Patent Description:
These networks, which are usually multiple access networks, can support communications for multiple users by sharing available network resources.

Various techniques have been utilized to facilitate wireless communications in environments where interference and other factors, such as fading associated with device mobility, may otherwise result in degraded performance, failed communication links, etc. For example, power control techniques, such as transmit power control (TPC), may be implemented to address issues resulting from propagation loss and interference. Although increasing the transmit power level may facilitate improved signal characteristics (e.g., receive signal strength, signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR), bit error rate (BER), etc.), there are typically emission exposure limitations imposed with respect to user exposure to signals transmitted by a UE. Emission exposure limitations may, for example, be a specific absorption rate (SAR) limit or maximum permissible exposure (MPE) limit set by a governmental body or other authority in a jurisdictions where wireless communication devices are utilized.

International Patent Application Publication No. <CIT> relates to managing Specific Absorption Rate for use equipments.

<CIT>) relates to determining whether a running average of instances of upload transmissions exceeds a threshold value and, if it does, adjusting upload transmissions to control the radiation exposure for the wireless device.

The following summarizes some aspects of the present disclosure to provide a basic understanding of the discussed technology. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects of the disclosure in summary form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

In one aspect of the disclosure, a method of transmission throttling for emission exposure management in wireless communication is disclosed.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon for transmission throttling for emission exposure management in wireless communication is disclosed.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus configured for throttling for emission exposure management in wireless communication is disclosed.

The detailed description set forth below, in connection with the appended drawings and appendix, is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure.

This disclosure relates generally to providing or participating in communication as between two or more wireless devices in one or more wireless communications systems, also referred to as wireless communications networks. In various embodiments, the techniques and apparatus may be used for wireless communication networks such as code division multiple access (CDMA) networks, time division multiple access (TDMA) networks, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) networks, orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks, LTE networks, GSM networks, <NUM>th Generation (<NUM>) or new radio (NR) networks (sometimes referred to as "<NUM> NR" networks/systems/devices), as well as other communications networks. As described herein, the terms "networks" and "systems" may be used interchangeably.

A TDMA network may, for example implement a radio technology such as GSM. 3GPP defines standards for the GSM EDGE (enhanced data rates for GSM evolution) radio access network (RAN), also denoted as GERAN. GERAN is the radio component of GSM/EDGE, together with the network that joins the base stations (for example, the Ater and Abis interfaces) and the base station controllers (A interfaces, etc.). The radio access network represents a component of a GSM network, through which phone calls and packet data are routed from and to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and Internet to and from subscriber handsets, also known as user terminals or user equipments (UEs). A mobile phone operator's network may comprise one or more GERANs, which may be coupled with Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Networks (UTRANs) in the case of a UMTS/GSM network. An operator network may also include one or more LTE networks, and/or one or more other networks. The various different network types may use different radio access technologies (RATs) and radio access networks (RANs).

<NUM> networks contemplate diverse deployments, diverse spectrum, and diverse services and devices that may be implemented using an OFDM-based unified, air interface. To achieve these goals, further enhancements to LTE and LTE-A are considered in addition to development of the new radio technology for <NUM> NR networks. The <NUM> NR will be capable of scaling to provide coverage (<NUM>) to a massive Internet of things (IoTs) with an ultra-high density (e.g., ~<NUM> nodes/km<NUM>), ultra-low complexity (e.g., ~<NUM> of bits/sec), ultra-low energy (e.g., ~<NUM>+ years of battery life), and deep coverage with the capability to reach challenging locations; (<NUM>) including mission-critical control with strong security to safeguard sensitive personal, financial, or classified information, ultra-high reliability (e.g., ~<NUM>% reliability), ultra-low latency (e.g., ~ <NUM>), and users with wide ranges of mobility or lack thereof; and (<NUM>) with enhanced mobile broadband including extreme high capacity (e.g., ~ <NUM> Tbps/km<NUM>), extreme data rates (e.g., multi-Gbps rate, <NUM>+ Mbps user experienced rates), and deep awareness with advanced discovery and optimizations.

<NUM> NR devices, networks, and systems may be implemented to use optimized OFDM-based waveform features. These features may include scalable numerology and transmission time intervals (TTIs); a common, flexible framework to efficiently multiplex services and features with a dynamic, low-latency time division duplex (TDD)/frequency division duplex (FDD) design; and advanced wireless technologies, such as massive multiple input, multiple output (MIMO), robust millimeter wave (mmWave) transmissions, advanced channel coding, and device-centric mobility. Scalability of the numerology in <NUM> NR, with scaling of subcarrier spacing, may efficiently address operating diverse services across diverse spectrum and diverse deployments. For example, in various outdoor and macro coverage deployments of less than <NUM> FDD/TDD implementations, subcarrier spacing may occur with <NUM>, for example over <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and the like bandwidth. For other various outdoor and small cell coverage deployments of TDD greater than <NUM>, subcarrier spacing may occur with <NUM> over <NUM>/<NUM> bandwidth. For other various indoor wideband implementations, using a TDD over the unlicensed portion of the <NUM> band, the subcarrier spacing may occur with <NUM> over a <NUM> bandwidth. Finally, for various deployments transmitting with mmWave components at a TDD of <NUM>, subcarrier spacing may occur with <NUM> over a <NUM> bandwidth.

The scalable numerology of <NUM> NR facilitates scalable TTI for diverse latency and quality of service (QoS) requirements.

For clarity, certain aspects of the apparatus and techniques may be described below with reference to exemplary LTE implementations or in an LTE-centric way, and LTE terminology may be used as illustrative examples in portions of the description below; however, the description is not intended to be limited to LTE applications. Indeed, the present disclosure is concerned with shared access to wireless spectrum between networks using different radio access technologies or radio air interfaces, such as those of <NUM> NR.

Moreover, it should be understood that, in operation, wireless communication networks adapted according to the concepts herein may operate with any combination of licensed or unlicensed spectrum depending on loading and availability. Accordingly, it will be apparent to one of skill in the art that the systems, apparatus and methods described herein may be applied to other communications systems and applications than the particular examples provided.

While aspects and embodiments are described in this application by illustration to some examples, those skilled in the art will understand that additional implementations and use cases may come about in many different arrangements and scenarios. Innovations described herein may be implemented across many differing platform types, devices, systems, shapes, sizes, packaging arrangements. For example, embodiments and/or uses may come about via integrated chip embodiments and/or other non-module-component based devices (e.g., end-user devices, vehicles, communication devices, computing devices, industrial equipment, retail/purchasing devices, medical devices, AI-enabled devices, etc.). While some examples may or may not be specifically directed to use cases or applications, a wide assortment of applicability of described innovations may occur. Implementations may range from chip-level or modular components to non-modular, non-chip-level implementations and further to aggregated, distributed, or OEM devices or systems incorporating one or more described aspects. In some practical settings, devices incorporating described aspects and features may also necessarily include additional components and features for implementation and practice of claimed and described embodiments. It is intended that innovations described herein may be practiced in a wide variety of implementations, including both large/small devices, chip-level components, multi-component systems (e.g. RF-chain, communication interface, processor), distributed arrangements, end-user devices, etc. of varying sizes, shapes, and constitution.

<FIG> shows wireless network <NUM> for communication according to some embodiments. Wireless network <NUM> may, for example, comprise a <NUM> wireless network. As appreciated by those skilled in the art, components appearing in <FIG> are likely to have related counterparts in other network arrangements including, for example, cellular-style network arrangements and non-cellular-style-network arrangements (e.g., device to device or peer to peer or ad hoc network arrangements, etc.).

Wireless network <NUM> illustrated in <FIG> includes a number of base stations <NUM> and other network entities. A base station may be a station that communicates with the UEs and may also be referred to as an evolved node B (eNB), a next generation eNB (gNB), an access point, and the like. Each base station <NUM> may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, the term "cell" can refer to this particular geographic coverage area of a base station and/or a base station subsystem serving the coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. In implementations of wireless network <NUM> herein, base stations <NUM> may be associated with a same operator or different operators (e.g., wireless network <NUM> may comprise a plurality of operator wireless networks), and may provide wireless communications using one or more of the same frequencies (e.g., one or more frequency bands in licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, or a combination thereof) as a neighboring cell. In some examples, an individual base station <NUM> or UE <NUM> may be operated by more than one network operating entity. In other examples, each base station <NUM> and UE <NUM> may be operated by a single network operating entity.

A base station may provide communication coverage for a macro cell or a small cell, such as a pico cell or a femto cell, and/or other types of cell. A base station for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro base station. A base station for a small cell may be referred to as a small cell base station, a pico base station, a femto base station or a home base station. In the example shown in <FIG>, base stations 105d and 105e are regular macro base stations, while base stations 105a-105c are macro base stations enabled with one of <NUM> dimension (3D), full dimension (FD), or massive MIMO. Base stations 105a-105c take advantage of their higher dimension MIMO capabilities to exploit 3D beamforming in both elevation and azimuth beamforming to increase coverage and capacity. Base station 105f is a small cell base station which may be a home node or portable access point. A base station may support one or multiple (e.g., two, three, four, and the like) cells.

Wireless network <NUM> may support synchronous or asynchronous operation. In some scenarios, networks may be enabled or configured to handle dynamic switching between synchronous or asynchronous operations.

UEs <NUM> are dispersed throughout the wireless network <NUM>, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. It should be appreciated that, although a mobile apparatus is commonly referred to as user equipment (UE) in standards and specifications promulgated by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such apparatus may also be referred to by those skilled in the art as a mobile station (MS), a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communications device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal (AT), a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a terminal, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology. Within the present document, a "mobile" apparatus or UE need not necessarily have a capability to move, and may be stationary. Some non-limiting examples of a mobile apparatus, such as may comprise embodiments of one or more of UEs <NUM>, include a mobile, a cellular (cell) phone, a smart phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a laptop, a personal computer (PC), a notebook, a netbook, a smart book, a tablet, and a personal digital assistant (PDA). A mobile apparatus may additionally be an "Internet of things" (IoT) or "Internet of everything" (IoE) device such as an automotive or other transportation vehicle, a satellite radio, a global positioning system (GPS) device, a logistics controller, a drone, a multi-copter, a quad-copter, a smart energy or security device, a solar panel or solar array, municipal lighting, water, or other infrastructure; industrial automation and enterprise devices; consumer and wearable devices, such as eyewear, a wearable camera, a smart watch, a health or fitness tracker, a mammal implantable device, gesture tracking device, medical device, a digital audio player (e.g., MP3 player), a camera, a game console, etc.; and digital home or smart home devices such as a home audio, video, and multimedia device, an appliance, a sensor, a vending machine, intelligent lighting, a home security system, a smart meter, etc. In one aspect, a UE may be a device that includes a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC). In another aspect, a UE may be a device that does not include a UICC. In some aspects, UEs that do not include UICCs may also be referred to as IoE devices. UEs 115a-115d of the embodiment illustrated in <FIG> are examples of mobile smart phone-type devices accessing wireless network <NUM> A UE may also be a machine specifically configured for connected communication, including machine type communication (MTC), enhanced MTC (eMTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and the like. UEs 115e-<NUM> illustrated in <FIG> are examples of various machines configured for communication that access <NUM> network <NUM>.

A mobile apparatus, such as UEs <NUM>, may be able to communicate with any type of the base stations, whether macro base stations, pico base stations, femto base stations, relays, and the like. In <FIG>, a lightning bolt (e.g., communication link) indicates wireless transmissions between a UE and a serving base station, which is a base station designated to serve the UE on the downlink and/or uplink, or desired transmission between base stations, and backhaul transmissions between base stations. Backhaul communication between base stations of wireless network <NUM> may occur using wired and/or wireless communication links.

In operation at <NUM> network <NUM>, base stations 105a-105c serve UEs 115a and 115b using 3D beamforming and coordinated spatial techniques, such as coordinated multipoint (CoMP) or multi-connectivity. Macro base station 105d performs backhaul communications with base stations 105a-105c, as well as small cell, base station 105f. Macro base station 105d also transmits multicast services which are subscribed to and received by UEs 115c and 115d.

Wireless network <NUM> of embodiments supports mission critical communications with ultra-reliable and redundant links for mission critical devices, such UE 115e, which is a drone. Redundant communication links with UE 115e include from macro base stations 105d and 105e, as well as small cell base station 105f. Other machine type devices, such as UE 115f (thermometer), UE <NUM> (smart meter), and UE <NUM> (wearable device) may communicate through wireless network <NUM> either directly with base stations, such as small cell base station 105f, and macro base station 105e, or in multi-hop configurations by communicating with another user device which relays its information to the network, such as UE 115f communicating temperature measurement information to the smart meter, UE <NUM>, which is then reported to the network through small cell base station 105f. <NUM> network <NUM> may also provide additional network efficiency through dynamic, low-latency TDD/FDD communications, such as in a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) mesh network between UEs 115i-<NUM> communicating with macro base station 105e.

<FIG> shows a block diagram of a design of a base station <NUM> and a UE <NUM>, which may be any of the base stations and one of the UEs in <FIG>. For a restricted association scenario (as mentioned above), base station <NUM> may be small cell base station 105f in <FIG>, and UE <NUM> may be UE 115c or 115D operating in a service area of base station 105f, which in order to access small cell base station 105f, would be included in a list of accessible UEs for small cell base station 105f. Base station <NUM> may also be a base station of some other type. As shown in <FIG>, base station <NUM> may be equipped with antennas 234a through 234t, and UE <NUM> may be equipped with antennas 252a through 252r for facilitating wireless communications.

At the base station <NUM>, a transmit processor <NUM> may receive data from a data source <NUM> and control information from a controller/processor <NUM>. The control information may be for the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH), physical hybrid-ARQ (automatic repeat request) indicator channel (PHICH), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH), MTC physical downlink control channel (MPDCCH), etc. The data may be for the PDSCH, etc. The transmit processor <NUM> may process (e.g., encode and symbol map) the data and control information to obtain data symbols and control symbols, respectively. The transmit processor <NUM> may also generate reference symbols, e.g., for the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and cell-specific reference signal. Transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor <NUM> may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, the control symbols, and/or the reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide output symbol streams to modulators (MODs) 232a through 232t. Each modulator <NUM> may additionally or alternatively process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. Downlink signals from modulators 232a through 232t may be transmitted via the antennas 234a through 234t, respectively.

At the UE <NUM>, the antennas 252a through 252r may receive the downlink signals from the base station <NUM> and may provide received signals to the demodulators (DEMODs) 254a through 254r, respectively. MIMO detector <NUM> may obtain received symbols from demodulators 254a through 254r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, and provide detected symbols. Receive processor <NUM> may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE <NUM> to a data sink <NUM>, and provide decoded control information to a controller/processor <NUM>.

On the uplink, at the UE <NUM>, a transmit processor <NUM> may receive and process data (e.g., for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)) from a data source <NUM> and control information (e.g., for the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)) from the controller/processor <NUM>. Transmit processor <NUM> may also generate reference symbols for a reference signal. The symbols from the transmit processor <NUM> may be precoded by TX MIMO processor <NUM> if applicable, further processed by the modulators 254a through 254r (e.g., for SC-FDM, etc.), and transmitted to the base station <NUM>. At base station <NUM>, the uplink signals from UE <NUM> may be received by antennas <NUM>, processed by demodulators <NUM>, detected by MIMO detector <NUM> if applicable, and further processed by receive processor <NUM> to obtain decoded data and control information sent by UE <NUM>. Processor <NUM> may provide the decoded data to data sink <NUM> and the decoded control information to controller/processor <NUM>.

Controllers/processors <NUM> and <NUM> may direct the operation at base station <NUM> and UE <NUM>, respectively. Controller/processor <NUM> and/or other processors and modules at base station <NUM> and/or controller/processor <NUM> and/or other processors and modules at UE <NUM> may perform or direct the execution of various processes for the techniques described herein, such as to perform or direct the execution illustrated in <FIG> and <FIG>, and/or other processes for the techniques described herein. Memories <NUM> and <NUM> may store data and program codes for base station <NUM> and UE <NUM>, respectively. Scheduler <NUM> may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and/or uplink.

In some cases, UE <NUM> and base station <NUM> may operate in a shared radio frequency spectrum band, which may include licensed or unlicensed (e.g., contention-based) frequency spectrum. In an unlicensed frequency portion of the shared radio frequency spectrum band, UEs <NUM> or base stations <NUM> may traditionally perform a medium-sensing procedure to contend for access to the frequency spectrum. For example, UE <NUM> or base station <NUM> may perform a listen before talk (LBT) procedure such as a clear channel assessment (CCA) prior to communicating in order to determine whether the shared channel is available. A CCA may include an energy detection procedure to determine whether there are any other active transmissions. For example, a device may infer that a change in a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) of a power meter indicates that a channel is occupied. Specifically, signal power that is concentrated in a certain bandwidth and exceeds a predetermined noise floor may indicate another wireless transmitter. A CCA also may include detection of specific sequences that indicate use of the channel. For example, another device may transmit a specific preamble prior to transmitting a data sequence. In some cases, an LBT procedure may include a wireless node adjusting its own backoff window based on the amount of energy detected on a channel and/or the acknowledge/negative-acknowledge (ACK/NACK) feedback for its own transmitted packets as a proxy for collisions.

Various techniques may be utilized with respect to one or more devices (e.g., any or all of base stations <NUM> and/or UEs <NUM> of <FIG> and <FIG>) to facilitate communications in a wireless communication network environment, such as to mitigate effects of interference, fading, etc. For example, data retransmission techniques, such as hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), may be utilized to retry data transmission one or more times where a signal transmitting the data is not initially received or received such that data is not reliably or fully recoverable. Additionally, or alternatively, power control techniques, such as transmit power control (TPC), may be utilized to facilitate improved received signal characteristics (e.g., receive signal strength, signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR), bit error rate (BER), etc.) in wireless communication links. For example, a UE transmit power level may be adjusted by the network, such as by means of TPC, to provide a target transmit power level to achieve satisfactory uplink performance.

<FIG> illustrates wireless communication between devices (e.g., base station <NUM> and UE <NUM>) implementing one or more techniques to facilitate communications in a wireless communication network environment. Transmission blocks 301a-306a of transmission flow 300a shown in <FIG> illustrate data transmission signals for one or more wireless communication resource parts (e.g., one or more individual communication processes) allocated to the transmitting device (e.g., UE <NUM>) over time. For example, transmission blocks 301a-306a may comprise the data transmission signals of time resources (e.g., TDD resource blocks) allocated to one of UEs <NUM> for uplink communication with a corresponding one of base stations <NUM>.

As can be seen in the example of <FIG>, the transmit power level used with respect to transmission blocks 301a-306a is controlled to correspond to a transmit power control (TPC) target. For example, base station <NUM> in communication with UE <NUM> may determine a transmit power level (e.g., based upon channel conditions, presences of interference, received signal attributes, etc.) for UE <NUM> transmissions and provide a TPC message to the UE for implementing control of the signal transmit power to facilitate reliable wireless communications. Thereafter, UE <NUM> may operate to transmit transmission blocks 301a-306a at the TPC target level indicated by base station <NUM> until such time as a TPC message is provided having a different TPC target level or other control of the transmit power level is otherwise provided (e.g., through operation of emission exposure management of embodiments of the present disclosure, as described below).

Transmission flow 300a of <FIG> may implement one or more techniques to facilitate communications in a wireless communication network environment in addition to the aforementioned signal transmit power control. For example, a data retransmission technique, such as HARQ, may be implemented with respect to transmission flow 300a (e.g., transmission flow 300a may comprise HARQ transmission blocks corresponding to one or more HARQ processes). HARQ processes can include instances when particular data transmissions are retried by UE <NUM> one or more times where a signal transmitting the data is not initially received or received such that data is not reliably or fully recoverable by base station <NUM>. Accordingly, some or all of transmission blocks 301a-306a of flow 300a may comprise retransmission blocks for transmission blocks previously transmitted by UE <NUM>.

Although utilization of these techniques may facilitate communications in the wireless network environment, they may nevertheless be associated with undesired or unacceptable effects. For example, utilizing increased transmit power levels by a UE to facilitate improved received signal characteristics at a corresponding base station generally results in an increase in the emission energy impinging on a user of the UE. The retransmission of transmission blocks increases effective emission energy impinging on the user with respect to the data throughput realized.

There may be emission exposure limitations imposed with respect to user exposure to signals transmitted by a device (e.g., UE <NUM>). Such emission exposure limitations may, for example, be a specific absorption rate (SAR) limit or maximum permissible exposure (MPE) limit set by a governmental body or other authority in a jurisdiction in which particular wireless communication devices are utilized. Additionally, or alternatively, a device manufacturer, network operator, standards body, etc. may establish one or more emission exposure limitations. Irrespective of the particular emission exposure limitation imposed, instances of increased transmit power may result in operation of a UE exceeding such emission exposure limitations.

In operation according to prior techniques, when a UE exceeds an emission exposure limit, such as a SAR or MPE limit, the transmit power level is reduced to within the emission exposure limit. For example, as shown in <FIG>, the transmit power level utilized with respect to each of transmission blocks 301b-306b of transmission flow 300b (e.g., transmission signals for each particular wireless communication resource part for individual communication processes, such as HARQ processes) is reduced to an emission exposure limit level. Although implementation of such a transmit power level reduction may facilitate operation of the UE to meet an emission exposure limitation, such a technique presents a poor solution from the power-performance trade-off perspective. Moreover, such power backoff techniques are often less responsive with respect to the power level backoff needed to meet a particular emission exposure limit. For example, a UE may rely on the base station to provide for power backoff control by adjusting the UE buffer status report (BSR). However, continuous PUSCH grants can still happen with small buffer size reports. Moreover, the use of such BSR based control involves cross-layer (e.g., the physical layer and the media access control (MAC) layer) coordination and is prone to latency and implementation error.

In operation, the transmit power control selected for UE transmission (e.g., the TPC level shown in <FIG>) provides a target transmit power level to achieve satisfactory uplink performance. Accordingly, backing off the transmit power as shown in transmission flow 300b may result in unsatisfactory uplink performance (e.g., reduced receive signal strength, reduced SINR, increased BER, data loss, etc.). With transmit power backoff in a system implementing a data retransmission technique, such as HARQ, increased occurrences of retransmission usually follows suit. It should be appreciated, however, that for a single such reduced power transmission, power amplifier efficiency is typically already low (e.g., power amplifier efficiency less than <NUM>%). A first retransmission further reduces the effective power amplifier efficiency with respect to the data throughput realized (e.g., power amplifier efficiency less than <NUM>%). Likewise, a second retransmission still further reduces the effective power amplifier efficiency with respect to the data throughput realized (e.g., power amplifier efficiency less than <NUM>%).

Embodiments of the present disclosure enable and provide transmission throttling for management of emission exposure (e.g., management with respect to emission exposure level limits for SAR, MPE, a device manufacturer, a network operator, a standards body, etc.). In operation, emission exposure management through transmission throttling according to embodiments mitigates transmit power backoff so that wasted energy due to retransmission is reduced or minimized.

<FIG> illustrates wireless communication between devices (e.g., base station <NUM> and UE <NUM>) implementing emission exposure management through transmission throttling according to embodiments. As will be better understood from the description that follows, transmission throttling implemented in transmission flow <NUM> of <FIG> drops or skips transmission (i.e., does not transmit) of some portion of transmission blocks <NUM>-<NUM> (e.g., some transmission blocks providing retransmission of data, such as in operation of a HARQ data retransmission technique). Transmit power levels utilized with respect to each of transmission blocks transmitted may be closer to that of the TPC target level (e.g., meeting the TPC target level) while nevertheless meeting an emission exposure limit level.

Emission exposure levels may, for example, be tested using time-averaged (e.g., over a rolling average window) transmit power. For example, emission exposure levels may be determined using emission exposure rolling average window <NUM> shown in <FIG>. As illustrated, emission exposure rolling average window <NUM> moves right with passage of time to encompass a sliding or rolling group of the transmission blocks in the transmission flow. In operation according to embodiments, if a UE does not transmit some portion of the transmission blocks, the UE may transmit at higher transmit power levels during other transmission occasions. That is, although the transmit power level utilized with respect to the transmission blocks transmitted by the UE might otherwise cause an emission exposure limit to be exceeded, the time averaged (e.g., averaged over emission exposure rolling average window <NUM>) transmit power of the transmission blocks actually transmitted by the UE when implementing an embodiment of transmission throttling for emission exposure management is controlled to meet or fall below the requisite emission exposure limit. Moreover, the transmit power level implemented using transmission throttling for emission exposure management as illustrated in <FIG> lowers the possibility of additional or excessive retransmissions as compared to the transmit power level reduction technique of <FIG>.

<FIG> and <FIG> show flow diagrams illustrating operation in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. In particular, <FIG> shows a flow diagram illustrating operation of transmission throttling for emission exposure management according to embodiments of the present disclosure. <FIG> shows implementation of transmit throttling in accordance with some embodiments. The example blocks of the flows shown in <FIG> and <FIG> are described below with respect to UE <NUM> as illustrated in <FIG> and base station <NUM> as illustrated in <FIG>.

<FIG> is a block diagram illustrating UE <NUM> configured to implement transmission throttling for emission exposure management according to one aspect of the present disclosure. UE <NUM> includes structure, hardware, and components as illustrated for UE <NUM> of <FIG>. For example, UE <NUM> includes controller/processor <NUM>, which operates to execute logic or computer instructions stored in memory <NUM>, as well as controlling the components of UE <NUM> that provide the features and functionality of UE <NUM>. UE <NUM>, under control of controller/processor <NUM>, transmits and receives signals via wireless radios 701a-r and antennas 252a-r. Wireless radios 701a-r include various components and hardware, as illustrated in <FIG> for UE <NUM>, including modulator/demodulators 254a-r, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, transmit processor <NUM>, and TX MIMO processor <NUM>.

<FIG> is a block diagram illustrating base station <NUM> configured to control transmission throttling for emission exposure management according to one aspect of the present disclosure. Base station <NUM> includes the structure, hardware, and components as illustrated for base station <NUM> of <FIG>. For example, base station <NUM> includes controller/processor <NUM>, which operates to execute logic or computer instructions stored in memory <NUM>, as well as controlling the components of base station <NUM> that provide the features and functionality of base station <NUM>. Base station <NUM>, under control of controller/processor <NUM>, transmits and receives signals via wireless radios 801a-t and antennas 234a-t. Wireless radios 801a-t include various components and hardware, as illustrated in <FIG> for base station <NUM>, including modulator/demodulators 232a-t, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, transmit processor <NUM>, and TX MIMO processor <NUM>.

Referring again to <FIG>, in operation according to flow <NUM>, emission exposure management logic operates to monitor time averaged transmit power in an emission exposure rolling average window (e.g., emission exposure rolling average window <NUM>) at block <NUM>. In some embodiments, the emission exposure management logic may be one or more instruction set stored in memory <NUM> and executed by controller/processor <NUM> of UE <NUM> (e.g., emission exposure management logic <NUM> of <FIG>) and/or stored in memory <NUM> and executed by controller/processor <NUM> of base station <NUM> (e.g., emission exposure management logic <NUM> of <FIG>). In other embodiments, a controller or other control module can be used to monitor and control emission exposure as discussed herein.

The transmission throttling techniques discussed in this disclosure can be implemented in a variety of arrangements. For example, in an embodiment where transmission throttling for emission exposure management is implemented with respect to UE transmissions, emission exposure management logic may interact with transmit processor <NUM> and/or TX MIMO processor <NUM> of UE <NUM>. In this fashion, the logic (e.g., time averaged transmit power monitoring logic <NUM> of <FIG>) can monitor transmit power (e.g., monitoring transmit power with respect to HARQ transmission blocks of one or more HARQ processes). In operation according to embodiments, a time averaged transmit power level (TATPL) may be computed from transmit power of the signals (e.g., HARQ transmission blocks of one or more HARQ processes) transmitted by the UE within the emission exposure rolling average window may be computed. As a specific example, a TATPL computation utilized in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure may be formulated as Pavg=ΣPi*Ti/T, where Pavg is the average transmission power over the rolling window, T is the length of the rolling window, Pi is the transmit power level, and Ti is the duration of the ith transmission within the rolling window.

Transmission blocks belonging to a plurality of individual communication processes (e.g., a plurality of HARQ processes) may be intertwined within an emission exposure rolling window. So, thus the transmission blocks of a plurality of individual communication processes may contribute to the time averaged transmit power level monitored. Information derived from the foregoing monitoring (e.g., TATPL) may be utilized by the UE for performing transmission throttling with respect to one or more individual communication processes for emission exposure management.

At block <NUM> of flow <NUM>, emission exposure management logic (e.g., emission exposure limit exceeded determination logic <NUM> executed by UE <NUM> and/or emission exposure limit exceeded determination logic <NUM> executed by base station <NUM>) determines if an emission exposure limit is exceeded. For example, a TATPL value computed at block <NUM> may be compared to one or more emission exposure level limits (e.g., an emission exposure level limit (EELL) may comprise an emission exposure level limit value for SAR, MPE, a device manufacturer, a network operator, a standards body, etc.) to determine if an emission exposure level limit is exceeded. Such operation may, for example, provide for detection of SAR/MPE, or other emission exposure requirement, violation.

If it is determined that an emission exposure limit is exceeded (e.g., TATPL > EELL), processing according to flow <NUM> illustrated in <FIG> proceeds to block <NUM> for determining a transmit duty cycle for transmit power control configuration level transmission. For example, emission exposure management logic (e.g., transmit duty cycle determination logic <NUM> executed by UE <NUM> and/or transmit duty cycle determination logic <NUM> executed by base station <NUM>) of embodiments may compute a transmit duty cycle (e.g., maximum transmit duty cycle (MTDC)) for transmission of signals by the UE for one or more wireless communication resource parts within the emission exposure rolling average window that is less than or equal to the one or more emission exposure level limits (e.g., TATPLMTDC ≤ EELL) while providing transmission of transmission blocks at or near a transmit power control configuration level. In operation according to embodiments, a MTDC may be computed for throttled transmission of HARQ transmission blocks (e.g., transmission of transmission blocks <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> within a time period of an emission exposure rolling average window) based at least in part in proportion to a percentage by which the time averaged transmit power is to be reduced for meeting an emission exposure limit. For example, where TATPL > EELL, a maximum transmit duty cycle implemented in transmission throttling for emission exposure management according to embodiments may be computed as MTDC = EELL/TATPL when all transmissions involve HARQ transmission blocks.

At block <NUM> of flow <NUM> illustrated in <FIG>, transmit throttling is implemented for transmit power control configuration level transmission based at least in part on monitored time averaged transmit power. For example, based upon the emission exposure limit having been determined to be exceeded by the monitored time averaged transmit power in the emission exposure rolling average window at block <NUM>, emission exposure management logic (e.g., transmit throttling implementation logic <NUM> executed by UE <NUM>) of embodiments may implement the computed transmit duty cycle (e.g., MTDC computed at block <NUM>) with respect to transmission of signals by the UE.

As an example, the computed transmit duty cycle may be implemented for one or more wireless communication resource parts (e.g., for one or more HARQ processes). This can take place within the emission exposure rolling average window (e.g., transmitting transmission blocks <NUM><NUM>, and <NUM> and dropping or skipping transmission of transmission blocks <NUM> and <NUM> within a time period of emission exposure rolling average window <NUM>, such as where transmission blocks <NUM> and <NUM> comprise retransmission blocks of a same HARQ process). Selection of transmission blocks to be dropped or skipped are selected according to embodiments on a per communication process basis (e.g., HARQ transmission blocks to be dropped are determined for the individual HARQ processes in the emission exposure rolling average window) to reduce the percentage of time transmission blocks (e.g., HARQ transmission blocks for all HARQ processes in the emission exposure rolling average window) are transmitted. Accordingly, implementing transmit throttling of transmission blocks according to embodiments includes skipping one or more retransmissions of transmission blocks of a same hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process.

Referring now to <FIG>, implementation of transmit throttling in accordance with some embodiments of block <NUM> is shown. In operation according to the example illustrated in <FIG>, control is provided at block <NUM> to skip transmission of at least one transmission block. For example, emission exposure management logic (e.g., as executed by base station <NUM> and/or UE <NUM>) may provide control signals (e.g., to transmit throttling implementation logic <NUM> executed by UE <NUM>) for controlling transmit circuitry of the UE (e.g., transmit processor <NUM>) to drop or skip transmission (i.e., not transmit) of some portion of the transmission blocks (e.g., a number of transmission blocks, such as transmission blocks <NUM> and <NUM>, within each emission exposure rolling window period corresponding to an inactive portion of the determined transmit duty cycle) of a communication process (e.g., HARQ process). The transmission blocks for which transmission is dropped or skipped may be selected from transmission blocks providing retransmission of data (e.g., some portion of the retransmission blocks of one or more HARQ processes).

At block <NUM> of the embodiment illustrated in <FIG>, control is provided for controlling transmission of a plurality of transmission blocks at a transmit power control level (i.e., equal to or approximately, such as within <NUM>% or <NUM>% of, the transmit power control level). For example, emission exposure management logic (e.g., as executed by base station <NUM> and/or UE <NUM>) may provide control signals (e.g., to transmit throttling implementation logic <NUM> executed by UE <NUM>) for controlling transmit circuitry of UE (e g. , some or all of transmit processor <NUM>, TX MIMO processor <NUM>, MODs 254a-254r, and antennas 252a-252r) to transmit some portion of the transmission blocks (e.g., a number of transmission blocks, such as transmission blocks <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>, within each emission exposure rolling window period corresponding to an active portion of the determined transmit duty cycle) of one or more communication processes (e.g., HARQ processes). The transmission blocks for which transmission is provided may be selected from instances of transmission blocks providing retransmission of data corresponding to that of the dropped or skipped transmission blocks (e.g., although one or more instance of data retransmission in a HARQ process may be skipped, the data may ultimately be retransmitted at a transmit power control level).

Using transmit duty cycle based transmission throttling for emission exposure management according to embodiments, the transmission blocks transmitted in accordance with the duty cycle may be transmitted using transmit power level at or approaching the target TPC power level and nevertheless meeting emission exposure limits (e.g., TATPLMTDC ≤ EELL). In operation according to an exemplary embodiment, for each HARQ process, emission exposure management logic may drop some transmission blocks providing data retransmission to reduce the uplink duty cycle, wherein the drop rate can be a function of how much power backoff would have been had there been no drop (e.g., backoff according to <FIG>). After implementing transmit throttling, processing may return to block <NUM> to continue monitoring time averaged transmit power in the emission exposure rolling average window for detecting if an emission exposure limit is exceeded. Accordingly, embodiments may calculate the time averaged power level for the transmissions subject to TPC, and the emission exposure requirements (e.g., SAR/MPE requirements) according to the new transmit duty cycle.

Referring again to the determination of block <NUM>, if it is determined that an emission exposure limit is not exceeded (e.g., TATPL ≤ EELL), processing according to flow <NUM> illustrated in <FIG> may return to block <NUM> (e.g., instead of proceeding to block <NUM> as discussed above) to continue monitoring time averaged transmit power in the emission exposure rolling average window for detecting if an emission exposure limit is exceeded. In operation according to embodiments, if it is determined at block <NUM> that an emission exposure limit is not exceeded (e.g., TATPL ≤ EELL), processing according to flow <NUM> may optionally proceed to block <NUM> for determining if transmit throttling is to be adjusted. For example, emission exposure management logic (e.g., as executed by base station <NUM> and/or UE <NUM>) may compare the TATPL computed at block <NUM> to one or more EELL values to determine if the TATPL is sufficiently below (e.g., using a threshold value, TEELL, to determine if TATPL + TEELL < EELL) an emission exposure limit that transmit throttling is to be adjusted (e.g., MTDC increased, transmit throttling stopped, etc.). If it is determined that the time averaged transmit power level is not below (or sufficiently below) the emission exposure limit level to adjust the transmit duty cycle, processing according to the illustrated embodiment may return to block <NUM> to continue monitoring time averaged transmit power in the emission exposure rolling average window for detecting if an emission exposure limit is exceeded. Alternatively, if it is determined that the time averaged transmit power level is below (or sufficiently below) the emission exposure limit level to adjust the transmit duty cycle, processing according to the illustrated embodiment may proceed to block <NUM> for determining a new transmit duty cycle for transmit power control configuration level transmission.

The functions of flow <NUM> shown in <FIG> may be performed entirely by UE <NUM> of some embodiments to provide UE based transmission throttling for emission exposure management. A UE based transmission throttling for emission exposure management implementation may, for example, be preferred for avoiding network traffic overhead used for transmission throttling. However, some portion of the functions of flow <NUM> may be performed by UE <NUM> and/or base station <NUM> to provide UE and base station based transmission throttling for emission exposure management. For example, in a UE and base station based transmission throttling for emission exposure management implementation, UE <NUM> may operate to perform transmit power monitoring and provide data regarding the monitored transmit power to base station <NUM>. Base station <NUM> may use the data regarding the monitored transmit power to determine if an emission exposure limit is exceeded and/or to determine a transmit duty cycle for transmit power control configuration level transmission. Base station <NUM> may provide data regarding determinations made thereby and/or control signals for implementing transmit throttling to UE <NUM>, whereby UE <NUM> may implement transmit throttling. A UE and base-station based transmission throttling for emission exposure management implementation may, for example, be preferred for reducing computation overhead at the UE used for transmission throttling.

Transmission throttling for emission exposure management implemented according to embodiments of the disclosure provides advantages in addition to meeting one or more emission exposure limit. For example, implementation of the transmit duty cycle wherein the power level of transmission blocks are provided at a higher level (e.g., at or approaching at TPC level) provides improved power amplifier efficiency (e.g., due to transmission activity throttling rather than transmit power level backoff) and increased battery life (e.g., less failed transmission attempts by a battery powered UE). Moreover, embodiments of transmission throttling for emission exposure management herein provide rapid response to emission exposure limits (e.g., SAR/MPE violations) in light of transmit throttling being implemented at the physical layer (e.g., avoiding latency and implementation errors). Further, embodiments of transmission throttling for emission exposure management implemented in accordance with concepts herein provides precise throttling (e.g., meeting a particular emission exposure limit while transmitting at power levels such as TPC levels) with respect to signal transmission.

Example embodiments implementing transmission throttling for emission exposure management have been described herein with respect to UE uplink transmissions. It should be appreciated, however, that concepts of the present disclosure may be utilized with respect to various transmission scenarios in addition to or in the alternative to the implementations of the example embodiments.

Embodiments of transmission throttling for emission exposure management have been described herein with respect to implementing a transmit duty cycle for transmit power control configuration level transmission. Concepts of the present disclosure may, however, be utilized to provide duty cycle based transmission throttling in combination with other techniques. For example, transmit duty cycle based transmission throttling for emission exposure management may be implemented in combination with antenna element feed path component management, such as shown and described in <CIT>.

The functional blocks and modules described herein (e.g., the functional blocks and modules in <FIG>) may comprise processors, electronics devices, hardware devices, electronics components, logical circuits, memories, software codes, firmware codes, etc., or any combination thereof.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps (e.g., the logical blocks in <FIG> and <FIG>) described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both.

Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), hard disk, solid state disk, and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers.

Claim 1:
A method (<NUM>) of transmission throttling for emission exposure management in wireless communication, the method comprising:
monitoring (<NUM>), by emission exposure management logic (<NUM>, <NUM>) of a processor-based wireless communication device, a time averaged power level of transmission of a plurality of transmission blocks in an emission exposure rolling average window; and
implementing (<NUM>), by the emission exposure management logic of the processor-based wireless communication device, transmit throttling of the plurality of transmission blocks, the method further comprising: computing a transmit duty cycle for a transmit power control configuration level transmission if the monitored time averaged power level for transmission of the plurality of transmission blocks in the emission exposure rolling average window exceeds an emission exposure level limit, and implementing the computed transmit duty cycle via skipping (<NUM>) one or more retransmissions of transmission blocks of a hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, process.