WO2025255809A1

WO2025255809A1 - Device and method of communication

Info

Publication number: WO2025255809A1
Application number: PCT/CN2024/099241
Authority: WO
Inventors: Zonghui XIE; Lin Liang; Wuyang ZHENG; Gang Wang
Original assignee: NEC Corp
Current assignee: NEC Corp
Priority date: 2024-06-14
Filing date: 2024-06-14
Publication date: 2025-12-18
Anticipated expiration: 2026-12-14

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to devices and methods of communication. In the solution, a first communication device may transmit, to an A-IoT device, first information indicating a management of the A-IoT device on a set of variables. The first information may indicate at least one of the following: the set of variables, a type of the management, or time information associated with the management. In this way, a variable buffering behavior of an A-IoT device may be controlled by a network, and thus energy utilization may be facilitated.

Description

DEVICE AND METHOD OF COMMUNICATION

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication, and in particular, to devices and methods of communication for ambient-Internet of things (A-IoT) .

BACKGROUND

Currently, it is expected to study and decide which functions are needed for an A-IoT compact protocol stack and lightweight signaling procedure to enable device-originated device-terminated triggered (DO-DTT) and device-terminated (DT) data transmissions. It has been proposed to study functions such as paging, access, or data transmission including necessary radio resource control aspects, or interactions with upper layers. Thus, how to implement or manage these functions of an A-IoT device needs to be further developed.

SUMMARY

In general, embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, devices and computer storage media of communication for A-IoT.

In a first aspect, there is provided a first communication device. The first communication device comprises a processor. The processor is configured to cause the first communication device to: transmit, to an A-IoT device, first information indicating a management of the A-IoT device on a set of variables, the first information indicating at least one of the following: the set of variables, a type of the management, or time information associated with the management.

In a second aspect, there is provided an A-IoT device. The A-IoT device comprises a processor. The processor is configured to cause the A-IoT device to: receive, from a first communication device, a first message for triggering a transmission to the first communication device, the first message comprising a list of identities of A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups; in accordance with a determination that an identity of the A-IoT device matches an identity in the list, determine a first resource based on a ranking of the identity of the A-IoT device in the list and a mapping between the identities of the A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups and a first set of resources for the transmission; and initiate the transmission to the first communication device via the first resource.

In a third aspect, there is provided an A-IoT device. The A-IoT device comprises a processor. The processor is configured to cause the A-IoT device e to: receive, from a first communication device, a set of messages for triggering an access to the first communication device, the set of messages comprising fourth information identifying a set of A-IoT devices; in accordance with a determination that a first set of bits in an identity of the A-IoT device matches the fourth information, determine an identifier of the A-IoT device for the access at least based on a second set of bits in the identity of the A-IoT device; and transmit, to the first communication device, a message for accessing to the first communication device, the message comprising the identifier of the A-IoT device.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: transmitting, at a first communication device and to an A-IoT device, first information indicating a management of the A-IoT device on a set of variables, the first information indicating at least one of the following: the set of variables, a type of the management, or time information associated with the management.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: receiving, at an A-IoT device and from a first communication device, a first message for triggering a transmission to the first communication device, the first message comprising a list of identities of A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups; in accordance with a determination that an identity of the A-IoT device matches an identity in the list, determining a first resource based on a ranking of the identity of the A-IoT device in the list and a mapping between the identities of the A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups and a first set of resources for the transmission; and initiating the transmission to the first communication device via the first resource.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: receiving, at an A-IoT device and from a first communication device, a set of messages for triggering an access to the first communication device, the set of messages comprising fourth information identifying a set of A-IoT devices; in accordance with a determination that a first set of bits in an identity of the A-IoT device matches the fourth information, determining an identifier of the A-IoT device for the access at least based on a second set of bits in the identity of the A-IoT device; and transmitting, to the first communication device, a message for accessing to the first communication device, the message comprising the identifier of the A-IoT device.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon. The instructions, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method according to any of the fourth to sixth aspects of the present disclosure.

Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Through the more detailed description of some embodiments of the present disclosure in the accompanying drawings, the above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network in which some embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating an example process of communication according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating another example process of communication according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating another example process of communication according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating another example process of communication according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6A illustrates a diagram illustrating an example mapping between identities (IDs) of A-IoT devices and resources according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6B illustrates a diagram illustrating another example mapping between IDs of A-IoT devices and resources according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6C illustrates a diagram illustrating another example mapping between IDs of A-IoT devices and resources according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6D illustrates a diagram illustrating another example mapping between IDs of A-IoT devices and resources according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating another example process of communication according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8A illustrates a diagram illustrating an example generation of a random ID according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8B illustrates a diagram illustrating another example generation of a random ID according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating another example process of communication according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of an example method of communication implemented at a first communication device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 illustrates a flowchart of an example method of communication implemented at an A-IoT device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart of another example method of communication implemented at an A-IoT device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 13 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure.

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

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some 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 limitations 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.

As used herein, the term ‘terminal device’ refers to any device having wireless or wired communication capabilities. Examples of the terminal device include, but not limited to, user equipment (UE) , personal computers, desktops, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) , portable computers, tablets, wearable devices, Internet of things (IoT) devices, ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC) devices, Internet of everything (IoE) devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, device on vehicle for V2X communication where X means pedestrian, vehicle, or infrastructure/network, devices for integrated access and backhaul (IAB) , small data transmission (SDT) , mobility, multicast and broadcast services (MBS) , positioning, dynamic/flexible duplex in commercial networks, reduced capability (RedCap) , space borne vehicles or air borne vehicles in non-terrestrial networks (NTN) including Satellites and high altitude platforms (HAPs) encompassing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) , extended reality (XR) devices including different types of realities such as augmented reality (AR) , mixed reality (MR) and virtual reality (VR) , the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) commonly known as a drone which is an aircraft without any human pilot, devices on high speed train (HST) , or image capture devices such as digital cameras, sensors, gaming devices, music storage and playback appliances, or Internet appliances enabling wireless or wired Internet access and browsing and the like. The ‘terminal device’ can further has ‘multicast/broadcast’ feature, to support public safety and mission critical, V2X applications, transparent IPv4/IPv6 multicast delivery, IPTV, smart TV, radio services, software delivery over wireless, group communications and IoT applications. It may also incorporate one or multiple subscriber identity module (SIM) as known as multi-SIM. The term ‘terminal device’ can be used interchangeably with a UE, a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile terminal, a user terminal or a wireless device.

The term ‘network device’ may refer to a core network (CN) device or a radio access network (RAN) device. The term ‘CN device’ refers to any device or entity that provides access and mobility management function (AMF) , network exposure function (NEF) , authentication server function (AUSF) , unified data management (UDM) , session management function (SMF) , user plane function (UPF) , a location management function (LMF) , etc. In other embodiments, the CN device may be any other suitable device or entity providing any other suitable functionality.

As used herein, the term ‘RAN device’ refers to a device which is capable of providing or hosting a cell or coverage where terminal devices can communicate. Examples of an RAN device include, but not limited to, a satellite, an unmanned aerial systems (UAS) platform, a Node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a next generation NodeB (gNB) , a transmission reception point (TRP) , a remote radio unit (RRU) , a radio head (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , an IAB node, a low power node such as a femto node, a pico node, a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) , and the like.

The terminal device or the network device may have artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) capability. It generally includes a model which has been trained from numerous collected data for a specific function, and can be used to predict some information.

The terminal or network device may work on several frequency ranges, e.g. FR1 (410 MHz to 7125 MHz) , FR2 (24.25GHz to 71GHz) , frequency band larger than 100GHz as well as Tera Hertz (THz) . It can further work on licensed/unlicensed/shared spectrum. The terminal device may have more than one connections with the network devices under MR-DC application scenario. The terminal device or the network device can work on full duplex, flexible duplex and cross division duplex modes.

The network device may have the function of network energy saving, self-organizing networks (SON) /minimization of drive tests (MDT) . The terminal may have the function of power saving.

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be performed in test equipment, e.g. signal generator, signal analyzer, spectrum analyzer, network analyzer, test terminal device, test network device, channel emulator.

In one embodiment, the terminal device may be connected with a first network device and a second network device. One of the first network device and the second network device may be a master node and the other one may be a secondary node. The first network device and the second network device may use different radio access technologies (RATs) . In one embodiment, the first network device may be a first RAT device and the second network device may be a second RAT device. In one embodiment, the first RAT device is eNB and the second RAT device is gNB. Information related with different RATs may be transmitted to the terminal device from at least one of the first network device or the second network device. In one embodiment, information A may be transmitted to the terminal device from the first network device and information B may be transmitted to the terminal device from the second network device directly or via the first network device. In one embodiment, information related with configuration for the terminal device configured by the second network device may be transmitted from the second network device via the first network device. Information related with reconfiguration for the terminal device configured by the second network device may be transmitted to the terminal device from the second network device directly or via the first network device.

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. The term ‘includes’ and its variants are to be read as open terms that mean ‘includes, but is not limited to. ’ The term ‘based on’ is to be read as ‘at least in part based on. ’ The term ‘one embodiment’ and ‘an embodiment’ are to be read as ‘at least one embodiment. ’ The term ‘another embodiment’ is to be read as ‘at least one other embodiment. ’ The terms ‘first, ’ ‘second, ’ and the like may refer to different or same objects. The term ‘and/or’ indicates that there may be three relationships. For example, A and/or B may indicate cases includes ‘only A’ , ‘both A and B’, and ‘only B’ . The term ‘at least one of the following items’ or a similar expression thereof refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of a single item or a plurality of items. For example, ‘at least one of A, B, or C’ may represent A, B, C, ‘A and B’ , ‘A and C’ , ‘B and C’ , or ‘A, B and C’ . Other definitions, explicit and implicit, may be included below.

In some examples, values, procedures, or apparatus are referred to as ‘best, ’ ‘lowest, ’ ‘highest, ’ ‘minimum, ’ ‘maximum, ’ or the like. It will be appreciated that such descriptions are intended to indicate that a selection among many used functional alternatives can be made, and such selections need not be better, smaller, higher, or otherwise preferable to other selections.

In the context of the present disclosure, the term ‘A-IoT’ may be interchangeably used with ‘passive IoT’ . The term ‘A-IoT device’ may refer to a device comprising an energy harvesting module and a backscattering module. The A-IoT device may receive an energy supply signal or command via the energy harvesting module and backscatter a signal via the backscattering module. Some example use cases of the A-IoT device are listed below.

In the context of the present disclosure, the term ‘command UE’ may refer to a terminal device transmitting a command to an A-IoT device to implement select, inventory or access (e.g., read and write) to the A-IoT device. The term ‘excitation UE’ may refer to a terminal device providing an excitation signal or energy to an A-IoT device. After receiving the excitation signal, the A-IoT device may generate an induced current, and then receive information and send information through energy obtained by the induced current. It is to be understood that the names ‘command UE’ and ‘excitation UE’ merely are examples, and any other suitable names are also feasible.

In the context of the present disclosure, the term ‘communication device’ herein may refer to a node (e.g., a terminal device or a RAN device or a CN device) communicating with an A-IoT device. The term ‘a communication device’ may be interchangeably used with ‘a node’ , ‘a reader’ , ‘an interrogator’ , ‘a base station’ ‘a managing node’ or any other suitable names. In some embodiments, the communication device may be a node providing excitation signal or energy to an A-IoT device (i.e., an energy providing node or an energy resource) . In some embodiments, the communication device may be command UE. In some embodiments, the communication device may be excitation UE.

In the context of the present disclosure, the term ‘power’ may be interchangeably used with ‘energy’ . The term ‘energy status’ may refer to remaining energy storage (by an energy unit of J or mA/h) or operating time which can be supported by current energy storage or data volume which can be transmitted/received under the current energy storage. The term ‘energy status’ may be interchangeably used with ‘power status’ or ‘energy state’ .

In the context of the present disclosure, the term ‘paging’ or ‘A-IoT paging’ herein may refer to a method or a procedure that a reader used to notify an A-IoT device to participate in a transmission between the reader and the A-IoT device. A-IoT paging is a function to be used for the initial trigger message (s) to indicate device (s) that need to respond, or indicate device (s) to determine whether to respond. Multiple A-IoT devices may be involved in one paging procedure. An A-IoT device may be paged by more than one reader in one time period. The term ‘paging’ , ‘paging message’ or ‘initial trigger message’ may be interchangeably used with any other names. There may be multiple paging messages during one paging procedures, and A-IoT devices may determine whether to respond based on more than one paging messages.

In the context of the present disclosure, the term ‘a response to a paging’ herein may refer to at least one of the following: determining the paging is for an A-IoT device, setting a status according to the paging message, determining the A-IoT device needs to access to a reader, or initiating an access operation upon triggered by a further access trigger indication.

In the context of the present disclosure, the term ‘process’ herein may refer to a signaling procedure between a communication device and an A-IoT device. The signaling procedure may be a DO-DTT or DT or DO-autonomous (DO-A) data transmission. The term ‘process’ may be interchangeably used with ‘session’ , ‘procedure’ or any other suitable names.

In the context of the present disclosure, the term ‘ongoing or pending or suspending process’ may refer to a transmission procedure that is triggered but not completed successfully yet. This transmission procedure may include: a communication device has paged an A-IoT device but the A-IoT device does not receive the paging successfully; an A-IoT device has received a paging but does not respond to the paging yet; an A-IoT device has determined to respond to a paging but does not initiate an access to a communication device yet; an A-IoT device has accessed to a communication device but does not succeed yet (e.g., without confirmation from the communication device) ; or an A-IoT device participates one access round but does not initiate it’s transmission in an access occasion yet.

In the context of the present disclosure, the term ‘an access round’ may refer to a round of operations for accessing to a communication device, and may be interchangeably used with ‘a round of operations’ or ‘an access attempt’ or ‘an attempt’ . The term ‘access trigger indication’ herein may be interchangeably used with ‘access round indication’ or ‘DL access order’ or ‘access Msg0’ . The term ‘access procedure’ may refer to a procedure for accessing to a communication device. The access procedure may comprise one or multiple access rounds or attempts. The term ‘access procedure’ may be interchangeably used with ‘access process’ or ‘access operation’ . The term ‘D2R message’ may refer to a message from an A-IoT device to a communication device, and the term ‘R2D message’ may refer to a message from a communication device to an A-IoT device. The term ‘Msg’ may be interchangeably used with ‘message’ .

In the context of the present disclosure, the following terms may be defined as below.

- 4-step random access procedure: there may be four messages in the random access procedure of one A-IoT device as below.

- A-IoT Msg1: an A-IoT device sends an ID to a communication device. The ID is a random ID generated by the A-IoT device.

- A-IoT Msg2: the communication device echoes the ID received in A-IoT Msg1.

- A-IoT Msg3: the A-IoT device sends a device ID and/or any other upper layer data (depending on upper layer request) . The A-IoT device considers a contention resolution as successful if the A-IoT Msg2 including the same random ID in A-IoT Msg1 is received. It is assumed that a size of a random ID in A-IoT Msg1 should be sufficient for contention resolution purpose.

- A-IoT Msg4: a subsequent R2D transmission after a D2R transmission. A-IoT Msg4 does not need to be always sent in random access. A-IoT Msg4 may be considered to handle an A-IoT Msg3 transmission failure due to various reasons.

- 2-step random access procedure: there may be two messages in the random access procedure of one A-IoT device as below.

- A-IoT Msg1: an A-IoT device sends a device ID and/or any other upper layer data (depending on upper layer request) .

- A-IoT Msg2: a communication device may echo some information from A-IoT Msg1. A-IoT Msg2 does not need to be always sent in random access.

- 2-step contention resolution: use the R2D message corresponding to the first D2R message (i.e., A-IoT Msg B) to complete the contention resolution.

- 4-step contention resolution: use the R2D message corresponding to the second D2R message (i.e., A-IoT Msg4) to complete the contention resolution. This term assumes there could be the contention in A-IoT Msg3.

Principles and implementations of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the figures.

EXAMPLE OF COMMUNICATION NETWORK

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example communication network 100 in which some embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication network 100 may include terminal devices 110 and 111 and a RAN device 120. In some embodiments, the RAN device 120 may provide one or more serving cells (not shown) to serve the terminal devices 110 and 111.

As shown in FIG. 1, the communication network 100 may further include one or more A-IoT devices 130 (i.e., a set of A-IoT devices) . In some embodiments, the RAN device 120 and each of the one or more A-IoT devices 130 may communicate with each other. In some embodiments, one of the terminal devices 110 and 111 and each of the one or more A-IoT devices 130 may communicate with each other. In some embodiments, each of the one or more A-IoT devices 130 may communicate with one of the terminal devices 110 and 111 in a forward link (FL) , and may communicate with the RAN device 120 in a backward link (BL) . In some embodiments, each of the one or more A-IoT devices 130 may communicate with the RAN device 120 in a FL, and may communicate with one of the terminal devices 110 and 111 in a BL. In the context of the present disclosure, the term ‘FL’ may refer to a communication link terminated at A-IoT devices, and may also be referred to as downlink (DL) , mobile terminated (MT) , or R2D. The term ‘BL’ may refer to a communication link originated at A-IoT devices, and may also be referred to as uplink (UL) , mobile originated (MO) , or D2R.

As shown in FIG. 1, the communication network 100 may further include a CN device 140 and an A-IoT server 150. In some scenarios, each of the one or more A-IoT devices 130 may communicate with the A-IoT server 150 via a cellular network comprising the terminal device 110 and/or 111 and/or 112, and the RAN device 120 and the CN device 140.

It is to be understood that the number of devices in FIG. 1 is given for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations to the present disclosure. The communication network 100 may include any suitable number of RAN devices and/or terminal devices and/or A-IoT devices and/or CN devices and/or A-IoT servers adapted for implementing implementations of the present disclosure.

The terminal device 110 may communicate with the RAN device 120 via a Uu interface. The RAN device 120 may communicate with the CN device 140 via an Ng interface. The communications in the communication network 100 may conform to any suitable standards including, but not limited to, global system for mobile communications (GSM) , long term evolution (LTE) , LTE-evolution, LTE-advanced (LTE-A) , new radio (NR) , wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) , code division multiple access (CDMA) , GSM EDGE radio access network (GERAN) , machine type communication (MTC) and the like. The embodiments of the present disclosure may be performed according to any generation communication protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Examples of the communication protocols include, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, 5.5G, 5G-advanced networks, or the sixth generation (6G) networks.

In some scenarios, the terminal device 110, the RAN device 120 or the CN device 140 may serve as a node (also referred to as a managing node or a communication device herein) of managing the one or more A-IoT devices 130. In some embodiments, each communication device may page one or more A-IoT devices. In some embodiments, each communication device may indicate one or more A-IoT devices to perform an access to this communication device. In some embodiments for the access, a communication device may initiate a procedure (for convenience, also referred to as a first procedure herein) with a reporting of an identity (ID) of an A-IoT device. For example, the first procedure may be a command procedure with an inventory procedure. In some alternative embodiments, a communication device may initiate a procedure (for convenience, also referred to as a second procedure herein) without a reporting of an ID of an A-IoT device. For example, the second procedure may be a command procedure without an inventory procedure.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide solutions of communication for a management of an A-IoT device. The detailed description will be made with reference to FIGs. 2 to 9 below.

EXAMPLE IMPLEMENTATION OF VARIABLE MANAGEMENT

In some scenarios, considering energy aspects and usage of non-volatile memory of an A-IoT device, it may be difficult to assume an infinite buffering time of all variables. Thus, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution of variable management. The solution will be described in connection with FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating an example process 200 of communication according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The process 200 may involve an A-IoT device 201 and a communication device 202. The A-IoT device 201 may be any of the one or more A-IoT devices 130 as illustrated in FIG. 1, and the communication device 202 may be the terminal device 110 or 111, the RAN device 120 or the CN device 140 as illustrated in FIG. 1. It is to be understood that the steps and the order of the steps in FIG. 2 are merely for illustration, and not for limitation. For example, the order of the steps may be changed. Some of the steps may be omitted or any other suitable additional steps may be added.

As shown in FIG. 2, the communication device 202 (also referred to as a first communication device herein) may transmit 210, to the A-IoT device 201, information (for convenience, also referred to as first information herein) indicating a management of the A-IoT device 201 on a set of variables. In other words, the A-IoT device 201 may be instructed to process or control one or more local variables or buffers or memories or configurations or flags.

In some embodiments, the first information may be instructed from the RAN device 120 via an access stratum (AS) signaling. In some embodiments, the first information may be instructed from the CN device 140 via a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling. It is to be understood that any other suitable ways may also be feasible, and the present disclosure does not limit this aspect.

In some embodiments, the first information may indicate the set of variables. For example, the first information may indicate the one or more local variables or buffers or configurations or flags.

In some embodiments, the first information may indicate a type of the management, i.e., a manner of managing the set of variables.

In some embodiments, the type of the management may indicate that the set of variables is required to be kept. In that case, the set of variables is required to be kept longer than a first threshold time period. In some embodiments, the type of the management may indicate that the set of variables is required to be kept for a time period. In some embodiments, the type of the management may indicate that the set of variables is required to be kept infinitely. For example, the type of the management may be type 1: infinite persistent. For type 1, the set of variables is required to be kept even the A-IoT device 201 is de-energized. That is, information related to registration with a network (e.g., a RAN device or a CN device) is stored in a memory of the A-IoT device 201.

In some embodiments, the type of the management may indicate that the set of variables is required to be kept upon a condition is fulfilled or to be refreshed upon the condition is unfulfilled. In that case, the set of variables is required to be kept during a time period. For example, the type of the management may be type 2: limited persistent. For type 2, the set of variables may be refreshed under some circumstances. For example, the A-IoT device 201 may maintain the set of variables under specific temperature range and energy storage meets persistence requirements. Otherwise, the A-IoT device 201 may lose stored values, e.g., buffered data, configurations provided by paging, or configurations for a specific round of access.

In some embodiments, the type of the management may indicate that the set of variables is required to be refreshed upon power-on of the A-IoT device 201. In that case, the set of variables is required to be kept shorter than a second threshold time period. For example, the type of the management may be type 3: non-persistent. For type 3, the set of variables may be refreshed under some circumstances. For example, the A-IoT device 201 may refresh non-persistent variables when powered, meaning that every time the A-IoT device 201 loses power, its non-persistent variables will be lost.

In some embodiments, the type of the management may indicate that the set of variables is not required to be kept. It is to be understood that the above types are merely examples, and any other suitable types may also be feasible.

In some embodiments, the first information may indicate time information associated with the management. In some embodiments, the time information may comprise a starting time point of the management, i.e., a start time to apply the indicated type of the management. For example, the start time may be a timing at which an access failure or contention resolution failure occurs. In some embodiments, the time information may comprise a time duration of the management, i.e., a time duration to apply the indicated type of the management. For example, the time duration may be number of access rounds or occasions. It is to be understood that any combination of the above time information or any other suitable time information may also be feasible.

It is also to be understood that the first information may comprise any combination of the above first information.

With reference to FIG. 2, upon reception of the first information, the A-IoT device may manage 220 the set of variables based on the first information.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 2, the communication device 202 may determine 230 a remaining time of the management. In other words, the communication device 202 may determine a status of the set of variables. For example, the communication device 202 may determine whether the set of variables are kept, or kept to be valid, or refreshed, or lost. The remaining time may refer to a remaining effective time length if the set of variables is maintained for a limited time period. In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may maintain status information for different sets of variables. For example, for each set of variables, the communication device 202 may determine whether the set of variables are kept, or kept to be valid, or refreshed, or lost. In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may provide capability information of supporting the management. In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may provide capability information of the types of the management which are supported.

In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine the remaining time of the management based on the type of the management. In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine the remaining time of the management based on an energy status of the A-IoT device 201. In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine the remaining time of the management based on both the type of the management and the energy status of the A-IoT device 201.

In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine a length of a timer based on the type of the management and the energy status of the A-IoT device 201. If the first information is transmitted, the communication device 202 may start the timer, and determine the status information of the variables based on the timer. For example, the communication device 202 may determine the remaining time based on the timer. In some embodiments, if the energy status of the A-IoT device 201 is updated, the communication device 202 may restart or update the timer with a value determined based on the updated energy status. In some embodiments, if the energy status of the A-IoT device 201 is updated, the communication device 202 may update the status information of the variables.

With the process 200, a variable buffering behavior of an A-IoT device may be controlled by a network, the network and the A-IoT device may be aligned on the buffering behavior, and thus energy utilization may be facilitated.

EXAMPLE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROCEDURE DETERMINATION

In some scenarios, a transmission between an A-IoT device and a communication device (e.g., the first communication device) may be initiated without a reporting of an identity of an A-IoT device, i.e., the first procedure. In some scenarios, the transmission between the A-IoT device and the communication device may be initiated with the reporting of the identity of the A-IoT device, i.e., the second procedure.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution of determining the first or second procedure to initiate a transmission. The solution will be described in connection with FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating another example process 300 of communication according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The process 300 may involve an A-IoT device 201, a communication device 202 and a communication device 203. The A-IoT device 201 may be any of the one or more A-IoT devices 130 as illustrated in FIG. 1, the communication device 202 may be the terminal device 110 or 111, the RAN device 120 or the CN device 140 as illustrated in FIG. 1, and the communication device 203 may be the terminal device 110 or 111, the RAN device 120 or the CN device 140 as illustrated in FIG. 1. It is to be understood that the steps and the order of the steps in FIG. 3 are merely for illustration, and not for limitation. For example, the order of the steps may be changed. Some of the steps may be omitted or any other suitable additional steps may be added.

As shown in FIG. 3, the communication device 202 (also referred to as a first communication device herein) may determine 310 whether the first procedure with the reporting of the ID of the A-IoT device 201 or the second procedure without the reporting of the ID of the A-IoT device 201 is to be initiated for a service (e.g., for one or more data transmissions or for one or more command transmissions) . In some embodiments, the determination is made by the CN device 140, and then indicated to the RAN device 120. In some embodiments, the determination is made by the RAN device 120. In some embodiments, the determination is made by the CN device 140 or RAN device 120, and then indicated to a terminal device intermediated between the A-IoT device 130 and the RAN device 120.

In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine whether the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated based on an indication. In some embodiments, the indication may be transmitted from the CN device 140 to the RAN device 120. In some embodiments, the indication may be transmitted from the RAN device 120 to a terminal device intermediated between the A-IoT device 130 and the RAN device 120. For example, the indication is an explicit indication of initiating the first procedure or second procedure, and is transmitted with a request of the service.

In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine whether the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated based on an indication of whether a presence of the A-IoT device 201 is to be confirmed or needs to be confirmed. In some embodiments, the indication may be transmitted from the CN device 140 to the RAN device 120. In some embodiments, the indication may be transmitted from the RAN device 120 to a terminal device intermediated between the A-IoT device 130 and the RAN device 120.

In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine whether the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated based on an indication that the service is to be initiated after the reporting of the ID of the A-IoT device 201. In some embodiments, the indication may be transmitted from the CN device 140 to the RAN device 120. In some embodiments, the indication may be transmitted from the RAN device 120 to a terminal device intermediated between the A-IoT device 130 and the RAN device 120.

In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine whether the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated based on an indication that the A- IoT device 201 is to be inventoried or needs to be inventoried before an initiation of the service. In some embodiments, the indication may be transmitted from the CN device 140 to the RAN device 120. In some embodiments, the indication may be transmitted from the RAN device 120 to a terminal device intermediated between the A-IoT device 130 and the RAN device 120.

In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine whether the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated based on a configuration (e.g., access resources or access control information) for an access of the A-IoT device 201 is to be provided or to be provided again to the A-IoT device 201 before the service. In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine whether the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated based on a previous configuration for the service of the A-IoT device 201 is out of date (e.g., refreshed, or deleted, or not available, or invalid) or not. For example, if the previous configuration for the service of the A-IoT device 201 is out of date, the communication device 202 may determine that the first procedure is to be initiated. If the previous configuration for the service of the A-IoT device 201 is valid, the communication device 202 may determine that the second procedure is to be initiated. In some embodiments, the configuration may be transmitted from the CN device 140 to the RAN device 120. In some embodiments, the configuration may be transmitted from the RAN device 120 to a terminal device intermediated between the A-IoT device 130 and the RAN device 120. In some embodiments, the configuration may be controlled by a timer which is at the RAN device 120 or the CN device 140.

In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine whether the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated based on whether registration information of the A-IoT device 201 is available. For example, if the A-IoT device 201 has registered to the communication device 202 and the registration information is available, the communication device 202 may determine that the second procedure is to be initiated. If the A-IoT device 201 has not registered to the communication device 202, the communication device 202 may determine that the first procedure is to be initiated.

In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine whether the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated based on a time period elapsed since a last reporting of the ID of the A-IoT device 201 exceeds a threshold time period. For example, if the A-IoT device 201 is inventoried in the last T time periods, the communication device 202 may determine that the second procedure is to be initiated.

In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may determine whether the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated based on information in paging. For example, the information in paging may comprise information to identify a set of A-IoT devices such as: an ID mapping to one A-IoT device, an ID mapping to an A-IoT device group, an indication mapping to all A-IoT devices, or an indication to exclude an A-IoT device or a set of A-IoT devices. For example, if the paging comprises no ID or indicates that a command is for all A-IoT devices, the communication device 202 may determine that the second procedure is to be initiated.

With reference to FIG. 3, the communication device 202 may receive 311 information (for convenience, also referred to as second information herein) of the management from the communication device 203.

In some embodiments, the second information may indicate the type of the management, e.g., the type 1 or 2 or 3 as described above. In some embodiments, the second information may indicate validity of a variable in the set of variables. For example, the second information may indicate that the set of variables is in a valid, or invalid or out of data status. In some embodiments, the second information may indicate the remaining time of the management, e.g., a remaining persistent time of the set of variables. It is to be understood that any combination of the above second information may also be feasible.

With reference to FIG. 3, the communication device 202 may determine 312, based on the second information, that the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated. For example, if the second information indicates that the set of variables is invalid, the communication device 202 may determine that the first procedure is to be initiated. For example, if the second information indicates that a remaining persistent time of the set of variables is no larger than a first threshold time, the communication device 202 may determine that the first procedure is to be initiated. For another example, if the second information indicates a remaining persistent time of the set of variables is no less than a second threshold time, the communication device 202 may determine that the second procedure is to be initiated.

As shown in FIG. 3, in some embodiments, upon determination that the first procedure is to be initiated, the communication device 202 may initiate 320 the first procedure, e.g., a command procedure with an inventory procedure. In some embodiments, upon determination that the second procedure is to be initiated, the communication device 202 may initiate 330 the second procedure, e.g., a command procedure without an inventory procedure.

With the process 300, a transmission between an A-IoT device and a communication device may be initiated in an efficient way.

EXAMPLE IMPLEMENTATION OF ACCESS CONTROL

In some scenarios, there may be no feedback from a communication device (e.g., the first communication device) to an A-IoT device after a transmission from the A-IoT device to the first communication device (e.g., the first communication device may just trigger the transmission to estimate number of in-coverage A-IoT devices, or to estimate a contention level) . In this case, the A-IoT device may initiate a retransmission, which may be unnecessary.

Thus, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution of controlling an access from an A-IoT device. The solution will be described in connection with FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating another example process 400 of communication according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The process 400 may involve an A-IoT device 201 and a communication device 202. The A-IoT device 201 may be any of the one or more A-IoT devices 130 as illustrated in FIG. 1, and the communication device 202 may be the terminal device 110 or 111, the RAN device 120 or the CN device 140 as illustrated in FIG. 1. It is to be understood that the steps and the order of the steps in FIG. 4 are merely for illustration, and not for limitation. For example, the order of the steps may be changed. Some of the steps may be omitted or any other suitable additional steps may be added.

As shown in FIG. 4, the communication device 202 (also referred to as a first communication device herein) may transmit 410, to the A-IoT device 201, information (for convenience, also referred to as third information herein) regarding an access (e.g., A-IoT Msg1 or A-IoT Msg3) from the A-IoT device 201 to the communication device 202. In some embodiments, the third information may be carried in a paging message or an initial trigger message or an access trigger message. It is to be understood that the third information may be carried in any other suitable messages.

In some embodiments, the third information may indicate an acknowledgement to the access is present or absent. In some embodiments, for the case that the acknowledgement to the access is present, unless the A-IoT device 201 receives a positive acknowledgement to the access (i.e., a positive acknowledgement for successful contention resolution) , the A-IoT device 201 may assume a transmission failure without acknowledgement and need to initiate the retransmission. For the case that the acknowledgement to the access is absent, unless the A-IoT device 201 receives a negative acknowledgement (i.e., failure acknowledgement) to the access or a scheduling information for the retransmission of the access, the A-IoT device 201 may not need to initiate the retransmission.

In some embodiments, the third information may indicate that the A-IoT device 201 is required to initiate a retransmission of the access if no positive acknowledgement to the access is received. In other words, unless the A-IoT device 201 receives a positive acknowledgement to the access (i.e., a positive acknowledgement for successful contention resolution) , the A-IoT device 201 may assume a transmission failure without acknowledgement and need to initiate the retransmission.

In some embodiments, the third information may indicate that the A-IoT device 201 is required to initiate the retransmission of the access. In some embodiments, the third information may indicate that the A-IoT device 201 is required to initiate the retransmission of the access if a negative acknowledgement to the access is received. In other words, unless the A-IoT device 201 receives a negative acknowledgement (i.e., failed acknowledgement) to the access or scheduling information for the retransmission of the access, the A-IoT device 201 may not need to initiate the retransmission.

In some embodiments, the third information may indicate that an identifier (e.g., a random ID) of the A-IoT device 201 is comprised or not comprised in an initial message (e.g., A-IoT Msg1) of the access. In some embodiments, for the case that there is a failed access (e.g., failed acknowledgement or failed A-IoT Msg1 transmission) , the communication device 202 may request the retransmission by a random ID of the A-IoT device 201. That is, the A-IoT device 201 should include the random ID in the initial message. In some embodiments, for the case that the A-IoT device 201 is indicated to include the random ID in the initial message, the A-IoT device 201 may assume a failure of last transmission and initiate the retransmission upon reception of a message with the random ID from the communication device 202. That is, the A-IoT device 201 should include the random ID in the initial message. In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 is indicated to include the random ID in the initial message. In that case, the A-IoT device 201 may assume a failure of last transmission and initiate the retransmission upon reception of a message with the random ID from the communication device 202. That is, the A-IoT device 201 may not need to initiate the retransmission unless the A-IoT device 201 receives a negative acknowledgement (i.e., failed acknowledgement) or scheduling information for the retransmission (e.g., use the random ID) .

In some embodiments, the third information may indicate that a set of A-IoT devices in an area is required to initial the access. In other words, the communication device 202 may indicate the set of A-IoT devices in a specific area to initial the access or report an ID or respond. In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may indicate the set of A-IoT devices in specific signal strength to initial the access or report an ID or respond. For example, the specific signal strength may be a signal strength range. An A-IoT device is determined to be inside or outside the signal strength range based on measurements results of received signal strength (e.g., for example, reference signal, sync signal or sync sequence) . In some embodiments, based on received power, the communication device 202 may determine an estimated number of A-IoT devices in a specific area (i.e., estimate a contention level) .

In some embodiments, the third information may indicate that the A-IoT device 201 is required to initial the access with a power level. In other words, the communication device 202 may indicate the A-IoT device to respond in specific power. In some embodiments, based on received power, the communication device 202 may determine an estimated number of A-IoT devices in the coverage of the communication device 202 or a specific area (i.e., estimate a contention level) .

It is to be understood that the third information may comprise any combination of the above third information or any other suitable information.

With reference to FIG. 4, the A-IoT device 201 may perform 420 the access to the communication device 202 based on the third information.

With the process 400, a communication device may achieve contention level estimation and an A-IoT device may not need to initiate a retransmission when no feedback is received from the communication device.

EXAMPLE IMPLEMENTATION OF RESOURCE DETERMINATION

In some scenarios, for a communication device to initiate a transmission, there are cases that different A-IoT devices may select the same resources to initiate the transmission and thus collisions may be caused.

In view of this, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution of initiating a transmission. The solution will be described in connection with FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating another example process 500 of communication according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The process 500 may involve an A-IoT device 201 and a communication device 202. The A-IoT device 201 may be any of the one or more A-IoT devices 130 as illustrated in FIG. 1, and the communication device 202 may be the terminal device 110 or 111, the RAN device 120 or the CN device 140 as illustrated in FIG. 1. It is to be understood that the steps and the order of the steps in FIG. 4 are merely for illustration, and not for limitation. For example, the order of the steps may be changed. Some of the steps may be omitted or any other suitable additional steps may be added.

As shown in FIG. 5, the communication device 202 (also referred to as a first communication device herein) may transmit 510, to the A-IoT device 201, a message (for convenience, also referred to as a first message herein) for triggering a transmission to the communication device 202. In some embodiments, the first message may comprise a list of IDs of A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups. It is to be understood that an A-IoT device group may comprise a plurality of A-IoT devices.

In some embodiments, the first message may be a paging message or an initial trigger message or an access trigger message or any other suitable messages. In some embodiments, the transmission may be A-IoT Msg1 or Msg3 transmission for access. In some embodiments, the transmission may be a reporting of an ID or random ID of the A-IoT device 201. In some embodiments, the transmission may be an indication to acknowledge the presence of the A-IoT device 201.

With reference to FIG. 5, the A-IoT device 201 may determine 520 that an ID of the A-IoT device 201 matches an ID in the list. Then the transmission is need to be performed by the A-IoT device 201 and resources are needed to be selected for the transmission. In this case, the A-IoT device 201 may determine 530 a resource (for convenience, also referred to as a first resource herein) based on a ranking of the ID of the A-IoT device 201 in the list and a mapping between the IDs of the A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups and a set of resources (for convenience, also referred to as a first set of resources herein) for the transmission.

With reference to FIG. 5, in some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may receive 531, from the communication device 202, information of the mapping between the IDs of the A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups and resources in the first set of resources. In some embodiments, the mapping may be based on an order that follows an increasing index of an occasion in any combinations of at least one of frequency domain, time domain and code domain.

In some embodiments, the mapping may be based on an order (for convenience, also referred to as a first order herein) that first follows an increasing index of an occasion in frequency domain and then follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain. FIG. 6A illustrates a diagram 600A illustrating an example mapping between IDs of A-IoT devices and resources according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 6A, devices 1 to 4 are respectively mapped to occasions 0 to 3 in the order that first follows an increasing index of an occasion in frequency domain and then follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain.

In some embodiments, the mapping may be based on an order (for convenience, also referred to as a second order herein) that first follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain and then follows an increasing index of an occasion in frequency domain. FIG. 6B illustrates a diagram 600B illustrating another example mapping between IDs of A-IoT devices and resources according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 6B, devices 1 to 4 are respectively mapped to occasions 0 to 3 in the order that first follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain and then follows an increasing index of an occasion in frequency domain.

In some embodiments, the mapping may be based on an order (for convenience, also referred to as a third order herein) that follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain. In some alternative embodiments, the mapping may be based on an order that follows an increasing index of an occasion in frequency domain. In some alternative embodiments, the mapping may be based on an order that follows an increasing index of an occasion in code domain. FIG. 6C illustrates a diagram 600C illustrating another example mapping between IDs of A-IoT devices and resources according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 6C, devices 1 to 4 are respectively mapped to occasions 0 to 3 in the order that follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain.

In some embodiments, the communication device 202 may configure one of the first to third orders to the A-IoT device 201.

With reference to FIG. 5, upon determination of the mapping, the A-IoT device 201 may determine 532 the first resource based on the ranking of the ID of the A-IoT device 201 in the list and the mapping between the IDs of the A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups and the first set of resources.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may determine a ranking of the first resource in the first set of resources based on the ranking of the ID of the A-IoT device 201 in the list, and determine the first resource based on the ranking of the first resource. The ranking of the ID of the A-IoT device 201 in the list implicit indicates an allocated resource. For example, if the ID of the A-IoT device 201 is the Mth entry in the list of IDs, the A-IoT device 201 may determine the first resource (i.e., a transmission occasion) based on M and the mapping.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may set an initial value of a variable (denoted as N herein) based on the ranking of the first resource. If a message (for convenience, also referred to as a second message herein) indicating a position of a resource (e.g., indicating a start or boundary of the resource) in the first set of resources is received, the A-IoT device 201 may decrement the variable. If the variable is equal to a first value (e.g., 0 or 1) , the A-IoT device 201 may determine the resource as the first resource. That is, if the variable indicates the resource is the Mth resource, the A-IoT device 201 may determine the resource as the first resource.

For example, the A-IoT device 201 may set the variable as N=M-1, where M denotes the ranking of first resource. Upon reception of the second message indicating the position of the resource (e.g., indicating a start or boundary of the resource) , the A-IoT device 201 may update N to be N-1. Upon N=0, the A-IoT device 201 may determine the corresponding resource as the first resource.

For example, if the mapping is based on the first order, the A-IoT device 201 may set the variable as N=i× (M-1) , where i denotes the number of the resources in frequency domain for the same time domain position. Upon reception of the second message indicating the position of the resource (e.g., indicating a start or boundary of the resource) , the A-IoT device 201 may update N to be N-i. Upon the variable is equal to 0, the A-IoT device 201 may determine the first resource based on (M mod i) , and determine the corresponding resource as the first resource.

In some alternative embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may initialize a counter, e.g., by setting the counter to 0. If the second message indicating the position of the resource in the first set of resources (e.g., indicating a start or boundary of the resource) is received, the A-IoT device 201 may increment the counter e.g., by 1 or any other suitable values. If a value of the counter is equal to a value N (i.e., N=M-1) , the A-IoT device 201 may determine the resource as the first resource. That is, if the variable indicates that the resource is the Mth resource, the A-IoT device 201 may determine the resource as the first resource.

For example, if the mapping is based on the first order, the A-IoT device 201 may initialize a counter, e.g., by setting the counter to 0. If the second message indicating the position of the resource in the first set of resources (e.g., indicating a start or boundary of the resource) is received, the A-IoT device 201 may increment the counter by i, where i denotes the number of the resources in frequency domain for the same time domain position. If a value of the counter is in a range from a lower bound (i× (M-2) +1) to an upper bound (i×(M-2) +i) , the A-IoT device 201 may determine the first resource based on (M mod i) , and determine the corresponding resource as the first resource.

In some alternative embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may receive, in the first message, an indication of an index (i.e., N) of the first resource. Based on the indication, the A-IoT device 201 may determine the first resource. For example, if the mapping is based on combinations of at least one of time domain, frequency domain and code domain, that is, there’s multiple frequency domain resources or code domain resources for the same time domain position, the first message may indicate more than one indexes or an index range. The A-IoT device 201 may determine the first resource based on one of the indicated indexes or index range.

As shown in FIG. 5, the A-IoT device 201 may initiate 540 the transmission to the communication device 202 via the first resource.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may determine a set of resources (for convenience, also referred to as a second set of resources herein) for a further attempt of the transmission.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may determine a length of the second set of resources. For example, the length of the second set of resources may be overall number of occasions for re-access.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may determine a starting resource in the second set of resources. In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may determine, as the starting resource, a resource (for convenience, also referred to as a third resource herein) having an index equal to a sum of the number of IDs in the list and a first number. For example, the third resource may be the (X+1) th resource, where X denotes total number of A-IoT devices sharing access resources, i.e., total number of A-IoT devices in the list of A-IoT devices. It is to be noted that the number of IDs in the list may be replaced with a length of the list or number of entries in the list.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may determine, as the starting resource, a later one of the third resource and a fourth resource, the fourth resource being later than the first resource by second number of resources. For example, the starting resource may be the Yth access resource, where Y is determined by the first resource which period T has passed (e.g., k resources has passed) since last transmission (e.g., at M) and the (X+1) th resource, which is later. This may be described as in equation (1) below.
Y= max (M+k, X+1) (1)

where Y denotes a ranking of the starting resource, M denotes a ranking of the first resource, k denotes the second number of resources, and X denotes total number of A-IoT devices sharing access resources.

FIG. 6D illustrates a diagram 600D illustrating another example mapping between IDs of A-IoT devices and resources according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 6D, devices 1 to 4 are respectively mapped to occasions 0 to 3 in the order that follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain. It is assumed that M=4, k=2, X=4. Then Y=6. Thus, occasion 5 is determined to be used for re-access.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may receive, in the first message, an indication of an index of the starting resource, and determine the starting resource based on the indication. For example, the Zth access resource may be indicated as the starting resource in a paging message or an initial trigger message or an access trigger message.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may receive, in the first message, an indication of an index of the first resource, i.e., the Nth resource. In this case, it is assumed that there is an index or sequence number for each access resource. The A-IoT device 201 may initiate the transmission on the resource indexed by N.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may initiate the transmission on every resources indexed by N, including initial transmission or retransmission upon failure. In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may consider that a further attempt of the transmission is required if the index of the first resource is further indicated in a message (for convenience, also referred to as a third message herein) indicating a resource for the transmission. That is, when the A-IoT device 201 is aware of the starting of the resources indexed by N, it may need to initiate retransmission (e.g., initiate a re-access, or report the identifier again) .

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may consider that the further attempt of the transmission is required if no acknowledgement to the access is received and the index of the first resource is further indicated in the third message. That is, before the A-IoT device 201 receives an acknowledgement of the transmission from the communication device 202, any further resources indexed by N indicates the retransmission.

In some embodiments, for the mapping between the IDs of the A-IoT device groups and the first set of resources, the A-IoT device 201 may determine an occasion from a resource in the first set of resources based on a device ID of the A-IoT device 201 and a criterion for selecting the occasion. In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may determine a processed device ID by processing a device ID of the A-IoT device 201 based on the criterion, and selecting the occasion from a set of occasions corresponding to the resource based on the processed device identifier and number of occasions in the set of occasions. It is to be understood that any suitable criteria are feasible.

With the process 500, a communication device may make an A-IoT device scattering to different transmission resources to reduce collisions.

EXAMPLE IMPLEMENTATION OF IDENTIFIER GENERATION

In some scenarios, for contention resolution, an identity of an A-IoT device may be not feasible since initial bits are common. Thus, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution of generating an identifier for access. The solution will be described in connection with FIG. 7.

FIG. 7 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating another example process 700 of communication according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The process 700 may involve an A-IoT device 201 and a communication device 202. The A-IoT device 201 may be any of the one or more A-IoT devices 130 as illustrated in FIG. 1, and the communication device 202 may be the terminal device 110 or 111, the RAN device 120 or the CN device 140 as illustrated in FIG. 1. It is to be understood that the steps and the order of the steps in FIG. 7 are merely for illustration, and not for limitation. For example, the order of the steps may be changed. Some of the steps may be omitted or any other suitable additional steps may be added.

As shown in FIG. 7, the communication device 202 (also referred to as a first communication device herein) may transmit 710, to the A-IoT device 201, a set of messages for triggering an access to the communication device 202. The set of messages may comprise information (also referred to as fourth information herein) identifying a set of A-IoT devices. In some embodiments, the fourth information may comprise IDs of A-IoT devices. In some embodiments, the fourth information may comprise IDs (i.e., group IDs) of A-IoT device groups. In some embodiments, the fourth information may comprise an indication that all the A-IoT devices are selected. In some embodiments, the fourth information may comprise an indication that a further set of A-IoT devices is excluded.

In some embodiments, the fourth information may provide one or multiple selecting criteria for the set of A-IoT devices. In some embodiments, the multiple selecting criteria may be included in multiple messages, i.e., initial paging and subsequent or delta paging messages.

With reference to FIG. 7, the A-IoT device 201 may determine 720 that a first set of bits in an ID (i.e., device ID) of the A-IoT device 201 matches the fourth information, e.g., matches one of the group IDs. In this case, the A-IoT device 201 may determine 730 an identifier (i.e., a random ID) of the A-IoT device 201 for the access at least based on a second set of bits in the ID of the A-IoT device 201.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may determine the identifier of the A-IoT device 201 based on the second set of bits. For example, the A-IoT device 201 may determine the second set of bits as the identifier of the A-IoT device 201.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may determine the identifier of the A-IoT device 201 based on the second set of bits and an index corresponding to the fourth information (e.g., an index of a group ID) . FIG. 8A illustrates a diagram 800A illustrating an example generation of a random ID according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown by a reference sign 810 in FIG. 8A, a paging message may provide a list of group masks and corresponding indexes. As shown by a reference sign 811 in FIG. 8A, a first part of an ID of the A-IoT device 201 matches group mask 2. As shown by a reference sign 812 in FIG. 8A, the A-IoT device 201 may generate the identifier of the A-IoT device 201 by using the index 2 of the group mask 2 and a second part of the ID of the A-IoT device 201. In some embodiments, the ID of the A-IoT device 201 consists of the first part of the ID and the second part of the ID.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may determine the identifier of the A-IoT device 201 based on the second set of bits and a third set of bits in the ID of the A-IoT device 201. In some embodiments, the third set of bits may be a part of the first set of bits. FIG. 8B illustrates a diagram 800B illustrating another example generation of a random ID according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown by a reference sign 820 in FIG. 8B, a paging message may provide a list of group masks. As shown by a reference sign 821 in FIG. 8B, a first part of an ID of the A-IoT device 201 matches group mask 2. As shown by a reference sign 822 in FIG. 8B, the A-IoT device 201 may generate the identifier of the A-IoT device 201 by using a second part of the ID of the A-IoT device 201 and a third part of the ID of the A-IoT device 201. The third part of the ID of the A-IoT device 201 is a portion of the first part.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may determine the first or second or third part of the ID of the A-IoT device 201 based on a configuration from the communication device 202. For example, the configuration may indicate at least one of a start bit or a length of the first or second or third part. In some embodiments, the configuration may be carried in a paging message or in an initial trigger message or in an access trigger message or in an access round indication.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may determine the second part based on at least one of a start bit or a length of the first part, e.g., in the case that a combination of the second part and the first part is an original identifier of the A-IoT device 201.

It is to be noted that the term ‘first part’ herein may be interchangeably used with ‘first subset’ or ‘first partial bits’ , the term ‘second part’ herein may be interchangeably used with ‘second subset’ or ‘second partial bits’ , and the term ‘third part’ herein may be interchangeably used with ‘third subset’ or ‘third partial bits’ .

As shown in FIG. 7, the A-IoT device 201 may transmit 740, to the communication device 202, a message for accessing to the communication device 202 comprising the determined identifier of the A-IoT device 201.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may indicate, to the communication device 202 during the access, a criterion by which the A-IoT device 201 is selected from the set of A-IoT devices. In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may cause an index of the criterion in the paging to be included the message for accessing to the communication device 202. In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may cause an indication of the criterion to be included the message for accessing to the communication device 202. In some embodiments, the A-IoT device 201 may cause partial information of the criterion to be included the message for accessing to the communication device 202.

In this way, duplicated bits, which are redundancy for contention resolution, are saved during access. Thus, efficiency of the contention resolution may be improved.

EXAMPLE IMPLEMENTATION OF RESPONSE TO PAGING

Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a solution of responding to a paging. The solution will be described in connection with FIG. 9.

FIG. 9 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating another example process 900 of communication according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The process 900 may involve an A-IoT device 201 and a communication device 202. The A-IoT device 201 may be any of the one or more A-IoT devices 130 as illustrated in FIG. 1, and the communication device 202 may be the terminal device 110 or 111, the RAN device 120 or the CN device 140 as illustrated in FIG. 1. It is to be understood that the steps and the order of the steps in FIG. 9 are merely for illustration, and not for limitation. For example, the order of the steps may be changed. Some of the steps may be omitted or any other suitable additional steps may be added.

As shown in FIG. 9, the communication device 202 (also referred to as a first communication device herein) may transmit 910, to the A-IoT device 201, a message (for convenience, also referred to as a first message herein) for triggering a transmission to the communication device 202. In some embodiments, the first message may comprise a list of IDs of A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups. It is to be understood that an A-IoT device group may comprise a plurality of A-IoT devices.

In some embodiments, the first message may be a paging message or an initial trigger message or an access trigger message or any other suitable messages. In some embodiments, the transmission may be A-IoT Msg1 or Msg3 transmission for access. In some embodiments, the transmission may be a reporting of an ID of the A-IoT device 201.

With reference to FIG. 9, if a list of IDs of A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups comprises only an ID of the A-IoT device 201, the A-IoT device 201 may transmit 920, to the communication device 202, information (for convenience, also referred to as fifth information herein) indicating a presence of the A-IoT device 201.

With reference to FIG. 9, if the list of IDs of A-IoT devices comprises multiple IDs of multiple A-IoT devices, and an ID of the A-IoT device 201 matches one of the multiple IDs, the A-IoT device 201 may transmit 930, to the communication device 202, information (for convenience, also referred to as sixth information herein) indicating a ranking of the ID of the A-IoT device 201 in the list of IDs of A-IoT devices.

In some embodiments, there is a mapping between the IDs of the A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups and a first set of resources for the transmission, as described in FIGs. 6A to 6C. The ID of the A-IoT device 201 is mapped to a first resource. In this case, the sixth information may indicate a ranking of the first resource in the first set of resources.

With the process 900, an acknowledgement or feedback for contention resolution may be simplified during an access of an A-IoT device. Thus, efficiency of the contention resolution may be improved.

So far, the solution of a management of an A-IoT device is described. It is to be understood that the above actions described in the processes 200, 300, 400, 500, 700 and 900 may be carried out separately or in any suitable combinations.

EXAMPLE IMPLEMENTATION OF METHODS

Corresponding to the above processes, embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods of communication implemented at an A-IoT device and at a first communication device. The first communication device may be a terminal device or an RAN device or a CN device. These methods will be described below with reference to FIGs. 10 to 12.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 1000 of communication implemented at a first communication device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, in the following, the method 1000 will be described with reference to FIG. 2. It is to be understood that the method 1000 may include additional blocks not shown and/or may omit some blocks as shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

At block 1010, a first communication device (e.g., communication device 202) may transmit, to an A-IoT device (e.g., the A-IoT device 201) , first information indicating a management of the A-IoT device on a set of variables. In some embodiments, the first information may indicate at least one of the following: the set of variables, a type of the management, or time information associated with the management.

In some embodiments, the type of the management may indicate one of the following: the set of variables is required to be kept; the set of variables is required to be kept upon a condition is fulfilled or to be refreshed upon the condition is unfulfilled; or the set of variables is required to be refreshed upon power-on of the A-IoT device.

In some embodiments, the time information may comprise at least one of the following: a starting time point of the management, or a time duration of the management.

In some embodiments, the first communication device may determine a remaining time of the management based on at least one of the following: the type of the management, or an energy status of the A-IoT device.

In some embodiments, the first communication device may determine the remaining time by: determining a length of a timer based on the type of the management and the energy status of the A-IoT device; in accordance with a determination that the first information is transmitted, starting the timer; and determining the remaining time based on the timer.

In some embodiments, in accordance with a determination that the energy status of the A-IoT device is updated, the first communication device may restart the timer with a value determined based on the updated energy status.

In some embodiments, the first communication device may determine that a first procedure with a reporting of an identity of the A-IoT device or a second procedure without the reporting of the identity of the A-IoT device is to be initiated for a service based on at least one of the following: an indication of whether a presence of the A-IoT device is to be confirmed; an indication that the service is to be initiated after the reporting of the identity of the A-IoT device; an indication that the A-IoT device is to be inventoried before an initiation of the service; a configuration for an access of the A-IoT device is to be provided to the A-IoT device before the service; a previous configuration for the service of the A-IoT device is out of date; or a time period elapsed since a last reporting of the identity of the A-IoT device exceeds a threshold time period.

In some embodiments, the first communication device may determine that the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated by: receiving, from a second communication device, second information of the management; and determining, based on the second information, that the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated.

In some embodiments, the second information may indicate at least one of the following: the type of the management, validity of a variable in the set of variables, or a remaining time of the management.

In some embodiments, the first communication device may transmit, to the A-IoT device, third information regarding an access from the A-IoT device to the first communication device. In some embodiments, the third information may indicate at least one of the following: an acknowledgement to the access is present or absent; in accordance with a determination that no positive acknowledgement to the access is received, the A-IoT device is required to initiate a retransmission of the access; in accordance with a determination that a negative acknowledgement to the access is received, the A-IoT device is required to initiate the retransmission of the access; an identifier of the A-IoT device is comprised or not comprised in an initial message of the access; a set of A-IoT devices in an area is required to initial the access; or the A-IoT device is required to initial the access with a power level.

With the method 1000, a variable buffering behavior of an A-IoT device may be controlled by a network, and thus energy utilization may be facilitated.

FIG. 11 illustrates a flowchart of another example method 1100 of communication implemented at an A-IoT device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, in the following, the method 1100 will be described with reference to FIG. 2. It is to be understood that the method 1100 may include additional blocks not shown and/or may omit some blocks as shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

At block 1110, an A-IoT device (e.g., the A-IoT device 201) may receive, from a first communication device (e.g., the communication device 202) , a first message for triggering a transmission to the first communication device. The first message comprises a list of identities of A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups.

At block 1120, the A-IoT device may determine that an identity of the A-IoT device matches an identity in the list.

At block 1130, the A-IoT device may determine a first resource based on a ranking of the identity of the A-IoT device in the list and a mapping between the identities of the A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups and a first set of resources for the transmission.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device may receive, from the first communication device, information of the mapping indicating one of the following: the mapping is based on a first order that first follows an increasing index of an occasion in frequency domain and then follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain; the mapping is based on a second order that first follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain and then follows an increasing index of an occasion in frequency domain; or the mapping is based on a third order that follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain or frequency domain or code domain.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device may determine the first resource by: determining a ranking of the first resource in the first set of resources based on the ranking of the identity of the A-IoT device in the list; and determining the first resource based on the ranking of the first resource.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device may determine the first resource by: setting an initial value of a variable based on the ranking of the first resource; in accordance with a determination that a second message indicating a position of a resource in the first set of resources is received, decrementing the variable; and in accordance with a determination that the variable is equal to a first value, determining the resource as the first resource.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device may determine the first resource by: initializing a counter; in accordance with a determination that a second message indicating a position of a resource in the first set of resources is received, incrementing the counter; and in accordance with a determination that a value of the counter is equal to a value of the ranking of the first resource, determining the resource as the first resource.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device may determine the first resource by: receiving, in the first message, an indication of an index of the first resource.

At block 1140, the A-IoT device may initiate the transmission to the first communication device via the first resource.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device may determine a second set of resources for a further attempt of the transmission by at least one of the following: determining a length of the second set of resources; or determining a starting resource in the second set of resources.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device may determine the starting resource by one of the following: determining, as the starting resource, a third resource having an index equal to a sum of the number of identities in the list and a first number; determining, as the starting resource, a later one of the third resource and a fourth resource, the fourth resource being later than the first resource by second number of resources; or receiving, in the first message, an indication of an index of the starting resource.

In some embodiments, in accordance with a determination that the index of the first resource is further indicated in a third message indicating a resource for the transmission, the A-IoT device may consider that a further attempt of the transmission is required. In some embodiments, in accordance with a determination that no acknowledgement to the access is received and the index of the first resource is further indicated in the third message, the A-IoT device may consider that the further attempt of the transmission is required.

In some embodiments, in accordance with a determination that the list comprises only the identity of the A-IoT device, the A-IoT device may transmit, to the first communication device, fifth information indicating a presence of the A-IoT device. In some embodiments, in accordance with a determination that the first message comprises the list of identities of A-IoT devices, the A-IoT device may transmit, to the first communication device, sixth information indicating the ranking of the identity of the A-IoT device in the list of identities of A-IoT devices or a ranking of the first resource in the first set of resources.

With the method 1100, a communication device may make an A-IoT device scattering to different transmission resources to achieve contention free.

FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart of another example method 1200 of communication implemented at an A-IoT device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, in the following, the method 1200 will be described with reference to FIG. 2. It is to be understood that the method 1200 may include additional blocks not shown and/or may omit some blocks as shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

At block 1210, an A-IoT device (e.g., the A-IoT device 201) may receive, from a first communication device (e.g., the communication device 202) , a set of messages for triggering an access to the first communication device. The set of messages comprises fourth information identifying a set of A-IoT devices.

In some embodiments, the fourth information may comprise at least of the following: identities of A-IoT devices in the set of A-IoT devices; identities of A-IoT device groups in the set of A-IoT devices; an indication that all the A-IoT devices are selected; or an indication that a further set of A-IoT devices is excluded.

At block 1220, the A-IoT device may determine that a first set of bits in an identity of the A-IoT device matches the fourth information.

At block 1230, the A-IoT device may determine an identifier of the A-IoT device for the access at least based on a second set of bits in the identity of the A-IoT device.

In some embodiments, the A-IoT device may determine the identifier of the A-IoT device by one of the following: determining the identifier of the A-IoT device based on the second set of bits; determining the identifier of the A-IoT device based on the second set of bits and an index corresponding to the fourth information; or determining the identifier of the A-IoT device based on the second set of bits and a third set of bits in the identity of the A-IoT device. In some embodiments, the third set of bits may be a part of the first set of bits.

At block 1240, the A-IoT device may transmit, to the first communication device, a message for accessing to the first communication device. The message comprises the identifier of the A-IoT device.

With the method 1200, duplicated bits, which are redundancy for contention resolution, are saved during access.

It is to be understood that operations of the methods 1000, 1100 and 1200 correspond to that described with reference to FIGs. 2 to 9, and thus other details are not repeated here for conciseness.

EXAMPLE IMPLEMENTATION OF DEVICES

FIG. 13 is a simplified block diagram of a device 1300 that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 1300 can be considered as a further example implementation of the terminal device 110 or 111 or the RAN device 120 or the CN device 140 as shown in FIG. 1. Accordingly, the device 1300 can be implemented at or as at least a part of the terminal device 110 or 111 or the RAN device 120 or the CN device 140.

As shown, the device 1300 includes a processor 1310, a memory 1320 coupled to the processor 1310, a suitable transceiver 1340 coupled to the processor 1310, and a communication interface coupled to the transceiver 1340. The memory 1310 stores at least a part of a program 1330. The transceiver 1340 may be for bidirectional communications or a unidirectional communication based on requirements. The transceiver 1340 may include at least one of a transmitter 1342 or a receiver 1344. The transmitter 1342 and the receiver 1344 may be functional modules or physical entities. The transceiver 1340 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication, though in practice an Access Node mentioned in this application may have several ones. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements, such as X2/Xn interface for bidirectional communications between eNBs/gNBs, S1/NG interface for communication between a Mobility Management Entity (MME) /Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) /SGW/UPF and the eNB/gNB, Un interface for communication between the eNB/gNB and a relay node (RN) , or Uu interface for communication between the eNB/gNB and a terminal device.

The program 1330 is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by the associated processor 1310, enable the device 1300 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, as discussed herein with reference to FIGs. 1 to 12. The embodiments herein may be implemented by computer software executable by the processor 1310 of the device 1300, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. The processor 1310 may be configured to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, a combination of the processor 1310 and memory 1320 may form processing means 1350 adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The memory 1320 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples. While only one memory 1320 is shown in the device 1300, there may be several physically distinct memory modules in the device 1300. The processor 1310 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 1300 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.

In some embodiments, a first communication device comprises a circuitry configured to: transmit, to an A-IoT device, first information indicating a management of the A-IoT device on a set of variables, the first information indicating at least one of the following: the set of variables, a type of the management, or time information associated with the management.

In some embodiments, an A-IoT device comprises a circuitry configured to: receive, from a first communication device, a first message for triggering a transmission to the first communication device, the first message comprising a list of identities of A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups; in accordance with a determination that an identity of the A-IoT device matches an identity in the list, determine a first resource based on a ranking of the identity of the A-IoT device in the list and a mapping between the identities of the A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups and a first set of resources for the transmission; and initiate the transmission to the first communication device via the first resource.

In some embodiments, an A-IoT device comprises a circuitry configured to: receive, from a first communication device, a set of messages for triggering an access to the first communication device, the set of messages comprising fourth information identifying a set of A-IoT devices; in accordance with a determination that a first set of bits in an identity of the A-IoT device matches the fourth information, determine an identifier of the A-IoT device for the access at least based on a second set of bits in the identity of the A-IoT device; and transmit, to the first communication device, a message for accessing to the first communication device, the message comprising the identifier of the A-IoT device.

The term ‘circuitry’ used herein may refer to hardware circuits and/or combinations of hardware circuits and software. For example, the circuitry may be a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuits with software/firmware. As a further example, the circuitry may be any portions of hardware processors with software including digital signal processor (s) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a terminal device or a network device, to perform various functions. In a still further example, the circuitry may be hardware circuits and or processors, such as a microprocessor or a portion of a microprocessor, that requires software/firmware for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation. As used herein, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (s) or a portion of a hardware circuit or processor (s) and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware.

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 representation, it will be appreciated that the blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods 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 as described above with reference to FIGs. 1 to 12. 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.

The above program code may be embodied on a machine readable medium, which may be any tangible medium that may contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine readable medium may be a machine readable signal medium or a machine readable storage medium. A machine 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 machine 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.

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 language 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 first communication device comprising:

a processor configured to cause the first communication device to:

transmit, to an ambient Internet of things (A-IoT) device, first information indicating a management of the A-IoT device on a set of variables, the first information indicating at least one of the following:

the set of variables,

a type of the management, or

time information associated with the management.
The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the type of the management indicates one of the following:

the set of variables is required to be kept;

the set of variables is required to be kept upon a condition is fulfilled or to be refreshed upon the condition is unfulfilled; or

the set of variables is required to be refreshed upon power-on of the A-IoT device.
The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the time information comprises at least one of the following:

a starting time point of the management, or

a time duration of the management.
The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the first communication device is further caused to:

determine a remaining time of the management based on at least one of the following:

the type of the management, or

an energy status of the A-IoT device.
The first communication device of claim 4, wherein the first communication device is caused to determine the remaining time by:

determining a length of a timer based on the type of the management and the energy status of the A-IoT device;

in accordance with a determination that the first information is transmitted, starting the timer; and

determining the remaining time based on the timer.
The first communication device of claim 5, wherein the first communication device is further caused to:

in accordance with a determination that the energy status of the A-IoT device is updated, restart the timer with a value determined based on the updated energy status.
The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the first communication device is further caused to:

determine that a first procedure with a reporting of an identity of the A-IoT device or a second procedure without the reporting of the identity of the A-IoT device is to be initiated for a service based on at least one of the following:

an indication of whether a presence of the A-IoT device is to be confirmed,

an indication that the service is to be initiated after the reporting of the identity of the A-IoT device,

an indication that the A-IoT device is to be inventoried before an initiation of the service,

a configuration for an access of the A-IoT device is to be provided to the A-IoT device before the service,

a previous configuration for the service of the A-IoT device is out of date, or

a time period elapsed since a last reporting of the identity of the A-IoT device exceeds a threshold time period.
The first communication device of claim 7, wherein the first communication device is caused to determine that the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated by:

receiving, from a second communication device, second information of the management; and

determining, based on the second information, that the first procedure or the second procedure is to be initiated.
The first communication device of claim 8, wherein the second information indicates at least one of the following:

the type of the management,

validity of a variable in the set of variables, or

a remaining time of the management.
The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the first communication device is further caused to:

transmit, to the A-IoT device, third information regarding an access from the A-IoT device to the first communication device, the third information indicating at least one of the following:

an acknowledgement to the access is present or absent;

in accordance with a determination that no positive acknowledgement to the access is received, the A-IoT device is required to initiate a retransmission of the access;

in accordance with a determination that a negative acknowledgement to the access is received, the A-IoT device is required to initiate the retransmission of the access;

an identifier of the A-IoT device is comprised or not comprised in an initial message of the access;

a set of A-IoT devices in an area is required to initial the access; or

the A-IoT device is required to initial the access with a power level.
An ambient Internet of things (A-IoT) device comprising:

a processor configured to cause the A-IoT device to:

receive, from a first communication device, a first message for triggering a transmission to the first communication device, the first message comprising a list of identities of A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups;

in accordance with a determination that an identity of the A-IoT device matches an identity in the list, determine a first resource based on a ranking of the identity of the A-IoT device in the list and a mapping between the identities of the A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups and a first set of resources for the transmission; and

initiate the transmission to the first communication device via the first resource.
The A-IoT device of claim 11, wherein the A-IoT device is further caused to:

receive, from the first communication device, information of the mapping indicating one of the following:

the mapping is based on a first order that first follows an increasing index of an occasion in frequency domain and then follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain;

the mapping is based on a second order that first follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain and then follows an increasing index of an occasion in frequency domain; or

the mapping is based on a third order that follows an increasing index of an occasion in time domain or frequency domain or code domain.
The A-IoT device of claim 11, wherein the A-IoT device is caused to determine the first resource by:

determining a ranking of the first resource in the first set of resources based on the ranking of the identity of the A-IoT device in the list; and

determining the first resource based on the ranking of the first resource.
The A-IoT device of claim 13, wherein the A-IoT device is caused to determine the first resource by:

setting an initial value of a variable based on the ranking of the first resource;

in accordance with a determination that a second message indicating a position of a resource in the first set of resources is received, decrementing the variable; and

in accordance with a determination that the variable is equal to a first value, determining the resource as the first resource.
The A-IoT device of claim 13, wherein the A-IoT device is caused to determine the first resource by:

initializing a counter;

in accordance with a determination that a second message indicating a position of a resource in the first set of resources is received, incrementing the counter; and

in accordance with a determination that a value of the counter is equal to a value of the ranking of the first resource, determining the resource as the first resource.
The A-IoT device of claim 13, wherein the A-IoT device is further caused to:

determine a second set of resources for a further attempt of the transmission by at least one of the following:

determining a length of the second set of resources; or

determining a starting resource in the second set of resources.
The A-IoT device of claim 16, wherein the A-IoT device is caused to determine the starting resource by one of the following:

determining, as the starting resource, a third resource having an index equal to a sum of the number of identities in the list and a first number;

determining, as the starting resource, a later one of the third resource and a fourth resource, the fourth resource being later than the first resource by second number of resources; or

receiving, in the first message, an indication of an index of the starting resource.
The A-IoT device of claim 11, wherein the A-IoT device is caused to determine the first resource by:

receiving, in the first message, an indication of an index of the first resource.
The A-IoT device of claim 18, wherein the A-IoT device is further caused to:

in accordance with a determination that the index of the first resource is further indicated in a third message indicating a resource for the transmission, consider that a further attempt of the transmission is required; or

in accordance with a determination that no acknowledgement to the access is received and the index of the first resource is further indicated in the third message, consider that the further attempt of the transmission is required.
The A-IoT device of claim 11, wherein the A-IoT device is further caused to:

in accordance with a determination that the list comprises only the identity of the A-IoT device, transmit, to the first communication device, fifth information indicating a presence of the A-IoT device; or

in accordance with a determination that the first message comprises the list of identities of A-IoT devices, transmit, to the first communication device, sixth information indicating the ranking of the identity of the A-IoT device in the list of identities of A-IoT devices or a ranking of the first resource in the first set of resources.
An ambient Internet of things (A-IoT) device comprising:

a processor configured to cause the A-IoT device to:

receive, from a first communication device, a set of messages for triggering an access to the first communication device, the set of messages comprising fourth information identifying a set of A-IoT devices;

in accordance with a determination that a first set of bits in an identity of the A-IoT device matches the fourth information, determine an identifier of the A-IoT device for the access at least based on a second set of bits in the identity of the A-IoT device; and

transmit, to the first communication device, a message for accessing to the first communication device, the message comprising the identifier of the A-IoT device.
The A-IoT device of claim 21, wherein the fourth information comprises at least of the following:

identities of A-IoT devices in the set of A-IoT devices;

identities of A-IoT device groups in the set of A-IoT devices;

an indication that all the A-IoT devices are selected; or

an indication that a further set of A-IoT devices is excluded.
The A-IoT device of claim 21, wherein the A-IoT device is caused to determine the identifier of the A-IoT device by one of the following:

determining the identifier of the A-IoT device based on the second set of bits;

determining the identifier of the A-IoT device based on the second set of bits and an index corresponding to the fourth information; or

determining the identifier of the A-IoT device based on the second set of bits and a third set of bits in the identity of the A-IoT device.
The A-IoT device of claim 23, wherein the third set of bits is a part of the first set of bits.
A method of communication, comprising:

transmitting, at a first communication device and to an ambient Internet of things (A-IoT) device, first information indicating a management of the A-IoT device on a set of variables, the first information indicating at least one of the following:

the set of variables,

a type of the management, or

time information associated with the management.
A method of communication, comprising:

receiving, at an ambient Internet of things (A-IoT) device and from a first communication device, a first message for triggering a transmission to the first communication device, the first message comprising a list of identities of A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups;

in accordance with a determination that an identity of the A-IoT device matches an identity in the list, determining a first resource based on a ranking of the identity of the A-IoT device in the list and a mapping between the identities of the A-IoT devices or A-IoT device groups and a first set of resources for the transmission; and

initiating the transmission to the first communication device via the first resource.
A method of communication, comprising:

receiving, at an ambient Internet of things (A-IoT) device and from a first communication device, a set of messages for triggering an access to the first communication device, the set of messages comprising fourth information identifying a set of A-IoT devices;

in accordance with a determination that a first set of bits in an identity of the A-IoT device matches the fourth information, determining an identifier of the A-IoT device for the access at least based on a second set of bits in the identity of the A-IoT device; and

transmitting, to the first communication device, a message for accessing to the first communication device, the message comprising the identifier of the A-IoT device.