transmits, via the transmitter 212, a single downstream control signal associated with the second signal and outside of the plurality of downstream control signals associated with the first signal during the transmission period of the first signal.

The power module 208 may include a power source (such as one or more batteries) and a power regulator for providing regulated power to each of the aforementioned modules in fig. 2. In some embodiments, if BS 200 is coupled to a dedicated external power source (e.g., an electrical wall outlet), power module 208 may include a transformer and a power regulator.

The various modules discussed above are coupled together by a bus system 230. The bus system 230 may include a data bus and, for example, a power bus, a control signal bus, and/or a status signal bus in addition to the data bus. It should be understood that the modules of BS 200 may be operatively coupled to each other using any suitable techniques and media.

Although a number of separate modules or components are shown in fig. 2, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that one or more of the modules may be combined or implemented together. For example, the processor 204 may implement not only the functionality described above with respect to the processor 204, but also the functionality described above with respect to the first signal configurator 220. Conversely, each of the modules shown in fig. 2 may be implemented using a plurality of separate components or elements.

Fig. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of a method 300 performed by a BS (e.g., BS 200 in fig. 2) for transmitting a wake-up signal in wireless communication, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. In operation 302, the BS configures a first signal to indicate whether to transmit a plurality of downlink control signals associated with the first signal to a plurality of UEs. In operation 304, the BS transmits a first signal to a plurality of UEs. In operation 306, the BS transmits a plurality of downlink control signals to the plurality of UEs based on the first signal. In operation 308, the BS determines and transmits at least one second signal each indicating whether to transmit a single downlink control signal based on the first signal. In operation 310, the BS transmits a single downlink control signal corresponding to each of the transmitted second signals. As discussed above, the first and second signals may be wake-up signals that may wake-up the UE to detect downlink control signals for paging or system information updates.

Fig. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a UE 400 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. UE 400 is an example of a device that may be configured to implement the various methods described herein. As shown in fig. 4, the UE 400 includes a housing 440, the housing 440 containing a system clock 402, a processor 404, a memory 406, a transceiver 410 including a transmitter 412 and a receiver 414, a power module 408, a first signal analyzer 420, a second signal analyzer 422, a validity information determiner 424, and a downlink control signal analyzer 426.

In the present embodiment, system clock 402, processor 404, memory 406, transceiver 410, and power module 408 operate similarly to system clock 202, processor 204, memory 206, transceiver 210, and power module 208 in BS 200. An antenna 450 or multi-antenna array 450 is typically attached to the housing 440 and electrically coupled to the transceiver 410.

The first signal analyzer 420 in this example may receive a first signal from the BS via the receiver 414. The first signal may be a wake-up signal. By analyzing the first signal, the first signal analyzer 420 may determine whether to detect at least one downlink control signal associated with the first signal and corresponding to the UE 400. Further, the first signal analyzer 420 may determine whether to detect at least one second signal based on the first signal. Each second signal indicates whether to detect a single downlink control signal associated with the second signal and corresponding to the UE 400.

The first signal analyzer 420 may receive location information of the first signal from the BS via higher layer signaling. The first signal is periodically transmitted by the BS based on location information including a transmission period of the first signal. In one embodiment, the first signal analyzer 420 may receive a first number of at least one downlink control signal associated with the first signal via higher layer signaling and receive or determine a second number of downlink control signals to be transmitted within a transmission period of the first signal and corresponding to the UE 400. The first signal analyzer 420 may determine whether to detect at least one second signal based on the comparison of the first number and the second number and transmit the determination result to the second signal analyzer 422. Alternatively, the first signal analyzer 420 may send the first number and the second number to the second signal analyzer 422 for determining whether to detect the at least one second signal. In another embodiment, the first signal analyzer 420 receives an enabled period of the first signal from the BS via higher layer signaling. The first signal analyzer 420 may determine whether to detect at least one second signal based on the comparison of the transmission period and the enable period and transmit the determination result to the second signal analyzer 422. Alternatively, the first signal analyzer 420 may transmit the transmission period and the enable period to the second signal analyzer 422 for determining whether to detect at least one second signal.

In one embodiment, the UE 400 may achieve synchronization with the BS based on the first signal. Since the first signal is transmitted periodically, it can be used as both an indicator and a synchronization signal. The first signal or any wake-up signal is shorter than the downlink control signal, since the indicator need not carry as much information as the downlink control signal (e.g. PDCCH signal). Thus, to save power consumption, the UE 400 may first detect the shorter signal to determine whether the longer signal needs to be detected, as compared to directly detecting the longer signal.

In this example, the second signal analyzer 422 receives at least one second signal from the BS via the receiver 414. Each second signal may be a wake-up signal. By analyzing each second signal, the second signal analyzer 422 may determine whether to detect a single downlink control signal associated with the second signal and outside of the at least one downlink control signal associated with the first signal based on the second signal.

In one embodiment, in response to the first number being less than the second number, the second signal analyzer 422 may detect at least one second signal based on the first signal. In another embodiment, the second signal analyzer 422 may detect at least one second signal based on the first signal in response to a transmission period of the first signal being longer than an enable period of the first signal.

In this example, the validity information determiner 424 may receive validity information from the BS, e.g., via higher layer signaling. In one embodiment, the validity information includes information related to a back-off position of the downlink control signal. The validity information determiner 424 may determine detection of the downlink control signal by the UE 400 at the fallback position based on the validity information. In another embodiment, the validity information includes information related to a transmit power of a wake-up signal (e.g., the first signal or the second signal). The validity information determiner 424 may determine whether to detect a wake-up signal indicating whether to detect at least one downlink control signal corresponding to the UE 400 based on the validity information. Based on the validity information, validity information determiner 424 may determine whether a received wake-up signal is detected to indicate whether the corresponding downlink control signal(s) is detected. When the validity information determiner 424 determines that a wake-up signal is detected, the validity information determiner 424 may instruct the first signal analyzer 420 and/or the second signal analyzer 422 to receive or analyze the first wake-up signal or the second wake-up signal, respectively. Otherwise, when the validity information determiner 424 determines that the wake-up signal is not detected, the validity information determiner 424 may instruct the downlink control signal analyzer 426 to directly detect and analyze the downlink control signal.

The validity information determiner 424 may receive a signal, e.g., a validity check signal, from the BS and determine whether a wake-up signal is detected based on the validity check signal. The validity information determiner 424 may acquire the location information of the validity check signal via higher layer signaling or based on a predetermined protocol. Based on the validity check signal, the validity information determiner 424 may determine whether a received wake-up signal is detected to indicate whether the corresponding downlink control signal(s) is detected.

In this example, the downlink control signal analyzer 426 may receive and analyze the downlink control signal in response to a determination from the first signal analyzer 420 or the second signal analyzer 422 to detect the downlink control signal associated with the first signal or the second signal. In one embodiment, each downlink control signal carries a first message over a PDCCH signal indicating a PDSCH signal carrying a second message. The first message includes at least one of: scheduling information of PDSCH and scheduling information of PUSCH, and the second message is at least: a paging message.

The various modules discussed above are coupled together by a bus system 430. The bus system 430 may include a data bus and, for example, a power bus, a control signal bus, and/or a status signal bus in addition to the data bus. It should be understood that the modules of UE 400 may be operatively coupled to each other using any suitable techniques and media.

Although a number of separate modules or components are shown in fig. 4, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that one or more of the modules may be combined or implemented together. For example, the processor 404 may implement not only the functionality described above with respect to the processor 404, but also the functionality described above with respect to the first signal analyzer 420. Rather, each of the modules shown in fig. 4 may be implemented using a plurality of separate components or elements.

Fig. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a method 500 performed by a UE (e.g., UE 400 in fig. 4) for detecting a wake-up signal in wireless communication, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. In operation 502, the UE receives a first signal from the BS and analyzes the first signal. In operation 504, the UE determines whether to detect at least one downlink control signal associated with the first signal and corresponding to the UE. In operation 506, the UE detects at least one downlink control signal based on the first signal. In operation 508, the UE determines whether to detect at least one second signal based on the first signal. In operation 510, the UE determines whether to detect a single downlink control signal associated with the second signal based on each of the second signals. In operation 512, the UE detects a single downlink control signal associated with the second signal based on each second signal.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in detail below. It is noted that features of the embodiments and examples in the present disclosure may be combined with each other in any way without conflict.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, a method for transmitting and receiving a wake-up signal in wireless communication is provided. Fig. 6 illustrates an example method for transmitting two types of wake-up signals to a UE in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In embodiment 1, as discussed above, the base station transmits the wake-up signal, which can reduce the resource overhead corresponding to the signal and reduce the congestion on other downlink channels or signals, in addition to effectively reducing the power consumption of the terminal. In step 1, the base station transmits signals specifically as follows: the base station determines transmission of a first signal 610 according to a transmission state of the PDCCH at N POs, and determines transmission of a second signal 620 according to a transmission state of the PDCCH at one PO. In step 2, the base station transmits a PDCCH corresponding to the signal. The first signal indicates transmission of the PDCCH at N POs; and the second signal indicates transmission of the PDCCH at one PO. Here, each PO corresponds to a start position of the paging PDCCH.

In embodiment 1a, a base station transmits a first signal according to a transmission position of the first signal. The transmission position of the first signal includes a transmission period 602 having a fixed or predetermined offset; or include transmission periods and offsets. The transmission location is transmitted to the terminal through signaling (e.g., System Information Block (SIB) signaling or Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling dedicated to the cell, as shown in fig. 6, a first signal is periodically transmitted.

In embodiment 1b, the base station determines transmission of the first signal 610 according to transmission conditions of the PDCCH at N POs, which are POs in the enable period 604 of the first signal 610. The length of the enable period is transmitted to the terminal through signaling (e.g., SIB signaling or RRC signaling dedicated to the cell). Thus, the first signal corresponds to PDCCH at N POs.

In embodiment 1c, when the base station transmits the second signal 620, the transmission of the second signal 620 is determined according to the transmission of the first signal. Specifically, the second signal 620 is transmitted before each of the remaining POs after the enable period 604 only when the number of POs 606 included in the first signal transmission period 602 is greater than N. For example, fig. 7 shows an exemplary method for transmitting a type of wake-up signal to a UE according to embodiment 1 c. If the value of N is equal to the number of POs 706 included in the transmission period 702 of the first signal 710, the second signal is not transmitted; or if the length of the transmission period 702 of the first signal 710 is equal to the enable period 704, the second signal is not transmitted. Thus, the transmission of the second signals depends on the configuration of the first signals, and each second signal corresponds to one PO.

In embodiment 1d, when the base station transmits a signal (e.g., a wake-up signal), the signal is composed of a Zadoff-chu (zc) sequence and a Hadamard sequence. The root sequence index of the ZC sequence is determined from the cell ID. The index of the Hadamard sequence is any value except 128 x (0,1/4,1/2, 1). Here, taking 96 as an example, specifically:

where N' mod (N, N)_ZC)，n＝{0,1,2,...,N_ZC-1, u ═ mod (PCI, 131). The PCI is the index of the cell where the signal is located. If the signal corresponds to two states, the two states correspond to two Hadamard sequences, respectively.

In embodiment 1e, when a base station transmits a signal (e.g., a wake-up signal), the signal is composed of a ZC sequence and a Hadamard sequence. The root sequence index of the ZC sequence is determined from the cell ID. A Hadamard sequence is a fixed sequence whose sequence index is any value of k except 128 × (0,1/4,1/2, 1). Here, each Hadamard sequence corresponds to a terminal group. That is, terminals corresponding to a signal are divided into k groups, where each group corresponds to a Hadamard sequence. In one example, assume that there are six UEs in the same PO, and the six UEs are divided into two groups: group 1 and group 2. Grouping is performed according to the UE index. When the base station transmits a signal, sequence index 1 of the Hadamard sequence corresponds to group 1, and sequence index 2 of the Hadamard sequence corresponds to group 2. For example, sequence index 1 and sequence index 2 are 128 × 3/4 and 128 × 1/8, respectively.

In embodiment 1f, when a base station transmits a signal (e.g., a wake-up signal), the signal is a ZC sequence. The root sequence index of the ZC sequence is determined from the cell ID, where the length of the ZC sequence is 127. Thereby:

where N' is mod (N, N)_ZC)，n＝{0,1,2,...,N_ZC-1}，N_ZC127, u mod (PCI, 127). If the signal corresponds to two states, the two states correspond to two cyclic shifts, respectively.

In embodiment 1g, when a base station transmits a signal (e.g., a wake-up signal), the signal is a ZC sequence. The root sequence index of the ZC sequence is determined from the cell ID, where the length of the ZC sequence is 127. The ZC sequence corresponds to k cyclic shifts. Each cyclic shift corresponds to a group of terminals. That is, terminals corresponding to a signal are divided into k groups, where each group corresponds to a cyclic shift such that the k cyclic shifts have a maximum separation between each pair of two cyclic shifts. In one example, assume that there are six UEs in the same PO, and the six UEs are grouped into two groups according to the index of the UE: group 1 and group 2. When the base station transmits a signal, cyclic shift 1 of the ZC sequence corresponds to group 1, and cyclic shift 2 of the ZC sequence corresponds to group 2. The interval between cyclic shift 1 and cyclic shift 2 is maximized. For example, cyclic shift 1 is calculated by 127 (1/4) and then rounded up, while cyclic shift 2 is calculated by 127 (3/4) and then rounded up. The interval between two cyclic shifts is 127 × 1/2, which is the maximum cyclic shift interval.

In embodiment 1h, when a base station transmits a signal (e.g., a wake-up signal), the signal is composed of a ZC sequence, a Hadamard sequence, and a PN sequence. The root sequence index of the ZC sequence is determined from the cell ID. A Hadamard sequence is a fixed sequence whose sequence index is any value except 128 x (0,1/4,1/2, 1). The terminals corresponding to the signal are divided into k groups, where each group corresponds to an initial value of the PN sequence. If the signal corresponds to two states, the two states correspond to two Hadamard sequences, respectively.

In embodiment 1i, when a base station transmits a signal (e.g., a wake-up signal), the signal is composed of a ZC sequence, a Hadamard sequence, and a PN sequence. The root sequence index of the ZC sequence and the first initial value of the PN sequence are determined from the cell ID. A Hadamard sequence is a fixed sequence whose sequence index is any value except 128 x (0,1/4,1/2, 1). The terminals corresponding to the signal are divided into k groups, where each group corresponds to the second initial value of the PN sequence. If the signal corresponds to two states, the two states correspond to two Hadamard sequences, respectively. The initial value of the PN sequence is determined based on the first initial value and the second initial value of the PN sequence.

In embodiment 1j, when the base station transmits a signal (e.g., a wake-up signal), the UE is notified of the signal length through signaling (e.g., System Information Block (SIB) signaling or Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling dedicated to the cell). In one example, the length of the signal transmitted by the base station is 16. In the first case, the signaling overhead depends on the maximum possible length of the signal. For example, when the maximum length is 256, there are 8 bits for signaling. To signal the UE with signal length 16, the signaling would be 00001111. In the second case, the signaling overhead depends on the possible values of the signal length. For example, when the possible value is [1,2,4,8,12,16,32,64], the signaling has 3 bits. To signal the UE with signal length 16, the signaling would be 101, as shown in the following table.

Value of the signalling	Length of signal
		000	1
001	2
		010	4
011	8
		100	12
101	16
		110	32
111	64

In embodiment 1k, when the base station transmits a signal (e.g., a wake-up signal), the base station signals the relative length of the signal compared to the length of the PDCCH search space at the PO to the UE through signaling. In one example, the length of the signal transmitted by the base station is 16, and the length of the PO search space is Rmax 256. In the first case, the signaling overhead depends on the possible values of the signal length. For example, when the possible values are Rmax [1/64,1/32,1/16,1/8,1/4,1/2,1], the signaling has 3 bits. When the length of the signal is 16, the signaling is 010, as shown in the following table.

Value of the signalling	Length of signal
		000	1/64
001	1/32
		010	1/16
011	1/8
		100	1/4
101	1/2
		110	1
111	Reserved

In another example, the possible value is Rmax/16 × 1/4,1/2,1], so that the signaling has 2 bits.

When the length of the signal is 16, the signaling is 10, as shown in the following table.

Value of the signalling	Length of signal
		00	1/4
01	1/2
		10	1
11	Reserved

In embodiment 2, the terminal side behavior is described. Fig. 8 illustrates an exemplary method for receiving two types of wake-up signals according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In step 1, the terminal detects a signal, such as the first wake-up signal 810 or the second wake-up signal 820. In step 2, the terminal determines PDCCH detection according to the detected signal. Specifically, the terminal determines PDCCH detections at M POs 806 from the detected first signal, and the terminal determines corresponding PDCCH detections at a single PO 806 from the detected second signal. M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1. The M POs are POs within the enabled period 804 of the first signal 810 and correspond to terminals. Here, the first signal 810 indicates transmission of PDCCH at a plurality of POs, and the second signal 820 indicates transmission of PDCCH at one PO.

In embodiment 2a, the terminal acquires the transmission location of the first signal based on higher layer signaling (e.g., SIB signaling or RRC signaling dedicated to the cell). The transmission position of the first signal includes the transmission period 802 having a fixed or predetermined offset, or includes the transmission period 802 and the offset. Thus, the first signal 810 is periodically transmitted, and a transmission position is acquired based on the signaling.

In embodiment 2b, the terminal determines detection of the PDCCH at M POs according to the detected first signal, wherein the M POs are POs corresponding to the UE in the enable period of the first signal. The terminal acquires the length of the enable period of the first signal through signaling (e.g., SIB signaling or RRC signaling dedicated to the cell). The number M is the number of POs corresponding to the UE in the enable period of the first signal.

In embodiment 2c, the terminal determines the detection of the second signal based on the first signal transmission period. Specifically, the second signal corresponding to each PO remaining in the transmission period is detected only when the number of POs included in the first signal transmission period is greater than M. Here, each second signal corresponds to a single PO, and the transmission of the second signal depends on the transmission period and the M value of the first signal.

In embodiment 2d, it is assumed that the first signal corresponds to two states: awake state and sleep state. The terminal determines to detect the PDCCH at the M POs according to the detected first signal, which includes: when a first signal detected by the terminal is in an awakening state, the terminal detects the PDCCH in the M POs; and when the first signal detected by the terminal is in a sleep state, the terminal does not detect the PDCCH at M POs, wherein the M POs are POs in an enable period of the first signal. The terminal acquires the length of the enable period of the first signal through signaling (e.g., SIB signaling or RRC signaling dedicated to the cell).

In embodiment 2e, it is assumed that the second signal corresponds to a state: and (4) a wake-up state. The terminal determines to detect the PDCCH at the corresponding PO according to the detected second signal, which includes: when the terminal detects the second signal, the terminal detects the PDCCH in the corresponding PO; and when the terminal does not detect the second signal, the terminal does not detect the PDCCH at the corresponding PO.

In embodiment 2f, the terminal may also acquire synchronization information based on the detection of the first signal. For example, the first signal corresponds to two states: an awake state and a sync state. The terminal determines detection of the PDCCH at the M POs according to the detected first signal, which includes: when a first signal detected by the terminal is in an awakening state, the terminal detects the PDCCH in the M POs; when the first signal detected by the terminal is in a synchronous state, the terminal acquires synchronous information through the first signal, and the terminal does not detect the PDCCH in the M POs; wherein, the M POs are POs in an enable period of the first signal, and the terminal acquires the length of the enable period of the first signal through signaling. Thus, the first signal may be used as a synchronization signal while being a wake-up signal.

In embodiment 2g, the terminal may also acquire synchronization information based on the detection of the first signal. The terminal determines detection of the PDCCH at the M POs according to the detected first signal, which includes: when M is 0, the terminal acquires required synchronization information based on the first signal; and when M is greater than 0, the terminal detects the PDCCH in the M POs according to the detected first signal. In one example, when a first signal detected by the terminal is an awake state, the terminal detects a PDCCH at M POs; when a first signal detected by the terminal is in a sleep state, the terminal does not detect the PDCCH in the M POs; or when the terminal does not detect the first signal, the terminal does not detect the PDCCH in the M POs; wherein the M POs are POs within an enable period of the first signal, and the terminal acquires the length of the enable period of the first signal through signaling. Thus, the first signal may be used as a synchronization signal while being a wake-up signal.

In embodiment 2h, the terminal obtains the signal length according to the signaling. In one example, the length of the signal transmitted by the base station is 16. In one case, when the signaling received by the UE is 00001111, the UE knows that the signal length is 16. In another case, when the signaling received by the UE is 101 and possible values of the signal length are as shown in the following table, the UE knows that the signal length is 16.

In embodiment 2i, the terminal acquires the signal length according to the signaling and the length of the search space (Rmax) at the PO. In one case, the terminal receives the signaling 010 and obtains the length of the signal 1/16 × Rmax based on the signaling and the table below. For example, if Rmax is 256, the terminal may determine that the signal length is 16.

In another case, the terminal receives the signaling 10 and obtains the length of the signal as Rmax/16 based on the signaling and the table below. For example, if Rmax is 256, the length of the signal is 16.

In embodiment 3, a base station configures a channel or a signal, and a terminal determines whether to detect the signal by detecting the channel or the signal. Fig. 9 illustrates an example method for transmitting three types of wake-up signals to a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In embodiment 3a, the base station configures a fallback PO 930 and transmits the fallback PO 930 to the terminal by signaling. The terminal may directly detect the PDCCH at the configured fallback PO location. In one example: assuming that the backoff PO 930 configured by the base station is located in the enabled period 904 of the first signal 910, the terminal does not determine whether to detect the PDCCH at the PO according to the detection result of the first signal 910, but directly detects the PDCCH.

The base station configures and transmits a fallback PO to the terminal by signaling, which may include: the base station transmits a transmission period of a backoff PO to the terminal through signaling; or the base station transmits the transmission period and the offset of the fallback PO to the terminal through signaling; or the base station transmits the fallback PO enabled subframe to the terminal through signaling. The signaling includes H bits, where each bit indicates whether a corresponding subframe is a fallback PO enabled subframe or a fallback PO start subframe. For example, assume that the signaling includes 10 bits and the corresponding state is 1000000000. Since each of the 10 bits corresponds to one subframe in the radio frame, the subframe having the subframe index of 0 is a backoff PO or a starting subframe of the backoff PO. The signaling may be SIB signaling or RRC signaling specific to this terminal. Thus, the base station may configure the fallback PO to help the terminal determine the validity of the signal (e.g., the first wake-up signal or the second wake-up signal).

In embodiment 3b, the base station configures a detection location for a third signal, and transmits the third signal to the terminal by signaling, wherein the third signal corresponds to two states: awake state and sleep state. In one example, when the terminal detects the third signal at the configured detection position, the terminal determines that its own coverage is not changed and continues to perform subsequent detections; when the terminal does not detect the third signal at the configured detection position, the terminal determines that its own coverage has changed and will perform subsequent detection with a lower detection criterion. For example, the terminal may lower the threshold for successful signal detection. Thus, the base station may configure the third signal and its detection location to help the terminal determine the validity of the signal (e.g., the first wake-up signal or the second wake-up signal), where the third signal is always transmitted at the configured detection location.

In embodiment 3b, the base station configures a detection location for a third signal, and transmits the third signal to the terminal by signaling, wherein the third signal corresponds to two states: an awake state and a sync state. In one example, when the terminal detects the third signal at the configured detection position, the terminal determines that its own coverage is not changed and continues to perform subsequent detections; when the terminal does not detect the third signal at the configured detection position, the terminal determines that its own coverage has changed and will perform subsequent detection with a lower detection criterion. For example, the terminal may lower the threshold for successful signal detection. Thus, the base station may configure the third signal and its detection location to help the terminal determine the validity of the signal (e.g., the first wake-up signal or the second wake-up signal), where the third signal is always transmitted at the configured detection location.

In embodiment 4, the base station configures parameters to help the terminal determine whether to detect a signal, such as the first wake-up signal or the second wake-up signal. In embodiment 4a, the base station signals the signal transmission power P to the terminal. The terminal determines whether (a) to directly detect the PDCCH or (b) to detect the signal first, based on the received signal and the signaled transmission power P, and then determines the PDCCH according to the signal detection result. In one example, the terminal determines a current signal-to-noise ratio range of the terminal according to the signal transmission power P and the measured downlink path loss, and detects a signal in the signal-to-noise ratio range. When the probability of detecting the signal is lower than a preset threshold value, the terminal directly detects the PDCCH; otherwise, the terminal first detects the signal and then determines PDCCH detection according to the signal detection result. Thus, the base station configures a detection parameter (e.g., transmit power of the signal) to help the terminal determine the validity of the signal.

In embodiment 4b, the base station signals the relative transmit power of the signal to the terminal. In one example, the relative transmit power of a signal is a ratio of the transmit power of the signal relative to the transmit power of a preset signal, where the preset signal may be a Narrowband Reference Signal (NRS) or a cell-specific reference signal (CRS). Thus, the base station configures a detection parameter (e.g., relative transmit power of the signal) to help the terminal determine the validity of the signal.

In embodiment 4c, the base station transmits a range of the number of signal repetitions at each coverage level to the terminal by signaling. The terminal determines whether (a) to directly detect the PDCCH or (b) to detect the signal first, based on the received signal and the range of the number of signal repetitions at each coverage level signaled, and then determines the PDCCH according to the signal detection result. In one example, the terminal acquires the range of the number of signal repetitions from a known coverage and a signaled range of the number of signal repetitions at each coverage level. If the repetition frequency of the received signal exceeds the range of the obtained signal repetition frequency, the terminal directly detects the PDCCH; otherwise, the terminal first detects the signal and then determines detection of the PDCCH according to the signal detection result. Known coverage areas include at least one of: the measured coverage, and the coverage determined when the terminal last accessed the system.

In embodiment 4d, the base station signals to the terminal an RSRP (reference signal received power)/RSRQ (reference signal received quality) range corresponding to different ranges of the number of signal repetitions. The terminal determines whether (a) to directly detect the PDCCH or (b) to detect the signal first, based on the received signal and the RSRP/RSRQ range signaled corresponding to different ranges of the number of signal repetitions, and then determines the PDCCH according to the signal detection result. In one example, the terminal acquires a range of signal repetition times based on the measured RSRP/RSRQ value and the signaled RSRP/RSRQ ranges corresponding to different ranges of signal repetition times. If the repetition frequency of the received signal exceeds the range of the obtained signal repetition frequency, the terminal directly detects the PDCCH; otherwise, the terminal first detects the signal and then determines detection of the PDCCH according to the signal detection result.

In embodiment 4e, the base station signals a range of signal repetition times to the terminal. The terminal determines whether (a) to directly detect the PDCCH or (b) to detect the signal first, based on the received signal and the range of the number of signal repetitions obtained through signaling, and then determines the PDCCH according to the signal detection result. In one example, if the repetition number of the received signal exceeds the range of the acquired signal repetition number, the terminal directly detects the PDCCH; otherwise, the terminal first detects the signal and then determines detection of the PDCCH according to the signal detection result.

In embodiment 4f, the base station signals to the terminal an RSRP (reference signal received power)/RSRQ (reference signal received quality) range corresponding to the signal. The terminal determines whether (a) to directly detect the PDCCH or (b) to detect the signal first, based on the received signal and the signaled RSRP/RSRQ range corresponding to the signal, and then determines the PDCCH according to the signal detection result. In one example, if the measured RSRP/RSRQ value exceeds the acquired RSRP/RSRQ range corresponding to the signal, the terminal directly detects the PDCCH; otherwise, the terminal first detects the signal and then determines detection of the PDCCH according to the signal detection result.

While various embodiments of the present disclosure have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. Likewise, various figures may depict example architectures or configurations provided to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to understand the example features and functionality of the present disclosure. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present disclosure is not limited to the example architectures or configurations shown, but may be implemented using a variety of alternative architectures and configurations. Additionally, one or more features of one embodiment may be combined with one or more features of another embodiment described herein, as would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments.

It will also be understood that the use of any reference herein to elements such as "first," "second," etc., does not generally limit the number or order of such elements. Rather, these designations may be used herein as a convenient means of distinguishing between two or more elements or instances of an element. Thus, reference to a first element and a second element does not mean that only two elements can be used, or that the first element must somehow precede the second element.

Additionally, those of ordinary skill in the art would understand that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, and symbols (e.g., which may be referenced in the above description) may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

Those of ordinary skill would further appreciate that any of the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, processors, means, circuits, methods, and functions described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware (e.g., a digital implementation, an analog implementation, or a combination of the two), firmware, various forms of program or design code incorporating instructions (which may be referred to herein, for convenience, as "software" or a "software module"), or any combination of these technologies.

To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware, firmware, and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware, firmware, or software, or a combination of such technologies, depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure. According to various embodiments, a processor, device, component, circuit, structure, machine, module, etc. may be configured to perform one or more of the functions described herein. The terms "configured" or "configured to" as used herein with respect to a particular operation or function refer to a processor, device, component, circuit, structure, machine, module, etc. that is physically constructed, programmed, and/or arranged to perform the particular operation or function.

In addition, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, devices, components, and circuits described herein may be implemented within or performed by Integrated Circuits (ICs) that may include a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device or any combination thereof. The logic blocks, modules, and circuits may further include antennas and/or transceivers to communicate with various components within the network or within the device. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a digital signal processor core, or any other suitable configuration to perform the functions described herein.

If implemented in software, the functions may be stored as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Thus, the steps of a method or algorithm disclosed herein may be implemented as software stored on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that can be used to transfer a computer program or code from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer.

In this document, the term "module" as used herein refers to software, firmware, hardware, and any combination of these elements for performing the associated functions described herein. Additionally, for purposes of discussion, the various modules are described as discrete modules; however, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, two or more modules may be combined to form a single module that performs the associated functions in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

Additionally, in embodiments of the present disclosure, memory or other storage devices and communication components may be employed. It will be appreciated that, for clarity, the above description has described embodiments of the disclosure with reference to different functional units and processors. It will be apparent, however, that any suitable distribution of functionality between different functional units, processing logic elements, or domains may be used without departing from the disclosure. For example, functionality illustrated to be performed by separate processing logic elements or controllers may be performed by the same processing logic elements or controllers. Thus, references to specific functional units are only to references to suitable means for providing the described functionality rather than indicative of a strict logical or physical structure or organization.

Various modifications to the embodiments described in this disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the novel features and principles disclosed herein as set forth in the following claims.

Claims

1. A method performed by a wireless communication node, the method comprising:

transmitting a first signal as a wake-up signal to a plurality of wireless communication devices, wherein the first signal indicates whether to transmit a plurality of downlink control signals associated with the first signal; and

determining at least one second signal as a wake-up signal based on the first signal to modify a ratio between the first signal and the second signal, wherein each second signal indicates whether to transmit a single downlink control signal associated with the second signal.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

notifying the plurality of wireless communication devices of location information of the first signal via higher layer signaling, wherein the first signal is periodically transmitted to the plurality of wireless communication devices based on the location information including a transmission period of the first signal.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

notifying, via higher layer signaling, a first number of the plurality of downlink control signals associated with the first signal.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a second number of downlink control signals to be transmitted within a transmission period of the first signal;

transmitting the at least one second signal when the first number is less than the second number; and

transmitting, in response to transmitting each second signal, the single downlink control signal associated with the second signal and outside of the plurality of downlink control signals associated with the first signal within a transmission period of the first signal.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

notifying the plurality of wireless communication devices of the enabled period of the first signal via higher layer signaling.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

transmitting the at least one second signal when the transmission period is longer than the enable period; and

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first signal is used for synchronization of the plurality of wireless communication devices.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

each downlink control signal carries a first message through a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) signal, and the PDCCH signal indicates a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) signal carrying a second message;

the first message comprises at least one of: scheduling information of PDSCH and scheduling information of PUSCH, and

the second message is at least a paging message.

9. A method performed by a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

receiving a first signal from a wireless communication node as a wake-up signal;

determining, based on the first signal, whether to detect at least one downlink control signal associated with the first signal and corresponding to the wireless communication device; and

determining, based on the first signal, whether to detect at least one second signal as a wake-up signal to modify a ratio between the first signal and the second signal, wherein each second signal indicates whether to detect a single downlink control signal associated with the second signal and corresponding to the wireless communication device.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, via higher layer signaling, location information of the first signal from the wireless communication node, wherein the first signal is periodically transmitted by the wireless communication node based on the location information including a transmission period of the first signal.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a first number of the at least one downlink control signal associated with the first signal via higher layer signaling.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein determining whether to detect the at least one second signal comprises:

determining a second number of downlink control signals to be transmitted within a transmission period of the first signal and corresponding to the wireless communication device;

detecting the at least one second signal based on the first signal when the first number is less than the second number, an

Detecting each second signal, determining whether to detect the single downlink control signal associated with the second signal and outside the at least one downlink control signal based on the second signal.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

an enable period of the first signal is received from the wireless communication node via higher layer signaling.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining whether to detect the at least one second signal comprises:

detecting the at least one second signal when the transmission period is longer than the enable period; and

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising enabling synchronization with the wireless communication node based on the first signal.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the second message is at least a paging message.

17. A wireless communication node configured to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 8.

18. A wireless communication device configured to perform the method of any of claims 9 to 16.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for carrying out the method according to any one of claims 1 to 16.