Positioning measurement derivation based on decoded physical downlink channels and corresponding measurement latency

Abstract

Techniques for wireless positioning are disclosed. In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) receives a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) associated with the DMRS, the DMRS and the PDSCH spanning multiple symbols of a time slot; decodes the PDSCH; performs positioning measurements based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH; and reports the positioning measurements or at least position information derived based on the positioning measurements to a location server.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to Greek Patent Application No. 20200100286, filed on May 28, 2020, entitled “POSITIONING MEASUREMENT DERIVATION BASED ON A DECODED PHYSICAL DOWNLINK CHANNEL AND CORRESPONDING MEASUREMENT LATENCY,” which is assigned to the assignee of this application and is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its 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 positioning method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: receiving a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) associated with the DMRS, the DMRS and the PDSCH spanning multiple code elements of a time slot; decoding the PDSCH; performing positioning measurements based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH; and reporting the positioning measurements or at least location information derived based on the positioning measurements to a location server.

[0012] In one aspect, a UE includes: a memory, at least one transceiver, and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor being configured to: receive a DMRS and a PDSCH associated with the DMRS via the at least one transceiver, the DMRS and the PDSCH spanning multiple code elements of a time slot; decode the PDSCH; perform positioning measurements based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH; and cause the at least one transceiver to report the positioning measurements or at least location information derived based on the positioning measurements to a location server.

[0013] In one aspect, a UE includes: a device for receiving a DMRS and a PDSCH associated with the DMRS, the DMRS and the PDSCH spanning multiple code elements of a time slot; a device for decoding the PDSCH; a device for performing positioning measurements based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH; and a device for reporting the positioning measurements or at least position information derived based on the positioning measurements to a location server.

[0014] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores computer-executable instructions, which include: at least one instruction for instructing a UE to receive a DMRS and a PDSCH associated with the DMRS, the DMRS and the PDSCH spanning multiple code elements of a time slot; at least one instruction for instructing the UE to decode the PDSCH, at least one instruction for instructing the UE to perform positioning measurements based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH; and at least one instruction for instructing the UE to report the positioning measurement or at least position information derived based on the positioning measurement to a location server.

[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

[0017] 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.

[0018] Figure 1

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

[0019] Figure 2A and 2B

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

[0020] Figure 3A , 3B 3C are simplified block diagrams 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.

[0021] Figure 4A and 4B User plane and control plane protocol stacks in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated.

[0022] Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating an example frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0023] Figure 6 is a diagram illustrating various downlink channels within an example downlink time slot in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0024] Figure 7 is a diagram illustrating an example uplink frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0025] Figure 8 is a diagram illustrating various uplink channels within an example uplink time slot in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0026] Fig.9A A multiple transmission reception point (TRP) architecture based on a single downlink control information (DCI) and a multiple TRP architecture based on multiple DCIs according to various aspects of the present disclosure are explained.

[0027] Fig. 9B A portion of a protocol stack in a multi-TRP scenario from the perspective of a UE according to various aspects of the present disclosure is explained.

[0028] Fig.10is a diagram of example grouping of control resource sets (CORESETs) based on a parameter "CORESETPoolIndex" in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0029] Fig.11

[0013] Example methods of wireless positioning according to aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated.

[0030] Detailed Description

[0031] 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.

[0032] 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.

[0033] 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.

[0034] 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."

[0035] 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.

[0036] 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.

[0037] 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.

[0038] 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).

[0039] "RF signals" include electromagnetic waves of a given frequency that transmit 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, the 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. As used herein, RF signals may also be referred to as "wireless signals" or simply "signals", where it is clear from the context that the term "signal" refers to either wireless signals or RF signals.

[0040] 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.

[0041] 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. Base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (eg, via EPC / 5GC) via backhaul links 134 (which may be wired or wireless).

[0042] 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, which is 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), an enhanced cell identifier (ECI), a virtual cell identifier (VCI), a cell global identifier (CGI), etc.) 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. Additionally, because the TRP is typically the physical transmission point of a cell, the terms "cell" and "TRP" may be used interchangeably. In some cases, the term "cell" may also refer to a geographic coverage area (e.g., a sector) of a base station in the sense that a carrier frequency may be detected and used for communications within a portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0043] 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 base station 102' (labeled "SC" for "Small Cell") 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) that may provide service to a restricted group referred to as a closed subscriber group (CSG).

[0044] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include an uplink (also known as a reverse link) transmission from the UE 104 to the base station 102 and / or a downlink (DL) (also known as a forward link) transmission 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).

[0045] 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.

[0046] 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.

[0047] 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.

[0048] 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.

[0049] 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 second reference RF signal on the second beam can be derived from information about the source reference RF signal on the source beam. Therefore, 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 second 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 second 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 second 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 a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

[0050] 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.

[0051] The transmit beam and the receive beam may be spatially correlated. The spatial relationship means that the parameters of the second beam (e.g., transmit or receive beam) for the second reference signal may be derived from information about the first beam (e.g., receive beam or transmit beam) of the first reference signal. For example, the UE may use a specific receive beam to receive a reference downlink reference signal (e.g., a synchronization signal block (SSB)) from a base station. The UE may then form a transmit beam based on the parameters of the receive beam for sending an uplink reference signal (e.g., a sounding reference signal (SRS)) to the base station.

[0052] 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.

[0053] 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). The mmW band generally includes the FR2, FR3, and FR4 frequency ranges. As such, the terms "mmW" and "FR2" or "FR3" or "FR4" can generally be used interchangeably.

[0054] 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 as well as UE-specific control channels and can be a carrier in a licensed frequency (however, this is not always the case). A secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2) that 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 vary from UE to UE 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. The same is 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 to communicate, the terms "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. may be used interchangeably.

[0055] 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.

[0056] 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.

[0057] exist Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 1 , any one of the UEs (for simplicity in FIG. 1 ) is illustrated. Figure 1 104) can receive a signal 124 from one or more earth orbiting spacecraft (SV) 112 (e.g., satellites). In one aspect, SV 112 can be part of a satellite positioning system that UE 104 can use as an independent source of location information. A satellite positioning system typically includes a system of transmitters (e.g., SV 112) positioned to enable a receiver (e.g., UE 104) to determine the location of the receiver on or above the earth based at least in part on positioning signals (e.g., signal 124) received from these transmitters. Such a transmitter typically transmits a signal marked with a repeating pseudo-random noise (PN) code of a set number of chips. Although the transmitter is typically located in SV 112, it can sometimes be located in a ground-based control station, base station 102, and / or other UE 104. UE 104 may include one or more dedicated receivers that are specifically designed to receive signal 124 from SV 112 to derive geographic location information.

[0058] In a satellite positioning system, the use of 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, a satellite positioning system may include any combination of one or more global and / or regional navigation satellites associated with such one or more satellite positioning systems.

[0059] In one aspect, SV 112 may additionally or alternatively be part of one or more non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). In an NTN, SV 112 is connected to an earth station (also referred to as a ground station, NTN gateway, or gateway), which in turn is connected to an element in a 5G network, such as a modified base station 102 (without a ground antenna) or a network node in a 5GC. This element in turn will provide access to other elements in the 5G network, and ultimately provide access to entities external to the 5G network (such as Internet web servers and other user devices). In this way, UE 104 can receive communication signals (e.g., signal 124) from SV 112 as an alternative or in addition to receiving communication signals from a ground base station 102.

[0060] 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.

[0061] Figure 2AAn example wireless network structure 200 is illustrated. For example, the 5GC 210 (also known as the Next Generation Core (NGC)) can be functionally viewed as a control plane (C-plane) function 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and a user plane (U-plane) function 212 (e.g., UE gateway function, access to data networks, IP routing, etc.), which operate in coordination to form a core network. The user plane interface (NG-U) 213 and the control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect the gNB 222 to the 5GC 210, in particular to the user plane function 212 and the control plane function 214, respectively. In an additional configuration, the ng-eNB 224 can also be connected to the 5GC 210 via the NG-C 215 to the control plane function 214 and the NG-U 213 to the user plane function 212. In addition, the ng-eNB 224 can communicate directly with the gNB 222 via the backhaul connection 223. In some configurations, the next generation RAN (NG-RAN) 220 may have 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 (or both) may communicate with one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any UE described herein).

[0062] 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 (e.g., a third-party server, such as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) server or a service server).

[0063] Figure 2B Another example wireless network structure 250 is illustrated. A 5GC 260 (which may correspond to Figure 2AThe 5GC 210 in the 5GC 210 can be functionally considered as a control plane function (provided by the access and mobility management function (AMF) 264) and a user plane function (provided by the user plane function (UPF) 262), which operate in coordination to form the core network (i.e., the 5GC 260). The functions of the AMF 264 include registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception, session management (SM) message transmission between one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any UE described herein) and a session management function (SMF) 266, a transparent proxy service for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, short message service (SMS) message transmission between the UE 204 and a short message service function (SMSF) (not shown), and security anchor functionality (SEAF). The AMF 264 also interacts with an authentication server function (AUSF) (not shown) and the UE 204, and receives an intermediate key established as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In the case of authentication based on the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), the AMF 264 retrieves security material from the AUSF. The functions of the AMF 264 also include security context management (SCM). The SCM receives keys from the SEAF, which are used by the SCM to derive keys that vary from access network to access network. The functionality of the AMF 264 also includes: location service management for regulatory services, location service message transmission between the UE 204 and the Location Management Function (LMF) 270 (which acts as a location server 230), location service message transmission between the NG-RAN 220 and the LMF 270, EPS bearer identifier allocation for interworking with the Evolved Packet System (EPS), and UE 204 mobility event notification. In addition, the AMF 264 also supports the functionality of non-3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) access networks.

[0064] 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.

[0065] 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.

[0066] 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.

[0067] The user plane interface 263 and the control plane interface 265 connect the 5GC 260 (and in particular the UPF 262 and the AMF 264, respectively) to one or more gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 in the NG-RAN 220. The interface between the gNB 222 and / or ng-eNB 224 and the AMF 264 is referred to as the "N2" interface, while the interface between the gNB 222 and / or ng-eNB 224 and the UPF 262 is referred to as the "N3" interface. The gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 of the NG-RAN 220 may communicate directly with each other via the backhaul connection 223, which is referred to as the "Xn-C" interface. One or more of the gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 may communicate with one or more UEs 204 over a radio interface, which is referred to as the "Uu" interface.

[0068] The functionality of the gNB 222 is divided between the gNB Central Unit (gNB-CU) 226 and one or more gNB Distributed Units (gNB-DU) 228. The interface 232 between the gNB-CU 226 and one or more gNB-DUs 228 is referred to as the "F1" interface. The gNB-CU 226 is a logical node that includes base station functions for delivering user data, mobility control, radio access network sharing, positioning, session management, etc., except for those functions specifically assigned to the gNB-DU 228. More specifically, the gNB-CU 226 hosts the Radio Resource Control (RRC), Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) protocols of the gNB 222. The gNB-DU 228 is a logical node that hosts the Radio Link Control (RLC), Media Access Control (MAC), and Physical (PHY) layers of the gNB 222. Its operation is controlled by the gNB-CU 226. One gNB-DU 228 may support one or more cells, and one cell is supported by only one gNB-DU 228. Therefore, the UE 204 communicates with the gNB-CU 226 via the RRC, SDAP, and PDCP layers, and communicates with the gNB-DU 228 via the RLC, MAC, and PHY layers.

[0069] Figure 3A , 3B 3C illustrate that a UE 302 (which may correspond to any UE described herein), a base station 304 (which may correspond to any base station described herein), and a network entity 306 (which may correspond to or embody any network function described herein, including the location server 230 and the LMF 270, or alternatively may be independent of the location server 230 and the LMF 270. Figure 2A and 2B 20 and / or 5GC 210 / 260 infrastructure, such as a dedicated network) to support file transfer operations as taught herein (represented by corresponding boxes). 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.

[0070] UE 302 and base station 304 each include one or more wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceivers 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 each 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.

[0071] In at least some cases, the UE 302 and the base station 304 each further include one or more short-range wireless transceivers 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, 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 transceiver, NFC transceiver, or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and / or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) transceiver.

[0072] In at least some cases, the UE 302 and the base station 304 also include satellite signal receivers 330 and 370. The satellite signal 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 satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378, respectively. In the case where the satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 are satellite positioning system receivers, the satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378 may be 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. In the case where the satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 are non-terrestrial network (NTN) receivers, the satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378 may be communication signals (e.g., carrying control and / or user data) originating from a 5G network. Satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 may include any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378, respectively. Satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 request information and operations from other systems as appropriate, and in at least some cases perform calculations to determine the respective positions of UE 302 and base station 304 using measurements obtained by any suitable satellite positioning system algorithm.

[0073] The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include one or more network transceivers 380 and 390, respectively, to provide means (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, etc.) for communicating with other network entities (e.g., other base stations 304, other network entities 306). For example, the base station 304 may employ one or more network transceivers 380 to communicate with other base stations 304 or network entities 306 over one or more wired or wireless backhaul links. As another example, the network entity 306 may employ one or more network transceivers 390 to communicate with one or more base stations 304 over one or more wired or wireless backhaul links, or communicate with other network entities 306 over one or more wired or wireless core network interfaces.

[0074] The transceiver may be configured to communicate over a wired or wireless link. A transceiver (whether a wired transceiver or a wireless transceiver) includes a transmitter circuit system (e.g., transmitters 314, 324, 354, 364) and a receiver circuit system (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352, 362). The transceiver may be an integrated device in some implementations (e.g., implementing the transmitter circuit system and the receiver circuit system in a single device), may include separate transmitter circuit systems and separate receiver circuit systems in some implementations, or may be implemented in other ways in other implementations. The transmitter circuit system and the receiver circuit system of a wired transceiver (e.g., in some implementations, network transceivers 380 and 390) may be coupled to one or more wired network interface ports. The wireless transmitter circuitry (e.g., transmitters 314, 324, 354, 364) may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as antenna arrays, which permit the respective device (e.g., UE 302, base station 304) to perform transmit "beamforming", as described herein. Similarly, the wireless receiver circuitry (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352, 362) may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as antenna arrays, which permit the respective device (e.g., UE 302, base station 304) to perform receive beamforming, as described herein. In one aspect, the transmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry 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 transceivers (eg, WWAN transceivers 310 and 350, short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360) may also include a network listening module (NLM) or the like for performing various measurements.

[0075] As used herein, various wireless transceivers (e.g., transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360, and network transceivers 380 and 390 in some implementations) and wired transceivers (e.g., network transceivers 380 and 390 in some implementations) may be generally characterized as a "transceiver," "at least one transceiver," or "one or more transceivers." As such, whether a particular transceiver is a wired transceiver or a wireless transceiver may be inferred from the type of communication being performed. For example, backhaul communications between network devices or servers generally involve signaling via a wired transceiver, while wireless communications between a UE (e.g., UE 302) and a base station (e.g., base station 304) generally involve signaling via a wireless transceiver.

[0076] 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, base station 304, and network entity 306 include one or more processors 332, 384, and 394, respectively, for providing functionality related to, for example, wireless communication and for providing other processing functionality. Processors 332, 384, and 394 can therefore 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 one aspect, processors 332, 384, and 394 can include, for example, one or more general purpose processors, multi-core processors, central processing units (CPUs), ASICs, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), other programmable logic devices or processing circuit systems, or various combinations thereof.

[0077] UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 include memory circuitry that implements memory 340, 386, and 396 (e.g., each including a memory device) for maintaining information (e.g., information indicating reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, etc.). Memories 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, positioning components 342, 388, and 398 may be external to 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 memories 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 3A Possible locations are illustrated for a positioning component 342, which can be, for example, part of one or more WWAN transceivers 310, memory 340, one or more processors 332, or any combination thereof, or can be a stand-alone component. Figure 3B Possible locations are illustrated for a positioning component 388, which can be, for example, part of one or more WWAN transceivers 350, memory 386, one or more processors 384, or any combination thereof, or can be a stand-alone component. Figure 3C Possible locations are illustrated for a location component 398, which can be, for example, part of one or more network transceivers 390, memory 396, one or more processors 394, or any combination thereof, or can be a stand-alone component.

[0078] UE 302 may include one or more sensors 344 coupled to one or more processors 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 one or more WWAN transceivers 310, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 320, and / or satellite signal receivers 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.

[0079] 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.

[0080] Referring to the one or more processors 384 in more detail, in a downlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 may be provided to the processor 384. The one or more processors 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. One or more processors 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.

[0081] 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.

[0082] 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 one or more processors 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 one or more processors 332 that implement layer 3 (L3) and layer 2 (L2) functionality.

[0083] In the uplink, one or more processors 332 provide 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. One or more processors 332 are also responsible for error detection.

[0084] Similar to the functionality described in conjunction with downlink transmissions performed by the base station 304, one or more processors 332 provide 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.

[0085] 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.

[0086] Uplink transmissions are 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 one or more processors 384.

[0087] In the uplink, one or more processors 384 provide 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 one or more processors 384 can be provided to the core network. One or more processors 384 are also responsible for error detection.

[0088] For convenience, UE 302, base station 304 and / or network entity 306 may Figure 3A , 3B3C are shown as including various components that can be configured according to the various examples described herein. However, it will be appreciated that the illustrated components may have different functionality in different designs. Specifically, Figures 3A to 3C The various components in are optional in alternative configurations, and various aspects include configurations that may vary due to design choice, cost, use of the device, or other considerations. For example, in Figure 3A In the case of , a specific implementation of UE 302 may omit WWAN transceiver 310 (e.g., a wearable device or tablet or PC or laptop may have Wi-Fi and / or Bluetooth capabilities but no cellular capabilities), or may omit short-range wireless transceiver 320 (e.g., only cellular, etc.), or may omit satellite signal receiver 330, or may omit sensor 344, etc. In another example, in Figure 3B In the case of a wireless communication system, a specific implementation of the base station 304 may omit the WWAN transceiver 350 (e.g., a Wi-Fi "hotspot" access point without cellular capabilities), or may omit the short-range wireless transceiver 360 (e.g., cellular only, etc.), or may omit the satellite receiver 370, etc. For the sake of brevity, illustrations of various alternative configurations are not provided herein, but will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

[0089] Various components of the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 may be communicatively coupled to one another on data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392, respectively. In an aspect, the data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392 may form or be part of a communication interface for the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306, respectively. For example, where different logical entities are implemented in the same device (e.g., gNB and location server functionality are incorporated into the same base station 304), the data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392 may provide communication between them.

[0090] Figure 3A , 3B The components of and 3C can be implemented in various ways. In some implementations, Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 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.

[0091] In some designs, the network entity 306 may be implemented as a core network component. In other designs, the network entity 306 may be different from the network operator or operation of the cellular network infrastructure (e.g., NG RAN 220 and / or 5GC 210 / 260). For example, the network entity 306 may be a component of a private network that may be configured to communicate with the UE 302 via the base station 304 or independently of the base station 304 (e.g., on a non-cellular communication link such as WiFi).

[0092] Figure 4A The user plane protocol stack according to various aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. Figure 4A 4, UE 404 and base station 402 (which may correspond to any UE and base station described herein, respectively) implement, from the highest layer to the lowest layer, a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer 410, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer 415, a radio link control (RLC) layer 420, a medium access control (MAC) layer 425, and a physical (PHY) layer 430. Specific instances of protocol layers are referred to as protocol "entities". As such, the terms "protocol layer" and "protocol entity" may be used interchangeably.

[0093] If Figure 4A As illustrated by the double arrow lines in , each layer of the protocol stack implemented by UE 404 communicates with the same layer of base station 402, and vice versa. The two corresponding protocol layers / entities of UE 404 and base station 402 are referred to as "peers", "peer entities", etc. SDAP layer 410, PDCP layer 415, RLC layer 420, and MAC layer 425 are collectively referred to as "Layer 2" or "L2". PHY layer 430 is referred to as "Layer 1" or "L1".

[0094] Figure 4B The control plane protocol stack according to various aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. In addition to the PDCP layer 415, the RLC layer 420, the MAC layer 425, and the PHY layer 430, the UE 404 and the base station 402 also implement the radio resource control (RRC) layer 445. In addition, the UE 404 and the AMF 406 implement the non-access stratum (NAS) layer 440.

[0095] The RLC layer 420 supports three transmission modes for packets: transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). In the TM mode, there is no RLC header, segmentation / reassembly, and feedback (i.e., there is no acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (NACK)). In addition, there is buffering only at the transmitter. In the UM mode, there is an RLC header, buffering at both the transmitter and the receiver, and segmentation / reassembly, but there is no feedback (i.e., data transmission does not require any reception response (e.g., ACK / NACK) from the receiver). In the AM mode, there is an RLC header, buffering at both the transmitter and the receiver, segmentation / reassembly, and feedback (i.e., data transmission requires a reception response (e.g., ACK / NACK) from the receiver). Each of these modes can be used for both transmitting and receiving data. In the TM and UM modes, separate RLC entities are used for transmission and reception, while in the AM mode, a single RLC entity performs both transmission and reception. Note that each logical channel uses a specific RLC mode. That is, the RLC configuration is per logical channel and does not depend on parameter design and / or transmission time interval (TTI) duration (i.e., transmission duration on the radio link). Specifically, the broadcast control channel (BCCH), paging control channel (PCCH), and common control channel (CCCH) use only TM mode, the dedicated control channel (DCCH) uses only AM mode, and the dedicated traffic channel (DTCH) uses UM or AM mode. Whether the DTCH uses UM or AM is determined by the RRC message.

[0096] The main services and functions of the RLC layer 420 depend on the transmission mode and include: delivery of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), sequence numbering independent of sequence numbering in the PDCP layer 415, error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ), segmentation and re-segmentation of service data units (SDUs), reassembly, RLC SDU discard, and RLC reestablishment. The ARQ functionality provides error correction in AM mode and has the following features: ARQ retransmission of RLC PDUs or RLC PDU segments based on RLC status reports, polling of RLC status reports when required by RLC, and triggering of RLC status reports by the RLC receiver after detecting a lost RLC PDU or RLC PDU segment.

[0097] The main services and functions of the PDCP layer 415 of the user plane include: sequence numbering, header compression and decompression (for robust header compression (ROHC)), delivery of user data, reordering and duplicate detection (in the case of in-order delivery to the layers above the PDCP layer 415), PDCP PDU routing (in the case of split bearers), retransmission, ciphering and ciphering of PDCP SDU, PDCP SDU discard, PDCP reconstruction and data recovery for RLC AM, and repetition of PDCP PDU. The main services and functions of the PDCP layer 415 of the control plane include: ciphering, ciphering, and integrity protection, delivery of control plane data, and repetition of PDCP PDU.

[0098] The SDAP layer 410 is an access stratum (AS) layer whose main services and functions include: mapping between quality of service (QoS) flows and data radio bearers, and marking QoS flow identifiers in both downlink and uplink packets. A single protocol entity of SDAP is configured for each individual PDU session.

[0099] The main services and functions of the RRC layer 445 include: broadcasting system information related to AS and NAS, paging initiated by 5GC (e.g., NGC 210 or 260) or RAN (e.g., new RAN 220), establishment, maintenance and release of RRC connection between UE and RAN, security functions including key management, establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of signaling radio bearers (SRBs) and data radio bearers (DRBs), mobility functions (including handover, UE cell selection and reselection and control of cell selection and reselection, context transfer during handover), QoS management functions, UE measurement reporting and control of reporting, and NAS message delivery from UE to NAS / from NAS to UE.

[0100] The NAS layer 440 is the highest level of the control plane between the UE 404 and the AMF 406 at the radio interface. The main functions of the protocols that are part of the NAS layer 440 are to support the mobility of the UE 404 and to support session management procedures to establish and maintain Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity between the UE 404 and the Packet Data Network (PDN). The NAS layer 440 performs Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer management, authentication, EPS Connection Management (ECM)-IDLE mobility handling, paging origination in ECM-IDLE, and security control.

[0101] Various frame structures may be used to support downlink and uplink transmissions between network nodes (eg, base stations and UEs). Figure 5 is a diagram 500 illustrating an example frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Other wireless communication technologies may have different frame structures and / or different channels.

[0102] 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.

[0103] 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.

[0104] exist Figure 5 In the example of , a parameter design 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 5 , 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.

[0105] 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 5In 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.

[0106] Some REs may carry reference (pilot) signals (RS). These reference signals may include positioning reference signals (PRS), tracking reference signals (TRS), phase tracking reference signals (PTRS), cell-specific reference signals (CRS), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), demodulation reference signals (DMRS), primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS), synchronization signal blocks (SSB), sounding reference signals (SRS), etc., depending on whether the illustrated frame structure is used for uplink or downlink communications. Figure 5 Example locations of REs carrying reference signals (labeled "R") are illustrated.

[0107] 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.

[0108] 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 5 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.

[0109] 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}.

[0110] 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 (PRS resource repetition factor)) 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 the following: 2^μ*{4,5,8,10,16,20,32,40,64,80,160,320,640,1280,2560,5120,10240} time slots, where μ=0,1,2,3. The repetition factor may have a length selected from {1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32} slots.

[0111] 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.

[0112] 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".

[0113] 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 the physical downlink shared channel (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.

[0114] 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.

[0115] Note that the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" generally refer to specific reference signals used for positioning in NR and LTE systems. However, as used herein, the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" may also refer to any type of reference signal that 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".

[0116] Figure 6 6 is a diagram illustrating various downlink channels within an example downlink time slot. Figure 6 In , 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. Figure 6 In the example of , a parameter design of 15 kHz is used. Therefore, in the time domain, the illustrated time slot length is 1 millisecond (ms), divided into 14 symbols.

[0117] In NR, the channel bandwidth or system bandwidth is divided into multiple bandwidth parts (BWPs). A BWP is a group of contiguous RBs selected from a contiguous subset of common RBs designed for given parameters for a given carrier. In general, a maximum value of 4 BWPs can be specified in the downlink and uplink. That is, the UE can be configured to have up to 4 BWPs on the downlink and up to 4 BWPs on the uplink. Only one BWP (uplink or downlink) can be active at a given time, which means that the UE can only receive or transmit on one BWP at a time. On the downlink, the bandwidth of each BWP should be equal to or greater than the bandwidth of the SSB, but it may or may not contain the SSB.

[0118] Reference Figure 6, the primary synchronization signal (PSS) is used by the UE to determine the subframe / symbol timing and the physical layer identity. The secondary synchronization signal (SSS) is used by the UE to determine the physical layer cell identity group number and the radio frame timing. Based on the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identity group number, the UE can determine the PCI. Based on the PCI, the UE can determine the location of the aforementioned DL-RS. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH) carrying the master information block (MIB) can be logically grouped with the PSS and SSS to form an SSB (also known as SS / PBCH). The MIB provides the number of RBs in the downlink system bandwidth, and the system frame number (SFN). The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries user data, broadcast system information that is not transmitted through the PBCH (such as the system information block (SIB)), and paging messages.

[0119] The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries downlink control information (DCI) in one or more control channel elements (CCEs), each CCE includes one or more RE group (REG) bundles (which can span multiple symbols in the time domain), each REG bundle includes one or more REGs, each REG corresponds to 12 resource elements (one resource block) in the frequency domain and one OFDM symbol in the time domain. The set of physical resources used to carry PDCCH / DCI is called a control resource set (CORESET) in NR. In NR, PDCCH is confined to a single CORESET and transmitted with its own DMRS. This enables UE-specific beamforming for PDCCH.

[0120] exist Figure 6 In the example of , there is one CORESET per BWP, and the CORESET spans three symbols in the time domain (although it could be just one symbol or two symbols). Unlike LTE control channels that occupy the entire system bandwidth, in NR, the PDCCH channel is localized to a specific region (i.e., CORESET) in the frequency domain. Thus, Figure 6 The frequency components of the PDCCH shown in B are illustrated as less than a single BWP in the frequency domain. Note that although the illustrated CORESETs are contiguous in the frequency domain, the CORESETs need not be contiguous. Additionally, a CORESET may span less than three symbols in the time domain.

[0121] The DCI within the PDCCH carries information about uplink resource allocations (persistent and non-persistent) and a description of downlink data transmitted to the UE (referred to as uplink grant and downlink grant, respectively). More specifically, the DCI indicates resources scheduled for downlink data channels (e.g., PDSCH) and uplink data channels (e.g., physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)). Multiple (e.g., up to 8) DCIs may be configured in the PDCCH, and these DCIs may have one of a variety of formats. For example, there are different DCI formats for uplink scheduling, for downlink scheduling, for uplink transmit power control (TPC), etc. The PDCCH may be transmitted by 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 CCEs to accommodate different DCI payload sizes or coding rates.

[0122] The following are the currently supported DCI formats. Format 0-0: Fallback for PUSCH scheduling; Format 0-1: Non-fallback for PUSCH scheduling; Format 1-0: Fallback for PDSCH scheduling; Format 1-1: Non-fallback for PDSCH scheduling; Format 2-0: Notify the UE group of the timeslot format; Format 2-1: Notify the UE group of the PRB(s) and OFDM symbol(s) in which the UE can assume that there are no transmissions for the UE; Format 2-2: Transmit TPC commands for PUCCH and PUSCH; and Format 2-3: Transmit SRS request groups and TPC commands for SRS transmissions. Note that the fallback format is the default scheduling option, which has non-configurable fields and supports basic NR operation. In contrast, the non-fallback format is flexible to accommodate NR features.

[0123] As will be appreciated, the UE needs to be able to demodulate (also referred to as "decode") the PDCCH in order to read the DCI and thereby obtain the scheduling of resources allocated to the UE on the PDSCH and PUSCH. If the UE fails to demodulate the PDCCH, the UE will not know the location of the PDSCH resources, and it will continue to try to demodulate the PDCCH using different PDCCH candidate sets in subsequent PDCCH monitoring opportunities. If the UE fails to demodulate the PDCCH after a certain number of attempts, the UE declares a radio link failure (RLF). In order to overcome the PDCCH demodulation problem, the search space is configured for efficient PDCCH detection and demodulation.

[0124] Typically, a UE will not attempt to demodulate every PDCCH candidate that may be scheduled in a timeslot. In order to reduce constraints on the PDCCH scheduler and to reduce the number of blind demodulation attempts made by the UE, a search space is configured. A search space is indicated by a set of contiguous CCEs that the UE is expected to monitor for scheduling assignments / grants related to a certain component carrier. There are two types of search spaces used for the PDCCH to control each component carrier: a common search space (CSS) and a UE-specific search space (USS).

[0125] The common search space is shared across all UEs, while the UE-specific search space is used per UE (i.e., the UE-specific search space is specific to a specific UE). For the common search space, the DCI cyclic redundancy check (CRC) is scrambled with the system information radio network temporary identifier (SI-RNTI), random access RNTI (RA-RNTI), temporary cell RNTI (TC-RNTI), paging RNTI (P-RNTI), interruption RNTI (INT-RNTI), slot format indication RNTI (SFI-RNTI), TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, TPC-PUSCH-RNTI, TPC-SRS-RNTI, cell RNTI (C-RNTI), or configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI) for all common procedures. For the UE-specific search space, the DCI CRC is scrambled with the C-RNTI or CS-RNTI, as these are specific to an individual UE.

[0126] The UE demodulates the PDCCH using four UE-specific search space aggregation levels (1, 2, 4, and 8) and two common search space aggregation levels (4 and 8). Specifically, for the UE-specific search space, aggregation level '1' has a size of six PDCCH candidates and six CCEs per time slot. Aggregation level '2' has a size of six PDCCH candidates and 12 CCEs per time slot. Aggregation level '4' has a size of two PDCCH candidates and 8 CCEs per time slot. Aggregation level '8' has a size of two PDCCH candidates and 16 CCEs per time slot. For the common search space, aggregation level '4' has a size of four PDCCH candidates and 16 CCEs per time slot. Aggregation level '8' has a size of two PDCCH candidates and 16 CCEs per time slot. Each search space includes a group of consecutive CCEs that can be allocated to a PDCCH (referred to as a PDCCH candidate). The UE demodulates all PDCCH candidates in these two search spaces (USS and CSS) to find the DCI for the UE. For example, the UE can demodulate the DCI to obtain the scheduled uplink grant information on the PUSCH and the downlink resources on the PDSCH. Note that the aggregation level is the number of REs of the CORESET that carry the PDCCH DCI message and is expressed in the form of CCEs. There is a one-to-one mapping between the aggregation level and the number of CCEs per aggregation level. That is, for an aggregation level of '4', there are four CCEs. Thus, as shown above, if the aggregation level is '4' and the number of PDCCH candidates in a time slot is '2', the size of the search space is '8' (i.e., 4x 2=8).

[0127] Figure 7 700 is a diagram illustrating an example uplink frame structure. Figure 7 In , 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. Figure 7 In the example, a parameter design of 15kHz is used.

[0128] like Figure 7 As illustrated in , some REs (labeled as "R") carry demodulation reference signals (DMRS) for channel estimation at a receiving side (e.g., a base station, another UE, etc.). The UE may additionally transmit the SRS, for example, in the last symbol of the time slot. The SRS may have a comb-tooth structure, and the UE may transmit the SRS on one of the comb teeth. Figure 7In the example of , the illustrated SRS is comb-2 on one symbol. SRS can be used by the base station to obtain channel state information (CSI) for each UE. CSI describes how the RF signal propagates from the UE to the base station and represents the combined effects of scattering, fading, and power attenuation with distance. The system uses SRS for resource scheduling, link adaptation, massive MIMO, beam management, etc.

[0129] Currently, an SRS resource with a comb size of Comb-2, Comb-4, or Comb-8 may span 1, 2, 4, 8, or 12 consecutive symbols within a slot. The following are the symbol-by-symbol frequency offsets for the currently supported SRS comb patterns. 1-symbol comb-2: {0}; 2-symbol comb-2: {0,1}; 4-symbol comb-2: {0,1,0,1}; 4-symbol comb-4: {0,2,1,3}; 8-symbol comb-4: {0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3}; 12-symbol comb-4: {0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3}; 4-symbol comb-8: {0,4,2,6}; 8-symbol comb-8: {0,4,2,6,1,5,3,7}; and 12-symbol comb-8: {0,4,2,6,1,5,3,7,0,4,2,6}.

[0130] The set of resource elements used for transmission of SRS is called "SRS resource" and can be identified by the parameter "SRS-ResourceId". The resource element set can span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and N (e.g., one or more) consecutive symbols within a time slot in the time domain. In a given OFDM symbol, SRS resources occupy consecutive PRBs. An "SRS resource set" is a set of SRS resources used for transmission of SRS signals and is identified by an SRS resource set ID ("SRS-ResourceSetId").

[0131] In general, the UE transmits the SRS so that the receiving base station (serving base station or neighboring base station) can measure the channel quality between the UE and the base station. However, the SRS may also be specifically configured as an uplink positioning reference signal for uplink-based positioning procedures, such as uplink arrival time difference (UL-TDOA), round-trip time (RTT), uplink arrival angle (UL-AoA), etc. As used herein, the term "SRS" may refer to an SRS configured for channel quality measurement or an SRS configured for positioning purposes. When it is necessary to distinguish between two types of SRS, the former may be referred to as "SRS-for-communication" and / or the latter may be referred to as "SRS-for-positioning" in this article.

[0132] Several enhancements to the previous definition of SRS have been proposed for "SRS-for-positioning" (also known as "UL-PRS"), such as a new staggered pattern within the SRS resources (other than a single symbol / tooth-2), a new comb type for SRS, a new sequence for SRS, a larger number of SRS resource sets per component carrier, and a larger number of SRS resources per component carrier. In addition, the parameters "SpatialRelationInfo" and "PathLossReference" are to be configured based on downlink reference signals or SSBs from neighboring TRPs. Still further, one SRS resource may be transmitted outside the active BWP, and one SRS resource may span multiple component carriers. In addition, the SRS may be configured in the RRC connected state and transmitted only within the active BWP. In addition, there may be no frequency hopping, repetition factor, single antenna port, and new lengths for SRS (e.g., 8 and 12 symbols). There may also be open loop power control and no closed loop power control, and comb-8 may be used (i.e., SRS transmitted every eighth subcarrier in the same symbol). Finally, the UE may transmit over the same transmit beam from multiple SRS resources for UL-AoA. All of these are features in addition to the current SRS framework, which is configured through RRC higher layer signaling (and potentially triggered or activated through MAC control element (MAC-CE) or DCI).

[0133] Figure 8 8 is a diagram illustrating various uplink channels within an example uplink time slot. Figure 8 In , 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. Figure 8 In the example of , a parameter design of 15 kHz is used. Therefore, in the time domain, the illustrated time slot length is 1 millisecond (ms), divided into 14 symbols.

[0134] The Random Access Channel (RACH), also known as the Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), may be within one or more time slots within a frame based on the PRACH configuration. The PRACH may include 6 consecutive RB pairs within a time slot. The PRACH allows the UE to perform initial system access and achieve uplink synchronization. The Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) may be located at the edge of the uplink system bandwidth. The PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI), such as scheduling requests, CSI reports, channel quality indicators (CQI), precoding matrix indicators (PMI), rank indicators (RI), and HARQ ACK / NACK feedback. The Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) carries data and may additionally be used to carry buffer status reports (BSRs), power headroom reports (PHRs), and / or UCI.

[0135] NR supports several cellular network-based positioning technologies, 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 signal (e.g., positioning reference signal (PRS)) received from the 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 the identifiers (IDs) of the reference base station (e.g., 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.

[0136] 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.

[0137] 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., sounding reference signals (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 location of the UE.

[0138] 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 determined based on the known positions of the base stations (e.g., using multilateration). RTT and multi-RTT methods can be combined with other positioning techniques (such as UL-AoA and DL-AoD) to improve position accuracy.

[0139] 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.

[0140] 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 cellular 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 an overhead message that is broadcast periodically, etc.). In some cases, the UE itself may be able to detect neighbor network nodes without using assistance data.

[0141] 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.

[0142] 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).

[0143] Because the UE's position is calculated relative to the known position of the TRP that transmits the PRS measured by the UE, the PRS (and other downlink signals used as PRS) need to be associated with a specific TRP. However, in a multi-TRP scenario, the UE may not know which of the multiple TRPs it is receiving a specific PRS from. In a multi-TRP scenario, two or more TRPs provide joint scheduling, transmission, and reception for the UE. From the UE's perspective, multi-TRP operation is confined to a given serving cell (or component carrier). As a result, different TRPs can share the same PCI, and therefore, the PCI is not distinguished between TRPs. Therefore, a method is needed for the UE to distinguish between TRPs in a multi-TRP scenario.

[0144] Two modes for multi-TRP operation have been defined: single DCI and multi-DCI. Multi-TRP operation based on single DCI is applicable to situations where there is an ideal backhaul between the involved TRPs. The ideal backhaul requires highly detailed feedback (e.g., CSI) and tight coordination between the involved TRPs. Single DCI can adopt different PDSCH schemes for robustness, such as spatial domain multiplexing (SDM), frequency division multiplexing (FDM) and / or time division multiplexing (TDM).

[0145] Multi-TRP operation based on multiple DCI is applicable to both ideal and non-ideal backhaul scenarios. In the case of non-ideal backhaul, joint scheduling between the TRPs involved may not be feasible due to delays in coordination of control signals and / or data packets between different TRPs. Alternatively or additionally, the backhaul capacity between TRPs may be limited, resulting in poor link adaptation (or performance loss). In multi-TRP operation based on multiple DCI, from the perspective of UE capabilities, the carrier aggregation framework can be used to treat different TRPs as different virtual component carriers.

[0146] Fig.9A A single DCI-based multi-TRP architecture 910 and a multi-DCI-based multi-TRP architecture 920 according to various aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated. Fig.9A As shown, the UE communicates with two TRPs labeled "TRP A" and "TRP B." In a single-DCI-based multi-TRP architecture 910, the UE receives PDCCH (which carries DCI) from only one TRP ("TRP A"), but receives PDSCH from two TRPs ("TRP A" and "TRP B"). In contrast, in a multi-DCI-based multi-TRP architecture 920, the UE receives PDCCH and PDSCH from two TRPs. More specifically, the DCI transmitted by the first TRP ("TRP A") in the first PDCCH (labeled "PDCCH 1") schedules the first PDSCH (labeled "PDSCH 1"), and the DCI transmitted by the second TRP ("TRP B") in the second PDCCH (labeled "PDCCH 2") schedules the second PDSCH (labeled "PDSCH 2").

[0147] Fig. 9B 950 in a multi-TRP scenario from the perspective of a UE according to various aspects of the present disclosure. Fig. 9BAs shown, multiple TRPs form a single serving cell (i.e., component carrier) for the UE. The UE perceives the multiple TRPs as having a single PDCP layer (e.g., PDCP layer 415), RLC layer (e.g., RLC layer 420), and MAC layer (e.g., MAC layer 425), but with separate physical layers (e.g., PHY layer 430). The separate physical layers may have separate QCL sources (labeled as "QCL 1" and "QCL 2"). The UE may treat different physical layers (i.e., physical transmissions from different TRPs) as different component carriers and combine them using carrier aggregation, as described above with reference to Figure 1 Described.

[0148] Specifically referring to the multi-TRP transmission based on multi-DCI, the TRP differentiation on the UE side is based on the parameter "CORESETPoolIndex". Each CORESET (currently there are up to five CORESETs) can be configured with a value of "CORESETPoolIndex". The value of "CORESETPoolIndex" can be '0' or '1', which groups the five possible CORESETs into two groups. This is in Fig.10 Specifically, Fig.10 1000 is a diagram of an example grouping of CORESETs based on a parameter “CORESETPoolIndex” in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Fig.10 As shown, CORESETs with identifiers '1' and '2' are grouped together by "CORESETPoolIndex" '0', and CORESETs with identifiers '3' and '4' are grouped together by "CORESETPoolIndex" '1'.

[0149] If the UE is configured by a higher layer parameter "PDCCH-Config" containing two different "CORESETPoolIndex" values ​​in the CORESET for the active BWP serving the cell, this means that the UE is configured for multi-TRP operation based on multi-DCI. Except for this "CORESETPoolIndex" distinction between TRPs, the fact that there are different TRPs is transparent to the UE. The "CORESETPoolIndex" of the CORESET in which the DCI is received can be used for different purposes, such as HARQ-ACK codebook construction and transmission, PDSCH scrambling, rate matching, etc.

[0150] In some cases, the UE may use the DMRS of the PDCCH and / or PDSCH to derive positioning measurements (e.g., ToA, RSTD, Rx-Tx time difference, etc.). In these cases, the UE needs an advance indication of which PDCCH and / or PDSCH will be used as PRS. The indication is needed in advance because PRS processing may include steps that are not required for conventional processing, such as time domain channel estimation or noise tap cleaning, determining the first arrival path, AoA or AoD estimation, etc.

[0151] There are various techniques for reducing the number of indications used to indicate to the UE whether to use PDCCH and / or PDSCH (particularly DMRS of PDSCCH and / or PDSCH) and which PDCCH and / or PDSCH (particularly DMRS of PDSCCH and / or PDSCH) to be used as PRS. For example, the serving base station may use RRC, MAC-CE and / or DCI signaling to activate or deactivate a mode in which all PDCCH and / or PDSCH are considered as PRS. As another example, the PDCCH and / or PDSCH considered as PRS may be limited to certain time slots.

[0152] There are also various techniques for increasing the number of indications used to indicate to the UE whether PDCCH and / or PDSCH (particularly DMRS of PDSCCH and / or PDSCH) is to be used as PRS and which PDCCH and / or PDSCH (particularly DMRS of PDSCCH and / or PDSCH) is to be used as PRS. For example, the DCI scheduling PDSCH may include a "used as PRS indication". For multi-layer PDSCH, the "used as PRS" indication may be per-positioned frequency layer, which may be beneficial in cases where different frequency layers have different spatial QCLs. In addition, the presence of the "used as PRS" indication may be RRC configurable and may be limited to non-fallback DCI.

[0153] Positioning measurements are currently reported via higher layer signaling, specifically LPP and / or RRC (e.g., RRC layer 445). LPP is used point-to-point between a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) and a UE to obtain a location measurement using data from one or more reference sources (e.g., TRP, GPS, The UE may be located using position-related measurements obtained by a UE-based positioning sensor, a motion sensor, etc. Such measurement reports (also referred to as positioning reports) may include one or more ToA, TDOA, RSRP, or Rx-Tx time difference measurements, one or more AoA / AoD measurements, one or more multipath reports (e.g., ToA, RSRP, AoA / AoD per path), one or more motion states (e.g., "walking", "driving", etc.) and trajectories of the UE, and / or one or more report quality indicators.

[0154] Performing the positioning method (from reference signal measurement to reporting the position estimate to the external client) involves a certain amount of time or waiting time. First, there is the time required to measure the positioning reference signal. In the case where the UE is measuring DL-PRS, this can be the span of DL-PRS instances. From the perspective of the UE's physical layer, this step can be considered to require "X" amount of time (e.g., "X" milliseconds). Secondly, time is required to process the reference signal to derive the desired positioning measurement and then transmit it on the PUSCH. From the perspective of the UE's physical layer, this step can be considered to require "Y" amount of time (e.g., "Y milliseconds"). Third, there is the time required to receive the measurement at the positioning entity, calculate the position estimate, and transmit the position estimate to the external client. From the perspective of the network, this step can be considered to require "Z" amount of time (e.g., "Z milliseconds"). The same waiting time period also applies to uplink positioning measurements (i.e., the base station measures the reference signal from the UE).

[0155] In some positioning scenarios, such as industrial IoT scenarios, it may be expected that "X" plus "Y" plus "Z" will be less than or equal to 100ms, or even 10ms. However, using LPP and RRC to report positioning measurements may not be sufficient to meet such stringent latency requirements. Thus, positioning measurements may be reported at Layer 1 (e.g., PHY layer 430) and / or Layer 2 (e.g., SDAP layer 410, PDCP layer 415, RLC layer 420, and MAC layer 425). Layer 1 (L1) signaling may include UCI, and Layer 2 (L2) signaling may include MAC-CE. Note that L1 / L2 reporting reduces latency between the UE and the serving base station; latency between the serving base station and the location server may be addressed by having the location server located in the RAN (e.g., as a component of the serving base station).

[0156] The positioning measurements of the NR positioning methods (e.g., TDOA, RTT, AoD, etc.) reported via L1 and / or L2 signaling are typically measurements of reference signals such as PRS, DMRS (e.g., of PDCCH and / or PDSCH), TRS, etc. However, the present disclosure provides techniques for UE to derive positioning measurements from a combination of DMRS and decoded PDSCH (rather than just the DMRS associated with the PDSCH). In addition, the present disclosure provides techniques for defining a waiting time for reporting positioning measurements of PDSCH.

[0157] Table 1 below shows the PDSCH processing time at the UE for PDSCH processing capability "1" with different values ​​(μ):

[0158]

[0159] Table 1

[0160] Table 2 below shows the PDSCH processing time at the UE for PDSCH processing capability "2" with different values ​​(μ):

[0161]

[0162]

[0163] Table 2

[0164] In one aspect, when the UE is configured to derive positioning measurements based on the DMRS of the PDSCH, the UE may also use the decoded PDSCH to derive the requested positioning measurements. That is, the UE may measure the combined DMRS and the decoded PDSCH. In this case, the measurement report waiting time (i.e., the time required to process the reference signal or physical channel to derive the requested positioning measurement and then transmit the positioning measurement on the PUSCH) may be different from the case where only DMRS is used. More specifically, the UE can process the DMRS very quickly because it usually has a comb-2 pattern on the first two symbols of the time slot (thus spanning half the bandwidth of the PRB), while the PDSCH usually has a comb-1 pattern on the remaining 12 symbols of the time slot (thus spanning the entire bandwidth of the PRB). However, the PDSCH needs to be successfully decoded in order to be measured for positioning purposes. However, the benefit of using the decoded PDSCH in combination with the DMRS is that the UE can use all 14 symbols of the time slot and the entire bandwidth of the PRB as reference signals for positioning measurements, resulting in more accurate positioning measurements than using DMRS alone.

[0165] When a decoded PDSCH is used to derive a requested positioning measurement, there are different ways to define a measurement report wait time for measurements derived using the decoded PDSCH. That is, there are different ways to define the amount of time from when the UE receives and / or decodes the PDSCH to when the UE is expected to report the measurement. As a first option, the measurement report wait time can be defined as "K" symbols or time slots after the UE transmits an ACK for the PDSCH. That is, after the UE transmits an ACK for the PDSCH, the UE is expected to transmit measurements of the decoded PDSCH less than or equal to "K" symbols or time slots. The ACK indicates that the UE successfully decoded the PDSCH.

[0166] As a second option, the measurement report waiting time may be defined as "N" plus "K" symbols or slots after the UE has received the PDSCH. That is, after the UE receives the PDSCH, the UE is expected to transmit measurements of the decoded PDSCH less than or equal to "N" plus "K" symbols or slots. In one aspect, "N" may be the reported "PDSCH preparation time", i.e., the time the UE reports that it will take to correctly decode the PDSCH.

[0167] As a third option, the measurement report waiting time may be defined as "K" symbols or slots after the last retransmission of PDSCH. That is, after receiving the last retransmission of PDSCH, the UE is expected to transmit measurements of decoded PDSCH less than or equal to "K" symbols or slots.

[0168] As a fourth option, the measurement report waiting time may be defined as "K" symbols or slots after the UE receives the PDCCH scheduling the PDSCH. That is, after receiving the PDCCH scheduling the PDSCH, the UE is expected to transmit measurements of the decoded PDSCH less than or equal to "K" symbols or slots.

[0169] As a fifth option, the measurement report waiting time may be defined as a combination of the first four options. As a sixth option, the measurement report waiting time may be defined based on reported UE capabilities. The value of "K" may be specified in the applicable standard, configured by the network (e.g., location server or serving base station), or specified by the UE as a capability.

[0170] In one aspect, the UE may report the requested positioning measurement twice, the first time using the DMRS of the PDSCH and the second time using the decoded PDSCH. The first positioning measurement may be a coarse measurement that can be reported quickly (due to faster processing of the DMRS compared to the PDSCH), while the second measurement may be a finer (more accurate) measurement based on the longer duration and larger bandwidth of the PDSCH. The second measurement may be included in a second measurement report transmitted a certain number of symbols or time slots after the first measurement was transmitted in the first measurement report. As an example, the second measurement report may be transmitted two time slots after the first measurement report. In one aspect, the second measurement may be reported relative to the first measurement (i.e., as a difference from the first measurement). This provides the benefit of reducing the number of bits required to report a more accurate measurement.

[0171] The PDSCH consists of code blocks, which the UE checks using a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to determine whether they are decoded correctly. Because the PDSCH consists of code blocks, in one aspect, the UE can start measuring the PDCH after decoding one or more code blocks of the PDSCH but before successfully decoding and acknowledging the entire PDSCH.

[0172] The above positioning measurement reports may only be applicable when the location server is located inside the RAN (e.g., as a component of a serving base station) and not in the core network. In addition, when a precoded resource block group (PRG) (a set of resource blocks on which the UE can assume that a common precoding is used) is used for narrowband, positioning measurements using both DMRS and the associated PDSCH may not be applicable. That is, positioning measurements using both DMRS and decoded PDSCH may only be applicable to wideband frequencies.

[0173] Positioning measurement reporting using decoded PDSCH may only be applicable to different types of PDSCH. For example, the PDSCH may need to be a semi-persistent (SPS) PDSCH, a PDSCH with continuous allocations in the frequency domain, a PDSCH with allocations greater than a threshold, and / or a PDSCH with virtual resource block to physical resource block (VRB-PRB) mapping disabled.

[0174] In one aspect, the accuracy requirements for positioning measurements derived from both DMRS and associated PDSCH can be the same as the accuracy requirements for positioning measurements derived from DMRS alone, provided that the expected measurement latency is met. That is, the accuracy requirements can be independent of whether the UE measures only DMRS or measures DMRS and the associated decoded PSCH, and the UE can choose which to measure as long as it can meet the latency requirements for positioning measurements.

[0175] Alternatively, there may be different accuracy requirements for processing only DMRS and processing both DMRS and decoded PDSCH. That is, if the UE is configured to measure only DMRS, there may be one accuracy requirement, and if the UE is configured to measure both DMRS and decoded PDSCH, there may be different accuracy requirements.

[0176] In one aspect, accuracy requirements may be provided / configured under the assumption that there is no PDSCH rate matching that may result in a frequency gap greater than a threshold. More specifically, the UE will be expected to meet certain accuracy requirements for measurements derived using PDSCH under certain conditions (otherwise, if these conditions are not met, the UE's measurements do not have to meet these requirements). One of these conditions may be that the PDSCH does not match the rate (in other words, all assigned PRBs contain PDSCH data and there are no assigned regions where PDSCH is not mapped). This condition may be required if the frequency gap is greater than a threshold. For example, if the UE is assigned 100 PRBs and the middle 90 PRBs are rate matched, then only 10 PRBs are available for the UE to derive positioning measurements.

[0177] In one aspect, the accuracy requirement may be set by a positioning entity (e.g., a location server or serving base station), an external client to which the location estimate is to be reported, UE capabilities, or an applicable standard. Similarly, the latency requirement may be set by a positioning entity, an external client, UE capabilities, or an applicable standard.

[0178] Fig.11 An example method 1100 of wireless positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. In an aspect, the method 1100 may be performed by a UE (eg, any of the UEs described herein).

[0179] At 1110, the UE receives a DMRS and a PDSCH associated with the DMRS, the DMRS and the PDSCH spanning multiple symbols of a time slot. For example, the DMRS may occupy the (first) two symbols of a time slot, and the PDSCH may occupy the remaining symbols of the time slot. In one aspect, operation 1110 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 310, one or more processors 332, memory 340, and / or positioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation.

[0180] At 1120, the UE decodes the PDSCH. In an aspect, operation 1120 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 310, one or more processors 332, memory 340, and / or positioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered a means for performing the operation.

[0181] At 1130, the UE performs positioning measurements based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH. In one aspect, operation 1130 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 310, one or more processors 332, memory 340, and / or positioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered as means for performing the operation.

[0182] At 1140, the UE reports the positioning measurement or at least the location information derived based on the positioning measurement to a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272). The location information may be a position estimate of the UE (e.g., where the UE is a positioning entity) and / or a distance between the UE and the TRP at which the DMRS and PDSCH are received (e.g., as in a multi-RTT or AoA / AoD positioning session). In an aspect, operation 1140 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 310, one or more processors 332, memory 340, and / or positioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation.

[0183] As will be appreciated, a technical advantage of method 1100 is reduced position determination latency.

[0184] In the above detailed description, it can be seen that different features are grouped together in each example. 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 with a specific combination of 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.

[0185] Various implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses.

[0186] Clause 1. A wireless communication method performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) associated with the DMRS, the DMRS and the PDSCH spanning multiple code elements of a time slot; decoding the PDSCH; performing a positioning measurement of a combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH; and reporting the positioning measurement of the combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH or at least location information derived based on the positioning measurement of the combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH to a location server.

[0187] Clause 2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the UE performs the positioning measurement of a combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH based on a configuration to perform positioning measurements of at least the DMRS.

[0188] Clause 3. The method of clause 2, wherein: the UE receives the configuration from the location server, the UE receives the configuration from a serving base station, or the configuration is specified in a wireless communication standard.

[0189] Clause 4. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 3, wherein the positioning measurement or at least the measurement report waiting time of the location information derived based on the positioning measurement is defined as: the amount of time after the UE transmits an acknowledgment of the decoded PDSCH; the amount of time after the UE receives the PDSCH, the amount of time after the UE receives the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) scheduling the PDSCH, the amount of time after the last retransmission of the PDSCH, or any combination thereof.

[0190] Clause 5. A method as described in Clause 4, wherein: the amount of time after the UE transmits the acknowledgment for the decoded PDSCH includes "K" code elements or time slots, the amount of time after the UE receives the PDSCH includes "K" plus "N" code elements or time slots after the UE receives the PDSCH, where "N" is the reported PDSCH preparation time, the amount of time after the UE receives the PDCCH scheduling the PDSCH includes "K" code elements or time slots, and the amount of time after the last retransmission of the PDSCH includes "K" code elements or time slots after the last retransmission of the PDSCH.

[0191] Clause 6. The method of clause 5, wherein "K" is received from a location server based on UE capabilities, received from a serving base station, or specified in a wireless communication standard.

[0192] Clause 7. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 6, wherein a measurement report waiting time of the positioning measurement or at least the location information derived based on the positioning measurement is defined based on UE capabilities.

[0193] Clause 8. The method as described in any one of Clauses 1 to 7 further includes: before performing a positioning measurement based on the combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH, performing a positioning measurement based at least on the DMRS; and before reporting the positioning measurement of the combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH or the position information derived from the positioning measurement of the combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH, reporting the positioning measurement based at least on the DMRS or at least the position information derived from the positioning measurement based at least on the DMRS.

[0194] Clause 9. The method of clause 8, wherein the UE reports at least the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the positioning measurement on a combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH via low layer signaling.

[0195] Clause 10. The method of clause 9, wherein the low layer signaling comprises physical layer signaling or medium access control (MAC) signaling.

[0196] Clause 11. The method of clause 10, wherein: the physical layer signaling comprises uplink control information (UCI) and the MAC signaling comprises a MAC control element (MAC-CE).

[0197] Clause 12. The method of any of clauses 8 to 11, wherein the positioning measurement for the combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is reported as a relative value compared to the positioning measurement for the DMRS.

[0198] Clause 13. The method of any of clauses 8 to 12, wherein the positioning measurement of the combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is more accurate than the positioning measurement of the DMRS.

[0199] Clause 14. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 13, wherein the location server is a component of a serving base station.

[0200] Clause 15. The method of any of clauses 1 to 14, wherein the DMRS and the PDSCH are scheduled with a wideband precoding resource block group (PRG).

[0201] Clause 16. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 15, wherein the PDSCH includes: a semi-persistent PDSCH, a PDSCH with continuous allocations in the frequency domain, a PDSCH with allocations in the frequency domain greater than a threshold, or a PDSCH with virtual resource block to physical resource block (VRB-PRB) mapping disabled.

[0202] Clause 17. The method of any of clauses 1 to 16, wherein the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement of the combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is the same as the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement of the DMRS.

[0203] Clause 18. The method of any of clauses 1 to 16, wherein an accuracy requirement for the positioning measurement of the combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is different than an accuracy requirement for the positioning measurement of the DMRS.

[0204] Clause 19. A method as described in any one of clauses 1 to 18, wherein: the PDSCH includes multiple code blocks, the decoding includes decoding a subset of the multiple code blocks before decoding the remaining code blocks of the multiple code blocks, the execution includes performing the positioning measurement of the subset of the multiple code blocks before performing the positioning measurement of the remaining code blocks of the multiple code blocks, and the reporting includes reporting the positioning measurement of the subset of the multiple code blocks before reporting the positioning measurement of the remaining code blocks of the multiple code blocks.

[0205] Clause 20. The method of clause 19, further comprising: decoding the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, performing the positioning measurements on the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, and reporting the positioning measurements on the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks.

[0206] Clause 21. The method of Clause 20, wherein the positioning measurements for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are reported as relative values ​​compared to the positioning measurements for the subset of the plurality of code blocks.

[0207] Clause 22. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 21, wherein the positioning measurement of the combination of the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH includes an arrival time (ToA) measurement, a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, or a received to transmit (Rx-Tx) measurement, or a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement or a multipath report measurement.

[0208] Clause 23. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 22, wherein the location information includes a position estimate of the UE, a distance between the UE and a transmit reception point (TRP) from which the DMRS and PDSCH are received, or any combination thereof.

[0209] Clause 24. An apparatus comprising: a memory, at least one transceiver, and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the memory, the at least one transceiver, and the at least one processor configured to perform the method of any one of clauses 1 to 23.

[0210] Clause 25. An apparatus comprising: a device for performing the method according to any one of clauses 1 to 23.

[0211] Clause 26. 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 23.

[0212] Additional implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses.

[0213] Clause 1. A wireless communication method performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) associated with the DMRS, the DMRS and the PDSCH spanning multiple code elements of a time slot; decoding the PDSCH; performing positioning measurements based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH; and reporting the positioning measurements or at least location information derived based on the positioning measurements to a location server.

[0214] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein the positioning measurements are performed based on a configuration to perform positioning measurements of at least the DMRS.

[0215] Clause 3. The method of clause 2, wherein: the configuration is received from the location server, the configuration is received from a serving base station, or the configuration is specified in a wireless communication standard.

[0216] Clause 4. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 3, wherein the positioning measurement or at least the measurement report waiting time of the location information derived based on the positioning measurement is defined as: the amount of time after the acknowledgement for the decoded PDSCH is transmitted; the amount of time after the PDSCH is received, the amount of time after the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) scheduling the PDSCH is received, the amount of time after the last retransmission of the PDSCH, or any combination thereof.

[0217] Clause 5. A method as described in Clause 4, wherein: the amount of time after the confirmation for the decoded PDSCH is transmitted includes K code elements or time slots, the amount of time after the PDSCH is received includes K plus N code elements or time slots after the PDSCH is received, where N is the reported PDSCH preparation time, the amount of time after the PDCCH scheduling the PDSCH is received includes K code elements or time slots, and the amount of time after the last retransmission of the PDSCH includes K code elements or time slots after the last retransmission of the PDSCH.

[0218] Clause 6. The method of clause 5, wherein K is received from a location server based on UE capabilities, received from a serving base station, or specified in a wireless communication standard.

[0219] Clause 7. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 6, wherein a measurement report waiting time of the positioning measurement or at least the location information derived based on the positioning measurement is defined based on UE capabilities.

[0220] Clause 8. The method as described in any one of Clauses 1 to 7 further includes: before performing a positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH, performing a positioning measurement based at least on the DMRS; and before reporting the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH or at least the position information derived from the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH, reporting the positioning measurement based at least on the DMRS or at least the position information derived from the positioning measurement based at least on the DMRS.

[0221] Clause 9. The method of clause 8, wherein at least the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH are reported via low layer signaling.

[0222] Clause 10. The method of clause 9, wherein the low layer signaling comprises physical layer signaling or medium access control (MAC) signaling.

[0223] Clause 11. The method of clause 10, wherein: the physical layer signaling comprises uplink control information (UCI) and the MAC signaling comprises a MAC control element (MAC-CE).

[0224] Clause 12. The method of any of clauses 8 to 11, wherein the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is reported as a relative value compared to the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS.

[0225] Clause 13. The method of any of clauses 8 to 12, wherein the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is more accurate than the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS.

[0226] Clause 14. The method of any of clauses 1 to 13, wherein the DMRS and the PDSCH are scheduled with a wideband precoding resource block group (PRG).

[0227] Clause 15. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 14, wherein the PDSCH includes: a semi-persistent or configured granted PDSCH, a PDSCH with continuous allocations in the frequency domain, a PDSCH with allocations in the frequency domain greater than a threshold, or a PDSCH with disabled virtual resource block to physical resource block (VRB-PRB) mapping.

[0228] Clause 16. The method of any of clauses 1 to 15, wherein the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement is the same as the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement of the DMRS.

[0229] Clause 17. The method of any of clauses 1 to 15, wherein the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurements is different from the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurements of the DMRS.

[0230] Clause 18. A method as described in any one of clauses 1 to 17, wherein: the PDSCH includes multiple code blocks, decoding the PDSCH includes decoding a subset of the multiple code blocks before decoding the remaining code blocks of the multiple code blocks, performing the positioning measurement includes: performing the positioning measurement of the subset of the multiple code blocks before performing the positioning measurement of the remaining code blocks of the multiple code blocks, and reporting the positioning measurement includes: reporting the positioning measurement of the subset of the multiple code blocks before reporting the positioning measurement of the remaining code blocks of the multiple code blocks.

[0231] Clause 19. The method of clause 18, further comprising: decoding the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, performing the positioning measurements on the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, and reporting the positioning measurements on the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks.

[0232] Clause 20. The method of Clause 19, wherein the positioning measurements for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are reported as relative values ​​compared to the positioning measurements for the subset of the plurality of code blocks.

[0233] Clause 21. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 20, wherein the positioning measurement includes a time of arrival (ToA) measurement, a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, or a received to transmit (Rx-Tx) measurement, or a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement or a multipath report measurement.

[0234] Clause 22. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 21, wherein the location information includes a position estimate of the UE, a distance between the UE and a transmit reception point (TRP) from which the DMRS and PDSCH are received, or any combination thereof.

[0235] Clause 23. An apparatus comprising: 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 configured to perform the method of any of clauses 1 to 22.

[0236] Clause 24. An apparatus comprising means for performing the method of any one of clauses 1 to 22.

[0237] Clause 25. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising at least one instruction for causing a device to perform the method of any one of clauses 1 to 22.

[0238] 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.

[0239] 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.

[0240] 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.

[0241] 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.

[0242] 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.

[0243] 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: receiving a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) associated with the DMRS, the DMRS and the PDSCH spanning a plurality of symbols of a time slot; Decoding the PDSCH; performing positioning measurements based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH; reporting the positioning measurements or at least position information derived based on the positioning measurements to a location server; Before performing the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH, performing a positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS; as well as before reporting the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH or the position information derived based on at least the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH, reporting the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS or the position information derived based on at least the positioning measurement based on the DMRS, Wherein the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is reported as a relative value compared to the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the positioning measurement is performed based on a configuration of performing positioning measurement of at least the DMRS.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein: The configuration is received from the location server, The configuration is received from a serving base station, or The configuration is specified in the wireless communication standards.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the positioning measurement or at least the measurement report waiting time of the position information derived based on the positioning measurement is defined as: The amount of time after an acknowledgement for the decoded PDSCH is transmitted; the amount of time after the PDSCH is received, the amount of time after a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) scheduling the PDSCH is received, the amount of time after the last retransmission of the PDSCH, or Any combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein: The amount of time after the acknowledgment for the decoded PDSCH is transmitted comprises K symbols or slots, The amount of time after the PDSCH is received comprises K plus N symbols or slots after the PDSCH is received, where N is the reported PDSCH preparation time, The amount of time after the PDCCH scheduling the PDSCH is received comprises K symbols or slots, and The amount of time after the last retransmission of the PDSCH includes K symbols or slots after the last retransmission of the PDSCH.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein K is received from a location server based on UE capabilities, received from a serving base station, or specified in a wireless communication standard.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a measurement report waiting time of the positioning measurement or at least the location information derived based on the positioning measurement is defined based on UE capabilities.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH are reported via low layer signaling.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the low layer signaling comprises physical layer signaling or medium access control (MAC) signaling.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein: The physical layer signaling includes uplink control information (UCI), and The MAC signaling includes a MAC control element (MAC-CE).

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is more accurate than the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the DMRS and the PDSCH are scheduled with a wideband precoding resource block group (PRG).

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the PDSCH comprises: Semi-persistent or configured grant PDSCH, With continuous allocation of PDSCH in the frequency domain, a PDSCH having an allocation greater than a threshold in the frequency domain, or Virtual resource block to physical resource block (VRB-PRB) mapping of PDSCH is disabled.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement is the same as the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement of the DMRS.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein an accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement is different from an accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement of the DMRS.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein: The PDSCH includes a plurality of code blocks. Decoding the PDSCH includes decoding a subset of the plurality of code blocks before decoding remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, Performing the positioning measurement includes performing the positioning measurement on the subset of the plurality of code blocks before performing the positioning measurement on the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, and Reporting the positioning measurement includes reporting the positioning measurement for the subset of the plurality of code blocks before reporting the positioning measurement for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising: decoding the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, performing the positioning measurements on the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, and The positioning measurements for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are reported.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the positioning measurements for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are reported as relative values ​​compared to the positioning measurements for the subset of the plurality of code blocks.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the positioning measurement comprises a time of arrival (ToA) measurement, a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, or a received to transmit (Rx-Tx) measurement, or a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, or a multipath report measurement.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information comprises a location estimate of the UE, a distance between the UE and a transmit reception point (TRP) from which the DMRS and PDSCH are received, or any combination thereof.

21. 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: receiving, via the at least one transceiver, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) associated with the DMRS, the DMRS and the PDSCH spanning a plurality of symbols of a time slot; Decoding the PDSCH; performing positioning measurements based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH; reporting the positioning measurements or at least position information derived based on the positioning measurements to a location server; Before performing the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH, performing a positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS; as well as before reporting the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH or the position information derived based on at least the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH, reporting the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS or the position information derived based on at least the positioning measurement based on the DMRS, Wherein the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is reported as a relative value compared to the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS.

22. The UE of claim 21, wherein the positioning measurement is performed based on a configuration of performing positioning measurement of at least the DMRS.

23. The UE of claim 22, wherein: The configuration is received from the location server, The configuration is received from a serving base station, or The configuration is specified in the wireless communication standards.

24. The UE of claim 21, wherein a measurement report waiting time of the positioning measurement or at least the location information derived based on the positioning measurement is defined as: The amount of time after an acknowledgement for the decoded PDSCH is transmitted; the amount of time after the PDSCH is received, the amount of time after a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) scheduling the PDSCH is received, the amount of time after the last retransmission of the PDSCH, or Any combination thereof.

25. The UE of claim 24, wherein: The amount of time after the acknowledgment for the decoded PDSCH is transmitted comprises K symbols or slots, The amount of time after the PDSCH is received comprises K plus N symbols or slots after the PDSCH is received, where N is the reported PDSCH preparation time, The amount of time after the PDCCH scheduling the PDSCH is received comprises K symbols or slots, and The amount of time after the last retransmission of the PDSCH includes K symbols or slots after the last retransmission of the PDSCH.

26. The UE of claim 25, wherein K is received from a location server based on UE capabilities, received from a serving base station, or specified in a wireless communication standard.

27. The UE of claim 21, wherein a measurement report waiting time of the positioning measurement or at least the location information derived based on the positioning measurement is defined based on UE capabilities.

28. The UE of claim 21, wherein at least the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH are reported via low layer signaling.

29. The UE of claim 28, wherein the low layer signaling comprises physical layer signaling or medium access control (MAC) signaling.

30. The UE of claim 29, wherein: The physical layer signaling includes uplink control information (UCI), and The MAC signaling includes a MAC control element (MAC-CE).

31. The UE of claim 21, wherein the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is more accurate than the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS.

32. The UE of claim 21, wherein the DMRS and the PDSCH are scheduled with a wideband precoding resource block group (PRG).

33. The UE according to claim 21, wherein the PDSCH comprises: Semi-persistent or configured grant PDSCH, With continuous allocation of PDSCH in the frequency domain, a PDSCH having an allocation greater than a threshold in the frequency domain, or Virtual resource block to physical resource block (VRB-PRB) mapping of PDSCH is disabled.

34. The UE of claim 21, wherein the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement is the same as the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement of the DMRS.

35. The UE of claim 21, wherein an accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement is different from an accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement of the DMRS.

36. The UE of claim 21, wherein: The PDSCH includes a plurality of code blocks. The at least one processor being configured to decode comprises the at least one processor being configured to decode a subset of the plurality of code blocks before decoding remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, The at least one processor is configured to perform including the at least one processor being configured to perform the positioning measurement on the subset of the plurality of code blocks before performing the positioning measurement on the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, and The at least one processor being configured to report includes the at least one processor being configured to report the positioning measurement for the subset of the plurality of code blocks before reporting the positioning measurement for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks.

37. The UE of claim 36, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: decoding the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, performing the positioning measurements on the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, and The positioning measurements for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are reported.

38. The UE of claim 37, wherein the positioning measurements for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are reported as relative values ​​compared to the positioning measurements for the subset of the plurality of code blocks.

39. The UE of claim 21, wherein the positioning measurement comprises a time of arrival (ToA) measurement, a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, or a received to transmit (Rx-Tx) measurement, or a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, or a multipath report measurement.

40. The UE of claim 21, wherein the location information comprises a location estimate of the UE, a distance between the UE and a transmit reception point (TRP) from which the DMRS and PDSCH are received, or any combination thereof.

41. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for receiving a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) associated with the DMRS, the DMRS and the PDSCH spanning a plurality of symbols of a time slot; means for decoding the PDSCH; means for performing positioning measurements based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH; means for reporting said positioning measurements, or at least position information derived based on said positioning measurements, to a location server; means for performing positioning measurements based at least on the DMRS before performing positioning measurements based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH; as well as means for reporting said positioning measurement based at least on said DMRS or at least said position information derived based on said positioning measurement based at least on said DMRS before reporting said positioning measurement based on said DMRS and decoded PDSCH or at least said position information derived based on said positioning measurement based on said DMRS and decoded PDSCH, Wherein the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is reported as a relative value compared to the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS.

42. The UE of claim 41, wherein the positioning measurement is performed based on a configuration of performing positioning measurement of at least the DMRS.

43. The UE of claim 42, wherein: The configuration is received from the location server, The configuration is received from a serving base station, or The configuration is specified in the wireless communication standards.

44. The UE of claim 41, wherein a measurement report waiting time of the positioning measurement or at least the location information derived based on the positioning measurement is defined as: The amount of time after an acknowledgement for the decoded PDSCH is transmitted; the amount of time after the PDSCH is received, the amount of time after a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) scheduling the PDSCH is received, the amount of time after the last retransmission of the PDSCH, or Any combination thereof.

45. The UE of claim 44, wherein: The amount of time after the acknowledgment for the decoded PDSCH is transmitted comprises K symbols or slots, The amount of time after the PDSCH is received comprises K plus N symbols or slots after the PDSCH is received, where N is the reported PDSCH preparation time, The amount of time after the PDCCH scheduling the PDSCH is received comprises K symbols or slots, and The amount of time after the last retransmission of the PDSCH includes K symbols or slots after the last retransmission of the PDSCH.

46. ​​The UE of claim 45, wherein K is received from a location server based on UE capabilities, received from a serving base station, or specified in a wireless communication standard.

47. The UE of claim 41, wherein a measurement report waiting time of the positioning measurement or at least the location information derived based on the positioning measurement is defined based on UE capabilities.

48. The UE of claim 41, wherein at least the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH are reported via low layer signaling.

49. The UE of claim 48, wherein the low layer signaling comprises physical layer signaling or medium access control (MAC) signaling.

50. The UE of claim 49, wherein: The physical layer signaling includes uplink control information (UCI), and The MAC signaling includes a MAC control element (MAC-CE).

51. The UE of claim 41, wherein the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is more accurate than the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS.

52. The UE of claim 41, wherein the DMRS and the PDSCH are scheduled with a wideband precoding resource block group (PRG).

53. The UE of claim 41, wherein the PDSCH comprises: Semi-persistent or configured grant PDSCH, With continuous allocation of PDSCH in the frequency domain, a PDSCH having an allocation greater than a threshold in the frequency domain, or Virtual resource block to physical resource block (VRB-PRB) mapping of PDSCH is disabled.

54. The UE of claim 41, wherein the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement is the same as the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement of the DMRS.

55. The UE of claim 41, wherein an accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement is different from an accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement of the DMRS.

56. The UE of claim 41, wherein: The PDSCH includes a plurality of code blocks. The means for decoding comprises means for decoding a subset of the plurality of code blocks before decoding remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, The means for performing comprises means for performing the positioning measurement on the subset of the plurality of code blocks before performing the positioning measurement on the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, and The means for reporting includes means for reporting the positioning measurements for the subset of the plurality of code blocks before reporting the positioning measurements for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks.

57. The UE of claim 56, further comprising: means for decoding said remaining code blocks of said plurality of code blocks, means for performing said positioning measurements on said remaining code blocks of said plurality of code blocks, and Means for reporting the positioning measurements for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks.

58. The UE of claim 57, wherein the positioning measurements for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are reported as relative values ​​compared to the positioning measurements for the subset of the plurality of code blocks.

59. The UE of claim 41, wherein the positioning measurement comprises a time of arrival (ToA) measurement, a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, or a received to transmit (Rx-Tx) measurement, or a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, or a multipath report measurement.

60. The UE of claim 41, wherein the location information comprises a location estimate of the UE, a distance between the UE and a transmit reception point (TRP) from which the DMRS and PDSCH are received, or any combination thereof.

61. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: receiving a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) associated with the DMRS, the DMRS and the PDSCH spanning a plurality of symbols of a time slot; Decoding the PDSCH; performing positioning measurements based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH; reporting the positioning measurements or at least position information derived based on the positioning measurements to a location server; Before performing the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH, performing a positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS; as well as before reporting the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH or the position information derived based on at least the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH, reporting the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS or the position information derived based on at least the positioning measurement based on the DMRS, Wherein the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is reported as a relative value compared to the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS.

62. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 61, wherein the positioning measurement is performed based on a configuration that performs positioning measurements of at least the DMRS.

63. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 62, wherein: The configuration is received from the location server, The configuration is received from a serving base station, or The configuration is specified in the wireless communication standards.

64. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 61, wherein a measurement report waiting time for the positioning measurement or at least position information derived based on the positioning measurement is defined as: The amount of time after an acknowledgement for the decoded PDSCH is transmitted; the amount of time after the PDSCH is received, the amount of time after a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) scheduling the PDSCH is received, the amount of time after the last retransmission of the PDSCH, or Any combination thereof.

65. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 64, wherein: The amount of time after the acknowledgment for the decoded PDSCH is transmitted comprises K symbols or slots, The amount of time after the PDSCH is received comprises K plus N symbols or slots after the PDSCH is received, where N is the reported PDSCH preparation time, The amount of time after the PDCCH scheduling the PDSCH is received comprises K symbols or slots, and The amount of time after the last retransmission of the PDSCH includes K symbols or slots after the last retransmission of the PDSCH.

66. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 65, wherein K is received from a location server based on UE capabilities, received from a serving base station, or specified in a wireless communication standard.

67. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 61, wherein a measurement report waiting time of the positioning measurement or at least the location information derived based on the positioning measurement is defined based on UE capabilities.

68. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 61, wherein at least the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH are reported via low layer signaling.

69. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 68, wherein the low layer signaling comprises physical layer signaling or media access control (MAC) signaling.

70. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 69, wherein: The physical layer signaling includes uplink control information (UCI), and The MAC signaling includes a MAC control element (MAC-CE).

71. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 61, wherein the positioning measurement based on the DMRS and the decoded PDSCH is more accurate than the positioning measurement based on at least the DMRS.

72. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 61, wherein the DMRS and the PDSCH are scheduled with a wideband precoding resource block group (PRG).

73. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 61, wherein the PDSCH comprises: Semi-persistent or configured grant PDSCH, With continuous allocation of PDSCH in the frequency domain, a PDSCH having an allocation greater than a threshold in the frequency domain, or Virtual resource block to physical resource block (VRB-PRB) mapping of PDSCH is disabled.

74. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 61, wherein the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement is the same as the accuracy requirement of the positioning measurement of the DMRS.

75. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 61, wherein an accuracy requirement for the positioning measurement is different than an accuracy requirement for the positioning measurement of the DMRS.

76. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 61, wherein: The PDSCH includes a plurality of code blocks. The one or more instructions for causing the UE to decode include one or more instructions for causing the UE to decode a subset of the plurality of code blocks before decoding remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, The one or more instructions for causing the UE to execute include one or more instructions for causing the UE to perform the positioning measurement on the subset of the plurality of code blocks before performing the positioning measurement on the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, and The one or more instructions causing the UE to report include one or more instructions causing the UE to report the positioning measurements for the subset of the plurality of code blocks before reporting the positioning measurements for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks.

77. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 76, wherein the one or more instructions further cause the UE to: decoding the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, performing the positioning measurements on the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks, and The positioning measurements for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are reported.

78. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 77, wherein the positioning measurements for the remaining code blocks of the plurality of code blocks are reported as relative values ​​compared to the positioning measurements for the subset of the plurality of code blocks.

79. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 61, wherein the positioning measurement comprises a time of arrival (ToA) measurement, a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, or a received to transmit (Rx-Tx) measurement, or a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, or a multipath report measurement.

80. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 61, wherein the location information comprises a location estimate of the UE, a distance between the UE and a transmit receive point (TRP) from which the DMRS and PDSCH are received, or any combination thereof.

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