WO2025208482A1

WO2025208482A1 - Enhanced paging mechanism for a-iot communication

Info

Publication number: WO2025208482A1
Application number: PCT/CN2024/086054
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yan Meng; Tao Tao; Yong Liu; Yong Gang Wang; Jian Guo Liu; Hua Chao
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Current assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2024-04-03
Filing date: 2024-04-03
Publication date: 2025-10-09
Anticipated expiration: 2026-10-03

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure provide solutions for enhance paging mechanism for ambient Internet of Things (A-IoT) communication. In an example method, a terminal device receives, from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device. The terminal device determines to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.

Description

ENHANCED PAGING MECHANISM FOR A-IOT COMMUNICATION

FIELD

Example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of communication, and in particular, to a terminal device, a network device, methods, apparatuses, and computer readable media for enhance paging mechanism for ambient Internet of Things (A-IoT) communication.

BACKGROUND

A new study item on solutions for ambient Internet of Things (A-IoT) in new radio (NR) was recently approved. This study targets a further assessment at RAN WG-level of Ambient IoT, a new 3GPP IoT technology, suitable for deployment in a 3GPP system, which relies on ultra-low complexity devices with ultra-low power consumption for the very-low end IoT applications. The study shall provide clear differentiation, i.e. addressing use cases and scenarios that cannot otherwise be fulfilled based on existing 3GPP LPWA (Low-Power Wide-Area) IoT technology e.g. new band (NB) -IoT including with reduced peak transmission (Tx) power.

SUMMARY

In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide solutions for enhance paging mechanism for A-IoT communication.

In a first aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the terminal device at least to: receive, from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device; and determine to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.

In a second aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device comprises at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network device at least to: transmit, to a terminal device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device.

In a third aspect, there is provided a method. The method comprises: receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device; and determine, at the terminal device, to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method. The method comprises: transmitting, from a network device and to a terminal device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises: means for receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device; and means for determining, at the terminal device, to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.

In an sixth aspect, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises: means for means for transmitting, from a network device and to a terminal device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising program instructions. The program instructions, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following: receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device; and determine, at the terminal device, to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising program instructions. The program instructions, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following: transmitting, from a network device and to a terminal device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions, which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus at least to: receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device; and determine, at the terminal device, to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions, which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus at least to: transmitting, from a network device and to a terminal device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device.

In a eleventh aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises: a receiving circuitry configured to: receive, from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device; and a determining circuitry configured to determine to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device comprises: a transmitting circuitry configured to transmit, to a terminal device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device.

It is to be understood that the summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example network environment in which an intermediate node is deployed for communication between network and an ambient IoT device;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a process flow in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a detailed process flow in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example flowchart of a method implemented at a terminal device according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example flowchart of a method implemented at a network device according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 8 illustrates an example block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Principles of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment, ” “an embodiment, ” “an example embodiment, ” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

It shall be understood that although the terms “first” and “second” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a” , “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” , “comprising” , “has” , “having” , “includes” and/or “including” , when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and/or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and/or combinations thereof. As used herein, “at least one of the following: <a list of two or more elements>” and “at least one of <a list of two or more elements>” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or” , mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.

As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:

(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry) and

(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable) :

(i) a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuit (s) with software/firmware and

(ii) any portions of hardware processor (s) with software (including digital signal processor (s) ) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and

(c) hardware circuit (s) and or processor (s) , such as a microprocessor (s) or a portion of a microprocessor (s) , that requires software (for example, firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

As used herein, the term “network” , “communication network” or “data network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as long term evolution (LTE) , LTE-advanced (LTE-A) , wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) , high-speed packet access (HSPA) , wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) , narrow band Internet of things (NB-IoT) , satellite, enhanced machine-type communication (eMTC) , non-terrestrial communication, terrestrial communication, and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device/element in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) , the sixth generation (6G) , new radio (NR) , IEEE 802.11 communication protocols, and/or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP) or a transmission and reception point (TRP) , for example, a node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a NR NB (also referred to as a gNB) , a remote radio unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a WiFi device, a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. In the following description, the terms “network device” , “AP device” , “AP” and “access point” may be used interchangeably.

The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE) , a subscriber station (SS) , a portable subscriber station, a mobile station (MS) , a station (STA) or station device, or an access terminal (AT) . The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE) , laptop-mounted equipment (LME) , USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE) , an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD) , a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (for example, remote surgery) , an industrial device and applications (for example, a robot and/or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and/or an automated processing chain contexts) , a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and/or industrial wireless networks, and the like. In the following description, the terms “station” , “station device” , “STA” , “terminal device” , “communication device” , “terminal” , “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

The term “transceiver” may refer to any device that may be coupled to one or more antennas or antenna ports to wirelessly transmit and/or receive communication signals. The antennas or antenna ports may be the same or different types. The antennas or antenna ports may be located in different positions of an apparatus. One or more transceivers allow the apparatus to communicate with other devices that may be wired and/or wireless. The one or more transceivers may include processors, controllers, radios, sockets, plugs, buffers, or the like circuits to form one or more communication channels to one or more radio frequency units. The one or more transceivers may be integrated in an apparatus or a system, for example a cellular communication apparatus or system, a satellite communication apparatus or system, a WLAN system, or a short ranging system for example Bluetooth system.

The definitions provided in TR 38.848 are taken into a study item on solutions for Ambient IoT (Internet of Things) in NR, and the following are suggested as the exclusive general scope for the study item:

A. The overall objective shall be to study a harmonized air interface design with minimized differences (where necessary) for Ambient IoT to enable the following devices:

i. ～1 μW peak power consumption, has energy storage, initial sampling frequency offset (SFO) up to 10X ppm, neither DL nor UL amplification in the device. The device’s UL transmission is backscattered on a carrier wave provided externally.

ii. ≤ a few hundred μW peak power consumption1, has energy storage, initial sampling frequency offset (SFO) up to 10X ppm, both DL and/or UL amplification in the device. The device’s UL transmission may be generated internally by the device, or be backscattered on a carrier wave provided externally.

● X is to be decided in WGs.

● Coverage design target: Maximum distance of 10-50 m with device indoors as per TR 38.848: “…arange that WGs can sub-select within” .

● For Topologies 1 &2 (UE as intermediate node under NW control) per TR 38.848, with no RRC states, no mobility (i.e. at least no cell selection/re-selection -like function) , no HARQ, no ARQ.

NOTE 1: It is to be understood that “≤ a few hundred μW” means WGs are not tasked with setting a particular value, and that it will be for WG discussions to determine if a presented design with corresponding power consumption satisfies the “≤ a few hundred μW” requirement.

Deployment Scenarios with the following characteristics, referenced to the tables in Clause 4.2.2 of TR 38.848:

B. Deployment Scenarios with the following characteristics, referenced to the tables in Clause 4.2.2 of TR 38.848:

● Deployment scenario 1 with Topology 1

○ Base station and coexistence characteristics: Micro-cell, co-site

● Deployment scenario 2 with Topology 2 and UE as intermediate node, under network control

○ Base station and coexistence characteristics: Macro-cell, co-site

○ The location of intermediate node is indoor

C. FR1 licensed spectrum in FDD.

D. Spectrum deployment in-band to NR, in guard-band to LTE/NR, in standalone band (s) .

E. Traffic types DO-DTT, DT, with focus on rUC1 (indoor inventory) and rUC4 (indoor command) .

● From RAN#104, the study will assess whether the harmonized air interface design (per bullet ‘A’ above) can address the DO-A (Device-originated autonomous) use case, only to identify which part (s) of the harmonized air interface design (per bullet ‘A’ above) is/are not sufficient for the DO-A use case.

It is also suggested to study which functions are needed for an Ambient IoT compact protocol stack and lightweight signaling procedure to enable DO-DTT and DT data transmission and study those functions, for example, paging.

For illustrative purposes, principles and example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 8. However, it is to be noted that these embodiments are given to enable the skilled in the art to understand inventive concepts of the present disclosure and implement the solution as proposed herein, and not intended to limit scope of the present application in any way.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an application scenario 100 in which some example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. The application scenario 100, which is a part of a communication network, includes terminal devices and network devices.

In the descriptions of the example embodiments of the present disclosure, the network environment 100 may also be referred to as a communication system 100 (for example, a portion of a communication network) . The communication system 100 may be a non-terrestrial or terrestrial system.

For illustrative purposes only, various aspects of example embodiments will be described in the context of one or more terminal devices and network devices that communicate with one another. It should be appreciated, however, that the description herein may be applicable to other types of apparatus or other similar apparatuses that are referenced using other terminology.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the communication network 100 may include a network device 110 (which may also be referred to as a gNB or a BS) . The communication network 100 may further include one or more terminal devices 120-1 and 120-2 (which may also be individually or collectively referred to as user equipment 120 or UE 120. Although only one network device 110 and two terminal devices 120-1 and 120-2 are shown in FIG. 1, the numbers of the network device and the terminal device are not limited. In other words, there may be one or more network devices 110 and one or more terminal devices 120 in the network.

The network device 110 can provide services to the terminal device 120, and the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 may communicate data and control information with each other. In some embodiments, the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 may communicate with direct links/channels.

In the communication system 100, a link from the network device 110 to the terminal device 120 is referred to as a downlink (DL) , while a link from the terminal device 120 to the network device 110 is referred to as an uplink (UL) . In downlink, the network device 110 is a transmitting (TX) device (or a transmitter) and the terminal device 120 is a receiving (RX) device (or a receiver) . In uplink, the terminal device 120 is a transmitting (TX) device (or a transmitter) and the network device 110 is a RX device (or a receiver) . It is to be understood that the network device 110 may provide one or more serving cells. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the network device 110 provides one serving cell 102, and the terminal device 120 camps on the serving cell 102. In some embodiments, the network device 110 can provide multiple serving cells and the terminal device 120 may switch from a source cell to a target cell between the serving cells during its mobility. It is to be understood that the number of serving cell (s) shown in FIG. 1 is for illustrative purposes without suggesting any limitation. In the communication system 100, the terminal devices 120-1 and 120-2 may communicate with each other. A link between the terminal device 120-1 and 120-2 may be referred to as a sidelink (SL) .

Communications in the network environment 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol (s) , comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the fourth generation (4G) , the fifth generation (5G) and the sixth generation (6G) and on the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as institute for electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and/or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future, such as universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) , long term evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , the fifth generation (5G) , new radio (NR) , the sixth generation (6G) , wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) and worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) standards, and employs any suitable communication technologies, including, for example, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) , orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) , time division multiplexing (TDM) , frequency division multiplexing (FDM) , code division multiplexing (CDM) , Bluetooth, ZigBee, narrowband-Internet of things (NB-IoT) , enhanced machine type communication (eMTC) , enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) , massive machine type communication (mMTC) , ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) , carrier aggregation (CA) , dual connectivity (DC) , and new radio unlicensed (NR-U) technologies.

In some implementations, the terminal device 120 may communicate with the network device 110 directly in both DL and UL directions. In some implementations, one terminal device (e.g., an ambient IoT device) may communicates with the network device 110 via the other terminal device (e.g., UE) in UL direction, DL direction, or both directions. In other words, the UE acts as an intermediate node between the ambient IoT device and the network.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example network environment in which an intermediate node is deployed between network and an ambient IoT device. The environment in FIG. 2 may be referred to as Topology 2 in study item for ambient IoT (A-IoT) . In FIG. 2, the ambient IoT device communicates bidirectionally with an intermediate node between an ambient IoT device and base station (BS) . In this topology, the intermediate node can be a relay, IAB node, UE, repeater, etc. which is capable of ambient IoT. The intermediate node may transfer the information between the BS and the ambient IoT device. The intermediate node may be considered as, for example, UE under NW control to transfers the information between BS and the ambient IoT device.

In SI, two use cases are considered, including inventory use case and command use case. Regarding the inventory use case, the goal is to discover what goods (e.g. boxes, containers, packages, tools) are present in a specific area (warehouse) . Upon request sent by the network within the specific area, Ambient IoT devices attached to these goods report an identifier associated with the good, possibly supplemented with other information such as status, measurement results and/or location. Regarding the command use, the goal is to send some configuration to Tag or send some trigger signaling to A-IoT devices report some data. For example, in some environment monitoring and body monitoring use cases, the measurement and report are not done by device autonomously and periodically but indicated by network at a certain occasion.

Regarding radio resource control (RRC) state, UEs that are in the network are considered in different RRC modes or states relative to the network, including the RRC_connected, RRC_inactive, and RRC_idle states. When a UE is in the RRC_connected state it can communicate with the gNB using the typical NR physical channels and procedures. When a UE in RRC_idle and RRC inactive can save power when compared to being RRC_connected. Until Rel-16, the RRC idle/inactive state doesn’ t support data transmission. Hence, the UE has to setup/resume the connection (i.e. move to RRC_CONNECTED state) for any DL (MT) and UL (MO) data. Connection setup and subsequently release to INACTIVE state happens for each data transmission however small and infrequent the data packets are. This means that, when a packet arrives for the UE in RRC idle or inactive state for DL as an example, the network will initiate the paging procedure for the UE, and then the UE will start 2/4-step Random Access (RA) procedure to setup/resume connection before data transfer. This results in unnecessary power consumption and signaling overhead. This disclose relates to the paging problem of the A-IoT device when the I-node (i.e., UE) is in RRC inactive or idle for Topology 2 (mono-static case) .

For A-IoT use cases (inventory or command) , the network needs to query A-IoT Tag status to check the Tag presence. When the immediate node (I-node) is in RRC inactive, the network first needs paging I-node, then the I-node will query Tag to check the Tag is available or not.

In current paging procedure, the I-node (i.e. UE) will initiate a random access channel (RACH) procedure immediately for RRC connection setup after receiving the paging request from the network. However, in the IoT use cases, the I-node may just need to feedback the Tag query status to network, for example, maybe one bit to indicate the Tag is available or not. It is unnecessary to setup RRC connection just for transmit this one or several small bits. On the other hand, the I-node doesn't know the network is paging itself or paging Tag. Therefore, the I-node will always setup RRC connection after receiving the paging message. This results in unnecessary power consumption, signaling overhead and paging delay. Especially, if the I-node is one low power UE, it’s significant to keep the I-node in RRC inactive state when the network is paging Tag. Hence, an indication of whether the network is paging the I-node or paging Tag is beneficial and associated I-node behaviors should be clarified.

The present disclosure provides an efficient paging method for Topology 2 A-IoT system (i.e., with involvement of at least an intermediate node) . The basic idea is to allow network indicate the paging intention to I-node in order to make I-node know the network is paging Tag not paging itself, by reusing legacy paging procedure for I-node who is in RRC-inactive or idle mode. Based on the awareness of paging intention indication information, I-node can know how to perform the following paging procedure better to reduce the times of RRC connections and save energy. Although embodiments of the disclosure are described withe reference to A-IoT devices (such as Tag) , the proposed paging procedures are also applicable to wireless devices other than the A-IoT devices.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a process flow 300 in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For ease of understanding, the process flow 300 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, It would be appreciated that although the process flow 300 has been described referring to the communication network 100 of FIG. 1 and the topology of FIG. 2, the process flow 300 may be likewise applied to other similar communication scenarios.

The process flow 300 involves a network device 310 (e.g., a base station, such as gNB) , a terminal device 320 (e.g., a UE) , one or more wireless devices 330 (e.g., an ambient IoT device) . The terminal device 320 may be configured to act as an intermediate node between the wireless device 330 and the network device 310. In this disclosure, the wireless device 330 may also be referred as an A-IoT device or a tag. The terminal device 320 may transmit carrier waves (unmodulated or modulated) to provide energy to the wireless device 330. Additionally, the terminal device 320 may transmit downlink signals to the wireless device 330 and receive uplink signals from the wireless device 330.

As shown in FIG. 3, at 301, the terminal device 320 is in an RRC inactive or idle state for energy saving. At 302, the network device 310 transmits a paging message 303 indicating a paging intention of the network device 310 to the terminal device 320. Accordingly, at 304, the terminal device 320 receives the paging message indicating the page intention.

Regarding the paging intention, the target of paging message 303 may be the terminal device 320, for example, if the network device 310 is requesting DL transmission to the terminal device 320 or UL transmission from the terminal device 320. In this case, the terminal device 320 would initiate an RACH procedure for connection setup, and switch from the RRC inactive or idle state to the RRC_Connected state. On the other hand, the target of the paging message 303 may be the wireless device 330, for example, the network device 310 is requesting an A-IoT service such as the inventory use case or the command use case. In this event, for energy saving, the terminal device 320 does not need to initiate the RACH procedure for RRC setup immediately after the reception of the paging message.

Upon reception of the paging message 303, the terminal device 320 may determine the paging intention of network device 310, i.e., whether the purpose is to page the terminal device 320 or the wireless device 330. In some embodiments, the network device 310 may include the identifier (ID) of the wireless devices (e.g., Tag ID) into the paging message 303, in addition to UE ID of the terminal device 320, to indicate that it is paging the wireless device 330. It is assumed that the associated ID (s) of the wireless device 330 is pre-configured to the terminal node. The terminal device 320 may search the paging message 303 for the pre-configured ID (s) . If the paging message 303 includes the pre-configured ID (s) of the wireless device 330, the terminal device may determine that the paging intention is to page the wireless device 330.

In some embodiments, the paging intention may be implicitly indicated by paging occasions. The network device 310 may associate the intention with the paging occasions to implicitly tell the terminal device 320 that it is paging the terminal device 320 or the wireless device 330, i.e., regular paging message or a Tag paging. For example, if the terminal device 320 receives the paging message in an odd timeslot, it means network device 310 is paging the wireless device 330. If the terminal device 320 receives the paging in an even timeslot, it means the network device 310 is paging the terminal device 320 itself. It will be appreciated that the paging occasion indication may be different from this example.

In some embodiments, the paging intention may be explicitly indicated by an explicit information element in the paging message 303. For example, the network device 310 may add one bit (appended to the UE ID) to indicate whether is paging the terminal device 320 or the wireless device 330. For example, the bit value 1 may indicate regular paging, and the bit value 0 may indicate Tag paging.

At 305, if the terminal device 320 determines that the paging intention is to page the wireless device 330, it may determine to defer or skip a RACH procedure for RRC setup. Deferring the RACH procedure means the terminal device 320 does not initiate this procedure immediately after receiving the paging message 303. The terminal device 320 may check whether the wireless device 330 is available and if so, retrieve data from the wireless device 330, which requires some time. The terminal device 320 could trigger the RACH procedure after it has obtained the checking result, that is, the RACH procedure is deferred. In some embodiments, the terminal device 320 may determine to directly skip the RACH procedure, and will not trigger this procedure unless indicated otherwise by the network device 310.

As shown in FIG. 3, after determining to defer or skip the RACH procedure, the terminal device 320 may transmit query signal (s) 306 to the paged wireless device 330 and wait for the query response. If the wireless device 330 is available, it will respond. The terminal device 320 can receive query response (s) 307 from the wireless device 330 that is discovered available. The terminal device 320 then may provide the query status 308 to the network device 310. In some embodiments, the query status 308 may include information about whether the wireless device 330 is available, for example, the Tag ID (s) . In some embodiments, the terminal device 320 may determine to activate one small data transmission (SDT) transmission to feedback the query status 308 in the paging response information. Alternatively, the terminal device 320 may determine to establish an RRC connection to transmit the query status 308 to the network device 310 by a corresponding indication from network. In some embodiments, if the data size of the query status 308 is large or the service type is command use case (i.e., the network will transmit DL data to the wireless device 330) , the terminal device 320 may determine to perform the RACH procedure for RRC setup.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a detailed process flow 400 in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The process flow 400 involves a gNB 410, an I-node (e.g., UE) , and A-IoT device (s) 430. In FIG. 4, the I-node 420 is considered as UE under NW control to transfers the information between the gNB 410 and the A-IoT device 430 in Topology 2 for A-IoT communication. The gNB 410 is an implementation of the network device 310 described with reference to FIG. 3, the I-node 420 is an implementation of the terminal device 320, and A-IoT device (s) 430 is an implementation of the wireless device 330. For better understanding, the term “A-IoT device” may be interchangeably used with “Tag” , and the term “I-node” may be interchangeably used with “UE” .

In general, purpose of the paging intention indication is to tell the I-node 420 it is paging A-IoT device 430 or not, then based on this information, the I-node 420 can know how to perform the procedures in FIG. 4. The process flow 400 as described below defines the I-node’s behaviors and how the network would guide the I-node’s behaviors.

The gNB 410 may provide paging pre-configuration (s) to the I-node. In some embodiments, the I-node 420 may be pre-configured with SDT resources or a configuration associated with paging. The gNB 410 may provide the I-node 420 with associated Tag IDs of the A-IoT device (s) 430. The gNB 410 may provide one deferred timer for Tag query. In addition, the gNB 410 may provide one A-IoT specific response timer, which may be larger than the regular paging response timer. The time duration for A-IoT specific response timer may include the time duration for paging I-node and the time duration for Tag query.

At 401, the I-node 420 is in an RRC inactive or idle state for energy saving. The gNB 410 transmits a paging message 402 indicating a paging intention of the gNB 410 to the I-node 420. In some embodiments, the paging message 402 may include Tag ID (s) . The I-node 420 needs to search both UE ID and Tag ID (s) . For example, if the I-node 420 finds the Tag ID (s) , it means the gNB 410 is paging the Tag 430. In some embodiments, the I-node 420 may determine whether the paging message 402 is received at one or more paging occasions implicitly, which indicate that the gNB 410 is paging the Tag 430. If so, the I-node 420 knows the gNB 410 is paging the Tag 430. In some embodiments, the I-node 420 may determine whether the paging message 402 includes an explicit information element, which indicate that the gNB 410 is paging the Tag 430. If so, the I-node 420 would know the gNB 410 is paging the Tag 430.

The I-node 420 may determine whether to initiate the RACH procedure after receiving the paging indication. If the gNB 410 is paging UE itself, the I-node 420 may perform a RACH procedure for RRC setup accordingly. If the gNB 410 is paging the Tag 430, then at 403, the I-node 430 may determine to deter or skip the RACH procedure for RRC setup.

In some embodiments, the gNB 410 may indicate the I-node 420 the behaviors in the paging intention. For example, the gNB 410 may tell the I-node 420 whether to setup RRC connection or not after received the Tag’s response since the network knows the service type. For the inventory use case, the gNB 410 may indicate the I-node 420 not setup RRC connection. For the command use case, if the data size is small, the gNB 410 may indicate the I-node 420 not to setup RRC connection. For the command use case, if the data size is large, the gNB 410 may indicate the I-node 420 to setup RRC connection if the I-node 420 has received the Tag’s response. Alternatively or additionally, if the I-node 420 knows the service type, it may determine whether to perform the RACH procedure for RRC setup after receiving the paging message. The behaviors may be preconfigured or predefined as well.

In some embodiments, if the I-node 420 knows the gNB 410 is paging the Tag 430, the I-node 420 may defer the RRC connection with a deferred timer, which defines a maximum time that the I-node 420 waits for a query response from the Tag 430. If the I-node 420 has not received the Tag’s response before the expiry of deferred timer, it will send the indication to gNB 410 to indicate the Tag 430 is not available. The deferred timer may be configured by the gNB 410 or may be determined by I-node 420. In some embodiments, a time duration of the deferred timer may be smaller than the paging response timer. If the Tag 430 knows the deferred timer, it will try to respond to I-node 420 before expiry of the deferred timer.

At 404, the I-node 420 may determine to defer a paging response and wait for Tag’s response. As one embodiment, the I-node 420 doesn’ t transmit a response signal to the gNB 140 before expiry of the deferred timer.

The I-node 420 transmits the tag query 405 to the Tag 430, and waits for Tag’s response. The tag query 405 is used to check whether the Tag 430 is available or not. When the Tag 430 receives the tag query 405 from the I-node 420, it will transmit the tag response 406 to the I-node. If the Tag 430 has not received the query signal from the I-node, it means it is not available. Thus, the Tag 430 will not send the query response 406 to I-node 420.

The I-node 420 may determine whether to skip the RRC connection for responding. If the I-node 420 has not received the Tag’s response before the expiry of the deferred timer, it may skip the RACH procedure for RRC setup. If the gNB 510 has not received the I-node’s response information before expiry of the paging timer, it knows the Tag is not available.

At 407, the I-node 420 may determine to activate one SDT to indicate the Tag query status in the paging response. If no tag response is received, the I-node may initiate one SDT transmission to send the response information to tell the gNB 410 the Tag 430 is not available. If at least one query response 406 is received before expiry of the deferred timer, the I-node 420 may transmit the deferred paging response indicating the tag query status 408 to the gNB 410. In some embodiments, the tag query status 408 may indicate one or more Tag IDs of available tag (s) . The deferred paging response may be transmitted over the SDT transmission.

In some embodiments, if the I-node 420 only knows the Tag ID, it may initiate one SDT transmission to indicate the query status in the paging response message. After the gNB 410 receives the SDT transmission, if the Tag is available, the gNB 510 may guide I-node’s behaviors as follows.

For the inventory use case, the gNB 410 may send an RRC release message to I-node 420. For the command use case, if the size of DL data targeting available Tag (s) is small, the gNB 410 may transmit the DL data to the I-node 420 by DL SDT. For the command use case (i.e., for DL data) , if the data size is large, the gNB 410 may initiate the request of RRC connection setup and transmit the DL data after the RRC connection has established. For the command use case (i.e., request Tag report) , the gNB 410 may initiate a request for RRC connection setup and indicate the I-node 420 to request Tag report and feedback the Tag’s report data after RRC connection setup.

If the I-node 420 know the Tag ID and the service type, it may determine whether to setup RRC connection based on the service Type. For the inventory use case, I-node 420 may initiate the SDT transmission to indicate the Tag query status 408 in a deferred paging response to the gNB 410. For the command use case, the I-node 420 may decide to setup RRC connection for transmitting the Tag query status 408 in the deferred paging response and the following data reception and transmission.

In view of above, embodiments of the disclosure provide an efficient paging mechanism for support A-IoT communication. According to the embodiments of the disclosure, power saving at UE can be achieved by avoiding the RRC connection for I-node when UE receives a paging request. In addition, by avoiding switching to RRC connected mode when is not necessary, latency can be reduced. Signaling overhead associated with frequent and/or unnecessary switching from RRC inactive to RRC connected mode may also be reduced.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 500 implemented at a terminal device (such as UE) in accordance with some other embodiments of the present disclosure. For ease of understanding, the method 500 will be described from the perspective of the terminal device 120 with reference to FIG. 1.

At block 510, the terminal device 120 receives, from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device. At block 520, the terminal device 120 determines to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.

In some embodiments, the paging message includes an identity (ID) of the at least one wireless device.

In some embodiments, the paging message is received at one or more paging occasions implicitly indicating the paging intention.

In some embodiments, the paging message includes an explicit information element indicating the paging intention.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may determine, based on a service type or an indication received from the network device, whether to perform the RACH procedure for RRC setup after receiving the paging message.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may defer the RACH procedure for RRC setup with a deferred timer; and transmit a query signal to the at least one wireless device, wherein the deferred timer defines a maximum time that the terminal device waits for a query response from the at least one wireless device.

In some embodiments, a time duration of the deferred timer is less than that of a paging response timer specific to the at least one wireless device.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may determine to defer a paging response with the deferred timer.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may skip the RACH procedure for RRC setup in case that no query response is received before expiry of the deferred timer.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may initiate a small data transmission (SDT) transmission to transmit the deferred paging response indicating none of the at least one wireless device is available to the network device.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may transmit, in case that at least one query response is received before expiry of the deferred timer, the deferred paging response indicating a query status of the at least one wireless device to the network device.

In some embodiments, the query status indicates one or more IDs of one or more available wireless devices.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may initiate an SDT transmission to transmit the deferred paging response indicating the query status of the at least one wireless device to the network device.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may receive an RRC release message from the network device.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may receive, via downlink (DL) SDT, DL data targeting one or more of the at least one wireless device from the network device.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may receive a request for RRC connection setup from the network device; and initiate, based on reception of the request of RRC connection setup, the RACH procedure for RRC setup.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may determine, based on a service type, to initiate one of an SDT transmission or the RACH procedure for RRC setup to transmit the deferred paging response indicating the query status of the at least one wireless device to the network device.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may determine, for a service type of inventory use case, to initiate the SDT transmission to transmit the deferred paging response; or determine, for a service type of command use case, to initiate the RACH procedure for RRC setup to transmit the deferred paging response.

In some embodiments, the terminal device comprises a user equipment (UE) in an RRC inactive or idle state, and the at least one wireless devices comprises an ambient Internet of Things (IoT) device.

FIG. 6 illustrates another flowchart of an example method implemented at a network device (such as a gNB) in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For ease of understanding, the method 600 will be described from the perspective of the network device 110 with reference to FIG. 1.

At block 610, the network device 110 transmits, to a terminal device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device.

In some embodiments, the network device may indicate, based on a service type, the terminal device whether to perform the RACH procedure for RRC setup after receiving the paging message.

In some embodiments, the network device may receive a deferred paging response indicating a query status of the at least one wireless device from the terminal device.

In some embodiments, the deferred paging response is received via a small data transmission (SDT) transmission.

In some embodiments, the network device may transmit, for a service type of inventory use case, an RRC release message to the terminal device.

In some embodiments, the network device may transmit, for a service type of command use case, DL data targeting one or more of the at least one wireless device to the terminal device via downlink (DL) SDT.

In some embodiments, the network device may transmit, for a service type of command use case, a request for RRC connection setup to the terminal device based on determining that a size of DL data is large; and transmit the DL data to the terminal device after RRC connection has been established.

In some embodiments, the deferred paging response is received via a RRC connection that is established by a deferred RACH procedure for RRC setup.

In some embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing the method 500 (for example, the terminal device 120) may comprise means for performing the respective steps of the method 500. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus comprises: means for receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device; and means for determining, at the terminal device, to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.

In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for performing other steps in some embodiments of the method 500. In some embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the performance of the apparatus.

In some embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing the method 600 (for example, a network device) may comprise means for transmitting, from a network device and to a terminal device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device.

In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for performing other steps in some embodiments of the method 600. In some embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the performance of the apparatus.

FIG. 7 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device 700 that is suitable for implementing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 700 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the network device 110 or the terminal device 120 as shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the device 700 includes one or more processors 710, one or more memories 720 coupled to the processor 710, and one or more communication modules 740 coupled to the processor 710.

The communication module 740 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 740 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements.

The processor 710 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 700 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

The memory 720 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 724, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM) , a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD) , a digital video disk (DVD) , and other magnetic storage and/or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 722 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

A computer program 730 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 710. The program 730 may be stored in the ROM 724. The processor 710 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 730 into the RAM 722.

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 730 so that the device 700 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to FIGS. 5 to 6. The embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

In some example embodiments, the program 730 may be tangibly contained in a computer-readable medium which may be included in the device 700 (such as in the memory 720) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 700. The device 700 may load the program 730 from the computer-readable medium to the RAM 722 for execution. The computer-readable medium may include any types of tangible non-volatile storage, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a computer-readable medium 800 in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The computer-readable medium 800 has the program 730 stored thereon. It is noted that although the computer-readable medium 800 is depicted in form of CD or DVD in FIG. 8, the computer-readable medium 800 may be in any other form suitable for carry or hold the program 730.

Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor, to carry out the process or method 500 and 600 as described above with reference to FIGS. 5 to 6. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions/operations specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program codes or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer-readable medium, and the like.

The computer-readable medium may be a computer-readable signal medium or a computer-readable storage medium. A computer-readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer-readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. The term “non-transitory, ” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM) .

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Although the present disclosure has been described in languages specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

A terminal device comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the terminal device at least to:

receive, from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device; and

determine to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.
The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the paging message includes an identity (ID) of the at least one wireless device.
The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the paging message is received at one or more paging occasions implicitly indicating the paging intention.
The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the paging message includes an explicit information element indicating the paging intention.
The terminal device of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein, to determine to defer or skip the RACH procedure for RRC setup, the terminal device is caused to:

determine, based on a service type or an indication received from the network device, whether to perform the RACH procedure for RRC setup after receiving the paging message.
The terminal device of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

defer the RACH procedure for RRC setup with a deferred timer; and

transmit a query signal to the at least one wireless device,

wherein the deferred timer defines a maximum time that the terminal device waits for a query response from the at least one wireless device.
The terminal device of claim 6, wherein a time duration of the deferred time is less than that of a paging response timer specific to the at least one wireless device.
The terminal device of claim 6, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

determine to defer a paging response with the deferred timer.
The terminal device of claim 8, wherein the terminal device is further configured to:

in case that no query response is received before expiry of the deferred timer, skip the RACH procedure for RRC setup.
The terminal device of claim 9, wherein the terminal device is further configured to:

initiate a small data transmission (SDT) transmission to transmit the deferred paging response indicating none of the at least one wireless device is available to the network device.
The terminal device of claim 8, wherein the terminal device is further configured to:

in case that at least one query response is received before expiry of the deferred timer, transmit the deferred paging response indicating a query status of the at least one wireless device to the network device.
The terminal device of claim 11, wherein the query status indicates one or more IDs of one or more available wireless devices.
The terminal device of claim 11 or 12, wherein, to transmit the deferred paging response indicating a query status of the at least one wireless device to the network device, the terminal device is further caused to:

initiate an SDT transmission to transmit the deferred paging response indicating the query status of the at least one wireless device to the network device.
The terminal device of claim 13, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

receive an RRC release message from the network device.
The terminal device of claim 13, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

receive, via downlink (DL) SDT, DL data targeting one or more of the at least one wireless device from the network device.
The terminal device of claim 13, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

receive a request for RRC connection setup from the network device; and

initiate, based on reception of the request of RRC connection setup, the RACH procedure for RRC setup.
The terminal device of claim 11 or 12, wherein, to transmit the deferred paging response indicating a query status of the at least one wireless device to the network device, the terminal device is caused to:

determine, based on a service type, to initiate one of an SDT transmission or the RACH procedure for RRC setup to transmit the deferred paging response indicating the query status of the at least one wireless device to the network device.
The terminal device of claim 17, wherein, to determine to initiate one of an SDT transmission or the RACH procedure for RRC setup to transmit the deferred paging response, the terminal device is further caused to:

for a service type of inventory use case, determine to initiate the SDT transmission to transmit the deferred paging response; or

for a service type of command use case, determine to initiate the RACH procedure for RRC setup to transmit the deferred paging response.
The terminal device of any of claims 1 to 18, wherein the terminal device comprises a user equipment (UE) in an RRC inactive or idle state, and the at least one wireless devices comprises an ambient Internet of Things (IoT) device.
A network device comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the terminal device at least to:

transmit, to a terminal device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device.
The network device of claim 20, wherein the paging message includes an identity (ID) of the at least one wireless device.
The network device of claim 20, wherein the paging message is received at one or more paging occasions implicitly indicating the paging intention.
The network device of claim 20, wherein the paging message includes an explicit information element indicating the paging intention.
The network device of any of claims 20 to 23, wherein the network device is further caused to:

indicate, based on a service type, the terminal device whether to perform the RACH procedure for RRC setup after receiving the paging message.
The network device of any of claims 20 to 24, wherein the network device is further configured to:

receive a deferred paging response indicating a query status of the at least one wireless device from the terminal device.
The network device of claim 25, wherein the deferred paging response is received via a small data transmission (SDT) transmission.
The network device of claim 26, wherein the network device is further caused to:

for a service type of inventory use case, transmit an RRC release message to the terminal device.
The network device of claim 26, wherein the network device is further caused to:

for a service type of command use case, transmit, via downlink (DL) SDT, DL data targeting one or more of the at least one wireless device to the terminal device.
The network device of claim 26, wherein the network device is further caused to:

for a service type of command use case, transmit, based on determining that a size of DL data is large, a request for RRC connection setup to the terminal device; and

transmit the DL data to the terminal device after RRC connection has been established.
The network device of claim 20, wherein the deferred paging response is received via a RRC connection that is established by a deferred RACH procedure for RRC setup.
A method comprising:

receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device; and

determine, at the terminal device, to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.
A method comprising:

transmitting, from a network device and to a terminal device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device.
An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device; and

means for determining, at the terminal device, to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.
An apparatus comprising:

means for transmitting, from a network device and to a terminal device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device.
A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least:

receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device; and

determine, at the terminal device, to defer or skip a random access channel (RACH) procedure for radio resource control (RRC) setup after receiving the paging message.
A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least:

transmitting, from a network device and to a terminal device, a paging message indicating that a paging intention of the network device is to page at least one wireless device, wherein the terminal device is an intermediate node for communication between the network device and the at least one wireless device.