Patent ID: 12255842

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described below with reference to the accompanying figures to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the present disclosure. As would be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, after reading the present disclosure, various changes or modifications to the examples described herein can be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not limited to the exemplary embodiments and applications described and illustrated herein. Additionally, the specific order and/or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed herein are merely exemplary approaches. Based upon design preferences, the specific order or hierarchy of steps of the disclosed methods or processes can be re-arranged while remaining within the scope of the present disclosure. Thus, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the methods and techniques disclosed herein present various steps or acts in a sample order, and the present disclosure is not limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented unless expressly stated otherwise.

A typical wireless communication network includes one or more base stations (typically known as a “BS”) that each provides a geographical radio coverage, and one or more wireless user equipment devices (typically known as a “UE”) that can transmit and receive data within the radio coverage. To have a low-latency communication or a low power consumption communication or a low signaling overhead communication, a UE may transmit data to the BS with a grant-free transmission, which may be a semi-persistent scheduling based grant-free (configured grant) transmission and a contention-based grant-free transmission.

For a semi-persistent scheduling grant-free transmission, the base station first assigns transmission resources including reference signals to a terminal applying to access the base station. Then the terminal may perform multiple data transmissions to the base station within a time window. Each of the data transmissions is performed according to the transmission resources pre-configured by the base station. Based on these reference signals, the base station can perform active user discovery and channel estimation for these users, which is a broad channel estimation including wireless channel estimation and time-frequency offset estimation, etc. Then the base station can perform multi-user data detection, demodulation, decoding, etc.

A contention-based grant-free transmission is initiated by a terminal without any scheduling or grant by the base station. When the terminal performs a contention-based grant-free transmission, it autonomously determines the transmission resources including reference signals. Similar to the semi-persistent scheduling based grant-free transmission, the base station uses the reference signals to perform active user discovery and channel estimation for these users, where the channel estimation is a broad channel estimation including wireless channel estimation and time-frequency offset estimation, etc. Then the base station can perform multi-user data detection, demodulation, decoding, etc.

As such, both types of grant-free data transmissions are based on reference signals. In order to support these two types of grant-free access, the system may define a reference signal set or pool, which contains several reference signals.

In a semi-persistent scheduling based grant-free transmission, the base station assigns in advance a reference signal to each user requesting access. In order to simplify multi-user detection and ensure access robustness, the base station usually assigns different reference signals to different users. Therefore, when a set of system-defined reference signals contains N different reference signals, and different users are assigned with different reference signals, the system can support up to N numbers of semi-persistent scheduling based grant-free access users. In order to support more users, the number of reference signals must be increased, which means to increase the size of the reference signal set/pool, which will increase the overhead of the reference signals and the detection complexity.

In a contention-based grant-free data transmission, the terminal will select the reference signal from the system-defined reference signal set/pool, such that the reference signals selected by different terminals are independent of each other. From the perspective of the base station, the process for the terminal to select the reference signal is random. This inevitably induces two users/terminals to select an identical reference signal, which is also called a collision of reference signals. For example, assuming that the system-defined set/pool of reference signals comprises N reference signals, the probability for two users to select the same reference signal is 1/N. Once the reference signal collision happens, it will lead to not only a missed detection of the active user detection, but also serious problems of channel estimation based on the collided reference signal, which may eventually lead to a failure of data demodulation. As the number of access users increases, the probability of reference signal collision will increase. In order to support more contention-based grant-free access users, the collision rate of reference signals should be reduced. If the number of reference signals is increased to reduce the collision rate, the size of the set/pool of reference signals may be increased, which can increase overhead and detection complexity of the reference signals.

As such, for both types of grant-free access, the number of supported users is limited by the number of reference signals. To support more grant-free user access, the system needs to define as many reference signals as possible, or the system-defined reference signal set/pool should include as many reference signals or reference signal ports as possible. But both types of grant-free access in an existing system need the reference signal to perform the channel estimation, for data symbol demodulation. Such a reference signal is also commonly referred to as a demodulation reference signal (DMRS). Therefore, each of the reference signals will need to occupy sufficient resources in the entire transmission bandwidth. In other words, each reference signal in an existing system cannot be too sparse in the entire transmission bandwidth, and it must have a certain density, so that the wireless multipath channel (i.e., frequency selective channel and timing offset) in the entire transmission bandwidth can be estimated. Furthermore, if a frequency offset of each access user also needs to be compensated, each reference signal in an existing system must have a certain density in the entire transmission time.

This present teaching proposes a new reference signal design and corresponding advanced multi-user detection method on the receiving side, to easily and efficiently realize grant-free access for an ultra-high payload. One purpose of the present teaching is to support as many users as possible with grant-free access using a simple transmission and reception scheme.

The methods disclosed in the present teaching can be implemented in a wireless communication network, where a BS and a UE can communicate with each other via a communication link, e.g., via a downlink radio frame from the BS to the UE or via an uplink radio frame from the UE to the BS. In various embodiments, a BS in the present disclosure can be referred to as a network side and can include, or be implemented as, a next Generation Node B (gNB), an E-UTRAN Node B (eNB), a Transmission/Reception Point (TRP), an Access Point (AP), a non-terrestrial reception point for satellite/fire balloon/unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication, a radio transceiver in a vehicle of a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) wireless network, etc.; while a UE in the present disclosure can be referred to as a terminal and can include, or be implemented as, a mobile station (MS), a station (STA), a terrestrial device for satellite/fire balloon/unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication, a radio transceiver in a vehicle of a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) wireless network, etc. A BS and a UE may be described herein as non-limiting examples of “wireless communication nodes,” and “wireless communication devices” respectively, which can practice the methods disclosed herein and may be capable of wireless and/or wired communications, in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG.1illustrates an exemplary communication network100in which techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown inFIG.1, the exemplary communication network100includes a base station (BS)101and a plurality of UEs, UE1110, UE2120. . . UE3130, where the BS101can communicate with the UEs according to wireless protocols. Each UE may transmit uplink data to the BS101with a grant-free transmission based on a reference signal selected from a reference signal set.

FIG.2illustrates a block diagram of a base station (BS)200, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The BS200is an example of a device that can be configured to implement the various methods described herein. As shown inFIG.2, the BS200includes a housing240containing a system clock202, a processor204, a memory206, a transceiver210comprising a transmitter212and receiver214, a power module208, a pilot signal analyzer220, a channel estimator222, a time frequency offset corrector224, a data payload analyzer226, a receive beamforming unit228, and a spatial combination unit229.

In this embodiment, the system clock202provides the timing signals to the processor204for controlling the timing of all operations of the BS200. The processor204controls the general operation of the BS200and can include one or more processing circuits or modules such as a central processing unit (CPU) and/or any combination of general-purpose microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate array (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), controllers, state machines, gated logic, discrete hardware components, dedicated hardware finite state machines, or any other suitable circuits, devices and/or structures that can perform calculations or other manipulations of data.

The memory206, which can include both read-only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM), can provide instructions and data to the processor204. A portion of the memory206can also include non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM). The processor204typically performs logical and arithmetic operations based on program instructions stored within the memory206. The instructions (a.k.a., software) stored in the memory206can be executed by the processor204to perform the methods described herein. The processor204and memory206together form a processing system that stores and executes software. As used herein, “software” means any type of instructions, whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, etc., which can configure a machine or device to perform one or more desired functions or processes. Instructions can include code (e.g., in source code format, binary code format, executable code format, or any other suitable format of code). The instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the processing system to perform the various functions described herein.

The transceiver210, which includes the transmitter212and receiver214, allows the BS200to transmit and receive data to and from a remote device (e.g., a UE or another BS). An antenna250is typically attached to the housing240and electrically coupled to the transceiver210. In various embodiments, the BS200includes (not shown) multiple transmitters, multiple receivers, and multiple transceivers. In one embodiment, the antenna250is replaced with a multi-antenna array250that can form a plurality of beams each of which points in a distinct direction. The transmitter212can be configured to wirelessly transmit packets having different packet types or functions, such packets being generated by the processor204. Similarly, the receiver214is configured to receive packets having different packet types or functions, and the processor204is configured to process packets of a plurality of different packet types. For example, the processor204can be configured to determine the type of packet and to process the packet and/or fields of the packet accordingly.

In a wireless communication, the BS200may receive a signal via an uplink transmission from a UE, wherein the signal comprises a pilot signal. For example, the pilot signal analyzer220in this example may receive, via the receiver214from the UE, a signal comprising the pilot signal, or just the pilot signal. In one embodiment, the pilot signal occupies N symbol resources, where N is an integer larger than one, e.g. larger than 24. The pilot signal analyzer220may analyze the pilot signal to determine that the pilot signal includes at least one reference signal (RS) port that is determined from a predetermined pool of RS ports, where the predetermined pool includes at least N RS ports.

In one embodiment, the pilot signal includes W RS ports each of which is selected or determined independently from the predetermined pool of RS ports, where W is an integer larger than one, e.g. W=2, W=3, or W=4. In one embodiment, each of the RS ports in the predetermined pool has Nz non-zero elements, where Nz is an integer larger than 0 and less than 9, e.g. Nz=1, Nz=2, Nz=3, Nz=4, or Nz=6. In one embodiment, the Nz non-zero elements of each of the RS ports in the predetermined pool are adjacent in time and/or frequency domain.

In one embodiment, the predetermined pool of RS ports is at least one of: a pool of receive beam detection reference signal ports; and a pool of receive beam estimation reference signal ports. The signal may be received from the UE based on a contention-based grant free uplink transmission or a semi-persistent scheduling based grant-free uplink transmission.

In one embodiment, the predetermined pool has exactly N RS ports that are generated based on a plurality of orthogonal cover codes or a plurality of orthogonal sequences. In another embodiment, the predetermined pool has more than N RS ports that are generated based on a plurality of non-orthogonal sequences. In yet another embodiment, the predetermined pool has more than k*N RS ports that are generated based on a plurality of non-orthogonal sequences, wherein k=2, k=3, k=4, k=8, or k=16. In one embodiment, each of the RS ports in the predetermined pool has at most two non-zero elements, i.e. one non-zero element or two non-zero elements.

In one embodiment, the signal further comprises a data payload, wherein the data payload includes information related to the pilot signal including the at least one RS port. The at least one RS port may be selected from the predetermined pool based on at least one bit in the data payload.

The channel estimator222may estimate one channel value of an entire transmission bandwidth experienced by signals transmitted by the UE based on the Nz non-zero elements of each of the RS ports in the predetermined pool. In one embodiment, the channel estimator222and the data payload analyzer226may perform a blind channel equalization based on the data payload; and the time frequency offset corrector224and the data payload analyzer226may perform a blind time frequency offset correction based on the data payload.

In one embodiment, the receive beamforming unit228may perform a receive beamforming based on the pilot signal; and the spatial combination unit229may perform a spatial combination based on the pilot signal to obtain a data signal. Then the channel estimator222may perform a channel estimation and compensation based on the data signal; and the time frequency offset corrector224may perform a time frequency offset estimation and compensation based on the data signal. The data payload analyzer226may then demodulate and analyze the data payload based on the compensated data signal.

The power module208can include a power source such as one or more batteries, and a power regulator, to provide regulated power to each of the above-described modules inFIG.2. In some embodiments, if the BS200is coupled to a dedicated external power source (e.g., a wall electrical outlet), the power module208can include a transformer and a power regulator.

The various modules discussed above are coupled together by a bus system230. The bus system230can include a data bus and, for example, a power bus, a control signal bus, and/or a status signal bus in addition to the data bus. It is understood that the modules of the BS200can be operatively coupled to one another using any suitable techniques and mediums.

Although a number of separate modules or components are illustrated inFIG.2, persons of ordinary skill in the art will understand that one or more of the modules can be combined or commonly implemented. For example, the processor204can implement not only the functionality described above with respect to the processor204, but also implement the functionality described above with respect to the pilot signal analyzer220. Conversely, each of the modules illustrated inFIG.2can be implemented using a plurality of separate components or elements.

FIG.3illustrates a flow chart for a method300performed by a BS, e.g. the BS200inFIG.2, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. At operation302, the BS receives, from a UE, a signal comprising both a pilot signal and a data payload via a grant-free uplink transmission. At operation304, the BS analyzes the pilot signal. At operation306, the BS performs a receive beamforming or a spatial combination based on the pilot signal to generate data symbols. At operation308, the BS performs a blind channel estimation based on the data symbols. At operation310, the BS performs a time frequency offset correction based on the data symbols. At operation312, the BS demodulates and decodes the data payload. At operation314, the BS reconstructs and subtracts the received signal associated with the successfully decoded codeword. The reconstruction of received signals including the reconstruction of data signal and pilot signal, which is based on the information included in the data payload and related to the pilot signal. After the reconstruction, the user's data and reference signals will be removed/subtracted from the received signal, and then the next round of multi-user detection is performed. The order of the steps shown inFIG.3may be changed according to different embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG.4illustrates a block diagram of a UE400, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The UE400is an example of a device that can be configured to implement the various methods described herein. As shown inFIG.4, the UE400includes a housing440containing a system clock402, a processor404, a memory406, a transceiver410comprising a transmitter412and a receiver414, a power module408, a pilot signal generator420, a RS port selector422, a RS port pool determiner424, and a data payload generator426.

In this embodiment, the system clock402, the processor404, the memory406, the transceiver410and the power module408work similarly to the system clock202, the processor204, the memory206, the transceiver210and the power module208in the BS200. An antenna450or a multi-antenna array450is typically attached to the housing440and electrically coupled to the transceiver410.

The pilot signal generator420in this example may generate a pilot signal, wherein the pilot signal includes at least one reference signal (RS) port that is determined from a predetermined pool of RS ports. In one embodiment, the predetermined pool includes at least N RS ports, wherein N is an integer larger than one, e.g. larger than 24. In one embodiment, the pilot signal occupies N symbol resources.

In one embodiment, the pilot signal includes W RS ports, where W is an integer larger than one, e.g. W=2, W=3, or W=4. The RS port selector422may select or determine each of the W RS ports independently from the predetermined pool of RS ports.

In one embodiment, the RS port pool determiner424may determine the pool of RS ports pre-defined by a protocol or standard. For example, each of the RS ports in the predetermined pool has Nz non-zero elements, where Nz is an integer larger than 0 and less than 9, e.g. Nz=1, Nz=2, Nz=3, Nz=4, or Nz=6. In one embodiment, the Nz non-zero elements of each of the RS ports in the predetermined pool are adjacent in time and/or frequency domain. In one embodiment, the Nz non-zero elements of each of the RS ports in the predetermined pool are used to estimate one channel value of an entire transmission bandwidth experienced by signals transmitted by the UE. In one embodiment, the predetermined pool of RS ports is at least one of: a pool of receive beam detection reference signal ports; and a pool of receive beam estimation reference signal ports.

In one embodiment, the predetermined pool has exactly N RS ports that are generated based on a plurality of orthogonal cover codes or a plurality of orthogonal sequences. In another embodiment, the predetermined pool has more than N RS ports that are generated based on a plurality of non-orthogonal sequences. In yet another embodiment, the predetermined pool has more than k*N RS ports that are generated based on a plurality of non-orthogonal sequences, wherein k=2, k=3, k=4, k=8, or k=16. In one embodiment, each of the RS ports in the predetermined pool has at most two non-zero elements, i.e. one non-zero element or two non-zero elements.

In one embodiment, the data payload generator426can generate a data payload that includes information related to the pilot signal including the at least one RS port. The data payload generator426may transmit, via the transmitter412, a signal comprising the pilot signal and the data payload to a BS. The signal may be transmitted, via the transmitter412to the BS, based on a contention-based grant free uplink transmission or a semi-persistent scheduling based grant-free uplink transmission. In one embodiment, the at least one RS port may be selected by the RS port selector422from the predetermined pool based on at least one bit in the data payload.

In one embodiment, the data payload is utilized to perform a blind channel equalization and/or a blind time frequency offset correction at the BS. In another embodiment, the pilot signal is utilized to perform a receive beamforming or a spatial combination at the BS, before the data payload is demodulated.

The various modules discussed above are coupled together by a bus system430. The bus system430can include a data bus and, for example, a power bus, a control signal bus, and/or a status signal bus in addition to the data bus. It is understood that the modules of the UE400can be operatively coupled to one another using any suitable techniques and mediums.

Although a number of separate modules or components are illustrated inFIG.4, persons of ordinary skill in the art will understand that one or more of the modules can be combined or commonly implemented. For example, the processor404can implement not only the functionality described above with respect to the processor404, but also implement the functionality described above with respect to the RS port selector422. Conversely, each of the modules illustrated inFIG.4can be implemented using a plurality of separate components or elements.

FIG.5illustrates a flow chart for a method500performed by a UE, e.g. the UE400inFIG.4, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. At operation502, the UE generates a data payload to be transmitted to a BS. The UE determines at operation504a pool of reference signal (RS) ports that are generated based on a plurality of orthogonal and/or non-orthogonal sequences. At operation506, the UE selects at least one RS port from the pool based on at least one bit in the data payload. At operation508, the UE generates a pilot signal including the at least one RS port. At operation510, the UE transmits, to the BS, a signal comprising both the pilot signal and the data payload via a grant-free uplink transmission. The order of the steps shown inFIG.5may be changed according to different embodiments of the present disclosure.

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

One main purpose of the embodiments is to greatly lighten the task of the reference signals, such that each reference signal occupies a minimal resource, or say each reference signal may be most sparse to achieve a maximum number of reference signals in a pool. This enables both the semi-persistent scheduling based grant-free and contention-based grant-free transmissions to support more users.

In one embodiment, the disclosed system utilizes advanced data-based channel estimation technology (rather than based on reference signals) to estimate the channel of the entire transmission bandwidth and the time-frequency offset by the characteristics of the data itself, e.g. based on a simple geometric property of a constellation shape of a low-order modulated data symbol, like a binary phase shift keying (BPSK) or quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) data symbol. That is, it is no longer needed to estimate the channel on the entire transmission bandwidth and the time-frequency offset based the reference signal. Therefore, the task of the reference signal in the present teaching is much smaller than that in a traditional method. Therefore, each reference signal occupies much less resources than that in a traditional system. Therefore, under a certain reference signal overhead, the number of the reference signals of the present teaching is much larger than that in the traditional system.

On the other hand, when the base station has multiple receiving antennas, it can theoretically provide a very strong spatial capability to improve the performance of multi-user access. In order to obtain this spatial capability, the present teaching proposes an “extremely sparse” reference signal that can be used to estimate the spatial domain channel, hk=[hk1, hk2. . . hkR]t, of each access user, where t is transpose operator. These estimated spatial channel vectors are then used to spatially combine the received signals. Specifically, the user k's signals are combined to do spatial combination by: sk=wk*y, where, y=[yk1, yk2. . . ykR]trepresents received signals of R receive antennas, and wk=hk′ if maximal ratio combining (MRC) is used, or wk=hk′(HH′+σ2I)−1if minimum mean square error (MMSE) based spatially combining is used, where hk′ is the conjugate transpose of hk, H is a matrix composed of the spatial channel vectors of all detected users, σ is the mean square deviation of the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), and I is a R*R unit matrix. Then the receiver may use the spatially combined data symbol skto estimate the channel on the entire transmission bandwidth experienced by user k's signal and its corresponding time-frequency offset. Then a channel equalization and a time-frequency offset compensation are performed with respect to the spatially combined data symbol sk. Then, the receiver can demodulate and decode the data symbols after the compensation of channel and time-frequency offset.

The reference signal, which is a pilot signal in the present teaching, is merely used for spatial combination, but not used for channel equalization or demodulation. On the other hand, spatial combination is of the same function as receive beamforming. As such, the reference signal may be considered as a spatial combination reference signal (SCRS), or a receive beamforming reference signal (RBRS), or a receive beam detection reference signal (RBDRS).

Therefore, in a disclosed embodiment of the present teaching, there is no need to use a reference signal (RS) to estimate the channel over the entire transmission bandwidth, or to estimate the time-frequency offset. Therefore, the reference signal proposed in the present teaching is extremely sparse. An example is shown inFIG.6, where a reference signal may be referred to as a reference signal port, or RBDRS port.FIG.6illustrates an exemplary pool of reference signal ports for a transmission including M physical resource blocks (PRBs), in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown inFIG.6, a transmission comprises M PRBs of time-frequency resources, where each PRB comprises: 14 orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols (or DFT-S-OFDM or SC-FDMA symbols) at the time domain, and 12 subcarriers at the frequency domain. As shown inFIG.6, each small grid601is a subcarrier of an OFDM (or DFT-S-OFDM or SC-FDMA) symbol, which is also commonly referred to as a resource element (RE). In other words, a PRB, like the one shown inFIG.6contains a total of 12*14=168 REs. In each PRB or each transmission, 1/14 of the transmission resources is used for transmitting reference signals. That is, M*12 REs are used for transmitting reference signals. As shown inFIG.6, the data payload620occupies the rest RE resources. However, each reference signal defined by the system only has one non-zero symbol (non-zero signal, or useful signal) on one RE, and there is no signal in the remaining resources (or say the value is 0 in other resources), which is an extremely sparse reference signal or a most sparse reference signal, as no other type of reference signal can be more sparse than it. As such, the reference signal area610accounts for a 1/14 overhead of the transmission, and may be divided into a total of M*12 reference signal ports or RBDRS ports. In one embodiment, where there are M=6 PRBs, with a 1/14 overhead, there will be 6*12=72 reference signals in total in the RS pool, which is much greater than 8 or 12 reference signals in a pool of an existing NR system.

As shown inFIG.6, different RBDRS ports611,612,613,614,615in the RS pool have the non-zero symbol on different RE positions. For example, the first RBDRS port611has one non-zero symbol carried on the first RE of the reference signal area610, with value 0 in all other REs; the second RBDRS port612has one non-zero symbol carried on the second RE of the reference signal area610, with value 0 in all other REs; . . . the M*12-th RBDRS port615has one non-zero symbol carried on the M*12-th RE of the reference signal area610, with value 0 in all other REs.

In this case, each pilot signal including a corresponding one of the RBDRS ports occupies N symbol resources or REs. This is because, when a user transmits a pilot signal and a data symbol in a transmission. Although some of the RBDRS of the pilot signal have a value of 0, these 0-value places cannot be used for transmitting data symbols or data payload. The data payload is transmitted through data symbols. In one embodiment, the receiver will perform blind detection using the data symbols. Each transmission includes a pilot signal and data payload (or data symbols). As such, the symbol resources used to transmit the pilot signal inFIG.6are M*12, or the resource overhead is M*12 symbol resources or REs for transmitting the pilot signal.

Similar toFIG.6,FIG.7toFIG.11show different forms of most sparse RBDRS, under a 1/14 reference signal overhead. As shown inFIG.7toFIG.11, there are M number of PRBs, with a same definition of PRBs inFIG.6, such that there are a total of M*12 RBDRS ports in the RBDRS pool.

As shown inFIG.7, the RBDRS pool includes M*6 RBDRS port groups, where each RBDRS port group includes two RBDRS ports and the non-zero elements of them occupy the same two REs. For simplicity of expression, a reference signal carried on a plurality of adjacent or contiguous REs in the time and frequency domains is referred to as a reference signal unit (RSU). InFIG.7, the reference signal carried on two consecutive REs in the frequency domain is called a RSU.

Non-zero symbols of each RBDRS port group are carried on the same REs, and different reference signals in the same group can only be distinguished by non-zero symbols of different values. For example,FIG.8shows that different length-2 frequency domain orthogonal cover codes (OCCs) are used to distinguish different reference signal ports in a same group. As such, each of the M*6 RBDRS port groups is divided to two different RBDRS ports. For example, RBDRS port group711is divided into two RBDRS ports811,812, based on two different OCC codes. As such, M*12 RBDRS ports are included in the RBDRS port pool inFIG.8. Similarly inFIG.9, different length-2 orthogonal sequences are used to distinguish different reference signal ports in a same group. As such, each of the M*6 RBDRS port groups is divided to two different RBDRS ports. For example, RBDRS port group711is divided into two RBDRS ports911,912, based on two different orthogonal sequences. As such, M*12 RBDRS ports are included in the RBDRS port pool inFIG.9.

FIG.10illustrates yet another exemplary pool of reference signal ports for a transmission including M PRBs, where M*12 RBDRS ports are grouped into different groups each of which have three non-zero symbols on three adjacent or contiguous RE positions.FIG.11illustrates still another exemplary pool of reference signal ports for a transmission including M PRBs, where M*12 RBDRS ports are grouped into different groups each of which have four adjacent or contiguous non-zero symbols on four RE positions. In bothFIG.10andFIG.11, OCCs or orthogonal sequences may be used to distinguish different RBDRS ports in a same group.

FIG.12toFIG.19show different forms of the most sparse RBDRS signals under a larger reference signal overhead, which is a 1/7 overhead. There are M*24 RBDRS ports in the reference signal pool. Specifically, when there are M=6 PRBs with a 1/7 overhead, there will be 24*6=144 reference signals. This can support144semi-persistent scheduling based grant-free users, and can support more contention-based grant free users compared to an existing system with only 12 or 8 reference signals, since the probability for any two contention-based grant free users to have a reference signal collision is 1/144, far below the 1/12 probability in an existing system.

As shown inFIG.12, a RBDRS port is defined such that the first two OFDM symbols are used to carry a RBDRS signal, i.e., the first two OFDM symbols are a reference signal area or reference signal region1210, which occupies a 1/7 resource overhead of the transmission resources. The remaining resources1220may be used to transmit data payload. Each RBDRS port inFIG.12have only one non-zero symbol on one RE, with no signal or with value 0 in all other REs. Different RBDRS ports1211,1212, . . .1218in the RBDRS pool have the non-zero symbol on different RE positions.

As shown inFIG.13, the RBDRS pool includes M*12 RBDRS port groups, where each RBDRS port group includes two consecutive REs in the time domain. Non-zero symbols of each RBDRS port group are carried on the same REs, and different reference signals in the same group may be distinguished by non-zero symbols of different values. For example,FIG.14shows that different length-2 time domain orthogonal cover codes (OCCs) are used to distinguish different reference signal ports in a same group. As such, each of the M*12 RBDRS port groups is divided to two different RBDRS ports. For example, RBDRS port group1311is divided into two RBDRS ports1411,1412, based on two different OCC codes, i.e., [1, 1] and [1, −1]. As such, M*24 RBDRS ports are included in the RBDRS port pool inFIG.14. Similarly inFIG.15, different length-2 orthogonal sequences, i.e., [1, j] and [1, −j] are used to distinguish different reference signal ports in a same group. As such, each of the M*12 RBDRS port groups is divided to two different RBDRS ports. For example, RBDRS port group1311is divided into two RBDRS ports1511,1512, based on two different orthogonal sequences. As such, M*24 RBDRS ports are included in the RBDRS port pool inFIG.15.

FIG.16illustrates yet another exemplary pool of reference signal ports for a transmission with M PRBs and 1/7 reference signal overhead, where M*24 RBDRS ports are grouped into M*6 groups each of which have four non-zero symbols on four adjacent or contiguous RE positions. As shown inFIG.17andFIG.18, length-4 OCCs shown in Table 11715or length-4 orthogonal sequences shown in Table 21815, may be used to distinguish different RBDRS ports in a same group ofFIG.16. As such, each RBDRS port group is divided into four RBDRS ports based on four length-4 OCC codes or length-4 orthogonal sequences. Other length-4 orthogonal sequences sets can also be used to divide one RBDRS port group into four RBDRS ports. Sixteen length-4 orthogonal sequences sets are shown in Table 3 ofFIG.19, which has totally 64 row with every four contiguous rows constituting a length-4 orthogonal sequences set.

In some embodiments, a larger overhead, such as a 2/7 overhead may also be used for a very or most sparse reference signal. An extremely sparse reference signal under a larger overhead can follow the designs shown inFIG.6toFIG.18. Although the extremely sparse reference signals shown inFIG.6toFIG.18are all 1 or 2 symbols at the front of the transmission resource, other positions of the extremely sparse reference signal are also included in the scope of the present teaching. For example, the position of the extremely sparse reference signal can also be in the middle of the transmission resource.

InFIG.20toFIG.24, the extremely sparse reference signal is utilized in a longer-duration transmission resource including: a bandwidth of one PRB in the frequency domain, and a plurality of transmission time intervals (TTIs), e.g. M TTIs, in the time domain.FIG.20toFIG.24show scenarios in which the reference signal region2010,2210occupies a 1/7 resource overhead. The extremely sparse reference signal area may be at the starting OFDM symbols of each TTI, e.g. the region2010inFIG.21andFIG.22; or be integrated at the starting OFDM symbols of the entire transmission resources, e.g. the region2210inFIG.22toFIG.24.

InFIG.25toFIG.27, the extremely sparse reference signal is utilized in a transmission resource, wherein each PRB has a bandwidth of less than 12 subcarriers, i.e. less than 12 subcarriers for each OFDM symbol. Assuming there A subcarriers in one PRB bandwidth, and each TTI comprises 14 OFDM symbols, one transmission comprises M TTIs. The extremely sparse reference signal area2510,2610,2710uses 2*M OFDM symbols. Then the extremely sparse reference signal area2510,2610,2710includes a total of 2*M*A symbol units (REs), and it can include a maximum of 2*M*A orthogonal extremely sparse reference signals.

The reference signal regions inFIG.25toFIG.27are under a 1/7 overhead, i.e. a total of 2*M OFDM symbols are used for the extremely sparse reference signals. InFIG.25, one PRB bandwidth includes 6 subcarriers (i.e. 6 subcarriers for each OFDM symbol), and there may be a total of M*12 extremely sparse reference signals or RBDRS ports. InFIG.26, one PRB bandwidth includes 3 subcarriers (i.e. 3 subcarriers for each OFDM symbol), and there may be a total of M*6 extremely sparse reference signals or RBDRS ports. InFIG.27, one PRB bandwidth includes 1 subcarrier (i.e. 1 subcarrier for each OFDM symbol), and there may be a total of M*2 extremely sparse reference signals or RBDRS ports.

The above embodiments and their derivatives can be applied to both OFDM and DFT-S-OFDM/SC-FDMA waveforms, which have single carrier property and therefore have a merit of low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). When the above-mentioned embodiments and their derivatives are applied to DFT-S-OFDM/SC-FDMA, the PAPR of the extremely sparse reference signals may be not significantly larger than that of the data signals. In particular, the extremely sparse reference signal may be used DFT-S-OFDM/SC-FDMA following any one of the schemes shown inFIGS.7-11andFIG.16. Since an extremely sparse reference signal occupies more than one subcarrier, the extremely sparse reference signal with a low peak-to-average ratio should be used. Among them,FIG.10shows an extremely sparse reference signal occupying 3 subcarriers, andFIG.11shows an extremely sparse reference signal occupying 4 subcarrier, which can utilize the length-3 and length-4 demodulation reference signals (DMRS), respectively, in the uplink DFT-S-OFDM/SC-FDMA transmission schemes of the LTE system, NR system or the NB-IoT system.

Different reference signal ports may be distinguished based on different non-zero symbol positions and different orthogonal sequences. When the reference signal area has N symbols, there may be up to N orthogonal extremely sparse reference signals. In order to further increase the number of reference signals to reduce the collision rate, the orthogonality constraints of the reference signals can be relaxed and a larger number of non-orthogonal sequences can be used to distinguish different extremely or most sparse reference signals. That is, the non-zero symbols in the extremely sparse reference signals can carry a sequence from a set of non-orthogonal sequences.FIG.19illustrates a table of exemplary orthogonal and non-orthogonal sequences for generating a pool of reference signal ports, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. There are 64 length-4 sequences inFIG.19, grouped into 16 groups. Any two sequences in a same group are orthogonal to each other, but any two sequences from two different groups are non-orthogonal to each other. These sequences may be used to expand the number of RBDRS ports in the RS pool shown inFIG.16.

FIG.28illustrates an exemplary pool of reference signal ports generated based on non-orthogonal sequences, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown inFIG.28, each group of extremely sparse reference signals has 4 time-frequency continuous non-zero elements. By carrying 16 length-4 non-orthogonal sequences, 16 extremely sparse reference signals are achieved from one RBDRS group, which is 4 times the references signals based on orthogonal sequences. When there are M PRBs, each PRB has 12 subcarriers and 14 OFDM symbols, and a 1/7 overhead for the extremely sparse reference signal, the set of non-orthogonal sequences may be used to generate a total of M*24*4=M*96 reference signals. Using the length-4 orthogonal sequences will generate M*24 reference signals. If the 64 length-4 non-orthogonal sequences inFIG.19are used, it is possible to obtain 64 extremely sparse reference signals from one RBDRS group, which is 16 times the orthogonal sequence scenario. When there are M PRBs, each PRB has 12 subcarriers and 14 OFDM symbols, and a 1/7 overhead for the extremely sparse reference signal, the set of non-orthogonal sequences inFIG.19may be used to generate a total of M*24*16=M*384 reference signals.

Further, based on this extremely or most sparse reference signal, the contention-based grant-free access scenarios may be further enhanced. Each access user (or terminal) may autonomously select one or more signals from the set or pool of extremely sparse reference signals, as shown inFIG.29. When each terminal autonomously selects more than one reference signal, it can further reduce the collision rate of the reference signals. For example, each user autonomously selects two extremely sparse reference signals. Then a collision happens only when both encounter collision with another user's reference signals. As such, the collision probability is much lower than the case of selecting only one reference signal.

The process of autonomously selecting multiple extremely sparse reference signals can have two manners. In a first manner, the user (or terminal) autonomously determines multiple extremely sparse reference signals based on the information (or payload) in a current transmission. Usually, the user (or terminal) autonomously decides multiple extremely sparse transmission signals according to certain bits of the information (or payload) in the current transmission. For example, if the system's predefined set of extremely sparse reference signals contains a total of 2{circumflex over ( )}D (i.e., 2 to the power of D) extremely sparse reference signals, the user (or terminal) can determine one extremely sparse reference signal based on D bits of the information (or payload) in the current transmission, determine two extremely sparse reference signals based on 2*D bits of the information (or payload) in the current transmission, and determine W extremely sparse reference signals based on W*D bits of the information (or payload) in the current transmission.

Further, the grant-free access scenarios based on this extremely sparse reference signal technique may be further enhanced by combining with symbol spreading techniques as shown inFIG.30. That is, the data symbols3020transmitted with the pilot signal3010including at least one extremely sparse reference signal are generated using the symbol spreading techniques, and the data payload also contains information of the spreading sequence. One typical symbol spreading technique is that each access user (or terminal) spreads its digital modulation symbols, such as BPSK/QPSK symbols, using an L-length spreading code or a spreading sequence like ck=[ck1, ck2. . . ckL]. For example, spreading a digital modulation symbol s by ckcan generate L symbols S*ck1, S*ck2S*ckL.

Since the information (or payload) of different users is independent and uncorrelated, multiple extremely sparse reference signals are independently selected by different users, so that the multiple reference signals selected by different users can avoid collision as much as possible.

In addition, different bits of information (or payload) transmitted by one user (or terminal) are usually independent and uncorrelated, and multiple extremely sparse reference signals selected by one user are also independent and uncorrelated. Independence doesn't mean inequality. For example, two sets of D bits in the transmitted information are independent and unrelated, but may also be equal to each other.

From the perspective of the system, the extremely sparse reference signals selected by different users, and the multiple extremely sparse reference signals selected by one user, can be considered random. From this perspective, it can also be considered that each user randomly selects multiple extremely sparse reference signals.

In a second manner, a system's predefined set of extremely sparse reference signals is assumed to contain a total of 2{circumflex over ( )}D extremely sparse reference signals, and the user (or terminal) autonomously generates W*D bits. Then through these bits, W extremely sparse reference signals are selected from the extremely sparse reference signal set or pool. These W*D bits are then transmitted together with the information that needs to be transmitted.

These two manners can both achieve good randomness for multiple extremely sparse reference signals selected by different users, thereby significantly reducing the probability of collisions of all reference signals of different users. Moreover, these two manners have a common feature. A transmission of each user contains W extremely sparse reference signals and transmission information (or payload), and the transmitted information or payload contains the information of these W extremely sparse reference signals. For example, it contains the index numbers of the W extremely sparse reference signals. In this way, once the information or payload of a user is decoded successfully, the information of all reference signals used by this user in this transmission can be known, so that interference cancellation of the reference signal can be performed. In the first manner, multiple extremely sparse reference signals are autonomously selected based on the bits of the transmission information (or payload) itself, so that no extra overhead is needed to transmit the information of these extremely sparse reference signals. In the second manner, multiple extremely sparse reference signals are autonomously selected using extra bits, which requires additional overhead to transmit the information of these extremely sparse reference signals, resulting in a less spectrum efficiency.

In one embodiment, a transmission (an access) occupies a total of T symbol resources, and includes reference signals (or pilots) and data. The overhead rate of the reference signal is a, where a is a real number greater than 0 and less than 1. The quantity of extremely sparse reference signals in total is T*a.

For example, a reference signal and a data payload are included in one transmission, which is transmitted through 6 PRBs, where each PRB contains 12*14 REs. The overhead rate of the reference signal is 1/7. When a traditional reference signal (DMRS) scheme is used, the number of reference signals (or say the number of DMRS ports) in total in the RS pool can be up to 12. In the present teaching, under the same 1/7 overhead, the number of pilots or reference signals can be 6*24=144 reference signals, and each reference signal is very sparse, as shown inFIG.12when M=6.

These reference signals are defined by the communication system. For example, the communication system can define: how many reference signals the system has, what sequence or pattern each reference signal uses, etc. For example, for an LTE uplink transmission, there are two types of DMRS defined. One type of reference signal is defined based on different cyclic shifts of a sequence, e.g. a Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence or a computer-searched ZC-liked sequence including quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) elements. In addition, OCC codes may be used to define more reference signals. The other type of reference signal is DMRS based on a comb structure or a code division multiplexing (CDM) group structure. In either case, the existing system, the maximum number of reference signals is 24 under a certain overhead ( 1/7 or 2/7), because reference signals are relied on for channel equalization to estimate the entire wireless channel. In some scenarios, the reference signals are also relied on to estimate a certain time-frequency offset.

The disclosed system in the present teaching can perform channel equalization and time-frequency offset correction based on the data symbols themselves, called blind equalization and blind time-frequency offset correction. The good properties of the data symbols, such as the simple geometric property of low-order modulated (e.g. BPSK, QPSK) data symbol's constellation shape and the second order moment of the received data symbols, are used. As such, there is no need to rely on the reference signals for channel equalization, and therefore there is no need to use the reference signals to estimate the entire wireless channel or the time-frequency offset experienced by the transmission.

In the scenarios where there are multiple receive antennas on the receiving side, when the spatial domain channels of each access user are known, the receiving side can perform appropriate spatial domain combination (or say receive beamforming), which can suppress the multi-user interference and achieve diversity, thus significantly improving multi-user access performance. The use of spatial domain capabilities is very important for multi-user access systems. Although channel equalization and time-frequency offset correction can be performed by the data symbols themselves, the spatial domain combination/receive beamforming cannot be achieved merely based on the data symbols themselves. Therefore, the present teaching proposes to estimate the spatial domain channel, which may include only one channel value of an entire transmission bandwidth experienced by the data symbols, based on very few or very sparse pilots (reference signals), and then perform spatial domain combination/receive beamforming based on this estimated spatial domain channel. The spatially combined data symbols still carry wireless channels and time-frequency offsets. As such, channel equalization and time-frequency offset correction are performed based on the spatially combined data symbols, before demodulation and decoding. In order to improve the performance of multi-user detection, interference cancellation may be performed for the correctly decoded user signals, including the data signals and the reference signals, to enter the next round of iteration, until all possible users are successfully decoded.

As such, the reference signal designed according to embodiments of the present teaching is not for channel equalization, but for spatial domain combination or receive beamforming. That is, the reference signal proposed herein is to estimate each user's spatial domain combination weight, or to estimate the receiving beam of each user, without the need to estimate the entire wireless channel and time-frequency offset of each user. Therefore, the reference signal of each user does not need many resources or many degrees of freedom, or say the small amount of non-zero signal of the reference signal of each user can occupy a very localized time-frequency resource compared with the entire bandwidth and/or time duration of the transmission. Under a given overhead, based on the scheme of extremely sparse reference signals proposed herein, a system can achieve more reference signals or reference signal ports in the RS pool.

In order to pursue extreme performance, a maximum number of reference signals can be designed. For example, for a transmission including 6 PRBs and 1 TTI, with a 1/7 resource overhead for reference signals, 144 REs are used to carry reference signals. While a traditional scheme has a maximum of 24 DMRS signals, one embodiment of the present teaching can achieve 144 reference signals, as shown inFIG.12when M=6. In this case, each reference signal is not a DMRS, but a receive beam detection RS or a receive beam estimation RS.

In one embodiment, each reference signal in the RS pool occupies N symbol resources, and there are a total of N extremely sparse reference signals, where N is an integer. In order to maximize the number of reference signals, it is better to design N pilot resources out of N symbol resources. For example, when a transmission has 6 PRBs and 1 TTI of time-frequency resources, and a 1/7 RS overhead, N=2*12*6=144 symbols will be used for reference signals. When a maximum of 24 RS ports are defined in an existing system, the present teaching proposes 144 RS ports based on the 144 symbol resources. In the case of semi-persistent scheduling based grant-free uplink transmission, the pilots of the users are orthogonal, and the 144 RS ports can be assigned to a maximum of 144 users. In the case of contention-based grant free uplink transmission, each user can randomly select one RS among the 144 RS ports, which will induce to a much smaller collision probability.

In one embodiment, each reference signal in the RS pool occupies N symbol resources, and there are a total of more than N extremely sparse reference signals, where N is an integer. The non-zero symbols in the extremely sparse reference signals can use non-orthogonal sequences to further expand the number of reference signal ports in the RS pool and reduce collisions. Using orthogonal sequences on the non-zero symbols of the extremely sparse reference signal can achieve at most N extremely sparse reference signals, when there are N symbols in the reference signal region. In order to further increase the number of reference signals and to reduce the collision rate, the orthogonality constraints of the reference signals can be relaxed, and non-orthogonal extremely sparse reference signals can be adopted. That is, a non-zero symbol of the extremely sparse reference signal carries a sequence from a set of non-orthogonal sequences.

As shown inFIG.28, each group of sparse reference signals has 4 time-frequency continuous non-zero elements. By carrying 16 length-4 non-orthogonal sequences, 16 extremely sparse reference signals are achieved. When there are M PRBs, each PRB has 12 subcarriers and 14 OFDM symbols, with a 1/7 overhead for the extremely sparse reference signal, the set of non-orthogonal sequences may be used to generate a total of M*24*4=M*96 reference signals. Using the length-4 orthogonal sequences will generate M*24 reference signals.

In one embodiment, each reference signal contains only one reference signal unit (RSU), and the remaining symbol resources of the RS region or RS area have either no signal or a value of zero.

In one embodiment, a transmitter or a terminal autonomously selects one extremely sparse reference signal from the extremely sparse reference signal pool defined by the system. The transmitted information includes information of the selected reference signal. In another embodiment, a transmitter or a terminal autonomously selects W RSs from the pool of the extremely sparse reference signals defined by the system, where W is an integer greater than 1, e.g. 2, 3, or 4. The transmitted information includes information of the selected W reference signals.

At the receiving side, when the receiver or the base station has multiple receive antennas, it may provide a very strong spatial domain capability to improve the performance of multi-user access. In order to obtain this spatial domain capability, one method is disclosed below according to one embodiment.

First, the extremely sparse reference signal can be used to estimate the spatial channel or spatial channel vector hk=[hk1, hk2. . . hkR]tfor each access user, where t is the transpose operator.

Second, these estimated spatial domain channels are then used to spatially combine the received signals. Specifically, spatial combination is performed on the user k's signals by: sk=wk*y, where, y=[yk1, yk2. . . ykR]trepresents received signals of R receive antennas, and wk=hk′ if maximal ratio combining (MRC) is used, or wk=hk′(HH′+σ2I)−1if minimum mean square error (MMSE) based spatially combining is used, hk′ is the conjugate transpose of hk,H is a matrix composed of the spatial channel vectors of all detected users, σ is the mean square deviation of the AWGN, and I is a R*R unit matrix.

Third, the receiver may use the spatially combined data symbol skto estimate the channel on the entire transmission bandwidth experienced by user k's signal and to estimate the time-frequency offset. In this estimation, the good properties of the data symbols, such as the simple geometric property of low-order modulated (e.g. BPSK, QPSK) data symbol's constellation shape, are used.

Fourth, a channel compensation and a time-frequency offset compensation are performed with respect to the spatially combined data symbol sk.

Fifth, the receiver can demodulate and decode the data symbols after the compensations of channel and time-frequency offset.

Once the information of a user is decoded successfully, the user's data and reference signal will be removed from the received signal, and then the next round of multi-user detection is performed.

A transmission of each user contains W extremely sparse reference signals and transmission information (or payload), and the transmitted information or payload contains the information of these W extremely sparse reference signals. For example, the transmitted information or payload contains the index numbers of the W extremely sparse reference signals. In this way, once the information or payload decoding of a user is successful, the information of all reference signals used by this user in this transmission can be known, so that interference cancellation of the reference signal can be performed.

In the present application, the technical features in the various embodiments can be used in combination in one embodiment without conflict. Each embodiment is merely an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

While various embodiments of the present disclosure have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not by way of limitation. Likewise, the various diagrams may depict an example architectural or configuration, which are provided to enable persons of ordinary skill in the art to understand exemplary features and functions of the present disclosure. Such persons would understand, however, that the present disclosure is not restricted to the illustrated example architectures or configurations, but can be implemented using a variety of alternative architectures and configurations. Additionally, as would be understood by persons of ordinary skill in the art, one or more features of one embodiment can be combined with one or more features of another embodiment described herein. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments.

It is also understood that any reference to an element herein using a designation such as “first,” “second,” and so forth does not generally limit the quantity or order of those elements. Rather, these designations can be used herein as a convenient means of distinguishing between two or more elements or instances of an element. Thus, a reference to first and second elements does not mean that only two elements can be employed, or that the first element must precede the second element in some manner.

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

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

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

Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would understand that various illustrative logical blocks, modules, devices, components and circuits described herein can be implemented within or performed by an integrated circuit (IC) that can include a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, or any combination thereof. The logical blocks, modules, and circuits can further include antennas and/or transceivers to communicate with various components within the network or within the device. A general purpose processor can be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor can be any conventional processor, controller, or state machine. A processor can also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suitable configuration to perform the functions described herein.

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

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

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

Various modifications to the implementations described in this disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein can be applied to other implementations without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the implementations shown herein, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the novel features and principles disclosed herein, as recited in the claims below.