Energy harvesting arrival aware joint sensing and transmission

A method comprising:

• monitoring a current charge level of a rechargeable energy storage device of a terminal device and a current energy harvesting state of an energy harvesting device of the terminal device;
• upon the current energy harvesting state corresponding to a first energy harvesting state indicative of energy being harvested to the rechargeable energy storage or upon the current energy harvesting state corresponding to a second energy harvesting state indicative of no energy being harvested to the rechargeable energy storage device and the current charge level is higher than a first threshold, causing the terminal device to operate in a first operating mode comprising at least functions of:
• receiving downlink data from an access node, performing one or more non-communication actions and transmitting uplink data to said access node, wherein the performing of the one or more non-communication actions comprises at least performing sensing using at least one sensor of the terminal device;
• upon the current energy harvesting state corresponding to the second energy harvesting state and the current charge level is equal to or lower than the first threshold but higher than a second threshold, causing the terminal device to operate in a second operating mode, wherein the second operating mode corresponds to the first operating mode with uplink data transmission disabled;
• and
• upon the current energy harvesting state corresponding to the second energy harvesting state and the current charge level is equal to or lower than the second threshold, causing the terminal device to operate in a third operating mode, wherein the third operating mode corresponds to the second operating mode with downlink data reception disabled.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer program instructions, the computer program instructions, when executed by an apparatus, causing the apparatus to perform at least the following:

• monitoring a current charge level of a rechargeable energy storage device of a terminal device and a current energy harvesting state of an energy harvesting device of the terminal device;
• upon the current energy harvesting state corresponding to a first energy harvesting state indicative of energy being harvested to the rechargeable energy storage or upon the current energy harvesting state corresponding to a second energy harvesting state indicative of no energy being harvested to the rechargeable energy storage device and the current charge level is higher than a first threshold, causing the terminal device to operate in a first operating mode comprising at least functions of:
• receiving downlink data from an access node, performing one or more non-communication actions and transmitting uplink data to said access node, wherein the performing of the one or more non-communication actions comprises at least performing sensing using at least one sensor of the terminal device;
• upon the current energy harvesting state corresponding to the second energy harvesting state and the current charge level is equal to or lower than the first threshold but higher than a second threshold, causing the terminal device to operate in a second operating mode, wherein the second operating mode corresponds to the first operating mode with uplink data transmission disabled;
• and
• upon the current energy harvesting state corresponding to the second energy harvesting state and the current charge level is equal to or lower than the second threshold, causing the terminal device to operate in a third operating mode, wherein the third operating mode corresponds to the second operating mode with downlink data reception disabled.