Measurement report for joint communication and sensing

Abstract

A sensing measurement employing sensing signals multiplexed with communication signaling of a cellular network is configured. Measurement reports are communicated. A reporting scheme may be configured. Measurement reports can include full information of a radio channel of sensing signals employed by the sensing measurement. Measurement reports may include a Channel Impulse Response, CIR, matrix. Measurement reports may also include object-related sensing information based on the obtained radio channel information by the sensing measurement.

Description

[0001] D E S C R I P T I O N

[0002] MEASUREMENT REPORT FOR JOINT COMMUNICATION AND SENSING

[0003] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0004] Various examples of the disclosure generally pertain to joint communication and sensing. Various examples specifically pertain to measurement reports of sensing measurements.

[0005] BACKGROUND

[0006] WO 2023 / 121522 A1 discloses Joint Communication and Sensing (JCAS) combining wireless communication and sensing. A delay characteristic and / or a measurement report may represent and / or indicate at least one of a mean delay and / or delay spread and / or delay distribution and / or delay spread distribution and / or delay spread range and / or relative delay spread and / or energy or power distribution and / or impulse response to received signaling. A distribution may be a distribution over time / delay, e.g., receive power and / or energy of a signal. The kind of information represented by a measurement report may be predefined or be configured or configurable, e.g., with a measurement configuration and / or reference signaling configuration, in particular with higher layer signaling such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) or Medium Access Control (MAC) signaling.

[0007] Such prior art techniques face certain restrictions and drawbacks. For instance, it has been found that accurate determination of number of physical objects, a position or velocity of multiple physical objects in the surrounding is difficult based on such measurement report. Furthermore, JCAS is expected to be integrated in cellular network infrastructure, involving various nodes (i.e. , not only terminal and base-station). The considered higher layer signaling can be beyond RRC or MAC signaling in order to provide an efficient operation of JCAS in a cellular network infrastructure for beyond 5G system.

[0008] SUMMARY

[0009] Accordingly, advanced techniques of joint communication and sensing are required. This need is met by the features of the independent claims. The features of the dependent claims define embodiments.

[0010] A method for use in a node of a cellular network is disclosed. The method includes providing information to each of one or more radio nodes. The one or more radio nodes are connected to the cellular network. The information is indicative of a configuration of a sensing measurement. The sensing measurement employs sensing signals. The sensing signals are for sensing one or more passive objects. The one or more passive objects are in a surrounding of the one or more radio nodes. The sensing signals are multiplexed with communication signaling of the cellular network. The method also includes obtaining one or more measurement reports of the sensing measurement. The one or more measurement reports are obtained from at least one of the one or more radio nodes. For example, at least one of the one or more measurement reports may include one or more observables for each of one or more multipath components of a radio channel of the sensing signals. Different ones of the multiple multipath components may be associated with different ones of the one or more passive objects.

[0011] A node of a cellular network is disclosed. The node includes computer circuitry, e.g., a processor and memory. The computer circuitry is configured to perform a method. The method includes providing information to each of one or more radio nodes. The one or more radio nodes are connected to the cellular network. The information is indicative of a configuration of a sensing measurement. The sensing measurement employs sensing signals. The sensing signals are for sensing one or more passive objects. The one or more passive objects are in a surrounding of the one or more radio nodes. The sensing signals are multiplexed with communication signaling of the cellular network. The method also includes obtaining one or more measurement reports of the sensing measurement. The one or more measurement reports are obtained from at least one of the one or more radio nodes.

[0012] A method for use in a radio node is disclosed. The radio node participates in a sensing measurement. The sensing measurement employs sensing signals. The sensing signals are multiplexed with communication signaling of a cellular network. The radio node may be connected to the cellular network. The method includes obtaining information indicative of a configuration of the sensing measurement. The information is obtained from a node of the cellular network. The method also includes participating in the sensing measurement. The method also includes providing one or more measurement reports of the sensing measurement, e.g., to the node. At least one of the one or more measurement reports may include one or more observables for each of one or more multipath components of a radio channel of the sensing signals.

[0013] A radio node disclosed. The radio node is configured for participating in a sensing measurement. The sensing measurement employs sensing signals. The sensing signals are multiplexed with communication signaling of a cellular network. The radio node includes compute circuitry. The compute circuitry is configured to perform a method. The method includes providing information to each of one or more radio nodes. The one or more radio nodes are connected to the cellular network. The information is indicative of a configuration of a sensing measurement. The sensing measurement employs sensing signals. The sensing signals are for sensing one or more passive objects. The one or more passive objects are in a surrounding of the one or more radio nodes. The sensing signals are multiplexed with communication signaling of the cellular network. The method also includes obtaining one or more measurement reports of the sensing measurement. The one or more measurement reports are obtained from at least one of the one or more radio nodes.

[0014] It is to be understood that the features mentioned above and those yet to be explained below may be used not only in the respective combinations indicated, but also in other combinations or in isolation without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0015] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a mono-static sensing topology of a sensing measurement according to various examples.

[0016] FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a bi-static sensing topology of a sensing measurement according to various examples.

[0017] FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a multi-static sensing topology of a sensing measurement according to various examples.

[0018] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method according to various examples.

[0019] FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a channel response matrix according to various examples.

[0020] FIG. 6 schematically illustrates a system for JCAS according to various examples.

[0021] FIG. 7 is a signaling diagram according to various examples.

[0022] FIG. 8 schematically illustrates an apparatus according to various examples.

[0023] FIG. 9 schematically illustrates a JCAS use case according to various examples. FIG. 10 schematically illustrates a JCAS use case according to various examples. FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a method according to various examples.

[0024] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] Some examples of the present disclosure generally provide for a plurality of circuits or other electrical devices. All references to the circuits and other electrical devices and the functionality provided by each are not intended to be limited to encompassing only what is illustrated and described herein. While particular labels may be assigned to the various circuits or other electrical devices disclosed, such labels are not intended to limit the scope of operation for the circuits and the other electrical devices. Such circuits and other electrical devices may be combined with each other and / or separated in any manner based on the particular type of electrical implementation that is desired. It is recognized that any circuit or other electrical device disclosed herein may include any number of microcontrollers, a graphics processor unit (GPU), integrated circuits, memory devices (e.g., FLASH, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), or other suitable variants thereof), and software which co-act with one another to perform operation(s) disclosed herein. In addition, any one or more of the electrical devices may be configured to execute a program code that is embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium programmed to perform any number of the functions as disclosed.

[0026] In the following, embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the following description of embodiments is not to be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the invention is not intended to be limited by the embodiments described hereinafter or by the drawings, which are taken to be illustrative only.

[0027] The drawings are to be regarded as being schematic representations and elements illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily shown to scale. Rather, the various elements are represented such that their function and general purpose become apparent to a person skilled in the art. Any connection or coupling between functional blocks, devices, components, or other physical or functional units shown in the drawings or described herein may also be implemented by an indirect connection or coupling. A coupling between components may also be established over a wireless connection. Functional blocks may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof.

[0028] Hereinafter, aspects related to JCAS are disclosed. JCAS corresponds to a communication system that additionally offers sensing functionality. JCAS communication systems re-use hardware for sensing, thereby saving resources if compared to a reference scenario in which two separate systems are used.

[0029] While positioning refers to the estimation of the position of (active) radio nodes connected to the cellular network, e.g., wireless terminals (UEs), sensing, on the other hand, enables to additionally sense passive objects in a surrounding of radio nodes connected to the cellular network. A passive object does not actively transmit or receive the sensing signals. Sensing signals are reflected or scattered at the passive objects. Sensing includes a transmission of a sensing signal or a set of sensing signals and processing these sensing signals to extract sensing information.

[0030] A sensing signal may be a chirped signal, i.e. , incorporating a frequency sweep over a certain allocated bandwidth. A sensing signal may be an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing signal. A sensing signal may be Code Division Multiplexed. A base signal is sinusoidal, but a spreading code is applied. The spreading code includes a sequence of chips (e.g., +1, -1 , -1, +1 , +1, -1 , ...). For instance, aperiodic or random or pseudo-random sequence of chips can be used. The sequence of chips is then mapped to phase values which stay constant during the chirp duration. The sensing signal that has a bandwidth that is proportional to the inverse of the chirp duration. By choosing orthogonal spreading sequences, code division multiplex (CDM) of multiple sensing signals can be achieved. Thereby, a receiver radio node (RX radio node) receiving the sensing signals can separate respective information. A sensing signal can be associated to a certain frequency range. A ensing signal in frequency range 1 and / or frequency range 2 can be multiplexed using OFDM. A sensing signal may be in a different form if it is operated in sub Terra Hertz frequencies in which non-OFDM is expected to be deployed.

[0031] The sensing measurements of joint communication and sensing employ sensing signals that are multiplexed with communication signaling of the cellular network. For instance, time multiplexing and / or frequency multiplexing can be used. It would be possible that time-frequency resources are centrally allocated by a scheduler that schedules communication signaling as well to the sensing signals. For instance, a time-frequency resource grid of a wireless link may include multiple resource elements and these resource elements may be allocated either to communication signaling or sensing signals of the sensing measurement by the scheduler. For instance, such scheduler may reside at a base station of a radio-access network of the cellular network. By multiplexing these sensing signals with the communication signaling of the cellular network, interference between the communication signaling and the sensing measurement can be mitigated. Furthermore, the sensing signals and communication signaling may be both transmitted and received by the same hardware. Sensing can be used to support various use cases, such as object detection (presence), object tracking, object mapping, object positioning, object ranging, object counting, etc.

[0032] JCAS can employ various sensing topologies. Among varies topologies, three commonly discussed configurations are mono-static, bi-static and multi-static sensing. FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a mono-static sensing topology. A UE implements, both, a transmitter radio node 121 (Tx radio node) transmitting sensing signals 191; as well as a RX radio node 122 detecting echoes of the sensing signals 192 reflected at a physical passive object 130 in the surrounding. For instance, the UE may use the same antenna panel for transmitting the sensing signals 191 and for receiving the echoes of the sensing signals 192. FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a bi-static sensing topology. Here, a base station (BS) implements the TX radio node 121 and a UE implements the RX radio node 122. In another example, a UE implements the TX radio node and a BS implements the RX radio node. More generally, in a bi-static sensing topology, two different radio nodes participate in and cooperate to implement the sensing measurement. FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a joint mono-static and bi-static sensing topology. This topology can be seen as a combination of the mono-static sensing topology of FIG. 1 and the bi-static sensing topology of FIG. 2. In FIG. 3, the BS implements, both, a TX radio node 121 as well as a RX radio node 122, i.e. , a TX / RX radio node 123. The UE implements a RX radio node 122. Multiple echoes of the sensing signals 192, 193 are detected.

[0033] There are further sensing topologies, beyond those illustrated in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG. 3. For example, in a multi-static sensing topology, more than two different radio nodes participate in and cooperate to implement the sensing measurement. For instance, multiple UEs can participate in the sensing measurement. The RX radio node is different than the TX radio node. In another example, multiple BSs act as TX radio nodes and a UE acts as RX radio node, participating in sensing measurement by receiving the sensing signals from multiple BSs.

[0034] Using a sensing measurement based on a sensing signal, it is possible to determine object-related information for a passive object such as the object 130. This is done by investigating multiple multipath components of the radio channel. The multipath components stem from radio signals reaching the RX radio node through various spatial paths due to reflections, diffraction, and scattering caused by the objects (obstacles) in the environment, such as buildings, trees, terrain, vehicles, persons, etc.. Each spatial path is associated with a respective distance between TX radio node and RX radio node; typically, those distances are different for different spatial paths and thus a given sensing signal (or, more precisely, multiple echoes of the sensing signal) arrives at the RX radio node at slightly different times for the different multipath components. This temporal spread, known as delay spread, leads to each multipath component having its own delay, amplitude or power, angle-of-arrival, angle-of-departure, and phase shift. Also, different Doppler characteristics (e.g., Doppler shifts) can be observed for moving objects. For example, the first spatial path may be a line- of-sight path or, at least, a path within minimum distance of the electromagnetic waves between the TX radio node and the RX radio node. The first spatial path may have higher amplitude or power of the electromagnetic waves at the RX node if compared to higher-order spatial paths, e.g., the second or third spatial paths. Higher order spatial paths are typically associated with reflections at physical objects.

[0035] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method according to various examples. FIG. 4 generally relates to implementation of a sensing measurement. FIG. 4 specifically relates to the management of a sensing measurement executed by one or more radio nodes.

[0036] FIG. 4 can be executed by a node of a cellular network. For example, FIG. 4 can be executed by a compute circuitry of the node of the cellular network. For instance, FIG. 4 can be executed by a processor upon loading and executing program code that is stored in a memory. For example, the method of FIG. 4 may be executed by a node that is located in a core network of the cellular network. The node may be a management node, i.e. , execute a management function for managing a plurality of sensing measurements at multiple radio nodes. For instance, such node may be labeled Sensing Management Function. The Sensing Management Function (SeMF) can implement collection of measurement reports, processing of measurement reports, e.g., for localization, and / or control / coordination amongst various radio nodes executing sensing measurements. In another example, SeMF can be a new function of the legacy location management function (LMF) as in 5G core network.

[0037] At box 905, the node obtains information indicative of a capability of one or more radio nodes, e.g., one or more UEs and / or one or more BSs.

[0038] The capability is associated with performing sensing measurements and / or reporting thereof. For instance, box 905 can include receiving a higher-layer control message such as sensing-protocol message, or a positioning protocol message (e.g., Third Generation Partnership, 3GPP, Long Term Evolution, LTE, Positioning Protocol, LPP, message or a message having a format related to the LPP message format).

[0039] The capability can be indicative of whether the respective radio node is capable of executing a sensing measurement, e.g., using a certain topology. The capability can be indicative of whether the respective radio node is capable of using a certain type of sensing signal, e.g., a chirped signal or a CDM signal. The capability can be indicative of whether the respective radio node is capable of performing a certain type of sensing measurement technique. Alternatively or additionally, the capability can be indicative of whether the respective radio node is capable of supporting a certain reporting procedure for reporting on a sensing measurement. For instance, the capability can be indicative of whether the respective radio node can provide a measurement report that includes certain information.

[0040] At box 910, the sensing management function provides information indicative of a configuration of the sensing measurement to each of one or more radio nodes.

[0041] For instance, box 910 can be responsive to obtaining the information indicative of the capability at box 905.

[0042] It would be possible that box 910 is responsive to a respective sensing request obtained from an application. For instance, the application may implement an object counting, object tracking or object positioning use case. The application can then request execution of a respective sensing measurement; this can trigger providing the configuration to the one or more radio nodes.

[0043] Box 910 can include providing at least one configuration message to one or more radio nodes participating in the sensing measurement, the configuration message comprising information indicative of a configuration of the sensing measurement. It would be possible to employ an end-to-end protocol for providing the at least one configuration message, the end- to-end protocol terminating at the node and the respective radio node or radio nodes. For instance, if a mono-static sensing measurement is to be executed, it can be sufficient to provide the configuration message to the single radio node executing the mono-static sensing measurement (cf. FIG. 1). On the other hand, for another sensing topology is used, a single configuration message can be provided to multiple radio nodes or multiple configuration messages can be provided to each of multiple radio nodes. The configuration message provided at box 910 can be a higher-layer control message, e.g., a Layer 2 or Layer 3 control message, or higher than layer 3, in a form of dedicated sensing protocol message or LPP-like protocol message. For instance, a configuration message can be provided to a TX radio node and / or a configuration message can be provided to an RX radio node, e.g., in a bi-static or multi-static sensing topology.

[0044] The configuration can select between different sensing topologies. For example, the configuration message or the configuration messages can be indicative of a selected one of mono-static sensing topology (cf. FIG. 1), bi-static sensing topology (cf. FIG. 2), joint monostatic and bi-static topology (cf. FIG. 3), and multi-static sensing topology.

[0045] It would be possible that the configuration determines a frequency bandwidth of a transmission of a sensing signal. For instance, it would be possible to specify a number of subcarriers that are to be employed for transmitting the sensing signal. Alternatively or additionally, it would be possible to indicate one or more bandwidth parts that are to be used for transmitting the sensing signal.

[0046] It would be possible that the configuration is indicative of resources - e.g., timing information and / or timeslots and / or frequency resources and / or time-frequency resources such as resource blocks or resource elements - to be used for transmitting the sensing signals.

[0047] As a general rule, the configuration can be determined in accordance with the capabilities of the one or more radio nodes (cf. box 905). For instance, certain radio nodes may have limited reporting capability and, accordingly, may be associated with a respective reporting procedure that takes into account the limited reporting capability. To give an example, certain radio nodes may not be able to process measurement data associated with the sensing measurement to determine object-related sensing information - e.g., a location of a passive object in a surrounding - and, accordingly, cannot be configured to provide a measurement report that is indicative of such preprocessed object-related sensing information. Furthermore, by dynamically configuring different reporting procedures, it is possible to take into account different sensing constraints. For instance, a certain application may request the sensing measurement and indicate an acceptable latency or accuracy. Then, more relaxed or more strict reporting rules can be specified as part of the reporting procedure, e.g., specifying a timing or repetition of the reporting.

[0048] The configuration may configure one or more reporting procedures at the one or more radio nodes. The one or more reporting procedures define how the one or more radio nodes provide one or more measurement reports for the sensing measurement. Different sensing measurements can be associated with different reporting procedures. Different radio nodes can be associated with different reporting procedures.

[0049] The one or more reporting procedures can include at least one reporting schedule. As a general rule, the reporting schedule can define periodic reports or aperiodic reports. Aperiodic reports could be one or more of the following: event-triggered reports or change- triggered reports.

[0050] Periodic reporting can be associated with repetitive resources allocated to measurement reports provided by the one or more radio nodes participating in the sensing measurement. For instance, a certain repetitive schedule, e.g., cyclic or periodic schedule, can be defined for providing the reports. A latency of the sensing measurement is limited by the frequency of occurrence of such periodic reports.

[0051] Aperiodic reporting can be provided upon detecting a significant change in one or more observables associated with one or more multipath components of the radio channel. For instance, it would be possible to track, at each of at least one of the one or more radio nodes, a development of the radio channel and responsive to detecting significant changes, a respective measurement report can be provided. Also, it would be possible that measurement reports are triggered by the cellular network, e.g., by the sensing management function. For instance, trigger signals can be provided to trigger a report. Such trigger signals can be relatively compact and do not need to include the configuration of the reporting procedure.

[0052] There are multiple options available for implementing the at least one configuration message to configure the reporting procedure. For instance, the at least one configuration message may use a predefined mapping between the configuration of the sensing measurement and the one or more reporting procedures. In other words, there can be a predefined mapping that links a certain configuration of the sensing measurement to a certain reporting procedure. For instance, a mono-static sensing measurement may employ a different reporting procedure than a bi-static sensing measurement. The mapping can be fixedly predefined, e.g., in accordance with the standard underlying the cellular network; or may be dynamically preconfigured in another message. For instance, such mapping may be broadcasted.

[0053] As will be appreciated from the above, the configuration of the reporting procedure is flexible and versatile. This enables to switch between different reporting procedures providing different information depth. The reporting can be tailored to the specific use case of the sensing measurement. Certain use cases may require more frequent reporting than other use cases. Certain use cases may require more comprehensive reporting than other use cases. Certain use cases may require higher accuracy than other use cases. At box 915, one or more measurement reports of the sensing measurement are obtained from at least one of the one or more radio nodes participating in the sensing measurement. It would be possible that all RX radio nodes provide a respective measurement report. Measurement reports may also be aggregated amongst all participating radio nodes and then, e.g., the aggregated information may be provided via a reporting hub. Aggregation over time would alternatively or additionally be possible. More than one RX radio nodes can be configured to provide measurement report at a given time and / or within certain time window.

[0054] It would be possible that the one or more measurement reports are transparent to a radio-access network of the cellular network. An end-to-end protocol between the node (e.g., implementing a sensing management function) and the reporting one or more radio nodes may be established. For instance, higher-layer control messages can be signaled on logical links established between each of the one or more radio nodes and the sensing management function. Therefore, other nodes in the radio-access network do not need to process such measurement reports. The measurement reports are transparent to the radioaccess network of the cellular network. For example, it can be in a form of sensing protocol message or LPP-like protocol message.

[0055] The one or measurement reports may include timing information of a transmission or reception of the sensing signal. I.e., time stamps can be provided that are linked to the actual execution of a transmission of a sensing signal. This is, in particular, helpful for dynamic environments with frequently changing properties of passive objects. A time resolution can thereby be increased.

[0056] It would be possible that the one or more measurement reports are indicative of a sensing topology of the sensing measurement. Multiple sensing measurements may be managed in parallel by the node. It would be possible that the multiple sensing measurements are each associated with a unique sensing measurement identity. The one or more measurement reports may be indicative of such sensing measurement identity. The one or more measurement reports can be indicative of an identity of the one or more radio nodes participating in the sensing measurement, i.e., by transmitting the sensing signal and / or by receiving the sensing signal. The one or more measurement reports can be indicative of an identity of a respective radio node providing the respective measurement report.

[0057] At least one of the one or more measurement reports may include one or more observables for each of multiple multipath components of a radio channel of the sensing signals. For instance, a measurement report can include multiple observables for each of multiple multipath components.

[0058] The multiple observables can be one or more of the following: amplitude of the sensing signal at the receiver radio node or receiver radio nodes; phase of the sensing signal at the receiver radio node or receiver radio nodes; power of the sensing signal at the receiver radio node or receiver radio nodes; delay of the sensing signal at the receiver radio node or receiver radio nodes; angle-of arrival of the sensing signal at the receiver radio node or receiver radio nodes; angle-of-departure of the sensing signal at the transmitter radio node or transmitter radio nodes; and / or Doppler frequency shift of the sensing signal at the receiver radio node or receiver radio nodes.

[0059] The at least one measurement report can, accordingly, resolve the multiple multipath components. This means that the at least one measurement report does not only provide information on a single one of the multipath components, e.g., the primary path of the channel providing the lowest propagation delay (often associated with line-of-sight propagation); but rather provides information on multiple paths of the channel. Thus, increased information depth is provided.

[0060] Accordingly, increased information depth may be provided when reporting on multiple observables for multiple multipath components of the radio channel. Full channel information can be provided. This enables accurate post-processing at the node. For instance, complex post-processing algorithms can be executed that detect, locate, or track objects reliably based on such full channel information. The full channel information is particularly helpful when determining object-related sensing information for multiple passive objects in the surrounding of the one or more radio nodes, because typically reflections at different ones of the multiple passive objects are associated with different ones of the multiple multipath components of the radio channel.

[0061] There are multiple options available for implementing the measurement report to be indicative of information associated with multiple ones of the multipath components of the radio channel. In a first example, the measurement report can include object-related sensing information, e.g., a location of one or more passive objects; count of one or more passive objects; velocity of one or more passive objects; size of the one or more passive objects. In a second example (alternatively or additionally to the first example, the one or more measurement reports include a representation of a channel response matrix. The channel response matrix includes multiple dimensions (e.g., two or more dimensions), specifically a first dimension and a second dimension. The first dimension and the second dimension resolve different observables associated with reception of the sensing signal at the RX radio node. One example is shown in FIG. 5.

[0062] FIG. 5 illustrates a channel response matrix 201 that resolves the delay of the sensing signal along its first dimension 211 and the angle-of-arrival along the second dimension 212. For each X and Y position along the first dimension 211 and the second dimension 212, respectively, the value 213 of the signal power of the sensing signal at the RX radio node is provided. As illustrated in FIG. 5, at least two multipath components 820-1, 820-2 of the channel are sampled by the sensing signal and resolved in the channel response matrix, corresponding to the two local maxima I peaks. In the illustrated example of FIG. 5, the channel response matrix is re-presented in time domain; but could be equally represented in frequency domain. The channel response matrix defined in time domain is referred to as Channel Impulse Response (CIR) matrix and the channel response matrix defined in Frequency domain is referred to as Channel Frequency Response (CFR) matrix. The measurement report may include the CIR matrix and / or the CFR matrix. The measurement report may include a full representation of the channel response matrix 201 (e.g., in a 2-D array data structure / 2-D bitmap). I.e., the representation of such matrix 201 can evenly sample the values 213 along at least one of the first dimension 211 and the second dimension 212. The increments in AX and / Y can be fixed. It is not required in all scenarios to signal the entire channel response matrix. For instance, only certain sections of the channel response matrix can be signaled. For instance, it would be possible that the representation is (selectively) indicative of positions of multiple local maximums of values of the channel response matrix along at least one of the first dimension 211 and the second dimension 212. For instance, maximums can be identified based on a threshold comparison against a predefined threshold or based on gradients of the observables (such threshold can be fixedly predefined, e.g., as part of the communication protocol; or may be provided as part of a configuration, e.g., as part of box 910 in FIG. 4). For instance, the XYZ-values could be provided for the two maximums illustrated in FIG. 5. For instance, separate information elements can be provided for each of the different multipath components 820-1 , 820-2. For instance, a path index can be configured, e.g., ID-1 for first path, ID-2 for the second path, and so on.

[0063] The channel response matrix illustrated in FIG. 5 provides full channel information, i.e. , is captures and resolves the entire radio channel between the TX node and the RX node. For instance, the full channel information can be the CIR matrix which refers to the response of a radio channel to an impulse signal which provides information into how a channel attenuates and delays sensing signals. The CIR matrix also describes the multipath propagation which reflects the interaction between propagating sensing signals and the environmental objects. The multipath component in a CIR matrix can be analyzed and the characteristics of environment objects can be inferred (object-related sensing information). Apart from the CIR matrix, the CFR matrix or sub-carrier level Channel State Information (CSI) can also be used as a representation of the channel response matrix. CSI contains both channel amplitude and phase information over different sub carriers which provide even finer channel characteristic. In general, full channel information contains rich information reflecting the background scene and all the objects around Tx radio node and Rx radio node. By accessing full channel information, multiple objects in the surrounding can be resolved. However, the drawback is the large report size which makes transmitting the report over the air becomes impractical.

[0064] Referring again to FIG. 4, at optional box 920, it is possible to process the one or more measurement reports obtained at box 915. The particular processing depends on the information content of the measurement report. For instance, object-related sensing information can be determined based on channel information included in the one or more measurement reports obtained at box 915. For instance, sensing information can be determined for each of one or more passive objects in the surrounding of the one or more radio nodes.

[0065] As a general rule, object-related sensing information that is determined based on the sensing measurements - e.g., at box 920 - can include one or more of the following: location of one or more passive objects in the surrounding of the one or more radio nodes executing the sensing measurement; count of one or more passive objects; velocity of one or more passive objects; size of one or more passive object; and / or change detection of one or more properties of the one or more passive objects. For instance, the location may be expressed in a local coordinate system, e.g., as a distance and / or an orientation with respect to a certain reference landmark, e.g., the TX radio node. The location can, accordingly, be determined using a ranging measurement. It would be possible that the location is expressed in a global coordinate system, e.g., WGS84 and / or latitude and longitude.

[0066] Change detection of one or more properties of the one or more passive objects can pertain to an indication of a change of a value quantifying the respective one or more properties. For instance, the object-related sensing information can be indicative of a significant change of the location. For instance, such significant change in the location can be signaled if the location change exceeds a predefined threshold. Alternatively or additionally, a change detection could pertain to a change in the count of objects. The change detection may - expressed in more general terms - pertain to a magnitude of a time derivative of a physical observable (e.g., velocity, location, etc.) associated with the one or more objects exceeding a certain threshold.

[0067] Such processing of information included in the one or more measurement reports at box 915 can take various forms depending on the information content. For instance, as previously explained, it is possible that at least one of the one or more measurement reports includes full channel information. I.e., the at least one measurement report may result one or more observables for multiple multipath components of the radio channel. For instance, the at least one measurement report may include the CIR or CFR matrix. In such a scenario, box 920 includes a translation of the observed radio channel into object -related sensing information. Due to the significant information depth and the relatively high compute power at the node, complex postprocessing routines can be employed. In particular, if compared to the edge calculations, more complex computations become possible. For instance, it would be possible to employ Kalman tracking the evolution of one or object or more properties of the object-related information, e.g., the position or velocity, over time. Tracking filters may be generally employed to discriminate between different objects. Machine-learning models can be employed, e.g., machine-learning models that take into account a temporal evolution. For instance, recurrent neural networks may be employed. As will be appreciated from the above, by providing a full channel information in the at least one measurement report, more complex analysis can be executed at the node; thereby reducing the uncertainty in the inference.

[0068] However, it is not required that all measurement reports include the full channel information. To reduce the report size, it would be possible to selectively activate a reporting procedure including object-related sensing information (rather than multiple observables of the radio channel for multiple multipath components, e.g., CIR or CFR matrix). In contrast to full channel information, object-related sensing information only reports some characteristics associated with a single / type / group of passive objects. For instance, in the use case of human presence detection the sensing unit may only reports the delay / range and angle information associated with one specific people. Accordingly, it is possible that in a first one of multiple reporting procedures at least one measurement report is provided that includes one or more observables for each of multiple multipath components of the radio channel. For instance, in the first one of the multiple reporting procedures the CIR or CFR matrix may be signaled. In a second one of the multiple reporting procedures at least one measurement report can be provided that includes object -related sensing information obtained by preprocessing such multipath components. For instance, a list of one or more objects may be signaled and a position or velocity of each of the one or more objects may be indicated. Thus, preprocessing translating properties of the radio channel into properties of the one or more objects is executed at a radio node that participates in the sensing measurement. In such a scenario, different pulse processing algorithms can be employed at box 920, or box 920 may be skipped altogether.

[0069] As a general rule, object-related sensing information (either determined at box 920; or indicated by a measurement report obtained at box 915) may include the location of a given passive object with respect to a given radio node participating in the sensing measurement. It would also be possible to determine a position of a passive object in a global coordinate system. This can be based on known locations of the one or more radio nodes. For this, box 920 can further include establishing a location of one or more radio nodes, the sensing information then being determined based on the location of the one or more radio nodes. Different options are available for establishing the location of the one or more radio nodes. For instance, it would be possible that a given one of the one or more radio nodes is registered at the cellular network as belonging to a static radio node type. In such a scenario, the location may be retrieved from a registry that is maintained at the core of the cellular network. In particular, a UE can be specified that may be referred to as Sensing Reference Unit (SRU). The SR-U is configured to transmit and / or receive sensing signals. Such SRU unit can have a fixed and known location in a global coordinate system and can be capable of participating in sensing measurements and reporting thereon. The SRU may be fixedly registered at a sensing management function. Along with this registration, its location may be stored in the registry at the core network. The SRU may be operated and maintained by an operator of the cellular network. On the other hand, it is not required that any or all of the radio nodes participating in the radio measurement are static, i.e. , exhibit zero mobility. For instance, conventional UE such as smart phones etc. may also participate in a sensing measurement. It would be possible to establish the location of a given radio node registered at the cellular network as belonging to a type experiencing mobility based on a respective signaling from a radio-access network of the cellular network. For instance, the radio-access network can employ positioning techniques, e.g., based on positioning reference signals transmitted by one or more BS of the radio-access network in order to determine the location of mobile radio nodes. Also, satellite positioning can be employed.

[0070] At box 925, a use case is executed based on the object-related sensing information. For instance, an application having previously requested the object-related sensing information can be provided with the object-related sensing information.

[0071] FIG. 4 only illustrates an example and variants are possible. For instance, it would be possible that the application executed as part of box 925 is offloaded to an application server. More generally, it would be possible that the object-related sensing information is provided from the node that obtains the sensing measurement report at box 915 to another node, e.g., an application server.

[0072] FIG. 6 illustrates a system 110. The system 110 includes a cellular network 90. The cellular network 90 includes a radio-access network including one more BSs 91 and multiple UEs 92 connected to the cellular network 90 via the radio-access network. The cellular network 90 also includes a node 93 implementing a sensing management function arranged in a core of the cellular network. Coupled to the cellular network is an application server 96, e.g., in the Internet or another data network.

[0073] Illustrated in FIG. 6 is a scenario in which the BS 91 and the UE 92 participate in a sensing measurement. While the specific scenario FIG. 6 corresponds to the topology of FIG. 2, as a general rule, various configurations of sensing measurements are conceivable.

[0074] For instance, the node 93 implementing the sensing management function can configure the BS 91 and / or the UE 92 or, more generally, one or more radio nodes, to participate in a sensing measurement. This can include configuration to transmit sensing signals and / or attempt to receive sensing signals and perform measurement and / or to provide measurement reports associated with the sensing signals. Different radio nodes engaging in the sensing measurement can be configured with specific types of measurement techniques, types of measurement reports or, more generally, specific reporting procedures. The measurement report may depend on the type of the radio node. For instance, mobile radio nodes may be configured with a different reporting procedure if compared to static radio nodes. Radio nodes dedicated to the sensing measurement, i.e. , SR-Us, can be configured with a specific reporting procedure. In this example, BS 91 transmits sensing signals (e.g., Sensing Reference Signal, SeRS) and UE 92 is expected to receive the sensing signals.

[0075] FIG. 7 is a signaling diagram of communication between the node 93 implementing the SeMF, the BS 91 , and the UE 92. FIG. 7 relates to a sensing measurement.

[0076] At 3005, the node 93 provides a request 805 to the UE 92. The node 93 requests the UE 92 to provide its capability associated with sensing measurements, including capability of sensing measurement techniques. For example, some UEs are capable of generating channel information measurement report. Some other advanced UE are additionally capable of generating object-related sensing information measurement report.

[0077] At 3010, the UE 92 provides a message 810 indicative of its capability associated with the sensing measurement. Accordingly, 3005 and 3010 can implement or be part of box 905 of the method discussed in connection with FIG. 4.

[0078] Then, at 3015, the node 93 provides a configuration message 815 to the UE 92 and the BS 91. The configuration message 815 includes information indicative of a configuration of the sensing measurement. Details with respect to such configuration have been previously discussed in connection with FIG. 4, box 910.

[0079] The UE 92 and the BS 91 can be configured differently, by means of different configuration messages. It would also be possible that a single configuration message includes information for all radio nodes participating in the sensing measurement.

[0080] In another example, the BS91 provides a configuration message 815 to the node 93 implementing the SeMF. The node implementing the SeMF may receive the similar message from other BS. SeMF sends all or partial of that configuration message 815 to the UE. The message to the UE can be via one of the BS (e.g., serving BS), and the message to the can be transparent to the BS.

[0081] The configuration message 815 may include measurement request command indicating the UE to initiate the sensing reference signals reception, measurement and / or reporting . In another example, the measurement request can be in separate message (e.g., after configuration message 815). In further example, a UE may be requested to report channel information measurement reports with specific elements (e.g., CIR, CFR, etc). Another UE or the same UE in another occasion may be requested to report object-related sensing information measurement reports.

[0082] In the scenario of FIG. 7, the BS 91 implements the TX radio node 121 and the UE 92 implements the RX radio node 122.

[0083] Then, at 3020, the BS 91 participates in the sensing measurement by transmitting a sensing signal 820.

[0084] The sensing signal 820 is multiplexed (e.g., in time domain and / or frequency domain) with communication signaling of the cellular network (not illustrated in FIG. 7). For instance, a scheduler function implemented by the BSs 91 can allocate time-frequency resources of a time-frequency resource grid to, either, the sensing signal 820 transmitted at 3020;or to communication signaling, e.g., downlink data transmission or uplink data transmission to and from the UE 92 or to and from other UEs.

[0085] In the illustrated scenario FIG. 7, the UE 92 (implementing the RX radio node 122) participates in the sensing measurement by attempting to receive (monitoring for) the sensing signal. Box 3025 can include capturing a CIR or CFR etc., or more generally a channel response matrix (cf. FIG. 5). The UE 92, in particular, collects information for multiple multipath components 820-1 , 820-2 of the radio channel sampled by the sensing signal 820.

[0086] It would be possible that multiple BS participate in the sensing measurement by transmitting a respective sensing signal (not illustrated in FIG. 7). For instance, CDM may be employed to discriminate between the sensing signals transmitted by different ones of multiple BSs.

[0087] Then, at 3030, the UE 92 provides a measurement report 825. Details with respect to the reporting have been previously discussed in connection with box 915. In particular, a reporting procedure in accordance with which the measurement report 825 is provided can be configured by the configuration message 815 or can be predefined. The measurement report 825 can include information on multiple spatial paths of the radio channel. For each of these multipath components 820-1 , 820-2, one or more observables can be provided (e.g., delay, angle-of-arrival etc.). For example, the full CIR or CFR matrices may be reported. The measurement report 825 may also include object- related sensing information.

[0088] As shown by the dashed arrow defining iterations 3031 of box 3025 and 3030: The measurements at box 3025 and the reporting at 3030 can be repeated multiple times, e.g., periodically, aperiodically, or semi-static. Semi-static means the radio node reports the sensing measurement within a snapshot of time with certain timing interval, e.g., typically it is a rapid measurement within an interval. It is not required that each iteration 3031 includes the transmission of a measurement report. For instance, aperiodic, change- or event- triggered reporting is possible. Aggregated measurement reports can be provided. Once there is a significant change in two-consecutive measurement, the UE 92 can report a flag that there is a significant change. This could be useful for presence detection.

[0089] The measurement report 825 can include or be associated with timing information such as a timestamp. The time information can indicate when box 3025 is performed. It can also indicate when the sensing signals arrived at the UE.

[0090] The measurement report 825 can be associated with a specific sensing signal 820. For instance, multiple sensing signals 820 having different identities can be available. For instance, different identities can correspond to a transmission of the sensing signals 820 in certain time and / or frequency resources. Different identities can be associated with different TX radio nodes.

[0091] The measurement report 825 can be associated with a certain sensing topology, e.g., as explained in connection with FIG. 1 , FIG. 2, and FIG. 3. For instance, for different sensing topologies, different measurement reports 825 can be provided, e.g., including different information content, e.g., a full channel report vs. object-related information.

[0092] The measurement report transmitted at 3030 can be associated with a particular radio node that transmits the sensing signal 820, in the present case one of the BSs 91. The measurement report 825 can include information that the measurement is performed based on the sensing signal 820 transmitted by a specific radio node. For instance, the measurement report 825 can include an identity of the particular TX radio node.

[0093] Transmission of the measurement report 825 can be triggered by an event or the completion of box 3025. It would also be possible that a separate trigger signal is provided by the node 93 implementing the sensing management function that requests transmission of the measurement report 825. Such trigger signal can be separate from the configuration message 815. Such trigger signal is not illustrated in FIG. 7.

[0094] The measurement report 825 can be associated with a type of the application requesting the sensing measurement, e.g., presence detection, imaging, tracking, etc. The node 93 implementing the sensing management function can trigger a radio node to perform sensing measurements that is associated with a certain sensing type, by means of the configuration message 815.

[0095] While FIG. 7 illustrates a bi-static sensing topology (cf. FIG. 2), similar techniques may be readily applied to mono-static or multi-static sensing topologies. For instance, for a mono-static sensing topology, it is not required to provide a configuration message 850 to any one of the BSs 91. Signaling can be executed only between the UE 92 and the node 93.

[0096] FIG. 8 schematically illustrates an apparatus 80, e.g., a node or a device. For instance, the apparatus 80 can implement any one of the UE 92, the BS 91 or the node 93 implementing the sensing management function. The apparatus 80 includes a processor 81 and a memory 82. The processor 81 and the memory 82 form a compute circuitry. The apparatus 80 also includes a communication interface 83. The processor 81 can communicate with other apparatuses via the communication interface 83. The processor 81 can load program code from the memory 82 and execute the program code. The processor 81 can perform techniques as disclosed herein upon loading and executing the program code. For instance, the processor 81 can execute the method of FIG. 4.

[0097] FIG. 9 illustrates an example JCAS use case. FIG. 9 pertains to human detection and tracking application. In this scenario, the deployment includes one BS and one SR-U within an office environment which includes multiple people and various environmental objects. Within the office environment, the objectives are to detect the presence of humans and to monitor their locations and / or movement. To this aim, two different sensing links, SeRS1 and SeRS2, are established. SeRS1 is bi-static link, which is initiated from the BS1, reflected off from the human 1 and subsequently received at SR-ll. At the same time, another monostatic link SeRS2 is transmitted and received at SR-ll. Subsequently, SR-ll analyzes both SeRS1 and SeRS2 echoes and extracting the common feature, e.g., the signal components that are originated from the same human so that the presence of a physical object, in this case human, can be estimated. With these two echoes, SR-ll generates two measurement reports (cf. FIG. 7: measurement report 825) and transmits them to the sensing management function. The sensing management function obtains the measurement report (cf. box 915 in FIG. 4) and performs further inference, making determinations regarding the presence of the human, their location and the speed of their movement; i.e., object-related sensing information is determined (cf. box 920 in FIG. 4).

[0098] FIG. 10 illustrates a further example JCAS use case. FIG. 10 pertains to an intersection safety application. In this scenario, the deployment includes two BSs and one SR-ll in an intersection area where there could be plurality of vehicles and pedestrians. To protect the pedestrian’s safety, the presence of fast-moving vehicle is detected and their location in relation to the pedestrian crossing is tracked. By having this information, the application server executing the application (cf. FIG. 4: box 925) can give warning to the pedestrian in time to prevent traffic accident. To achieve this, two bi-static links, SeRS1 and SeRS2, are transmitted simultaneously from BS1 and BS2. Then SR-ll measures the sensing signal reflected from a fast-moving vehicle 1 and report the measurement to sensing management function. Having measurements from SeRS1 and SeRS2 and the absolute geometry coordinates of SR-ll, BS1 and BS2, the sensing management function can compute the location, direction of travel and speed of the vehicle 1 , i.e., calculate object- related sensing information. Furthermore, sensing management function can predict vehicle’s future moving trajectory and warn the pedestrians who may walks into this area.

[0099] As will be appreciated from the above, JCAS can be deployed in various use cases tasked for different measurement. Unlike positioning (which only serve the purpose of positioning a UE), sensing is expected for detection and estimation of both the location information and some characteristics of a random / specific passive environmental object. In a simple application, the characteristic can be an indicator showing whether this object is present in the environment. While in a more sophisticated applications with higher sensing requirement, the object-related sensing information may include one or more of speed, the direction of moving, position, or orientation of the object. The reporting procedures disclosed herein can be set in accordance with the particular application. For instance, different measurement reports, e.g., including different amount of information can be provided depending on the use case. For example, the use case in accordance with FIG. 10 requires frequent measurement reports in order to be able to detect the approaching vehicle that can endanger pedestrians. Differently, the use case illustrated in FIG. 9 may not require such frequent measurement reports, because of the relative static nature of the scene; a higher latency in the reporting may be acceptable.

[0100] FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a method according to various examples. The method of FIG. 11 generally pertains to actions associated with a sensing measurement. FIG. 11 is for use in a radio node participating in a sensing measurement. For instance, FIG. 11 can be executed by a TX radio node or a RX radio node. FIG. 11 can be executed by a processor upon loading and executing program code from a memory. For instance, FIG. 11 can be executed by the processor 81 of the apparatus 80 upon loading and executing program code from the memory 82. FIG. 11 can be executed by a UE such as the UE 92 or can be executed by a BS such as the BS 91.

[0101] The method of FIG. 11 can be inter-related to the method of FIG. 4.

[0102] At box 955, a capability associated with the sensing measurement is provided to a node of a cellular network to which the radio node is connected. For instance, the capability can be indicated to a node implementing sensing management function. Aspects with respect to such signaling of the capability have been previously discussed in connection with FIG. 7: capability message 810; as well as in connection with FIG. 4: box 905.

[0103] At box 960, a configuration of the sensing measurement is obtained. For example, one or more configuration messages may be obtained. Box 960 can be responsive to providing a capability at box 955.

[0104] Aspects with respect to such configuration have been previously discussed in connection with FIG. 7: configuration message 815; as well as in connection with FIG. 4: box 910.

[0105] At box 965, the node participates in the sensing measurement. Participating in the sensing measurement at box 965 may include transmitting one or more sensing signals and / or attempting to receive (monitoring for) one or more sensing signals. The particular action executed at box 965 depends on whether the node executing the method of FIG. 11 is a TX radio node or an RX radio node or both. Receiving the sensing signals includes measurement, such as measurement of a channel response matrix, e.g., to determine CSI or CIR or CFR.

[0106] At box 970 it is optionally possible to preprocess the sensing signals that may be received as part of box 965. For instance, it would be possible to determine one or more object-related sensing information, e.g., a location, a count, a velocity, a size, etc.

[0107] At box 975, one or more measurement reports are provided. Aspects with respect to such measurement reports have been previously discussed in connection with FIG. 7: measurement report 825; as well as in connection with FIG. 4: box 915. The reporting at box 975 is based on box 970.

[0108] Summarizing, above JCAS techniques have been disclosed. Aspects with respect to reporting procedures have been disclosed. Different types of measurement reports have been disclosed. Different measurement reports can include different information content, e.g., varying from a full channel report to preprocessed object-related sensing information. Versatility in connection with the employed radio nodes that participate in the sensing message is enabled by flexibility in the reporting procedure. For instance, mobile or static UEs and / or BSs can be employed as transmitter or receiver radio nodes of the sensing measurement. It is possible to report a CSI and / or CIR and / or CFR. Objects / event-related sensing information can be provided based on pre-processing of the radio channel characteristics.

[0109] Techniques related to a coordination mechanism amongst the different radio nodes that participate in the sensing measurements are disclosed. Techniques of exchanging capability and / or configuration of the sensing measurement and / or configuration of a reporting procedure have been disclosed.

[0110] Different measurement types and measurement format sizes in the measurement report have been disclosed. Such properties are configurable at each of one or more radio nodes participating in the sensing measurement, to address different use cases, e.g., those discussed in connection with FIG. 9 and FIG. 10.

[0111] A measurement report can be transmitted in a periodic manner such that the sensing management function can monitor the environment over time. Also, a periodic or semi-static providing of the measurement report is possible.

[0112] Summarizing, at least the following EXAMPLES have been disclosed.

[0113] EXAMPLE 1. A method for use in a node of a cellular network (90), the method comprising:

[0114] - providing (910), to each of one or more radio nodes (121, 122, 123) connected to the cellular network (90), information that is indicative of a configuration of a sensing measurement employing sensing signals (191, 192, 193) for sensing one or more passive objects (130) in a surrounding of the one or more radio nodes (121, 122, 123), the sensing signals (191, 192, 193, 820) being multiplexed with communication signaling of the cellular network (90), and

[0115] - obtaining (915), from at least one of the one or more radio nodes (121, 122, 123), one or more measurement reports of the sensing measurement, wherein at least one of the one or more measurement reports (825) comprises one or more observables for each of multiple multipath components (820-1 , 820-2) of a radio channel of the sensing signals (191, 192, 193, 820), different ones of the multiple multipath components (820-1 , 820-2) being associated with different ones of the one or more passive objects (130).

[0116] EXAMPLE 2. The method of EXAMPLE 1 , wherein one or more measurement reports (825) comprise a representation of a channel response matrix (201) comprising at least a first dimension (211) and a second dimension (212), the first dimension (211) resolving a first observable of the multiple observables, the second dimension (212) resolving a second observable of the multiple observables. EXAMPLE S. The method of EXAMPLE 2, wherein the first observable is time delay, wherein the second observable is at least one of angle-of-departure or angle-of-arrival.

[0117] EXAMPLE 4. The method of EXAMPLE 2 or 3, wherein the channel response matrix (201) is defined in frequency domain or time domain.

[0118] EXAMPLE 5. The method of any one of EXAMPLES 2 to 4, wherein the representation evenly samples values along at least one of the first dimension (211) or the second dimension (212).

[0119] EXAMPLE 6. The method of any one of EXAMPLES 2 to 4, wherein the representation is indicative of positions of multiple local maximums of values of the channel response matrix (201) along at least one of the first dimension or the second dimension.

[0120] EXAMPLE 7. The method of any one of EXAMPLES 2 to 6, wherein the representation comprises multiple information elements associated with different ones of the multiple multipath components of the radio channel.

[0121] EXAMPLE 8. The method of any one of the preceding EXAMPLES, wherein the configuration further configures one or more reporting procedures at the one or more radio nodes (121, 122, 123) for providing the one or more measurement reports.

[0122] EXAMPLE 9. The method of EXAMPLE 8, wherein in a first one of the multiple reporting procedures the at least one of the one or more measurement reports is provided that comprises the one or more observables for each of the multiple multipath components of the radio channel, wherein in a second one of the multiple reporting procedures at least one further of the one or more measurement reports is provided that comprises object-related sensing information for the objects (130) determined based on the multipath components at the one or more radio nodes (121 , 122, 123).

[0123] EXAMPLE 10. The method of any one of the preceding EXAMPLES, further comprising:

[0124] - determining the configuration of the sensing measurement based on a type of the one or more radio nodes, the type being selected from a group comprising: mobile radio node; static radio node; or base station.

[0125] Although the invention has been shown and described with respect to certain preferred embodiments, equivalents and modifications will occur to others skilled in the art upon the reading and understanding of the specification. The present invention includes all such equivalents and modifications and is limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

[0126] For illustration, above scenarios have been described in connection with a two-dimensional channel response matrix. However, higher-dimensional channel response matrices may be reported, e.g., including three dimensions such as delay - angle-of-arrival - Doppler shift.

Claims

C L A I M S1. A method for use in a node of a cellular network (90), the method comprising:- providing (910), to each of one or more radio nodes (121, 122, 123) connected to the cellular network (90), information that is indicative of a configuration of a sensing measurement employing sensing signals (191 , 192, 193) for sensing one or more passive objects (130) in a surrounding of the one or more radio nodes (121, 122, 123), the sensing signals (191, 192, 193, 820) being multiplexed with communication signaling of the cellular network (90), and- obtaining (915), from at least one of the one or more radio nodes (121, 122, 123), one or more measurement reports of the sensing measurement, wherein at least one of the one or more measurement reports (825) comprises one or more observables for each of multiple multipath components (820-1 , 820-2) of a radio channel of the sensing signals (191, 192, 193, 820), different ones of the multiple multipath components (820-1 , 820-2) being associated with different ones of the one or more passive objects (130).

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more measurement reports (825) comprise a representation of a channel response matrix (201) comprising at least a first dimension (211) and a second dimension (212), the first dimension (211) resolving a first observable of the multiple observables, the second dimension (212) resolving a second observable of the multiple observables.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first observable is time delay, wherein the second observable is at least one of angle-of-departure or angle-of- arrival.

4. The method of claim 2 or 3, wherein the channel response matrix (201) is defined in frequency domain or time domain.

5. The method of any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the representation evenly samples values along at least one of the first dimension (211) or the second dimension (212).

6. The method of any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the representation is indicative of positions of multiple local maximums of values of the channel response matrix (201) along at least one of the first dimension or the second dimension.

7. The method of any one of claims 2 to 6, wherein the representation comprises multiple information elements associated with different ones of the multiple multipath components of the radio channel.

8. The method of any one of claims 2 to 7, wherein the channel matrix (201) further comprises a third dimension.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the third dimension is Doppler shift.

10. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the multiple observables are selected from a group comprising: amplitude; phase; power; delay; angle of arrival; Doppler shift.

11. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the configuration further configures one or more reporting procedures at the one or more radio nodes (121 , 122, 123) for providing the one or more measurement reports.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein different ones of the one or more radio nodes (121 , 122, 123) are associated with different ones of the one or more reporting procedures.

13. The method of claim 11 or 12, wherein the configuration configures the one or more reporting procedures based on a mapping between the configuration of the sensing measurement and the one or more reporting procedures.

14. The method of any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein in a first one of the multiple reporting procedures the at least one of the one or more measurement reports is provided that comprises the one or more observables for each of the multiple multipath components of the radio channel, wherein in a second one of the multiple reporting procedures at least one further of the one or more measurement reports is provided that comprises object-related sensing information for the objects (130) determined based on the multipath components at the one or more radio nodes (121 , 122, 123).

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the object-related sensing information is selected from a group comprising: change detection of one or more properties of the one or more passive objects (130), location of the one or more passive objects (130); count of the one or more passive objects (130); velocity of the one or more passive objects; size of the one or more passive objects (130).

16. The method of any one of claims 11 to 15, wherein the one or more reporting procedures comprise a reporting schedule.

17. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the one or more measurement reports are provided in accordance with a reporting schedule.

18. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the node (93) is located in a core network of the cellular network (90) and executes a management function for managing a plurality of sensing measurements at multiple radio nodes (121 , 122, 123).

19. The method of any one of the preceding claims wherein the one or more measurement reports are transparent to a radio-access network of the cellular network (90).

20. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the one or more measurement reports comprise timing information of a transmission or reception of the sensing signals.

21. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the one or more measurement reports are indicative of a sensing topology of the sensing measurement.

22. The method of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising:- determining (920) object-related sensing information for the objects (130) in a surrounding of the one or more radio nodes (121, 123, 123) based on the one or more measurement reports.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said determining (920) of the object-related sensing information comprises:- establishing a location of the one or more radio nodes (121, 122, 123), the object- related sensing information being determined based on the location of the one or more radio nodes (121 , 122, 123), wherein the location of any one of the one or more radio nodes (121 , 122, 123) registered at the cellular network (90) as belonging to a static radio node type is retrieved from a registry maintained at a core of the cellular network (90), wherein the location of any one of the one or more radio nodes (121 , 122, 123) registered at the cellular network (90) as belonging to a mobility radio node type is provided by a radio-access network of the cellular network (90).

24. The method of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising:- determining the configuration of the sensing measurement based on a type of the one or more radio nodes, the type being selected from a group comprising: mobile radio node; static radio node; or base station.

25. The method of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising:- determining the configuration of the sensing measurement based on a capability of the one or more radio nodes (121 , 122, 123) associated with at least one of the sensing measurement or a reporting procedure for providing the one or more measurement reports.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:- obtaining (905), from each of the one or more radio nodes (121, 122, 123), information indicative of the capability.

27. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the configuration configures a sensing topology.

28. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the configuration configures a frequency bandwidth of a transmission of the sensing signals.

29. A method for use in a radio node (121 , 122, 123) participating in a sensing measurement employing sensing signals that are multiplexed with communication signaling of a cellular network (90), the method comprising:- obtaining information indicative of a configuration of a sensing measurement from a node of a cellular network (90),- participating in the sensing measurement, and- providing, to the node, one or more measurement reports of the sensing measurement, wherein at least one of the one or more measurement reports comprises one or more observables for each of multiple multipath components of a radio channel of the sensing signals.

30. A node of a cellular network, the node comprising compute circuitry configured to:- provide (910), to each of one or more radio nodes (121, 122, 123) connected to the cellular network (90), information that is indicative of a configuration of a sensing measurement employing sensing signals (191 , 192, 193) for sensing one or more passive objects (130) in a surrounding of the one or more radio nodes (121, 122, 123), the sensing signals (191, 192, 193, 820) being multiplexed with communication signaling of the cellular network (90), and- obtain (915), from at least one of the one or more radio nodes (121 , 122, 123), one or more measurement reports of the sensing measurement,wherein at least one of the one or more measurement reports (825) comprises one or more observables for each of multiple multipath components (820-1 , 820-2) of a radio channel of the sensing signals (191, 192, 193, 820), different ones of the multiple multipath components (820-1 , 820-2) being associated with different ones of the one or more passive objects (130).

31. The node of claim 30, wherein the node is in a core of the cellular network.

32. The node of claim 30 or 31 , wherein the compute circuitry is configured to execute the method of any one of claims 1 to 28.

33. A radio node configured for participating in a sensing measurement employing sensing signals that are multiplexed with communication signaling of a cellular network (90), the radio node comprising compute circuitry configured to:- obtaining information indicative of a configuration of a sensing measurement from a node of a cellular network (90),- participating in the sensing measurement, and- providing, to the node, one or more measurement reports of the sensing measurement, wherein at least one of the one or more measurement reports comprises one or more observables for each of multiple multipath components of a radio channel of the sensing signals.

34. A system comprising the node of claim 30 and the radio node of claim 33.

Images