On-demand location of reference signals and frequency-band-by-frequency deployment

Abstract

Techniques for wireless communication are disclosed. In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) transmits a first request for a first set of base stations to transmit a first on-demand positioning reference signal (PRS) in a first frequency band; measures the on-demand PRS from the first set of base stations in the first frequency band; measures periodic PRS from a second set of base stations operating in a second frequency band; and sends positioning measurements of at least the on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS to a positioning entity.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 005,082, filed on April 3, 2020, entitled “ON DEMAND POSITIONING REFERENCE SIGNALS AND PER BAND DEPLOYMENT ASPECTS,” and U.S. Non-Provisional Application No. 17 / 218,669, filed on March 31, 2021, entitled “ON DEMAND POSITIONING REFERENCE SIGNALS AND PER BAND DEPLOYMENT ASPECTS,” both of which are assigned to the assignee of this application and are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

[0003] Public background

[0004] 1. Public Domain

[0005] Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communications.

[0006] 2. Description of related technologies

[0007] Wireless communication systems have evolved over several generations, including first generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including transitional 2.5G and 2.75G networks), third generation (3G) high-speed data wireless service with Internet capabilities, and fourth generation (4G) services (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax). There are many different types of wireless communication systems in use today, including cellular and personal communications service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the 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), and the like.

[0008] The fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, known as New Radio (NR), requires higher data transmission speeds, a greater number of connections, and better coverage, among other improvements. According to the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance, the 5G standard is designed to provide data rates of tens of megabits per second to each of tens of thousands of users, and 1 gigabit per second to dozens of employees on an office floor. Hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections should be supported to support large sensor deployments. Therefore, the spectrum efficiency of 5G mobile communications should be significantly improved compared to the current 4G standard. In addition, signaling efficiency should be improved and latency should be significantly reduced compared to the current standard.

[0009] Overview

[0010] A simplified summary of one or more aspects disclosed herein is given below. Thus, the following summary should neither be considered an exhaustive overview of all contemplated aspects, nor should the following summary be considered to identify key or decisive elements related to all contemplated aspects or to delineate the scope associated with any particular aspect. Accordingly, the sole purpose of the following summary is to present certain concepts related to one or more aspects of the mechanisms disclosed herein in a simplified form prior to the detailed description given below.

[0011] In one aspect, a wireless communication method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: transmitting a first request for a first set of base stations to transmit a first on-demand positioning reference signal (PRS) in a first frequency band; measuring the first on-demand PRS from the first set of base stations in the first frequency band; measuring periodic PRS from a second set of base stations operating in a second frequency band; and sending positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS to a positioning entity.

[0012] In one aspect, a UE comprises: 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: cause the at least one transceiver to transmit a first request for a first set of base stations to transmit a first on-demand positioning reference signal (PRS) in a first frequency band; measure the first on-demand PRS from the first set of base stations in the first frequency band; measure periodic PRS from a second set of base stations operating in a second frequency band; and send positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS to a positioning entity.

[0013] In one aspect, a UE includes: a device for transmitting a first request for a first set of base stations to transmit a first on-demand positioning reference signal (PRS) in a first frequency band; a device for measuring the first on-demand PRS from the first set of base stations in the first frequency band; a device for measuring periodic PRS from a second set of base stations operating in a second frequency band; and a device for sending positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS to a positioning entity.

[0014] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions includes computer-executable instructions including: at least one instruction directing a UE to transmit a first request for a first set of base stations to transmit a first on-demand positioning reference signal (PRS) in a first frequency band; at least one instruction directing the UE to measure the first on-demand PRS from the first set of base stations in the first frequency band; at least one instruction directing the UE to measure periodic PRS from a second set of base stations operating in a second frequency band; and at least one instruction directing the UE to send positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS to a positioning entity.

[0015] Other objects and advantages associated with the various aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the accompanying drawings and detailed description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in describing the various aspects of the disclosure and are provided solely for illustration of the aspects and not limitation thereof.

[0017] Figure 1

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

[0018] Figure 2A and 2B

[0013] Example wireless network structures are illustrated in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0019] Figures 3A to 3C is a simplified block diagram of several sample 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.

[0020] Figure 4A and 4B is a diagram illustrating examples of frame structures and channels within these frame structures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0021] Figure 5 is an example call flow between a UE, a serving base station, and a location server according to aspects of the present disclosure.

[0022] Figure 6

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

[0023] Detailed Description

[0024] Various aspects of the present disclosure are provided in the following description and related drawings for 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 in the present disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted to avoid obscuring the relevant details of the present disclosure.

[0025] 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 superior to 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.

[0026] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the information and signals described below may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referred to throughout the following description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, optical fields or optical particles, or any combination thereof, depending in part on the specific application, in part on the desired design, in part on the corresponding technology, etc.

[0027] In addition, many aspects are described in the form of a sequence of actions performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will be appreciated that the various actions described herein can be performed by a dedicated circuit (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)), by program instructions being 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-transient computer-readable storage medium, which stores a corresponding set of computer instructions that, upon execution, will cause or instruct the associated processor of the device to perform the functionality described herein. Thus, various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in several different forms, all of which have been conceived to fall within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each aspect described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspect may be described herein as, for example, "logic configured to perform the described actions."

[0028] As used herein, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "base station" are not intended to be dedicated to or otherwise limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT), unless otherwise specified. In general, a UE can be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a consumer asset location device, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, glasses, an augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) head-mounted device, 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. The UE can be mobile or can be stationary (e.g., at certain times) and can communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" can 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 can communicate with a core network via a RAN, and through the core network, the UE can connect to external networks (such as the Internet) and other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms for connecting to the core network and / or the Internet are also possible for the UE, such as through 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.

[0029] A base station may operate according to one of several RATs to communicate with a UE, depending on the network in which the base station is deployed, and 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. A base station may be primarily used to support wireless access by a UE, including supporting data, voice, and / or signaling connections for supported UEs. In some systems, a base station may provide pure edge node signaling functions, while in other systems, a base station may provide additional control and / or network management functions. The communication link by which a UE may send a signal to a base station is referred to as an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). The communication link by which a base station may send a signal to a UE is referred to as 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.

[0030] The term "base station" may refer to a single physical transmit receive point (TRP) or may refer 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 a base station antenna 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 a 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 a UE and a neighbor base station whose reference radio frequency (RF) signal the UE is measuring. Since the TRP is the point from which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, as used herein, references to transmissions from or receptions at a base station should be understood as references to the specific TRP of that base station.

[0031] In some implementations supporting UE positioning, the base station may not support wireless access for the UE (e.g., may not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections with respect to the UE), but may instead transmit reference signals to be measured by the UE to the UE, and / or may receive and measure signals transmitted by the UE. Such a base station may be referred to as a positioning tower (e.g., in the case of transmitting signals to the UE) and / or as a position measurement unit (e.g., in the case of receiving and measuring signals from the UE).

[0032] 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 transmit a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, due to the propagation characteristics of each RF signal through a multipath channel, 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.

[0033] Figure 1An example wireless communication system 100 according to various aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. The wireless communication system 100 (which may also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) may include various base stations 102 (labeled as "BS") 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, and the like.

[0034] 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)) through a backhaul link 122, and through the core network 170 to one or more location servers 172 (e.g., a location management function (LMF) or a secure user plane location (SUPL) location platform (SLP)). The location server 172 may be part of the core network 170 or may be external to the core network 170. The base stations 102 may perform, among other functions, functions related to one or more of delivering user data, radio channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (such as 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 equipment tracking, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of alert messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (eg, via EPC / 5GC) via a backhaul link 134 (which may be wired or wireless).

[0035] Base stations 102 may communicate wirelessly with UEs 104. Each base station 102 may provide communication coverage for a respective geographic coverage area 110. In one aspect, one or more cells may be supported by base stations 102 in each geographic coverage area 110. A "cell" is a logical communication entity used to communicate with a base station (e.g., on a certain frequency resource, referred to as a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, frequency band, etc.), and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., a physical cell identifier (PCI), a virtual cell identifier (VCI), a cell global identifier (CGI)) to distinguish 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 others) that may provide access to different types of UEs. Since a cell is supported by a specific base station, the term "cell" may refer to either or both of a logical communication entity and a base station supporting the logical communication entity, 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, in the sense that a carrier frequency may be detected and used for communications within some portion of geographic coverage area 110 .

[0036] Although the geographic coverage areas 110 of adjacent macrocell base stations 102 may partially overlap (e.g., in a handoff region), some geographic coverage areas 110 may be substantially overlapped by a larger geographic coverage area 110. For example, a small cell (SC) 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 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 service to a restricted group referred to as a closed subscriber group (CSG).

[0037] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include uplink (also known as reverse link) transmissions from the UE 104 to the base station 102 and / or downlink (also known as forward link) transmissions from the base station 102 to the UE 104. The communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna technology, including 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 to the downlink than to the uplink).

[0038] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) 150 in communication with a WLAN station (STA) 152 via a communication link 154 in an unlicensed spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz). When communicating in the unlicensed spectrum, the WLAN STA 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) or listen-before-talk procedure to determine whether the channel is available before communicating.

[0039] The small cell base station 102' may operate in a licensed and / or unlicensed spectrum. When operating in an unlicensed spectrum, the small cell base station 102' may employ LTE or NR technology and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum as that used by the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base station 102' employing LTE / 5G in the unlicensed spectrum may boost coverage and / or increase capacity of the access network. NR in the unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as NR-U. LTE in the unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as LTE-U, Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), or MulteFire.

[0040] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a millimeter wave (mmW) base station 180, which can operate in mmW frequencies and / or near mmW frequencies to communicate with UE 182. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is part of RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and a wavelength between 1 mm and 10 mm. The radio waves in this band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Near mmW can be extended downward to a 3 GHz frequency with a wavelength of 100 mm. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz, which is also referred to as centimeter waves. Communications using mmW / near mmW radio frequency bands have high path loss and relatively short range. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 can utilize beamforming (transmitting and / or receiving) on ​​the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short range. In addition, it will be appreciated that in an alternative configuration, 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 explanation is merely an example, and should not be construed as limiting the various aspects disclosed herein.

[0041] Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing an RF signal in a specific direction. Conventionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, the network node 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 to the receiving device. In order to change the directivity 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 are broadcasting the RF signal. For example, a network node can use an antenna array (referred to as a "phased array" or "antenna array") that generates a beam of RF waves, and the beam of the RF wave can be "guided" to point in different directions without actually moving the antennas. Specifically, the RF current from the transmitter is fed to the individual antennas in the correct phase relationship so that the radio waves from the separate antennas are added together in the desired direction to increase the radiation, while canceling out in the undesired direction to suppress the radiation.

[0042] The transmit beams can be quasi-colocated, which means that they appear to the receiver (e.g., UE) to have the same parameters, regardless of whether the transmit antennas of the network node themselves are physically colocated. In NR, there are four types of quasi-colocation (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 transmitted 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 transmitted 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 transmitted 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 the target reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

[0043] 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 the gain setting of an antenna array and / or adjust the phase setting of an antenna array in a particular direction to amplify (e.g., increase its gain level) RF signals received from that direction. Thus, when a receiver is referred to as performing 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 the beam gain in that direction is the highest compared to the beam gain in that direction for 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.) for the RF signal received from that direction.

[0044] The receive beams may be spatially correlated. The spatial relationship means that the parameters of the transmit beam for the second reference signal may be derived from information about the receive beam of the first reference signal. For example, the UE may 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 using a specific receive beam. The UE may then form a transmit beam based on the parameters of the receive 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.

[0045] Note that depending on the entity forming the "downlink" beam, the beam can be a transmit beam or a receive beam. For example, if the base station is forming a downlink beam to transmit a reference signal to the UE, the downlink beam is a transmit beam. However, if the UE is forming a downlink beam, the downlink beam is a receive beam for receiving downlink reference signals. Similarly, depending on the entity forming the "uplink" beam, the beam can be a transmit beam or a receive beam. For example, if the base station is forming an uplink beam, the uplink beam is an uplink receive beam, and if the UE is forming an uplink beam, the uplink beam is an uplink transmit beam.

[0046] 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 referred to as the "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell", and the remaining carrier frequencies are referred to as "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 on 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). The secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2), which can be configured once an RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier, and can be used to provide additional radio resources. In some cases, the secondary carrier can be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. The secondary carrier may contain only necessary signaling information and signals, for example, signaling information and signals that are UE-specific may not be present in the secondary carrier, because both the primary uplink and downlink carriers are typically 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. For example, this is done to balance the load on different carriers. Since a "serving cell" (whether PCell or SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency / component carrier that a base station is using for communication, the terms "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. may be used interchangeably.

[0047] For example, still referring to Figure 1 , one of the frequencies utilized by the macrocell base station 102 may be an anchor carrier (or "PCell"), and the other frequencies utilized by the macrocell base station 102 and / or the mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers ("SCells"). Simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers enables the 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 obtained by a single 20 MHz carrier.

[0048] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a UE 164 that may communicate with the macrocell base station 102 over the communication link 120 and / or 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.

[0049] 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 illustrated UEs (for simplicity in FIG. 1 ). Figure 1 104). UE 104 may include one or more dedicated SPS receivers, which are specially designed to receive SPS signals 124 from SV 112 to derive geographic location information. SPS generally includes a transmitter system (e.g., SV 112), which is positioned so that a receiver (e.g., UE 104) can determine the position of these receivers on or above the earth based at least in part on the signal (e.g., SPS signal 124) received from the transmitter. Such a transmitter generally transmits a signal marked with a repetitive pseudo-random noise (PN) code of a set number of chips. Although the transmitter is generally located in SV 112, it may also be located on a ground-based control station, base station 102, and / or other UE 104.

[0050] The use of the SPS signal 124 can be augmented 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, for example, 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 quasi-SPS, and / or other signals associated with such one or more SPSs.

[0051] The wireless communication system 100 may further include one or more UEs (such as UE 190) that are indirectly connected to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links (referred to as “side links”). Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 1 , UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with a UE 104 connected to a base station 102 (e.g., UE 190 can indirectly obtain cellular connectivity therefrom), and a D2D P2P link 194 with a WLAN STA 152 connected to a WLAN AP 150 (UE 190 can indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity therefrom). In an example, D2D P2P links 192 and 194 can use any well-known D2D RAT (such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), etc.) to support.

[0052] Figure 2A An example wireless network structure 200 is illustrated. For example, 5GC 210 (also referred to as Next Generation Core (NGC)) can be functionally viewed as control plane functions 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and user plane functions 212 (e.g., UE gateway functions, access to data networks, IP routing, etc.), which operate in coordination to form a core network. User plane interface (NG-U) 213 and control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect gNB 222 to 5GC 210, in particular to control plane functions 214 and user plane functions 212. In additional configurations, ng-eNB 224 may also be connected to 5GC 210 via NG-C 215 to control plane functions 214 and NG-U 213 to user plane functions 212. In addition, ng-eNB 224 may communicate directly with gNB 222 via backhaul connection 223. In some configurations, the next generation RAN (NG-RAN) 220 may have only one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more ng-eNBs 224 and one or more gNBs 222. The gNB 222 or ng-eNB 224 may communicate with the UE 204 (e.g., Figure 1204). Another optional aspect may include a location server 230 that may be in communication with the 5GC 210 to provide location assistance for the UE 204. The location server 230 may be implemented as a plurality of separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules extended across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternatively may each correspond to a single server. The location server 230 may be configured to support one or more location services for the UE 204, which may be connected to the location server 230 via the core network, the 5GC 210, and / or via the Internet (not illustrated). In addition, the location server 230 may be integrated into a component of the core network, or alternatively may be external to the core network.

[0053] Figure 2B Another example wireless network structure 250 is illustrated. A 5GC 260 (which may correspond to Figure 2A The 5GC 210 in the FIG260 may 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) that operate in concert 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 in particular to the UPF 262 and the AMF 264, respectively. In an additional configuration, the gNB 222 may 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 may communicate directly with the gNB 222 via a backhaul connection 223 with or without gNB direct connectivity to the 5GC 260. In some configurations, the NG-RAN 220 may have only one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more ng-eNBs 224 and one or more gNBs 222. The gNB 222 or the ng-eNB 224 may communicate with the UE 204 (e.g., Figure 1 The base stations of the NG-RAN 220 communicate with the AMF 264 via the N2 interface and communicate with the UPF 262 via the N3 interface.

[0054] 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 functionality (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 retrieves security materials from AUSF. The functions of AMF 264 also include security context management (SCM). SCM receives keys from SEAF, which are used by SCM to derive keys that vary from access network to access network. The functionality of AMF 264 also includes: location service management for regulatory services, transmission of location service messages between UE 204 and LMF 270 (which acts as location server 230), transmission of location service messages between NG-RAN 220 and LMF 270, allocation of EPS bearer identifiers for interworking with Evolved Packet System (EPS), and notification of mobility events for UE 204. In addition, AMF 264 also supports the functionality of non-3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) access networks.

[0055] The functions of 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 usage reporting, quality of service (QoS) handling for the user plane (e.g., uplink / downlink rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in the downlink), uplink traffic verification (service data flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering, and sending and forwarding one or more "end markers" to the source RAN node. UPF 262 can also support the transmission of location service messages between UE 204 and a location server (such as SLP 272) on the user plane.

[0056] The functions of SMF 266 include session management, UE Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and control of user plane functions, traffic steering configuration for routing traffic to the correct destination at UPF 262, partial control of policy implementation and QoS, and downlink data notification. The interface that SMF 266 uses to communicate with AMF 264 is called the N11 interface.

[0057] Another optional aspect may include an LMF 270 that can be in communication with the 5GC 260 to provide location assistance for 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 extended 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, which can be connected to the LMF 270 via the core network, the 5GC 260, and / or via the Internet (not illustrated). The SLP 272 may support similar functionality as the LMF 270, but the LMF 270 may communicate with the AMF 264, the NG-RAN 220, and the UE 204 on the control plane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols intended to convey signaling messages but not voice or data), and the SLP 272 may communicate with the UE 204 and external clients (e.g., using protocols intended to carry voice and / or data, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and / or IP) on the user plane. Figure 2B (not shown) communications.

[0058] Figure 3A , 3B 3C illustrate several example components (represented by corresponding boxes) that may be incorporated into UE 302 (which may correspond to any UE described herein), base station 304 (which may correspond to any base station described herein), and network entity 306 (which may correspond to or embody any network function 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 (e.g., in an ASIC, in a system on a chip (SoC), etc.) in different implementations. The illustrated components may also be incorporated into other devices in the 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 these 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.

[0059] UE 302 and base station 304 each include at least one wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver 310 and 350, respectively, to provide means (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means for refraining from transmitting, etc.) for communicating via one or more wireless communication networks (not shown) (such as NR networks, LTE networks, GSM networks, etc.). WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may be connected to one or more antennas 316 and 356, respectively, for communicating with other network nodes (such as other UEs, access points, base stations (e.g., eNBs, gNBs), etc.) over a wireless communication medium of interest (e.g., a certain set of time / frequency resources in a specific spectrum) via at least one designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.). The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 can be configured in various ways according to the specified RAT to transmit and encode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.), and vice versa, to receive and decode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.). Specifically, the WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 include one or more transmitters 314 and 354, respectively, to transmit and encode signals 318 and 358, respectively, and include one or more receivers 312 and 352, respectively, to receive and decode signals 318 and 358, respectively.

[0060] At least in some cases, the UE 302 and the base station 304 also include at least one short-range wireless transceiver 320 and 360, respectively. The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 can be connected to one or more antennas 326 and 366, respectively, and provide for communication via at least one designated RAT (e.g., WiFi, LTE-D, Z- The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 are devices (e.g., devices for transmitting, devices for receiving, devices for measuring, devices for tuning, devices for suppressing transmission, etc.) for communicating with other network nodes (such as other UEs, access points, base stations, etc.) on a wireless communication medium of interest (e.g., PC5, dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), wireless access in vehicular environment (WAVE), near field communication (NFC), etc.). The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 can be configured in various ways according to the specified RAT to transmit and encode signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.), respectively, and conversely, to receive and decode signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.), respectively. Specifically, the short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 respectively include one or more transmitters 324 and 364 for transmitting and encoding signals 328 and 368, respectively, and include one or more receivers 322 and 362 for receiving and decoding signals 328 and 368, respectively. As specific examples, short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be WiFi transceivers, Transceiver, and / or Z- transceiver, NFC transceiver, or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and / or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) transceiver.

[0061] The transceiver circuitry including at least one transmitter and at least one receiver may include an integrated device (e.g., a transmitter circuit and a receiver circuit implemented as a single communication device) in some implementations, may include separate transmitter devices and separate receiver devices in some implementations, or may be implemented in other ways in other implementations. In one aspect, the transmitter may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) such as an antenna array, which permits the respective device to perform transmit "beamforming" as described herein. Similarly, the receiver may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) such as an antenna array, which permits the respective device to perform receive beamforming as described herein. In one aspect, the transmitter and receiver may share the same multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) so that the respective device can only receive or transmit at a given time, but not both at the same time. The wireless communication devices of UE 302 and / or base station 304 (eg, one or both of transceivers 310 and 320 and / or one or both of transceivers 350 and 360) may also include a network listening module (NLM) or the like for performing various measurements.

[0062] In at least some cases, the UE 302 and the base station 304 also include satellite positioning system (SPS) receivers 330 and 370. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 may be connected to one or more antennas 336 and 376, respectively, and may provide means 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. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 may include any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 request information and operations from other systems as appropriate, and perform the necessary calculations to determine the location of the UE 302 and the base station 304 using measurements obtained by any suitable SPS algorithm.

[0063] The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include at least one network interface 380 and 390, respectively, thereby providing a means for communicating with other network entities (e.g., a means for transmitting, a means for receiving, etc.). For example, the network interfaces 380 and 390 (e.g., one or more network access ports) may be configured to communicate with one or more network entities via a wire-based backhaul connection or a wireless backhaul connection. In some aspects, the network interfaces 380 and 390 may be implemented as transceivers configured to support wire-based signal communication or wireless signal communication. The communication may involve, for example, sending and receiving: messages, parameters, and / or other types of information.

[0064] UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 also include other components that can be used in conjunction with operations as disclosed herein. UE 302 includes processor circuitry that implements at least one processor 332 for providing, for example, functionality related to wireless positioning, and for providing other processing functionality. Base station 304 includes at least one processor 384 for providing, for example, functionality related to wireless positioning as disclosed herein, and for providing other processing functionality. Network entity 306 includes at least one processor 394 for providing, for example, functionality related to wireless positioning as disclosed herein, and for providing other processing functionality. Processors 332, 384, and 394 may thus provide means for processing, such as means for determining, means for calculating, means for receiving, means for transmitting, means for indicating, and the like. In an aspect, processors 332, 384, and 394 may include, for example, one or more processors, such as one or more general purpose processors, multi-core processors, ASICs, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), other programmable logic devices or processing circuitry, or various combinations thereof.

[0065] UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 include memory circuitry that implements 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.). Memory components 340, 386, and 396 may thus 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, respectively, may be hardware circuits that are part of or coupled to processors 332, 384, and 394, respectively, which, when executed, cause UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein. In other aspects, the positioning components 342, 388, and 398 can be external to the processors 332, 384, and 394 (e.g., 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 processors 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 functionality described herein. Figure 3APossible locations are illustrated for a positioning component 342, which can be part of at least one WWAN transceiver 310, memory component 340, at least one processor 332, or any combination thereof, or can be a stand-alone component. Figure 3B Possible locations for a positioning component 388 are illustrated, which can be part of at least one WWAN transceiver 350, the memory component 386, the at least one processor 384, or any combination thereof, or can be a stand-alone component. Figure 3C Possible locations for a location component 398 are illustrated, which can be part of at least one network interface 390, a memory component 396, at least one processor 394, or any combination thereof, or can be a stand-alone component.

[0066] UE 302 may include one or more sensors 344 coupled to at least one processor 332 to provide a means for sensing or detecting movement and / or orientation information that is independent of motion data derived from signals received by at least one WWAN transceiver 310, at least one short-range wireless transceiver 320, and / or SPS receiver 330. As an example, sensor(s) 344 may include an accelerometer (e.g., a microelectromechanical 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(s) 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 two-dimensional (2D) and / or three-dimensional (3D) coordinate system.

[0067] In addition, the UE 302 includes a user interface 346, which provides a means for providing indications to the user (e.g., audible and / or visual indications) and / or for receiving user input (e.g., when the user actuates a sensing device (such as a keypad, touch screen, microphone, etc.) Although not shown, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 may also include a user interface.

[0068] Referring to the at least one processor 384 in more detail, in a downlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 may be provided to the at least one processor 384. The at least one processor 384 may implement functionality for an RRC layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a medium access control (MAC) layer. At least one processor 384 may provide RRC layer functionality associated with system information (e.g., master information block (MIB), system information block (SIB)) broadcast, 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 functionality associated with header compression / decompression, security (ciphering, cipher decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functionality associated with delivery 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 functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, scheduling information reporting, error correction, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0069] The transmitter 354 and the receiver 352 may implement layer 1 (L1) functionality associated with various signal processing functions. Layer 1, including the physical (PHY) layer, may include error detection on transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding of transport channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physical channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. The transmitter 354 handles mapping to signal constellations 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 decoded 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 and / or frequency domain, and then combined together using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carrying a time domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM symbol stream is spatially precoded to generate multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator may be used to determine coding and modulation schemes and for spatial processing. The channel estimates may be derived from reference signals and / or channel condition feedback transmitted 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.

[0070] At UE 302, receiver 312 receives signals through its corresponding antenna(s) 316. Receiver 312 recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to at least one processor 332. Transmitter 314 and receiver 312 implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. Receiver 312 may perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial streams destined for UE 302. If there are multiple spatial streams destined for UE 302, they may be combined into a single OFDM symbol stream by receiver 312. Receiver 312 then converts 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 on each subcarrier, as well as the reference signal, are recovered and demodulated by determining the signal constellation point most likely transmitted by base station 304. These soft decisions may be based on channel estimates calculated by a channel estimator. These soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signals originally transmitted on the physical channel by the base station 304. These data and control signals are then provided to at least one processor 332 that implements layer 3 (L3) and layer 2 (L2) functionality.

[0071] In the uplink, at least one processor 332 provides demultiplexing between transport channels and logical channels, packet reassembly, code decoding, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. At least one processor 332 is also responsible for error detection.

[0072] Similar to the functionality described in conjunction with downlink transmissions performed by the base station 304, at least one processor 332 provides RRC layer functionality associated with system information (e.g., MIB, SIB) acquisition, RRC connection, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression and security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionality associated with delivery of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs, resegmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks (TBs), demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0073] Channel estimates derived by a channel estimator from a reference signal or feedback transmitted by base station 304 may be used by transmitter 314 to select appropriate coding and modulation schemes, and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by transmitter 314 may be provided to different antenna(s) 316. Transmitter 314 may modulate an RF carrier with a corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

[0074] The uplink transmission is processed at the base station 304 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(s) 356. The receiver 352 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to at least one processor 384.

[0075] In the uplink, at least one processor 384 provides demultiplexing between transport channels and logical channels, packet reassembly, code decoding, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets from UE 302. IP packets from at least one processor 384 can be provided to the core network. At least one processor 384 is also responsible for error detection.

[0076] For convenience, UE 302, base station 304 and / or network entity 306 may Figures 3A to 3C 1 and 2. The illustrated example is shown as including various components that may be configured according to the various examples described herein. However, it will be appreciated that the illustrated blocks may have different functionality in different designs.

[0077] 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. Figures 3A to 3C The components of can be implemented in various ways. In some implementations, Figures 3A to 3CThe components of 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 this functionality. For example, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 310 to 346 may be implemented by the processor and (or) memory components of the UE 302 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriately configuring the processor components). Similarly, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 350 to 388 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of the base station 304 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriately configuring the processor components). In addition, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 390 to 398 may be implemented by the processor and (or) memory components of the network entity 306 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriately configuring the processor components). For simplicity, various operations, actions, and / or functions are described herein as being performed "by a UE," "by a base station," "by a network entity," etc. However, as will be appreciated, such operations, actions, and / or functions may actually be performed by a specific component or combination of components of the UE 302, base station 304, network entity 306, etc., such as processors 332, 384, 394, transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360, memory components 340, 386, and 396, positioning components 342, 388, and 398, etc.

[0078] Various frame structures may be used to support downlink and uplink transmissions between network nodes (eg, base stations and UEs). Figure 4A is a diagram 400 illustrating an example of a downlink frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 4B is a diagram 430 illustrating an example of channels within a downlink frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Other wireless communication technologies may have different frame structures and / or different channels.

[0079] LTE and in some cases NR utilize 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 often referred to as frequency modulation, frequency slots, etc. Each subcarrier can be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain for OFDM and in the time domain for 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.

[0080] LTE supports a single parameter design (subcarrier spacing (SCS), symbol length, etc.). In contrast, NR may support multiple parameter designs (μ), for example, subcarrier spacings of 15kHz (μ=0), 30kHz (μ=1), 60kHz (μ=2), 120kHz (μ=3), and 240kHz (μ=4) or larger 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), the symbol duration is 66.7 microseconds (μs), and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) is 50 with a 4K FFT size. 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 eight 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.

[0081] exist Figure 4A and 4B In the example of , a parameter set of 15 kHz is used. Thus, in the time domain, a 10 ms frame is divided into 10 equally sized subframes, each subframe is 1 ms, and each subframe includes one time slot. Figure 4A and 4B , time is represented horizontally (on the X-axis), where time increases from left to right, and frequency is represented vertically (on the Y-axis), where frequency increases (or decreases) from bottom to top.

[0082] A resource grid may be used to represent time slots, 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 plurality of resource elements (REs). An RE may correspond to one symbol length in the time domain and to one subcarrier in the frequency domain. Figure 4A and 4BIn the parameter design of , for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB may 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 may 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.

[0083] Some REs carry downlink reference (pilot) signals (DL-RS). DL-RS may include PRS, TRS, PTRS, CRS, CSI-RS, DMRS, PSS, SSS, SSB, etc. Figure 4A Example locations of REs carrying PRS are illustrated (labeled "R").

[0084] The set of resource elements (REs) used for transmission of PRS is called a "PRS resource". The 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.

[0085] The transmission of a PRS resource 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 a symbol of the PRB. For example, for comb-4, for each symbol of the PRS resource configuration, the RE corresponding to every fourth subcarrier (such as subcarriers 0, 4, 8) is used to transmit the PRS of the PRS resource. Currently, comb sizes of comb-2, comb-4, comb-6, and comb-12 are supported by DL-PRS. Figure 4A An example PRS resource configuration for comb-6 (which spans 6 symbols) is illustrated. That is, the positions of the shaded REs (labeled "R") indicate the PRS resource configuration for comb-6.

[0086] Currently, DL-PRS resources can span 2, 4, 6, or 12 consecutive symbols in a slot using a full frequency domain staggered pattern. DL-PRS resources can be configured in any downlink or flexible (FL) symbol configured by higher layers in a slot. There may be a constant energy per resource element (EPRE) for all REs of a given DL-PRS resource. The following are symbol-by-symbol frequency offsets for comb sizes 2, 4, 6, and 12 on 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}.

[0087] A "PRS resource set" is a set of PRS resources used for transmission of a PRS signal, where each PRS resource has a PRS resource ID. In addition, the PRS resources in a 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 the TRP ID). In addition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set have the same periodicity, a common muting pattern configuration, and the same repetition factor (such as "PRS-ResourceRepetitionFactor") across time slots. The periodicity 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 periodicity 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} slots, where μ=0, 1, 2, 3. The repetition factor may have a length selected from {1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32} slots.

[0088] 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 may transmit one or more beams). That is, each PRS resource in a PRS resource set may be transmitted on a different beam, and as such, a "PRS resource" (or simply "resource") may also be referred to as a "beam". Note that this does not have any implication on whether the UE knows the TRP and the beam on which the PRS is transmitted.

[0089] 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 transmitted. 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".

[0090] A "positioning frequency layer" (also referred to simply as a "frequency layer") is a set of one or more PRS resource sets with the same values ​​for certain parameters across one or more TRPs. Specifically, the set of PRS resource sets has the same subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix (CP) type (meaning that all parameter designs supported by PDSCH are also supported by 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 used for transmission and reception. The downlink PRS bandwidth can have a granularity of 4PRBs, and the minimum value is 24PRBs and the maximum value is 272PRBs. Currently, up to 4 frequency layers have been defined, and up to 2 PRS resource sets can be configured per frequency layer per TRP.

[0091] The concept of frequency layer is similar to the concept of component carrier and bandwidth part (BWP) to some extent, 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 transmit data channels, while frequency layer is used by several (usually three or more) base stations to transmit PRS. The UE can indicate the number of frequency layers that the UE can support when the UE sends its positioning capabilities to the network (such as during an LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) session). For example, the UE can indicate whether the UE can support one or four positioning frequency layers.

[0092] 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 can 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, the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" may refer to downlink or uplink positioning reference signals, unless otherwise indicated by the context. If further distinction is needed between the types of PRS, the downlink positioning reference signal may be referred to as "DL-PRS", while the uplink positioning reference signal (e.g., positioning SRS, PTRS) may be referred to as "UL-PRS". In addition, for signals (e.g., DMRS, PTRS) that can be transmitted in both the uplink and downlink, these signals may be prepended with "UL" or "DL" to distinguish the direction. For example, "UL-DMRS" may be distinguished from "DL-DMRS".

[0093] PRS and other types of positioning reference signals are used for a variety of cellular network-based positioning techniques, including downlink-based positioning methods, uplink-based positioning methods, and downlink and uplink-based positioning methods. Downlink-based positioning methods include: observed arrival time difference (OTDOA) in LTE, downlink arrival time difference (DL-TDOA) in NR, and downlink departure angle (DL-AoD) in NR. In the OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedure, the UE measures the difference between the arrival time (ToA) of the reference signals (e.g., PRS, TRS, CSI-RS, SSB, etc.) received from paired base stations (referred to as reference signal time difference (RSTD) or arrival time difference (TDOA) measurement), and reports these differences 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 non-reference base station. Based on the known positions of the base stations involved and the RSTD measurements, the positioning entity can estimate the position of the UE.

[0094] For DL-AoD positioning, the positioning entity uses beam reports from the UE on received signal strength measurements of multiple downlink transmit beams to determine the angle between the UE and the transmitting base station(s). The positioning entity can then estimate the UE's position based on the determined angle and the known location of the transmitting base station.

[0095] 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 it is based on uplink reference signals (e.g., SRS) transmitted by the UE. For UL-AoA positioning, one or more base stations measure the received signal strength of one or more uplink reference signals (e.g., SRS) received from the UE on one or more uplink receive beams. The positioning entity uses the signal strength measurement and the angle of the receive beam to determine the angle between the UE and the base station (s). Based on the determined angle and the known location of the base station, the positioning entity can then estimate the position of the UE.

[0096] Downlink and uplink based positioning methods include enhanced cell ID (E-CID) positioning and multi-round trip time (RTT) positioning (also known as "multi-cell RTT"). In the RTT procedure, the initiator (base station or UE) transmits an RTT measurement signal (e.g., PRS or SRS) to the responder (UE or base station), and the responder transmits 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 (referred to as the receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) time difference). The initiator calculates the difference between the transmission time of the RTT measurement signal and the ToA of the RTT response signal (referred to as the transmit-receive (Tx-Rx) time difference). The propagation time (also known as "flight time") between the initiator and the responder can be calculated from the Tx-Rx and Rx-Tx time differences. 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 RTT procedures with multiple base stations so that the UE's position can be triangulated based on the known positions of the base stations. RTT and multi-RTT methods can be combined with other positioning techniques (such as UL-AoA and DL-AoD) to improve position accuracy.

[0097] 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, estimated timing, and signal strength of the detected neighboring base stations. The UE's position is then estimated based on this information and the known locations of the base stations.

[0098] 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 a 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 periodicity of the positioning subframes, the silent 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 originate directly from the base station itself (e.g., in a periodically broadcast overhead message, etc.). In some cases, the UE itself may be able to detect neighbor network nodes without using assistance data.

[0099] In the case of OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedures, the assistance data may further include an expected RSTD value and associated uncertainty, or a 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 resource used for positioning measurement is in FR1, the value range of the uncertainty of the expected RSTD may be + / -32μs. In other cases, when all resources used for positioning measurement are in FR2, the value range of the uncertainty of the expected RSTD may be + / -8μs.

[0100] The position estimate may be referred to by other names, such as a position estimate, a position, a fix, a position fix, a fix, etc. The position estimate may be geodetic and include coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude), or may be municipal and include a street address, a postal address, or some other verbal description of the location. The position estimate may be further 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 contained with some specified or default confidence level).

[0101] The downlink PRS sent for the positioning procedure described above may be transmitted periodically or on demand. In stark contrast to the TRP in the network that periodically transmits PRS regardless of whether there is any ongoing positioning session, "on-demand" PRS transmission means that PRS is transmitted only when there is a request for PRS to be transmitted. The on-demand PRS itself may be periodic, semi-continuous, or aperiodic within a predefined time period (e.g., during a positioning session). As will be appreciated, the use of on-demand PRS transmission reduces PRS overhead. In some cases, on-demand PRS transmission may be requested by the UE, such as for a UE-based positioning procedure (in which the UE estimates its own position) or a UE-requested positioning procedure (in which the UE requests the network to estimate the UE's position). The UE may send a request to receive DL-PRS from each base station involved in the positioning procedure and / or transmit UL-PRS to each base station involved in the positioning procedure, or send a request to its serving base station or location server, which then forwards the request to the base stations involved. In other cases, on-demand PRS transmission may be requested by the network (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272), such as for UE-assisted positioning procedures (in which the network estimates the location of the UE, either proactively or at the request of the UE or other entity). In this case, the location server may send a request to the base stations involved.

[0102] A network operator can cover a geographic area by deploying a set of "anchor" base stations (e.g., eNBs, ng-eNBs, gNBs) over the entire area in one frequency band, and deploying additional base stations (e.g., ng-eNBs, gNBs) over subsets of the geographic area in one or more other frequency bands. For example, the additional base stations may have more capabilities than the set of anchor base stations, and the network operator may introduce them gradually based on market demand.

[0103] The present disclosure provides techniques for using a first frequency "band" for periodically broadcast PRS, and using one or more additional frequency "bands" for on-demand PRS. More specifically, during a given positioning procedure, a UE may receive periodic PRS in one band, and may receive on-demand PRS in one or more other bands. Note that, as used herein, the term "band" refers to some common frequency block, such as a frequency range (e.g., FR1, FR2, etc.), a frequency band within a frequency range, a component carrier, or a positioning frequency layer. Thus, the periodic PRS will be transmitted in a first frequency range, a first frequency band, a first component carrier, or a first frequency layer, and the on-demand PRS will be transmitted in one or more different frequency ranges, one or more different frequency bands, one or more different component carriers, or one or more different frequency layers.

[0104] The UE may indicate its ability to operate on multiple frequency bands, and the location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) may configure assistance information for these frequency bands. For UE-based positioning, the assistance information may include the location of the base stations involved (i.e., the base stations configured to transmit PRS to the UE), from which the UE may infer the difference in deployment density across frequency bands (i.e., the frequency bands on which it is capable of operating). That is, since the UE receives the location of the base stations involved and the frequency bands they use to transmit PRS, the UE may determine the number and geographical distribution of base stations transmitting PRS on each frequency band.

[0105] For UE-assisted positioning, the location of the base station is not included in the assistance information. However, the UE can infer its location based on the PRS search in the frequency bands it can support. For example, the UE can detect more PRS in the first frequency band in which it can operate than in the second frequency band. Alternatively, the assistance information may include the rough level location of the base stations involved. For example, the assistance information may indicate that there are more base stations operating in the first frequency band than in the second frequency band. Whether for UE-based positioning or UE-assisted positioning, the PRS configuration received from the location server may indicate that on-demand PRS is supported only in certain frequency bands.

[0106] For on-demand PRS transmission, the UE may send a PRS request (i.e., a request to transmit UL-PRS or receive DL-PRS) to the base station involved in the positioning procedure via RRC signaling, MAC control element (MAC-CE), or uplink control information (UCI). Alternatively, the UE may send a PRS request to its serving base station or location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272), which identifies the base station from which it wants to receive PRS. The location server (or serving base station) may then forward the request to the identified base station. In the case where the location server is located in the core network (e.g., 5GC 210, 5GC260), the UE may send the request via RRC signaling or LPP signaling. In the case where the location server is located in the RAN (e.g., NG-RAN220) (such as when the location server is co-located with one or more base stations), the UE may send the request using UE-to-base station signaling or UE-to-core network signaling (e.g., RRC).

[0107] In the case where the UE sends a PRS request to each involved base station, the frequency band (e.g., frequency range, component carrier, BWP, frequency layer, etc.) on which the request is communicated from the UE to the base station may indicate the frequency band on which the on-demand PRS should be transmitted. Thus, for example, if the request is transmitted in FR2, it indicates that the base station should transmit PRS in FR2. Similarly, if the request is transmitted on a specific component carrier, it indicates that the base station should transmit PRS on that component carrier. If the request is transmitted in a specific BWP, it indicates that the base station should transmit PRS on the frequency layer corresponding to that BWP.

[0108] Alternatively, the PRS request may include a frequency band identifier.For example, as described above, based on the UE's knowledge of the deployment density of base stations in different frequency bands, the UE may indicate one or more preferred frequency bands for on-demand PRS.

[0109] Thus, during a given positioning procedure, a UE may receive periodic PRS in one frequency band, and in addition, may receive on-demand PRS (whether requested by the UE or by a location server) in one or more other frequency bands. In one aspect, on-demand PRS may be used to supplement periodic PRS. More specifically, in addition to the periodic PRS that the UE may be measuring, the UE may request PRS on-demand from a specific base station (or a specific set of base stations) based on its positioning needs. For example, the UE may request PRS from one or more base stations at a specific altitude in order to calculate a 3D position. This may be based on the UE's previous altitude estimate (e.g., from its barometer), and may be required to achieve a good (e.g., above a threshold) geometric dilution of precision (GDOP). (GDOP specifies error propagation as the mathematical impact of navigation satellite geometry on the accuracy of position measurements. In this way, the UE may calculate a 2D estimate of its position using periodic PRS from a first set of base stations operating in a first frequency band, and calculate a 3D estimate of its position by combining measurements of on-demand PRS from one or more sets of base stations operating in one or more other frequency bands.

[0110] As another example, the UE may measure periodic PRS from a first set of base stations operating in a first frequency band that are all located on one or both sides of the UE. In order to improve the resulting position estimate, the UE may identify one or more base stations operating in one or more other frequency bands on the opposite side of the UE from the first set of base stations, and request on-demand PRS from these base stations. In this way, the UE will receive and measure PRS from base stations surrounding the UE. As will be appreciated, measuring PRS from base stations surrounding the UE will provide a better position estimate for the UE than measuring PRS from base stations only on one or both sides of the UE.

[0111] In an aspect, the UE may request an on-demand PRS in a second frequency band after determining that it cannot receive / measure the periodic PRS transmitted in the first frequency band.

[0112] After measuring the on-demand (and periodic) PRS on the first (and second) frequency bands, the UE may report / send the measurement results to the positioning entity. For UE-based positioning, the positioning entity may be a positioning engine on the UE (e.g., positioning component 342). For UE-assisted positioning, the positioning entity may be a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP272), a positioning engine at a serving base station, a third-party server or application, etc. Depending on various factors, the measurements may be reported separately or may be reported in the same measurement report. These factors may include, for example, reporting configuration (whether the UE is configured to combine measurements into one report or send independent reports), periodicity of on-demand and periodic PRS, measurement requirements (e.g., based on RSTD of PRS from two separate positioning frequency layers), etc.

[0113] For downlink and uplink based positioning sessions (e.g., RTT), the UE may transmit SRS in response to the reception of PRS. In general, the on-demand PRS on the second frequency band depends on the positioning method performed on the first frequency band. For example, if an RTT positioning procedure is being performed on the first frequency band, then on-demand RTT (meaning both downlink PRS and uplink PRS) will be on the second frequency band. Because the periodic SRS and the on-demand SRS are located on two different frequency bands, the UE may not be able to transmit the periodic SRS and the on-demand SRS at the same time. Therefore, the UE may only transmit the on-demand group. However, the Rx-Tx time difference measurements for the RTT positioning procedures on the two frequency bands can be combined into one report.

[0114] Therefore, for positioning involving SRS, the overall procedure is the same. That is, the UE requests on-demand PRS from the location server, and the location server configures the requested PRS. For DL-PRS, the on-demand configuration is received from the location server via LPP, while for SRS, the configuration is received from the serving cell. The location server will coordinate the transmission and reception of PRS across the involved gNBs.

[0115] Figure 5 5 is an example call flow 500 between a UE 504 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein), a serving base station (BS) 502 (e.g., any of the base stations described herein), and a location server 570 (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0116] At stage 505, the UE 504 sends a request for an on-demand PRS to the location server 570. At 510, the location server 570 identifies / selects a candidate source (e.g., a base station) for transmitting the on-demand PRS. The candidate source may be selected based on its GDOP relative to the UE 504, its availability to transmit the on-demand PRS, etc. At 515, the location server sends the on-demand PRS configuration and schedule to the base station 502. At 520, the location server 570 or the base station 502 sends the on-demand PRS configuration and schedule to the UE 504. At 525, the location server 570 or the base station 502 triggers the UE 504 to measure and report the on-demand PRS. At 530, if the base station 502 is one of the on-demand PRS resources, the base station 502 transmits the on-demand PRS to the UE 504. At 535, the UE 504 measures the on-demand PRS received from the on-demand PRS resources, and measures the periodic PRS if available. At 540, for UE-assisted positioning, the UE 504 reports measurements of the on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS to the location server 570. Alternatively, for UE-based positioning, the UE 504 will compute an estimate of its position (not shown).

[0117] Figure 6 An example method 600 of wireless communication in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. In an aspect, the method 600 may be performed by any UE, such as any of the UEs described herein.

[0118] At 610, the UE transmits a first request for a first set of base stations to transmit a first on-demand PRS in a first frequency band. In an aspect, operation 610 may be performed by at least one WWAN transceiver 310, at least one processor 332, a memory component 340, and / or a positioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered a means for performing the operation.

[0119] At 620, the UE measures the first on-demand PRS from the first set of base stations in the first frequency band. In an aspect, operation 620 may be performed by at least one WWAN transceiver 310, at least one processor 332, memory component 340, and / or positioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered a means for performing the operation.

[0120] At 630, the UE measures periodic PRS from a second set of base stations operating in a second frequency band (different from the first frequency band). In an aspect, operation 630 may be performed by at least one WWAN transceiver 310, at least one processor 332, memory component 340, and / or positioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered a means for performing the operation.

[0121] At 640, the UE sends positioning measurements (e.g., ToA, RSTD, etc.) of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS to a positioning entity (e.g., a positioning engine (e.g., positioning component 342) at the UE, a location server, a serving base station). In an aspect, operation 640 may be performed by at least one WWAN transceiver 310, at least one processor 332, a memory component 340, and / or a positioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered a means for performing the operation.

[0122] As will be appreciated, technical advantages of method 600 include enabling the UE to measure more PRSs from more base stations, thereby improving positioning performance, reducing usage of system resources, allowing reuse of other (non-on-demand) frequency bands, and reducing power consumption (since on-demand PRSs may be transmitted in frequency bands with lower power efficiency).

[0123] In the above detailed description, it can be seen 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 the features explicitly mentioned in each clause. On the contrary, various aspects of the present disclosure may include less than all the features of the disclosed individual example clauses. Therefore, the attached clauses should be considered to be incorporated into the description, wherein each clause itself may be a separate example. Although each subordinate clause can be cited in each clause in a specific combination with one of the other clauses, the (all) aspects of the subordinate clause are not limited to the specific combination. It will be appreciated that other example clauses may also include a combination of the (all) aspects of the subordinate clause with the subject matter of any other subordinate clause or independent clause or any feature with other subordinate and independent clauses. The various aspects disclosed herein explicitly include these combinations, unless explicitly expressed or can be easily inferred that it is not intended to be a specific combination (e.g., contradictory aspects, such as defining an element as an insulator and a conductor at the same time). In addition, it is also intended that the various aspects of the clause can be included in any other independent clause, even if the clause is not directly subordinate to the independent clause.

[0124] Various implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses.

[0125] Clause 1. A wireless communication method performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: transmitting a first request for a first set of base stations to transmit a first on-demand positioning reference signal (PRS) in a first frequency band; measuring the first on-demand PRS from the first set of base stations in the first frequency band; measuring periodic PRS from a second set of base stations operating in a second frequency band; and enabling a positioning entity to calculate a position of the UE based on the positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS.

[0126] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, further comprising: transmitting to a location server a capability message indicating that the UE is capable of supporting operation on at least the first frequency band and the second frequency band.

[0127] Clause 3. The method of clause 2, further comprising: receiving assistance information for at least the first set of base stations and the second set of base stations from the location server.

[0128] Clause 4. The method of clause 3, wherein the assistance information comprises at least locations of the first set of base stations and the second set of base stations.

[0129] Clause 5. The method of any of clauses 3 to 4, wherein the assistance information indicates at least a number of the first set of base stations operating in the first frequency band and a number of the second set of base stations operating in the second frequency band.

[0130] Clause 6. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 5, further comprising: determining at least the number of the first set of base stations operating in the first frequency band and the number of the second set of base stations operating in the second frequency band based on detecting at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS.

[0131] Clause 7. The method of clause 6, further comprising: determining a number of a third set of base stations capable of transmitting the second on-demand PRS in the third frequency band.

[0132] Clause 8. The method of clause 7, wherein the UE transmits the first request to the first set of base stations based on a number of the first set of base stations compared to a number of the third set of base stations.

[0133] Clause 9. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 8, further comprising: receiving an indication that only the first frequency band supports on-demand PRS.

[0134] Clause 10. A method as in any one of clauses 1 to 9, wherein: the first request is transmitted on the first frequency band, and the first request transmitted on the first frequency band indicates that the first request is for the first base station set to transmit the first on-demand PRS on the first frequency band.

[0135] Clause 11. The method of any of clauses 1 to 10, wherein the first request includes an identifier of the first frequency band.

[0136] Clause 12. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 11, wherein the UE transmits the first request for the first set of base stations to transmit the first on-demand PRS in the first frequency band based on positioning requirements not met by the periodic PRS transmitted by the second set of base stations.

[0137] Clause 13. A method as described in any one of clauses 1 to 12, further comprising: transmitting a second request for a third base station set to transmit a second on-demand PRS in a third frequency band; and measuring the second on-demand PRS from the third base station set in the third frequency band, wherein enabling the positioning entity to calculate the position of the UE is further based on the positioning measurement of the second on-demand PRS.

[0138] Clause 14. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 13, wherein the UE transmits the first request to each base station in the first set of base stations.

[0139] Clause 15. A method as described in any one of clauses 1 to 14, wherein: the UE transmits the first request to a location server or a serving base station, and the first request is forwarded by the location server or the serving base station to each base station in the first set of base stations.

[0140] Clause 16. A method as described in any one of clauses 1 to 15, wherein: the first frequency band includes a first frequency range, a first frequency band, a first component carrier or a first positioning frequency layer, and the second frequency band includes a second frequency range, a second frequency band, a second component carrier or a second positioning frequency layer.

[0141] Clause 17. A method as described in any one of clauses 1 to 16, wherein: the positioning entity includes the UE, and enabling the positioning entity to calculate the position of the UE includes the UE calculating the position of the UE based on the positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS.

[0142] Clause 18. A method as described in any one of clauses 1 to 17, wherein: the positioning entity includes a location server or a serving base station, and enabling the positioning entity to calculate the position of the UE includes: the UE transmits the positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS to the positioning entity.

[0143] Clause 19. 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 18.

[0144] Clause 20. An apparatus comprising: a device for performing the method according to any one of clauses 1 to 18.

[0145] Clause 21. 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 18.

[0146] Additional implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses.

[0147] Clause 1. A wireless communication method performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: transmitting a first request for a first set of base stations to transmit a first on-demand positioning reference signal (PRS) in a first frequency band; measuring the first on-demand PRS from the first set of base stations in the first frequency band; measuring periodic PRS from a second set of base stations operating in a second frequency band; and sending positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS to a positioning entity.

[0148] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, further comprising: transmitting to a location server a capability message indicating that the UE is capable of supporting operation on at least the first frequency band and the second frequency band.

[0149] Clause 3. The method of clause 2, further comprising: receiving assistance information for at least the first set of base stations and the second set of base stations from the location server.

[0150] Clause 4. The method of clause 3, wherein the assistance information comprises at least locations of the first set of base stations and the second set of base stations.

[0151] Clause 5. The method of any of clauses 3 to 4, wherein the assistance information indicates at least a number of the first set of base stations operating in the first frequency band and a number of the second set of base stations operating in the second frequency band.

[0152] Clause 6. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 5, further comprising: determining at least the number of the first set of base stations operating in the first frequency band and the number of the second set of base stations operating in the second frequency band based on detecting at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS.

[0153] Clause 7. The method of clause 6, further comprising: determining a number of a third set of base stations capable of transmitting the second on-demand PRS in the third frequency band.

[0154] Clause 8. The method of clause 7, wherein the UE transmits the first request to the first set of base stations based on a number of the first set of base stations compared to a number of the third set of base stations.

[0155] Clause 9. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 8, further comprising: receiving an indication that only the first frequency band supports on-demand PRS.

[0156] Clause 10. A method as in any one of clauses 1 to 9, wherein: the first request is transmitted on the first frequency band, and the first request transmitted on the first frequency band indicates that the first request is for the first base station set to transmit the first on-demand PRS on the first frequency band.

[0157] Clause 11. The method of any of clauses 1 to 9, wherein the first request is transmitted on the second frequency band.

[0158] Clause 12. The method of any of clauses 1 to 11, wherein the first request includes an identifier of the first frequency band.

[0159] Clause 13. The method of any of clauses 1 to 12, wherein the UE transmits the first request for the first set of base stations to transmit the first on-demand PRS in the first frequency band based on positioning requirements not met by the periodic PRS transmitted by the second set of base stations.

[0160] Clause 14. The method of clause 13, wherein the positioning requirement is based on a geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) threshold.

[0161] Clause 15. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 14 further comprises: transmitting a second request for a third base station set to transmit a second on-demand PRS in a third frequency band; measuring the second on-demand PRS from the third base station set in the third frequency band; and sending positioning measurements of the second on-demand PRS to the positioning entity.

[0162] Clause 16. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 15, wherein the UE transmits the first request to each base station in the first set of base stations.

[0163] Clause 17. A method as described in any one of clauses 1 to 15, wherein: the UE transmits the first request to a location server or a serving base station, and the first request is sent by the location server or the serving base station to each base station in the first set of base stations.

[0164] Clause 18. A method as described in any one of clauses 1 to 17, wherein: the first frequency band includes a first frequency range, a first frequency band, a first component carrier or a first positioning frequency layer, and the second frequency band includes a second frequency range, a second frequency band, a second component carrier or a second positioning frequency layer.

[0165] Clause 19. A method as in any one of clauses 1 to 18, wherein: the positioning entity comprises a positioning engine at the UE, and the method further comprises: calculating the position of the UE based on the positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS.

[0166] Clause 20. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 18, wherein the positioning entity comprises a location server or a serving base station.

[0167] Clause 21. 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 20.

[0168] Clause 22. An apparatus comprising: a device for performing the method according to any one of clauses 1 to 20.

[0169] Clause 23. 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 20.

[0170] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referred to throughout the above description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, optical fields or optical particles, or any combination thereof.

[0171] In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate 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. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps are generally described above in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system. The technician can implement the described functionality in different ways for each specific application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0172] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or executed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an ASIC, a field programmable gate array (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 the 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, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in cooperation with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0173] The methods, sequences and / or algorithms described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software module may reside 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 is coupled to a processor so that the processor can read and write information from / to the storage medium. In an alternative, a storage medium may be integrated into a processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal (e.g., UE). In an alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in a user terminal as discrete components.

[0174] In one or more example aspects, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, each function may be stored on or transmitted by a computer-readable medium as one or more instructions or codes. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, including any media that facilitates the transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. As an example and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store the desired program code in the form of an instruction or data structure and can be accessed by a computer. Similarly, any connection is also properly referred to as a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwaves, the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwaves are included in the definition of the 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 often reproduces data magnetically, while disc reproduces data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0175] Although the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative aspects of the present disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps, and / or actions in the method claims according to the various aspects of the present disclosure described herein do not have 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 is also contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated.

Claims

1. A wireless communication method performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: transmitting a first request for a first set of base stations to transmit a first on-demand positioning reference signal (PRS) in a first frequency band; measuring the first on-demand PRS from the first set of base stations in the first frequency band; performing measurements on periodic PRSs from a second set of base stations operating in a second frequency band different from the first frequency band, wherein the UE transmits the first request for the first set of base stations to transmit the first on-demand PRS in the first frequency band based on positioning requirements not satisfied by the periodic PRSs transmitted by the second set of base stations; as well as Positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS are sent to a positioning entity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: A capability message is transmitted to a location server indicating that the UE is capable of supporting operation on at least the first frequency band and the second frequency band.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: Assistance information is received from the location server for at least the first set of base stations and the second set of base stations. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the auxiliary information comprises at least locations of the first base station set and the second base station set. 5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the auxiliary information indicates at least the number of the first set of base stations operating in the first frequency band and the number of the second set of base stations operating in the second frequency band.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: Based on detecting at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS, at least a number of the first set of base stations operating in the first frequency band and a number of the second set of base stations operating in the second frequency band are determined.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: A number of a third set of base stations capable of transmitting a second on-demand PRS in a third frequency band is determined.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the UE transmits the first request to the first set of base stations based on the number of the first set of base stations compared to the number of the third set of base stations.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: An indication is received that only the first frequency band supports on-demand PRS.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein: The first request is transmitted on the first frequency band, and The first request transmitted on the first frequency band indicates that the first request is for the first set of base stations to transmit the first on-demand PRS on the first frequency band.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first request is transmitted on the second frequency band.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first request includes an identifier of the first frequency band.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the positioning requirement is based on a geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) threshold.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting a second request for a third set of base stations to transmit a second on-demand PRS in a third frequency band; measuring the second on-demand PRS from the third set of base stations in the third frequency band; as well as Sending positioning measurements for the second on-demand PRS to the positioning entity.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE transmits the first request to each base station in the first set of base stations.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein: The UE transmits the first request to a location server or a serving base station, and The first request is sent by the location server or the serving base station to each base station in the first base station set.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein: The first frequency band includes a first frequency range, a first frequency band, a first component carrier or a first positioning frequency layer, and The second frequency band includes a second frequency range, a second frequency band, a second component carrier or a second positioning frequency layer.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein: The positioning entity includes a positioning engine at the UE, and The method further includes calculating a position of the UE based on the positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein: The positioning entity includes a location server or a serving base station.

20. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Memory; at least one transceiver; as well as at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: causing the at least one transceiver to transmit a first request for a first set of base stations to transmit a first on-demand positioning reference signal (PRS) in a first frequency band; measuring the first on-demand PRS from the first set of base stations in the first frequency band; performing measurements on periodic PRSs from a second set of base stations operating in a second frequency band different from the first frequency band, wherein the UE transmits the first request for the first set of base stations to transmit the first on-demand PRS in the first frequency band based on positioning requirements not satisfied by the periodic PRSs transmitted by the second set of base stations; as well as Positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS are sent to a positioning entity.

21. The UE of claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: The at least one transceiver is caused to transmit a capability message to a location server, the capability message indicating that the UE is capable of supporting operation on at least the first frequency band and the second frequency band.

22. The UE of claim 21, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Assistance information for at least the first set of base stations and the second set of base stations is received from the location server via the at least one transceiver.

23. The UE of claim 22, wherein the auxiliary information comprises at least locations of the first base station set and the second base station set.

24. The UE of claim 22, wherein the auxiliary information indicates at least the number of the first set of base stations operating in the first frequency band and the number of the second set of base stations operating in the second frequency band.

25. The UE of claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Based on detecting at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS, at least a number of the first set of base stations operating in the first frequency band and a number of the second set of base stations operating in the second frequency band are determined.

26. The UE of claim 25, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: A number of a third set of base stations capable of transmitting a second on-demand PRS in a third frequency band is determined.

27. The UE of claim 26, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the at least one transceiver to transmit the first request to the first set of base stations based on the number of the first set of base stations compared to the number of the third set of base stations.

28. The UE of claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: An indication is received via the at least one transceiver that only the first frequency band supports on-demand PRS.

29. The UE of claim 20, wherein: The first request is transmitted on the first frequency band, and The first request transmitted on the first frequency band indicates that the first request is for the first set of base stations to transmit the first on-demand PRS on the first frequency band.

30. The UE of claim 20, wherein the first request is transmitted on the second frequency band.

31. The UE of claim 20, wherein the first request includes an identifier of the first frequency band.

32. The UE of claim 20, wherein the positioning requirement is based on a geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) threshold.

33. The UE of claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: causing the at least one transceiver to transmit a second request for a third set of base stations to transmit a second on-demand PRS in a third frequency band; measuring the second on-demand PRS from the third set of base stations in the third frequency band; and Sending positioning measurements for the second on-demand PRS to the positioning entity.

34. The UE of claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the at least one transceiver to transmit the first request to each base station in the first set of base stations.

35. The UE of claim 20, wherein: wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the at least one transceiver to transmit the first request to a location server or a serving base station, and The first request is sent by the location server or the serving base station to each base station in the first base station set.

36. The UE of claim 20, wherein: The first frequency band includes a first frequency range, a first frequency band, a first component carrier or a first positioning frequency layer, and The second frequency band includes a second frequency range, a second frequency band, a second component carrier or a second positioning frequency layer.

37. The UE of claim 20, wherein: The positioning entity includes the UE, and The at least one processor is further configured to calculate a location of the UE based on the positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS.

38. The UE of claim 20, wherein the positioning entity comprises a location server or a serving base station.

39. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for transmitting a first request for a first set of base stations to transmit a first on-demand positioning reference signal (PRS) in a first frequency band; means for measuring the first on-demand PRS from the first set of base stations in the first frequency band; means for measuring periodic PRSs from a second set of base stations operating in a second frequency band different from the first frequency band, wherein the UE transmits the first request for the first set of base stations to transmit the first on-demand PRSs in the first frequency band based on positioning requirements not satisfied by the periodic PRSs transmitted by the second set of base stations; as well as Means for sending positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS to a positioning entity.

40. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising: directing a user equipment (UE) to transmit at least one instruction for a first request for a first set of base stations to transmit a first on-demand positioning reference signal (PRS) in a first frequency band; at least one instruction directing the UE to measure the first on-demand PRS from the first set of base stations in the first frequency band; at least one instruction directing the UE to measure periodic PRSs from a second set of base stations operating in a second frequency band different from the first frequency band, wherein the UE transmits the first request for the first set of base stations to transmit the first on-demand PRS in the first frequency band based on positioning requirements not satisfied by the periodic PRSs transmitted by the second set of base stations; as well as The UE is directed to send at least one instruction to a positioning entity for positioning measurements of at least the first on-demand PRS and the periodic PRS.

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