Abstract: A product tagging system is provided. The product tagging system includes at least one RF backscatter transmitter configured to emit a Radio Frequency (RF) signal on a frequency. The product tagging system further includes a passive RF backscatter tag associated with a product and configured to reflect and frequency shift the RF signal to a different frequency. The product tagging system also includes at least one RF backscatter receiver configured to read the product on the different frequency by detecting a distributed ambient backscatter signal generated by a reflection and frequency shifting of the RF signal by the passive RF backscatter tag.

Abstract: An in-store interaction and location system is provided. At least one RF backscatter transmitter, hosted on a device, is configured to emit a RF signal on a frequency. A set of passive RF backscatter tags, each associated with a respective one of a plurality of products in a given store area, is configured to reflect and frequency shift the RF signal to a different frequency. At least one RF backscatter receiver, hosted on another device, is configured to read the plurality of products on the different frequency by detecting a distributed ambient backscatter signal generated by a reflection and frequency shifting of the RF signal by the passive RF backscatter tag. At least one of the device and the other device is configured to maintain an inventory and a location of the plurality of products in the given store area and provide the inventory and location to a user device.

Abstract: A navigation assistance system is provided. At least one RF backscatter transmitter, hosted on a device, is configured to emit a RF signal on a frequency. A set of passive RF backscatter tags, each associated with a respective one of a plurality of navigation markers in a given venue, is configured to reflect the RF signal and frequency shift the RF signal to a different frequency. At least one RF backscatter receiver is configured to read the navigation markers on the different frequency by detecting a distributed ambient backscatter signal generated by a reflection and frequency shifting of the RF signal by the passive RF backscatter tag. At least one of the device hosting the at least one RF backscatter transmitter and the other device hosting the at least one RF backscatter receiver is configured to maintain an inventory of locations of the navigation markers in the given venue.

Abstract: An in-home inventory and location system is provided. At least one RF backscatter transmitter, hosted on a device, is configured to emit a RF signal on a frequency. A set of passive RF backscatter tags, each associated with a respective one of a plurality of products in a given area, is configured to reflect and frequency shift the RF signal to a different frequency. At least one RF backscatter receiver, hosted on another device, is configured to read the products on the different frequency by detecting a distributed ambient backscatter signal generated by a reflection and frequency shifting of the RF signal by the passive RF backscatter tag. At least one of the device hosting the at least one RF backscatter transmitter and the other device hosting the at least one RF backscatter receiver is configured to maintain an inventory and location of the products in the given area.

Abstract: Systems and methods for localizing and tracking mobile objects are provided. A method includes determining an initial location of a node in a multi-hop network based on multi-lateration from an unmanned aerial vehicle. The method also includes applying an adaptive aperture to address a non-uniform velocity of the node based on the turn and a velocity vector. A determination whether localization for the node can be implemented using first hop nodes in the multi-hop network is made. In response to a determination that localization cannot be implemented using the first hop nodes, inertial sensor measurements associated with the node are accessed and the inertial sensor measurements are integrated with the adaptive aperture to improve localization accuracy.

Abstract: A product tagging system is provided. The product tagging system includes at least one RF backscatter transmitter configured to emit (i) a main carrier RF signal, and (ii) Radio Frequency (RF) signals on two frequencies whose summation forms a twin carrier RF signal. The product tagging system further includes a passive RF backscatter tag associated with a product and configured to reflect and frequency shift the main carrier RF signal to a different frequency using the twin carrier RF signal. The product tagging system also includes at least one RF backscatter receiver configured to read the product on the different frequency by detecting a distributed ambient backscatter signal generated by a reflection and frequency shifting of the main carrier RF signal by the passive RF backscatter tag.

Abstract: In a wireless communications system including a first transmission point and a second transmission point, a wireless communications method implemented in the first transmission point supporting coordinated multi-point transmission and reception (CoMP) is disclosed. The wireless communications method comprises transmitting to the second transmission point one or more CoMP hypothesis sets, and transmitting to the second transmission point a benefit metric corresponding to each CoMP hypothesis set, wherein the benefit metric can be a negative value. Other methods, systems, and apparatuses also are disclosed.

Abstract: A system is provided for speculative scheduling that includes a base station having a processor. The processor computes an overall schedule for a set of clients. The overall schedule is formed from a set of speculative schedules, is configured to maximize unlicensed spectrum usage, and is computed by (a) determining a speculative schedule for each resource block from a set of resource blocks in a given sub-frame based on statistics determined for the clients individually and jointly, and (b) selecting, for formation into the overall schedule, (i) a particular resource block and (ii) the speculative schedule for the particular resource block, that yield the maximum incremental utility relative to already determined speculative schedules for other resource blocks in the set, based on criteria including uplink access statistics. The processor executes the overall schedule responsive to a completion of the speculative schedule determination for each resource block in the given sub-frame.

Abstract: A method implemented in wireless communication systems for finding a topology of a network of communication nodes is presented. The method includes defining a set of the communication nodes as measurement nodes that identify if a channel is available or occupied at a particular time, determining, via a central controller that has access to measurements of at least one measurement node of the measurement nodes, a probability of availability or occupancy of the channel for the at least one measurement node and determining a joint probability of availability or occupancy of the channel for multiple measurement nodes for which a measurement is available, and computing, via a central decision device, the network topology from the determined probabilities.

Abstract: An in-store interaction and location system is provided. At least one RF backscatter transmitter, hosted on a device, is configured to emit a RF signal on a frequency. A set of passive RF backscatter tags, each associated with a respective one of a plurality of products in a given store area, is configured to reflect and frequency shift the RF signal to a different frequency. At least one RF backscatter receiver, hosted on another device, is configured to read the plurality of products on the different frequency by detecting a distributed ambient backscatter signal generated by a reflection and frequency shifting of the RF signal by the passive RF backscatter tag. At least one of the device and the other device is configured to maintain an inventory and a location of the plurality of products in the given store area and provide the inventory and location to a user device.

Abstract: A navigation assistance system is provided. At least one RF backscatter transmitter, hosted on a device, is configured to emit a RF signal on a frequency. A set of passive RF backscatter tags, each associated with a respective one of a plurality of navigation markers in a given venue, is configured to reflect the RF signal and frequency shift the RF signal to a different frequency. At least one RF backscatter receiver is configured to read the navigation markers on the different frequency by detecting a distributed ambient backscatter signal generated by a reflection and frequency shifting of the RF signal by the passive RF backscatter tag. At least one of the device hosting the at least one RF backscatter transmitter and the other device hosting the at least one RF backscatter receiver is configured to maintain an inventory of locations of the navigation markers in the given venue.

Abstract: An in-home inventory and location system is provided. At least one RF backscatter transmitter, hosted on a device, is configured to emit a RF signal on a frequency. A set of passive RF backscatter tags, each associated with a respective one of a plurality of products in a given area, is configured to reflect and frequency shift the RF signal to a different frequency. At least one RF backscatter receiver, hosted on another device, is configured to read the products on the different frequency by detecting a distributed ambient backscatter signal generated by a reflection and frequency shifting of the RF signal by the passive RF backscatter tag. At least one of the device hosting the at least one RF backscatter transmitter and the other device hosting the at least one RF backscatter receiver is configured to maintain an inventory and location of the products in the given area.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method executed on a processor for employing an epoch-based approach to estimating interference in an unlicensed spectrum is presented. The method includes enabling communication between a long-term evolution (LTE) evolved node B (eNodeB) and a plurality of clients, detecting and measuring the interference in all existing non-overlapping channels, via the LTE eNodeB, caused by one or more hidden clients of the plurality of clients, collecting interference statistics from all of the plurality of clients across all different channels, and leveraging interference-awareness resulting in channel access performance improvement at a macro-time scale and a micro-time scale.

Abstract: A system for implementing a wireless communication network is provided. The system includes a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) forming a wireless multi-hop mesh network constituting a backhaul. A given one of the UAVs includes a radio access network (RAN) agent configured to determine at least one UAV configuration for optimized coverage of one or more user equipment (UE) devices in a terrestrial zone, a haul agent configured to coordinate an optimization of the backhaul based at least in part on the at least one UAV configuration determined by the RAN agent, and a core agent configured to implement a distributed core architecture among the plurality of UAVs. The system further includes a controller configured to control the plurality of UAVs based on information received from at least one of the agents.

Abstract: A product tagging system is provided. The product tagging system includes at least one RF backscatter transmitter configured to emit a Radio Frequency (RF) signal on a frequency. The product tagging system further includes a passive RF backscatter tag associated with a product and configured to reflect and frequency shift the RF signal to a different frequency. The product tagging system also includes at least one RF backscatter receiver configured to read the product on the different frequency by detecting a distributed ambient backscatter signal generated by a reflection and frequency shifting of the RF signal by the passive RF backscatter tag.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method, system, and computer program product are provided for positioning an unmanned autonomous vehicle (UAV) in a long term evolution radio access network. The method includes acquiring, by a processor-device, a position of the UAV with a global position system. The method also includes determining, by the processor-device, physical distances from the UAV to each of a plurality of user equipment (UE) responsive to a time-of-flight from the UAV to each of the plurality of UE. The method additionally includes generating, by the processor-device, radio environment maps for each of the plurality of UE with signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) from each of the plurality of UEs to the UAV. The method further includes selecting, by the processor-device, a determined position for the UAV as a position with a minimum SNR in the REMs. The method also includes commanding the UAV to move to the determined position.

Abstract: Systems and a method are provided for use with a shopping cart in a store. A system includes Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, including item RFID tags associated with items for sale and reference RFID tags associated with various aisles in the store, for providing RFID data. The system further includes a RFID reader, operatively coupled to the shopping cart, and configured to the read RFID data from the item RFID tags and the reference RFID tags, extract features from the RFID data, identify any of the items having feature values associated therewith greater than a threshold amount as inside-cart items to be processed during an automatic checkout, and perform the automatic checkout on only the inside-cart items.

Abstract: A system for implementing a distributed core architecture of a wireless communication network is provided. The system includes a plurality of devices configured to communicate with one or more UE devices to implement the wireless communication network. A given one of the plurality of devices includes at least one processor operatively coupled to a memory and a core agent implemented by the at least one processor. The core agent includes a controller for controlling functionality of the device, a switch operatively coupled to the controller, a precomputed policy data store for storing precomputed policies associated with at least security and service, mobility and policy applications, and a set of core applications including an inter-agent communication application for communicating with other core agents associated with other devices of the wireless communication network, and a control application for controlling the device.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for blue-printing interference for mobile access in an unlicensed spectrum of a synchronous scheduled cellular access system. The system includes a cellular base station having a processor. The processor constructs and executes an intelligent measurement schedule of clients for uplink transmissions to obtain access measurements for the uplink transmissions. The intelligent measurement schedule is constructed for scalable access measurement overhead. The access measurements indicate interference dependencies between the clients. The processor estimates an interference topology and statistics of the interference topology, from the access measurements to form an interference blueprint. The processor adjusts the intelligent measurement schedule to overschedule the clients for the uplink transmissions to reduce spectrum utilization loss while minimizing client transmission collisions, based on the interference blueprint.

Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe a battery-free touch sensing user interface (UI) for Internet of Things (IoT) and other smart spaces employing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers and tags that we call RIO. With RIO, any surface may be a touch-aware surface by attaching RFID tag(s) thereto. RIO advantageously supports custom-designed RFID tags and therefore facilitates customized UIs to be easily deployed in a real-world environment. RIO employs impedance tracking that results from a human finger—or other appendage—touching a surface of an RFID tag, thereby changing a characteristic impedance of the RFID tag antenna. This change manifests as a change in the phase of the RFID backscattered signal and is advantageously used by RIO to track fine-grained touch movement over the RFID tag. Disclosed further are multi-tag environments in which RIO operates and demonstrations including continuous tracking of finger movement during a swipe to within 3 mm of its actual position.