CN117424681A

CN117424681A - Device number determining method and device and electronic device

Info

Publication number: CN117424681A
Application number: CN202210800747.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 谭俊杰; 黄伟; 简荣灵
Original assignee: Vivo Mobile Communication Co Ltd
Current assignee: Vivo Mobile Communication Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-07-06
Filing date: 2022-07-06
Publication date: 2024-01-19
Also published as: WO2024008001A1

Abstract

The application discloses a device quantity determining method, a device and electronic equipment, which belong to the technical field of communication, and the device quantity determining method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that a first node sends first information to a back-scattering communication BSC device, wherein the first information is used for indicating the BSC device to send a first back-scattering signal; the first node determining the number of BSC devices based on the target information; wherein the target information includes at least one of: a baseband IQ signal acquired based on the first backscatter signal; second information sent by the third node; third information sent by a third node; the second information is used for indicating baseband IQ signals, the third information is used for indicating the number of the BSC devices, and the number of the BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signals.

Description

Device number determining method and device and electronic device

Technical Field

The application belongs to the technical field of communication, and particularly relates to a method and a device for determining the number of devices and electronic equipment.

Background

A radio frequency identification (Radio Frequency Identification, RFID) backscatter communication system is a backscatter communication system that identifies and reads data from BSC devices within the coverage of a reader-writer. In an RFID backscatter communication system, a reader/writer can obtain the number of backscatter communication (Backscatter Communication, BSC) devices within its coverage area by performing an inventory procedure. The checking flow refers to the process of identifying and reading data from the BSC device, the checking flow is complex, and a large amount of signaling and time overhead are required for obtaining the number of BSC devices through the checking flow.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a device quantity determining method, a device and electronic equipment, which can solve the problem that a large amount of signaling and time cost are required for obtaining the quantity of BSC devices in the related technology.

In a first aspect, a method for determining the number of devices is provided, including:

the method comprises the steps that a first node sends first information to a back-scattering communication BSC device, wherein the first information is used for indicating the BSC device to send a first back-scattering signal;

the first node determining the number of BSC devices based on the target information;

wherein the target information includes at least one of:

a baseband IQ signal acquired based on the first backscatter signal;

second information sent by the third node;

third information sent by a third node;

the second information is used for indicating baseband IQ signals, the third information is used for indicating the number of the BSC devices, and the number of the BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signals.

In a second aspect, there is provided a device number determining method, including:

the third node obtains a baseband IQ signal based on the first back scattering signal sent by the BSC equipment;

the third node sends second information or third information to the first node, wherein the second information is used for indicating the baseband IQ signals, and the third information is used for indicating the quantity of BSC equipment;

Wherein the number of BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signal.

In a third aspect, a method for determining the number of devices is provided, including:

the BSC equipment receives first information sent by a first node, wherein the first information is used for indicating the BSC equipment to send a first back scattering signal;

the BSC device sends the first back-scattered signals, which are used for obtaining the number of BSC devices, wherein the number of BSC devices is obtained based on baseband IQ signals, and the baseband IQ signals are obtained based on the first back-scattered signals.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a device number determining apparatus, a first node including the device number determining apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

a first sending module, configured to send first information to a BSC device, where the first information is used to instruct the BSC device to send a first backscatter signal;

a determining module for determining the number of BSC devices based on the target information;

wherein the target information includes at least one of:

a baseband IQ signal acquired based on the first backscatter signal;

second information sent by the third node;

third information sent by a third node;

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a device number determining apparatus, a third node including the device number determining apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

the acquisition module is used for acquiring a baseband IQ signal based on a first back scattering signal sent by the back scattering communication BSC equipment;

a transmitting module, configured to transmit second information or third information to the first node, where the second information is used to indicate the baseband IQ signal, and the third information is used to indicate the number of BSC devices;

wherein the number of BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signal.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a device number determining apparatus, a BSC device including the device number determining apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

the first receiving module is used for receiving first information sent by a first node, and the first information is used for indicating the BSC equipment to send a first back scattering signal;

and a transmitting module, configured to transmit the first backscatter signal, where the first backscatter signal is used to obtain the number of BSC devices, where the number of BSC devices is obtained based on a baseband IQ signal, and the baseband IQ signal is obtained based on the first backscatter signal.

In a seventh aspect, an electronic device is provided, comprising a processor and a memory storing a program or instructions executable on the processor, the program or instructions implementing the steps of the method according to the first aspect, or implementing the steps of the method according to the second aspect, or implementing the steps of the method according to the third aspect when executed by the processor.

In an eighth aspect, an electronic device is provided, including a processor and a communication interface, where the communication interface is configured to: transmitting first information to BSC equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the BSC equipment to transmit a first back scattering signal; the processor is configured to: determining the number of BSC devices based on the target information; wherein the target information includes at least one of: a baseband IQ signal acquired based on the first backscatter signal; second information sent by the third node; third information sent by a third node; the second information is used for indicating baseband IQ signals, the third information is used for indicating the number of the BSC devices, and the number of the BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signals. Alternatively, the processor is configured to: acquiring a baseband IQ signal based on a first back-scattered signal sent by back-scattered communication BSC equipment; the communication interface is used for: transmitting second information or third information to the first node, wherein the second information is used for indicating the baseband IQ signal, and the third information is used for indicating the number of the BSC devices; wherein the number of BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signal. Alternatively, the communication interface is configured to: receiving first information sent by a first node, wherein the first information is used for indicating the BSC equipment to send a first back scattering signal; the communication interface is further for: and transmitting the first back scattering signal, wherein the first back scattering signal is used for acquiring the number of BSC devices, and the number of BSC devices is obtained based on baseband IQ signals, and the baseband IQ signals are obtained based on the first back scattering signal.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a device number determination system including: a first node operable to perform the steps of the method as described in the first aspect, a BSC apparatus operable to perform the steps of the method as described in the third aspect. Alternatively, there is provided a device number determination system including: a first node operable to perform the steps of the method as described in the first aspect, a BSC apparatus operable to perform the steps of the method as described in the second aspect, and a third node operable to perform the steps of the method as described in the third aspect.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a readable storage medium having stored thereon a program or instructions which when executed by a processor, perform the steps of the method according to the first aspect, or perform the steps of the method according to the second aspect, or perform the steps of the method according to the third aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a chip comprising a processor and a communication interface, the communication interface and the processor being coupled, the processor being for running a program or instructions to implement the method according to the first aspect, or to implement the method according to the second aspect, or to implement the method according to the third aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a computer program/program product stored in a storage medium, the computer program/program product being executable by at least one processor to perform the steps of the method according to the first aspect, or to perform the steps of the method according to the second aspect, or to perform the steps of the method according to the third aspect.

In the embodiment of the application, a first node sends first information to a backscatter communication BSC device, wherein the first information is used for indicating the BSC device to send a first backscatter signal; the first node determining the number of BSC devices based on the target information; wherein the target information includes at least one of: a baseband IQ signal acquired based on the first backscatter signal; second information sent by the third node; third information sent by a third node; the second information is used for indicating baseband IQ signals, the third information is used for indicating the number of the BSC devices, and the number of the BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signals. In this way, determining the number of BSC devices based on the baseband IQ signals acquired by the first backscatter signal can reduce signaling and time overhead required to acquire the number of BSC devices.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication system to which embodiments of the present application are applicable;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a backscatter communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a backscatter communication provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a second schematic diagram of a backscatter communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a third schematic diagram of a backscatter communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6a is a schematic diagram of a backscatter communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6b is a schematic diagram of a second embodiment of a backscatter communication system;

FIG. 6c is a third schematic diagram of a backscatter communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6d is a schematic diagram of a back-scattering communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6e is a schematic diagram of a back-scattering communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6f is a schematic diagram of a back-scattering communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6g is a schematic diagram of a back-scattering communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6h is a schematic diagram of a back-scattering communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a conventional inventory process;

FIG. 8 is a second schematic diagram of a conventional inventory process;

FIG. 9 is one of the flowcharts of a device number determination method provided in the embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a second flowchart of a method for determining the number of devices according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a third flowchart of a method for determining the number of devices according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of a probability value adjustment method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is one of the block diagrams of a device number determining apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 14 is a second block diagram of an apparatus number determining device provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15 is a third configuration diagram of an apparatus number determination device provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 17 is one of schematic structural diagrams of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 18 is a second schematic structural diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are some embodiments of the present application, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments in the present application are within the scope of the protection of the present application.

The terms first, second and the like in the description and in the claims, are used for distinguishing between similar objects and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the application are capable of operation in sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein, and that the terms "first" and "second" are generally intended to be used in a generic sense and not to limit the number of objects, for example, the first object may be one or more. Furthermore, in the description and claims, "and/or" means at least one of the connected objects, and the character "/" generally means a relationship in which the associated object is an "or" before and after.

It is noted that the techniques described in embodiments of the present application are not limited to long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE)/LTE evolution (LTE-Advanced, LTE-a) systems, but may also be used in other wireless communication systems, such as code division multiple access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA), time division multiple access (Time Division Multiple Access, TDMA), frequency division multiple access (Frequency Division Multiple Access, FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access, OFDMA), single carrier frequency division multiple access (Single-carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access, SC-FDMA), and other systems. The terms "system" and "network" in embodiments of the present application are often used interchangeably, and the techniques described may be used for both the above-mentioned systems and radio technologies, as well as other systems and radio technologies. The following description describes a New air interface (NR) system for purposes of example, and NR terminology is used in much of the description below, but these techniques The procedure can also be applied to applications other than NR system applications, such as generation 6 (6 ^th Generation, 6G) communication system.

Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of a wireless communication system to which embodiments of the present application are applicable. The wireless communication system includes a terminal 11 and a network device 12. The terminal 11 may be a mobile phone, a tablet (Tablet Personal Computer), a Laptop (Laptop Computer) or a terminal-side Device called a notebook, a personal digital assistant (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA), a palm top, a netbook, an ultra-mobile personal Computer (ultra-mobile personal Computer, UMPC), a mobile internet appliance (Mobile Internet Device, MID), an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR)/Virtual Reality (VR) Device, a robot, a Wearable Device (weather Device), a vehicle-mounted Device (VUE), a pedestrian terminal (PUE), a smart home (home Device with a wireless communication function, such as a refrigerator, a television, a washing machine, or a furniture), a game machine, a personal Computer (personal Computer, PC), a teller machine, or a self-service machine, and the Wearable Device includes: intelligent wrist-watch, intelligent bracelet, intelligent earphone, intelligent glasses, intelligent ornament (intelligent bracelet, intelligent ring, intelligent necklace, intelligent anklet, intelligent foot chain etc.), intelligent wrist strap, intelligent clothing etc.. Note that, the specific type of the terminal 11 is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. The network-side device 12 may comprise an access network device or a core network device, wherein the access network device 12 may also be referred to as a radio access network device, a radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN), a radio access network function or a radio access network element. Access network device 12 may include a base station, a WLAN access point, a WiFi node, or the like, which may be referred to as a node B, an evolved node B (eNB), an access point, a base transceiver station (Base Transceiver Station, BTS), a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a basic service set (Basic Service Set, BSS), an extended service set (Extended Service Set, ESS), a home node B, a home evolved node B, a transmission and reception point (Transmitting Receiving Point, TRP), or some other suitable terminology in the art, and the base station is not limited to a particular technical vocabulary so long as the same technical effect is achieved, and it should be noted that in the embodiments of the present application, only a base station in an NR system is described as an example, and the specific type of the base station is not limited. The core network device may include, but is not limited to, at least one of: core network nodes, core network functions, mobility management entities (Mobility Management Entity, MME), access mobility management functions (Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF), session management functions (Session Management Function, SMF), user plane functions (User Plane Function, UPF), policy control functions (Policy Control Function, PCF), policy and charging rules function units (Policy and Charging Rules Function, PCRF), edge application service discovery functions (Edge Application Server Discovery Function, EASDF), unified data management (Unified Data Management, UDM), unified data repository (Unified Data Repository, UDR), home subscriber server (Home Subscriber Server, HSS), centralized network configuration (Centralized network configuration, CNC), network storage functions (Network Repository Function, NRF), network opening functions (Network Exposure Function, NEF), local NEF (or L-NEF), binding support functions (Binding Support Function, BSF), application functions (Application Function, AF), and the like. In the embodiment of the present application, only the core network device in the NR system is described as an example, and the specific type of the core network device is not limited.

In order to facilitate a better understanding of the embodiments of the present application, the following technical points are first described below.

1. Regarding backscatter communications (Backscatter Communication, BSC)

Backscatter communication refers to the transmission of its own information by signal modulation of radio frequency signals in other devices or environments by a backscatter communication device. As shown in fig. 2, the backscatter communication device (i.e., BSC device) may be:

BSC devices in traditional RFID, typically a Tag (Tag), belong to Passive IoT devices (Passive-IoT);

semi-passive (semi-passive) tags, the downstream reception or upstream reflection of such tags has a certain amplifying capability.

In addition, tag (Active Tag) with active transmission capability, such terminals can send information to a Reader without relying on reflection of an incoming signal.

As shown in fig. 3, the back-scattering communication principle is schematically shown, where PA is a power amplifier, LNA is a low noise amplifier, clock is a Clock module, logic is a Logic module, RF harveser is a radio frequency receiver, and Demod is a demodulator. A simple implementation is that when a Tag needs to send a '1', the Tag reflects the incoming carrier signal and when the Tag needs to send a '0', it does not.

The backscatter communication device controls the reflection coefficient Γ of the circuit by adjusting its internal impedance, thereby changing the amplitude, frequency, phase, etc. of the incident signal, effecting modulation of the signal. Wherein the reflection coefficient of the signal can be characterized as:

wherein Z is ₀ For the characteristic impedance of the antenna, Z ₁ Is the load impedance. Let the incident signal be S _in (t) the output signal isThus, by reasonably controlling the reflection coefficient, a corresponding amplitude modulation, frequency modulation or phase modulation can be achieved. The architecture of typical backscatter communications can be divided into single-base systems and dual-base systems.

1.1 about monobase systems

Fig. 4 shows a monostatic backscatter communication system, typically a conventional RFID system, including BSC devices (e.g., tags) and readers. The reader/writer includes a Radio Frequency (RF) source and a BSC receiver, wherein the RF source is configured to generate an excitation signal, typically a Continuous Wave (CW), to power and provide the BSC device with the carrier. The BSC equipment modulates and backscatter CW, and the BSC receiving end in the reader-writer receives the backscatter signal and then demodulates the signal. Because the RF source and the BSC receiving end are in the same device, such as a reader-writer herein, it is known as a single-base backscatter communication system. In this system, since the excitation signal transmitted from the BSC apparatus causes a double near-far effect through signal attenuation of the round trip signal, the energy attenuation of the signal is large, so that the single-base system is generally used for short-range backscatter communication, such as conventional RFID applications.

1.2 bistatic systems

As shown in fig. 5, unlike the single-base system, the RF source and the BSC receiving end in the dual-base system are separated. Thus, the bistatic system avoids the problem of large round trip signal attenuation, and in addition, the performance of the backscatter communication system can be further improved by the reasonable placement of the RF source.

2. Backscatter communication system under cellular networking

In cellular networks, the backscatter communication systems can be specifically divided into 8 architectures as shown in table 1 and fig. 6a to 6h, from the differences in RF radio frequency sources, uplink, downlink.

As shown in table 1, in architecture 1 shown in fig. 6a, the base station is an RF radio frequency source, and is also a downlink transmitting end (i.e., a control command transmitting end) of the BSC apparatus and an uplink receiving end (i.e., a BSC receiving end) of the BSC apparatus, that is, the base station directly communicates with the BSC apparatus at this time. The deployment architecture has high requirements on the receiving sensitivity of the base station and the BSC equipment, but is simple to deploy.

In architecture 2 shown in fig. 6b, the base station is also an RF radio source, but there is now a Relay device (Relay) for relaying the BSC device to the base station's uplink; the Relay may also Relay the base station to the BSC device's downlink.

In architecture 3, user Equipment (UE) is used for RF radio sources, downlink and uplink forwarding BSC devices to base stations.

Architecture 3-1a shown in fig. 6 c: the base station is an RF radio frequency source, and directly transmits downlink data to BSC equipment; in the uplink, BSC equipment sends back scattered signal to UE and then the signal is forwarded to base station

Architecture 3-1b shown in fig. 6 d: the UE is an RF radio frequency source, and the base station directly transmits downlink data to BSC equipment; in the uplink, BSC equipment sends back scattered signal to UE and then the signal is forwarded to base station

Architecture 3-2a shown in fig. 6 e: the base station is an RF radio frequency source, firstly transmits downlink data to the UE, and then the UE forwards the downlink data to BSC equipment; in the uplink, the BSC device sends back-scattered signals directly to the base station

Architecture 3-2b shown in fig. 6 f: the UE is an RF radio frequency source, the base station firstly transmits downlink data to the UE, and then the downlink data is forwarded to BSC equipment by the UE; in the uplink, the BSC device sends back-scattered signals directly to the base station

Architecture 3-3a shown in fig. 6 g: the base station is an RF radio frequency source, firstly transmits downlink data to the UE, and then the UE forwards the downlink data to BSC equipment; in the uplink, BSC equipment sends back scattered signals to UE, which is then forwarded to the base station

Architecture 3-3b shown in fig. 6 h: the UE is an RF radio frequency source, the base station firstly transmits downlink data to the UE, and then the downlink data is forwarded to BSC equipment by the UE; in the uplink, BSC equipment sends back scattered signals to UE, which is then forwarded to the base station

Table 1: exemplary architecture for backscatter communications under cellular networking

Architecture for a computer system	Downlink link	Uplink channel	RF source provider
				1	Base station->BSC device	BSC device>Base station	Base station
2	Base station->BSC device	BSC device>Relay->Base station	Base station
				3-1a	Base station->BSC device	BSC device>UE->Base station	Base station
3-1b	Base station->BSC device	BSC device>UE->Base station	UE
				3-2a	Base station->UE->BSC device	BSC device>Base station	Base station
3-2b	Base station->UE->BSC device	BSC device>Base station	UE
				3-3a	Base station->UE->BSC device	BSC device>UE->Base station	Base station
3-3b	Base station->UE->BSC device	BSC device>UE->Base station	UE

3. RFID Tag inventory flow

RFID is a conventional backscatter communication system, and the main design goal is to identify the ID and read the data of BSC devices (i.e., tags) within the coverage of a reader-writer. Since RFID is originally applied to automated inventory of a large number of goods, the process of identifying tags and reading data is also referred to as inventory.

Taking the EPC C1G2RFID system defined in ISO 18000-6C as an example, FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram of a Tag inventory flow. After the reader sends a Query instruction (Query), the Tag responds with a response (Reply), taking the Reply as RN16 as an example, and the Tag generates a 16-bit random number and sends the random number to the reader. And then the reader sends the sequence to the Tag through an ACK instruction, and after the Tag successfully verifies the RN16 in the ACK, the reader sends subsequent data (such as PC/XPC, EPC and the like) to the reader. If EPC is valid, queryrep or other command is used (Queryrep or other command if EPC is valid); if EPC is not valid, NAK (NAK if EPC is invalid) is used.

Obviously, there may be a plurality of or even a large number of tags within the coverage area of the reader, and if the inventory procedure of a single Tag is directly applied to the scene of a plurality of tags, the situation that the signals collide and cannot be decoded because the plurality of tags simultaneously send the backscatter signals will occur. Thus, to accommodate the scenario of multiple tags, RFID systems typically have competing access mechanisms that manage collisions. Likewise, taking EPC C1G2RFID system as an example, fig. 8 shows a schematic inventory flow chart combined with a contention access mechanism, and the specific flow chart is as follows:

(1) The reader-writer sends a Select command to Select the Tag to be checked;

(2) The reader sends a Query command to start a round of inventory, wherein the Query indicates a Q value;

(3) All tags generate a random integer in the range of [0,2Q-1] as the initial value of the counter;

(4) The Tag checks whether the counter is 0;

(5a) If the counter of the Tag is 0, the Tag with the counter of 0 sends Reply, which contains a randomly generated 16-bit random number and is marked as RN16;

(6a) If the reader/writer decodes RN16 successfully, the reader/writer sends an ACK command comprising the RN16 and a command field of 2 bits;

(7) The Tag receives the ACK and checks whether the RN16 contained in the ACK is the RN16 transmitted before;

(8a) If the RN16 is correct, the correct Tag of the RN16 is checked to finish checking the Tag by sending data to be reported to the reader-writer, such as PC, XPC, EPC or other data;

(8b) [ if RN16 error ] Tag to check RN16 error sets its own counter to maximum;

(6b) If the reader/writer fails to decode RN16, the reader/writer sends a NAK command;

(9) If the Tag receiving the NAK command sends a Reply at the last adjacent time sequence, setting a self counter to be a maximum value;

(5b) If the counter without Tag is 0, the reader sends a QueryRep command;

(10) The Tag receiving the QueryRep command will itself counter-1;

(11) The optional reader/writer may send a query adjust command to reconfigure a Q value;

(12) Receiving a QueryAdjust command and randomly selecting an integer as a counter within the range of [0,2Q-1] when the Tag of the inventory is not completed;

repeating the steps (4) - (12) until all the Tag counting is completed.

It should be noted that, in order to solve the conflict problem, a lot of extra signaling and time overhead is required for completing one check of all the tags, for example, the Tag needs to wait for the counter to be 0; the RN16 needs to be repeatedly transmitted until the RN16 is correctly and uniquely identified by the reader/writer before the Tag transmits valid data.

4. Method for obtaining Tag number

4.1: the information of all tags in the coverage area of the reader-writer can be obtained through the inventory process in the RFID Tag inventory process in step 3, wherein the information comprises the quantity, PC/XPC/EPC and the like.

4.2: counting channel time domain observation results in RFID inventory process

As can be seen from the RFID Tag inventory flow in fig. 3, after the reader transmits Query or Query rep, three cases may occur, i.e., no Tag transmits Reply (i.e., the counter of all tags is not 0), only one Tag transmits Reply (i.e., the counter of only one Tag is 0), and more than one Tag transmits Reply (i.e., the counter of more than one Tag is 0). When more than one Tag sends Reply, their signals will collide with each other, making the reader-writer unable to decode, which is one of the reasons why the efficiency of the conventional inventory flow to read a large number of tags is low.

However, based on the received signal strength RSS, the reader/writer is able to distinguish between the case where the channel is idle (no Tag transmits Reply) and the case where the channel is busy (at least one Tag transmits Reply). Each Tag, after receiving a Query or a Query rep, statistically transmits a Reply containing RN16 with a probability of 2 ^-Q . Therefore, the reader/writer can fix the Q value, then count the number of idle and busy channels after sending Query or Query rep, and then estimate the total number of tags according to the following equation:

Wherein,for the Tag number estimation value, K ₁ And K ₂ The number of idle and busy times, respectively.

It should be noted that, the selection of the Q value is particularly important, and when Q is too large or too small, the observation is biased to be all idle or all busy, so that the confidence of the estimation result is low.

To solve this problem, the time may be divided into a plurality of longer times, each of which is called one step. In each step, the Q value is fixed, and the reader counts the number of times that the channel is idle and busy after sending Query or QueryRep. If the confidence of the observed result is lower, the reader-writer adjusts the Q value and continues the next observation until the observed result meets the requirement. In general, the Q value may be set to increase as the number of steps increases.

The method, the device and the electronic equipment for determining the number of the devices provided by the embodiment of the application are described in detail below by means of some embodiments and application scenes of the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 is a flowchart of a device number determining method provided in an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 9, the device number determining method includes the following steps:

step 101, a first node sends first information to a backscatter communication BSC device, where the first information is used to instruct the BSC device to send a first backscatter signal.

The first node may be a base station, UE or reader/writer. The reader may be a dedicated reader. The BSC device may be an RFID Tag, or a passive internet of things (Internet of things, ioT) device, or a semi-passive IoT device, or an active IoT device, or the like.

Step 102, the first node determines the number of BSC devices based on target information;

wherein the target information includes at least one of:

a baseband IQ signal acquired based on the first backscatter signal;

second information sent by the third node;

third information sent by a third node;

In addition, the third node may be a base station, UE, relay or reader, and the reader may be a dedicated reader. The third node can acquire a baseband IQ signal based on a first back-scattered signal sent by back-scattered communication BSC equipment, and send second information to the first node; alternatively, the third node may obtain the number of BSC devices based on the baseband IQ signal, and send third information to the first node.

In addition, the third node may receive a first backscatter signal transmitted by the BSC device on a target signal frequency during a target period, and obtain a baseband IQ signal based on the first backscatter signal; further, the third node may perform clustering based on the baseband IQ signal, and determine the number of BSC devices based on a clustering result.

Taking the target information including the second information sent by the third node or the third information sent by the third node as an example, the third node may be T after the end of the first information transmission ₁ ～T ₂ +T ₁ Within a time of + [ delta ] T, at a frequency f ₁ And receiving and measuring the first backscatter signal. Where Δt is an optional parameter, Δt may be used to indicate the maximum delay of the first backscattered signal of the BSC apparatus to reach the third node. T (T) ₁ For a target time interval, T ₂ For the total time of transmission of the first backscatter signal, frequency f ₁ Is the target signal frequency of the first backscatter signal.

In addition, the third node may obtain configuration information of the first backscatter signal by at least one of: indication information sent by the first node; the monitored first information is used for indicating the BSC equipment to send the first back scattering signal; and presetting configuration.

In addition, the first node may indicate auxiliary information required to determine the number of BSC apparatuses to the third node through eighth information, which may include: average received power of the historic BSC device backscatter signal; or the third node may employ default assistance information required for determining the first quantity value of the BSC device.

It should be noted that the first node and the third node may be disposed on the same hardware device, or may be disposed on different hardware devices. For example, the first node and the third node may be electronic devices, for example, may be a terminal or a network side device.

In addition, the BSC apparatus may be a BSC apparatus participating in the number estimation. It should be appreciated that determining the number of BSC devices may also be referred to as estimating the number of BSC devices.

In addition, the first information may also be used to indicate configuration information of the first backscatter signal; alternatively, the configuration information of the first backscatter signal is preconfigured on the BSC apparatus; or the configuration information of the first backscatter signal may be indicated in part by the first information, in part pre-configured on the BSC device; etc., the present embodiment is not limited thereto.

In one embodiment, the number of BSC devices is obtained based on a clustering result obtained by clustering the baseband IQ signals.

In one embodiment, the first node determining the number of BSC devices based on target information may include: the first node acquires a baseband IQ signal based on a first back scattering signal sent by BSC equipment; and the first node performs clustering processing based on the baseband IQ signals, and determines the quantity of the BSC equipment based on a clustering result. The first node obtains a baseband IQ signal based on a first backscatter signal sent by the BSC device, and may include: the first node obtains baseband IQ signals in the multi-round iteration process based on a first back scattering signal sent by BSC equipment in the multi-round iteration process; the first node performs clustering processing based on the baseband IQ signal, and determines the number of BSC devices based on a clustering result, which may include: the first node performs clustering processing based on baseband IQ signals in the multi-round iteration process, and determines the sum of the number of devices in the multi-round iteration process based on a clustering result; the number of the BSC devices is the sum of the number of the devices in the multi-round iteration process.

It should be noted that, in the multiple iteration process, after the clustering result is valid and the number of BSC apparatuses is successfully estimated, the first node may send fourth information to indicate that the BSC apparatus that has sent the first backscatter signal in the previous iteration remains silent in the subsequent stage, and does not participate in the remaining iteration process any more. In addition, after each iteration, the first node may re-determine and indicate configuration information for the first backscatter signal.

In addition, the condition for triggering the multi-round iteration process to stop iteration comprises any one of the following:

the number of times that the clustering result is invalid is greater than or equal to a first preset number of times;

the iteration times are greater than or equal to the second preset times;

the iteration total time is greater than or equal to the preset time;

the first node receives the preset information.

In one embodiment, the clustering result obtained by clustering the baseband IQ signals includes a number of categories K ', and the number of BSC devices may be obtained by using the number of categories K' and the modulation order K of the first backscatter signal, for example, the number N of BSC devices _est The method comprises the following steps:

N _est ＝log _K (K')。

in one embodiment, the process of obtaining the number of categories K' may include: constructing sample points: representing the baseband IQ signals as two-dimensional data samples, wherein each group of baseband IQ signal record values (instantaneous sampling values) corresponds to one data sample point; removing abnormal values, such as removing data with overlarge distance average value; smoothing data, such as taking average value of data sample points at adjacent moments and combining the average value into one sample point; the category number K' of all data sample points is obtained by a density-based clustering method.

It should be noted that, if the number of BSC devices is different, the states of the superimposed signals of the received first backscatter signals are different, and the number of categories K' corresponding to the baseband IQ signals is different. For N BSC devices, the modulation order is K, and the total state number of the superimposed signal is K ^N The number of the center points of the clustering result corresponding to the two-dimensional plane is K ^N I.e. the number of categories K' is K ^N . The data samples of the baseband IQ signals can be clustered to obtain center points corresponding to different superposition signal states and the number of the center points.

It should be appreciated that IQ signals are in-phase quadrature signals. I is In-Phase and Q is Quadrature. The method for acquiring the baseband IQ signal may include any one of the following: sampling the bandpass signal corresponding to the first back scattering signal, and performing digital signal processing on the sampling result to obtain a baseband IQ signal; and converting the band-pass signal corresponding to the first back scattering signal to a baseband, and sampling the conversion result to obtain a baseband IQ signal.

In addition, the transmission time of the first backscatter signal may be determined by the BSC apparatus; or the transmission time of the first backscatter signal is determined based on any one of: the first node transmits sixth information; seventh information transmitted by the second node. Illustratively, the BSC apparatus may autonomously decide the start of each time slot in time units of the time slot in which the first backscatter signal is transmitted; or, the first node transmits the sixth information or the second node transmits the seventh information indicating the start of each slot.

It should be noted that, in the related art, in the RFID backscatter communication system, the reader-writer may execute a complete inventory procedure to obtain the number of BSC devices (i.e., tags) within its coverage area; the number of BSC devices may also be estimated using the relationship between the dynamic behavior pattern of the BSC devices transmitting the backscatter signal in the inventory process and the time domain observation statistics of the channel. For the former, the inventory procedure needs to be completely executed to obtain the number of BSC devices, and when the reader-writer does not need to read other information of the Tag, such as application scenes of goods number estimation, running the inventory procedure to obtain the number of BSC devices will generate unnecessary signaling and time overhead. For the latter, because the reliability and confidence of the observations are heavily dependent on the dynamic behavior pattern configuration (e.g., Q-value size) of the backscattered signal transmitted by the BSC device, a poor search is required to obtain a suitable configuration, resulting in a multiple increase in overhead. Meanwhile, one transmission opportunity (such as a Query or a Query rep command sent by a reader-writer in RFID) corresponding to BSC equipment is observed once, so that the time for obtaining the observation result is longer, and the scalability of coping with a large number of BSC equipment is lacking. Overall, there is still a lack of reliable and efficient BSC device number estimation methods in the related art.

It should be understood that the method for determining the number of devices in the embodiments of the present application may be applied to a scenario of estimating the number of cargoes, where the BSC devices are cargoes to be estimated, and the number of BSC devices is the estimated number of cargoes. Or the device number determining method can also be applied to other scenes of estimating the number of devices, the BSC device is the device to be estimated, and the number of the BSC device is the estimated number of the devices.

The embodiment of the application provides a device quantity determining method for estimating the quantity of BSC devices, which can be deduced by analyzing superimposed IQ signals generated when BSC devices simultaneously send back scattering signals. Specifically, configuration parameters of the BSC apparatus and each node participating in the number estimation and an indication method thereof, and a method of receiving, measuring, processing, and analyzing signals are defined. Compared with the method for estimating the quantity of BSC equipment through checking flow, the method for estimating the quantity of BSC equipment can greatly reduce time expenditure and improve estimation efficiency. Meanwhile, the embodiment of the application realizes the dynamic configuration and iterative operation modes of parameters, and can keep higher scalability when coping with different equipment numbers.

It should be noted that the method for determining the number of devices in the embodiments of the present application may be applied to a backscatter communication system, including RFID, LTE, NB-IoT, NR, IEEE 802.11 evolution systems, etc.

Optionally, the first information is further used to indicate at least one of:

related information of the BSC equipment;

synchronization information;

configuration information of the first backscatter signal.

The related information of the BSC device may include identification information of the BSC device. The relevant information for the BSC device may include, for example, a mask for matching ID, EPC, PC/XPC, internal memory location specific content, sensor results, etc. EPC is electronic commodity code (Eletronic Product Code), and PC/XPC is Protocol Control/extended Protocol Control (Protocol Control/Extended Protocol Control) information.

It should be understood that the information about the BSC devices may be used to indicate the BSC devices involved in the number estimation.

In one embodiment, the BSC device indicated by the relevant information of the BSC device may be all BSC devices within the coverage area of the first node.

In this embodiment, the first information indicates the related information of the BSC apparatuses, so that the BSC apparatuses participating in the number estimation can be indicated by the first information; the first information indicates synchronization information such that the first information can be aligned by the synchronization information; the first information indicates configuration information of the first backscatter signal, so that the configuration information of the first backscatter signal can be acquired through the first information.

Optionally, the configuration information of the first backscatter signal includes at least one of:

signal power information;

a dynamic mode of transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting total time information;

time contract information;

a target signal frequency;

a data type for transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting a modulation order of the first backscatter signal;

a target time interval, the target time interval being a time interval between the BSC device receiving information and transmitting the first backscatter signal.

The signal power information may be used to indicate, among other things, the power p1 or a power-related value, e.g., level, impedance, reflection coefficient, etc., of the first backscatter signal transmitted by the BSC device. The dynamic pattern of transmitting the first backscatter signal may include a probability of transmitting the signal at a specified time or slot, a time and/or frequency domain pattern of transmitting the signal. Taking the probability that the dynamic mode includes transmitting a signal at a specified time or time slot as an example, if the probability is denoted as p, the BSC device randomly generates a random number between 0 and 1 before the specified time or time slot begins, if the random number<p, signals are transmitted in a designated time or slot. The total time information may include the total time T at which the BSC device transmits the first backscatter signal ₂ Or the total number of time slots. The time engagement information may include a definition of a time slot, such as an absolute length of time a time slot corresponds to transmitting one symbol or bit, or a time slot corresponds to a transmission opportunity. The transmission opportunity may refer to transmitting a segment of data of the BSC device, and the length may not be fixed until the end of transmission is the end of a slot, and for the transmission opportunity, the UE may autonomously access, or the first node/second node may send an additional signaling trigger. The target signal frequency may be the frequency f at which the BSC device transmits the first backscatter signal ₁ . The data type of the transmitted first backscatter signal may include random data that conforms to a particular pattern, and/or data that the BSC device intends to report, etc. The modulation order of transmitting the first backscatter signal may be the modulation order K of the BSC apparatus transmitting the first backscatter signal.

In one embodiment, the target time interval may be a time interval T1 between the time when the BSC device receives the first information and the time when the first backscatter signal is transmitted.

Optionally, the synchronization information includes at least one of:

a pilot signal;

preamble sequence information;

system time information;

separator information.

In one embodiment, the preamble sequence information may include a preamble sequence, and for example, the preamble sequence information may include a Barker sequence, a ZC sequence, or the like.

In one embodiment, the system time information may include a system frame number (System frame number, SFN), or a slot counter, or a slot number, etc.

In one embodiment, the delimiter information may include an end delimiter to facilitate alignment of the BSC device with the location where the first information ends.

Optionally, the manner in which the first information indicates the configuration information of the first backscatter signal includes:

Direct indication, or indication of one of a plurality of sets of configuration information;

and/or

Explicit indication, or implicit indication.

In one embodiment, the first information may explicitly indicate configuration information of the first backscatter signal; or the first information may implicitly indicate configuration information of the first backscatter signal.

Wherein the explicit indication may be configuration information directly indicating the first backscatter signal and the implicit indication may be configuration information indirectly indicating the first backscatter signal by indicating the associated information.

In one embodiment, the first information may directly indicate configuration information of the first backscatter signal; or the first information may indicate one of a preset plurality of sets of configuration information as the configuration information of the first backscatter signal.

Optionally, the first node determines the number of BSC devices based on the target information, including:

and the first node performs clustering processing based on the baseband IQ signals, and determines the quantity of the BSC equipment based on a clustering result.

In one embodiment, the determining the number of BSC devices based on the clustering result includes: determining the number of BSC devices based on the clustering result under the condition that the clustering result is determined to be effective; wherein the condition that the clustering result is valid comprises at least one of the following: the clustering result is a positive integer exponent of the modulation order corresponding to the first backscatter signal; the class center point of the clustering result meets the preset characteristic; the characteristics of the baseband IQ signal do not match the noise characteristics.

Wherein the condition that the clustering result is valid comprises at least one of the following: the clustering result is a positive integer exponent of the modulation order corresponding to the first backscatter signal; the class center point of the clustering result meets the preset characteristic; the characteristics of the baseband IQ signal do not match the noise characteristics.

In addition, the clustering result may include the number of categories, for example, when the BSC device adopts 2-order modulation, the number of categories after clustering satisfies 2 ⁿ The clustering result can be considered to be valid, and n is any positive integer. The class center point of the clustering result satisfies a preset feature, which may be a non-pathological feature, and the pathological feature may include: any connection line of the center points on the two-dimensional plane cannot form a regular polygon, and the distance between the nearest or farthest two center points is smaller or larger than a stipulated threshold value. The characteristics of the baseband IQ signal do not match noise characteristics, which may be that the measured average power of the baseband IQ signal is close to the noise power, or that the variance of all data samples is close to the noise power.

In one embodiment, the determining the number of BSC devices based on the clustering result includes: and determining the quantity of the BSC equipment based on the clustering result and the modulation order corresponding to the first back scattering signal.

In this embodiment, the first node performs clustering based on the baseband IQ signals, and determines the number of BSC devices based on the clustering result, so that the number of BSC devices can be determined by the clustering result of the baseband IQ signals acquired by the first backscatter signal, thereby reducing signaling and time overhead required for acquiring the number of BSC devices.

Optionally, after the first node determines the number of BSC devices based on the target information, the method further includes:

the first node transmits fourth information to the BSC apparatus, the fourth information indicating that the BSC apparatus that has transmitted the first backscatter signal no longer transmits a backscatter signal.

In this embodiment, the first node sends fourth information to the BSC device, where the fourth information is used to indicate that the BSC device that has sent the first backscatter signal does not send the backscatter signal any more, so that it is able to avoid that the BSC device that has completed the number estimation participates in the number estimation process again, and it is able to estimate the number of BSC devices more accurately.

Optionally, the configuration information of the first backscatter signal is determined based on a reference number of the BSC devices.

In this embodiment, the configuration information of the first backscatter signal is determined based on the reference number of BSC apparatuses, so that the number value of BSC apparatuses can be determined by the first backscatter signal determined by the reference number of BSC apparatuses, and signaling and time overhead required for obtaining the number of BSC apparatuses can be reduced.

Optionally, the reference number of BSC devices is determined based on at least one of:

history information of the BSC device stored by the first node or the third node;

and measuring a second back scattering signal sent by the BSC equipment.

Wherein the measurement result may also be referred to as measurement information. The measurement may include a received signal strength RSS, based on which a reference number of BSC devices is estimated. The RSS may comprise a reference signal received power (Reference Signal Received Power, RSRP) and/or a reference signal received quality (Reference Signal Received Quality, RSRQ) or the like measured in relation to the received signal power. For example, the BSC device may be instructed to transmit the second backscatter signal at a specified power, time, frequency, etc.

The measurement result may comprise, for example, a signal quality, provided that the signal quality of the measured first backscattered signal corresponds to Is P ₁ The average received power of the BSC equipment with historical records is P _avg The reference number of BSC devices may be determined as: n (N) _ref ＝P ₁ /P _avg 。

In this embodiment, the reference number of the BSC devices is determined according to the history information of the BSC devices stored in the first node or the third node, so that the reference number of the BSC devices can be determined relatively quickly; the reference number of the BSC devices is determined according to the measurement result of the second back-scattered signals sent by the BSC devices, so that the number of the BSC devices can be determined according to the back-scattered signals sent by the BSC devices twice, and the signaling and time cost for obtaining the number of the BSC devices can be reduced.

Optionally, the first backscatter signal is transmitted based on an excitation signal, the excitation signal being transmitted for the first node or the second node.

The excitation signal may be a continuous carrier wave CW. The first node may send an excitation signal to the BSC device; or, the first node may send fifth information to the second node, instructing the second node to send an excitation signal to the BSC apparatus; alternatively, the second node may monitor the first information for a relevant configuration to send the excitation signal, and send the excitation signal to the BSC device.

In this way, the BSC apparatus may transmit the first backscatter signal according to the configuration information of the first backscatter signal using the excitation signal transmitted by the first node or the second node. The node providing the stimulus signal and the node transmitting the first information, i.e. the control command, may thus be the same node or may be different nodes.

Optionally, the excitation signal is sent by the second node based on fifth information sent by the first node, or the excitation signal is sent by the second node based on monitored first information, where the fifth information is used to instruct the second node to send the excitation signal to the BSC device.

It should be noted that the first node and the second node may be disposed on the same hardware device, or may be disposed on different hardware devices. For example, the first node and the second node may both be electronic devices, for example, may be terminals or network side devices.

In this embodiment, the second node monitors the first information to obtain a relevant configuration for sending an excitation signal, sends the excitation signal to the BSC device, and the BSC device sends a first backscatter signal based on the excitation signal; or the first node sends fifth information to the second node, instructs the second node to send the excitation signal to the BSC device, and the second node sends the excitation signal to the BSC device, so that the node providing the excitation signal and the node sending the control command are separated.

Optionally, the information received by the BSC device is transmitted through at least one of the following signaling:

target Control commands, radio resource Control (Radio Resource Control, RRC), medium access Control (Medium Access Control, MAC) Control Element (CE), downlink Control information (Downlink Control Information, DCI), side link Control information (Sidelink Control Information, SCI), physical frame preamble (preamble);

the signaling is carried by at least one of:

target radio signal waveform, physical downlink shared channel (Physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH), physical downlink control channel (Physical downlink control channel, PDCCH), physical sidelink control channel (Physical SideLink Control Channel, PSCCH), physical sidelink shared channel (Physical SideLink Shared Channel, PSSCH), physical frame.

The information received by the BSC device may include one or more of first information, fourth information, sixth information, and seventh information.

In addition, the target control command may be a dedicated control command. The target wireless signal waveform may be a dedicated wireless signal waveform, such as a pulse width encoded (Pulse interval encoding, PIE) encoded Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) modulated signal.

Optionally, the interaction information among the first node, the second node and the third node is transmitted through at least one of the following signaling:

RRC, MAC CE, DCI, uplink control information (Uplink Control Information, UCI), SCI;

the signaling is carried by at least one of:

PDSCH, physical uplink shared channel (Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH), PDCCH, physical uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH), PSCCH, PSSCH.

The interaction information among the first node, the second node and the third node can comprise one or more of second information, third information, fifth information and eighth information.

Referring to fig. 10, fig. 10 is a flowchart of a device number determining method provided in an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 10, the device number determining method includes the following steps:

step 201, a third node obtains a baseband IQ signal based on a first back scattering signal sent by a BSC device;

step 202, the third node sends second information or third information to the first node, where the second information is used to indicate the baseband IQ signal, and the third information is used to indicate the number of BSC devices;

Wherein the number of BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signal.

Optionally, before the third node sends the second information or the third information to the first node, the method further includes:

and the third node performs clustering processing based on the baseband IQ signals, and determines the quantity of the BSC equipment based on a clustering result.

Optionally, the determining the number of BSC devices based on the clustering result includes:

and determining the quantity of the BSC equipment based on the clustering result and the modulation order corresponding to the first back scattering signal.

determining the number of BSC devices based on the clustering result when the clustering result is determined to be valid;

wherein the condition that the clustering result is valid comprises at least one of the following:

the clustering result is a positive integer exponent of the modulation order corresponding to the first backscatter signal;

the class center point of the clustering result meets the preset characteristic;

the characteristics of the baseband IQ signal do not match the noise characteristics.

Optionally, the third node obtains a baseband IQ signal based on the first backscatter signal sent by the BSC apparatus, including:

The third node receives a first back-scattered signal sent by the BSC device on a target signal frequency in a target period;

the third node obtains a baseband IQ signal based on the first backscatter signal.

Optionally, the target period is determined based on the total time information of transmission of the first backscatter signal; or alternatively

The target period is determined based on the total time information of the transmission of the first backscatter signal and a target time interval between when the BSC apparatus receives information and when the first backscatter signal is transmitted, where the first information is used to instruct the BSC apparatus to transmit the first backscatter signal.

Optionally, the acquiring manner of the baseband IQ signal includes any one of the following:

sampling the bandpass signal corresponding to the first back scattering signal, and performing digital signal processing on the sampling result to obtain a baseband IQ signal;

and converting the band-pass signal corresponding to the first back scattering signal to a baseband, and sampling the conversion result to obtain a baseband IQ signal.

Optionally, before the third node obtains the baseband IQ signal based on the first backscatter signal sent by the BSC apparatus, the method further includes:

And the third node acquires the configuration information of the first back-scattered signal and receives the first back-scattered signal sent by the BSC equipment based on the configuration information of the first back-scattered signal.

Optionally, the third node obtains the configuration information of the first backscatter signal by at least one of:

indication information sent by the first node;

the monitored first information is used for indicating the BSC equipment to send the first back scattering signal;

and presetting configuration.

the third node obtains baseband IQ signals in the multi-round iteration process based on a first back scattering signal sent by BSC equipment in the multi-round iteration process;

the third node performs clustering processing based on the baseband IQ signal, and determines the number of the BSC devices based on a clustering result, including:

the third node performs clustering processing based on the baseband IQ signals in the multi-round iteration process, and determines the sum of the number of devices in the multi-round iteration process based on a clustering result;

the number of the BSC devices is the sum of the number of the devices in the multi-round iteration process.

Optionally, the condition for triggering the multi-round iterative process to stop iteration includes any one of the following:

the iteration times are greater than or equal to the second preset times;

the iteration total time is greater than or equal to the preset time;

and the third node receives preset information.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, as an implementation manner of the third node corresponding to the embodiment shown in fig. 9, a specific implementation manner of the third node may refer to a description related to the embodiment shown in fig. 9, and in order to avoid repetitive description, this embodiment is not repeated. In this way, determining the number of BSC devices based on the baseband IQ signals acquired by the first backscatter signal can reduce signaling and time overhead required to acquire the number of BSC devices.

Referring to fig. 11, fig. 11 is a flowchart of a device number determining method provided in an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 11, the device number determining method includes the following steps:

step 301, receiving, by a BSC device, first information sent by a first node, where the first information is used to instruct the BSC device to send a first backscatter signal;

step 302, the BSC device sends the first backscatter signal, where the first backscatter signal is used to obtain the number of BSC devices, where the number of BSC devices is obtained based on a baseband IQ signal, and the baseband IQ signal is obtained based on the first backscatter signal.

Optionally, the first information is further used to indicate at least one of:

related information of the BSC equipment;

synchronization information;

configuration information of the first backscatter signal.

signal power information;

a dynamic mode of transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting total time information;

a target signal frequency;

a data type for transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting a modulation order of the first backscatter signal;

Optionally, the synchronization information includes at least one of:

a pilot signal;

preamble sequence information;

system time information;

separator information.

Optionally, after the BSC apparatus transmits the first backscatter signal, the method further includes:

the BSC device receives fourth information sent by the first node, where the fourth information is used to indicate that the BSC device that has sent the first backscatter signal no longer sends the backscatter signal.

Optionally, the transmission time of the first backscatter signal is determined by the BSC apparatus;

Or the transmission time of the first backscatter signal is determined based on any one of:

the first node transmits sixth information;

seventh information transmitted by the second node.

It should be noted that, as an implementation manner of the BSC apparatus corresponding to the embodiment shown in fig. 9, a specific implementation manner of the embodiment may refer to a description related to the embodiment shown in fig. 9, and in order to avoid repetitive description, this embodiment is not repeated. In this way, determining the number of BSC devices based on the baseband IQ signals acquired by the first backscatter signal can reduce signaling and time overhead required to acquire the number of BSC devices.

The following describes the device number determination method according to the embodiment of the present application by six specific embodiments:

the following six embodiments are described by taking two architectures as examples, including a single-base system architecture (for example, the first node, the second node and the third node are disposed on the same reader), and a decoupled cellular networking architecture (for example, the first node, the second node and the third node are disposed on different devices), and may also be extended to a dual-base system architecture and other cellular networking architectures.

Example 1:

in this embodiment, the device number determining method is applied to a single-base system architecture, and in this embodiment, the first node, the second node, and the third node are the same devices, and the first node, the second node, and the third node are described as an example of a reader-writer. The specific flow of this embodiment is as follows:

(1) The reader-writer determines parameters of the back scattering signals sent by the BSC equipment;

(1a) The parameters include at least one of:

power p at which BSC apparatus transmits backscatter signal ₁ Or power related values such as level, impedance, reflection coefficient, etc.;

the BSC device transmits a dynamic pattern of the backscattered signals, such as a probability of transmitting signals at a specified time or time slot, a time-domain and/or frequency-domain pattern of transmitted signals;

total time T for BSC device to transmit backscatter signal ₂ Or total number of time slots;

definition of a time slot, such as absolute time length of a time slot corresponding to transmission of one symbol or bit, or transmission opportunity of a time slot;

frequency f at which BSC device transmits backscatter signal ₁ ；

Time interval T between command reception and backscatter signal transmission by BSC device ₁ ；

The BSC device sends the data types of the back scattering signals, such as random data conforming to a specific mode, data which the BSC device intends to report, and the like;

the BSC apparatus transmits the modulation order K of the backscatter signal.

(1b) An example method of determining the parameters is as follows:

for frequency f ₁ May be the frequency of the excitation signal (e.g., CW); or a frequency different from the excitation signal;

for power, p ₁ Can be selected to be a channel noise power (denoted as N ₀ ) Of (e.g. let p) ₁ ＝N ₀ +3dB；

For dynamic mode, define T ₂ Or all time slotsFor one step, the probability of the BSC device transmitting the backscatter signal in one step is p _a Can choose p _a <<N _max /N _ref . Wherein N is _max For the maximum value of the number of devices which can be correctly estimated from the baseband IQ signal and is supported by the reader/writer, the reference value is N _max ＝log _K (K _max )，K _max Maximum number of classes, N, of two-dimensional data samples constructed from baseband IQ signals that can be clustered correctly for a reader _ref A reference value for the number of BSC devices, where "<<"characterized by being much smaller;

for a slot, the definition of a slot may be the absolute length of time to transmit one symbol or bit, such as the time required to transmit 1bit with OOK modulation; or a transmission opportunity, such as sending a temporary identifier (such as RN 16), PC/XPC/EPC, etc.;

the total time slot number can be arbitrarily valued, and the maximum value can be taken in the range of the maximum acceptable time delay of the reader-writer, and the maximum value is not unfolded here;

for the time interval, depending on the BSC device capabilities, this is not limiting;

for data types, depending on whether the data reported by the BSC device needs to be collected at the same time, the BSC device may choose to send random data (i.e., nonsensical data) that conforms to a specific pattern; or, let BSC equipment send the data intended to report;

The modulation order K is 2-order modulation (e.g., OOK modulation) by default, but may be other modulation orders, which are not limited herein.

(2) The reader sends a command, selects and instructs the BSC device to send a back scattering signal;

all BSC devices within the coverage range of the reader-writer are selected by default by the BSC device;

optionally, the command indicates a matching field and/or a matching condition, the BSC device receiving the command matches the self information with the matching field according to the given matching condition, and the BSC device successfully matched continues to participate in the rest flow;

optionally, the command instructs the BSC device to send part or all of the configuration of the backscatter signal, i.e. the parameters of step (1 a);

optionally, if the command indicates only a partial configuration or no indicated configuration, the BSC device adopts a default configuration agreed;

optionally, the command indicates synchronization information such as preamble sequence, system time information, end delimiter, etc.

(3) The reader/writer sends an excitation signal, e.g., an excitation signal, to the BSC device.

(4) The BSC device transmits the backscatter signal using the excitation signal of step (3) according to the parameters of step (1 a);

wherein the BSC device may autonomously determine the start of each time slot; or, before the beginning of each time slot, the reader stops sending the excitation signal, and sends a command to the BSC device to indicate the beginning of the time slot, and the BSC device is spaced by T ₁ And transmitting the backscatter signal.

(5) The reader-writer receives and measures the back scattering signal to obtain measurement information;

wherein the receiving and measuring the backscatter signal by the reader/writer may include:

sampling and recording a band-pass signal, and obtaining a baseband IQ signal through digital signal processing; or down-converting the band-pass signal to a baseband, sampling and recording a baseband IQ signal;

alternatively, if the frequency f ₁ The frequency of the excitation signal is the same as that of the original band-pass signal, and/or the band-pass signal after sampling, and/or the baseband IQ signal before sampling, and/or the baseband IQ signal after sampling, so that interference caused by the excitation signal can be eliminated.

(6) The reader-writer estimates the quantity of BSC equipment according to the parameters in the step (1 a) and the measurement information obtained in the step (5);

the method specifically comprises the following steps:

(6a) Constructing sample points: representing the baseband IQ signals as two-dimensional data samples, wherein each group of baseband IQ signal record values (instantaneous sampling values) corresponds to one data sample point;

(6b) Optionally, removing outliers, such as removing data with too large a distance average;

(6c) Optionally, smoothing the data, such as taking the average of the data sample points at adjacent moments and merging the data sample points into one sample point;

(6d) Obtaining the category number of all data sample points by a density-based clustering method;

(6e) Judging whether the clustering result is legal or not, if the clustering result is illegal, failing the BSC equipment quantity estimation process, otherwise continuing to step (6 f). Wherein the condition for determining that the clustering result is illegal comprises at least one of the following:

a first item: the number of classes obtained by step (6 d) is not the result of a positive integer power of the modulation order K of the transmitted second backscatter signal, e.g. when BSC equipment adopts 2-order modulation, the clustered number of classes needs to satisfy 2 ⁿ Wherein n is any positive integer;

the second item: the clustered class center points show pathological characteristics, such as that any connecting line of the center points on a two-dimensional plane cannot form a regular polygon, and the distance between two nearest or farthest center points is smaller or larger than a stipulated threshold value;

third item: the measurement information obtained by step (5) contains only noise, such as the average power of the baseband IQ signal measured by step (5) is close to the noise power, and the variance of all data samples is close to the noise power.

(6f) Obtaining the BSC equipment number N according to the class number K' obtained by clustering obtained in the step (6 d) and the modulation order K of the backscattering signals _est ：

N _est ＝log _K (K')

(7) Optionally, repeating the iterative steps (1) - (6) until the condition is met to stop the iteration;

After the clustering result is legal and the quantity of BSC equipment is successfully estimated, the reader-writer sends a command to instruct BSC equipment which sends back scattering signals in the previous iteration to keep silent in the subsequent stage, and the BSC equipment does not participate in the rest process;

the condition for stopping iteration may be that the triggering frequency of the condition in the third item in the step (6 e) reaches a predetermined threshold, that is, the frequency of the measurement information obtained in the step (5) only including noise reaches the predetermined threshold; or, the iteration times reach a stipulated threshold value; or, the iteration total time reaches a stipulated threshold value and the like;

after the iteration is stopped, the estimated value of the quantity of all BSC devices is the sum of the estimated values of the BSC devices obtained by each round of iteration.

Optionally, after each iteration, the reader re-determines and indicates the parameters of step (1 a);

for example, reselect p _a Let p _a <<N _max /N′ _ref Wherein N' _ref ＝N _ref -N _est 。

(8) In the above steps, the information or command sent by the reader/writer to the BSC apparatus may be included in at least one signaling such as dedicated control command, RRC signaling, MAC CE, DCI, SCI, physical frame preamble, etc., and may be carried by at least one mode such as dedicated wireless signal waveform (e.g. a pipe encoded ASK modulation signal), PDSCH, PDCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, and physical frame.

Example 2:

in this embodiment, the device number determining method is applied to a single-base system architecture, and in this embodiment, the first node, the second node, and the third node are the same devices, and the first node, the second node, and the third node are described in terms of a reader-writer, and in addition, the embodiment considers a reference value of the number of BSC devices unknown to the reader-writer. The specific flow of this embodiment is as follows:

most of the processes of the embodiment and the embodiment 1 are the same, and for avoiding redundant description, only the difference steps are shown, and the difference steps are as follows:

a step (1 b) of modifying the description of the third item in the step (1 b) with respect to the dynamic mode to define T for the dynamic mode ₂ Or all time slots are one step, the probability of the BSC device transmitting the backscatter signal in one step is p _a Can be selected to have any value of p in (0, 1) _a Such as 0.5;

step (7), the step (7) is modified as follows: repeating the steps (1) - (6) until the condition is met and stopping iteration;

The condition for stopping iteration may be that the triggering times of the third condition in the step (6 e) reach a default threshold; or, the iteration times reach a stipulated threshold value; or, the iteration total time reaches a stipulated threshold value and the like;

after iteration stops, the estimated value of the quantity of all BSC devices is the sum of the estimated values of the BSC devices obtained by each round of iteration;

after each iteration, the reader/writer redefines and indicates p _a One possible p is shown in FIG. 12 _a The adjustment mode is as follows:

if the clustering result is illegal and the condition described in the third item in the step (6 e) is not satisfied, namely the first condition, p is caused to be _a ＝βp _a Wherein β is a scaled value of less than 1 and greater than 0;

if the clustering result is legal and the number of categories is smaller than the appointed threshold, or if the clustering result is illegal and the condition of the third item in the step (6 e) is met, namely the second condition, enabling p _a ＝min(αp _a 1), wherein a is a scaled value greater than 1, min (·, ·) represents the smaller of the two values in brackets;

for the third case, except for the first case and the second case, p is maintained _a Unchanged;

alternatively, p may be adjusted with the average result of multiple iterations _a And are not described in detail herein.

Example 3:

in this embodiment, the device number determining method is applied to a cellular system architecture, and in this embodiment, the first node, the second node, and the third node are different devices, and the first node is a base station, the second node is a UE, and the third node is a relay, which are described in an example, and in addition, the present embodiment considers that the base station already stores history information about the number of BSC devices, and knows a reference value of the number of BSC devices. The specific flow of this embodiment is as follows:

(1) The base station determines parameters of the BSC equipment for sending the back scattering signals;

(1a) The parameters include at least one of:

frequency f at which BSC device transmits backscatter signal ₁ ；

the BSC apparatus transmits the modulation order K of the backscatter signal.

(1b) An example method of determining the parameters is as follows:

for frequency f ₁ May be the frequency of the excitation signal; or a frequency different from the excitation signal;

For dynamic mode, define T ₂ Or all time slots are one step, the probability of the BSC device transmitting the backscatter signal in one step is p _a Can choose p _a <<N _max /N _ref . Wherein N is _max For the maximum value of the number of devices supported by the base station, which can be estimated correctly from the baseband IQ signal, the reference value is N _max ＝log _K (K _max )，K _max Maximum number of classes of two-dimensional data samples constructed from baseband IQ signals that can be correctly clustered for a base station, wherein "<<"characterized by being much smaller;

the total time slot number can be arbitrarily valued, and the maximum value can be taken in the range of the maximum acceptable time delay of the base station, and the maximum value is not unfolded;

(2) The base station sends a command, selects and instructs the BSC equipment to send a back scattering signal;

the BSC equipment defaults to select all BSC equipment in the coverage range of the base station;

optionally, if the command indicates only a partial configuration, or there is no indicated configuration, the BSC device adopts a default configuration agreed;

(3) The UE listens for the command or the base station instructs the UE to send an excitation signal, e.g. an excitation signal, to the BSC device in step 2.

(4) The BSC apparatus transmits a backscatter signal using the excitation signal of step (3) according to the parameters of step (1 a).

The BSC equipment can autonomously determine the beginning of each time slot, or the UE stops sending the excitation signal before the beginning of each time slot; the base station or UE sends a command to the BSC device indicating the start of the time slot, the BSC device transmitting a backscatter signal at interval T1.

(5) Optionally, the UE indicates some or all of the parameters of relay step (1 a); or, the relay monitors the command in the step (2) to obtain relevant configuration; or, the relay adopts a contracted configuration.

(6) Relaying the received and measured backscatter signal;

wherein relaying the received and measured backscatter signal comprises:

sampling and recording a band-pass signal, and obtaining a baseband IQ signal through digital signal processing;

or down-converting the band-pass signal to a baseband, sampling and recording a baseband IQ signal;

(7) The base station and the relay cooperate to estimate the quantity of BSC equipment;

the number of BSC devices may be estimated by two example methods:

the first method is as follows:

the relay feeds back the baseband IQ signal in the step (6) to the base station;

the base station estimates the number of BSC devices according to the parameters described in step (1 a) and the baseband IQ signal fed back by the relay, and the specific method is the same as steps (6 a) - (6 f) of embodiment 1, and will not be described here again.

The second method is as follows:

the relay estimates the number of BSC devices according to the parameters in step (1 a) and the baseband IQ signal in step (6), and the specific method is the same as steps (6 a) - (6 f) in embodiment 1, and will not be described in detail here;

the relay feeds back the estimated BSC equipment quantity to the base station;

wherein the parameters of step (1 a) may be obtained by relay listening to the commands of step (2); or, transmitting a command indication relay by the base station; or, use a contract command; or by a combination of more than one of the three ways described above.

(8) Optionally, repeating the iterative steps (1) - (7) until the condition is met to stop the iteration;

(8a) After the clustering result is legal and the quantity of BSC equipment is successfully estimated, the base station sends a command to instruct BSC equipment which sends back scattering signals in the previous iteration to keep silent in the subsequent stage, and the BSC equipment does not participate in the rest process;

(8b) The condition for stopping iteration may be that the number of condition triggers described in the third item in step (6 e) in embodiment 1 reaches a contract threshold; or, the iteration times reach a stipulated threshold value; or, the iteration total time reaches a stipulated threshold value and the like;

(8c) After iteration stops, the estimated value of the quantity of all BSC devices is the sum of the estimated values of the BSC devices obtained by each round of iteration;

(8d) Optionally, after each iteration, the base station re-determines and indicates the parameters of step (1 a);

(9) In the above steps, the information or command sent by the base station to the BSC apparatus may be included in at least one signaling such as dedicated control command, RRC signaling, MAC CE, DCI, SCI, physical frame preamble, etc., and may be carried by at least one mode such as dedicated wireless signal waveform (e.g. a pipe encoded ASK modulation signal), PDSCH, PDCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, and physical frame.

(10) In the above steps, the information or command exchanged between the base station, the UE and the relay may be included in at least one signaling of RRC signaling, MAC CE, DCI, UCI, SCI, etc., and may be carried in at least one manner of PDSCH, PUSCH, PDCCH, PUCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH.

Example 4:

in this embodiment, the device number determining method is applied to a cellular system architecture, and in this embodiment, the first node, the second node, and the third node are different devices, and the first node is a base station, the second node is a UE, and the third node is a relay, which are described in an example, and in addition, the embodiment considers a reference value of the number of BSC devices unknown to the base station.

Most of the processes of this embodiment and embodiment 3 are the same, and for avoiding redundancy, only the difference steps are shown, and the difference steps are as follows:

Step (1 b), the third item of step (1 b) is the same as the third item of step (1 b) in example 2.

And (8), modifying the step (8) into:

repeating the steps (1) - (7) until the condition is met and stopping iteration;

(8b) - (8 d) are the same as those of (8 b) to (8 d) in example 3, and a detailed description thereof is omitted.

Example 5:

in this embodiment, the device number determining method is applied to a single-base system architecture, and in this embodiment, the first node, the second node, and the third node are the same devices, and description is given by taking the first node, the second node, and the third node as readers and writers as an example. In addition, the present embodiment considers a reference value of the number of BSC devices unknown to the reader/writer, and estimates the reference value of the number of BSC devices by the signal quality of the received backscatter signal. The specific flow of this embodiment is as follows:

(1) The reader sends a command, selects and instructs the BSC device to send a second back scattering signal;

alternatively, the command instructs the BSC device to send a partial or complete configuration of the second backscatter signal, e.g. duration T ₄ Power p ₂ Time interval T ₅ Frequency f ₂ ；

(2) The reader/writer sends an excitation signal, such as an excitation signal, to the BSC device;

(3) After the completion of the command transmission in step (1), the BSC device performs an interval T ₅ After at frequency f ₂ Using the excitation signal of step (2) to power p ₂ Transmitting a second backscatter signal of duration T ₄ ；

(4) The reader/writer measures the signal quality of the second backscatter signal, determines a reference value N for the number of BSC devices _ref ；

A method of: let the received power corresponding to the signal quality measurement be P ₁ The average receiving power of BSC equipment with the history record of the reader-writer is P _avg Reference value of number of BSC devices: n (N) _ref ＝P ₁ /P _avg ；

Alternatively, if f ₂ As the frequency of the excitation signal, the interference from the excitation signal can be considered, e.g. let P ₁ ＝P ₁ -P ₀ Wherein P is ₀ Interference power caused by the excitation signal.

(5) (12): in this example, steps (5) to (12) are the same as steps (1) to (8) in example 1, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Example 6:

in this embodiment, the device number determining method is applied to a cellular system architecture, and in this embodiment, the first node, the second node and the third node are different devices, and the first node is taken as a base station, the second node is taken as a UE, and the third node is taken as a relay for example to describe, and in addition, the embodiment considers a reference value of the number of BSC devices unknown to the base station, and estimates the reference value of the number of BSC devices through the received signal strength RSS of the backscattered signal. The specific flow of this embodiment is as follows:

(1) The base station sends a command, selects and instructs the BSC device to send a second back scattering signal;

(2) The UE monitors the command in the step (1) to send an excitation signal to the BSC equipment, or the base station instructs the UE to send the excitation signal to the BSC equipment, wherein the excitation signal can be the excitation signal;

(4) Optionally, the UE indicates part or all of the configurations described in relay step (1); or, the relay monitors the command in the step (1) to obtain relevant configuration; or, relay adopts appointed configuration;

(5) Relay measures signal quality of the second backscattered signal, and base station and relay cooperate to determine parameters of the number of BSC devicesTest value N _ref ；

The reference value N for the number of BSC devices may be determined by the following two example methods _ref ：

The first method is as follows:

the relay feeds back the signal quality measurement value to the base station;

let the received power corresponding to the signal quality measurement be P ₁ BSC device average receiving power of base station history record is P _avg Reference value of number of BSC devices: n (N) _ref ＝P ₁ /P _avg ；

The second method is as follows:

let the received power corresponding to the signal quality measurement be P ₁ The average received power of BSC equipment obtained by relay history is P _avg Reference value of number of BSC devices: n (N) _ref ＝P ₁ /P _avg

Relay feedback N to base station _ref ；

Alternatively, if the relay does not store the auxiliary information required for determining the reference value of the number of BSC devices, e.g. P _avg 、P ₀ The base station may indicate the assistance information to the relay.

(6) (15): in this example, steps (6) to (15) are the same as steps (1) to (10) in example 3, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Referring to fig. 13, fig. 13 is a block diagram of a device number determining apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application, where a first node includes the device number determining apparatus, and as shown in fig. 13, a device number determining apparatus 400 includes:

A first sending module 401, configured to send first information to a BSC device, where the first information is used to instruct the BSC device to send a first backscatter signal;

a determining module 402, configured to determine the number of BSC devices based on the target information;

wherein the target information includes at least one of:

a baseband IQ signal acquired based on the first backscatter signal;

second information sent by the third node;

third information sent by a third node;

Optionally, the first information is further used to indicate at least one of:

related information of the BSC equipment;

synchronization information;

configuration information of the first backscatter signal.

signal power information;

a dynamic mode of transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting total time information;

time contract information;

a target signal frequency;

a data type for transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting a modulation order of the first backscatter signal;

Optionally, the synchronization information includes at least one of:

a pilot signal;

preamble sequence information;

system time information;

separator information.

and/or

Explicit indication, or implicit indication.

Optionally, the determining module is specifically configured to:

and clustering is carried out based on the baseband IQ signals, and the quantity of the BSC equipment is determined based on a clustering result.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises:

and the second sending module is used for sending fourth information to the BSC equipment, wherein the fourth information is used for indicating that the BSC equipment which has sent the first back-scattered signal does not send the back-scattered signal any more.

And measuring a second back scattering signal sent by the BSC equipment.

target control command, radio resource control RRC, media access control MAC control unit CE, downlink control information DCI, side chain control information SCI, physical frame preamble;

the signaling is carried by at least one of:

the target wireless signal waveform, physical downlink shared channel PDSCH, physical downlink control channel PDCCH, physical secondary link control channel PSCCH, physical secondary link shared channel PSSCH, and physical frame.

RRC, MAC CE, DCI, uplink control information UCI, SCI;

the signaling is carried by at least one of:

PDSCH, physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, PDCCH, physical uplink control channel PUCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH.

In the device for determining the number of devices in the embodiment of the present application, a first sending module sends first information to a BSC device, where the first information is used to instruct the BSC device to send a first backscatter signal; a determining module determines the number of BSC devices based on the target information; wherein the target information includes at least one of: a baseband IQ signal acquired based on the first backscatter signal; second information sent by the third node; third information sent by a third node; the second information is used for indicating baseband IQ signals, the third information is used for indicating the number of the BSC devices, and the number of the BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signals. In this way, determining the number of BSC devices based on the baseband IQ signals acquired by the first backscatter signal can reduce signaling and time overhead required to acquire the number of BSC devices.

The device number determining apparatus in the embodiment of the present application may be an electronic device, for example, an electronic device with an operating system, or may be a component in an electronic device, for example, an integrated circuit or a chip. The electronic device may be a terminal, or may be other devices than a terminal. By way of example, terminals may include, but are not limited to, the types of terminals 11 listed above, other devices may be servers, network attached storage (Network Attached Storage, NAS), etc., and embodiments of the application are not specifically limited.

The device for determining the number of devices provided in the embodiment of the present application can implement each process implemented by the method embodiment of fig. 9, and achieve the same technical effects, so that repetition is avoided, and no further description is provided herein.

Referring to fig. 14, fig. 14 is a block diagram of a device number determining apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application, where a third node includes the device number determining apparatus, and as shown in fig. 14, a device number determining apparatus 500 includes:

an acquiring module 501, configured to acquire a baseband IQ signal based on a first backscatter signal sent by a backscatter communication BSC device;

a sending module 502, configured to send second information or third information to the first node, where the second information is used to indicate the baseband IQ signal, and the third information is used to indicate the number of BSC devices;

wherein the number of BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signal.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises:

and the determining module is used for carrying out clustering processing based on the baseband IQ signals and determining the quantity of the BSC equipment based on a clustering result.

Optionally, the determining module is specifically configured to:

and carrying out clustering processing based on the baseband IQ signals, and determining the quantity of the BSC equipment based on a clustering result and the modulation orders corresponding to the first back scattering signals.

Optionally, the determining module is specifically configured to:

clustering is carried out based on the baseband IQ signals, and the quantity of BSC equipment is determined based on the clustering result under the condition that the clustering result is determined to be effective;

Optionally, the acquiring module is specifically configured to:

receiving a first backscatter signal transmitted by the BSC device at a target signal frequency during a target period of time;

a baseband IQ signal is acquired based on the first backscatter signal.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises:

and the receiving module is used for acquiring the configuration information of the first back scattering signal and receiving the first back scattering signal sent by the BSC equipment based on the configuration information of the first back scattering signal.

indication information sent by the first node;

and presetting configuration.

Optionally, the acquiring module is specifically configured to:

acquiring baseband IQ signals in a multi-round iteration process based on a first back scattering signal sent by BSC equipment in the multi-round iteration process;

the determining module is specifically configured to:

Clustering is carried out based on the baseband IQ signals in the multi-round iteration process, and the sum of the number of devices in the multi-round iteration process is determined based on a clustering result;

the iteration times are greater than or equal to the second preset times;

the iteration total time is greater than or equal to the preset time;

and the third node receives preset information.

In the device for determining the number of the devices in the embodiment of the present application, the acquisition module acquires a baseband IQ signal based on a first backscatter signal sent by a backscatter communication BSC device; the sending module sends second information or third information to the first node, wherein the second information is used for indicating the baseband IQ signals, and the third information is used for indicating the quantity of BSC equipment; wherein the number of BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signal. In this way, determining the number of BSC devices based on the baseband IQ signals acquired by the first backscatter signal can reduce signaling and time overhead required to acquire the number of BSC devices.

The device for determining the number of devices provided in the embodiment of the present application can implement each process implemented by the method embodiment of fig. 10, and achieve the same technical effects, so that repetition is avoided, and no further description is given here.

Referring to fig. 15, fig. 15 is a block diagram of an apparatus number determining device provided in an embodiment of the present application, a BSC apparatus includes the apparatus number determining device, and as shown in fig. 15, the apparatus number determining device 600 includes:

a first receiving module 601, configured to receive first information sent by a first node, where the first information is used to instruct the BSC device to send a first backscatter signal;

a transmitting module 602, configured to transmit the first backscatter signal, where the first backscatter signal is used to obtain the number of BSC devices, and the number of BSC devices is obtained based on a baseband IQ signal, and the baseband IQ signal is obtained based on the first backscatter signal.

Optionally, the first information is further used to indicate at least one of:

related information of the BSC equipment;

synchronization information;

configuration information of the first backscatter signal.

signal power information;

a dynamic mode of transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting total time information;

a target signal frequency;

a data type for transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting a modulation order of the first backscatter signal;

Optionally, the synchronization information includes at least one of:

a pilot signal;

preamble sequence information;

system time information;

separator information.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises:

and the second receiving module is used for receiving fourth information sent by the first node, wherein the fourth information is used for indicating that the BSC equipment which has sent the first back-scattered signal does not send the back-scattered signal any more.

the first node transmits sixth information;

seventh information transmitted by the second node.

In the device for determining the number of apparatuses in the embodiment of the present application, a first receiving module receives first information sent by a first node, where the first information is used to instruct the BSC device to send a first backscatter signal; the sending module sends the first back scattering signal, where the first back scattering signal is used to obtain the number of BSC devices, where the number of BSC devices is obtained based on baseband IQ signals, and the baseband IQ signals are obtained based on the first back scattering signal. In this way, determining the number of BSC devices based on the baseband IQ signals acquired by the first backscatter signal can reduce signaling and time overhead required to acquire the number of BSC devices.

The device for determining the number of devices provided in the embodiment of the present application can implement each process implemented by the method embodiment of fig. 11, and achieve the same technical effects, so that repetition is avoided, and no further description is given here.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 16, the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device 700, including a processor 701 and a memory 702, where the memory 702 stores a program or an instruction that can be executed on the processor 701, for example, when the communication device 700 is a first node, the program or the instruction is executed by the processor 701 to implement the steps of the device number determining method embodiment applied to the first node, and the same technical effects can be achieved. When the communication device 700 is a BSC device, the program or the instructions, when executed by the processor 701, implement the steps of the device number determining method embodiment applied to the BSC device, and achieve the same technical effects. When the communication device 700 is the third node, the program or the instruction, when executed by the processor 701, implements the steps of the device number determining method embodiment applied to the third node, and the same technical effects can be achieved.

The embodiment of the application also provides electronic equipment, which comprises a processor and a communication interface, wherein the communication interface is used for: transmitting first information to BSC equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the BSC equipment to transmit a first back scattering signal; the processor is configured to: determining the number of BSC devices based on the target information; wherein the target information includes at least one of: a baseband IQ signal acquired based on the first backscatter signal; second information sent by the third node; third information sent by a third node; the second information is used for indicating baseband IQ signals, the third information is used for indicating the number of the BSC devices, and the number of the BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signals. Alternatively, the processor is configured to: acquiring a baseband IQ signal based on a first back-scattered signal sent by back-scattered communication BSC equipment; the communication interface is used for: transmitting second information or third information to the first node, wherein the second information is used for indicating the baseband IQ signal, and the third information is used for indicating the number of the BSC devices; wherein the number of BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signal. Alternatively, the communication interface is configured to: receiving first information sent by a first node, wherein the first information is used for indicating the BSC equipment to send a first back scattering signal; the communication interface is further for: and transmitting the first back scattering signal, wherein the first back scattering signal is used for acquiring the number of BSC devices, and the number of BSC devices is obtained based on baseband IQ signals, and the baseband IQ signals are obtained based on the first back scattering signal. The embodiment of the electronic equipment corresponds to the embodiment of the method for determining the number of the equipment, and each implementation process and implementation mode of the embodiment of the method for determining the number of the equipment can be applied to the embodiment of the electronic equipment, and the same technical effects can be achieved.

The electronic device may be a terminal, a server, or may be a network-side device.

Specifically, fig. 17 is a schematic diagram of a hardware structure of an electronic device implementing an embodiment of the present application.

The electronic device may be a terminal. The electronic device 800 includes, but is not limited to: at least part of the components of the radio frequency unit 801, the network module 802, the audio output unit 803, the input unit 804, the sensor 805, the display unit 806, the user input unit 807, the interface unit 808, the memory 809, and the processor 810, etc.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the electronic device 800 may also include a power source (e.g., a battery) for powering the various components, which may be logically connected to the processor 810 by a power management system to perform functions such as managing charge, discharge, and power consumption by the power management system. The terminal structure shown in fig. 17 does not constitute a limitation of the terminal, and the terminal may include more or less components than shown, or may combine some components, or may be arranged in different components, which will not be described in detail herein.

It should be appreciated that in embodiments of the present application, the input unit 804 may include a graphics processing unit (Graphics Processing Unit, GPU) 8041 and a microphone 8042, with the graphics processor 8041 processing image data of still pictures or video obtained by an image capturing device (e.g., a camera) in a video capturing mode or an image capturing mode. The display unit 806 may include a display panel 8061, and the display panel 8061 may be configured in the form of a liquid crystal display, an organic light emitting diode, or the like. The user input unit 807 includes at least one of a touch panel 8071 and other input devices 8072. Touch panel 8071, also referred to as a touch screen. The touch panel 8071 may include two parts, a touch detection device and a touch controller. Other input devices 8072 may include, but are not limited to, a physical keyboard, function keys (e.g., volume control keys, switch keys, etc.), a trackball, a mouse, a joystick, and so forth, which are not described in detail herein.

In this embodiment, after receiving downlink data from the network side device, the radio frequency unit 801 may transmit the downlink data to the processor 810 for processing; in addition, the radio frequency unit 801 may send uplink data to the network side device. In general, the radio frequency unit 801 includes, but is not limited to, an antenna, an amplifier, a transceiver, a coupler, a low noise amplifier, a duplexer, and the like.

The memory 809 may be used to store software programs or instructions and various data. The memory 809 may mainly include a first storage area storing programs or instructions and a second storage area storing data, wherein the first storage area may store an operating system, application programs or instructions (such as a sound playing function, an image playing function, etc.) required for at least one function, and the like. Further, the memory 809 may include volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or the memory 809 may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile Memory may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash Memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double Data Rate SDRAM (ddr SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (Enhanced SDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct RAM (DRRAM). Memory 809 in embodiments of the present application includes, but is not limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The processor 810 may include one or more processing units; optionally, the processor 810 integrates an application processor that primarily processes operations involving an operating system, user interface, application programs, etc., and a modem processor that primarily processes wireless communication signals, such as a baseband processor. It will be appreciated that the modem processor described above may not be integrated into the processor 810.

Wherein, in case the electronic device is a first node:

the radio frequency unit 801 is configured to: transmitting first information to BSC equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the BSC equipment to transmit a first back scattering signal;

the processor 810 is configured to: determining the number of BSC devices based on the target information;

wherein the target information includes at least one of:

a baseband IQ signal acquired based on the first backscatter signal;

second information sent by the third node;

third information sent by a third node;

Optionally, the first information is further used to indicate at least one of:

Related information of the BSC equipment;

synchronization information;

configuration information of the first backscatter signal.

signal power information;

a dynamic mode of transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting total time information;

time contract information;

a target signal frequency;

a data type for transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting a modulation order of the first backscatter signal;

Optionally, the synchronization information includes at least one of:

a pilot signal;

preamble sequence information;

system time information;

separator information.

and/or

Explicit indication, or implicit indication.

Optionally, the processor 810 is further configured to: and clustering is carried out based on the baseband IQ signals, and the quantity of the BSC equipment is determined based on a clustering result.

Optionally, the radio frequency unit 801 is further configured to: and transmitting fourth information to the BSC device, wherein the fourth information is used for indicating that the BSC device which has transmitted the first back-scattered signal does not transmit the back-scattered signal any more.

and measuring a second back scattering signal sent by the BSC equipment.

The signaling is carried by at least one of:

RRC, MAC CE, DCI, uplink control information UCI, SCI;

the signaling is carried by at least one of:

Wherein, in the case where the electronic device is the third node:

the processor 810 is configured to: acquiring a baseband IQ signal based on a first back-scattered signal sent by back-scattered communication BSC equipment;

the radio frequency unit 801 is configured to: transmitting second information or third information to the first node, wherein the second information is used for indicating the baseband IQ signal, and the third information is used for indicating the number of the BSC devices;

wherein the number of BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signal.

Optionally, the processor 810 is further configured to: and determining the quantity of the BSC equipment based on the clustering result and the modulation order corresponding to the first back scattering signal.

Optionally, the processor 810 is further configured to:

Optionally, the radio frequency unit 801 is further configured to: receiving a first backscatter signal transmitted by the BSC device at a target signal frequency during a target period of time;

the processor 810 is also configured to: a baseband IQ signal is acquired based on the first backscatter signal.

indication information sent by the first node;

and presetting configuration.

Optionally, the processor 810 is further configured to: acquiring baseband IQ signals in a multi-round iteration process based on a first back scattering signal sent by BSC equipment in the multi-round iteration process;

The processor 810 is also configured to: clustering is carried out based on the baseband IQ signals in the multi-round iteration process, and the sum of the number of devices in the multi-round iteration process is determined based on a clustering result;

the iteration times are greater than or equal to the second preset times;

the iteration total time is greater than or equal to the preset time;

and the third node receives preset information.

The embodiment of the electronic equipment corresponds to the embodiment of the method for determining the number of the equipment, and each implementation process and implementation mode of the embodiment of the method for determining the number of the equipment can be applied to the embodiment of the electronic equipment, and the same technical effects can be achieved.

The embodiment of the application also provides electronic equipment. The electronic device may be a network-side device. As shown in fig. 18, the electronic device 900 includes: an antenna 901, a radio frequency device 902, a baseband device 903, a processor 904, and a memory 905. The antenna 901 is connected to a radio frequency device 902. In the uplink direction, the radio frequency device 902 receives information via the antenna 901, and transmits the received information to the baseband device 903 for processing. In the downlink direction, the baseband device 903 processes information to be transmitted, and transmits the processed information to the radio frequency device 902, and the radio frequency device 902 processes the received information and transmits the processed information through the antenna 901.

The method performed by the electronic device in the above embodiments may be implemented in a baseband apparatus 903, the baseband apparatus 903 including a baseband processor.

The baseband apparatus 903 may, for example, include at least one baseband board, on which a plurality of chips are disposed, as shown in fig. 18, where one chip, for example, a baseband processor, is connected to the memory 905 through a bus interface, so as to call a program in the memory 905 to perform the network device operation shown in the above method embodiment.

The electronic device may also include a network interface 906, such as a common public wireless interface (common public radio interface, CPRI).

Specifically, the electronic device 900 according to the embodiment of the present invention further includes: instructions or programs stored in the memory 905 and executable on the processor 904, the processor 904 calls the instructions or programs in the memory 905 to perform the methods performed by the modules shown in fig. 14, 15 or 16, and achieve the same technical effects, and are not repeated here.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a readable storage medium, where a program or an instruction is stored, where the program or the instruction implements each process of the above embodiment of the method for determining the number of devices when executed by a processor, and the same technical effects can be achieved, so that repetition is avoided, and no further description is given here.

Wherein the processor is a processor in the terminal described in the above embodiment. The readable storage medium includes computer readable storage medium such as computer readable memory ROM, random access memory RAM, magnetic or optical disk, etc.

The embodiment of the application further provides a chip, the chip includes a processor and a communication interface, the communication interface is coupled with the processor, the processor is configured to run a program or an instruction, implement each process of the above embodiment of the device number determining method, and achieve the same technical effect, so that repetition is avoided, and no redundant description is provided herein.

It should be understood that the chips referred to in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as system-on-chip chips, or the like.

The embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program/program product, where the computer program/program product is stored in a storage medium, and the computer program/program product is executed by at least one processor to implement each process of the above device number determining method, and the same technical effects can be achieved, so that repetition is avoided, and details are not repeated herein.

The embodiment of the application also provides a system for determining the number of the devices, which comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps of a first node, a BSC device and a third node, wherein the first node can be used for executing the steps of the device quantity determining method applied to the first node, the BSC device can be used for executing the steps of the device quantity determining method applied to the BSC device, and the third node can be used for executing the steps of the device quantity determining method applied to the third node.

It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element. Furthermore, it should be noted that the scope of the methods and apparatus in the embodiments of the present application is not limited to performing the functions in the order shown or discussed, but may also include performing the functions in a substantially simultaneous manner or in an opposite order depending on the functions involved, e.g., the described methods may be performed in an order different from that described, and various steps may also be added, omitted, or combined. Additionally, features described with reference to certain examples may be combined in other examples.

From the above description of the embodiments, it will be clear to those skilled in the art that the above-described embodiment method may be implemented by means of software plus a necessary general hardware platform, but of course may also be implemented by means of hardware, but in many cases the former is a preferred embodiment. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art in the form of a computer software product stored in a storage medium (such as ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk), comprising several instructions for causing a terminal (which may be a mobile phone, a computer, a server, an air conditioner, or a network device, etc.) to perform the method described in the embodiments of the present application.

The embodiments of the present application have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present application is not limited to the above-described embodiments, which are merely illustrative and not restrictive, and many forms may be made by those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit of the present application and the scope of the claims, which are also within the protection of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for determining the number of devices, comprising:

wherein the target information includes at least one of:

a baseband IQ signal acquired based on the first backscatter signal;

second information sent by the third node;

third information sent by a third node;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information is further used to indicate at least one of:

related information of the BSC equipment;

synchronization information;

configuration information of the first backscatter signal.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the configuration information of the first backscatter signal includes at least one of:

signal power information;

a dynamic mode of transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting total time information;

time contract information;

a target signal frequency;

a data type for transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting a modulation order of the first backscatter signal;

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the synchronization information comprises at least one of:

a pilot signal;

preamble sequence information;

system time information;

separator information.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the first information indicates the manner of the configuration information of the first backscatter signal comprises:

and/or

Explicit indication, or implicit indication.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first node determining the number of BSC devices based on target information comprises:

7. The method of claim 1, wherein after the first node determines the number of BSC devices based on the target information, the method further comprises:

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the configuration information for the first backscatter signal is determined based on a reference number of the BSC devices.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the reference number of BSC devices is determined based on at least one of:

And measuring a second back scattering signal sent by the BSC equipment.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first backscatter signal is transmitted based on an excitation signal, the excitation signal being transmitted for the first node or the second node.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the stimulus signal is sent by the second node based on fifth information sent by the first node, or wherein the stimulus signal is sent by the second node based on monitored first information, the fifth information being used to instruct the second node to send the stimulus signal to the BSC device.

12. The method according to any of claims 1-11, wherein the information received by the BSC device is transmitted by at least one of the following signaling:

the signaling is carried by at least one of:

13. The method according to any of claims 1-11, wherein the interaction information between the first node, the second node and the third node is transmitted by at least one of the following signaling:

RRC, MAC CE, DCI, uplink control information UCI, SCI;

the signaling is carried by at least one of:

14. A method for determining the number of devices, comprising:

wherein the number of BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signal.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein before the third node sends the second information or the third information to the first node, the method further comprises:

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the determining the number of BSC devices based on the clustering result comprises:

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the determining the number of BSC devices based on the clustering result comprises:

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the third node obtains a baseband IQ signal based on the first backscatter signal transmitted by the BSC device, comprising:

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the target period is determined based on total time information transmitted by the first backscatter signal; or alternatively

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the acquiring manner of the baseband IQ signal includes any one of the following:

21. The method of claim 14, wherein before the third node obtains the baseband IQ signal based on the first backscatter signal transmitted by the BSC device, the method further comprises:

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the third node obtains the configuration information of the first backscatter signal by at least one of:

indication information sent by the first node;

and presetting configuration.

23. The method of claim 15 wherein the third node obtains a baseband IQ signal based on the first backscatter signal transmitted by the BSC device, comprising:

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the condition that triggers the multiple iteration process to stop iteration comprises any one of:

the iteration times are greater than or equal to the second preset times;

the iteration total time is greater than or equal to the preset time;

and the third node receives preset information.

25. A method for determining the number of devices, comprising:

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the first information is further used to indicate at least one of:

related information of the BSC equipment;

synchronization information;

configuration information of the first backscatter signal.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the configuration information of the first backscatter signal includes at least one of:

signal power information;

a dynamic mode of transmitting the first backscatter signal;

Transmitting total time information;

a target signal frequency;

a data type for transmitting the first backscatter signal;

transmitting a modulation order of the first backscatter signal;

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the synchronization information comprises at least one of:

a pilot signal;

preamble sequence information;

system time information;

separator information.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein after the BSC device transmits the first backscatter signal, the method further comprises:

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the time of transmission of the first backscatter signal is determined by the BSC device;

the first node transmits sixth information;

Seventh information transmitted by the second node.

31. A device number determining apparatus, a first node comprising the device number determining apparatus, characterized in that the apparatus comprises:

wherein the target information includes at least one of:

a baseband IQ signal acquired based on the first backscatter signal;

second information sent by the third node;

third information sent by a third node;

32. A device number determining apparatus, a third node comprising the device number determining apparatus, characterized in that the apparatus comprises:

Wherein the number of BSC devices is obtained based on the baseband IQ signal.

33. A device number determining apparatus, a BSC device including the device number determining apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

34. An electronic device comprising a processor and a memory storing a program or instructions executable on the processor, which when executed by the processor, implement the steps of the device quantity determination method of any one of claims 1 to 13; alternatively, the program or instructions, when executed by the processor, implement the steps of the device number determination method of any one of claims 14 to 24; alternatively, the program or instructions, when executed by the processor, implement the steps of the device quantity determination method of any one of claims 25 to 30.

35. A readable storage medium, characterized in that the readable storage medium has stored thereon a program or instructions which, when executed by a processor, implement the steps of the device number determination method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, or implement the steps of the device number determination method according to any one of claims 14 to 24, or implement the steps of the device number determination method according to any one of claims 25 to 30.