Method and Apparatus for Overlaying City-Scale IOT Control Signals Over LTE Cellular Networks

Infrastructure-free IoT deployment based on existing LTE base-stations

Institute Reference: INV-18024

Background

A city-scale communication system for broadcasting control signals is disclosed based on overlaying information for sensors over existing standards compliant LTE signals without any hardware modifications to existing cellular infrastructure.

Technology Overview

This invention introduces a novel encoding scheme that changes the spatial positioning of Almost Blank Subframes (ABS) within a standard LTE frame to convey control information. This allows any number of ABS settings to be chosen by the LTE eNB and accordingly adjusts the encoding of control messages at maximum possible transmission rates. Additionally, a session management protocol is disclosed to maintain contextual information of the control signaling. This allows the system to handle situations where the control message may span multiple frames, or when the LTE operator temporarily reduces the number of ABS. On the other hand, the IoT receivers, such as sensors, Internet of Things (IoT) enabled appliances, and mobile/wearable equipment that is coupled with this wake-up module may decode the overlaid control information within the LTE bands. The module itself is composed of an adaptive decoder and an RF energy harvester circuit with high sensitivity. Error detection and correction mechanism are introduced to counter channel and fading errors are incorporated.

Benefits

- Integrates city-scale control signals over cellular communications

- Provides infrastructure-free IoT deployment, with the only operational cost being that of installing and maintaining the physical sensors; leverages existing LTE base-stations

- It provides the ability to deploy sensors at scale, in the order of thousands of devices spread across the city

- The simple design of the sensor hardware (even without an LTE modem)

- Efficient city-scale wake-up and signaling mechanisms to ensure on-demand energy consumption

- No impact on spectrum utilization and interference overheads

- Adaptively set control signal parameters including encoding rate based on real-time changes in LTE operators' choices and available resources

Applications

- City-scale emergency response

- Smart transportation

- Environmental monitoring

- Factory/Inventory management

- Security

- Smart home