Method for communicating vehicle positioning information

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for communicating vehicle positioning information, wherein signals are transmitted from at least one antenna mounted on the vehicle to indicate a vehicle position to another entity; the signals include information relating to at least one of the identities of the at least one antenna, and information providing an offset between the at least one antenna and a boundary of the vehicle.

Description

1 / 26 METHOD FOR COMMUNICATING VEHICLE POSITIONING INFORMATION

[0001] The present invention relates to the generation of signals, for example, by a user equipment device to assist in providing vehicle positioning information.

[0002] A communication system deployed in accordance with the LTE specifications of the 3GPP package uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM, in a downlink direction (tower to device) and Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access, SC-FDMA, in an uplink direction (device to tower) on its wireless Uu interface, for example, on an air interface between a mobile device (User Equipment, UE) and a base station (eNodeB, eNB).

[0003] To enable coherent demodulation on the receiving side, reference signals (or pilot symbols) are inserted by the sending entity into the OFDM (downlink) or SC-FDMA (uplink) time-frequency resource network to enable channel estimation. Unlike a physical channel that carries information originating from higher layers of the protocol stack, physical signals correspond to a set of resource elements used by the physical layer itself and do not carry information originating from higher layers. Instead, they contain known symbols (e.g., predefined data sequences) called references or pilot symbols. Physical signals are generated and printed directly at the PHY level onto specific (e.g., predefined) resource elements.

[0004] Downlink reference symbols (cell-specific reference signals) are inserted between the first and third-to-last OFDM symbol of each aperture (this corresponds to the fifth OFDM symbol of the aperture in the case of normal cyclic prefix) with a frequency domain spacing of six subcarriers. In addition, there is an incredible frequency domain of three subcarriers between the first Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 15 / 47 2 / 26 and the second reference symbol. Consequently, there are four reference symbols within each resource block (for example, in a block consisting of twelve subcarriers and seven OFDM symbols in the case of normal cyclic prefix). The user's equipment will interpolate across multiple reference symbols to estimate channel quality.

[0005] In the case of two transmitting antennas, reference signals are inserted from each antenna where the reference signals from the second antenna are shifted in the frequency domain by the three subcarriers. To allow the user's equipment to accurately estimate the channel coefficients, nothing is transmitted on the other antenna at the same time-frequency location as the reference signals. This means that, on those feature elements where antenna #0 sends its reference signal R0, antenna #1 does not send any information provided by the upper layers nor its own reference signals R1 (and vice versa). Doing this ensures that the receiving user's equipment can estimate the quality of two spatially separate radio channels (i.e., one for antenna #0 and another for antenna #1). The same principle can be extended to four distinct antennas and so on.

[0006] Reference symbols have complex values. More information on the reference symbols to be used in a downlink direction can be found in section 6.10.1 of 3GPP TS 36.211.

[0007] There are also two types of reference signals for uplink direction in LTE.

[0008] The first type is a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) that is used to enable coherent signal demodulation in the eNodeB. These signals are time-multiplexed with uplink data and are transmitted on the fourth or third SC-FDMA symbol of an uplink opening to normal or extended CP, respectively, using the same Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 16 / 47 3 / 26 bandwidth that the data. DM-RS are associated with uplink resources used for PUSCH or PUCCH transmission.

[0009] The second type is a sound reference signal (SRS) that is used to enable channel-dependent uplink scaling (e.g., frequency selective), as DM-RS cannot be used for this purpose since they are allocated in the bandwidth assigned to a UE. The SRS is presented as a wider-bandwidth reference signal, typically transmitted in the last SC-FDMA symbol of a 1ms subframe. User data transmission is not permitted in this part of the resource network, resulting in approximately a 7% reduction in uplink capacity. The SRS is an optional feature and is highly configurable for auxiliary control; it can even be switched on or off in a given cell. Users with different transmission bandwidths share this sound channel in the frequency domain.

[0010] More information about reference signals to be used in the uplink direction can be found in section 5.5 of 3GPP TS 36.211.

[0011] Additionally, details about the LTE physical layer and Reports in general can, for example, be found in a newsletter titled "LTE in a Nutshell: The Physical Layer" by Telesystem. Innovations, http: / / www.tsiwireless.com / docs / whitepapers / LTE%20in%20a%20Nutshell% 20-%20Physical%20Layer.pdf

[0012] In the context of the present invention, any type of reference signal, such as the downlink or uplink reference signals discussed above, can be used as a unique antenna identifier. Therefore, different reference symbols are used for each antenna.

[0013] Other types of reference signals directly printed on the physical layer in certain LTE downlink resource network feature elements (and therefore not carrying any Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 17 / 47 4 / 26 information provided by the upper layers of the protocol stack) are the LTE synchronization signals.

[0014] In each downlink resource structure, regardless of the configured bandwidth, primary or secondary synchronization symbols are located in the last two symbols of openings #0 and #10. These are not spread across the entire carrier bandwidth; instead, they are only extended within the six internal resource blocks (RBs), for example, from RB#47 to RB#52 (this RB numbering is valid only for a system bandwidth of 20 MHz. In the case of a lower bandwidth system, the numbering differs; in any case, the synchronization symbols are located around the DC carrier).

[0015] Primary synchronization signals, PSS, are: - located in the six internal resource blocks (RBs) centered around the DC carrier at symbol #6 of aperture #0 (in subframe #0) and aperture #10 (in subframe #5); - constructed from a Zadoff-Chu sequence spanning 62 Three different sequences are defined, selected based on the physical cell ID; - out of the 72 subcarriers, only 62 are carrying PSS data; - the remaining 10 subcarriers (5 on each side) are extended with zeros; - Used for downlink frame synchronization; - Used to determine the physical cell ID (along with secondary synchronization signals, SSS).

[0016] In an LTE TDD system, PSSs are mapped to the third symbol of the first aperture in subframes #1 and #6.

[0017] Secondary synchronization signals, SSS, are: Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 18 / 47 5 / 26 - located in the six internal resource blocks (RBs) centered around the DC carrier at symbol #5 in aperture #0 (subframe #0) and aperture #10 (subframe #5); - The SSS sequence used in subframe #0 is different from the one used in subframe #5; Three different sequences 168 are defined, selected based on the physical cell ID; - consisting of 62 encoded sequences (based on the m-sequence calculation); The values ​​in odd-indexed feature elements and those in even-indexed feature elements are generated from different equations. - Used for downlink frame synchronization; - used to determine the physical cell ID (along with the PSS).

[0018] In an LTE TDD system, SSS are mapped to the last symbol of the second aperture of subframes #0 and #5.

[0019] The location of the PSS / SSS symbol in the time domain is different between an FDD and a TDD system, as this helps the UE identify whether it is an FDD or TDD system.

[0020] Since the PSS / SSS location is always fixed in the frequency domain, the UE can easily perform a correlation in the expected band to achieve the PSS / SSS, from which the UE can acquire many parameters, such as the physical cell ID (PCID), the FDD versus TDD duplexing mode (from the PSS / SSS location in the time domain), the subframe number (from the SSS sequence), and aperture delimitation information.

[0021] The PSS and SSS together define the physical cell ID (PCID) of a radio cell. A UE detects the physical layer identity from the PSS and the physical layer cell identity group from the Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 19 / 47 6 / 26 SSS. As discussed above, there are three different PSS (= Layer_ID) and 168 different SSS (= Group_ID), limiting the maximum number of PCIDs to 504. The PCID is composed according to the following formula: PCID = 3 * Group_ID + Layer_ID

[0022] Vehicular communication services include the following four different types: vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-network (V2N), and vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P), generally referred to as “V2X services”.

[0023] LTE support for vehicular communication was studied and specified in 3GPP during the Rel-14 timeframe, as widely deployed LTE networks provide an excellent opportunity for the automotive industry to realize the vision of “connected cars”. The result of the 3GPP feasibility study was summarized in TR 36.885 with the conclusion that it is feasible to support V2X services through the LTE PC5 interface with necessary improvements (regarding sidelink resource allocation, physical layer structure and synchronization).

[0024] The study also considered vehicular communication scenarios based not only on the LTE PC5 “sidelink” interface, but also on the LTE UE to base station Uu interface (and a combination of Uu and PC5). Maximum efficiency of V2X services can be achieved by selecting / changing the appropriate operating scenario.

[0025] LTE Uu air interfaces support uplink and downlink traffic, the LTE PC5 air interface is the sidelink interface that is of particular relevance to this invention.

[0026] Parking Units (RSUs) can be deployed as stationary entities (e.g., mounted on street furniture) that communicate via the LTE PC5 air interface with vehicles (or pedestrians, or other RSUs) and offer an LTE Uu wireless connection to nearby base stations or a direct S1 connection within the core network. Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 20 / 47 7 / 26

[0027] The basic structure defined in LTE Rel-14 improves the LTE PC5 and LTE Uu air interfaces, optimizing LTE technology for multiple V2X use cases. Specifically, the following key changes were introduced: improved sidelink physical structure to enhance demodulation performance in high-speed scenarios, GNSS-based synchronization support, sensor-based resource selection for UE autonomous operating mode, semi-persistent transmission, and sidelink scaling. Additionally, the use of vehicle location information for improved radio resource management was enabled for UE autonomous and eNB controlled operating modes to benefit V2X communication execution.

[0028] Recently, a need has been identified for more accurate and reliable V2X positioning (as per 3GPP TR 22.886) which could be achieved in V2X through multiple technologies, including but not limited to GNSS, camera insertion, lidar, radar, and mobility sensors. All these approaches have their own technical advantages and disadvantages. Positioning improvements for V2X services are likely to depend on (a combination of) several technologies to provide more reliable and accurate positioning performance.

[0029] According to 3GPP TR 22.886, in the future, the system 3GPP should support a relative position accuracy of 0.1 m, and a longitudinal position accuracy of less than 0.5 m for UEs that support V2X applications.

[0030] In Seminar #75 3GPP TSG RAN, it was proposed (as per documents RP-170427 and RP-170428) to further investigate vehicle positioning technologies for LTE technology (with the intention of reusing the results, if possible, in the successor “5G” LTE technology later). In this context, distance measurements in Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 21 / 47 The 8 / 26 TLE PC5 air interface was mentioned in order to enable precise intravehicular distance measurements and vehicle positioning. It was also stated that even GNSS-based solutions may not provide sufficient accuracy for V2X positioning (or may not be available to all in some deployment scenarios, such as underground parking lots, etc.).

[0031] Distance measurements based on the LTE air interface PC5 can be considered one of the most promising solutions for estimating relative distances between vehicles. In some scenarios, these LTE-based PC5 solutions can be considered a complementary design option that can facilitate an overall improvement in V2X positioning performance.

[0032] The LTE PC5 air interface uses the same frequency / timing resources that are also specified for uplink transmissions on the LTE Uu air interface; for example, in the case of FDD-LTE, uplink carrier frequencies are used, and in the case of TDD-LTE, uplink subframes are used for sidelink communication within a given cell. The following PSxCH physical sidelink channels have been defined: The Physical Sidelink Transmission Channel (PSBCH) carries system-related and synchronization information. The Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH) carries the sidelink discovery message. The Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH) carries control information for sidelink communication. Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH) carries the actual data for sidelink communication.

[0033] Sidelink transmission uses the same basic transmission scheme as the UL transmission scheme. However, sidelink is Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 22 / 47 9 / 26 is limited to a single grouping of transmissions for all physical sidelink channels. Additionally, the sidelink typically uses a symbol interval at the end of each sidelink subframe. For V2X sidelink communication, PSCCH and PSSCH are transmitted in the same subframe. Sidelink physical layer processing differs from UL transmission in the following steps: Codification: For PSDCH and PSCCH, the encoding is not EU-specific. Modulation: QAM is not supported for sidelink communication.

[0034] The following were defined for the two types of physical sidelink signals: Sidelink Synchronization Signals (SLSS), and Sidelink Demodulation Reference Signals (DM-RS).

[0035] Figure 1 represents (a subset of) a sidelink resource pool. Such a (subset of) resource pool may appear multiple times per subframe in different parts of the frequency range. Sidelink Synchronization Signals (SLSS) are made up of Primary Sidelink Synchronization Signals (PSSS) and Secondary Sidelink Synchronization Signals (SSSS) similar to the signals used in the older LTE Uu downlink resource network. In the example in Figure 1, there is a restriction to six physical resource blocks (PRBs), as the focus of this section is on SLSS that do not extend beyond these PRBs; in authentic installations, (a subset of) a sidelink resource pool may have a wider bandwidth. Furthermore, when other physical channels (e.g., other than the PSBCH shown in Figure 1) are mapped to the various resource elements of the structure, the location of the synchronization signals may vary.This is not shown in Figure 1 for the sake of simplicity. Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 23 / 47 10 / 26

[0036] Demodulation Reference Signals (DM-RS) associated with various PSxCH physical sidelink channels (such as PSSCH, PSCCH, PSDCH and PSBCH) must be transmitted according to the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) on the LTE Uu air interface with some exceptions, as defined in section 9.8 of TS 36.211.

[0037] For PSDCH and PSCCH, reference signals are created based on a fixed base sequence, cyclic shift, and orthogonal cover code. For V2X sidelink communication, the cyclic shift for PSCCH is randomly selected in each transmission.

[0038] Another exception is the extension of the sidelink sequence DM-RS equals the number (e.g., the number of sub-carriers) of allocated resources.

[0039] Yet another exception is that, for sidelink communication In V2X, reference signals are transmitted at the 3rd and 6th symbols of the first aperture and the 2nd and 5th symbols of the second aperture for PSSCH and PSCCH in the case of normal CP, and at the 5th and 7th symbols of the first aperture and the 3rd symbol of the second aperture for PSBCH, for example, more frequently than Figure 1 suggests.

[0040] The antenna port number is the same for all physical sidelink channels. Therefore, transmission or reception when using multiple antennas simultaneously is not currently specified for the sidelink.

[0041] JP 2005 / 241486 describes a means for accurately measuring a distance to a preceding vehicle and a distance to a following vehicle, from a prescribed vehicle, under a low-cost condition using radar signals.

[0042] WO 2016 / 159712 A1 describes a V2X communication protocol in which a device can transmit messages, including position, type, and direction information. The position information can provide an absolute position of the device using GPS data or a relative position. Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 24 / 47 11 / 26

[0043] WO 2017 / 007285 A1, also published as EP 3 322 234 A1 describes a D2D system with synchronization based on satellite synchronization.

[0044] As mentioned above, the first ideas for implementation in Rel-15 had been submitted to 3GPP TSG RAN on the topic of “high-precision positioning for vehicles”. In this context, some companies proposed using the PC5 radio connection between vehicles for direct variation measurements. This attempt is based on requirements defined by the 3GPP SA1 working group, which wanted to reduce the measurement granularity to the centimeter range.

[0045] To date, discussions and visualizations have been based on a scenario in which there is only one antenna mounted centrally on the roof of a vehicle. Vehicles equipped with multiple antennas, as requested to support MIMO, have not yet been discussed.

[0046] However, determining the exact distance for one or more antennas mounted on a vehicle is not helpful for future discussions of V2V variation in 3GPP, simply because of the wide variety in vehicle models: one car may be equipped with a single antenna located centrally on the roof of the vehicle, while another car may be equipped with two planar antennas integrated into the windows on either side of the vehicle, and yet another car may be equipped with a set of four antennas, two located at the front (e.g., on the front bumper or mounted on the engine hood) and two at the rear (e.g., on the rear bumper or on the trunk lid). Also, an average passenger car has dimensions of approximately four or five meters in length and up to two meters in width.

[0047] Thus, there will be unacceptable uncertainty regarding the actual distance to the outer boundaries and vehicle margins. This Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 25 / 47 12 / 26 The problem cannot be solved solely by improving the accuracy of distance measurements between antennas. Therefore, the objective of this invention is to define additional means to improve distance measurement methods (especially in the PC5 air interface for V2X use cases) to obtain reliable distances for external boundaries and vehicle margins instead of distances for an antenna with an uncertain mounting position.

[0048] The present invention provides a method of communicating vehicle positioning information, wherein signals are transmitted from at least one antenna mounted on the vehicle to indicate a vehicle position to another entity, the signals include information relating to at least one of the identities of the at least one antenna and information providing an offset between the at least one antenna and a vehicle boundary.

[0049] In a first aspect of the invention, each vehicle antenna can disseminate a signal that allows corrections to be made (e.g., in lateral dimension and / or longitudinal dimension and / or altitudinal dimension) when distances between vehicles are being calculated for high vehicle positioning accuracy.

[0050] For this purpose, the signs may, for example, include: explicit geometric displacement value(s) (lateral and / or longitudinal and / or altitudinal) of the antenna positions relative to the respective vehicle edge(s), or means of allowing derivation of the relative position(s) of the respective antenna(s) towards the external boundaries of the vehicle, such as a unique antenna identifier (e.g., “unique” per vehicle); or Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 26 / 47 13 / 26 an irregular antenna position (e.g., whether it is a front antenna, an antenna mounted on the right / left side of the vehicle, or a rear antenna); or the vehicle type (e.g., information about the manufacturer, model, body design, model year, and so on); or a unique vehicle identifier (e.g., “unique” by region where the calculations supposedly take place), or the number of active antennas on the vehicle for that particular measurement.

[0051] In a second aspect of the present invention, geometric dimensions of the (relevant part(s) of the) vehicle are derived from the antenna signals (for example, by means of database queries), in the case where the geometric displacement value(s) is / are not (or cannot be) explicitly signaled.

[0052] A third aspect of the invention provides different encoding options for the information of the first aspect: Methods are provided for printing the signals onto a physical layer of the PC5 air interface, for example by reusing or redirecting (a subset of) the existing DM-RS; reuse or repurpose (a subset of) existing SLSS; or introduce new physical signals (e.g., Distance Determination Reference Signals, DD-RS) into the respective resource network. Additionally (or as an alternative to printing information onto physical signals), the first aspect information can be transmitted via physical PSxCH sidelink channels (e.g., in PSSCH or PSBCH), the information being obtained from the upper layers in the protocol stack. This approach can be used when the amount of data to be transmitted is becoming larger (e.g., “This car is equipped with four antennas in total, one located at each end. Antenna-ID#xyz1 is assigned to the front right end, Antenna-ID#xyz2 is assigned to the front left end, and so on”). Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, p. 27 / 47 14 / 26

[0053] A fourth aspect of the invention provides activation and deactivation of signals as needed, including signaling flows between two or more vehicles.

[0054] A fifth aspect of the invention is a dynamic change of the symbol rate and occupancy pattern for insertion of the signals in the time domain depending on the scenario (e.g., having more symbols of the signals for fast-moving vehicles and fewer for slow-moving vehicles or parked vehicles) depending on the scenario (e.g., driving at high speed on a highway as opposed to maneuvering at low speed in a garage).

[0055] Depending on the type of vehicle, there may be static and dynamic antenna configurations. The activation and deactivation of these types of antenna signals for antennas that are not active / required all the time is a sixth aspect of the present invention.

[0056] The invention enables high-precision positioning for vehicles. Previously, only the distance between two (or more) antennas mounted on vehicles could be measured, which does not meet SA1's requirements of reducing the granularity to the centimeter range for lateral and longitudinal vehicle positioning.

[0057] In detail, the present invention provides the following benefits: Knowledge of the antenna's position relative to the geometric dimensions (e.g., external boundaries) of the respective vehicle(s) is essential for the high-precision positioning use case, as the vehicle dimensions, antenna mounting point(s), and number of antennas can vary between different vehicles (as per the first and second aspects). Reusing already specified physical signals is beneficial because no additional effort is required to perform distance measurements. Furthermore, wireless communication can occur simultaneously without... Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 28 / 47 15 / 26 any limitations (i.e., in those resource elements that are not attributed to physical signals). Using special physical signals will be beneficial, as the signal could be designed to transmit even higher precision (as per the third aspect). On-demand activation and deactivation is beneficial because it saves resources when distance measurements are not requested (as per the fourth aspect). The dynamic change in symbol rate (as per the fifth aspect) is beneficial because it saves resources when a low number of symbols is sufficient, while enabling high precision distance measurements in difficult situations (e.g., fast-moving vehicles, ...). The dynamic antenna configuration (as per the sixth aspect) is beneficial because it also saves resources when a low number of antennas is sufficient, while enabling high-precision distance measurement in complex situations (e.g., high propagation loss or changing external boundaries).

[0058] Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, in relation to the accompanying figures, in which: Figure 1 shows a known sidelink resource network for use on an LTE PC5 interface including primary and secondary sidelink synchronization signals and a physical sidelink transmission channel; Figure 2 illustrates a first vehicle positioning scenario with two vehicles: Figure 3 shows a sidelink resource network for a vehicle with two antennas; Figure 4 is a diagram of the message sequence for activating and deactivating vehicle positioning; Figure 5 is a second graph of the message sequence for speed-dependent vehicle positioning; and Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, page 29 / 47 16 / 26 Figure 6 shows an example of a dynamic antenna configuration.

[0059] Referring to Figure 2, a schematic relationship is shown between two vehicles 1 and 2 implementing the present invention. Each of the vehicles has two antennas, A1.1, A1.2, A2.1 and A2.2, with each antenna being positioned at a known location relative to the boundaries of the respective vehicles. As shown, antenna A1.2 is located at a distance AO1.2long from the rear boundary of vehicle 1, and antenna A2.1 is located at a distance AO2.1long from the front boundary of vehicle 2 (the subscript “long” indicating that the distance is in a longitudinal direction).

[0060] In a first mode, antenna signals are disseminated that allow corrections to be made for high precision vehicle positioning.

[0061] In this embodiment, each vehicle antenna disseminates distance determination reference signals (DD-RS) on a sidelink resource network that is used on the LTE PC5 air interface. These DD-RSs may, for example, comprise an antenna ID (which is ideally unique at the respective location), or may comprise an antenna ID (which is unique per vehicle) plus a vehicle ID (which is ideally unique in the respective area). Here, vehicle 1 has encoded the following exemplary antenna IDs in the physical DD-RS signals, which are transmitted on resource elements reserved for their respective antennas: The front antenna is A1.1 and the rear antenna is A1.2. Similarly, vehicle 2 uses the following antenna identifiers represented by its physical DD-RS signals: the front antenna is A2.1 and the rear antenna is A2.2.

[0062] In addition, each vehicle is enabled to transmit on any of the available PSxCH physical sidelink channels, such as PSBCH, an individual set of distance information (primarily Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, pp. 30 / 47 17 / 26 geometric). In one embodiment, such an individual set may be associated with a sidelink discovery message, or included in a SidelinkUEInformation RRC message. In another embodiment, this individual set may be part of (or associated with) a new message type, specifically defined for variation purposes.

[0063] In this configuration, all antennas are mounted very close to the vehicle's outer boundaries and are centrally positioned on the engine hood or trunk (or, alternatively, on the front and rear bumpers). The height above road level can be omitted in this example for simplicity.

[0064] In the example, vehicle 1 transmits the following data set: Vehicle ID: abcd1234 Vehicle type: Mid-size car Number of active antennas: 2 Antenna A1.1 = front antenna, located centrally, 0 mm from the front edge of the car. Antenna A1.2 = rear antenna, centrally located 40 mm from the rear edge of the car. Vehicle 2 transmits the following data set: Vehicle ID: dcba4321 Vehicle type: Large car Number of active antennas: 2 Antenna A2.1 = front antenna, centrally located 75 mm from the front edge of the car. Antenna A2.2 = rear antenna, centrally located, 60 mm from the rear edge of the car.

[0065] In one mode, some details of the sets defined above are not transmitted. Instead, each Vehicle ID transmitted individually from the car is used to derive the others. Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, pp. 31 / 47 18 / 26 information, for example, that relating to the external boundaries of the respective car, from a database or through an algorithm.

[0066] Each of the two vehicles involved can now perform a distance determination method according to the following principles.

[0067] Vehicle 1 is informed of the geometric offset of its own antennas A1.1 and A1.2. For example, this geometric data has been stored in an internal vehicle storage. Vehicle 1 uses its own antenna A1.2 for rear measurements (e.g., in order to determine the distance to following vehicles). From several DD-RSs transmitted by vehicle 2 as physical reference signals (one per antenna mounted on vehicle 2) and the set of variation information received on one of the physical sidelink channels PSxCH, vehicle 1 knows which antenna reference signal to use (and which to disregard) for distance measurements plus the respective antenna geometric offset, i.e., the front antenna A2.1 with an offset of 75 mm. The distance measurement by itself (e.g., obtaining the value “Dai.2-a2.i”) is done by known means and not part of this invention, for example, by calculating the travel time of the received DD-RS wave and multiplying it by the speed of light. VDlong = DA1.2-A2.1 — AO2.1long — AO1.2long VDlong = ÜA1.2—A2.1 - (75 mm + 40 mm) VDlong = DA1.2-A2.1 - 115 mm

[0068] In order to determine the distance between two vehicles, the geometric details relating to other antennas (such as antenna A2.2) should not be taken into account, and the reference signals transmitted by these antennas (e.g., antenna A2.2) do not have to be analyzed. The term Dai.2-a2.i is the distance measured between antennas A1.2 and A2.1, while the subtrahend in the formula above represents a correction factor. The result “VDlong” is the distance between the front edge of vehicle 2 and the Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, pp. 32 / 47 19 / 26 rear margin of vehicle 1. In the exemplary syntax Ax.y chosen above, the letter “x” represents the vehicle and the letter “y” specifies the antenna associated with that vehicle. For the front antenna, “y” is set to “1”, for the rear antenna, “y” is set to “2”. Other syntactic structures and / or other values ​​are also clearly possible.

[0069] A vehicle may also use the various antenna identifiers received as physical reference signals from other nearby vehicles to retrieve the desired set(s) of variation information from a database, for example if the transmission of variation information from other vehicles on any of the PSxCH physical sidelink channels on the PC5 air interface is faulty or if there is no transmission. The antenna identifiers may be encoded in the form of a reference or link, for example, pointing to a file storage location in a data repository. The reference or link may consist of, or include, a form of Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or derivation thereof. The database may be a logical entity consisting of several distributed physical memory entities, and any set of variation information may be stored therein in part or in its entirety.The database may reside in (at least one of) the vehicle(s) or on some tertiary servers on the internet, or both; and database queries may occur, for example, at the application layer, for example, at the PC5 air interface or the LTE Uu air interface, or both.

[0070] Figure 3 shows an example of a sidelink resource network in which certain resource elements (here: two for each antenna) are reserved for the DD-RS physical signals that can be configured to carry antenna identifiers. The different DDRS physical signals are distributed in the sidelink resource network example with an offset in the time domain to one another, considering that Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, pp. 33 / 47 20 / 26 different symbols of the same physical DD-RS signal are separated in frequency domain. A feature element Rx.1 that is used by a first antenna Ax.1 for dissemination of its unique physical DD-RS signal is not used by the second antenna Ax.2 (and vice versa). Thus, the receiving antenna is not required to estimate the quality of all spatially separated radio features; instead, the receiving side is only required to measure on features that are assigned to the DD-RSs (and the related antenna(s)) that are relevant, as indicated in the variation information set (depending on the use case).

[0071] In another example, some or all antennas are using the same time-frequency resources with different DD-RSs for each antenna. This is advantageous as it saves resources.

[0072] In yet another example, all antennas use the same DD-RS, but different time-frequency features. This is advantageous because the receiver can be built more simply, since only one correlator will be used to derive the distance for all antennas, instead of a correlator for each antenna. For this method to work properly, it must be clearly defined which antenna is using which time-frequency feature.

[0073] A set of (mostly geometric) distance information, for example, obtained from the upper layers in the protocol stack, can be transmitted through any of the PSxCH physical sidelink channels (for example, in the PSSCH or the PSBCH).

[0074] A possible encoding option in ASN.1 notation for the variation information set is provided below. In the present example with two antennas per vehicle, the variable “maxAntennas” takes the value of “2”, so that the portion named “AntennaGeoDetails” appears twice, firstly for antenna Ax.1, for example, the front antenna of vehicle 'x' and secondly for antenna Ax.2, for example, the rear antenna on vehicle 'x'. The variable Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, pp. 34 / 47 21 / 26 “Antenna-ID” is used to correlate the DD-RS transmitted through the physical layer reference signals with the corresponding set(s) of variation information transmitted through any of the PSxCH physical sidelink channels. The DD-RS is generated using the Antenna-ID. Any sequences with good correlation properties can be used, for example, Zadoff-Chu sequences such as those used in LTE for random access preambles (as per 3GPP TS 36.211, chapter 5.7.2). In this case, the Antenna-ID is mapped to a root serial number “u” and a value for the cyclic shift “N_CS”. This mapping could be done statically, for example, specified in a standard and the mapping table is stored on mobile devices, or the mapping table is signaled to mobile devices, or the values ​​of “u” and “N_CS” are signaled directly as variation information, instead of transmitting Antenna-IDs. -- ASN1START Ranginginformation ::= SEQUENCE { Vehicle-ID ::= OCTET STRING, VehicleType ::= ENUMERATED {bicyle, motorcycle, midsize-car, fullsize-car, bus, truck, ...}, Link ::= OCTET STRING, NumberOfAntennas ::= ENUMERATED {1, 2, 4, 8}, Platooning ::= SEQUENCE { MemberOfPlatoon ::= BOOLEAN, PositionInPlatoon ::= ENUMERATED {first, middle, last},} ShuntingSpace ::= SEQUENCE { ShuntingSpaceFront ::= ENUMERATED {cm10, cm20, cm30, cm40, cm50,...}, ShuntingSpaceLeft ::= ENUMERATED {cm10, cm20, cm30, cm40, cm50,...}, ShuntingSpaceRight ::= ENUMERATED {cm10, cm20, cm30, cm40, cm50,.}, ShuntingSpaceRear ::= ENUMERATED {cm10, cm20, cm30, cm40, cm50,...},} LoadingZone ::= SEQUENCE { LoadingZoneFront ::= ENUMERATED {m0.5, m1, m1.5, m2, m2.5, m3,...}, LoadingZoneLeft ::= ENUMERATED {m0.5, m1, m1.5, m2, m2.5, m3,...}, LoadingZoneRight ::= ENUMERATED {m0.5, m1, m1.5, m2, m2.5, m3,.}, LoadingZoneRear ::= ENUMERATED {m0.5, m1, m1.5, m2, m2.5, m3,.},} AntennaGeoDetailsList ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..maxAntennas)) OF AntennaGeoDetails} AntennaGeoDetails SEQUENCE { Antenna-ID ::= OCTET STRING, AntennaType ::= ENUMERATED {Static, Dynamic}, OperationMode ::= ENUMERATED {On, Off}, Position ::= ENUMERATED {front, left, right, rear, mid, upper, lower, ...}, DetailedPosition ::= ENUMERATED {front-left, front-centre, front-right,., rear-left, rear-centre, rear-right}, FrontOffset ::= ENUMERATED {mm5, mm10, mm15, mm20, mm25, mm30,.}, LeftOffset ::= ENUMERATED {mm5, mm10, mm15, mm20, mm25, mm30, .}, RightOffset ::= ENUMERATED {mm5, mm10, mm15, mm20, mm25, mm30,.}, RearOffset ::= ENUMERATED {mm5, mm10, mm15, mm20, mm25, mm30,.}, Height ::= ENUMERATED {mm100, mm200, mm300, mm400, mm500,.}} Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, pp. 35 / 47 22 / 26 -- ASN1STOP

[0075] The ASN.1 structure above also allows the expression of additional space requirements that a vehicle may have for maneuvering or loading / unloading products.

[0076] The “Link” information element may contain a reference (for example, a model-specific reference in the form of a URL) to database queries as described above. Consequently, some parts of the structure proposed above may alternatively be derived from said database.

[0077] Each vehicle transmits an individual set of distance information. In one embodiment, such an individual set may be associated with (or included in) a sidelink verification message, or a SidelinkUEInformation RRC message. In another embodiment, this individual set may be part of (or associated with) a new message type specifically defined for variation purposes.

[0078] Two information elements, “AntennaType” and “OperationMode,” are included in view of a use case described below, in which the external boundaries of a vehicle can change dynamically, for example, when a truck pulling a trailer is making a turn.

[0079] As indicated, a fourth aspect of the invention is the activation and deactivation of the signals as needed. Figure 4 shows an exemplary signaling flow between vehicles 1 and 2.

[0080] Vehicle 1 may request (“Activate Variation”) the transmission of at least one of two pieces of information from vehicle 2, namely, the set of (primarily geometric) distance information and / or antenna identifiers. The foregoing may be received from the upper layers of the protocol stack and transmitted on the PC5 air interface on any of the PSxCH physical sidelink channels (e.g., associated with or included in a sidelink check message or a SidelinkUEInformation RRC message, or it may be part of a new type of Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, pp. 36 / 47 23 / 26 message specifically defined for variation purposes). The former can be directly printed onto the physical layer as reference signals. The order of these two different types of information in Figure 4 was chosen arbitrarily and may differ in actual deployments. Vehicle 1 can request two pieces of information from vehicle 2 once or repeatedly. Each piece of information can therefore be transmitted only once or repeatedly. This is not shown in Figure 4 for simplicity.

[0081] The trigger message (“Activate Variation”) sent by vehicle 1 can be transmitted as a sidelink transmission message on the PC5 interface for multiple vehicles. Alternatively, the trigger message sent by vehicle 1 is transmitted as a sidelink message on the dedicated PC5 interface for a single vehicle.

[0082] Based on the information received from vehicle 2, the vehicle is enabled to select the relevant antenna(s) A2.y for variation measurements and to apply a correction factor to arrive at the correct distance between the vehicles in question, as described above.

[0083] The message sequence in Figure 4 ends with a terminal message (“Disable Variation”) that can be transmitted by vehicle 1 on the PC5 air interface either as a sidelink transmission message to multiple vehicles or as a dedicated sidelink message to a single vehicle.

[0084] In yet another embodiment, the relative speed between two vehicles is used to alter the symbol rate of reference signs. The relative speed could, for example, be derived as follows. Vehicle 1 can inform (as per “Speed ​​Indication #1” in Figure 5) vehicle 2 about its speed V1 (or about a desired periodicity for the transmission of the (mainly geometric) set of variation information and / or the DD-RS). Vehicle 2 can then calculate the relative speed VR between the vehicles and Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, pages 37 / 47 24 / 26 use this value to control the DD-RS dissemination pattern on its own antennas A2.y. In the next step, vehicle 2 can inform vehicle 1 of its own speed V2 or of the relative speed VR or both (as per Speed ​​Indication #2 in Figure 12). Vehicle 1, in turn, can now calculate the relative speed VR' on its own (and verify the relative speed VR received from vehicle 2) and use the result of these operations to control the DDRS dissemination pattern on its own antennas A1.y. If necessary, vehicle 1 can inform vehicle 2 about the verification of the results and possibly provide a modified relative speed VR* to vehicle 2 (as per Speed ​​Indication #3 in Figure 5). This feedback can be used to tune the DD-RS dissemination pattern of vehicle 2. In another example, the relative speed is derived from the Doppler frequency of the received sidelink signals.In yet another example, relative velocity is calculated from changes over time in the measured distance.

[0085] The message sequence in Figure 5 can be repeated several times, partially or in its entirety. Vehicles can also negotiate a duration for the dissemination of a DD-RS sequence with a fixed periodicity. This is not shown in Figure 5 for simplicity.

[0086] In this approach, the relative velocities VR, VR' or The relative speed (VR) between the two vehicles can determine the dissemination periodicity of the antenna identifiers. This means that if vehicle 1 is moving at low speed and vehicle 2 is moving at high speed, then the dissemination periodicity of various DD-RS (Digital Differential Reports) on the various antennas may need to be increased. Conversely, if vehicle 1 is moving at a certain speed and vehicle 2 is moving at a similar speed, then the dissemination periodicity of various DD-RS on the various antennas can be reduced. To achieve this, limits pertaining to the relative speed between the vehicles can be applied. Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, pages 38 / 47 25 / 26 are planned and used in the respective vehicles to control DD-RS occupancy patterns in the resource network and thus also the symbol rate (e.g., dissemination periodicity).

[0087] Alternatively, or in addition to relative speed, the symbol rate change and / or occupancy pattern for time-domain signal insertion can be controlled by the ground speed of the respective vehicle, for example, so that more DD-RS symbols are sent for fast-moving vehicles and fewer for slow-moving or parking vehicles.

[0088] Depending on the type of vehicle, there may be static and dynamic antenna configurations for the method, as will be explained below.

[0089] Figure 6 shows a tractor / trailer combination on a curve. As can be easily seen from Figure 6, the outer boundaries of the vehicle change dynamically as the vehicle moves. For example, new boundaries appear in zone Z1. This is therefore another aspect of the present invention to activate and deactivate antennas dynamically to cover cases such as that shown in Figure 6.

[0090] Changes in the vehicle's outer boundaries can be detected by performing distance measurements between the antennas associated with the same vehicle (here, the tractor / trailer combination in Figure 6 is considered to be a single vehicle). In the case of the example in Figure 6, antennas A2.1 and A1.2 will detect that they move closer to each other when the tractor / trailer combination turns right. Similarly, antennas A2.4 and A1.3 can detect that they move further apart in the same situation.

[0091] An additional aspect of the present invention is, therefore, intravehicular distance measurements (for example, by configuring relevant antennas that are mounted on the same vehicle with reference signals). Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, pp. 39 / 47 26 / 26 so that these are able to determine the distance between each of the antennas). Alternatively, the rotation angle α in the coupling could be used to detect a variation in the outer boundaries of the vehicle.

[0092] In zone Z1, it can be assumed that antennas A1.2 (tractor left rear antenna) and A2.1 (trailer left front antenna) are mounted on the edges so that they can be easily used for the method - they just have to be activated if they haven't been used yet.

[0093] In relation to the above, the names and coding variants of the information elements (IE) discussed in this document should be understood to serve merely as examples.

[0094] There are many other options for the encoding parameters and their values. This invention is by no means restricted to the encoding examples disclosed here.

[0095] Furthermore, parameters can be subdivided in one way or another, for example, they can be collected in a new or existing hierarchical structure, or grouped with other information elements, for example, in the form of a list. Petition 870190124944, dated 11 / 28 / 2019, pages 40 / 47

Claims

1 / 2 CLAIMS 1. A method for communicating vehicle positioning information characterized in that signals are transmitted from at least one antenna mounted on the vehicle to indicate a vehicle position to another entity, the signals including information relating to at least one piece of information that provides an offset between the at least one antenna and a vehicle boundary, and an identity of the at least one antenna, the identity of the at least one antenna being such that it allows the other entity to determine the information by providing the offset between the at least one antenna and the vehicle boundary.

2. Method, according to claim 1, characterized in that the signals include both information relating to at least one of the identities of at least one antenna and information providing the displacement between at least one antenna and the respective delimitation of the vehicle.

3. Method, according to claim 1, characterized in that the information relating to the identity of at least one antenna comprises at least one of an antenna identifier, an indication of an antenna position relative to the vehicle, a vehicle type, a vehicle identifier and a number of antennas on the vehicle.

4. Method, according to claim 1, characterized in that the information providing a displacement between at least one antenna and a vehicle boundary comprises information related to a vehicle identity sufficient for the other entity to derive positioning information from at least one antenna.

5. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the signals are transmitted as sidelink signals on a PC5 air interface, and in that different vehicle antennas are arranged to transmit in such a way that the first antenna uses a first feature element, and a second antenna uses a second feature element different from the first feature element. Petition 870240088954, dated 10 / 17 / 2024, p. 16 / 20 2 / 2 6. Method according to claim 5, characterized in that the signals are transmitted as distance-determining reference signals, with signals from the first antenna being transmitted in a first time interval and signals from the second antenna being transmitted in a second time interval.

7. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the signals are transmitted in response to the vehicle receiving a message from the entity requesting the vehicle to transmit positioning information.

8. A method according to claim 7, characterized in that the signals are repeatedly transmitted until the vehicle receives a message from the entity requesting that the vehicle cease transmitting the signals.

9. Method, according to claim 1, characterized in that the signals are transmitted at a variable frequency, the frequency being dependent on a relative speed between the vehicle and the entity.

10. Method, according to claim 1, characterized in that the information providing a displacement between at least one antenna and a vehicle boundary is dependent on a current orientation of the vehicle relative to the entity.

11. Method, according to claim 10, characterized in that additional antennas are activated if the vehicle changes its orientation relative to the entity.

12. Method according to claim 11, characterized in that the signals are transmitted by means of at least one of demodulation reference signals, sidelink synchronization signals and distance determination reference signals.

13. Method, according to claim 1, characterized in that the entity is a second vehicle. Petition 870240088954, dated 10 / 17 / 2024, p. 17 / 20

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