Low-layer Radio Access Technology (RAT)-independent measurements and reporting

Abstract

Technologies for wireless communications are disclosed. In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) receives a configuration for providing at least one positioning state information (PSI) report on a wireless communication network operating according to a first radio access technology (RAT), the first RAT being associated with at least one first positioning technology, the configuration being associated with at least one second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both to be used to estimate the position of the UE; obtaining at least a first positioning measurement set using at least the second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both; and sending at least one PSI report on a physical resource allocated for a physical uplink or sidelink channel of the first RAT, the at least one PSI report including at least the first positioning measurement set.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This patent application claims priority under 35 USC §119 to Greek Patent Application No. 20200100118, filed on March 3, 2020, entitled “LOW LAYER RADIO ACCESS TECHNOLOGY (RAT) -INDEPENDENT MEASUREMENT REPORTING”, and Greek Patent Application No. 20200100221, filed on May 4, 2020, entitled “LOW LAYER RADIO ACCESS TECHNOLOGY (RAT) -INDEPENDENT MEASUREMENT REPORTING”, which are assigned to the assignee of this application and are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Technical Field

[0003]

[0013] Generally speaking, aspects of the present disclosure relate to wireless communications. Background Art

[0004] Wireless communication systems have evolved over several generations, including first generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including temporary 2.5G and 2.75G networks), third generation (3G) high speed data, Internet-enabled wireless services, and fourth generation (4G) services (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax). Currently, many different types of wireless communication systems are used, including cellular and personal communications service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include cellular analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) and digital cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), etc.

[0005] The fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, known as New Radio (NR), calls for higher data transmission speeds, a greater number of connections, and better coverage, among other improvements. According to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, the 5G standard is designed to provide data rates of tens of megabits per second to each of tens of thousands of users, with a data rate of 1 gigabit per second provided to dozens of employees on an office floor. To support large sensor deployments, hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections should be supported. Therefore, the spectral efficiency of 5G mobile communications should be significantly enhanced compared to the current 4G standard. In addition, signaling efficiency should be enhanced and latency should be significantly reduced compared to the current standard. Summary of the invention

[0006] A brief summary of one or more aspects disclosed herein is given below. Therefore, the summary below should not be considered as an exhaustive review of all expected aspects, and the summary below should neither be considered to identify key or important elements related to all expected aspects, nor should it be considered to describe the scope associated with any particular aspect. Accordingly, the sole purpose of the summary below is to provide certain concepts related to one or more aspects of the mechanism disclosed herein in a simplified form as a preface to the specific embodiments given below.

[0007] In one aspect, a wireless communication method performed by a user equipment (UE) includes: receiving a configuration for providing at least one positioning state information (PSI) report on a wireless communication network operating according to a first radio access technology (RAT), the first RAT being associated with at least one first positioning technology, the configuration being associated with at least one second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both to be used to estimate the position of the UE; obtaining at least a first positioning measurement set using the at least one second RAT, the at least one second positioning technology, or both; and sending the at least one PSI report on physical resources allocated for a physical uplink or sidelink channel of the first RAT, the at least one PSI report including at least the first positioning measurement set.

[0008] In one aspect, a UE includes: a memory, at least one transceiver, and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor being configured to: receive, via the at least one transceiver, a configuration for providing at least one PSI report on a wireless communication network operating according to a first RAT, the first RAT being associated with at least one first positioning technology, the configuration being associated with at least one second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both to be used to estimate the position of the UE; obtain, via the at least one transceiver, at least a first positioning measurement set using the at least one second RAT, the at least one second positioning technology, or both; and cause the at least one transceiver to send the at least one PSI report on physical resources allocated for a physical uplink or sidelink channel of the first RAT, the at least one PSI report including at least the first positioning measurement set.

[0009] In one aspect, a UE includes: a unit for receiving a configuration for providing at least one PSI report on a wireless communication network operating according to a first RAT, the first RAT being associated with at least one first positioning technology, the configuration being associated with at least one second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both to be used to estimate the position of the UE; a unit for obtaining at least a first positioning measurement set using the at least one second RAT, the at least one second positioning technology, or both; and a unit for sending the at least one PSI report on physical resources allocated for a physical uplink or sidelink channel for the first RAT, the at least one PSI report including at least the first positioning measurement set.

[0010] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions includes computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions including: directing a UE to receive, on a wireless communication network operating according to a first RAT, at least one instruction for providing a configuration for providing at least one PSI report, the first RAT being associated with at least one first positioning technology, the configuration being associated with at least one second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both to be used to estimate the position of the UE; at least one instruction directing the UE to obtain at least a first positioning measurement set using the at least one second RAT, the at least one second positioning technology, or both; and at least one instruction instructing the UE to send the at least one PSI report on physical resources allocated for a physical uplink or sidelink channel of the first RAT, the at least one PSI report including at least the first positioning measurement set.

[0011] Other objects and advantages associated with the various aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the drawings and detailed description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in describing various aspects of the present disclosure and are provided solely for illustration of the aspects and not limitation thereof.

[0013] Figure 1 An example wireless communication system in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure is shown.

[0014] Figure 2A and 2B Example wireless network structures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure are shown.

[0015] Figures 3A to 3C is a simplified block diagram of several example aspects of components that may be employed in a user equipment (UE), a base station, and a network entity, respectively, and configured to support communications as taught herein.

[0016] Figure 4A and 4B User plane and control plane protocol stacks in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure are shown.

[0017] Figures 5A to 5D is a diagram illustrating example frame structures and channels within the frame structures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0018] Figure 6 Example Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) reference sources for positioning are shown.

[0019] Figure 7 and 8 is a diagram illustrating an example downlink control information (DCI) trigger for PSI reporting in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0020] Fig. 9

[0013] Example methods of wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure are shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0021] Various aspects of the present disclosure are provided in the following description and related drawings relating to various examples provided for illustrative purposes. Alternative aspects may be designed without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, well-known elements of the present disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted to avoid obscuring the relevant details of the present disclosure.

[0022] The words "exemplary" and / or "example" are used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" and / or "example" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Likewise, the term "aspects of the disclosure" does not require that all aspects of the disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage, or mode of operation.

[0023] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the information and signals described below may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, light fields or particles, or any combination thereof using a variety of different techniques and methods, and the symbols and code bits may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, light fields or particles, or any combination thereof, depending in part on the specific application, in part on the desired design, in part on the corresponding technology, and so on.

[0024] In addition, many aspects are described in terms of a sequence of actions to be performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will be appreciated that the various actions described herein may be performed by a specific circuit (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)), by program instructions executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of the two. In addition, the sequence of actions described herein may be considered to be fully embodied in any form of non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a set of corresponding computer instructions stored therein, which, when executed, will cause or instruct the associated processor of the device to perform the functions described herein. Therefore, various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in a plurality of different forms, all of which are contemplated to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the various aspects described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspect may be described herein as, for example, "logic configured to perform the described actions."

[0025] As used herein, unless otherwise noted, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "base station" are not intended to be specific to or otherwise limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT). In general, a UE may be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a commercial tracking device, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, glasses, augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) headsets, etc.), a vehicle (e.g., a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, etc.), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.) used by a user to communicate on a wireless communication network. A UE may be mobile or (e.g., at certain times) may be stationary and may communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" may be interchangeably referred to as an "access terminal" or "AT", "client device", "wireless device", "subscriber device", "subscriber terminal", "subscriber station", "user terminal" or "UT", "mobile device", "mobile terminal", "mobile station" or variations thereof. In general, a UE may communicate with a core network via a RAN, and the core network may connect the UE to an external network such as the Internet and to other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms are also possible for the UE to connect to the core network and / or the Internet, such as over a wired access network, a wireless local area network (WLAN) network (e.g., based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification, etc.), and so on.

[0026] The base station may operate according to one of several RATs in communication with the UE, depending on the network in which the base station is deployed, and the base station may be alternatively referred to as an access point (AP), a network node, a node B, an evolved node B (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a new radio (NR) node B (also referred to as a gNB or gNodeB), etc. The base station may be primarily used to support wireless access by the UE, including supporting data, voice and / or signaling connections for the supported UE. In some systems, the base station may provide pure edge node signaling functions, while in other systems, it may provide additional control and / or network management functions. The communication link through which the UE can send a signal to the base station is called an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). The communication link through which the base station can send a signal to the UE is called a downlink (DL) or forward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, a broadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term traffic channel (TCH) may refer to an uplink / reverse traffic channel or a downlink / forward traffic channel.

[0027] The term "base station" may refer to a single physical transmit receive point (TRP), or to multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be co-located. For example, where the term "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna of the base station corresponding to a cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. Where the term "base station" refers to multiple co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be an antenna array of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or where the base station employs beamforming). Where the term "base station" refers to multiple non-co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transmission medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-co-located physical TRPs may be a serving base station that receives measurement reports from the UE and a neighbor base station whose reference RF signal the UE is measuring. Because as used herein, a TRP is the point from which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, references to transmissions from a base station or receptions at a base station should be understood to refer to the specific TRP of the base station.

[0028] In some implementations of supporting positioning of a UE, a base station may not support wireless access by the UE (e.g., may not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections for the UE), but may instead send a reference signal to the UE for measurement by the UE, and / or may receive and measure a signal sent by the UE. Such a base station may be referred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., when sending a signal to the UE) and / or a position measurement unit (e.g., when receiving and measuring a signal from the UE).

[0029] An "RF signal" includes an electromagnetic wave of a given frequency that transmits information through the space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may send a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multipath channels, a receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal. The same RF signal transmitted on different paths between a transmitter and a receiver may be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal.

[0030] Figure 1 An example wireless communication system 100 is shown. The wireless communication system 100 (which may also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) may include various base stations 102 and various UEs 104. The base stations 102 may include macrocell base stations (high-power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low-power cellular base stations). In an aspect, the macrocell base stations may include eNBs and / or ng-eNBs (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an LTE network) or gNBs (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an NR network) or a combination of both, and the small cell base stations may include femtocells, picocells, microcells, etc.

[0031] The base stations 102 may collectively form a RAN and interface with a core network 170 (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC)) via a backhaul link 122, and interface with one or more location servers 172 (which may be part of the core network 170 or may be external to the core network 170) via the core network 170. The base stations 102 may perform, among other functions, functions related to one or more of the following: transmission of user data, wireless channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection establishment and release, load balancing, distribution of non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and device tracking, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and transmission of warning messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., via EPC / 5GC) via a backhaul link 134 (which may be wired or wireless).

[0032] The base station 102 can communicate with the UE 104 wirelessly. Each of the base stations 102 can provide communication coverage for a corresponding geographic coverage area 110. In one aspect, the base station 102 can support one or more cells in each geographic coverage area 110. A "cell" is a logical communication entity for communicating with a base station (e.g., on a certain frequency resource (referred to as a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, frequency band, etc.)), and can be associated with an identifier (e.g., a physical cell identifier (PCI), a virtual cell identifier (VCI), a cell global identifier (CGI)) for distinguishing cells operating via the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) or other protocol types) that can provide access to different types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a specific base station, the term "cell" can refer to either or both of the logical communication entity and the base station supporting it, depending on the context. In some cases, the term “cell” may also refer to a geographic coverage area (eg, a sector) of a base station within which a carrier frequency may be detected and used for communications within some portion of the geographic coverage area 110 .

[0033] Although the geographic coverage areas 110 of adjacent macrocell base stations 102 may partially overlap (e.g., in a handover region), some of the geographic coverage areas 110 may substantially overlap with a larger geographic coverage area 110. For example, a small cell base station 102' may have a geographic coverage area 110' that substantially overlaps with the geographic coverage areas 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell base stations and macrocell base stations may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include a home eNB (HeNB), which may provide services to a restricted group referred to as a closed subscriber group (CSG).

[0034] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include an uplink (also referred to as a reverse link) transmission from the UE 104 to the base station 102 and / or a downlink (also referred to as a forward link) transmission from the base station 102 to the UE 104. The communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna technology, which includes spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication link 120 may be over one or more carrier frequencies. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to the downlink and uplink (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated for the downlink than for the uplink).

[0035] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) 150 that communicates with a WLAN station (STA) 152 in an unlicensed spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz) via a communication link 154. When communicating in the unlicensed spectrum, the WLAN STA 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) or a listen before talk (LBT) procedure before communicating to determine whether a channel is available.

[0036] The small cell base station 102' can operate in a licensed and / or unlicensed spectrum. When operating in an unlicensed spectrum, the small cell base station 102' can adopt LTE or NR technology and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum as the 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum used by the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base station 102' adopting LTE / 5G in the unlicensed spectrum can improve the coverage of the access network and / or increase the capacity of the access network. NR in the unlicensed spectrum can be referred to as NR-U. LTE in the unlicensed spectrum can be referred to as LTE-U, License Assisted Access (LAA) or MulteFire.

[0037] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a millimeter wave (mmW) base station 180 that communicates with the UE 182, which may operate in mmW frequencies and / or near mmW frequencies. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is a portion of RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and has a wavelength between 1 mm and 10 mm. Radio waves in this band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Near mmW can be extended downward to a frequency of 3 GHz with a wavelength of 100 mm. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz and is also referred to as centimeter waves. Communications using mmW / near mmW radio frequency bands have high path loss and relatively short distances. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 may utilize beamforming (sending and / or receiving) on ​​the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for extremely high path loss and short distances. In addition, it will be appreciated that in alternative configurations, one or more base stations 102 may also use mmW or near mmW and beamforming for transmission. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the foregoing description is merely exemplary and should not be construed as limiting the various aspects disclosed herein.

[0038] Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing RF signals in a specific direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts the signal in all directions (omnidirectionally). With transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., a UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a stronger downlink RF signal in that specific direction, thereby providing a faster (in terms of data rate) and stronger RF signal for the receiving device. In order to change the direction of the RF signal when transmitting, the network node can control the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of the one or more transmitters that broadcast the RF signal. For example, a network node can use an array of antennas (referred to as a "phased array" or "antenna array") that creates a beam of RF waves that can be "guided" to points in different directions without actually moving the antenna. Specifically, the RF current from the transmitter is fed to individual antennas with the correct phase relationship so that the radio waves from the respective antennas are added together to increase radiation in the desired direction and destructively in the undesired direction to suppress radiation.

[0039] The transmit beams can be quasi-colocated, which means that they have the same parameters for the receiver (e.g., UE) regardless of whether the transmit antennas of the network nodes themselves are physically colocated. In NR, there are four types of quasi-colocated (QCL) relationships. Specifically, a given type of QCL relationship means that certain parameters about the target reference RF signal on the target beam can be derived from information about the source reference RF signal on the source beam. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type A, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread of the target reference RF signal sent on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type B, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of the target reference RF signal sent on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type C, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and average delay of the target reference RF signal sent on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type D, the receiver may use the source reference RF signal to estimate spatial reception parameters of a target reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

[0040] In receive beamforming, a receiver uses a receive beam to amplify an RF signal detected on a given channel. For example, a receiver may increase a gain setting and / or adjust a phase setting of an antenna array in a particular direction to amplify an RF signal received from that direction (e.g., to increase the gain level of the RF signal). Thus, when a receiver is said to be beamforming in a certain direction, it means that the beam gain in that direction is high relative to the beam gain along other directions, or that the beam gain in that direction is the highest compared to the beam gain in that direction of all other receive beams available to the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), etc.) of the RF signal received from that direction.

[0041] The receive beams may be spatially correlated. Spatial correlation means that the parameters for the transmit beam for the second reference signal may be derived from information about the receive beam for the first reference signal. For example, the UE may use a specific receive beam to receive one or more reference downlink reference signals (e.g., positioning reference signal (PRS), tracking reference signal (TRS), phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), cell-specific reference signal (CRS), channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), synchronization signal block (SSB), etc.) from a base station. The UE may then form a transmit beam for sending one or more uplink reference signals (e.g., uplink positioning reference signal (UL-PRS), sounding reference signal (SRS), demodulation reference signal (DMRS), PTRS, etc.) to the base station based on the parameters of the receive beam.

[0042] It is to be noted that a "downlink" beam can be a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on the entity that forms it. For example, if the base station is forming a downlink beam for sending a reference signal to the UE, the downlink beam is a transmit beam. However, if the UE is forming a downlink beam, it is a receive beam for receiving a downlink reference signal. Similarly, an "uplink" beam can be a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on the entity that forms it. For example, if the base station is forming an uplink beam, it is an uplink receive beam, and if the UE is forming an uplink beam, it is an uplink transmit beam.

[0043] In 5G, the spectrum in which wireless nodes (e.g., base stations 102 / 180, UEs 104 / 182) operate is divided into multiple frequency ranges: FR1 (from 450 to 6000 MHz), FR2 (from 24250 to 52600 MHz), FR3 (above 52600 MHz), and FR4 (between FR1 and FR2). In a multi-carrier system (such as 5G), one of the carrier frequencies is called a "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell", and the remaining carrier frequencies are called "secondary carriers" or "secondary serving cells" or "SCells". In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is a carrier operating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) utilized by the UE 104 / 182 and the cell in which the UE 104 / 182 performs an initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates an RRC connection re-establishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common control channels and UE-specific control channels and can be a carrier in a licensed frequency (however, this is not always the case). A secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2), wherein the second frequency may be configured when an RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier, and may be used to provide additional wireless resources. In some cases, the secondary carrier may be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. The secondary carrier may contain only necessary signaling information and signals, for example, there may be no UE-specific signaling information and signals in the secondary carrier, because both the primary uplink carrier and the primary downlink carrier are usually UE-specific. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. This is also true for the uplink primary carrier. The network is able to change the primary carrier of any UE 104 / 182 at any time. This is done to, for example, balance the load on different carriers. Since a "serving cell" (whether PCell or SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency / component carrier on which a base station is communicating, the terms "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. may be used interchangeably.

[0044] For example, still referring to Figure 1 , one of the frequencies utilized by macrocell base station 102 may be an anchor carrier (or "PCell"), and the other frequencies utilized by macrocell base station 102 and / or mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers ("SCells"). Simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers enables UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission and / or reception rate. For example, two 20 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically result in a two-fold increase in data rate (i.e., 40 MHz) compared to the data rate achieved with a single 20 MHz carrier.

[0045] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a UE 164 that may communicate with the macrocell base station 102 over the communication link 120 and / or communicate with the mmW base station 180 over the mmW communication link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 may support a PCell and one or more SCells for the UE 164, and the mmW base station 180 may support one or more SCells for the UE 164.

[0046] exist Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 1 , one or more Earth-orbiting satellite positioning system (SPS) spacecraft (SV) 112 (eg, satellites) may be used as any of the UEs shown (for simplicity, in FIG. 1 ). Figure 1 104). UE 104 may include one or more dedicated SPS receivers, which are specifically designed to receive SPS signals 124 for deriving geographic location information from SV 112. SPS typically includes a system of transmitters (e.g., SV 112) that are positioned to enable a receiver (e.g., UE 104) to determine its position on or above the earth based at least in part on a signal (e.g., SPS signal 124) received from the transmitter. Such a transmitter typically sends a signal marked with a pseudo-random noise (PN) code that is repeated with a set number of chips. Although the transmitter is typically located in SV 112, it may sometimes be located on a ground-based control station, base station 102, and / or other UE 104.

[0047] The use of the SPS signal 124 may be enhanced by various satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS), which may be associated with or otherwise enabled for use with one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems. For example, the SBAS may include augmentation systems that provide integrity information, differential corrections, etc., such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the Multifunction Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS), the Global Positioning System (GPS) Assisted Geo-augmented Navigation, or the GPS and Geo-augmented Navigation System (GAGAN), etc. Thus, as used herein, an SPS may include any combination of one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems and / or augmentation systems, and the SPS signal 124 may include an SPS, a SPS-like, and / or other signals associated with such one or more SPSs.

[0048] The wireless communication system 100 may also include one or more UEs (such as UE 190) indirectly connected to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links (referred to as “sidelinks”). Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 1 , UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of UEs 104 connected to one of base stations 102 (e.g., through D2D P2P link 192, UE 190 can indirectly obtain cellular connectivity) and a D2D P2P link 194 with WLAN STA 152 connected to WLAN AP 150 (through D2D P2P link 194, UE 190 can indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity). In an example, any well-known D2D RAT (such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), etc.) to support D2D P2P links 192 and 194.

[0049] Figure 2A An example wireless network architecture 200 is shown. For example, the 5GC 210 (also referred to as the "Next Generation Core (NGC)") can be functionally viewed as a control plane function 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and a user plane function 212 (e.g., UE gateway function, access to data networks, IP routing, etc.), which operate in cooperation to form a core network. The user plane interface (NG-U) 213 and the control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect the gNB 222 to the 5GC 210, and specifically, to the control plane function 214 and the user plane function 212. In another configuration, the ng-eNB 224 can also be connected to the 5GC 210 via the NG-C 215 to the control plane function 214 and the NG-U 213 to the user plane function 212. In addition, the ng-eNB 224 can communicate directly with the gNB 222 via the backhaul connection 223. In some configurations, the new RAN 220 may have only one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more of ng-eNB 224 and gNB 222. The gNB 222 or the ng-eNB 224 may communicate with the UE 204 (e.g., Figure 1204). Another optional aspect may include a location server 230 that can communicate with the 5GC 210 to provide location assistance for the UE 204. The location server 230 can be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed on multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternatively, each can correspond to a single server. The location server 230 can be configured to support one or more location services for the UE 204 that can be connected to the location server 230 via the core network, the 5GC 210, and / or via the Internet (not shown). In addition, the location server 230 can be integrated into a component of the core network, or alternatively, can be external to the core network.

[0050] Figure 2B Another example wireless network structure 250 is shown. For example, the 5GC 260 can be functionally viewed as a control plane function provided by an access and mobility management function (AMF) 264, and a user plane function provided by a user plane function (UPF) 262, which operate in conjunction to form a core network (i.e., the 5GC 260). The user plane interface 263 and the control plane interface 265 connect the ng-eNB 224 to the 5GC 260, and specifically to the UPF 262 and the AMF 264, respectively. In another configuration, the gNB 222 can also be connected to the 5GC 260 via a control plane interface 265 to the AMF 264 and a user plane interface 263 to the UPF 262. In addition, the ng-eNB 224 can communicate directly with the gNB 222 via the backhaul connection 223, whether or not the gNB has a direct connection to the 5GC 260. In some configurations, the new RAN 220 may have only one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more of both ng-eNB 224 and gNB 222. The gNB 222 or ng-eNB 224 may communicate with the UE 204 (e.g., Figure 1 The base stations of the new RAN 220 communicate with the AMF 264 over the N2 interface and with the UPF 262 over the N3 interface.

[0051] The functions of AMF 264 include registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception, transmission of session management (SM) messages between UE 204 and session management function (SMF) 266, transparent proxy service for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, transmission of short message service (SMS) messages between UE 204 and short message service function (SMSF) (not shown), and security anchor function (SEAF). AMF 264 also interacts with authentication server function (AUSF) (not shown) and UE 204, and receives intermediate keys established as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In the case of authentication based on UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), AMF 264 obtains security materials from AUSF. The functions of AMF 264 also include security context management (SCM). SCM receives keys from SEAF, where SCM uses the keys to derive keys specific to the access network. The functions of AMF 264 also include location service management for regulatory services, transmission of location service messages between UE 204 and location management function (LMF) 270 (which acts as location server 230), transmission of location service messages between new RAN 220 and LMF 270, allocation of EPS bearer identifiers for interworking with Evolved Packet System (EPS), and notification of mobility events of UE 204. In addition, AMF 264 also supports functions for non-3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) access networks.

[0052] The functions of the UPF 262 include: acting as an anchor point for intra-RAT / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as an external protocol data unit (PDU) session point for interconnection to a data network (not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, traffic steering), lawful interception (user plane collection), traffic utilization reporting, quality of service (QoS) processing for the user plane (e.g., uplink / downlink rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in downlink), uplink traffic verification (service data flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transmission level packet marking in uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering, and sending and forwarding one or more "end flags" to the source RAN node. The UPF 262 can also support the transmission of location service messages on the user plane between the UE 204 and a location server (such as a secure user plane location (SUPL) location platform (SLP) 272).

[0053] The functions of SMF 266 include session management, UE Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and control of user plane functions, configuring traffic steering at UPF 262 to route traffic to the correct destination, control of parts of policy enforcement and QoS, and downlink data notification. The interface over which SMF 266 communicates with AMF 264 is called the N11 interface.

[0054] Another optional aspect may include an LMF 270 that can communicate with the 5GC 260 to provide location assistance to the UE 204. The LMF 270 can be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternatively, can each correspond to a single server. The LMF 270 can be configured to support one or more location services for the UE 204, and the UE 204 can be connected to the LMF 270 via the core network, the 5GC 260, and / or via the Internet (not shown). The SLP 272 can support similar functionality to the LMF 270, but the LMF 270 can communicate with the AMF 264, the new RAN 220, and the UE 204 on the control plane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols intended to transmit signaling messages rather than voice or data), and the SLP 272 can communicate with the UE 204 and external clients ( Figure 2B ) to communicate (e.g., using protocols intended to carry voice and / or data, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and / or IP).

[0055] Figure 3A , 3B 3C show several example components (represented by corresponding blocks) that may be incorporated into UE 302 (which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein), base station 304 (which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein), and network entity 306 (which may correspond to or embody any of the network functions described herein, including location server 230 and LMF 270) to support file transfer operations as taught herein. It will be appreciated that these components may be implemented in different types of devices in different implementations (e.g., in an ASIC, in a system on a chip (SoC), etc.). The components shown may also be incorporated into other devices in a communication system. For example, other devices in the system may include components similar to those described to provide similar functionality. In addition, a given device may include one or more of the components. For example, a device may include multiple transceiver components that enable the device to operate on multiple carriers and / or communicate via different technologies.

[0056] UE 302 and base station 304 each include a wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver 310 and 350, respectively, which provides means for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means for avoiding transmitting, etc.) via one or more wireless communication networks (not shown) (such as NR network, LTE network, GSM network, etc.). WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 can be connected to one or more antennas 316 and 356, respectively, to communicate with other network nodes (such as other UEs, access points, base stations (e.g., eNB, gNB), etc.) via at least one designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.) on a wireless communication medium of interest (e.g., a certain set of time / frequency resources in a specific spectrum). The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may be configured differently to transmit and encode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.) and conversely receive and decode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.) according to a specified RAT. Specifically, the WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 include one or more transmitters 314 and 354, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and 358, respectively, and one or more receivers 312 and 352, respectively, for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358, respectively.

[0057] At least in some cases, the UE 302 and the base station 304 also include wireless local area network (WLAN) transceivers 320 and 360, respectively. The WLAN transceivers 320 and 360 can be connected to one or more antennas 326 and 366, respectively, and provide for communicating over the wireless communication medium of interest via at least one designated RAT (e.g., WiFi, LTE-D, The WLAN transceivers 320 and 360 are units (e.g., units for sending, units for receiving, units for measuring, units for tuning, units for avoiding sending, etc.) for communicating with other network nodes (such as other UEs, access points, base stations, etc.). The WLAN transceivers 320 and 360 can be configured differently to send and encode signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.) according to the specified RAT, and conversely receive and decode signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.). Specifically, the WLAN transceivers 320 and 360 include one or more transmitters 324 and 364, respectively, which are used to send and encode signals 328 and 368, respectively, and include one or more receivers 322 and 322, respectively, which are used to receive and decode signals 328 and 368, respectively.

[0058] The transceiver circuitry including at least one transmitter and at least one receiver may comprise an integrated device (e.g., a transmitter circuit and a receiver circuit embodied as a single communication device) in some implementations, may comprise a separate transmitter device and a separate receiver device in some implementations, or may be embodied in other ways in other implementations. In one aspect, the transmitter may comprise or be coupled to a plurality of antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) (such as an antenna array), which allows the corresponding device to perform transmit "beamforming" as described herein. Similarly, the receiver may comprise or be coupled to a plurality of antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) (such as an antenna array), which allows the corresponding device to perform receive beamforming as described herein. In one aspect, the transmitter and receiver may share the same plurality of antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) so that the corresponding device is only receiving or transmitting at a given time, but not both at the same time. The wireless communication devices of the UE 302 and / or the base station 304 (eg, one or both of the transceivers 310 and 320 and / or 350 and 360) may also include a network listening module (NLM) or the like for performing various measurements.

[0059] At least in some cases, UE 302 and base station 304 also include satellite positioning system (SPS) receivers 330 and 370. SPS receivers 330 and 370 can be connected to one or more antennas 336 and 376, respectively, and can provide units for receiving and / or measuring SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively, such as global positioning system (GPS) signals, global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals, Beidou signals, Indian regional navigation satellite system (NAVIC), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), etc. SPS receivers 330 and 370 can include any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively. SPS receivers 330 and 370 request information and operations from other systems as needed, and use measurements obtained by any suitable SPS algorithm to perform calculations required to determine the location of UE 302 and base station 304.

[0060] The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include at least one network interface 380 and 390, respectively, which provide a unit for communicating with other network entities (e.g., a unit for sending, a unit for receiving, etc.). For example, the network interfaces 380 and 390 (e.g., one or more network access ports) can be configured to communicate with one or more network entities via a wired backhaul connection or a wireless backhaul connection. In some aspects, the network interfaces 380 and 390 can be implemented as transceivers, which are configured to support wired signal communication or wireless signal communication. The communication may involve, for example, sending and receiving messages, parameters, and / or other types of information.

[0061] UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 also include other components that can be used in conjunction with the operations disclosed herein. UE 302 includes processor circuitry that implements processing system 332, which is used to provide functions related to, for example, wireless positioning, and to provide other processing functions. Base station 304 includes processing system 384, which is used to provide functions related to, for example, wireless positioning disclosed herein, and to provide other processing functions. Network entity 306 includes processing system 394, which is used to provide functions related to, for example, wireless positioning disclosed herein, and to provide other processing functions. Thus, processing systems 332, 384, and 394 can provide units for processing, such as units for determining, units for calculating, units for receiving, units for sending, units for indicating, etc. In an aspect, processing systems 332, 384, and 394 can include, for example, one or more general-purpose processors, multi-core processors, ASICs, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices or processing circuits.

[0062] UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306, respectively, include memory circuitry implementing memory components 340, 386, and 396 (e.g., each including a memory device) for maintaining information (e.g., information indicating reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, etc.). Thus, memory components 340, 386, and 396 may provide means for storing, means for retrieving, means for maintaining, etc. In some cases, UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 may include positioning components 342, 388, and 398, respectively. Positioning components 342, 388, and 398 may be hardware circuitry that is part of or coupled to processing systems 332, 384, and 394, respectively, which, when executed, causes UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 to perform the functions described herein. In other aspects, the positioning components 342, 388, and 398 can be external to the processing systems 332, 384, and 394 (e.g., can be part of a modem processing system, integrated with another processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the positioning components 342, 388, and 398 can be memory modules stored in the memory components 340, 386, and 396, respectively, which when executed by the processing systems 332, 384, and 394 (or a modem processing system, another processing system, etc.), cause the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 to perform the functions described herein. Figure 3A Possible locations are shown for positioning component 342, which can be part of WWAN transceiver 310, memory component 340, processing system 332, or any combination thereof, or can be a standalone component. Figure 3B Possible locations are shown for positioning component 388, which may be part of WWAN transceiver 350, memory component 386, processing system 384, or any combination thereof, or may be a stand-alone component. Figure 3C Possible locations are shown for location component 398, which may be part of network interface 390, memory component 396, processing system 394, or any combination thereof, or may be a stand-alone component.

[0063] UE 302 may include one or more sensors 344 coupled to processing system 332 to provide a means for sensing or detecting motion and / or directional information that is independent of motion data derived from signals received by WWAN transceiver 310, WLAN transceiver 320, and / or SPS receiver 330. For example, sensor 344 may include an accelerometer (e.g., a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor (e.g., a compass), an altimeter (e.g., a barometric altimeter), and / or any other type of motion detection sensor. In addition, sensor 344 may include multiple different types of devices and combine their outputs to provide motion information. For example, sensor 344 may use a combination of a multi-axis accelerometer and an orientation sensor to provide the ability to calculate a position in a 2D and / or 3D coordinate system.

[0064] In addition, the UE 302 includes a user interface 346, which provides a means for providing indications to the user (e.g., auditory and / or visual indications) and / or for receiving user input (e.g., when the user activates a sensing device such as a keyboard, touch screen, microphone, etc.). Although not shown, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 may also include a user interface.

[0065] Referring to the processing system 384 in more detail, in the downlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 may be provided to the processing system 384. The processing system 384 may implement functions for the RRC layer, the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. The processing system 384 may provide: RRC layer functions associated with: broadcasting of system information (e.g., master information block (MIB), system information block (SIB)), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functions associated with: header compression / decompression, security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification), and switching support functions; RLC layer functions associated with: transmission of upper layer PDUs, error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ), concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functions associated with: mapping between logical channels and transport channels, scheduling information reporting, error correction, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0066] The transmitter 354 and the receiver 352 may implement layer 1 (L1) functions associated with various signal processing functions. Layer 1 (which includes the physical (PHY) layer) may include error detection on the transport channel, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of the transport channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to the physical channel, modulation / demodulation of the physical channel, and MIMO antenna processing. The transmitter 354 processes the mapping to the signal constellation diagram based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), M-phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be split into parallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarrier, multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., pilot) in the time domain and / or frequency domain, and then combined together using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel for carrying a time domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM symbol stream is spatially precoded to produce multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator may be used to determine coding and modulation schemes, as well as for spatial processing. Channel estimates may be derived based on reference signals and / or channel condition feedback sent by the UE 302. Each spatial stream may then be provided to one or more different antennas 356. The transmitter 354 may modulate an RF carrier with a corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

[0067] At the UE 302, the receiver 312 receives the signal through its corresponding antenna 316. The receiver 312 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to the processing system 332. The transmitter 314 and the receiver 312 implement layer 1 functions associated with various signal processing functions. The receiver 312 can perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial stream destined for the UE 302. If multiple spatial streams are destined for the UE 302, they can be combined into a single OFDM symbol stream by the receiver 312. The receiver 312 then transforms the OFDM symbol stream from the time domain to the frequency domain using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal includes a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols and reference signals on each subcarrier are recovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation point sent by the base station 304. These soft decisions can be based on channel estimates calculated by a channel estimator. The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signals originally sent on the physical channel by the base station 304. The data and control signals are then provided to the processing system 332, which implements layer 3 (L3) and layer 2 (L2) functions.

[0068] In the uplink, the processing system 332 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. The processing system 332 is also responsible for error detection.

[0069] Similar to the functions described in conjunction with downlink transmissions performed by the base station 304, the processing system 332 provides: RRC layer functions associated with: system information (e.g., MIB, SIB) capture, RRC connection, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functions associated with: header compression / decompression, and security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functions associated with: transmission of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs, re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functions associated with: mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks (TBs), demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0070] The transmitter 314 may select an appropriate coding and modulation scheme and facilitate spatial processing using channel estimates derived by a channel estimator based on a reference signal or feedback sent by the base station 304. The spatial streams generated by the transmitter 314 may be provided to different antennas 316. The transmitter 314 may modulate an RF carrier with a corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

[0071] At the base station 304, the uplink transmission is processed in a manner similar to that described in conjunction with the receiver functionality at the UE 302. The receiver 352 receives the signal through its respective antenna 356. The receiver 352 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to the processing system 384.

[0072] In the uplink, the processing system 384 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets from the UE 302. The IP packets from the processing system 384 may be provided to the core network. The processing system 384 is also responsible for error detection.

[0073] For convenience, in Figure 3A -C shows UE 302, base station 304 and / or network entity 306 as including various components that can be configured according to various examples described herein. However, it will be appreciated that the blocks shown may have different functions in different designs.

[0074] The various components of the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 may communicate with one another over data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392, respectively. Figure 3A -C components can be implemented in various ways. In some implementations, Figure 3A -C components may be implemented in one or more circuits, such as, for example, one or more processors and / or one or more ASICs (which may include one or more processors). Here, each circuit may use and / or incorporate at least one memory component for storing information or executable code used by the circuit to provide the function. For example, some or all of the functions represented by blocks 310 to 346 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of UE 302 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). Similarly, some or all of the functions represented by blocks 350 to 388 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of base station 304 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). In addition, some or all of the functions represented by blocks 390 to 398 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of network entity 306 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). For simplicity, various operations, actions and / or functions are described herein as being performed by "UE", "by base station", "by network entity", etc. However, it will be appreciated that such operations, actions and / or functions may actually be performed by specific components or combinations of components of the UE 302, base station 304, network entity, etc., such as processing systems 332, 384, 394, transceivers 310, 320, 350 and 360, memory components 340, 386 and 396, positioning components 342, 388 and 398, etc.

[0075] Figure 4A FIG. 2 shows a user plane protocol stack according to various aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 4A As shown, UE 404 and base station 402 (which may correspond to any one of the UE and base station described herein, respectively) implement, from the highest layer to the lowest layer, a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer 410, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer 415, a radio link control (RLC) layer 420, a medium access control (MAC) layer 425, and a physical (PHY) layer 430. Specific instances of protocol layers are referred to as protocol "entities". Therefore, the terms "protocol layer" and "protocol entity" may be used interchangeably.

[0076] like Figure 4AAs shown by the double arrow lines in , each layer of the protocol stack implemented by UE 404 communicates with the same layer of base station 402, and vice versa. The two corresponding protocol layers / entities of UE 404 and base station 402 are referred to as "peer", "peer entity", etc. SDAP layer 410, PDCP layer 415, RLC layer 420 and MAC layer 425 are collectively referred to as "layer 2" or "L2". PHY layer 430 is referred to as "layer 1" or "L1"

[0077] Figure 4B A control plane protocol stack according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown. In addition to the PDCP layer 415, the RLC layer 420, the MAC layer 425, and the PHY layer 430, the UE 404 and the base station 402 also implement a radio resource control (RRC) layer 445. In addition, the UE 404 and the AMF 406 implement a non-access stratum (NAS) layer 440.

[0078] The RLC layer 420 supports three transmission modes for packets: transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). In TM mode, there is no RLC header, no segmentation / reassembly, and no feedback (i.e., no acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (NACK)). In addition, there is buffering only at the transmitter. In UM mode, there is an RLC header, there is buffering at both the transmitter and the receiver, and there is segmentation / reassembly, but there is no feedback (i.e., data transmission does not require any reception response (e.g., ACK / NACK) from the receiver). In AM mode, there is an RLC header, there is buffering at both the transmitter and the receiver, there is segmentation / reassembly, and there is feedback (i.e., data transmission requires a reception response (e.g., ACK / NACK) from the receiver). Each of these modes can be used to send and receive data. In TM and UM modes, separate RLC entities are used for sending and receiving, while in AM mode, a single RLC entity performs both sending and receiving. Note that each logical channel uses a specific RLC mode. That is, the RLC configuration is for each logical channel, and does not depend on the digital scheme and / or the transmission time interval (TTI) duration (i.e., the duration of the transmission on the radio link). Specifically, the broadcast control channel (BCCH), the paging control channel (PCCH) and the common control channel (CCCH) use only the TM mode, the dedicated control channel (DCCH) uses only the AM mode, and the dedicated traffic channel (DTCH) uses either the UM or AM mode. Whether the DTCH uses UM or AM is determined by RRC messaging.

[0079] The main services and functions of the RLC layer 420 depend on the transmission mode and include transmission of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), sequence numbering independent of sequence numbering in the PDCP layer 415, error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ), segmentation and resegmentation, reassembly of service data units (SDUs), RLC SDU discard, and RLC re-establishment. The ARQ function provides error correction in AM mode and has the following features: ARQ retransmission of RLC PDUs or RLC PDU segments based on RLC status reports, polling of RLC status reports when required by RLC, and triggering of RLC status reports by the RLC receiver after detecting a lost RLC PDU or RLC PDU segment.

[0080] The main services and functions of the PDCP layer 415 for the user plane include sequence numbering, header compression and decompression (for robust header compression (ROHC)), transmission of user data, reordering and duplicate detection (if in-order delivery to layers above the PDCP layer 415 is required), PDCP PDU routing (in the case of split bearers), retransmission of PDCP SDUs, ciphering and deciphering, PDCP SDU discarding, PDCP re-establishment and data recovery for RLC AM, and duplication of PDCP PDUs. The main services and functions of the PDCP layer 415 for the control plane include ciphering, deciphering and integrity protection, transmission of control plane data, and duplication of PDCP PDUs.

[0081] The SDAP layer 410 is an access stratum (AS) layer whose main services and functions include mapping between quality of service (QoS) flows and data radio bearers and marking QoS flow identifiers in both downlink and uplink packets. A single protocol entity of SDAP is configured for each independent PDU session.

[0082] The main services and functions of the RRC layer 445 include broadcasting of system information related to AS and NAS, paging initiated by 5GC (e.g., NGC 210 or 260) or RAN (e.g., new RAN 220), establishment, maintenance and release of RRC connection between UE and RAN, security functions (including key management), establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of signaling radio bearers (SRBs) and data radio bearers (DRBs), mobility functions (including handover, UE cell selection and reselection and control of cell selection and reselection, context transfer during handover), QoS management functions, UE measurement reporting and control of reporting, and NAS message transmission from NAS to UE / from UE to NAS.

[0083] The NAS layer 440 is the highest layer of the control plane between the UE 404 and the AMF 406 at the radio interface. The main functions of the protocols that are part of the NAS layer 440 are to support the mobility of the UE 404 and to support session management procedures to establish and maintain an Internet Protocol (IP) connection between the UE 404 and a packet data network (PDN). The NAS layer 440 performs Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer management, authentication, EPS Connection Management (ECM)-Idle mobility processing, paging initiation in ECM-IDLE, and security control.

[0084] Respective frame structures may be used to support downlink and uplink transmissions between network nodes (eg, base stations and UEs). Figure 5A is a diagram 500 illustrating an example of a downlink frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 5B is a diagram 530 illustrating an example of channels within a downlink frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 5C is a diagram 550 illustrating an example of an uplink frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 5D is a diagram 580 illustrating an example of channels within an uplink frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Other wireless communication technologies may have different frame structures and / or different channels.

[0085] LTE (and in some cases, NR) utilizes OFDM on the downlink and single carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. However, unlike LTE, NR also has the option of using OFDM on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDM divide the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones, frequency bins, etc. Each subcarrier can be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain using OFDM and in the time domain using SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers can be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) can depend on the system bandwidth. For example, the spacing of the subcarriers can be 15 kilohertz (kHz) and the minimum resource allocation (resource block) can be 12 subcarriers (or 180kHz). Therefore, for system bandwidths of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz), the nominal FFT size can be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048, respectively. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz (ie, 6 resource blocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbands for system bandwidths of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 MHz, respectively.

[0086] LTE supports a single digital scheme (subcarrier spacing (SCS), symbol length, etc.). In contrast, NR can support multiple digital schemes (μ), for example, 15KHz (μ=0), 30KHz (μ=1), 60KHz (μ=2), 120KHz (μ=3) and 240KHz (μ=4) or larger subcarrier spacings may be available. In each subcarrier spacing, there are 14 symbols per slot. For 15kHz SCS (μ=0), there is one slot per subframe, 10 slots per frame, the slot duration is 1 millisecond (ms), and the symbol duration is 66.7 microseconds (μs), and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with 4K FFT size is 50. For 30kHz SCS (μ=1), there are two slots per subframe, 20 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.5ms, the symbol duration is 33.3μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size is 100. For 60kHz SCS (μ=2), there are four slots per subframe, 40 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.25ms, the symbol duration is 16.7μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size is 200. For 120kHz SCS (μ=3), there are 8 slots per subframe, 80 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.125ms, the symbol duration is 8.33μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size is 400. For 240kHz SCS (μ=4), there are 16 slots per subframe, 160 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.0625ms, the symbol duration is 4.17μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) is 800 with 4K FFT size.

[0087] exist Figures 5A to 5D In the example of , a 15kHz digital scheme is used. Therefore, in the time domain, the 10ms frame is divided into 10 equally sized subframes, each subframe is 1ms, and each subframe includes one time slot. Figures 5A to 5D In a graph, time is represented horizontally (on the X-axis), with time increasing from left to right, and frequency is represented vertically (on the Y-axis), with frequency increasing (or decreasing) from bottom to top.

[0088] A resource grid may be used to represent a time slot, each of which includes one or more time-concurrent resource blocks (RBs) (also referred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) in the frequency domain. The resource grid is further divided into a number of resource elements (REs). An RE may correspond to one symbol length in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain. Figures 5A to 5DIn the digital scheme of , for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB can contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 7 consecutive symbols in the time domain, for a total of 84 REs. For an extended cyclic prefix, an RB can contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 6 consecutive symbols in the time domain, for a total of 72 REs. The number of bits carried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

[0089] Some of the REs carry downlink reference (pilot) signals (DL-RS). DL-RS may include PRS, TRS, PTRS, CRS, CSI-RS, DMRS, PSS, SSS, SSB, etc. Figure 5A Example locations of REs carrying PRS are shown (labeled "R").

[0090] A set of resource elements (REs) used for transmission of PRS is referred to as a "PRS resource". A set of resource elements may span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and "N" (such as 1 or more) consecutive symbols within a slot in the time domain. In a given OFDM symbol in the time domain, a PRS resource occupies consecutive PRBs in the frequency domain.

[0091] The transmission of PRS resources within a given PRB has a specific comb size (also referred to as "comb density"). The comb size "N" represents the subcarrier spacing (or frequency / tone spacing) within each symbol of the PRS resource configuration. Specifically, for comb size "N", the PRS is transmitted in every Nth subcarrier of the symbol of the PRB. For example, for comb 4, for each symbol of the PRS resource configuration, the REs corresponding to every fourth subcarrier (such as subcarriers 0, 4, 8) are used to transmit the PRS of the PRS resource. Currently, comb sizes of comb 2, comb 4, comb 6, and comb 12 are supported for DL-PRS. Figure 5A An example PRS resource configuration for comb 6 (which spans six symbols) is shown. That is, the location of the shaded REs (labeled "R") indicates a comb 6 PRS resource configuration.

[0092] Currently, DL-PRS resources can span 2, 4, 6, or 12 consecutive symbols within a slot with a full frequency domain staggered pattern. DL-PRS resources can be configured in any higher layer configured downlink or flexible (FL) symbol of a slot. For all REs of a given DL-PRS resource, there can be a constant energy per resource element (EPRE). Below is the frequency offset between symbols for comb sizes 2, 4, 6, and 12 over 2, 4, 6, and 12 symbols. 2-symbol comb 2: {0,1}; 4-symbol comb 2: {0,1,0,1}; 6-symbol comb 2: {0,1,0,1,0,1}; 12-symbol comb 2: {0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1}; 4-symbol comb 4: {0,2,1,3}; 12-symbol comb 4: {0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3}; 6-symbol comb 6: {0,3,1,4,2,5}; 12-symbol comb 6: {0,3,1,4,2,5,0,3,1,4,2,5}; and 12-symbol comb 12: {0,6,3,9,1,7,4,10,2,8,5,11}.

[0093] A "PRS resource set" is a set of PRS resources used for transmission of a PRS signal, wherein each PRS resource has a PRS resource ID, and in addition, the PRS resources in the PRS resource set are associated with the same TRP. A PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and is associated with a specific TRP (identified by a TRP ID). In addition, the PRS resources in the PRS resource set have the same period, common muting pattern configuration, and the same repetition factor (such as "PRS-ResourceRepetitionFactor") across time slots. A period is the time from the first repetition of the first PRS resource of the first PRS instance to the same first repetition of the same first PRS resource of the next PRS instance. The period may have a length selected from 2^μ*{4,5,8,10,16,20,32,40,64,80,160,320,640,1280,2560,5120,10240} time slots, where μ=0, 1, 2, 3. The repetition factor can have a length selected from {1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32} time slots.

[0094] A PRS resource ID in a PRS resource set is associated with a single beam (or beam ID) transmitted from a single TRP (where a TRP can transmit one or more beams). That is, each PRS resource in a PRS resource set can be transmitted on a different beam, and therefore, a "PRS resource" or simply "resource" may also be referred to as a "beam". Note that this does not have any implication as to whether the UE is aware of the TRP and the beam on which the PRS is transmitted.

[0095] A "PRS instance" or "PRS opportunity" is an instance of a periodically repeating time window (such as a group of one or more consecutive time slots) in which a PRS is expected to be sent. A PRS opportunity may also be referred to as a "PRS positioning opportunity", "PRS positioning instance", "positioning opportunity", "positioning instance", "positioning repetition", or simply "opportunity", "instance", or "repetition".

[0096] A "positioning frequency layer" (also referred to simply as a "frequency layer") is a group of one or more PRS resource sets spanning one or more TRPs that have the same values ​​for certain parameters. Specifically, a group of PRS resource sets has the same subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix (CP) type (meaning that all digital schemes supported for PDSCH are also supported for PRS), the same point A, the same value of the downlink PRS bandwidth, the same starting PRB (and center frequency), and the same comb size. The point A parameter takes the value of the parameter "ARFCN-ValueNR" (where "ARFCN" stands for "absolute radio frequency channel number") and is an identifier / code that specifies a pair of physical radio channels for transmission and reception. The downlink PRS bandwidth can have a granularity of four PRBs, with a minimum of 24 PRBs and a maximum of 272 PRBs. Currently, up to four frequency layers have been defined, and up to two PRS resource sets can be configured per TRP per frequency layer.

[0097] The concept of frequency layer is roughly similar to the concept of component carrier and bandwidth part (BWP), but the difference is that component carrier and BWP are used by one base station (or macro cell base station and small cell base station) to send data channels, while frequency layer is used by several (usually three or more) base stations to send PRS. When UE sends its positioning capability to the network (such as in LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) four positioning frequency layers.

[0098] Figure 5B An example of various channels within a downlink timeslot of a radio frame is shown. In NR, the channel bandwidth or system bandwidth is divided into multiple BWPs. A BWP is a contiguous set of PRBs selected from a contiguous subset of common RBs for a given digital scheme on a given carrier. Typically, up to four BWPs can be specified in the downlink and uplink. That is, a UE can be configured with up to four BWPs on the downlink and up to four BWPs on the uplink. At a given time, only one BWP (uplink or downlink) can be active, which means that the UE receives or transmits on only one BWP at a time. On the downlink, the bandwidth of each BWP should be equal to or greater than the bandwidth of the SSB, but it may or may not contain an SSB.

[0099] Reference Figure 5B, the UE uses the primary synchronization signal (PSS) to determine the subframe / symbol timing and the physical layer identity. The UE uses the secondary synchronization signal (SSS) to determine the physical layer cell identity group number and the radio frame timing. Based on the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identity group number, the UE can determine the PCI. Based on the PCI, the UE can determine the location of the aforementioned DL-RS. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH) carrying the MIB can be logically grouped with the PSS and SSS to form an SSB (also referred to as SS / PBCH). The MIB provides the number of RBs in the downlink system bandwidth and the system frame number (SFN). The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries user data, broadcast system information not sent via the PBCH (such as system information blocks (SIBs)), and paging messages.

[0100] The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries downlink control information (DCI) within one or more control channel elements (CCEs), each CCE includes one or more RE group (REG) bundles (which can span multiple symbols in the time domain), each REG bundle includes one or more REGs, each REG corresponds to 12 resource elements (one resource block) in the frequency domain and one OFDM symbol in the time domain. The set of physical resources used to carry PDCCH / DCI is called the control resource set (CORESET) in NR. In NR, the PDCCH is restricted to a single CORESET and is transmitted with its own DMRS. This enables UE-specific beamforming for the PDCCH.

[0101] exist Figure 5B In the example of , there is one CORESET per BWP, and the CORESET spans three symbols in the time domain (but it can span only one or two symbols). Unlike the LTE control channel that occupies the entire system bandwidth, in NR, the PDCCH channel is confined to a specific area (i.e., CORESET) in the frequency domain. Therefore, Figure 5B The frequency components of the PDCCH shown are shown as being less than a single BWP in the frequency domain. Note that although the CORESET shown is contiguous in the frequency domain, it does not need to be contiguous. Furthermore, a CORESET may span less than three symbols in the time domain.

[0102] The DCI within the PDCCH carries information about uplink resource allocations (persistent and non-persistent) and a description of downlink data sent to the UE (referred to as uplink and downlink grants, respectively). More specifically, the DCI indicates resources scheduled for downlink data channels (e.g., PDSCH) and uplink data channels (e.g., PUSCH). Multiple (e.g., up to eight) DCIs can be configured in the PDCCH, and these DCIs can have one of a variety of formats. For example, there are different DCI formats for uplink scheduling, for downlink scheduling, for uplink transmit power control (TPC), etc. The PDCCH can be transmitted by 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 CCEs to accommodate different DCI payload sizes or coding rates.

[0103] Below are the currently supported DCI formats. Format 0_0: Fallback for scheduling of PUSCH; Format 0_1: Non-fallback for scheduling of PUSCH; Format 1_0: Fallback for scheduling of PDSCH; Format 1_1: Non-fallback for scheduling of PDSCH; Format 2_0: Notify a group of UEs of the timeslot format; Format 2_1: Notify a group of UEs of PRBs and OFDM symbols, where the UE can assume that no transmission is intended for the UE; Format 2_2: Transmission of TPC commands for PUCCH and PUSCH; Format 2_3: Transmission of a set of SRS requests and TPC commands for SRS transmission. It is important to note that the fallback format is the default scheduling option with non-configurable fields and supports basic NR operation. In contrast, the non-fallback format is flexible to accommodate NR features.

[0104] As will be appreciated, the UE needs to be able to demodulate (also referred to as "decode") the PDCCH in order to read the DCI and thereby obtain the scheduling of resources allocated to the UE on the PDSCH and PUSCH. If the UE fails to demodulate the PDCCH, the UE will not know the location of the PDSCH resources, and it will continue to try to demodulate the PDCCH using different PDCCH candidate sets in subsequent PDCCH monitoring opportunities. If the UE fails to demodulate the PDCCH after a certain number of attempts, the UE declares a radio link failure (RLF). In order to overcome the PDCCH demodulation problem, a search space is configured for efficient PDCCH detection and demodulation.

[0105] Typically, the UE does not attempt to demodulate every PDCCH candidate that can be scheduled in a time slot. In order to reduce the constraints on the PDCCH scheduler and at the same time reduce the number of blind demodulation attempts made by the UE, a search space is configured. The search space is indicated by the set of consecutive CCEs that the UE should monitor for scheduling assignments / grants associated with a certain component carrier. There are two types of search spaces used for PDCCH to control each component carrier, namely the common search space (CSS) and the UE-specific search space (USS).

[0106] The common search space is shared across all UEs, and the UE-specific search space is used per UE (i.e., the UE-specific search space is specific to a specific UE). For the common search space, the DCI cyclic redundancy check (CRC) is scrambled with the system information radio network temporary identifier (SI-RNTI), random access RNTI (RA-RNTI), temporary cell RNTI (TC-RNTI), paging RNTI (P-RNTI), interruption RNTI (INT-RNTI), slot format indication RNTI (SFI-RNTI), TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, TPC-PUSCH-RNTI, TPC-SRS-RNTI, cell RNTI (C-RNTI), or a configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI) for all common procedures. For the UE-specific search space, the DCI CRC is scrambled with the C-RNTI or CS-RNTI, as these are specific to individual UEs.

[0107] The UE demodulates the PDCCH using four UE-specific search space aggregation levels (1, 2, 4, and 8) and two common search space aggregation levels (4 and 8). Specifically, for the UE-specific search space, aggregation level "1" has six PDCCH candidates per time slot and is six CCEs in size. Aggregation level "2" has six PDCCH candidates per time slot and is 12 CCEs in size. Aggregation level "4" has two PDCCH candidates per time slot and is eight CCEs in size. Aggregation level "8" has two PDCCH candidates per time slot and is 16 CCEs in size. For the common search space, aggregation level "4" has four PDCCH candidates per time slot and is 16 CCEs in size. Aggregation level "8" has two PDCCH candidates per time slot and is 16 CCEs in size.

[0108] Each search space includes a set of consecutive CCEs that can be allocated to a PDCCH (referred to as PDCCH candidates). The UE demodulates all of the PDCCH candidates in the two search spaces (USS and CSS) to find the DCI for the UE. For example, the UE can demodulate the DCI to obtain scheduled uplink grant information on the PUSCH and downlink resources on the PDSCH. Note that the aggregation level is the number of REs of the CORESET that carries the PDCCH DCI message and is expressed in terms of CCEs. There is a one-to-one mapping between the aggregation level and the number of CCEs per aggregation level. That is, for aggregation level "4", there are four CCEs. Therefore, as shown above, if the aggregation level is "4" and the number of PDCCH candidates in the time slot is "2", the size of the search space is "8" (i.e., 4x2=8).

[0109] like Figure 5C As shown, some of the REs (labeled "R") carry DMRS for channel estimation at a receiver (e.g., a base station, another UE, etc.). In addition, the UE may send an SRS, for example, in the last symbol of a slot. The SRS may have a comb structure, and the UE may send the SRS on one of the combs. Figure 5C In the example shown, the SRS is shown on a comb-2 on one symbol. The base station can use SRS to obtain channel state information (CSI) for each UE. CSI describes how the RF signal propagates from the UE to the base station and represents the combined effects of scattering, fading, and power loss with distance. The system uses SRS for resource scheduling, link adaptation, massive MIMO, beam management, etc.

[0110] Currently, the SRS resource can span 1, 2, 4, 8, or 12 consecutive symbols within a slot with comb size of Comb-2, Comb-4, or Comb-8. Below are the frequency offsets between symbols for the currently supported SRS comb patterns. 1-symbol comb-2: {0}; 2-symbol comb-2: {0,1}; 4-symbol comb-2: {0,1,0,1}; 4-symbol comb-4: {0,2,1,3}; 8-symbol comb-4: {0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3}; 12-symbol comb-4: {0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3}; 4-symbol comb-8: {0,4,2,6}; 8-symbol comb-8: {0,4,2,6,1,5,3,7}; and 12-symbol comb-8: {0,4,2,6,1,5,3,7,0,4,2,6}.

[0111] A set of resource elements used for transmission of SRS is called "SRS resources" and can be identified by the parameter "SRS-ResourceId". The set of resource elements can span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and N (e.g., one or more) consecutive symbols within a time slot in the time domain. In a given OFDM symbol, SRS resources occupy consecutive PRBs. An "SRS resource set" is a set of SRS resources used for transmission of SRS signals and is identified by an SRS resource set ID ("SRS-ResourceSetId").

[0112] Typically, the UE sends SRS to enable the receiving base station (serving base station or neighboring base station) to measure the channel quality between the UE and the base station. However, SRS can also be used as an uplink positioning reference signal for uplink positioning procedures such as UL-TDOA, multi-RTT, UL-AoA, etc.

[0113] Several enhancements to the previous definition of SRS have been proposed for SRS for positioning (also known as "UL-PRS"), such as new interleaving patterns within SRS resources (in addition to single symbol / comb-2), new comb types for SRS, new sequences for SRS, a higher number of SRS resource sets per component carrier, and a higher number of SRS resources per component carrier. In addition, the parameters "SpatialRelationInfo" and "PathLossReference" will be configured based on the downlink reference signal or SSB from the adjacent TRP. Further, one SRS resource can be sent outside the active BWP, and one SRS resource can span multiple component carriers. In addition, the SRS can be configured in the RRC connected state and sent only within the active BWP. In addition, there may be no frequency hopping, no repetition factor, a single antenna port, and new lengths for SRS (e.g., 8 and 12 symbols). There may also be open-loop power control instead of closed-loop power control, and comb-8 (i.e., SRS sent in every eighth subcarrier in the same symbol) may be used. Finally, the UE may transmit over the same transmit beam from multiple SRS resources for UL AoA. All of these are additional features of the current SRS framework, which is configured through RRC higher layer signaling (and potentially triggered or activated through MAC Control Element (CE) or DCI).

[0114] Figure 5DExamples of various channels within an uplink time slot of a frame according to various aspects of the present disclosure are shown. A random access channel (RACH), also known as a physical random access channel (PRACH), may be within one or more time slots within a frame based on a PRACH configuration. A PRACH may include six consecutive RB pairs within a time slot. The PRACH allows a UE to perform initial system access and achieve uplink synchronization. A physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) may be located at the edge of the uplink system bandwidth. The PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI), such as scheduling requests, CSI reports, channel quality indicators (CQI), precoding matrix indicators (PMI), rank indicators (RI), and HARQ ACK / NACK feedback. A physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) carries data, and may additionally be used to carry a buffer status report (BSR), a power headroom report (PHR), and / or UCI.

[0115] Note that the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" generally refer to specific reference signals used for positioning in NR and LTE systems. However, as used herein, the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" may also refer to any type of reference signal that may be used for positioning, such as, but not limited to, PRS, TRS, PTRS, CRS, CSI-RS, DMRS, PSS, SSS, SSB, SRS, UL-PRS, etc., as defined in LTE and NR. In addition, unless the context indicates otherwise, the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" may refer to downlink or uplink positioning reference signals. If further distinction is needed between the types of PRS, the downlink positioning reference signal may be referred to as "DL-PRS", and the uplink positioning reference signal (e.g., SRS, PTRS used for positioning) may be referred to as "UL-PRS". In addition, for signals that may be sent in both uplink and downlink (e.g., DMRS, PTRS), "UL" or "DL" may be prefixed to the signal to distinguish the direction. For example, "UL-DMRS" may be distinguished from "DL-DMRS".

[0116] NR supports a variety of cellular network-based positioning technologies, including downlink-based, uplink-based, and downlink- and uplink-based positioning methods. Downlink-based positioning methods include observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) in LTE, downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA) in NR, and downlink transmission angle (DL-AoD) in NR. In the OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning process, the UE measures the difference between the arrival time (ToA) of the reference signals (e.g., PRS, TRS, CSI-RS, SSB, etc.) received from each pair of base stations (referred to as reference signal time difference (RSTD) or arrival time difference (TDOA) measurement), and reports them to the positioning entity. More specifically, the UE receives identifiers (IDs) of a reference base station (e.g., a serving base station) and multiple non-reference base stations in the auxiliary data. The UE then measures the RSTD between the reference base station and each of the non-reference base stations. Based on the known positions of the base stations involved and the RSTD measurements, the positioning entity can estimate the position of the UE. For DL-AoD positioning, a base station measures the angle of a downlink transmit beam used to communicate with a UE and other channel characteristics (eg, signal strength) to estimate the position of the UE.

[0117] Uplink-based positioning methods include uplink time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA) and uplink angle of arrival (UL-AoA). UL-TDOA is similar to DL-TDOA, but is based on an uplink reference signal (e.g., SRS) sent by the UE. For UL-AoA positioning, the base station measures the angle of the uplink receive beam used to communicate with the UE and other channel characteristics (e.g., gain level) to estimate the UE's position.

[0118] Downlink and uplink-based positioning methods include enhanced cell ID (E-CID) positioning and multi-round trip time (RTT) positioning (also referred to as "multi-cell RTT"). In the RTT process, the initiator (base station or UE) sends an RTT measurement signal (e.g., SRS or SRS) to the responder (UE or base station), and the responder sends an RTT response signal (e.g., SRS or PRS) back to the initiator. The RTT response signal includes the difference between the ToA of the RTT measurement signal and the transmission time of the RTT response signal, which is called the received to send (Rx-Tx) measurement. The initiator calculates the difference between the transmission time of the RTT measurement signal and the ToA of the RTT response signal, which is called the "Tx-Rx" measurement. The propagation time (also referred to as "flight time") between the initiator and the responder can be calculated based on the Tx-Rx and Rx-Tx measurements. Based on the propagation time and the known speed of light, the distance between the initiator and the responder can be determined. For multi-RTT positioning, the UE performs an RTT process with multiple base stations to enable its position to be triangulated based on the known position of the base station. RTT and multi-RTT methods can be combined with other positioning technologies such as UL-AoA and DL-AoD to improve location accuracy.

[0119] The E-CID positioning method is based on radio resource management (RRM) measurements. In E-CID, the UE reports the serving cell ID, timing advance (TA), and the identifiers of detected neighboring base stations, estimated timing, and signal strength. The UE's position is then estimated based on this information and the known locations of the base stations.

[0120] To assist the positioning operation, a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) may provide assistance data to the UE. For example, the assistance data may include an identifier of the base station (or cell / TRP of the base station) from which the reference signal is measured, reference signal configuration parameters (e.g., the number of consecutive positioning subframes, the period of the positioning subframe, the mute sequence, the frequency hopping sequence, the reference signal identifier, the reference signal bandwidth, etc.), and / or other parameters applicable to a particular positioning method. Alternatively, the assistance data may be directly derived from the base station itself (e.g., in a periodically broadcast overhead message, etc.). In some cases, the UE may be able to detect neighboring network nodes on its own without using assistance data.

[0121] In the case of OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning process, the auxiliary data may also include the expected RSTD value and the associated uncertainty or search window around the expected RSTD. In some cases, the value range of the expected RSTD may be + / -500 microseconds (μs). In some cases, when any of the resources used for positioning measurements are in FR1, the value range of the uncertainty of the expected RSTD may be + / -32μs. In other cases, when all of the resources used for positioning measurements are in FR2, the value range of the uncertainty of the expected RSTD may be + / -8μs.

[0122] The position estimate may be referred to by other names, such as position estimate, location, position, position fix, fix, etc. The position estimate may be geodetic and include coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude), or may be civil and include a street address, postal address, or some other verbal description of the location. The position estimate may also be defined relative to some other known location or in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude). The position estimate may include an expected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volume within which the location is expected to be included with some specified or default confidence level).

[0123] In LTE, at least in some cases, NR positioning measurements are reported via higher layer signaling, specifically, the LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) and / or RRC. LPP is used point-to-point between a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) and a UE (e.g., any UE described herein) to position the UE using location-related measurements obtained from one or more reference sources. Figure 6 600 is a diagram illustrating an example LPP reference source for positioning. Figure 6 In the example of FIG. 5 , a target device (specifically, UE 604 (eg, any of the UEs described herein)) participates in a communication with a location server 630 (in Figure 6 UE 604 also receives / measures LPP sessions from a first reference source (specifically, one or more base stations 602 (which may correspond to any base station described herein and in Figure 6 620 (which may correspond to Figure 1 The wireless positioning signal of SV 112)) in.

[0124] An LPP session is used between the location server 630 and the UE 604 to obtain location-related measurements or location estimates or to transmit assistance data. A single LPP session is used to support a single location request (e.g., for a single mobile-terminated location request (MT-LR), a mobile-originated location request (MO-LR), or a network-induced location request (NI-LR)). Multiple LPP sessions can be used between the same endpoints to support multiple different location requests. Each LPP session includes one or more LPP transactions, each of which performs a single operation (e.g., capability exchange, auxiliary data transmission, location information transmission). LPP transactions are referred to as LPP procedures. The instigator of the LPP session instigates the first LPP transaction, but subsequent transactions can be instigated by either endpoint. LPP transactions within a session can occur serially or in parallel. LPP transactions are indicated at the LPP protocol level using transaction identifiers to associate messages (e.g., requests and responses) with each other. Messages within a transaction are linked by a common transaction identifier.

[0125] The LPP positioning method and associated signaling content are defined in the 3GPP LPP standard (3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 36.355, which is publicly available and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety). LPP signaling can be used to request and report measurements related to the following positioning methods: Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA), Downlink Time Difference of Arrival (DL-TDOA), Assisted Global Navigation Satellite System (A-GNSS), LTE Enhanced Cell Identity (E-CID), NR E-CID, Sensors, Terrestrial Beacon System (TBS), WLAN, Bluetooth, Downlink Angle of Transmission (DL-AoD), Uplink Angle of Arrival (UL-AoA), and Multiple Round Trip Time (RTT). Currently, an LPP measurement report may include the following measurements: (1) one or more time of arrival (ToA), time difference of arrival (TDOA), reference signal time difference (RSTD), or received to transmitted (Rx-Tx) measurements, (2) one or more AoA and / or AoD measurements (currently only used for base stations to report UL-AoA and DL-AoD to location server 630), (3) one or more multipath measurements (per-path ToA, reference signal received power (RSRP), AoA / AoD), (4) one or more motion states (e.g., walking, driving, etc.) and trajectories (currently only used for UE 604), and (5) one or more report quality indicators. In the present disclosure, positioning measurements (such as the example measurements just listed, and regardless of the positioning technology) may be collectively referred to as positioning state information (PSI).

[0126] UE 604 and / or location server 630 may obtain information from one or more reference sources (in Figure 6 In the example shown in FIG. 6 , SPS satellites 620 and base stations 602 are used to derive location information. Each reference source can be used to calculate an independent estimate of the location of UE 604 using an associated positioning technique. Figure 6 In the example of , UE 604 is measuring characteristics (e.g., ToA, RSRP, RSTD, etc.) of positioning signals received from base station 602 to calculate or assist location server 630 in calculating an estimate of the position of UE 604 using one or more cellular network-based positioning methods (e.g., multi-RTT, OTDOA, DL-TDOA, DL-AoD, E-CID, etc.). Similarly, UE 604 is measuring characteristics (e.g., ToA) of GNSS signals received from SPS satellites 620 to triangulate its position in two or three dimensions based on the number of measured SPS satellites. In some cases, UE 604 or location server 630 can combine the position solutions derived from each of the different positioning technologies to improve the accuracy of the final position estimate.

[0127] As described above, the UE 604 uses LPP to report location-related measurements obtained from different reference sources (e.g., base stations 602, Bluetooth beacons, SPS satellites 620, WLAN access points, motion sensors, etc.). As an example, for GNSS-based positioning, the UE 604 uses the LPP information element (IE) "A-GNSS-ProvideLocationInformation" to provide location measurements (e.g., pseudo range, location estimate, velocity, etc.) together with time information to the location server 630. It can also be used to provide error causes specific to GNSS positioning. The "A-GNSS-ProvideLocationInformation" IE includes IEs such as "GNSS-SignalMeasurementInformation", "GNSS-LocationInformation", "GNSS-MeasurementList", and "GNSS-Error". When the UE 604 provides the location server 630 with location and optional velocity information derived using GNSS or hybrid GNSS and other measurements, the UE 604 includes the "GNSS-LocationInformation" IE. The UE 604 provides the location server 630 with GNSS signal measurement information and GNSS network time association (if requested by the location server 630) using the “GNSS-SignalMeasurementInformation” IE. This information includes measurements of code phase, Doppler, C / No, and optional accumulated carrier phase (also known as accumulated delta distance (ADR)), which implements a UE-assisted GNSS method in which the position is calculated in the location server 630. The UE 604 provides measurements of code phase, Doppler, C / No, and / or optional accumulated carrier phase (or ADR) using the “GNSS-MeasurementList” IE.

[0128] As another example, for motion sensor-based positioning, currently supported positioning methods use air pressure sensors and motion sensors, as described in 3GPP TS 36.305 (which is publicly available and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety). UE 604 uses LPP IE "Sensor-ProvideLocationInformation" to provide location information for sensor-based methods to location server 630. It can also be used to provide sensor-specific error reasons. UE 604 uses "Sensor-MeasurementInformation" IE to provide sensor measurements (e.g., air pressure readings) to location server 630. UE 604 uses "Sensor-MotionInformation" to provide motion information to location server 630. Motion information may include a series of ordered points. UE 604 may obtain this information using one or more motion sensors (e.g., accelerometers, barometers, magnetometers, etc.).

[0129] As yet another example, for Bluetooth based positioning, the UE 604 uses the "BT-ProvideLocationInformation" IE to provide measurements of one or more Bluetooth beacons to the location server 630. This IE can also be used to provide error reasons specific to Bluetooth positioning.

[0130] NR positioning technology achieves high-precision positioning by using, for example, large-bandwidth positioning signals, beam scanning in the mmW frequency range, AoA and / or AoD measurements and reporting, and multi-cell RTT. However, NR positioning technology does not specifically address the low latency requirements of commercial use cases such as Industrial IoT (IIoT).

[0131] Some NR positioning technologies can provide lower latency than other NR positioning technologies. For example, UE-based positioning technologies (currently only implemented on the downlink) and positioning LMF in the RAN (for UE-assisted positioning technologies) provide lower latency. However, all measurement reports are still performed via LPP and / or RRC (e.g., RRC layer 445) using mechanisms similar to those in LTE; there is no low-latency reporting mechanism. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a low (lower) latency reporting mechanism for existing positioning technologies. For example, in some IIoT situations, it would be beneficial to provide a latency of less than 100ms or even less than 10ms.

[0132] To achieve such latency targets, it would be beneficial to report positioning measurements at L1 (e.g., PHY layer 430) and / or L2 (e.g., SDAP layer 410, PDCP layer 415, RLC layer 420, and MAC layer 425). Note that L1 / L2 reporting reduces latency between the UE and the serving base station; latency between the serving base station and the location server can be addressed by positioning the location server in the RAN (e.g., as a component of the serving base station).

[0133] At the physical layer, the UE is configured to send CSI reports at a certain period or when triggered by the network (e.g., serving base station, location server). The CSI report includes information indicating the quality of a given channel at a specific time. As described in 3GPP TS38.212 (which is publicly available and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety), the CSI report consists of a set of fields in a pre-specified order. Specifically, the CSI report may include the following parameters: CQI, PMI, CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), SS / PBCH resource block indicator (SSBRI), RI and / or layer 1 reference signal received power (L1-RSRP) and layer indicator (LI).

[0134] The reported parameters in the CSI report are encoded in the UCI and mapped to the PUSCH or PUCCH, and the coding format used varies depending on the physical channel used and the frequency granularity of the CSI report. The reason for the different coding schemes is that the payload size of the CSI report typically varies with the UE's choice of CRI and RI. That is, the codebook size used for PMI reporting is different for different RIs, typically especially for type IICSI reports and subband PMI reports, where the codebook size may vary significantly. Similarly, since one codeword is used for up to rank-4 and two codewords are used for higher ranks, the number of CQI parameters (given per codeword) included in the CSI report will vary depending on the choice of rank.

[0135] For PUCCH-based CSI reporting with wideband frequency granularity, the variation in PMI / CQI payload (which depends on the selected rank) is not too large, and therefore, a single packet encoding all CSI parameters in the UCI is used. Since the base station needs to know the payload size (length) of the UCI in order to decode the transmission, the UCI is padded with a number of dummy bits (e.g., "0") corresponding to the difference between the maximum UCI payload size (i.e., corresponding to the RI that causes the maximum PMI / CQI overhead) and the actual payload size of the CSI report. This ensures that the payload size is fixed regardless of the UE's RI selection. If this measure is not taken, the base station will have to blindly detect the UCI payload size and try to decode all possible UCI payload sizes, which is not practical.

[0136] However, for PUCCH-based CSI with subband frequency granularity and PUSCH-based CSI reporting, always padding the CSI report to the worst-case UCI payload size would result in too much overhead. For these cases, the CSI content / report is instead divided into two CSI parts, part 1 and part 2. CSI part 1 has a fixed payload size (and can therefore be decoded by the base station without a priori information), and CSI part 2 has a variable payload size. Information about the payload size of CSI part 2 can be derived from the CSI parameters in CSI part 1. That is, the base station first decodes the CSI part to obtain a subset of the CSI parameters, and then based on these CSI parameters, the base station can infer the payload size of CSI part 2. The base station can then decode CSI part 2 to obtain the remaining part of the CSI parameters.

[0137] The UE may be configured with a CSI reporting setting in RRC signaling, where the CSI reporting setting may contain a parameter (e.g., "ReportQuantity") to indicate in which component carrier one or more CSI-related quantities (e.g., CRI, RI, PMI, CQI, L1-RSRP, etc.) are to be reported and which uplink channel should be used to carry the reported CSI-related quantities (e.g., PUSCH or PUCCH).

[0138] The CSI report setting can also specify a reference signal resource setting. Each resource setting includes a BWP index and a tag indicating whether the CSI-RS resource is aperiodic (A), periodic (P), or semi-persistent (SP). Each resource setting contains one or more CSI-RS / SSB resource sets. Specifically, for L1-RSRP, there is only one CSI-RS / SSB resource set, while for CSI estimation, there can be two or three CSI-RS resource sets, one for channel measurement and the rest for interference measurement.

[0139] Each CSI-RS resource set may contain one or more CSI-R resources. Each CSI-RS resource may contain one or more antenna ports (specific time and frequency resources) on which the UE is expected to perform channel estimation measurements. If a resource set has multiple CSI-RS resources, the UE may also report the CRI of the best CSI-R resource of the set.

[0140] The present disclosure describes techniques for reporting RAT-independent (i.e., non-NR) PSI using RAT-dependent (NR) lower layers (e.g., L1 / L2). More specifically, a UE may be configured to provide a PSI report including measurements derived using RAT-independent techniques on a lower layer (e.g., PHY or MAC-CE) channel of an NRRAT. A PSI report may use the same framework as a CSI report (e.g., configured by "ReportQuantity", having a fixed-size part 1 and a variable-size part 2, etc.), except that it includes PSI instead of CSI. In addition, a UE may send a PSI report on a PUSCH or PUCCH as it sends a CSI report. Alternatively, a UE may send a PSI report to another UE on a sidelink (i.e., a wireless communication link between two UEs configured according to a cellular RAT such as NR).

[0141] The PSI report may include RAT-related measurements (i.e., measurements based on NR reference signals (e.g., DL / UL-PRS, CSI-RS, TRS, SSB, etc.)) or RAT-independent measurements (i.e., measurements or other information derived from reference sources other than NR reference sources (e.g., Bluetooth, air pressure sensor, motion sensor, GNSS, OTDOA based on LTE PHY signals, and E-CID based on LTE PHY signals)). For both RAT-related and RAT-independent PSI reports, the information that will need to be conveyed in the PSI report will be the same as the information currently reported via LPP (such as information conveyed by the "A-GNSS-ProvideLocationInformation," "Sensor-ProvideLocationInformation," and "BT-ProvideLocationInformation" IEs). For each type of positioning method, whether RAT-related or RAT-independent, the UE may report in the capability information whether it supports PSI reporting for that positioning method.

[0142] In one aspect, each PSI report may be associated with measurements from one positioning technology. Thus, for example, NR-based measurements may be reported in one PSI report, Bluetooth-based measurements may be reported in another PSI report, GNSS-based measurements may be reported in another PSI report, and so on. The configuration of each PSI report may include necessary configuration parameters for enabling the corresponding PSI report. For example, the configuration for an A-GNSS PSI report may include assistance data for A-GNSS, which will be different from the assistance data for OTDOA, which will be different from the assistance data for Bluetooth, and so on. Therefore, the list of quantities (measurements) in the PSI report will depend on the positioning technology that is configured to be reported. Note that associated RAT-related resources will not be provided in the PSI report. That is, there will be no reference signals explicitly associated with the PSI report because the report is associated with a RAT-independent positioning method.

[0143] In the case where each PSI report is associated with one positioning technology, the UE may report the size of each measurement vector (e.g., the number of measurements) in the fixed-size part 1 of the PSI report, and may also report the type of measurement vector reported in the variable-size part 2 of the PSI report. For example, the UE may report the type of measurement vector using a bit string of "X" bits, where each bit corresponds to a specific type of measurement (e.g., RSTD, RSRP, Rx-Tx, etc.). Then, "X" numbers are reported in part 1, where each number indicates the size of one of the "X" measurement vectors reported in part 2.

[0144] For example, if the UE is to report three measurement vectors for three different types of measurements (X=3), the bit string will have a length of three bits. The first bit may indicate a first type of measurement (e.g., RSTD), the second bit may indicate a second type of measurement (e.g., ToA), and the third bit may indicate a third type of measurement (e.g., RSRP). PSI part 1 will then include three additional digits, one for each measurement vector and representing the number of measurements in the measurement vector. The first digit indicates the size of the measurement vector for the first type of measurement, the second digit indicates the size of the measurement vector for the second type of measurement, and the third digit indicates the size of the measurement vector for the third type of measurement.

[0145] Figure 7 700 is a diagram illustrating an example DCI trigger for PSI reporting in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Specifically, Figure 7 An example of aperiodic PSI report triggering is provided, where different codepoints in the DCI trigger one or more PSI reports for the same technology. Figure 7 As shown, there are 64 DCI code points 710, some or all of which may be mapped to different PSI reporting configurations 720. That is, when the UE receives a specific code point, it may look up the corresponding configuration information for the triggered PSI report.

[0146] For example, the first code point 710 (labeled as "1") is mapped to a configuration parameter identifying a first positioning technology (labeled as "Selected Positioning Technology #1"), which specifies that the UE will send two PSI reports (labeled as "PSI Report #1" and "PSI Report #2"), and include or point to assistance data for the specified positioning technology (labeled as "Assistance Data #1"). As shown, the assistance data is provided only once. As another example, the second code point 710 (labeled as "2") is mapped to a configuration parameter identifying a second positioning technology (labeled as "Selected Positioning Technology #2"), which specifies that the UE will send one PSI report (labeled as "PSI Report #4"), and include or point to assistance data for the specified positioning technology (labeled as "Assistance Data #2"). As another example, the third code point 710 (labeled as "3") is mapped to a configuration parameter identifying a third positioning technology (labeled as "Selected Positioning Technology #3"), which specifies that the UE will send two PSI reports (labeled as "PSI Report #7" and "PSI Report #8") and include or point to assistance data for the specified positioning technology (labeled as "Assistance Data #3").

[0147] In one aspect, the same PSI report can be configured to carry measurements for multiple positioning technologies. In this case, the PSI report configuration / trigger should include auxiliary data (or a link / indicator of auxiliary data) for each positioning technology configured to be reported. The UE can include which positioning technologies are included in the PSI report in Part 1 of the PSI report. In Part 2, the UE reports the actual measurements for each positioning technology according to the specified order of the sub-parts. The UE can select the order to be used inside the Part 2 report and indicate the order in the Part 1 report. Therefore, if the PSI report is configured for multi-technology reporting, the PSI report can be split into multiple parts and sub-parts. Specifically, Part 1 will indicate which sub-parts are included in Part 2 (one or more sub-parts for each positioning technology). Part 2 will be split into sub-parts, and each sub-part will contain the measurement of one technology. Each additional sub-part of Part 2 can be carried on a separate PUSCH or PUCCH.

[0148] Figure 8 800 is a diagram illustrating an example DCI trigger for PSI reporting in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Specifically, Figure 8 An example of aperiodic PSI report triggering is provided, where different code points in the DCI trigger one or more PSI reports for different positioning technologies. Figure 8 As shown, there are 64 DCI code points 810, some or all of which may be mapped to different PSI reporting configurations 820. That is, when the UE receives a particular code point, it may look up the corresponding configuration information for the triggered PSI report.

[0149] For example, the first code point 810 (labeled as "1") is mapped to a configuration parameter identifying a first positioning technology (labeled as "selected positioning technology #1") and a second positioning technology (labeled as "selected positioning technology #2"), which specifies that the UE will send two PSI reports (labeled as "PSI report #1" and "PSI report #2") (one PSI report for each positioning technology), and includes or points to assistance data for each specified positioning technology (labeled as "assistance data #1" and "assistance data #2"). As another example, the second code point 810 (labeled as "2") is mapped to a configuration parameter identifying a second positioning technology (labeled as "selected positioning technology #2"), which specifies that the UE will send one PSI report (labeled as "PSI report #4"), and includes or points to assistance data for the specified positioning technology (labeled as "assistance data #2"). As yet another example, the third code point 810 (labeled "3") is mapped to a configuration parameter identifying a third positioning technology (labeled "Selected Positioning Technology #3"), which specifies that the UE will send two PSI reports (labeled "PSI Report #7" and "PSI Report #8"), and includes or points to assistance data for the specified positioning technology (labeled "Assistance Data #3"). Thus, as will be appreciated, in this regard, not every code point needs to be mapped to multiple positioning technologies, but there is an option to do so. In addition, as shown, the assistance data may be provided only once.

[0150] For non-periodic PSI reporting, an additional bit field may be configured in the DCI, which may be used for RAT-independent positioning measurement reporting. For UE-based positioning, the UE may be configured to provide a PSI report that (1) has a separate positioning fix, velocity, and / or direction derived using a single positioning technology, or (2) has a joint positioning fix, velocity, and / or direction derived using a set of positioning technologies. In a second option, the UE may report which positioning technologies are used for the joint positioning fix. In one aspect, the UE may be configured with positioning technologies that it may use for the joint positioning fix. For example, if the UE has opened three positioning sessions, one for UE-based DL-TDOA, another for UE-assisted OTDOA, and another for UE-based GNSS, and the UE is configured to report one positioning fix, the UE may report which of the two UE-based methods was used for the derived positioning fix.

[0151] In one aspect, if multiple PSI reports are configured to be sent on the same uplink channel and it is not possible to fit them into a scheduled lower layer container (e.g., CSI report, MAC-CE), priority rules depending on the technology used for the measurement may be applied. For example, GNSS measurements may have a higher priority than NR measurements, NR measurements may have a higher priority than LTE measurements, LTE measurements may have a higher priority than sensor measurements, and sensor measurements may have a higher priority than Bluetooth measurements. In one aspect, the selected ordering may be configured by the location server. Alternatively, the selected ordering may be based on the time when the corresponding positioning session started. For example, the first positioning session started may have the highest priority, and the last positioning session started may have the lowest priority, and vice versa.

[0152] In some cases, some parts of the lowest priority PSI report may have to be discarded (or in some cases, one or more PSI reports of the lowest priority may have to be discarded and some parts of the low priority PSI reports may have to be discarded) due to sending PSI reports based on their respective priorities. For example, the UE may be attempting to send a low priority PSI report with multiple parts (e.g., "Part 1", "Part 2", "Part 3") carrying RAT-independent measurements (e.g., GNSS measurements, LTE measurements, Bluetooth measurements, etc.). If only a portion of the bits of a particular part (e.g., "Part 3") will fit into a scheduled lower layer container (e.g., a PHY layer container or a MAC layer container), then the entire part (e.g., all of "Part 3") is discarded.

[0153] Thus, if a RAT-independent positioning report (i.e., a PSI report containing measurements for a specific RAT) is configured to be reported in a lower layer container (which may also be configured to include one or more other RAT-independent positioning reports), and if one or more parts of the positioning report are to be dropped / omitted, the UE may be configured to report certain information via higher layer signaling (e.g., LPP signaling). As a first option, the UE may report the parts dropped / omitted from the lower layer container via higher layer signaling, without reporting those parts sent in the lower layer container. As a second option, the UE may report the entire RAT-independent report via higher layer signaling. Note that the reports / parts to be dropped / omitted may not be based on having a lower priority than other positioning technologies, but may instead be based on other factors for sending some reports / parts before other reports / parts.

[0154] In an aspect, the UE may also report an error message or warning message that identifies which report or which part(s) of the report were discarded / omitted and reported via higher layer signaling instead. The error / warning message may be reported via higher layer signaling or as a bit in a lower layer container. Reporting the above information via an LPP session may be beneficial because there will likely be an ongoing LPP session between the UE and a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) to obtain the UE's location.

[0155] In an aspect, the UE may suggest a maximum size for each part of the report. The suggestion may be based on the type of RAT-independent measurements to be reported, the radio link quality, the type of lower layer container, and / or the capabilities of the UE. The suggestion may be provided via higher layer signaling (e.g., LPP signaling), such as during the UE's negotiation with the network to report RAT-independent measurements via lower layer containers.

[0156] Fig. 9 An example method 900 of wireless communication in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure is shown. In an aspect, the method 900 may be performed by a UE (eg, any of the UEs described herein).

[0157] At 910, the UE receives a configuration for providing at least one PSI report on a wireless communication network operating according to a first RAT, the first RAT being associated with at least one first positioning technology, the configuration being associated with at least one second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both to be used to estimate the location of the UE. In an aspect, operation 910 may be performed by WWAN transceiver 310, processing system 332, memory component 340, and / or positioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation.

[0158] At 920, the UE obtains at least a first positioning measurement set using at least one second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both. In an aspect, operation 920 may be performed by WWAN transceiver 310, WLAN transceiver 320, sensor 344, processing system 332, memory component 340, and / or positioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation.

[0159] At 930, the UE sends at least one PSI report on physical resources allocated for a physical uplink or sidelink channel of the first RAT, the at least one PSI report including at least a first positioning measurement set. In an aspect, operation 930 may be performed by the WWAN transceiver 310, the processing system 332, the memory component 340, and / or the positioning component 342, any one or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation.

[0160] As will be appreciated, a technical advantage of method 900 is low (lower) latency reporting (eg, measurements, position estimates) for existing positioning techniques.

[0161] It can be seen in the above specific embodiments that different features are grouped together in the examples. This disclosure should not be understood as an intention that the example clauses have more features than those explicitly mentioned in each clause. Instead, various aspects of the present disclosure may include less than all the features of the disclosed individual example clauses. Therefore, the clauses below should be considered to be incorporated into the description accordingly, wherein each clause itself can be used as a separate example. Although each dependent clause can refer to a specific combination with one of the other clauses in the clause, the various aspects of the dependent clause are not limited to a specific combination. It should be recognized that other example clauses may also include a combination of the subject matter of the dependent clause aspect with any other dependent clause or independent clause, or a combination of any feature with other dependent clauses and independent clauses. Various aspects disclosed herein explicitly include these combinations, unless it is explicitly stated or it can be easily inferred that a specific combination is not intended (e.g., contradictory aspects, such as defining an element as both an insulator and a conductor). In addition, it is also expected that various aspects of the clause are included in any other independent clause, even if the clause is not directly subordinate to the independent clause.

[0162] Examples of implementations are described in the numbered clauses below:

[0163] Clause 1. A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving a configuration for providing at least one positioning state information (PSI) report on a wireless communication network operating according to a first radio access technology (RAT), the first RAT being associated with at least one first positioning technology, the configuration being associated with at least one second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both to be used to estimate the position of the UE; obtaining at least a first positioning measurement set using the at least one second RAT, the at least one second positioning technology, or both; and sending the at least one PSI report on physical resources allocated for a physical uplink or sidelink channel for the first RAT, the at least one PSI report including at least the first positioning measurement set.

[0164] Clause 2. A method according to clause 1, wherein: the first RAT comprises a new radio (NR) RAT, and the at least one second RAT, the at least one second positioning technology, or both comprise a non-NR RAT, a non-NR positioning technology.

[0165] Clause 3. A method according to Clause 2, wherein the non-NR positioning technology includes Bluetooth positioning technology, air pressure sensor positioning technology, motion sensor positioning technology, assisted global navigation satellite system (A-GNSS) positioning technology, wireless local area network (WLAN) positioning technology, ground beacon system (TBS) positioning technology, or any combination thereof.

[0166] Clause 4. A method according to clause 2, wherein: the non-NR RAT includes long term evolution (LTE), and the at least one second positioning technology includes an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) positioning technology based on an LTE physical layer reference signal, an enhanced cell identifier (E-CID) positioning technology based on an LTE physical layer reference signal, or any combination thereof.

[0167] Clause 5. A method according to any one of clauses 2-4, wherein the at least one first positioning technology includes a downlink arrival time difference (DL-TDOA) positioning technology based on an NR physical layer reference signal, an E-CID positioning technology based on an NR physical layer reference signal, a downlink transmission angle (DL-AoD) positioning technology, an uplink arrival angle (UL-AoA) positioning technology, a multiple round trip time (multi-RTT) positioning technology, or any combination thereof.

[0168] Clause 6. The method of any one of clauses 1-5, wherein the at least one second positioning technology comprises at least two different positioning technologies.

[0169] Clause 7. The method according to clause 6 further comprises: sending capability information indicating the capability of the UE to provide PSI reporting for each of the at least two different positioning technologies.

[0170] Clause 8. A method according to any one of clauses 6-7, wherein the at least one PSI report comprises at least two PSI reports, one PSI report for each of the at least two different positioning technologies.

[0171] Clause 9. A method according to clause 8, wherein: each of the at least two PSI reports includes multiple parts, and at least one of the multiple parts of at least one second PSI report of the at least two PSI reports cannot be sent on the resources allocated for the physical uplink or sidelink channel of the first RAT.

[0172] Clause 10. The method according to clause 9 further includes: sending at least one of the multiple parts of the at least one second PSI report through higher layer signaling; or sending the at least one second PSI report through the higher layer signaling.

[0173] Clause 11. The method of clause 10, wherein the higher layer signaling comprises Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

[0174] Clause 12. The method of clause 6, wherein the at least one PSI report comprises a single PSI report for two or more of the at least two different positioning technologies.

[0175] Clause 13. A method according to clause 12, wherein: the first part of the single PSI report identifies the two or more positioning technologies among the at least two different positioning technologies, and the second part of the single PSI report includes measurements obtained using the two or more positioning technologies among the at least two different positioning technologies.

[0176] Clause 14. A method as set forth in clause 13, wherein the UE determines, in the second part of the single PSI report, an ordering of the measurements obtained using the two or more of the at least two different positioning techniques.

[0177] Clause 15. A method according to any one of clauses 13-14, wherein the second part is divided into at least two sub-parts, and each positioning technology of the two or more positioning technologies of the at least two different positioning technologies corresponds to a sub-part.

[0178] Clause 16. A method according to clause 15, wherein the at least two sub-parts are sent on different physical uplink or sidelink channels.

[0179] Clause 17. A method according to any one of clauses 6-16, wherein: each of the at least two positioning technologies is associated with a priority, and a PSI report carrying measurements obtained using a positioning technology among the at least two positioning technologies having a higher priority than other positioning technologies among the at least two positioning technologies is reported before or instead of a PSI report carrying measurements obtained using the other positioning technologies.

[0180] Clause 18. The method of clause 17, wherein the priority is set by a location server.

[0181] Clause 19. The method of clause 17, wherein the priority is based on when the UE initiates a positioning session for the at least two positioning technologies.

[0182] Clause 20. A method as described in any of clauses 1-19, wherein the configuration is a downlink control information (DCI) code point mapped to a specific PSI reporting configuration.

[0183] Clause 21. A method according to clause 20, wherein the PSI reporting configuration triggers a plurality of PSI reports for the at least one second positioning technology, the plurality of PSI reports including the at least one PSI report.

[0184] Clause 22. A method as described in clause 21, wherein the PSI reporting configuration is associated with assistance data to enable the UE to obtain the one or more measurements, and the assistance data is associated only with a first PSI report of the multiple PSI reports.

[0185] Clause 23. A method according to clause 20, wherein: the PSI reporting configuration triggers a single PSI report, the single PSI report is the at least one PSI report, and the single PSI report is associated with multiple different positioning technologies including the at least one second positioning technology.

[0186] Clause 24. A method according to any of clauses 20-23, wherein: the at least one PSI report is a non-periodic PSI report, and the DCI includes a single bit indicating that the at least one PSI report is for a non-NR positioning technique.

[0187] Clause 25. A method as described in any of clauses 1-24, wherein the at least one second positioning technology comprises a UE-based positioning technology.

[0188] Clause 26. A method as described in any of clauses 1-25, wherein the at least one PSI report includes a separate positioning fix, speed and / or direction for each of the at least one positioning technology.

[0189] Clause 27. The method of any of clauses 1-25, wherein the at least one PSI report comprises a combined position fix, speed, and / or direction based on a combination of the at least one positioning technology.

[0190] Clause 28. A method as described in clause 27, wherein the UE indicates which of the at least one positioning technology is used to calculate the combined positioning fix, velocity and / or direction.

[0191] Clause 29. A method as described in any of clauses 1-28, wherein the configuration is received via LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

[0192] Clause 30. A method according to any one of clauses 1-29, wherein: the physical uplink channel includes a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and the sidelink channel includes a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH).

[0193] Clause 31. A method as described in any of clauses 1-30, wherein the UE sends the at least one PSI report to a positioning entity via the physical uplink channel.

[0194] Clause 32. A method as described in clause 31, wherein the positioning entity is a serving base station of the UE.

[0195] Clause 33. The method of clause 31, wherein the positioning entity is a positioning server integrated into a base station.

[0196] Clause 34. A method as described in any of clauses 1-30, wherein the UE sends the at least one PSI report to a second UE via the sidelink channel.

[0197] Clause 35. An apparatus comprising a memory and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the memory and the at least one processor configured to perform the method of any of clauses 1 to 34.

[0198] Clause 36. An apparatus comprising means for performing the method according to any one of clauses 1 to 34.

[0199] Clause 37. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising at least one instruction for causing a computer or a processor to perform the method according to any one of clauses 1 to 34.

[0200] Those skilled in the art will recognize that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different techniques and methods. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips mentioned throughout the above description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0201] In addition, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the various illustrative logic blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in conjunction with the aspects disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of the two. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, the above has been generally described around the functions of various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps. Whether such functions are implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the entire system. A skilled person can implement the described functions in an alternative manner for each specific application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0202] The various illustrative logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed using a general purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA, or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in an alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration).

[0203] The methods, sequences and / or algorithms described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein may be directly embodied in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software module may be located in a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), a register, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An example storage medium may be coupled to a processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. In an alternative manner, the storage medium may be an integral part of the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may be located in a user terminal (e.g., UE). In an alternative manner, the processor and the storage medium may reside in a user device as discrete components.

[0204] In one or more example aspects, the functions described can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions can be stored on a computer-readable medium or transmitted therethrough as one or more instructions or codes. Computer-readable media can include both computer storage media and communication media, and the communication media includes any medium that facilitates the transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Storage media can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example and not limitation, such computer-readable media can include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or can be used to carry or store desired program codes and any other medium that can be accessed by a computer in the form of instructions or data structures. In addition, any connection is appropriately referred to as a computer-readable medium. For example, if software is sent from a website, server or other remote source using coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL) or wireless technology (such as infrared, radio and microwave), coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL or wireless technology (such as infrared, radio and microwave) are included in the definition of medium. As used herein, disk and disc include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Blu-ray disc, wherein disk usually reproduces data magnetically, while disc utilizes laser to reproduce data optically. Combinations of the above should also be included in the scope of computer readable media.

[0205] Although the foregoing disclosure shows the illustrative aspects of the present disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications may be made herein without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. The steps and / or actions of the method claims according to the various aspects of the disclosure described herein do not need to be performed in any particular order. In addition, although the elements of the present disclosure may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural form is intended unless expressly stated to be limited to the singular.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving, on a wireless communication network operating according to a first radio access technology (RAT) associated with at least one first positioning technology, a configuration for providing at least one positioning state information (PSI) report, the first RAT being associated with at least one second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both, to be used to estimate a position of the UE; obtaining at least a first positioning measurement set using the at least one second RAT, the at least one second positioning technology, or both; and The at least one PSI report is sent on physical resources allocated for a physical uplink channel or a sidelink channel of the first RAT, the at least one PSI report including at least the first positioning measurement set.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first RAT comprises a New Radio (NR) RAT, and The at least one second RAT, the at least one second positioning technology, or both include a non-NR RAT, a non-NR positioning technology, or both.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The non-NR positioning technology includes Bluetooth positioning technology, air pressure sensor positioning technology, motion sensor positioning technology, Assisted Global Navigation Satellite System (A-GNSS) positioning technology, wireless local area network (WLAN) positioning technology, ground beacon system (TBS) positioning technology, or any combination thereof.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The non-NR RAT comprises Long Term Evolution (LTE), and The at least one second positioning technology includes an Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) positioning technology based on an LTE physical layer reference signal, an Enhanced Cell Identifier (E-CID) positioning technology based on an LTE physical layer reference signal, or any combination thereof.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The at least one first positioning technology includes a downlink arrival time difference (DL-TDOA) positioning technology based on an NR physical layer reference signal, an E-CID positioning technology based on an NR physical layer reference signal, a downlink transmission angle (DL-AoD) positioning technology, an uplink arrival angle (UL-AoA) positioning technology, a multiple round trip time (multi-RTT) positioning technology, or any combination thereof.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The at least one second positioning technology includes at least two different positioning technologies.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising: Capability information indicating a capability of the UE to provide PSI reporting for each of the at least two different positioning technologies is sent.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein: The at least one PSI report includes at least two PSI reports, and each positioning technology of the at least two different positioning technologies corresponds to one PSI report.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein: Each of the at least two PSI reports includes a plurality of parts, and At least one of the plurality of parts of at least one second PSI report of the at least two PSI reports may not be sent on the resources allocated for the physical uplink channel or the sidelink channel of the first RAT.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising: sending, by higher layer signaling, the at least one part of the plurality of parts of the at least one second PSI report; or The at least one second PSI report is sent via the higher layer signaling.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein: The higher layer signaling includes Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

12. The method according to claim 6, wherein: The at least one PSI report includes a single PSI report for two or more of the at least two different positioning technologies.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein: The first portion of the single PSI report identifies the two or more positioning technologies of the at least two different positioning technologies, and The second portion of the single PSI report includes measurements obtained using the two or more of the at least two different positioning techniques.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein: The UE determines, in the second part of the single PSI report, an ordering of the measurements obtained using the two or more of the at least two different positioning techniques.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein: The second portion is divided into at least two sub-portions, one sub-portion corresponding to each positioning technology of the two or more positioning technologies of the at least two different positioning technologies.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The at least two sub-parts are sent on different physical uplink channels or sidelink channels.

17. The method of claim 6, wherein: Each of the at least two positioning techniques is associated with a priority, and A PSI report carrying measurements obtained using a positioning technology among the at least two positioning technologies having a higher priority than other positioning technologies among the at least two positioning technologies is reported before or instead of a PSI report carrying measurements obtained using the other positioning technologies.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein: The priority is set by the location server.

19. The method according to claim 17, wherein: The priority is based on when the UE initiates a positioning session for the at least two positioning technologies.

20. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The configuration is a downlink control information (DCI) code point that is mapped to a specific PSI reporting configuration.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein: The PSI reporting configuration triggers a plurality of PSI reports for the at least one second positioning technology, the plurality of PSI reports including the at least one PSI report.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein: The PSI reporting configuration is associated with assistance data to enable the UE to obtain the one or more measurements, the assistance data being associated with only a first PSI report of the plurality of PSI reports.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein: The PSI report configuration triggers a single PSI report, The single PSI report is the at least one PSI report, and The single PSI report is associated with a plurality of different positioning technologies including the at least one second positioning technology.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein: The at least one PSI report is an aperiodic PSI report, and The DCI includes a single bit indicating that the at least one PSI report is for a non-NR positioning technique.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein: The at least one second positioning technology includes a UE-based positioning technology.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein: The at least one PSI report includes, for each of the at least one positioning technology, a separate positioning fix, speed, direction, or any combination thereof.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein: The at least one PSI report includes a combined position fix, velocity, direction, or any combination thereof based on a combination of the at least one positioning technology.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein: The UE indicates which of the at least one positioning technology are used to calculate the combined positioning fix, velocity, direction, or a combination thereof.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein: The configuration is received via LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein: The physical uplink channel includes a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and The sidelink channel includes a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH).

31. The method of claim 1, wherein: The UE sends the at least one PSI report to a positioning entity through the physical uplink channel.

32. The method according to claim 31, wherein: The positioning entity is a serving base station of the UE.

33. The method according to claim 31, wherein: The positioning entity is a positioning server integrated into the base station.

34. The method of claim 1, wherein: The UE sends the at least one PSI report to a second UE via the sidelink channel.

35. A user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories; one or more transceivers; as well as one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processors configured to: receiving, via the one or more transceivers, a configuration for providing at least one positioning state information (PSI) report on a wireless communication network operating according to a first radio access technology (RAT), the first RAT being associated with at least one first positioning technology, the configuration being associated with at least one second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both, to be used to estimate a position of the UE; obtaining, via the one or more transceivers, at least a first positioning measurement set using the at least one second RAT, the at least one second positioning technology, or both; as well as The at least one PSI report is sent, via the one or more transceivers, on physical resources allocated for a physical uplink channel or a sidelink channel of the first RAT, the at least one PSI report including at least the first positioning measurement set.

36. The UE according to claim 35, wherein: The first RAT comprises a New Radio (NR) RAT, and The at least one second RAT, the at least one second positioning technology, or both include a non-NR RAT, a non-NR positioning technology, or both.

37. The UE according to claim 36, wherein: The non-NR positioning technology includes Bluetooth positioning technology, air pressure sensor positioning technology, motion sensor positioning technology, Assisted Global Navigation Satellite System (A-GNSS) positioning technology, wireless local area network (WLAN) positioning technology, ground beacon system (TBS) positioning technology, or any combination thereof.

38. The UE of claim 36, wherein: The non-NR RAT comprises Long Term Evolution (LTE), and The at least one second positioning technology includes an Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) positioning technology based on an LTE physical layer reference signal, an Enhanced Cell Identifier (E-CID) positioning technology based on an LTE physical layer reference signal, or any combination thereof.

39. The UE according to claim 36, wherein: The at least one first positioning technology includes a downlink arrival time difference (DL-TDOA) positioning technology based on an NR physical layer reference signal, an E-CID positioning technology based on an NR physical layer reference signal, a downlink transmission angle (DL-AoD) positioning technology, an uplink arrival angle (UL-AoA) positioning technology, a multiple round trip time (multi-RTT) positioning technology, or any combination thereof.

40. The UE according to claim 35, wherein: The at least one second positioning technology includes at least two different positioning technologies.

41. The UE according to claim 40, wherein: The one or more processors are further configured to: Capability information indicating a capability of the UE to provide PSI reporting for each of the at least two different positioning technologies is transmitted via the one or more transceivers.

42. The UE according to claim 40, wherein: The at least one PSI report includes at least two PSI reports, and each positioning technology of the at least two different positioning technologies corresponds to one PSI report.

43. The UE according to claim 42, wherein: Each of the at least two PSI reports includes a plurality of parts, and At least one of the plurality of parts of at least one second PSI report of the at least two PSI reports may not be sent on the resources allocated for the physical uplink channel or the sidelink channel of the first RAT.

44. The UE according to claim 43, wherein: The one or more processors are further configured to: transmitting, via the one or more transceivers, the at least one portion of the plurality of portions of the at least one second PSI report by higher layer signaling; or The at least one second PSI report is sent by the higher layer signaling via the one or more transceivers.

45. The UE according to claim 44, wherein: The higher layer signaling includes Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

46. ​​The UE according to claim 40, wherein: The at least one PSI report includes a single PSI report for two or more of the at least two different positioning technologies.

47. The UE according to claim 46, wherein: The first portion of the single PSI report identifies the two or more positioning technologies of the at least two different positioning technologies, and The second portion of the single PSI report includes measurements obtained using the two or more of the at least two different positioning techniques.

48. The UE according to claim 47, wherein: The one or more processors determine an ordering of the measurements obtained using the two or more of the at least two different positioning techniques in the second portion of the single PSI report.

49. The UE according to claim 47, wherein: The second portion is divided into at least two sub-portions, one sub-portion corresponding to each positioning technology of the two or more positioning technologies of the at least two different positioning technologies.

50. The UE according to claim 49, wherein: The at least two sub-parts are sent on different physical uplink channels or sidelink channels.

51. The UE of claim 40, wherein: Each of the at least two positioning techniques is associated with a priority, and A PSI report carrying measurements obtained using a positioning technology among the at least two positioning technologies having a higher priority than other positioning technologies among the at least two positioning technologies is reported before or instead of a PSI report carrying measurements obtained using the other positioning technologies.

52. The UE according to claim 51, wherein: The priority is set by the location server.

53. The UE according to claim 51, wherein: The priority is based on when the UE initiates a positioning session for the at least two positioning technologies.

54. The UE according to claim 35, wherein: The configuration is a downlink control information (DCI) code point that is mapped to a specific PSI reporting configuration.

55. The UE according to claim 54, wherein: The PSI reporting configuration triggers a plurality of PSI reports for the at least one second positioning technology, the plurality of PSI reports including the at least one PSI report.

56. The UE according to claim 55, wherein: The PSI reporting configuration is associated with assistance data to enable the UE to obtain the one or more measurements, the assistance data being associated with only a first PSI report of the plurality of PSI reports.

57. The UE of claim 54, wherein: The PSI report configuration triggers a single PSI report, The single PSI report is the at least one PSI report, and The single PSI report is associated with a plurality of different positioning technologies including the at least one second positioning technology.

58. The UE of claim 54, wherein: The at least one PSI report is an aperiodic PSI report, and The DCI includes a single bit indicating that the at least one PSI report is for a non-NR positioning technique.

59. The UE according to claim 35, wherein: The at least one second positioning technology includes a UE-based positioning technology.

60. The UE according to claim 35, wherein: The at least one PSI report includes, for each of the at least one positioning technology, a separate positioning fix, speed, direction, or any combination thereof.

61. The UE according to claim 35, wherein: The at least one PSI report includes a combined position fix, velocity, direction, or any combination thereof based on a combination of the at least one positioning technology.

62. The UE according to claim 61, wherein: The UE indicates which of the at least one positioning technology are used to calculate the combined positioning fix, velocity, direction, or a combination thereof.

63. The UE according to claim 35, wherein: The configuration is received via LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

64. The UE of claim 35, wherein: The physical uplink channel includes a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and The sidelink channel includes a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH).

65. The UE according to claim 35, wherein: The UE sends the at least one PSI report to a positioning entity through the physical uplink channel.

66. The UE according to claim 65, wherein: The positioning entity is a serving base station of the UE.

67. The UE according to claim 65, wherein: The positioning entity is a positioning server integrated into the base station.

68. The UE according to claim 35, wherein: The UE sends the at least one PSI report to a second UE via the sidelink channel.

69. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for receiving, on a wireless communication network operating according to a first radio access technology (RAT) associated with at least one first positioning technology, a configuration for providing at least one positioning state information (PSI) report, the first RAT being associated with at least one second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both, to be used to estimate a position of the UE; means for obtaining at least a first positioning measurement set using the at least one second RAT, the at least one second positioning technology, or both; as well as Means for sending the at least one PSI report on a physical resource allocated for a physical uplink channel or a sidelink channel of the first RAT, the at least one PSI report including at least the first positioning measurement set.

70. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: receiving, on a wireless communication network operating according to a first radio access technology (RAT) associated with at least one first positioning technology, a configuration for providing at least one positioning state information (PSI) report, the first RAT being associated with at least one second RAT, at least one second positioning technology, or both, to be used to estimate a position of the UE; obtaining at least a first positioning measurement set using the at least one second RAT, the at least one second positioning technology, or both; and The at least one PSI report is sent on physical resources allocated for a physical uplink channel or a sidelink channel of the first RAT, the at least one PSI report including at least the first positioning measurement set.

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