Conditional positioning

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to conditional positioning. In an aspect, a terminal device monitors at least one signal from a first network device. The terminal device evaluates, based on the monitoring, whether at least one condition for a positioning session initiation is satisfied. Based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, the terminal device transmits, to the first network device or a second network device, an indication of initiating a positioning session. In this way, a conditional positioning scheme is proposed, thus reducing the network energy consumption, the UE power consumption and the resource overhead for positioning measurements.

Description

CONDITIONAL POSITIONINGFIELD

[0001] Various example embodiments relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to a terminal device, network devices, methods, apparatuses and a computer readable medium for conditional positioning.BACKGROUND

[0002] A communication network can be seen as a facility that enables communications between two or more communication devices, or provides communication devices access to a data network. A mobile or wireless communication network is one example of a communication network.

[0003] Such communication networks operate in accordance with standards, such as those promulgated by 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) or ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). Examples of such standards include the so-called 5G (5th Generation) standard or other standards promulgated by 3GPP.SUMMARY

[0004] In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for conditional positioning.

[0005] In a first aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions. When executed by the at least one processor, the instructions cause the terminal device at least to: monitor at least one signal from a first network device; evaluate, based on the monitoring, whether at least one condition for a positioning session initiation is satisfied; and based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, transmit, to the first network device or a second network device, an indication of initiating a positioning session. In this way, a positioning session initiation may be triggered based on a condition evaluation on the received signals. The network energy consumption and the UE power consumption may be decreased by minimizing unnecessary positioning measurements. The resource overhead for positioning measurements may also be reduced.

[0006] In a second aspect, there is provided a first network device. The first network devicecomprises at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions. When executed by the at least one processor, the instructions cause the first network device at least to: transmit, to a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation; transmit, to the terminal device, at least one signal for an evaluation on the at least one condition; and receive, from the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

[0007] In a third aspect, there is provided a second network device. The second network device comprises at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions. When executed by the at least one processor, the instructions cause the second network device at least to: transmit or receive, to or from a first network device or a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation based on signal monitoring on at least one signal; and receive, from the first network device or the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session with the terminal device.

[0008] In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method performed by a terminal device. The method comprises: monitoring at least one signal from a first network device; evaluating, based on the monitoring, whether at least one condition for a positioning session initiation is satisfied; and based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, transmitting, to the first network device or a second network device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

[0009] In a fifth aspect, there is provided a method performed by a network device. The method comprises: transmitting, to a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation; transmitting, to the terminal device, at least one signal for an evaluation on the at least one condition; and receiving, from the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

[0010] In a sixth aspect, there is provided a method performed by a network device. The method comprises: transmitting or receiving, to or from a first network device or a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation based on signal monitoring on at least one signal; and receiving, from the first network device or the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session with the terminal device.

[0011] In a seventh aspect, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises means for monitoring at least one signal from a first network device; means for evaluating, basedon the monitoring, whether at least one condition for a positioning session initiation is satisfied; and means for based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, transmitting, to the first network device or a second network device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

[0012] In an eighth aspect, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation; means for transmitting, to the terminal device, at least one signal for an evaluation on the at least one condition; and means for receiving, from the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

[0013] In a ninth aspect, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises means for transmitting or receiving, to or from a first network device or a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation based on signal monitoring on at least one signal; and means for receiving, from the first network device or the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session with the terminal device.

[0014] In a tenth aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to any one of the above fourth to sixth aspects.

[0015] In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising program instructions for performing at least the method according to any one of the above fourth to sixth aspects.

[0016] In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions, which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus at least to perform at least the method according to any one of the above fourth to sixth aspects.

[0017] It is to be understood that the summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0019] Fig. 1 A illustrates an example communication system in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

[0020] Fig. IB illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating example power consumption profiles of a UE in a discontinuous reception (DRX) scheme and a wake-up signal (WUS) scheme, respectively;

[0021] Fig. 1C illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating an example architecture supporting positioning in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

[0022] Fig. 2 illustrates an example signaling chart of an example process according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0023] Fig. 3 illustrates a signaling chart of an example conditional positioning process according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0024] Fig. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a method implemented at a terminal device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0025] Fig. 5 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a method implemented at a first network device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0026] Fig. 6 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a method implemented at a second network device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0027] Fig. 7 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an apparatus that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0028] Fig. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0029] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] Principles of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

[0031] In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

[0032] References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

[0033] It shall be understood that although the terms “first” and “second” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and / or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

[0034] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “has”, “having”, “includes” and / or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and / or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and / or combinations thereof. As used herein, “at least one of the following: ” and “at least one of ” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or”, mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.

[0035] As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and / or digital circuitry) and(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable):(i) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuit(s) with software / firmware and(ii) any portions of hardware processor(s) with software (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory(ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and(c) hardware circuit(s) and or processor(s), such as a microprocessor s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

[0036] This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

[0037] As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1G), the second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G), the future sixth generation (6G) communication protocols, and / or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

[0038] As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communicationnetwork via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), a NR NB (also referred to as a gNB), a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a radio header (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology.

[0039] The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE), a Subscriber Station (SS), a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS), or an Access Terminal (AT). The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE), an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and / or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and / or an automated processing chain contexts), a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, and the like. In the following description, the terms “terminal device”, “communication device”, “terminal”, “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

[0040] Principles and embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Reference is first made to Fig. 1A, which illustrates an example communication system 100 A in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. As shown in Fig. 1A, the communication environment 100A, which may also be referred to as a communication network 100A or a communication system 100A, includes an access network device 110, a core network 140 and a terminal device 120.

[0041] The access network device 110 may be a gNB, or a NetWork (NW) or a TRP, which schedules a first bandwidth part (BWP) or a first cell 130. The terminal device 120 is capableof connecting and communicating in an UL or DL with the access network device 110 as long as the terminal device 120 is located within the corresponding cells (e.g., the first cell 130) of the access network device 110. The access network device 110 may support communications with the core network 140, or with another network entity (not shown in Fig. 1 A), or both. The core network 140 may comprise multiple network entities, such as at least one access and mobility management function (AMF), at least one location management function (LMF), at least one policy control function (PCF), at least one unified data management function (UDM) and so on.

[0042] In communication systems, an UL refers to a link in a direction from a terminal device 120 to an access network device 110, and a DL refers to a link in a direction from the access network device 110 to the terminal device 120. The access network device 110 may transmit scheduling information scheduling an uplink transmission to the terminal device 120, and the terminal device 120 may transmit an uplink transmission or a plurality of repetitions of the uplink transmission to the access network device 110.

[0043] Communications in the communication system 100 A may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol(s), comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G), the second generation (2G), the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), the fifth generation (5G) and the sixth generation (6G) and on the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and / or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), Time Division Duplex (TDD), Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM), Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and / or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

[0044] It is to be understood that the numbers of devices (i.e., the terminal device 120 and the access network device 110) and their connection relationships and types shown in Fig. 1 A are only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitation. For example, the communication system 100 A may include any suitable numbers of devices adapted for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, while Fig. 1 A depicts the terminal device 120 as a mobile phone, the terminal device 120 may be any types of userequipment.

[0045] Passive Internet-of-Things (loT) and Reduced Capability (RedCap) devices may rely on energy harvesting to power their operations. Energy harvesting enables a UE to harvest and store a limited amount of energy from available sources, such as light, radio frequency (RF) signals, and vibrations. Among these, sensors powered by solar energy are getting popular, particularly for small sensors deployed outdoors for monitoring applications. The maximum transmission (Tx) power of these Passive loT and RedCap devices may be significantly small due to their small battery size or the absence of a battery. Generally, they are commonly used for delay-tolerant loT-type of traffic, such as reporting temperature, traffic conditions, etc.

[0046] There is growing demand for loT solutions offering improved coverage (e.g., approximately 30 meters indoors and up to 100 meters outdoors) and supporting increased device density with ultra-low cost and power consumption. Solutions such as radio frequency identification devices (RFID) technology are limited to about 10 meters of coverage and do not address these needs. The use of Passive loT devices (which are either battery-less or require no battery replacement over their lifetime) is under investigation within the 3 GPP framework. Passive loT devices are expected to have lower complexity, data rates, coverage, cost, and energy consumption compared to narrow band loT (NB-IoT) and enhanced Machine-Type Communication (eMTC) technologies. Potential use cases include identification, tracking, monitoring, sensing, logistics, supply chain management, transportation, manufacturing (factory automation), healthcare, energy, agriculture, smart cities, environmental monitoring, and operations in extreme or hazardous conditions where battery-powered devices are not viable.

[0047] The following are proposed as design objectives for passive loT devices: enhanced link budget compared to existing RFID solutions; compatibility with global frequency bands; ultra-low cost; elimination of battery charging or replacement, enabling low-maintenance and long life cycles; ultra-low power consumption (e.g., less than 100 micro-Watts) to support operation through backscattering or energy harvesting; small device size and form factor; positioning accuracy in the range of 3 meters to 5 meters; data rates between 10 kbps and 100 kbps; energy sources, including backscattering for purely passive devices and energy harvesting or minimal battery use (e.g., less than 100m Ah) for semi-passive devices; and mobile-originated and mobile-terminated data.

[0048] To support passive loT devices, enhancements on the following areas are needed: simplified and adaptive procedures for operation with intermittent energy availability and interrupted connections, such as random access (RA) procedures and radio resource control (RRC) protocol / state handling; lightweight protocols optimized for ultra-low power consumption; and energy-neutral and sustainable operation to extend device lifetime.

[0049] Currently, UEs in DRX mode periodically wake up once per DRX cycle, which dominates to power consumption. An approach to reduce power consumption involves waking up UEs only when triggered, such as through paging. This can be achieved by monitoring a wake-up signal (WUS) using a separate wake-up receiver (WURx) with ultralow power consumption to activate the main radio. The power consumption associated with monitoring WUS depends on the WUS design and the hardware module of the WURx used for signal detection and processing.

[0050] The main WUS operating principle is that during each wake-up cycle (w-cycle), the WURx monitors a set of specified subcarriers for a short time duration to detect the presence of a wake-up indicator (WI). Through the WI, the network informs the UE to decode the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) after a predefined time offset (w-offset). Once the WURx successfully detects the WI, the baseband processor (BBP) of the UE will be switched on. After that, the BBP decodes the PDCCH messages at an active state for a preconfigured on-duration period, followed by the initiation of its inactivity timer. After the inactivity timer is initiated, and if a new PDCCH message is received before the timer expiration, the BBP re-initiates its inactivity timer. If no additional PDCCH messages are received before the timer expires, the UE enters a sleep state, and the WURx resumes operation according to its w-cycle. This mechanism ensures efficient power management while maintaining connectivity and responsiveness.

[0051] Fig. IB illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating example power consumption profiles of a UE in a discontinuous reception (DRX) scheme and a wake-up signal (WUS) scheme, respectively.

[0052] As shown in Fig. IB, in the DRX scheme (top portion of Fig. IB), the UE periodically wakes up for a predefined "on-duration timer" to monitor the PDCCH. If a packet arrives at the gNB, the UE processes the data, starting an "inactivity timer" to stay active until further data is received or the timer expires. If no new PDCCH message arrives before the inactivity timer expires, the UE enters a sleep state until the next DRX cycle begins.

[0053] In the WUS scheme (bottom portion of Fig. IB), the UE operates with a WURx that monitors a wake-up indicator (WI) from the gNB during a short "WURx on-duration" in a "w-cycle". Upon receiving the WI, the WURx triggers the main radio to wake up after a specified "w-offset". The UE then monitors the PDCCH to decode data.

[0054] The WUS scheme reduces unnecessary UE energy consumption compared to the DRX scheme by avoiding periodic decoding of unscheduled PDCCHs and only waking the main radio when required. Additionally, the shorter w-cycle enables reduced buffering delays compared to the DRX scheme without significant increases in power consumption. As used herein, the term “main radio (MR)” refers to the Tx / Rx module operating for NR signal s / channels apart from signal s / channel related to low-power wake-up. The term “LP- WUR (LR)” or “WURx” refers to the Rx module operating for receiving / processing signal s / channel related to low-power wake-up.

[0055] Positioning functionality in passive loT devices involves the use of positioning reference signals (PRS) in the downlink (DL) and sounding reference signals (SRS) in the uplink (UL) so as to obtain positioning measurements. The positioning measurements are measured in a physical layer. Depending on whether DL or UL is utilized, UE’s baseband modem or gNB’s baseband modem support the positioning measurements using PRS or SRS.

[0056] Positioning methods can be categorized into timing-based methods, angle-based methods, and hybrid timing-angle methods. Timing-based techniques, such as DL / UL-time difference of arrival (DL / UL-TDOA) and multi-round trip time (Multi-RTT), rely on the propagation delay of RF carriers to estimate the distance between the gNB and the UE, and utilize the trilateration principle based on multiple gNBs to estimate the UE position. Anglebased techniques, such as DL angle of departure (DL-AoD) and UL angle of arrival (UL- AoA), utilize the trilateration principle by exploiting the knowledge of the transmit beamforming of the signals and / or differences of the phase across the receiving antenna elements to determine the azimuth and zenith angles between a transmitter and a receiver pair.

[0057] Fig. 1C illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating an example architecture 100c supporting positioning in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. The architecture 100C may include a UE 120, a ng-eNB 110-1, a gNB 110-2, a LMF 140-1 and an AMF 140-2. The architecture 100C may be implemented as a portion of the communication system 100A shown in Fig. 1A. The UE 120 may be a specific example ofthe terminal device 120 in Fig. 1A. The ng-eNB 110-1 and the gNB 110-2 in the next generation radio access network (NG-RAN) may be specific examples of the access network device 110 in Fig. 1A. The LMF 140-1 and the AMF 140-2 may be network entities in the core network 140 in Fig. 1 A.

[0058] The LMF 140-1 is a key component in the 5G positioning architecture. The LMF 140-1 receives measurements and assistance information from the NG-RAN (e.g., the ng- eNB 110-1 or the gNB 110-2) and the mobile device (e.g., the UE 120), via the AMF 140-2 over the NLs interface to compute the position of the UE 120. Due to the next generation interface between the NG-RAN and the core network, a NR positioning protocol A (NRPPa) protocol was introduced to carry the positioning information between NG-RAN and LMF 140-1 over the next generation control plane interface (NG-C). These additions in the 5G architecture provide the framework for positioning in 5G. The LMF 140-1 configures the UE 120 using the LTE positioning protocol (LPP) via AMF 140-2, The NG RAN configures the UE 120 using radio resource control (RRC) protocol over LTE-Uu and NR-Uu.

[0059] A positioning session may be initiated by either the UE or the network, depending on the specific use case of the device. Frequent positioning sessions may be requested for certain applications; however, when the UE is stationary, initiating or tracking such positioning sessions can be inefficient in terms of power consumption. Similarly, when the UE operates with a WURx, the UE may enter a sleep state while the WURx evaluates whether to wake up the UE. Frequent positioning sessions in such scenarios may result in excessive UE wake-ups, leading to increased power consumption.

[0060] Therefore, it might cause inefficient positioning decisions, such as initiating a positioning session when it is unnecessary or failing to initiate a positioning session in situations where a positioning update is appropriate. Therefore, in addition to evaluating the need for positioning based on Radio Resource Control (RRC) states (e.g., CONNECTED, INACTIVE, or IDLE), it would be advantageous to incorporate positioning need evaluation based on monitoring the WUS. This approach would be particularly beneficial for low-power UE types that are slow-moving (nearly stationary but not fixed).

[0061] In view of the foregoing, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a scheme for conditional positioning session initiation. This scheme dynamically adjusts the positioning decision by continuously monitoring the conditions for initiating positioning sessions using the WUS. This allows for more efficient positioning updates, reducingunnecessary power consumption while maintaining the accuracy and reliability of the positioning process.

[0062] It should be understood that, although embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated with regard to UEs equipped with a WURx, embodiments of the present disclosure are also applicable to UEs that do not include a WURx. Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to Figs. 2 to 6 below.

[0063] Fig. 2 illustrates a signaling chart illustrating an example process 200 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The process 200 may involve a terminal device 220 and a first network device 210. In some embodiments, the process 200 may further involve a second network device 240. For the purpose of discussion, the process 200 will be described with reference to Figs. 1A or 1C. The terminal device 220 may be implemented as the terminal device 120 in Fig. 1A or the UE 120 in Fig. 1C. The first network device 210 may be implemented as the access network device 110 in Fig. 1 A or the ng-eNB 110-1 or the gNB 110-2 in Fig. 1C. The second network device 240 may be implemented as a core network entity in the core network 140 in Fig. 1 A or the LMF 140-1 in Fig. 1C. It would be appreciated that although the process 200 has been described in the communication environment lOOAofFig. lAorthe architecture 100C in Fig. 1C, this process may be likewise applied to other communication scenarios.

[0064] As shown in Fig. 2, the first network device 210 transmits (208) at least one signal 209 to the terminal device 220. The terminal device 220 monitors (211) the at least one signal 209 from the first network device 210. Based on the monitoring 211, the terminal device 220 evaluates (212) whether at least one condition for a positioning session initiation is satisfied. In some implementations, if the terminal device 220 determines that the at least one condition is satisfied, the terminal device 220 may transmit (213) an indication 214 of initiating a positioning session to the first network device 210. For example, the first network device 210 may receive (215) the indication 214 of initiating a positioning session from the terminal device 220 and transmit (216) the indication 214 of initiating a positioning session to the second network device 240. Accordingly, the second network device 240 may receive (217) the indication 214 of initiating a positioning session from the first network device 210. Alternatively, if the terminal device 220 determines that the at least one condition is satisfied, the terminal device 220 may transmit (218) an indication 214 of initiating a positioning session to the second network device 240. Accordingly, the second network device 240 may receive (219) the indication 214 of initiating a positioning session from the terminal device220. In this way, a positioning session initiation may be triggered based on a condition evaluation on received signals. The network energy consumption and the UE power consumption may be decreased by minimizing unnecessary positioning measurements. The positioning performance may be optimized by detecting the need for positioning without essentially increasing the resource overhead.

[0065] In some implementations, the at least one signal 209 may include at least one WUS. Alternatively or additionally, the at least one signal 209 may include at least one WUS beacon. Alternatively or additionally, the at least one signal 209 may include one or more signals different from WUS and WUS beacon. In this way, a positioning session initiation may be triggered based on a condition evaluation on the WUS(s) and / or WUS beacon(s) and / or other signal(s). In some implementations, the at least one signal 209 may be specific signals for condition evaluation. Alternatively, the at least one signal 209 may not be specific for condition evaluation.

[0066] In some embodiments, the first network device 210 may transmit (206) a configuration 202 associated with the at least one condition to the terminal device 220. Accordingly, the terminal device 220 may receive (207) the configuration 202 from the first network device 210. For example, the first network device 210 may determine the configuration 202 and transmit the configuration 202 to the terminal device 220. The first network device 210 may further transmit the configuration 202 to the second network device 240. In another example, the second network device 240 may transmit (204) the configuration 202 to the first network device 210, and the first network device 210 may receive (205) the configuration 202 from the second network device 240 and transmit (206) the configuration 202 to the terminal device 220. Alternatively, the second network device 240 may transmit (201) the configuration 202 associated with the at least one condition to the terminal device 220. Accordingly, the terminal device 220 may receive (203) the configuration 202 from the first network device 210. In some implementations, the configuration 202 may be transmitted through broadcasted system information. Alternatively, the configuration 202 may be transmitted to the terminal device 220 through a dedicated message. For instance, this dedicated message could be a positioning protocol (PP) message, such as a Long Term Evolution (LTE) PP (LPP) message, an NR PP message, a 6G PP message, or other types of PP message. For example, the second network device 240 may directly communicate with the terminal device 220 via a LPP protocol which is transparent to the first network device 210. Alternatively, the second network device 240 maycommunicate with the terminal device 220 via the first network device 210 using a NRPPa protocol.

[0067] In some embodiments, the configuration 202 may include a resource configuration for the at least one signal. The terminal device 220 may monitor the at least one signal based on the resource configuration.

[0068] Alternatively or additionally, the configuration 202 may include a periodicity associated with the evaluation. For example, the terminal device 220 may evaluate whether the at least one condition is satisfied periodically, e.g., based on the configured periodicity. Alternatively, the terminal device 220 may evaluate whether the at least one condition is satisfied aperiodically.

[0069] Alternatively or additionally, the configuration 202 may include a time window for monitoring the at least one signal. For example, the terminal device 220 may evaluate whether the at least one condition is satisfied based on signal monitoring within the time window. Alternatively or additionally, the configuration 202 may include at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition.

[0070] Alternatively or additionally, the configuration 202 may include at least one candidate threshold for the at least one condition. The terminal device 220 may select at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition among the at least one candidate threshold. In some implementations, the terminal device 220 may further transmit the at least one selected threshold to the first network device 210 or to the second network device 240. In some implementations, the terminal device 220 may transmit the at least one selected threshold to the first network device 210, and the first network device 210 may transmit the at least one selected threshold to the second network device 240.

[0071] In some embodiments, the terminal device 220 may determine at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition. In some implementations, the terminal device 220 may further transmit the at least one determined threshold to the first network device 210 or to the second network device 240. In some implementations, the terminal device 220 may transmit the at least one determined threshold to the first network device 210, and the first network device 210 may transmit the at least one determined threshold to the second network device 240.

[0072] In some embodiments, in order to evaluate whether the at least one condition is satisfied, the terminal device 220 may compare measurements on the at least one signal withat least one threshold associated with the at least one condition.

[0073] Alternatively or additionally, in order to evaluate whether the at least one condition is satisfied, the terminal device 220 may compare a difference between measurements on the at least one signal and initial signal measurements with at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition. In some implementations, the initial signal measurements may be associated with WUS. For example, the terminal device 220 may obtain the initial signal measurements based on signal measurements on WUS received from the first network device 210 before the terminal device 220 transitions from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state. Alternatively or additionally, the initial signal measurements may be associated with WUS beacons. For example, the terminal device 220 may obtain the initial signal measurements based on signal measurements on WUS beacons received from the first network device 210 before the terminal device 220 transitions from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state. Alternatively or additionally, the initial signal measurements may be associated with positioning reference signals. For example, the terminal device 220 may obtain the initial signal measurements based on signal measurements on positioning reference signals received from the first network device 210 before the terminal device 220 transitions from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state.

[0074] In some implementations, the at least one threshold may include a threshold for a path loss. Alternatively or additionally, the at least one threshold may include a threshold for a signal strength, e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), etc. Alternatively or additionally, the at least one threshold may include a threshold for an angle of arrival (AoA). Alternatively or additionally, the at least one threshold may include a threshold for a direction of arrival (DoA). The terminal device 220 may determine that the at least one condition is satisfied if measurements on the at least one signal reach the at least one threshold.

[0075] Alternatively or additionally, the at least one threshold may include a threshold for a change in path loss. Alternatively or additionally, the at least one threshold may include a threshold for a change in signal strength. Alternatively or additionally, the at least one threshold may include a threshold for a change in angle of arrival. Alternatively or additionally, the at least one threshold may include a threshold for a change in direction of arrival. Alternatively or additionally, the at least one threshold may include a threshold for failure numbers in decoding one or more signals among the at least one monitored signal. For example, the terminal device 220 may determine that the at least one condition is satisfied if a difference between measurements on the at least one signal and initial signalmeasurements reach the at least one threshold.

[0076] Alternatively or additionally, the at least one threshold may further include a threshold for failure numbers in decoding one or more signals among the at least one monitored signal. In some implementations, the terminal device 220 may determine a failure in decoding one or more signals among the at least one monitored signal. If a number of signals among the one or more signals reached a threshold associated with the at least one condition, the terminal device 220 may determine that the at least one condition is satisfied.

[0077] In some embodiments, the terminal device 220 may evaluate whether the at least one condition is satisfied before a preconfigured positioning session. The second network device 240 may monitor an indication of whether to initiate a positioning session with the terminal device 220 before a preconfigured positioning session. In some implementations, the indication of whether to initiate a positioning session may be implemented as an indication of whether a condition for a positioning session initiation is satisfied.

[0078] In some implementations, if the at least one condition is not satisfied, the terminal device 220 may omit transmitting an indication of initiating a positioning session. Based on determining absence of an indication of initiating a positioning session, the second network device 240 may omit initiating the preconfigured positioning session, and positioning results of the terminal device 220 in a previous initiated positioning session are valid.

[0079] In some implementations, if the at least one condition is not satisfied, the terminal device 220 may transmit an indication of not initiating a positioning session to the first network device 210 or to the second network device 240. For example, after receiving an indication of not initiating a positioning session from the terminal device 220, the first network device 210 may transmit an indication of not initiating a positioning session to the second network device 240. Based on receiving an indication of not initiating a positioning session, the second network device 240 may omit initiating the preconfigured positioning session, and positioning results of the terminal device 220 in a previous imitated positioning session are valid.

[0080] In some embodiments, the terminal device 220 may monitor the at least one signal in a first state. Based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, the terminal device 220 may transition from the first state to a second state. Based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, the terminal device 220 may keep in the first state.In some embodiments, in order to evaluate whether the at least one condition is satisfied based on measurements on the at least one signal and initial signal measurements, the terminal device 220 may obtain the initial signal measurements in a second state.

[0081] In some embodiments, the first state may include an idle state or an inactive state, and the second state may include a connected state. The terminal device 220 may include a main radio (MR) and a low-power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR). The monitoring 211 may be performed by the LP-WUR. Based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, the terminal device 220 may activate the MR. Based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, the terminal device 220 may keep the MR deactivated.

[0082] In some embodiments, the terminal device 220 may be a UE without a LP-WUR. The terminal device 220 may determine whether a position session needs to be initiated based on condition evaluation before a preconfigured positioning session. The network energy consumption may be decreased by minimizing unnecessary positioning measurements

[0083] In some embodiments, the first network device 210 is an access network device, and the second network device 240 is a core network device.

[0084] Fig. 3 illustrates a signaling chart of an example conditional positioning process 300 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The process 300 may involve a UE 320, a gNB 310 and a LMF 340. The process 300 may be regarded as specific examples of the process 200 of Fig. 2. The UE 320 may be regarded as a specific example of the terminal device 220. The UE 320 may be a NR device, a RedCap device, an loT device, or an energy harvesting device (i.e. Ambient loT), etc. In some implementations, the UE 320 may include a WURx 330. The gNB 310 may be regarded as a specific example of the first network device 210. The LMF 340 may be regarded as a specific example of the second network device 240.

[0085] In the process 300, at step 301, the UE 320 may be configured with conditional positioning criteria.

[0086] In some examples, the conditional positioning criteria may be related to “WUS / WUS beacon”. For example, the UE 320 may be configured to monitor each WUS and / or each WUS beacon to determine whether the conditional positioning criteria are met. In some examples, the conditional positioning criteria may be related to “WUS / WUS beacon and legacy positioning evaluation periodicity”. For example, the UE 320 may be configured with a positioning evaluation periodicity and the UE 320 may monitor WUSand / or WUS beacon with the positioning evaluation periodicity. In some examples, the positioning evaluation periodicity may be associated with a moving speed of the UE 320.

[0087] The configuration at step 301 may be done using a broadcast signaling (e.g. system information) and / or a dedicated signaling (e.g. with LPP if the LMF 340 directly involves with the configuration).

[0088] The conditional positioning criteria may include additional information elements to trigger positioning evaluation, e.g., a WUS path loss threshold, a WUS RSRP threshold, a change in WUS AoA threshold, a "WUS-positioning-evaluati on-window” etc. In some implementations, the information elements may be derived by the network based on the measurements obtained e.g., in RRC-CONNECTED (for example, collected statistics or measurements, etc. obtained just before the UE transitions into a sleep mode). The obtained measurements are then used to compare with the WUS obtained in the sleep mode.

[0089] At step 302, the WURx 330 monitors and receives WUS and / or WUS beacon. At step 303, the WURx 330 performs WUS or WUS beacon measurements.

[0090] At step 304, the UE 320 determines whether the conditional positioning criteria are met or not based on the configuration in step 301. In some implementations, WUS criteria are evaluated based on WUS monitoring and WUS measurements before every legacy configured positioning evaluation periodicity. In some implementations, a low-power WUS from the gNB 310 to the UE 320 is used to dynamically adjust the UE decision about positioning initiation upon identifying (a sudden) drop in path loss, RSRP, AOA, DOA etc.

[0091] In one example, a WUS path loss may be estimated at the WURx 330. When the path loss is above a pre-defined threshold, an initiation of positioning may be triggered by the UE 320.

[0092] In one example, the UE 320 is not allowed to initiate the positioning session if the signal strength of the WUS (e.g., RSRP) is above a threshold. In one example, the UE 320 is not allowed to initiate the positioning session if the signal strength of the WUS (e.g., RSRP) is constant, i.e., no variation is observed in the measurement results or the variation in the measurement results is small enough e.g., less than a threshold.

[0093] In one example, in order to allow the positioning session initiation, the WURx 330 shall receive a certain amount of WUSs during a certain time period. At least one "WUS- positioning-evaluation-window” may be determined based on the configuration in step 301. In every "WUS-positioning-evaluati on window", the WUS is collected and the UE 320makes a decision about whether to initiate a positioning session. The "WUS-positioning- evaluation window" may be small for frequent positioning evaluation needs or it may depend on each use case.

[0094] In one example, in case the WURx 330 cannot decode the WUS for a number of times (e.g., one, two, or a configurable number of times within the "WUS-positioning- evaluation-window”), the UE 320 starts initiating the positioning session based on the indicated legacy positioning evaluation periodicity.

[0095] In some embodiments, an AoA estimation may be utilized for the positioning need evaluation. The WURx 330 may be of an advanced WURx type.

[0096] In the case 1, at step 305, the conditional positioning criteria are not met. Then at step 306, the UE 320 will not trigger the positioning session and will continue the sleep state. In this case, the network uses the previous positioning estimate (which is still valid) until the positioning need is indicated by the UE 320 (see step 309).

[0097] In the case 2, at step 307, the conditional positioning criteria are met. The, at step 308, the UE 320 indicates the need to start the positioning session to the network (e.g., to the LMF 340) in advance to a legacy positioning session. At step 309, the positioning session is initiated. In an example case, the WURx 330 evaluates the conditional positioning criteria before X ms of each legacy positioning evaluation periodicity such that the UE 320 could indicate to the network in advance if the condition is satisfied to initiate the positioning session. In case of no early indication, the network (e.g., the LMF 340) could assume to use the previous positioning results for the current session. In this way, the network resources could be saved.

[0098] In some specific examples, at least one of the path loss, RSRP or change in AoA are available at the WURx 330 of the UE 320. The WURx 330 may measure the path loss, RSRP or change in AoA from the received WUS. The WUS transmit power may be known to the UE 320. In some examples, the WUS may be transmitted every wake-up cycle (i.e., w- cycle).

[0099] Before transitioning to a sleep mode, the UE 320 may send an indication to the WURx 330 that positioning criteria is enabled. The WURx 330 may compute a path loss of received WUS to get an average path loss ( IntialPLws), i.e., IntialPLws= avearge N±received wakeup signal pathless). After transitioning to the sleep mode, the WURx 330 may compute a current path loss considering an average of the last N2measurements ( CurrentPLwuS) , i.e., CurrentPLws= avearge (2last received wakeup signal pathless). The measurements over the first to the A -th received WUS are averaged to filter out the possible outliers because of measurement errors.

[0100] The WURx 330 may compute a path loss offset PLOffset-ws), i.e., PLOffset-ws= CurrentPLws— IntialPLws, and check if the path loss offset is above a specified threshold Th . If PLOffset-ws > Th^, the WURx 330 may send the PLOffset-ws to the UE 320 to initiate the positioning session. The threshold is used to indicate how much path loss variations are acceptable (i.e. 5 dB, 10 dB etc). If the path loss variations are within a specified threshold, the positioning session will not be initiated.

[0101] In some implementations, the network may indicate the threshold. Alternatively, the UE 320 may control threshold settings and inform the network about the threshold settings. Alternatively, the network may configure a common assistance value for the threshold so that each UE may set a customized threshold that fits the UE’s circumstance.

[0102] In some examples, before transitioning to a sleep mode, the UE 320 may monitor other reference signals (e.g., positioning reference signal (PRS)) to estimate a path loss or a RSRP in RRC-CONNECTED. The UE 320 may send the computed PRS RSRP (computed during a connected state) to the WURx 330 for evaluation. For example, the PRS RSRP (computed during a connected state) and the WUS RSRP (computed during a sleep state) may be compared. The WURx 330 may compare a difference of the PRS RSRP and the WUS RSRP with a threshold.

[0103] In some implementations, the UE 320 may not include a WURx and the UE 320 may monitor and measure WUS and / or WUS beacon to determine whether a position session needs to be initiated. In some implementations, the condition evaluation for position session initiation may be performed based on any signals received by the UE 320 or the WURx of the UE 320.

[0104] In this way, a conditional positioning procedure is proposed that continuously monitors the positioning criteria based on a WUS / WUS beacon or a group of WUS or WUS beacon. The WUS positioning criteria may start to be monitored and evaluated upon the criteria are configured. The low-power WUS / WUS beacon from the gNB to the UE is used to dynamically adjust the UE decision about positioning session initiation upon identifying (a sudden) drop in path loss, RSRP, or change in angle of arrival (AoA) of the WUS.Specifically, the WUS path loss is estimated at the WURx, and when the path loss is above a pre-defined threshold (Th-^), an initiation of the positioning session is triggered at the UE side. In an example case, the Th could be high for loT-related uses case (e.g. with low positioning accuracy requirements) whereas it could be low for NR devices. Upon satisfying the conditional positioning criteria, the UE may indicate a need to start the positioning session to the network (e.g., LMF).

[0105] The UE shall receive a certain amount of WUS during a certain time period in order to evaluate a need for a new positioning session. A WUS-positioning-evaluati on-window may be defined or configured. If the UE cannot decode the WUS for a number of times (e.g., one, two, or a configurable number of times within the WUS-positioning-evaluati on- window), the UE may turn back to the legacy positioning procedure.

[0106] With some embodiments of the present disclosure, the network energy saving may be improved by reducing unnecessary positioning measurements. The positioning performance may be improved by detecting the need for positioning. The UE power consumption may be saved by reducing unnecessary positioning measurements.

[0107] Fig. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a method 400 implemented at a terminal device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 400 will be described from the perspective of the terminal device 220 as shown in Fig. 2.

[0108] As shown in Fig. 4, at block 410, the terminal device 220 monitors at least one signal from a first network device. At block 420, the terminal device 220 evaluates, based on the monitoring, whether at least one condition for a positioning session initiation is satisfied. At block 430, based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, the terminal device 220 transmits, to the first network device or a second network device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

[0109] In some embodiments, the at least one signal comprises at least one of the following: at least one wake-up signal (WUS); at least one WUS beacon; or one or more signals different from WUS and WUS beacon.

[0110] In some embodiments, the terminal device may receive, from the first network device or the second network device, a configuration associated with the at least one condition. In some embodiments, the configuration is received via broadcasted system information. In some embodiments, the configuration is received via a dedicated message,wherein the dedicated message is a positioning protocol (PP) message.

[0111] In some embodiments, the configuration comprises at least one of the following: at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition; at least one candidate threshold for the at least one condition; a resource configuration for the at least one signal; a periodicity associated with the evaluation; or a time window for monitoring the at least one signal.

[0112] In some embodiments, the terminal device may select at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition among the at least one candidate threshold; and transmit the at least one selected threshold to the first network device or the second network device.

[0113] In some embodiments, the terminal device may determine at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition. In some embodiments, the terminal device may transmit the at least one determined threshold to the first network device or the second network device.

[0114] In some embodiments, the terminal device may evaluate whether the at least one condition is satisfied by at least one of the following: comparing measurements on the at least one signal with at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition; or comparing a difference between measurements on the at least one signal and initial signal measurements with at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition.

[0115] In some embodiments, the initial signal measurements are associated with at least one of the following: WUS, WUS beacons, or positioning reference signals.

[0116] In some embodiments, the at least one threshold comprises at least one of the following: a threshold for a path loss, a threshold for a signal strength, a threshold for an angle of arrival, a threshold for a direction of arrival, a threshold for a change in path loss, a threshold for a change in signal strength, a threshold for a change in angle of arrival, a threshold for a change in direction of arrival, or a threshold for failure numbers in decoding one or more signals among the at least one monitored signal.

[0117] In some embodiments, the terminal device may determine that the at least one condition is satisfied by: determining a failure in decoding one or more signals among the at least one monitored signal, wherein a number of signals among the one or more signals reached a threshold associated with the at least one condition.

[0118] In some embodiments, the terminal device may evaluate whether the at least onecondition is satisfied before a preconfigured positioning session. In some embodiments, the terminal device may evaluate whether the at least one condition is satisfied periodically or aperiodically.

[0119] In some embodiments, based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, the terminal device may omit transmitting an indication of initiating a positioning session. In some embodiments, based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, the terminal device may transmit, to the first network device or the second network device, an indication of not initiating a positioning session.

[0120] In some embodiments, the terminal device may monitor the at least one signal in a first state. Based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, the terminal device may transition from the first state to a second state.

[0121] In some embodiments, the terminal device may monitor the at least one signal in a first state. Based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, the terminal device may keep in the first state.

[0122] In some embodiments, the terminal device may obtain the initial signal measurements in a second state. In some embodiments, the first state comprises one of an idle state or an inactive state, and the second state comprises a connected state.

[0123] In some embodiments, the terminal device comprises a main radio (MR) and a low- power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR). The monitoring is performed by the LP-WUR. Based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, the terminal device may activate the MR. Based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, the terminal device may keep the MR deactivated. In some embodiments, the first network device is an access network device, and the second network device is a core network device.

[0124] Fig. 5 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a method 500 implemented at a first network device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 500 will be described from the perspective of the first network device 210 as shown in Fig. 2.

[0125] As shown in Fig. 5, at block 510, the first network device 210 transmits, to a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation. At block 520, the first network device 210 transmit, to the terminal device, at least one signal for an evaluation on the at least one condition. At block 530, the first network device 210 receives, from the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

[0126] In some embodiments, the at least one signal comprises at least one of the following: at least one wake-up signal (WUS); at least one WUS beacon; or one or more signals different from WUS and WUS beacon.

[0127] In some embodiments, the first network device may receive the configuration from a second network device. In some embodiments, the first network device may transmit the configuration to a second network device.

[0128] In some embodiments, the configuration is transmitted to the terminal device via broadcasted system information. In some embodiments, the configuration is transmitted to the terminal device via a dedicated message, wherein the dedicated message is a positioning protocol (PP) message.

[0129] In some embodiments, the configuration comprises at least one of the following: at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition; at least one candidate threshold for the at least one condition; a periodicity associated with an evaluation on the at least one condition; or a time window for monitoring the at least one signal.

[0130] In some embodiments, the first network device may receive, from the terminal device, at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition among the at least one candidate threshold. In some embodiments, the first network device may receive, from the terminal device, at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition.

[0131] In some embodiments, the at least one threshold comprises at least one of the following: a threshold for a path loss, a threshold for a signal strength, a threshold for an angle of arrival, a threshold for a direction of arrival, a threshold for a change in path loss, a threshold for a change in signal strength, a threshold for a change in angle of arrival, a threshold for a change in direction of arrival, or a threshold for failure numbers in decoding one or more signals among the at least one signal.

[0132] In some embodiments, the first network device may transmit, to a second network device, the indication of initiating the positioning session.

[0133] In some embodiments, the first network device may receive, from the terminal device, an indication of not initiating a positioning session; and transmit, to a second network device, the indication of not initiating the positioning session. In some embodiments, the first network device is an access network device, and the second network device is a core network device.

[0134] Fig. 6 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a method 600 implemented at a second network device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 600 will be described from the perspective of the second network device 240 as shown in Fig. 2.

[0135] As shown in Fig. 6, at block 610, the second network device 240 transmits or receives, to or from a first network device or a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation based on signal monitoring on at least one signal. At block 620, the second network device 240 receives, from the first network device or the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session with the terminal device.

[0136] In some embodiments, the at least one signal comprises at least one of the following: at least one wake-up signal (WUS); at least one WUS beacon; or one or more signals different from WUS and WUS beacon.

[0137] In some embodiments, the configuration comprises at least one of the following: at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition; at least one candidate threshold for the at least one condition; a periodicity associated with an evaluation on the at least one condition; or a time window for monitoring the at least one signal.

[0138] In some embodiments, the second network device may receive, from the first network device or the terminal device, at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition among the at least one candidate threshold. In some embodiments, the second network device may receive, from the first network device or the terminal device, at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition.

[0139] In some embodiments, the at least one threshold comprises at least one of the following: a threshold for a path loss, a threshold for a signal strength, a threshold for an angle of arrival, a threshold for a direction of arrival, a threshold for a change in path loss, a threshold for a change in signal strength, a threshold for a change in angle of arrival, a threshold for a change in direction of arrival, or a threshold for failure numbers in decoding one or more signals among the at least one signal.

[0140] In some embodiments, the second network device may monitor an indication of whether to initiate a positioning session with the terminal device before a preconfigured positioning session; and based on determining absence of an indication of initiating a positioning session or based on receiving an indication of not initiating a positioning session,omit initiating the preconfigured positioning session, wherein positioning results of the terminal device in a previous imitated positioning session are valid. In some embodiments, the first network device is an access network device, and the second network device is a core network device.

[0141] In some embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing any of the method 400 (for example, the terminal device 220) may comprise means for performing the respective steps of the method 400. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.

[0142] In some embodiments, the apparatus may include: means for monitoring at least one signal from a first network device; means for evaluating, based on the monitoring, whether at least one condition for a positioning session initiation is satisfied; and means for based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, transmitting, to the first network device or a second network device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

[0143] In some embodiments, the at least one signal comprises at least one of the following: at least one wake-up signal (WUS); at least one WUS beacon; or one or more signals different from WUS and WUS beacon.

[0144] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for receiving, from the first network device or the second network device, a configuration associated with the at least one condition.

[0145] In some embodiments, the configuration is received via broadcasted system information. In some embodiments, the configuration is received via a dedicated message, wherein the dedicated message is a positioning protocol (PP) message.

[0146] In some embodiments, the configuration comprises at least one of the following: at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition; at least one candidate threshold for the at least one condition; a resource configuration for the at least one signal; a periodicity associated with the evaluation; or a time window for monitoring the at least one signal.

[0147] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for selecting at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition among the at least one candidate threshold; and means for transmitting the at least one selected threshold to the first network device or the second network device.

[0148] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for determining atleast one threshold associated with the at least one condition. In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for transmitting the at least one determined threshold to the first network device or the second network device.

[0149] In some embodiments, the means for evaluating whether the at least one condition is satisfied may include at least one of the following: means for comparing measurements on the at least one signal with at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition; or means for comparing a difference between measurements on the at least one signal and initial signal measurements with at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition. In some embodiments, the initial signal measurements are associated with at least one of the following: WUS, WUS beacons, or positioning reference signals.

[0150] In some embodiments, the at least one threshold comprises at least one of the following: a threshold for a path loss, a threshold for a signal strength, a threshold for an angle of arrival, a threshold for a direction of arrival, a threshold for a change in path loss, a threshold for a change in signal strength, a threshold for a change in angle of arrival, a threshold for a change in direction of arrival, or a threshold for failure numbers in decoding one or more signals among the at least one monitored signal.

[0151] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for determining that the at least one condition is satisfied. The means for determining that the at least one condition is satisfied may include means for determining a failure in decoding one or more signals among the at least one monitored signal, wherein a number of signals among the one or more signals reached a threshold associated with the at least one condition.

[0152] In some embodiments, the means for evaluating whether the at least one condition is satisfied may include means for evaluating whether the at least one condition is satisfied before a preconfigured positioning session. In some embodiments, the means for evaluating whether the at least one condition is satisfied may include means for evaluating whether the at least one condition is satisfied periodically or aperiodically.

[0153] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, omitting transmitting an indication of initiating a positioning session. In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, transmitting, to the first network device or the second network device, an indication of not initiating a positioning session.

[0154] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for monitoring the at least one signal in a first state; and means for based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, transitioning from the first state to a second state. In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for monitoring the at least one signal in a first state; and means for based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, keeping in the first state.

[0155] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for obtaining the initial signal measurements in a second state. In some embodiments, the first state comprises one of an idle state or an inactive state, and the second state comprises a connected state.

[0156] In some embodiments, the apparatus comprises a main radio (MR) and a low-power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR). The monitoring is performed by the LP-WUR. The apparatus may further include means for based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, activating the MR; or means for based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, keeping the MR deactivated. In some embodiments, the first network device is an access network device, and the second network device is a core network device.

[0157] In some embodiments, the apparatus further may include means for performing other steps in some embodiments of the method 400. In some embodiments, the means may include at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the performance of the apparatus.

[0158] In some embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing any of the method 500 (for example, the first network device 210) may comprise means for performing the respective steps of the method 500. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.

[0159] In some embodiments, the apparatus may include: means for transmitting, to a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation; means for transmitting, to the terminal device, at least one signal for an evaluation on the at least one condition; and means for receiving, from the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

[0160] In some embodiments, the at least one signal comprises at least one of the following: at least one wake-up signal (WUS); at least one WUS beacon; or one or more signals differentfrom WUS and WUS beacon.

[0161] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for receiving the configuration from a second network device. In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for transmitting the configuration to a second network device.

[0162] In some embodiments, the configuration is transmitted to the terminal device via broadcasted system information. In some embodiments, the configuration is transmitted to the terminal device via a dedicated message, wherein the dedicated message is a positioning protocol (PP) message.

[0163] In some embodiments, the configuration comprises at least one of the following: at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition; at least one candidate threshold for the at least one condition; a periodicity associated with an evaluation on the at least one condition; or a time window for monitoring the at least one signal.

[0164] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for receiving, from the terminal device, at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition among the at least one candidate threshold. In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for receiving, from the terminal device, at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition.

[0165] In some embodiments, the at least one threshold comprises at least one of the following: a threshold for a path loss, a threshold for a signal strength, a threshold for an angle of arrival, a threshold for a direction of arrival, a threshold for a change in path loss, a threshold for a change in signal strength, a threshold for a change in angle of arrival, a threshold for a change in direction of arrival, or a threshold for failure numbers in decoding one or more signals among the at least one signal.

[0166] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for transmitting, to a second network device, the indication of initiating the positioning session.

[0167] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for receiving, from the terminal device, an indication of not initiating a positioning session; and means for transmitting, to a second network device, the indication of not initiating the positioning session. In some embodiments, the first network device is an access network device, and the second network device is a core network device.

[0168] In some embodiments, the apparatus further may include means for performingother steps in some embodiments of the method 500. In some embodiments, the means may include at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the performance of the apparatus.

[0169] In some embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing any of the method 600 (for example, the second network device 240) may comprise means for performing the respective steps of the method 600. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.

[0170] In some embodiments, the apparatus may include: means for transmitting or receiving, to or from a first network device or a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation based on signal monitoring on at least one signal; and means for receiving, from the first network device or the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session with the terminal device.

[0171] In some embodiments, the at least one signal comprises at least one of the following: at least one wake-up signal (WUS); at least one WUS beacon; or one or more signals different from WUS and WUS beacon.

[0172] In some embodiments, the configuration comprises at least one of the following: at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition; at least one candidate threshold for the at least one condition; a periodicity associated with an evaluation on the at least one condition; or a time window for monitoring the at least one signal.

[0173] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for receiving, from the first network device or the terminal device, at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition among the at least one candidate threshold.

[0174] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for receiving, from the first network device or the terminal device, at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition.

[0175] In some embodiments, the at least one threshold comprises at least one of the following: a threshold for a path loss, a threshold for a signal strength, a threshold for an angle of arrival, a threshold for a direction of arrival, a threshold for a change in path loss, a threshold for a change in signal strength, a threshold for a change in angle of arrival, a threshold for a change in direction of arrival, or a threshold for failure numbers in decoding one or more signals among the at least one signal.

[0176] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for monitoring an indication of whether to initiate a positioning session with the terminal device before a preconfigured positioning session; and means for based on determining absence of an indication of initiating a positioning session or based on receiving an indication of not initiating a positioning session, omitting initiating the preconfigured positioning session, wherein positioning results of the terminal device in a previous imitated positioning session are valid. In some embodiments, the first network device is an access network device, and the second network device is a core network device.

[0177] In some embodiments, the apparatus further may include means for performing other steps in some embodiments of the method 600. In some embodiments, the means may include at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the performance of the apparatus.

[0178] Fig. 7 is a simplified block diagram of a device 700 that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 700 may be provided to implement the communication device, for example the terminal device 120 or the access network device 110 or a network entity in the core network 140 as shown in Fig. 1A. As shown, the device 700 includes one or more processors 710, one or more memories 720 coupled to the processor 710, and one or more communication modules 740 coupled to the processor 710.

[0179] The communication module 740 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 740 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements.

[0180] The processor 710 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 700 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

[0181] The memory 720 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 724, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM),a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD), a digital video disk (DVD), and other magnetic storage and / or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 722 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

[0182] A computer program 730 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 710. The program 730 may be stored in the ROM 720. The processor 710 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 730 into the RAM 720.

[0183] The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 730 so that the device 700 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to Figs. 2 to 6. The embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

[0184] In some embodiments, the program 730 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 700 (such as in the memory 720) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 700. The device 700 may load the program 730 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 722 for execution. The computer readable medium may include any types of tangible non-volatile storage, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. Fig. 8 shows an example of the computer readable medium 800 in form of CD or DVD. The computer readable medium has the program 730 stored thereon.

[0185] Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0186] The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The computer programproduct includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor, to carry out and of the methods, 400 or 600 as described above with reference to Figs. 4-6. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

[0187] Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions / operations specified in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

[0188] In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program codes or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

[0189] The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD- ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. The term “non-transitory,” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM).

[0190] Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

[0191] Although the present disclosure has been described in languages specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A terminal device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the terminal device at least to: monitor at least one signal from a first network device; evaluate, based on the monitoring, whether at least one condition for a positioning session initiation is satisfied; and based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, transmit, to the first network device or a second network device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

2. The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the at least one signal comprises at least one of the following: at least one wake-up signal (WUS), at least one WUS beacon, or one or more signals different from WUS and WUS beacon.

3. The terminal device of claim 1 or 2, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: receive, from the first network device or the second network device, a configuration associated with the at least one condition.

4. The terminal device of claim 3, wherein at least one of the following: the configuration is received via broadcasted system information; or the configuration is received via a dedicated message, wherein the dedicated message is a positioning protocol (PP) message.

5. The terminal device of claim 3 or 4, wherein the configuration comprises at least one of the following: at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition; at least one candidate threshold for the at least one condition; a resource configuration for the at least one signal;36a periodicity associated with the evaluation; or a time window for monitoring the at least one signal.

6. The terminal device of claim 5, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: select at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition among the at least one candidate threshold; and transmit the at least one selected threshold to the first network device.

7. The terminal device of any of claims 1-5, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: determine at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition.

8. The terminal device of claim 7, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: transmit the at least one determined threshold to the first network device or the second network device.

9. The terminal device of any of claims 1-8, wherein the terminal device is caused to evaluate whether the at least one condition is satisfied by at least one of the following: comparing measurements on the at least one signal with at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition; or comparing a difference between measurements on the at least one signal and initial signal measurements with at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition.

10. The terminal device of claim 9, wherein the initial signal measurements are associated with at least one of the following:WUS,WUS beacons, or positioning reference signals.

11. The terminal device of any of claims 5-10, wherein the at least one threshold comprises at least one of the following: a threshold for a path loss, a threshold for a signal strength, a threshold for an angle of arrival,a threshold for a direction of arrival, a threshold for a change in path loss, a threshold for a change in signal strength, a threshold for a change in angle of arrival, a threshold for a change in direction of arrival, or a threshold for failure numbers in decoding one or more signals among the at least one monitored signal.

12. The terminal device of any of claims 1-8, wherein the terminal device is caused to determine that the at least one condition is satisfied by: determining a failure in decoding one or more signals among the at least one monitored signal, wherein a number of signals among the one or more signals reached a threshold associated with the at least one condition.

13. The terminal device of any of claims 1-12, wherein the terminal device is caused to evaluate whether the at least one condition is satisfied before a preconfigured positioning session.

14. The terminal device of any of claims 1-13, wherein the terminal device is caused to evaluate whether the at least one condition is satisfied periodically or aperiodically.

15. The terminal device of any of claims 1-14, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, omit transmitting an indication of initiating a positioning session; or based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, transmit, to the first network device or the second network device, an indication of not initiating a positioning session.

16. The terminal device of any of claims 1-15, wherein the terminal device is caused to monitor the at least one signal in a first state, and the terminal device is further caused to: based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, transition from the first state to a second state; or based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, keep in the firststate.

17. The terminal device of claim 9 or 10, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: obtain the initial signal measurements in a second state.

18. The terminal device of claim 16 or 17, wherein the first state comprises one of an idle state or an inactive state, and the second state comprises a connected state.

19. The terminal device of any of claims 1-18, wherein the terminal device comprises a main radio (MR) and a low-power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR), the monitoring is performed by the LP-WUR, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, activate the MR; or based on determining that the at least one condition is not satisfied, keep the MR deactivated.

20. The terminal device of any of claims 1-19, wherein the first network device is an access network device, and the second network device is a core network device.

21. A first network device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first network device at least to: transmit, to a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation; transmit, to the terminal device, at least one signal for an evaluation on the at least one condition; and receive, from the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

22. The first network device of claim 21, wherein the at least one signal comprises at least one of the following: at least one wake-up signal (WUS); at least one WUS beacon; orone or more signals different from WUS and WUS beacon.

23. The first network device of claim 21 or 22, wherein the first network device is further caused to: receive the configuration from a second network device; or transmit the configuration to a second network device.

24. The first network device of any of claims 21-23, wherein at least one of the following: the configuration is transmitted to the terminal device via broadcasted system information; or the configuration is transmitted to the terminal device via a dedicated message, wherein the dedicated message is a positioning protocol (PP) message.

25. The first network device of any of claims 21-24, wherein the configuration comprises at least one of the following: at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition; at least one candidate threshold for the at least one condition; a periodicity associated with an evaluation on the at least one condition; or a time window for monitoring the at least one signal.

26. The first network device of claim 25, wherein the first network device is further caused to: receive, from the terminal device, at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition among the at least one candidate threshold.

27. The first network device of any of claims 21 -25, wherein the first network device is further caused to: receive, from the terminal device, at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition.

28. The first network device of any of claims 25-27, wherein the at least one threshold comprises at least one of the following: a threshold for a path loss,a threshold for a signal strength, a threshold for an angle of arrival, a threshold for a direction of arrival, a threshold for a change in path loss, a threshold for a change in signal strength, a threshold for a change in angle of arrival, a threshold for a change in direction of arrival, or a threshold for failure numbers in decoding one or more signals among the at least one signal.

29. The first network device of any of claims 21 -28, wherein the first network device is further caused to: transmit, to a second network device, the indication of initiating the positioning session.

30. The first network device of any of claims 21-28, wherein the first network device is further caused to: receive, from the terminal device, an indication of not initiating a positioning session; and transmit, to a second network device, the indication of not initiating the positioning session.

31. The first network device of any of claims 23, 29 or 30, wherein the first network device is an access network device, and the second network device is a core network device.

32. A second network device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second network device at least to: transmit or receive, to or from a first network device or a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation based on signal monitoring on at least one signal; and receive, from the first network device or the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session with the terminal device.

33. The second network device of claim 32, wherein the at least one signal comprises at least one of the following: at least one wake-up signal (WUS); at least one WUS beacon; or one or more signals different from WUS and WUS beacon.

34. The second network device of claim 32 or 33, wherein the configuration comprises at least one of the following: at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition; at least one candidate threshold for the at least one condition; a periodicity associated with an evaluation on the at least one condition; or a time window for monitoring the at least one signal.

35. The second network device of claim 34, wherein the second network device is further caused to: receive, from the first network device or the terminal device, at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition among the at least one candidate threshold.

36. The second network device of any of claims 32-34, wherein the second network device is further caused to: receive, from the first network device or the terminal device, at least one threshold associated with the at least one condition.

37. The second network device of any of claims 34-36, wherein the at least one threshold comprises at least one of the following: a threshold for a path loss, a threshold for a signal strength, a threshold for an angle of arrival, a threshold for a direction of arrival, a threshold for a change in path loss, a threshold for a change in signal strength, a threshold for a change in angle of arrival, a threshold for a change in direction of arrival, or42a threshold for failure numbers in decoding one or more signals among the at least one signal.

38. The second network device of any of claims 32-37, wherein the second network device is further caused to: monitor an indication of whether to initiate a positioning session with the terminal device before a preconfigured positioning session; and based on determining absence of an indication of initiating a positioning session or based on receiving an indication of not initiating a positioning session, omit initiating the preconfigured positioning session, wherein positioning results of the terminal device in a previous imitated positioning session are valid.

39. The second network device of any of claims 32-38, wherein the first network device is an access network device, and the second network device is a core network device.

40. A method performed by a terminal device, comprising: monitoring at least one signal from a first network device; evaluating, based on the monitoring, whether at least one condition for a positioning session initiation is satisfied; and based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, transmitting, to the first network device or a second network device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

41. A method performed by a first network device, comprising: transmitting, to a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation; transmitting, to the terminal device, at least one signal for an evaluation on the at least one condition; and receiving, from the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

42. A method performed by a second network device, comprising: transmitting or receiving, to or from a first network device or a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation based on signal monitoring on at least one signal; andreceiving, from the first network device or the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session with the terminal device.

43. An apparatus comprising: means for monitoring at least one signal from a first network device; means for evaluating, based on the monitoring, whether at least one condition for a positioning session initiation is satisfied; and means for based on determining that the at least one condition is satisfied, transmitting, to the first network device or a second network device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

44. An apparatus comprising: means for transmitting, to a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation; means for transmitting, to the terminal device, at least one signal for an evaluation on the at least one condition; and means for receiving, from the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session.

45. An apparatus comprising: means for transmitting or receiving, to or from a first network device or a terminal device, a configuration associated with at least one condition for a positioning session initiation based on signal monitoring on at least one signal; and means for receiving, from the first network device or the terminal device, an indication of initiating a positioning session with the terminal device.

46. A computer readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least one of the methods of claims 40-42.44

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