Search

EP-4473666-B1 - METHOD, DEVICE AND SYSTEM FOR ENABLING COMMUNICATION

EP4473666B1EP 4473666 B1EP4473666 B1EP 4473666B1EP-4473666-B1

Inventors

  • ALABBASI, Abdulrahman
  • PALAIOS, Alexandros

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20230127

Claims (15)

  1. A device (101) for enabling a communication between a Base Station, BS, (100) and one or more User Equipment, UE, (110), the device comprising a first sheet (102) comprising one or more elements (102a) for interacting with one or more signals in the form of Electromagnetic waves, EM, a controller circuitry (104), wherein the controller circuitry (104) comprises a memory (106) and a processor (107), the memory comprising instructions which when executed by the processor cause the device (101) to: - receive from the BS (100), a first message comprising a first configuration information for the device (101); - obtain a second configuration information for the device (101) based on at least the first configuration information and a first power division factor; - configure the first sheet (102) based on the second configuration information to divide the energy propagated by an incident signal in the form of an EM wave into a first energy and a second energy, wherein the first energy is propagated as a reflected signal in the form of another EM wave towards a UE (110) and the second energy is stored; and - send, to the BS (100), a second message comprising the second configuration information.
  2. The device (101) according to claim 1, wherein the memory comprises instructions which when executed by the processor cause the device (101) to determine, by using an energy threshold value configured in the device (101), an amount of the second energy that is used to power the device (101).
  3. The device (101) according to any of claims 1-2, wherein the memory comprises instructions which when executed by the processor cause the device (101) to power the device (101) using the second energy that is stored.
  4. The device (101) according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the memory comprises instructions which when executed by the processor cause the device (101) to divide the energy into the first energy and the second energy using a power divider unit (109).
  5. The device (101) according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the first power division factor is included in the first message.
  6. The device (101) according to any of claims 1-5, wherein the first configuration information comprises at least one of the following: - Transmission, Tx, and Reception, Rx, Power of the UE (110); - Tx and Rx power of the BS (100); - Interference levels at the UE (110) including Received Signal Radio Quality, RSRQ; - Interference levels at the BS (100) including Received Signal Radio Quality, RSRQ; - UE Identity, ID, and UE geographical location; - BS ID and BS geographical location; - Target Quality of Service, QoS, requirements; - Number of UE antenna and polarization information of each antenna; - Number of BS antenna and polarization information of each antenna; - Possible scheduling time of the UE (110); - Data traffic information; and - Scatter ratios of the one or more elements (102a) comprised in the first sheet (102).
  7. The device (101) according to any of claims 1-6, wherein the second configuration information is at least one of the following: - amplitude of the reflected signal per element of the first sheet (102); - phase shift of the reflected signal per element of the first sheet (102); - second power division factor.
  8. A base station, BS (100), configured for communicating with a device (101) for enabling a communication between the BS (100) and at least a User Equipment, UE (110), the BS comprising a memory and a processor, the memory comprising instructions which when executed by the processor cause the BS (100) to: - receive from the UE (110), a UE measurement report; - generate a first configuration information for the device (101) based on at least the UE measurement report; - send to the device (101), a first message comprising the first configuration information and a first power division factor; - receive from the device (101), a second message comprising a second configuration information based on which the device (101) is configured; and - adapt the signal transmission of the BS (100) towards the UE (110) based on the second configuration information.
  9. The BS (100) according to claim 8, the memory comprising instructions which when executed by the processor cause the BS (100) to generate the first configuration information based on pre-configuration information of the device (101).
  10. The BS (100) according to any one of claims 8 or 9, wherein the first configuration information comprises at least one of the following: - Transmission, Tx, and Reception, Rx, Power of the UE (110); - Tx and Rx power of the BS (100); - Interference levels at the UE (110) including Received Signal Radio Quality, RSRQ; - Interference levels at the BS (100) including Received Signal Radio Quality, RSRQ; - UE Identity, ID, and UE geographical location; - BS ID and BS geographical location; - Target Quality of Service, QoS, requirements; - Number of UE antenna and polarization information of each antenna; - Number of BS antenna and polarization information of each antenna; - Possible scheduling time of the UE (110); - Data traffic information; and - Scatter ratios of the one or more elements (102a) of the device (101).
  11. A method performed by a device (101) for enabling a communication between a base station and at least a User Equipment, UE, (110), the device comprising a first sheet (102) comprising one or more elements (102a) for interacting with one or more signals in the form of Electromagnetic waves, EM, a controller circuitry (104), the method comprising: - receiving (701) from the Base station, BS (100), a first message comprising a first configuration information for the device (101); - obtaining (702) a second configuration information for the device (101) based on at least the first configuration information and a first power division factor; - configuring (703) the first sheet (102) based on the second configuration information to divide the energy propagated by an incident signal in the form of an EM wave into a first energy and a second energy, wherein the first energy is propagated as a reflected signal in the form of another EM wave towards a UE (110) and the second energy is stored; and - sending (704) to the BS (100), the second configuration information.
  12. A method performed by a Base Station, BS (100), communicating with a device (101) for enabling a communication between the BS (100) and at least a User Equipment, UE (110), the method comprising: - receiving (801) from the UE (110), a UE measurement report; - generating (802) a first configuration information for a device (101) based on at least the UE measurement report; - sending (803) to the device (101), a first message comprising the first configuration information and a first power division factor; - receiving (804) from the device (101), a second message comprising a second configuration information based on which the device (101) is configured; and - adapting (805) the signal transmission of the BS (100) towards the UE (110) based on the second configuration information.
  13. A communication system (001) comprising a device (101) for enabling a communication between a base station,BS, and a User Equipment, UE (110), the device comprising: a first sheet (102) comprising one or more elements (102a) for interacting with one or more signals in the form of Electromagnetic waves, EM; a controller circuitry (104); and the BS (100), configured for communicating with the device (101) for enabling a communication between the BS (100) and the UE (110), the communication system configured such that: - the BS (100) receives, from the UE (110), a UE measurement report; - the BS (100) generates a first configuration information for the device (101) based on at least the UE measurement report; - the BS (100) sends, to the device (101), a first message comprising the first configuration information; - the device(101) receives, from the BS (100), the first message comprising the first configuration information for the device (101); - the device (101) obtains a second configuration information for the device (101) based on at least the first configuration information and the first power division factor; - the device(101) configures the first sheet (102) based on the second configuration information to divide the energy propagated by an incident signal in the form of an EM wave into a first energy and a second energy, wherein the first energy is propagated as a reflected signal in the form of another EM wave towards the UE (110) and the second energy is stored; - the device (101) sends, to the BS (100), the second configuration information; - the device (101) receives, from the BS, a second message comprising the second configuration information based on which the device (101) is configured; and - the BS (100) adapts the signal transmission of the BS (100) towards the UE (110) based on the second configuration information.
  14. A carrier containing a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on a device (101), cause the device (101) to carry out the method according to claim 11, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or computer-readable storage medium.
  15. A carrier containing a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on a Base Station, BS (100), cause the BS (100) to carry out the method according to claim 12, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or computer-readable storage medium.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The invention relates to methods for enabling communication. More specifically, the invention relates to a device, a base station and their corresponding methods, a communication system, computer programs, carriers and computer program products. BACKGROUND Industry 4.0 enables significant transformation in the way goods are produced and delivered moving towards industrial automation and the so called 'flexible factory'. Some of the requirements of Industry 4.0 from a wireless connectivity perspective are as follows: Enable monitoring and data collection. An example scenario is to optimize future milling, which requires high data rate and short end-to-end latency.Enable real-time control to adjust a process in motion, for example by altering the milling tool spinning speed, which requires high data rate and short end-to-end latency.Enable a fully automated factory. Here, the total number of connected devices can be combined and managed as one ecosystemEnable flexible and dynamic installation of robots, AVGs, machineries, at low cost. From the above, it is clear that wireless connectivity and communication enablement is crucial for the seamless functioning of an Industry 4.0 environment. In a factory or an industrial plant environment, the wireless channel is typically weakened by large number of blockers or obstacles. The large number of blockers weaken the strength of the transmitted signals and further cause an increased signal interference. The presence of large number of obstacles results in signals being randomly reflected away from a target receiver such as, an end-user device. In a factory automation environment, full automation requires flexibility in placing one or more communication nodes which are to be connected via a wireless link i.e. requiring the nodes to be positioned even in places behind the signal blocker. Such a blocker environment blocks the link from a transmitter, e.g. a base station, to an end-device node, e.g. a UE. Multiple reflected signals may even get directed to a neighboring communication network and may cause increased interference. The signal may also leak into areas outside the premise of operation leading to security issues. Another scenario describing a problem is in a modern factory, an industrial mine, or an indoor environment, with high density of blockers. If an owner of such place requires to deploy Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) features, then high system efficiency, low latency, low cost, and high spectral efficiency is required. However, due to a high density of blockers, one or more of the following problem occurs: Reduction in system capacity, e.g. throughput, latency, number of users.Need for purchasing large bandwidth by the factory owner.Higher energy consumption. Furthermore, when reflection of signals occur, network designers may optimize the signal beam by changing its weight via techniques such as adaptive beamforming or relaying, to increase the capacity. However, such designs will cost the network huge amounts of energy consumption, which causes environmental problems. Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) are reconfigurable sheets of electromagnetic material that intentionally control the propagation environment in order to enhance the signal quality at the receiver, as can be found described in Q. Wu and R. Zhang, "Beamforming Optimization for Intelligent Reflecting Surface with Discrete Phase Shifts," ICASSP 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Brighton, United Kingdom, 2019 and J. Zhao, Y. Liu, "A Survey of Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces (IRSs): Towards 6G Wireless Communication Networks". RIS elements having own impinging power which can be split and reflected to the elements over the next layer are described in Jinghe Wang et al., "Interplay between RIS and AI in Wireless Communications: Fundamentals, Architectures, Applications, and Open Research Problems",arXiv.org SUMMARY An object of the invention is to enable improved communication between a base station and at least a UE. To achieve the object, according to a first aspect, there is provided a device for enabling a communication between a Base Station (BS) and one or more User Equipment (UE), the device comprising a first sheet comprising one or more elements for interacting with one or more signals in the form of Electromagnetic waves (EM) a controller circuitry, wherein the controller circuitry comprises a memory and a processor, the memory comprising instructions which when executed by the processor cause the device to: receive from the BS, a first message comprising a first configuration information for the device; obtain a second configuration information for the device based on at least the first configuration information and a first power division factor; configure the first sheet based on the second configuration information to divide the energy propagated by an incident signal in the for