Base station to server signaling of time-angle channel profiles

Abstract

Techniques for wireless positioning are disclosed. In one aspect, a base station determines a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE) based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams, compresses the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile, and transmits the compressed representation of the channel profile to a network entity. The network entity receives the compressed representation of the time-angle channel profile and determines a location of the UE based on the compressed representation of the channel profile.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This Patent Application claims priority to Greek Patent Application No. 20200100617, filed October 12, 2020, entitled “BASE STATION-TO-SERVER SIGNALING OF TIME-ANGLE CHANNEL PROFILE,” assigned to the assignee hereof, and which is expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. BACKGROUND

[0004] Wireless communication systems have developed through several generations, including first-generation analog wireless telephones, second-generation (2G) digital wireless telephones, and third-generation (3G) high speed data, Internet-capable wireless telephones, and fourth-generation (4G) long-term evolution (LTE) wireless systems. More recently, wireless communication systems have evolved to incorporate features of ubiquitous networking, Internet of Things (IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, and Internet of Everything (IoE) technologies. For example, the fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) wireless communications systems are designed to support a number of diverse use cases, including services that require very high data transfer speeds, deep integration of wireless communication systems into users’ lives, and ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) services.

[0005] The fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, referred to as New Radio (NR), is expected to enable higher data transfer speeds, more numerous connections, and better coverage than previous wireless communications standards. According to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, 5G is designed to provide data transfer rates of hundreds of megabits per second to every corner of the globe, to scale efficiently to support a potentially massive number of connected devices, to lower costs for operators, and to enable new services and applications that require high reliability and low latency. 5G NR is designed to work with existing 4G LTE networks to provide seamless voice and data SUMMARY

[0006] The following presents a simplified summary relating to one or more aspects disclosed herein. Thus, the following summary should not be considered an exhaustive

[0007] In one aspect, a method of wireless positioning performed by a base station includes determining a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE) based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; compressing the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile; and transmitting the compressed representation of the channel profile to a network entity to enable the network entity to determine a location of the UE.

[0008] In one aspect, a method of wireless positioning performed by a network entity includes receiving, from a base station, a compressed representation of a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE), the channel profile based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; and determining a location of the UE based on the compressed representation of the channel profile.

[0009] In one aspect, a base station 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 configured to determine a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE) based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; compress the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile; and transmit, via the at least one transceiver, the compressed representation of the channel profile to a network entity to enable the network entity to determine a location of the UE.

[0010] In one aspect, a network entity 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 configured to receive, via the at least one transceiver, from a base station, a compressed representation of a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE), the channel profile based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; and determine a location of the UE based on the compressed representation of the channel profile.

[0011] In one aspect, a base station includes means for determining a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE) based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; means for compressing the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile; and means for transmitting the compressed representation of the channel profile to a network entity to enable the network entity to determine a location of the UE.

[0012] In one aspect, a network entity includes means for receiving, from a base station, a compressed representation of a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE), the channel profile based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; and means for determining a location of the UE based on the compressed representation of the channel profile.

[0013] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a base station, cause the base station to determine a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE) based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; compress the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile; and transmit the compressed representation of the channel profile to a network entity to enable the network entity to determine a location of the UE.

[0014] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a network entity, cause the network entity to receive, from a base station, a compressed representation of a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE), the channel profile based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; and determine a location of the UE based on the compressed representation of the channel profile.

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

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

[0017] Figure 1 An example wireless communication system is shown in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0018] Figure 2A And Figure 2B An example wireless network structure is shown in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0019] Figure 3A 、 Figure 3B And Figure 3C are simplified block diagrams of several example aspects of components that can be employed in a user equipment (UE), a base station, and a network entity, respectively, and configured to support communications as taught herein.

[0020] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an example frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0021] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example base station in communication with an example UE, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0022] Figure 6 is a plot representing a radio frequency (RF) channel impulse response over time, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0023] Figure 7 illustrates an example neural network, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0024] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example, in which an encoder neural network is used to compress a time-angle channel profile and a decoder is used to decompress the time-angle channel profile, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0025] Figures 9 to 10 illustrates an example method of wireless positioning, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] Aspects of the present disclosure are provided in the following description and related drawings. Alternative aspects can be devised without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Additionally, it is intended that the description set forth in this disclosure include all such alternative aspects. Descriptions of well-known elements or processes do not repeat the breadth of the present disclosure, or obscure the related description with unnecessary detail.

[0027] The words “exemplary” and / or “example” are used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described herein as “exemplary” and / or “example” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Likewise, the term “aspects of the disclosure” does not require that all aspects of the disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage or mode of operation.

[0028] Those skilled in the art will understand that the information and signals described below can be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that can be referenced throughout the description below can be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof, depending in part on the particular applications, in part on the underlying technology, in part on the particular design choices made by a designer, and / or part on any combination thereof.

[0029] Moreover, many aspects are described in terms of sequences of actions to be performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will be recognized that various actions described herein can be performed by specific circuits (e.g., application specific integrated circuits (ASICs)), by program instructions being executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. Additionally, the sequence(s) of actions described herein can be considered to be embodied entirely within any form of non- transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein

[0030] As used herein, the terms “user equipment” (UE) and “base station” are not intended to be specific or otherwise limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT), unless otherwise noted. In general, a UE can be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, router, tablet computer, laptop computer, consumer asset-positioning device, wearable device (e.g., smartwatch, glasses, augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) headset, etc.), vehicle (e.g., automobile, motorcycle, bicycle, etc.), Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.) used by a user to communicate over a wireless communications network. A UE can be mobile or can (e.g., at certain times) be stationary, and can communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term “UE” can be referred to as a “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. Generally, UEs can communicate with a core network via a RAN, and through the core network the UEs can be connected to one or more external networks such as the Internet and / or to the public switched telephone network. Of course, other connection mechanisms to the core network and / or Internet are also possible for UEs, such as through a wired access network, wireless local area network (WLAN) (e.g., based on Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specifications and / or the like), and so on.

[0031] A base station can operate according to one of several RATs in communication with UEs, depending on the network in which it is deployed, and can alternatively be referred to as an access point (AP), a network node, a NodeB, an evolved NodeB (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a New Radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as a gNB or gNodeB), etc. Base stations can be used to support wireless access by UEs 101, including supporting data, voice, and / or signaling connections for the UEs 101 supported by the base stations. In some systems, a base station can provide only edge node signaling functions, while in other systems, a base station can provide additional control and / or network management functionality. UEs 101 can be referred to as mobile devices, mobile stations, wireless devices, etc. A communication link through which UEs 101 can send signals to a base station is called an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). A communication link through which the base station can send signals to UEs 101 is called a downlink (DL) or forward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, a broadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term “traffic channel” (TCH) can refer to uplink / reverse or downlink / forward traffic channels.

[0032] The term “base station” can refer to a single physical transmission-reception point (TRP), or to multiple physical TRPs that can or can not be co-located. For example, where the term “base station” refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP can be an antenna of the base station corresponding to a cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. Where the term “base station” refers to multiple co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRPs can be an array of antennas of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or where the base station employs beamforming). Where the term “base station” refers to multiple non-co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRPs can 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 can be the serving base station receiving the measurement report from the UE and a neighbor base station whose reference radio frequency (RF) signals the UE is measuring. Because the TRP is the point from which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, references to transmission from or reception at a base station, as used herein, are to be understood as referring to a particular TRP of the base station.

[0033] In some implementations that support positioning of UEs, a base station can not support wireless access by UEs (e.g., can not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections for UEs), but can instead transmit reference signals to UEs to be measured by the UEs, and / or can receive and measure signals transmitted by UEs. Such a base station can be referred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., when transmitting signals to UEs) and / or as a location measurement unit (e.g., when receiving and measuring signals from UEs).

[0034] An “RF signal” comprises an electromagnetic wave of a given frequency that transports information between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter can transmit a single “RF signal” or multiple “RF signals” to a receiver. However, due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multipath channels, a receiver can receive multiple “RF signals” corresponding to each transmitted RF signal. The same RF signal transmitted over different paths between the transmitter and receiver can be referred to as a “multipath” RF signal. As used herein, an RF signal can also be referred to as a “wireless signal” or simply a “signal,” where it is clear from the context that the term “signal” refers to a wireless signal or an RF signal.

[0035] Figure 1 An example wireless communications system 100 according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown. The wireless communications system 100 (which can also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (WW AN)) can include various base stations 102 (labeled as “BS”) and various UEs 104. The base stations 102 can include macro cell base stations (high power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low power cellular base stations). In an aspect, the macro cell base station can include eNBs and / or ng-eNBs for a LTE network, or gNBs for a NR network, or a combination of the above, where the wireless communications system 100 corresponds to the LTE network, or gNBs for a NR network, or a combination of the above, where the wireless communications system 100 corresponds to the NR network, or a combination of the above, where the wireless communications system 100 corresponds to a combination of the LTE and NR networks, or a combination of the above. And the small cell base stations can include femto cells, pico cells, micro cells, and the like.

[0036] Base station 102 can collectively form a RAN and interface with core network 170 (e.g., evolved packet core (EPC) or 5G core (5GC)) via backhaul link 122, and connect to one or more location servers 172 (e.g., location management function (LMF) or secure user plane location (SUPL) location platform (SLP)) via core network 170. Location servers 172 (multiple) can be part of core network 170 or external to core network 170. Location servers 172 can be integrated with base station 102. UE 104 can communicate with location server 172 directly or indirectly. For example, UE 104 can communicate with location server 172 via base station 102 currently serving UE 104. UE 104 can also communicate with location server 172 via another path (such as via application server (not shown), via another network, such as via wireless LAN (WLAN) access point (AP) (e.g., AP 150 described below), etc.). For signaling purposes, communication between UE 104 and location server 172 can be represented as an indirect connection (e.g., via core network 170, etc.) or a direct connection (e.g., as shown via direct connection 128), wherein intermediate nodes (if any) are omitted from the signaling diagram for clarity.

[0037] In addition to other functions, base station 102 may perform one or more of the following functions: transmitting user data, radio channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection establishment and release, load balancing, distribution of non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and device tracking, RAN information management (RIM), paging, location, and warning message delivery. Base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., via EPC / 5NGC) via backhaul link 134, which may be wired or wireless.

[0038] Base station 102 can wirelessly communicate with UE 104. Each base station 102 can provide communication coverage for a corresponding geographic coverage area 110. In one aspect, base station 102 can support one or more cells in each geographic coverage area 110. A “cell” is a logical communication entity used to communicate with a base station (e.g., on a frequency resource referred to as a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, frequency band, etc.) and can be associated with an identifier (e.g., Physical Cell Identifier (PCI), Enhanced Cell Identifier (ECI), Virtual Cell Identifier (VCI), Cell Global Identifier (CGI), etc.) used to distinguish cells operating via the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells can be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., Machine Type Communication (MTC), Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), or others), which can provide access for different types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a specific base station, the term “cell” can refer to one or both of the logical communication entity and the base station that supports it, depending on the context. Additionally, because the TRP is typically the physical transmission point of a cell, the terms “cell” and “TRP” can be used interchangeably. In some cases, the term "cell" can also refer to the geographic coverage area of ​​a base station (e.g., a sector), provided that the carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within certain portions of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0039] While the geographic coverage areas 110 of adjacent macro cell base stations 102 may partially overlap (e.g., in handover areas), some geographic coverage areas 110 may substantially overlap with larger geographic coverage areas 110. For example, a small cell base station 102' (labeled "SC" to indicate "small cell") may have a geographic coverage area 110' that substantially overlaps with the geographic coverage areas 110 of one or more macro cell base stations 102. A network that includes both small and macro cell base stations can be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include home eNBs (HeNBs) that can provide service to restricted groups referred to as Closed Subscriber Groups (CSGs).

[0040] The communication link 120 between base station 102 and UE 104 may include uplink (also known as reverse link) transmission from UE 104 to base station 102 and / or downlink (DL) (also known as forward link) transmission from base station 102 to UE 104. The communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna techniques, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication link 120 may use one or more carrier frequencies. Carrier allocation may be asymmetric relative to the downlink and uplink (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated to the downlink than to the uplink).

[0041] The wireless communications system 100 can further include a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) 150 in communication with WLAN stations (STAs) 152 via communication links 154 in an unlicensed frequency spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz). When communicating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the WLAN STAs 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 can perform clear channel assessment (CCA) or listen before talk (LBT) procedures prior to communicating to determine whether the channel is available.

[0042] The small cell base stations 102' can operate in a licensed spectrum and / or an unlicensed spectrum. When operating in an unlicensed spectrum, the small cell base stations 102' can employ LTE or NR technology and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum as used by the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base stations 102' using LTE / 5G in an unlicensed spectrum can enhance coverage and / or increase capacity for the access network. NR in unlicensed spectrum can be referred to as NR-U. LTE in unlicensed spectrum can be referred to as LTE-U, License Assisted Access (LAA), or MulteFire.

[0043] The wireless communications system 100 can further include millimeter wave (mmW) base stations 180 that can operate in mmW frequencies and / or near mmW frequencies in communication with UEs 182. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is the part of the radio frequency (RF) in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and a wavelength between 1 millimeter and 10 millimeters. Radio waves in this band can be referred to as a millimeter wave. Near mmW can extend down to a frequency of 3 GHz with a wavelength of 100 millimeters. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz, also referred to as centimeter wave. Communications using the mmW / near mmW radio frequency band have high path loss and a relatively short range. The mmW base stations 180 and the UEs 182 can utilize beamforming (transmit and / or receive) over the mmW communication links 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short range. Further, it should be appreciated that in alternative configurations, one or more base stations 102 can also transmit using mmW or near mmW and beamforming. Thus, it should be understood that the preceding illustration is merely illustrative and should not be construed as a limitation of the various aspects disclosed herein.

[0044] Transmit beamforming is a technique used to focus the transmitted RF signal in a specific direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts the signal in all directions (omni-directionally). With transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., a UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a stronger downlink RF signal in that specific direction, thereby providing a faster (in terms of data rate) and stronger RF signal for the receiving device. To change the directionality 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 array of antennas (referred to as a “phased array” or “antenna array”) that creates a beam of signals that can be “steered” to point in different directions, without actually moving the antennas. Specifically, the RF current from the transmitter is fed to the individual antennas with the correct phase relationship so that the radio waves from the separate antennas add together to increase the radiation in a desired direction, while cancelling to suppress radiation in undesired directions.

[0045] Transmit beams can be quasi co-located, meaning that they appear to the receiver (e.g., a UE) to have the same parameters, regardless of whether the transmitting antennas of the network node themselves are physically co-located. In NR, there are four types of quasi co-location (QCL) relationships. More specifically, a given type of QCL relationship means that certain parameters about a second reference RF signal on a second beam can be derived from information about a source reference RF signal on a source beam. Thus, if the source reference RF signal is QCL Type A, then 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, then 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, then 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, then the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the spatial receive parameter of the second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

[0046] In receive beamforming, a receiver uses a receive beam to amplify an RF signal detected on a given channel. For example, the receiver can increase a gain setting and / or adjust a phase setting of an antenna array in a particular direction to amplify (e.g., increase a level of gain) an RF signal received from that direction. Thus, when it is said that a receiver is beamformed in a certain direction, it means that the beam gain in that direction is high relative to the beam gain along other directions, or that the beam gain in that direction is the highest relative to the beam gain in that direction of all other receive beams available to the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR), etc.) of the RF signal received from that direction.

[0047] The transmit and receive beams can be spatially related. Spatially related means that parameters of a second beam (e.g., a transmit beam or a receive beam) of a second reference signal can be derived from information about a first beam (e.g., a receive beam or a transmit beam) of a first reference signal. For example, a UE can receive a reference downlink reference signal (e.g., a synchronization signal block (SSB)) from a base station using a particular receive beam. The UE can then form a transmit beam for transmitting an uplink reference signal (e.g., a sounding reference signal (SRS)) to the base station based on parameters of the receive beam.

[0048] Note that a “downlink” beam can be a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on which entity is forming it. For example, if a base station is forming a downlink beam to transmit a reference signal to a UE, the downlink beam is a transmit beam. However, if a UE is forming a downlink beam, the downlink beam is a receive beam to receive a downlink reference signal. Similarly, an “uplink” beam can be a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on which entity is forming it. For example, if a base station is forming an uplink beam, the uplink beam is an uplink receive beam, and if a UE is forming an uplink beam, the uplink beam is an uplink transmit beam.

[0049] The electromagnetic spectrum is often subdivided based on frequency / wavelength into various classes, bands, channels, etc. In 5G NR, two initial operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR1 (410 MHz - 7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 - 52.6 GHz). It should be understood that although a portion of FR1 is greater than 6 GHz, FR1 is often referred to (interchangeably) as a “sub-6 GHz” band in various documents and articles. A similar nomenclature issue sometimes occurs with respect to FR2, which is often referred to (interchangeably) as a “millimeter wave” band in documents and articles, despite being different from the EHF band (30 GHz - 300 GHz) which is designated as a “millimeter wave” band by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

[0050] The frequencies between FR1 and FR2 are often referred to as mid-band frequencies. Recent 5G NR studies have identified operating bands for these mid-band frequencies as frequency range designation FR3 (7.125 GHz - 24.25 GHz). Bands falling within FR3 can inherit FR1 characteristics and / or FR2 characteristics, and thus can effectively extend FR1 and / or FR2 characteristics to mid-band frequencies. Furthermore, even higher bands are currently under exploration to extend 5G NR operation above 52.6 GHz. For example, three higher operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR4-a or FR4-1 (52.6 GHz - 71 GHz), FR4 (52.6 GHz - 114.25 GHz), and FR5 (114.25 GHz - 300 GHz). Each of these higher bands falls within the EHF band of wavelengths.

[0051] With the above in mind, unless specifically stated otherwise, it should be understood that the use of the term “sub-6 GHz” or the like in this document should be interpreted broadly to include frequencies just below 6 GHz and / or just above 6 GHz. Furthermore, unless specifically stated otherwise, it should be understood that the use of the term “millimeter wave” or the like in this document should be interpreted broadly to include frequencies that may not be within the EHF band.

[0052] 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 the carrier operating on a primary frequency (e.g., FR1) used by the UE 104 / 182 and the UE 104 / 182 in which the initial radio resource control (RRC) connection setup procedure or the RRC connection reestablishment procedure is performed. The primary carrier carries all common and UE-specific control channels, and can be a carrier in a licensed frequency (although this is not always the case). The secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2) that can be configured once the RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier, and which 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 can contain only necessary signaling information and signals, e.g., UE-specific signaling information and signals can not be present in the secondary carrier since both the primary uplink and downlink carriers are typically UE-specific. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell can 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. This is done, for example, to balance the load on the different carriers. Because a “serving cell” (whether a PCell or an SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency / component carrier on which a certain base station is communicating, the terms “cell,” “serving cell,” “component carrier,” “carrier frequency,” and the like can be used interchangeably.

[0053] For example, still referring to Figure 1 One of the frequencies used by the macrocell base station 102 can be an anchor carrier (or “PCell”), and other frequencies used by the macrocell base station 102 and / or the millimeter wave base station 180 can be secondary carriers (“SCells”). The 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 doubling of the data rate (i.e., 40 MHz) as compared to the rate achieved with a single 20 MHz carrier.

[0054] The wireless communications system 100 can also include a UE 164 that can communicate with macrocell base station 102 by way of communication link 120 and / or with millimeter wave base station 180 by way of millimeter wave communication link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 can support a PCell and one or more SCells for the UE 164, and the millimeter wave base station 180 can support one or more SCells for the UE 164.

[0055] In some cases, the UEs 164 and the UE 182 can be capable of sidelink communication. A sidelink-enabled UE (SL-UE) can communicate with the base station 102 using the Uu interface (i.e., the air interface between a UE and a base station) over the communication link 120. SL-UEs (e.g., the UE 164, the UE 182) can also communicate with each other directly via a wireless sidelink 160 using the PC5 interface (i.e., the air interface for communication between sidelink-enabled UEs). The wireless sidelink (or simply “sidelink”) is an adaptation of the core cellular (e.g., LTE, NR) standard that allows direct communication between two or more UEs without the need for communication through a base station. Sidelink communication can be unicast or multicast and can be used for device-to-device (D2D) media sharing, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-anything (V2X) communication (e.g., cellular V2X (cV2X) communication, enhanced V2X (eV2X) communication, etc.), emergency rescue applications, etc. One or more of the SL-UEs in a group utilizing sidelink communication can be within the geographic coverage area 110 of a base station 102. Other SL-UEs in such a group can be outside the geographic coverage area 110 of a base station 102 or be unable to receive transmissions from base stations 102. In some cases, groups of SL-UEs communicating via sidelink communication can utilize a one-to-many (1 :M) system, where each SL-UE transmits to every other SL-UE in the group. In some cases, the base station 102 facilitates scheduling of resources for sidelink communications. In other cases, sidelink communications are performed between SL-UEs without involvement on the base station 102.

[0056] In one aspect, the sidelink 160 can operate over a wireless communication medium of interest that can be shared with other wireless communications between other vehicles and / or infrastructure access points as well as other RATs. The “medium” can comprise one or more time, frequency, and / or space communication resources (e.g., encompassing one or more channels across one or more carriers) associated with wireless communications between one or more transmitter / receiver pairs. In one aspect, the medium of interest can correspond to at least a portion of an unlicensed frequency band shared between various RATs. While different licensed frequency bands have been reserved for certain communication systems (e.g., by government entities such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)), these systems, particularly those employing small cell access points, have recently expanded operations into unlicensed frequency bands such as the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) band used by WLAN technologies, most notably the IEEE 802.1 lx WLAN technologies commonly referred to as “Wi-Fi.” Example systems of this type include different variants of CDMA systems, TDMA systems, FDMA systems, orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems, etc.

[0057] Note that, although Figure 1 Only two UEs are shown as SL-UEs (i.e., UEs 164 and 182), but any UE shown could be an SL-UE. Furthermore, although only UE 182 is described as capable of beamforming, any UE shown, including UE 164, is capable of beamforming. When SL-UEs are capable of beamforming, they can beamform towards each other (i.e., towards other SL-UEs), towards other UEs (e.g., UE 104), towards base stations (e.g., base stations 102, 180, small cell 102', access point 150), etc. Therefore, in some cases, UEs 164 and 182 can utilize beamforming on sidelink 160.

[0058] exist Figure 1 In the example, any of the UEs shown (for simplicity, in) Figure 1 The UE 104 (shown as a single UE 104) can receive signal 124 from one or more Earth-orbiting spacecraft (SV) 112 (e.g., satellites). In one aspect, SV 112 may be part of a satellite positioning system, which the UE 104 may use as an independent source of location information. Satellite positioning systems typically include a transmitter system (e.g., SV 112) positioned to enable receivers (e.g., UE 104) to determine their location on or above the Earth based at least in part on positioning signals (e.g., signal 124) received from the transmitter. Such transmitters typically transmit signals of repeating pseudo-random noise (PN) codes marked with a predetermined number of chips. While transmitters are typically located in SV 112, they may sometimes be located at ground control stations, base stations 102, and / or other UEs 104. UE 104 may include one or more dedicated receivers specifically designed to receive signal 124 used to derive geographic location information from SV 112.

[0059] In a satellite positioning system, the use of signals 124 can be augmented by various satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS), which can be associated with one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems and / or can be otherwise enabled to work with one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems. For example, the SBAS can include one or more augmentation systems(s) that provide integrity information, differential corrections, etc., such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the Multi-functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS), the Global Positioning System (GPS) Aided Geo Augmented Navigation or GPS and Geo Augmented Navigation system (GAGAN), and / or the like. Thus, as used herein, a satellite positioning system can include any combination of one or more global and / or regional navigation satellites associated with such one or more satellite positioning systems.

[0060] In one aspect, the SVs 112 can additionally or alternatively be part of one or more non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). In an NTN, the SVs 112 connect to an earth station (also referred to as a ground station, NTN gateway, or gateway), which in turn connects to elements in the 5G network, such as a modified base station 102 (without a terrestrial antenna) or a network node in the 5GC. This element would in turn provide access to other elements in the 5G network and ultimately to external entities outside the 5G network, such as Internet web servers and other user equipment. In this way, the UEs 104 can receive communication signals (e.g., signals 124) from the SVs 112 instead of, or in addition to, receiving communication signals from terrestrial base stations 102.

[0061] The wireless communications system 100 can also include one or more UEs, such as UE 190, that connects indirectly to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links (referred to as “sidelinks”). For example, UEs 104 can connect indirectly to base station 102 via D2D P2P links 192 and / or the Internet, as opposed to connecting directly via base stations 102 (not shown) and the Figure 1 In an example, UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of the UEs 104 connecting to one of the base stations 102 (through which the UE 190 can indirectly obtain cellular connectivity), and a D2D P2P link 194 with WLAN STA 152 connecting to the WLAN AP 150 (through which the UE 190 can indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity). In one example, D2D P2P links 192 and 194 can be supported with any well-known D2D RAT, such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth®, ZigBee®, and / or the like. In one aspect, the SVs 112 can additionally or alternatively be part of one or more non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). In an NTN, the SVs 112 connect to an earth station (also referred to as a ground station, NTN gateway, or gateway), which in turn connects to elements in the 5G network, such as a modified base station 102 (without a terrestrial antenna) or a network node in the 5GC. This element would in turn provide access to other elements in the 5G network and ultimately to external entities outside the 5G network, such as Internet web servers and other user equipment. In this way, the UEs 104 can receive communication signals (e.g., signals 124) from the SVs 112 instead of, or in addition to, receiving communication signals from terrestrial base stations 102.

[0062] Figure 2AAn example wireless network structure 200 is shown. For example, a 5GC 210 (also referred to as a Next Generation Core (NGC)) can be viewed functionally as control plane (C-plane) functions 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and user plane (U-plane) functions 212 (e.g., UE gateway function, data bearer setup, IP

[0063] Another optional aspect can include a location server 230, which can be in communication with the 5GC 210 to provide location assistance to UEs 204. The location server 230 can be implemented as a plurality of separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules spread across a plurality of physical servers, etc.), or alternately each server corresponds to a single server. The location server 230 can be configured to support one or more location services for UEs 204 that can connect to the location server 230 via the core network, 5GC 210, and / or via the Internet (not illustrated). Further, the location server 230 can be integrated into a component of the core network, or alternately can be external to the core network (e.g., a third party server such as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) server or a service server).

[0064] Figure 2B Another example wireless network structure 250 is shown. A 5GC 260 (which can correspond to the 5GC 210) can be viewed functionally as control plane (C-plane) functions 264 (e.g., access and mobility management functions (AMFs)) and user plane (U-plane) functions 262 (e.g., session management functions (SMFs)), which operate cooperatively to form the core network. User plane interface 263 (NG-U) and control plane interface 265 (NG-C) connect the gNBs 222 and ng-eNB 224 to the 5GC 260 and specifically to the user plane functions 262 and control plane functions 264, respectively. In additional configurations, the ng-eNB 224 can also be connected to the 5GC 260 via NG-C 265 to the control plane functions 264 and NG-U 263 to the user plane functions 262. Further, the ng-eNB 224 can directly communicate with the gNBs 222 via backhaul connection 223. In some configurations, the Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN) 220 can have one or more of gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more of both ng-eNB 224 and gNBs 222. The gNBs 222 or ng-eNB 224 (or both) can be in communication with one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein). Figure 2AThe 5GC 210) can be viewed functionally as control plane functions provided by an access and mobility management function (AMF) 264 and user plane functions provided by a user plane function (UPF) 262, which operate cooperatively to form the core network (i.e., the 5GC 260). The functions of the AMF 264 include registration management, connection management, mobility management, lega! interception, transfer of one or more UE 204 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein) and session management function (SMF) 266 session management (SM) messages, transparent proxy services for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, transfer of short message service (SMS) messages between a UE 204 and an SMS function (SMSF) (not shown), and security anchor functionality (SEAF). The AMF 264 also interacts with an authentication server function (AUSF) (not shown) and a UE 204, and receives an intermediate key that was established as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In the case of authentication based on a UMTS (Universal Mobile

[0065] The functions of the UPF 262 include acting as an anchor point for intra- / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as a external protocol data unit (PDU) session point of interconnect to a data network (not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, and 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 user plane (e.g., uplink / downlink rate enforcement, reflection QoS marking in the downlink), uplink traffic verification (service data flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering, and sending and forwarding of one or more “end markers.” The UPF 262 can also support transfer of location service messages between the UE 204 and a location server, such as the SLP 272, over the user plane.

[0066] The functions of the SMF 266 include session management, UE Internet protocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and control of user plane functions, configuration of traffic steering at the UPF 262 to route traffic to the proper destination, part of the policy enforcement and QoS control, and downlink data notification. The interface by which the SMF 266 communicates with the AMF 264 is referred to as the N11 interface.

[0067] Another optional aspect can include an LMF 270, which can be in communication with the 5GC 260 to provide location assistance to UEs 204. The LMF 270 can be implemented as a plurality of separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules spread across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternately, as a single server. The LMF 270 can be configured to support one or more location services for UEs 204, which can connect to the LMF 270 via the core network, 5GC 260, and / or via the Internet (not shown). An SLP 272 can support similar functionality to the LMF 270, but whereas the LMF 270 can communicate on the control plane with the AMF 264, NG-RAN 220, and UEs 204 (e.g., using interface and protocols that are intended to convey signaling, not voice or data), the SLP 272 can communicate on the user plane with UEs 204 and external clients (e.g., third party servers 274) (e.g., using protocols that are intended to carry voice and / or data, such as the transmission control protocol (TCP) and / or IP).

[0068] Still another optional aspect can include a third party server 274, which can communicate with the LMF 270, SLP 272, 5GC 260 (e.g., via the AMF 264 and / or UPF 262), NG-RAN 220, and / or UEs 204 to obtain location information (e.g., location estimates) for UEs 204. In this manner, in some cases, the third party server 274 can be referred to as a location services (LCS) client or external client. The third party server 274 can be implemented as a plurality of separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules spread across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternately, as a single server.

[0069] The user plane interface 263 and control plane interface 265 connect the 5GC 260, specifically the UPF 262 and AMF 264, to one or more gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 in the NG-RAN 220, respectively. The interface between the gNB(s) 222 and / or ng-eNB(s) 224 and the AMF 264 is referred to as the “N2” interface, and the interface between the gNB(s) 222 and / or ng-eNB(s) 224 and the UPF 262 is referred to as the “N3” interface. The gNB(s) 222 and / or ng-eNB(s) 224 of the NG-RAN 220 can communicate directly with each other via a backhaul connection 223 referred to as an “Xn-C” interface. One or more of the gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 can communicate with one or more UEs 204 over a wireless interface referred to as the “Uu” interface.

[0070] The functions of the gNB 222 can be divided between a gNB central unit (gNB-CU) 226, one or more gNB distributed units (gNB-DUs) 228, and one or more gNB radio units (gNB-RUs) 229. The gNB-CU 226 is a logical node that hosts base station functions including transfer of user data, mobility control, RAN sharing, positioning, session management, etc., except for those functions specifically allocated to the gNB-DU(s) 228. More specifically, the gNB-CU 226 typically hosts the RRC, the Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP), and the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) protocols of the gNB 222. The gNB-DU 228 is a logical node that typically hosts the Radio Link Control (RLC) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layers of the gNB 222. Its operation is controlled by the gNB-CU 226. One gNB-DU 228 can support one or more cells, and one cell is supported by only one gNB-DU 228. The interface 232 between the gNB-CU 226 and the gNB-DU(s) 228 is referred to as the “F1” interface. The physical (PHY) layer functions of the gNB 222 are typically hosted by one or more standalone gNB-RUs 229 that perform functions such as power amplification and signal sending / receiving. The interface between the gNB-DU 228 and the gNB-RU(s) 229 is referred to as the “Fx” interface. Thus, the UE 204 communicates with the gNB-CU 226 via the RRC, SDAP, and PDCP layers, with the gNB-DU 228 via the RLC and MAC layers, and with the gNB-RU 229 via the PHY layer.

[0071] Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 3CThe UE 302 and the base stations 304 can each include one or more transceivers 310 and 350, respectively, providing a means for communicating over one or more wireless communication networks (not shown), such as the network 100, 200, and / or 250, and / or other networks such as peer-to-peer network, the Internet, etc. The transceivers 310 and 350 can each include one or more receivers 312 and 352, respectively, and one or more transmitters 314 and 354, respectively. The receivers 312 and 352 can each receive signals from other network nodes, such as network nodes performing functions described herein, including UE, base stations (e.g., eNB, gNB), network functions (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270), etc. The transmitters 314 and 354 can each transmit signals to other network nodes, such as network nodes performing functions described herein, including UE, base stations (e.g., eNB, gNB), network functions (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270), etc. In some aspects, the transceiver 310 can be part of a communications interface as described further below. Figure 2A And Figure 2B The depicted NG-RAN 220 and / or 5GC 210 / 260 infrastructure, such as a dedicated network, to support several example components (represented by corresponding blocks) of operations described herein. It should be understood that these components can be implemented in different embodiments (e.g., in ASICs, in System-on-a-Chip (SoC), etc.) in different types of apparatuses. The illustrated components can also be incorporated into other apparatuses in a communication system. For example, other apparatuses in a system can include similar components to those described to provide similar functionality. In addition, a given apparatus can contain one or more components. For example, an apparatus can include multiple transceiver components enabling the apparatus to operate with respect to multiple carriers and / or communicate via different technologies.

[0072] The UE 302 and the base stations 304 can each include one or more transceivers 310 and 350, respectively, providing a means for communicating over one or more wireless communication networks (not shown), such as the network 100, 200, and / or 250, and / or other networks such as peer-to-peer network, the Internet, etc. The transceivers 310 and 350 can each include one or more receivers 312 and 352, respectively, and one or more transmitters 314 and 354, respectively. The receivers 312 and 352 can each receive signals from other network nodes, such as network nodes performing functions described herein, including UE, base stations (e.g., eNB, gNB), network functions (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270), etc. The transmitters 314 and 354 can each transmit signals to other network nodes, such as network nodes performing functions described herein, including UE, base stations (e.g., eNB, gNB), network functions (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270), etc. In some aspects, the transceiver 310 can be part of a communications interface as described further below.

[0073] The UEs 302 and the base stations 304 each include at least one wireless radios 310 and 350, respectively, for communicating with one another over a wireless communication medium 306. The wireless radios 310 and 350 can communicate potentially with any number of base stations or UEs. For example, the wireless radio 310 can communicate with the wireless radio 350 of the base station 304, and the wireless radio 350 can communicate with the wireless radio 310 of a UE 302. As shown, the wireless radios 310 and 350 are coupled to one or more antennas 312 and 352, respectively, which enable the transmission and The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 can be configured to transmit and encode signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, and so on), respectively, and, conversely, to receive and decode signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, and so on), respectively, in accordance with a designated RAT. Specifically, the short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 include one or more transmitters 324 and 364, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals 328 and 368, respectively, and one or more receivers 322 and 362, respectively, for receiving and decoding signals 328 and 368, respectively. As specific examples, the short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 can be WiFi transceivers, Bluetooth® or Bluetooth® Low Energy transceivers, Zigbee® or Zigbee® Pro transceivers, transceivers, and / or NFC transceivers, or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and / or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) transceivers.

[0074] The UEs 302 and the base stations 304 also include satellite signal receivers 330 and 370, at least in some cases. The satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 can be connected to one or more antennas 336 and 376, respectively, and can provide means for receiving and / or measuring satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378, respectively. Where the satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 are satellite positioning system receivers, the satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378 can be GPS signals, Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals, Beidou signals, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NAVIC), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), etc. Where the satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 are NTN receivers, the satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378 can be communication signals (e.g., carrying control and / or user data) originating from a 5G network. The satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 can include any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378, respectively. The satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 can request appropriate information and operations from other systems, and, at least in some cases, perform calculations using measurements obtained through any suitable satellite positioning system algorithm to determine the location of the UEs 302 and the base stations 304, respectively.

[0075] The base stations 304 and the network entities 306 each include one or more network transceivers 380 and 390, respectively, providing means for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, etc.) with other network entities, such as other base stations 304, other network entities 306. For example, the base stations 304 can communicate with other base stations 304 or network entities 306 employing one or more network transceivers 380 over one or more wired or wireless backhaul links. As another example and not by way of limitation, the network entities 306 can communicate with one or more base stations 304 employing one or more network transceivers 390 over one or more wired or wireless backhaul links, or with other network entities 306 employing one or more network transceivers 390 over one or more wired or wireless core network interfaces.

[0076] The transceivers can be configured to communicate over wired or wireless links. The transceivers, whether wired or wireless transceivers, include transmitter circuitry (e.g., transmitters 314, 324, 354, 364) and receiver circuitry (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352, 362). In some implementations, the transceivers can be integrated devices (e.g., embodying the transmitter circuitry and receiver circuitry in a single device), can include separate transmitter circuitry and separate receiver circuitry in some implementations, or can be embodied in other ways in other implementations. The transmitter circuitry and receiver circuitry of wired transceivers (e.g., network transceivers 380 and 390 in some implementations) can be coupled to one or more wired network interface ports. The wireless transmitter circuitry (e.g., transmitters 314, 324, 354, 364) can include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as antenna arrays, which allow 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) can include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as antenna arrays, which allow the respective device (e.g., UE 302, base station 304) to perform receive beamforming as described herein. In one aspect, the transmitter circuitry and receiver circuitry can share the same multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) such that the respective device can only receive or transmit at a given time, not both simultaneously. The wireless transceivers (e.g., WWAN transceivers 310 and 350, short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360) can also include network listen modules (NLMs) and the like for performing various measurements.

[0077] As used herein, the 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) can generally be characterized as “transceivers,” “at least one transceiver,” or “one or more transceivers.” As such, whether a particular transceiver is a wired or wireless transceiver can be inferred from the type of communication being performed. For example, backhaul communications between network devices or servers typically involve signaling via wired transceivers, while wireless communications between a UE (e.g., UE 302) and a base station (e.g., base station 304) typically involve signaling via wireless transceivers.

[0078] The UEs 302, the base stations 304, and the network entity 306 also include other components that can be used in conjunction with the operations described herein. The UEs 302, the base stations 304, and the network entity 306 each include one or more processors 332, 384, and 394, respectively, for providing functionality, such as with respect to wireless communication, and for providing other processing functionality. Accordingly, the processors 332, 384, and 394 can provide means for processing, such as means for determining, means for computing, means for receiving, means for transmitting, means for indicating, etc. In one aspect, the 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 circuitry, or various combinations thereof.

[0079] The UEs 302, the base stations 304, and the network entity 306 include memory circuitry implementing memory 340, 386, and 396, respectively (e.g., including a memory device each), for maintaining information (e.g., information indicative of reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, etc.). Accordingly, the memory 340, 386, and 396 can provide means for storing, means for retrieving, means for maintaining, etc. In some cases, the UEs 302, the base stations 304, and the network entity 306 can each include a positioning component 342, 388, and 398, respectively. The positioning component 342, 388, and 398 can be hardware circuitry that is part of, or coupled to, the processors 332, 384, and 394, respectively, which when executing software causes the UEs 302, the base stations 304, and the network entity 306 to perform the functions described herein. In other aspects, the positioning component 342, 388, and 398 can be external to processors 332, 384, and 394, respectively (e.g., part of a modem processing system, integrated with another processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the positioning component 342, 388, and 398 can be memory modules stored in the memory 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 UEs 302, the base stations 304, and the network entity 306 to perform the functions described herein. Figure 3A The possible locations of the positioning component 342 are shown, which can be part of, for example, the one or more WWAN transceivers 310, the memory 340, the one or more processors 332, or any combination thereof, or can be a standalone component. Figure 3BPossible locations of positioning component 388 are shown, which can be part of, for example, one or more WWAN transceivers 350, memory 386, one or more processors 384, or any combination thereof, or can be a standalone component. Figure 3C Possible locations of positioning component 398 are shown, which can be part of, for example, one or more network transceivers 390, memory 396, one or more processors 394, or any combination thereof, or can be a standalone component.

[0080] UE 302 can include one or more sensors 344 coupled to one or more processors 332 to provide means for sensing or detecting motion and / or orientation information unrelated to 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 receiver 330. By way of example, sensor(s) 344 can 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-detecting sensor. Moreover, sensor(s) 344 can include multiple different types of devices and combine their outputs in order to provide motion information. For example, sensor(s) 344 can use a combination of a multi-axis accelerometer and an orientation sensor to provide the ability to compute position in two-dimensional (2D) and / or three-dimensional (3D) coordinate systems.

[0081] Moreover, UE 302 includes user interface 346 providing means for providing indications (e.g., audible and / or visual indications) to a user and / or for receiving user input (e.g., upon user actuation of a sensing device such as a keypad, a touch screen, a microphone, and the like). Although not shown, base station 304 and network entity 306 can also include user interfaces.

[0082] Referring to the one or more processors 384 in more detail, in the downlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 can be provided to the processor 384. The one or more processors 384 can implement functionality of the RRC layer, the PDCP layer, the RLC layer, and the MAC layer. The one or more processors 384 can provide RRC layer functionality associated with broadcasting of system information (e.g., master information block (MIB), system information blocks (SIBs)), 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, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functionality associated with the transfer 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.

[0083] The transmitter 354 and the receiver 352 can implement Layer- 1 (LI) functionality associated with various signal processing functions. Layer 1, which includes a physical (PHY) layer, can include error detection on the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding of the transport channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to 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 coded and modulated symbols can then be split into parallel streams. Each stream can then be mapped to a 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 produce multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator can be used to determine the coding and modulation schemes, as well as for spatial processing. The channel estimate can be derived from a reference signal and / or channel condition feedback transmitted by the UE 302. Each spatial stream can then be provided to a different antenna 356. The transmitter 354 can modulate an RF carrier with a respective spatial stream for transmission.

[0084] At the UE 302, the receiver 312 receives a signal through its respective antenna(s) 316. The receiver 312 recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to the one or more processors 332. The transmitter 314 and the receiver 312 implement Layer- 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. The receiver 312 can perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial streams destined for the UE 302. If multiple spatial streams are destined for the UE 302, they can be combined into a single OFDM symbol stream by the receiver 312. The receiver 312 then converts the OFDM symbol stream from the time-domain to the frequency domain using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal comprises a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols on each subcarrier, and the reference signal, are recovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation points transmitted by the base station 304. These soft decisions can be based on channel estimates computed by the channel estimator. The soft decisions are then decoded and de-interleaved to recover the data and control signals that were originally transmitted on the physical channel by the base station 304. The data and control signals are then provided to the one or more processors 332, which implement Layer-3 (L3) and Layer-2 (L2) functionality.

[0085] On the uplink, the one or more processors 332 provide demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. The one or more processors 332 are also responsible for error detection.

[0086] Similar to the functionality described in connection with the downlink transmission by the base station 304, the one or more processors 332 provide RRC layer functionality associated with system information (e.g., MIB, SIBs) acquisition, RRC connections, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression and security (ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionality associated with the transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs, re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks (TBs), demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0087] Channel estimates derived by the channel estimator from a reference signal or feedback transmitted by the base station 304 can be used by the transmitter 314 to select the appropriate coding and modulation schemes, and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the transmitter 314 can be provided to different antennas 316. The transmitter 314 can modulate an RF carrier with a respective spatial stream for transmission.

[0088] The uplink transmission is processed at the base station 304 in a manner similar to that described in connection with the receiver function at the UE 302. A receiver 352 receives the uplink transmission 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.

[0089] On the uplink, one or more processors 384 provide demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets from the UE 302. IP packets from the one or more processors 384 can be provided to a core network. The one or more processors 384 are also responsible for error detection.

[0090] For convenience, the UE 302, base station 304, and / or network entity 306 are shown Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 3C as including various components that can be configured according to various examples described herein. It should be understood, however, that the illustrated components are but one example of a possible configuration. In particular, Figures 3A to 3C various components in Figure 3A may be optional in alternative configurations, and various aspects include configurations that can vary due to design choices, cost, use of the device, or other considerations. For example, in the case of Figure 3B , particular implementations of the UE 302 can omit WWAN transceiver(s) 310 (e.g., a wearable device or tablet or PC or laptop can have Wi-Fi and / or Bluetooth capability without cellular capability), or can omit short-range wireless transceiver(s) 320 (e.g., cellular-only capability, etc.), or can omit satellite signal receiver 330, or can omit sensor(s) 344, etc. In another example, in the case of , particular implementations of the base station 304 can omit WWAN transceiver(s) 350 (e.g., a Wi-Fi “hotspot” access point without cellular capability), or can omit short-range wireless transceiver(s) 360 (e.g., cellular-only capability, etc.), or can omit satellite receiver 370, etc. For the sake of brevity, no further explanation of alternative configurations is provided herein, but will be understood by one of skill in the art.

[0091] The various components of the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 can be communicatively coupled to each other by data buses 334, 382, and 392, respectively. In one aspect, the data buses 334, 382, and 392 can form, or be part of, a communication interface of the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306, respectively. For example, in cases where different logical entities are embodied in the same device (e.g., merging gNB and location server functionality into the same base station 304), the data buses 334, 382, and 392 can provide for communication between them.

[0092] Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 3C The components of the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 can be implemented in various ways. In some embodiments, the components of the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 can be implemented in one or more circuits (e.g., one or more processors and / or one or more ASICs, which can include one or more processors). Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 3C Here, each circuit can 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 can be implemented by the processor and memory component(s) of the UE 302 (e.g., through execution of appropriate code and / or through proper configuration of the processor component(s)). Similarly, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 350 to 388 can be implemented by the processor and memory component(s) of the base station 304 (e.g., through execution of appropriate code and / or through proper configuration of the processor component(s)). Also, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 390 to 398 can be implemented by the processor and memory component(s) of the network entity 306 (e.g., through execution of appropriate code and / or through proper configuration of the processor component(s)). For simplicity, various operations, acts, and / or functions are described herein as being performed by a UE, a base station, a network entity, and / or the like. However, as will be appreciated, such operations, acts, and / or functions can actually be performed by specific components or combinations of components of the UE 302, the base station 304, the network entity 306, and / or the like, such as the processors 332, 384, 394, the transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360, the memories 340, 386, and 396, the positioning components 342, 388, and 398, and / or the like.

[0093] In some designs, the network entity 306 can be implemented as a core network component. In other designs, the network entity 306 can be distinct from a 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 can be a component of a private network that can be configured to communicate with the UE 302 via the base station 304 or independent of the base station 304 (e.g., through a non-cellular communication link such as WiFi).

[0094] Various frame structures can be used to support downlink and uplink transmissions between network nodes (e.g., base stations and UEs). Figure 4 FIG. 4 is a diagram 400 illustrating an example of an example frame structure, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The frame structure can be a downlink or uplink frame structure. Other wireless communication technologies can have different frame structures and / or different channels.

[0095] LTE, in some cases NR, utilizes OFDM on the downlink and single-carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. In contrast, different wireless communication technologies can utilize different multiplexing techniques. However, as the demand for mobile data grows, it is desirable to improve the use of available spectrum. To this end, various techniques are being developed and adopted for 5G NR and later.

[0096] LTE supports a single numerology (subcarrier spacing (SCS), symbol length, etc.). In contrast, NR can support multiple numerologies (μ), e.g., subcarrier spacings of 15 kHz (μ = 0), 30 kHz (μ = 1), 60 kHz (μ = 2), 120 kHz (μ = 3), and 240 kHz (μ = 4) or larger subcarrier spacings can be available. In each subcarrier spacing, there are 14 symbols per slot. For 15 kHz SCS (μ = 0), there are 1 slot per subframe, 10 slots per frame, a slot duration of 1 millisecond (ms), a symbol duration of 66.7 microseconds (μs), and a 4K FFT size of 50 for the maximum nominal system bandwidth in MHz. For 30 kHz SCS (μ = 1), there are 2 slots per subframe, 20 slots per frame, a slot duration of 0.5 ms, a symbol duration of 33.3 μs, and a 4K FFT size of 100 for the maximum nominal system bandwidth in MHz. For 60 kHz SCS (μ = 2), there are 4 slots per subframe, 40 slots per frame, a slot duration of 0.25 ms, a symbol duration of 16.7 μs, and a 4K FFT size of 200 for the maximum nominal system bandwidth in MHz. For 120 kHz SCS (μ = 3), there are 8 slots per subframe, 80 slots per frame, a slot duration of 0.125 ms, a symbol duration of 8.33 μs, and a 4K FFT size of 400 for the maximum nominal system bandwidth in MHz. For 240 kHz SCS (μ = 4), there are 16 slots per subframe, 160 slots per frame, a slot duration of 0.0625 ms, a symbol duration of 4.17 μs, and a 4K FFT size of 800 for the maximum nominal system bandwidth in MHz.

[0097] In the example of FIG. 1, a 10 ms frame is divided into 10 equally sized subframes with each subframe being 1 ms and each subframe including one slot. In Figure 4 In the example of FIG. 1, a 10 ms frame is divided into 10 equally sized subframes with each subframe being 1 ms and each subframe including one slot. In Figure 4 In the example of FIG. 1, a 10 ms frame is divided into 10 equally sized subframes with each subframe being 1 ms and each subframe including one slot. In

[0098] A resource grid can be used to represent the time slots, each time slot including 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 multiple resource elements (REs). An RE can correspond to one symbol length in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain. In Figure 4For normal cyclic prefix, an RB can contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 7 consecutive symbols in the time domain, for a total of 84 REs. For extended cyclic prefix, an RB can contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 6 consecutive symbols in the time domain, for a total of 72 REs. The number of bits carried per RE depends on the modulation scheme.

[0099] Some of the REs can carry reference (pilot) signals (RS). The reference signals can 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), SSB, SRS, etc., depending on whether the illustrated frame structure is for uplink or downlink communications. Figure 4 An example location of REs carrying reference signals (labeled “R”) is shown.

[0100] A collection of resource elements (REs) used for transmission of PRS is referred to as a “PRS resource.” The collection of REs can 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.

[0101] The transmission of PRS resources within a given PRB has a particular 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 a comb size “N,” 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, REs corresponding to every fourth subcarrier (such as subcarriers 0, 4, 8) are used to transmit PRS for the PRS resource. Currently, DL-PRS supports comb-2, comb-4, comb-6, and comb-12 comb sizes. Figure 4 An example PRS resource configuration for comb-4 (which spans four symbols) is shown. That is, the locations of the shaded REs (labeled “R”) indicate a comb-4 PRS resource configuration.

[0102] Currently, DL-PRS resources can span 2, 4, 6, or 12 consecutive symbols within a slot with a full frequency domain staggering pattern. A DL-PRS resource can be configured in any higher layer configured downlink or flexible (FL) symbol of a slot. There can be a constant energy per resource element (EPRE) for all REs of a given DL-PRS resource. The following are the inter-symbol frequency offsets for comb sizes 2, 4, 6, and 12 over 2, 4, 6, and 12 symbols. 2-symbol comb-2: {0, 1}; 4-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1}; 6-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1}; 12-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1}; 4-symbol comb-4: {0, 2, 1, 3} (as in Figure 4 Examples); 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}.

[0103] A “PRS resource set” is a collection of PRS resources used to transmit PRS signals, where each PRS resource has a PRS resource ID. In addition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set are associated with a same TRP. A PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and is associated with a particular TRP (identified by a TRP ID). In addition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set have a same periodicity, a common muting pattern configuration, and a same repetition factor (such as “PRS-ResourceRepetitionFactor”) across slots. The periodicity is the time from a first repetition of a first PRS resource of a first PRS instance to a same first repetition of a same first PRS resource of a next PRS instance. The periodicity can have a length selected from 2^m * {4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 32, 40, 64, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, 2560, 5120, 10240} slots, where m = 0, 1, 2, 3. The repetition factor can have a length selected from {1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32} slots.

[0104] A PRS resource ID in a PRS resource set is associated with a single beam (or beam ID) transmitted from a single TRP (where a TRP can transmit one or more beams). That is, each PRS resource of a PRS resource set can be transmitted on a different beam, and as such, a “PRS resource” or simply “resource” can also be referred to as a “beam.” Note that this has no impact on whether the UE is aware of the TRPs and beams from which PRS are transmitted.

[0105] A “PRS instance” or “PRS occasion” is one instance of a periodic repetition of a time window (such as a group of one or more consecutive slots) in which PRS are expected to be transmitted. A PRS occasion can also be referred to as a “PRS positioning occasion,” “PRS positioning instance,” “positioning occasion,” “positioning instance,” “positioning repetition,” or simply “occasion,” “instance,” or “repetition.”

[0106] A “positioning frequency layer” (also simply “frequency layer”) is a cluster of one or more PRS resource sets across one or more TRPs that have the same values for certain parameters. Specifically, the cluster of PRS resource sets have the same subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix (CP) type (meaning that all numerologies supported by the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) are also supported for PRS), the same Point A, the same downlink PRS bandwidth value, 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 the pair of physical radio channels used for transmission and reception. The downlink PRS bandwidth can have a granularity of four PRBs, a minimum of 24 PRBs, and a maximum of 272 PRBs. Currently, up to four frequency layers have been defined, and up to two PRS resource sets per TRP can be configured per frequency layer.

[0107] The concept of a frequency layer is somewhat like the concept of a component carrier and bandwidth part (BWP), but with the difference being that component carriers and BWPs are used by one base station (or macrocell base station and small cell base stations) to transmit data channels, whereas frequency layers are used by several (typically three or more) base stations to transmit PRS. A UE can indicate, when it transmits its positioning capabilities to the network, such as during an LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) session, the number of frequency layers that it can support. For example, a UE can indicate whether it can support one or four positioning frequency layers.

[0108] 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” can also refer to any type of reference signal that can be used for positioning, such as but not limited to PRS defined in LTE and NR, TRS, PTRS, CRS, CSI-RS, DMRS, PSS, SSS, SSB, SRS, UL-PRS, etc. Furthermore, the terms “positioning reference signal” and “PRS” can refer to downlink, uplink, or sidelink positioning reference signals, unless the context indicates otherwise. If further differentiation of the type of PRS is needed, downlink positioning reference signals can be referred to as “DL-PRS”, uplink positioning reference signals (e.g., SRS for positioning, PTRS) can be referred to as “UL-PRS”, and sidelink positioning reference signals can be referred to as “SL-PRS”. Furthermore, for signals that can be transmitted in downlink, uplink, and / or sidelink (e.g., DMRS), the signals can be preceded by “DL”, “UL”, or “SL” to differentiate the direction. For example, “UL-DMRS” is different from “DL-DMRS”.

[0109] NR supports multiple cellular network-based positioning techniques, including downlink-based, uplink-based, and downlink-and-uplink-based positioning methods. Downlink-based positioning methods include observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) in LTE, downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA) in NR, and downlink angle of departure (DL-AoD) in NR. In an OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedure, a UE measures the difference between the times of arrival (ToAs) of reference signals (e.g., positioning reference signals (PRS)) received from pairs of base stations, referred to as reference signal time difference (RSTD) or time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements, and reports them to a positioning entity. More specifically, the UE receives the identifiers (IDs) of a reference base station (e.g., a serving base station) and multiple non-reference base stations in assistance data. The UE then measures the RSTD between the reference base station and each non-reference base station. Based on the known locations of the involved base stations and the RSTD measurements, a positioning entity (e.g., a UE for UE-based positioning or a location server for UE-assisted positioning) can estimate the location of the UE.

[0110] For DL-AoD positioning, a positioning entity determines an angle(s) between the UE and the transmitting base station(s) using measurement reports of received signal strength measurements from multiple downlink transmission beams of the UE. The positioning entity can then estimate the location of the UE based on the determined angle(s) and the known location(s) of the transmitting base station(s).

[0111] Uplink-based positioning methods include uplink time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA) and uplink angle of arrival (UL-AoA). UL-TDOA is similar to DL-TDOA, but is based on uplink reference signals (e.g., SRS) transmitted by the UE to multiple base stations. Specifically, the UE transmits one or more uplink reference signals that are measured by a reference base station and multiple non-reference base stations. Each base station then reports the time of reception of the reference signal(s) (called the relative time of arrival (RTOA)) to a positioning entity (e.g., location server) that knows the locations and relative timing of the involved base stations. Based on the reported RTOAs between the reference base station and each non-reference base station, the known locations of the base stations, and their known timing offsets, the positioning entity can estimate the location of the UE using TDOA.

[0112] 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 measurements and the angle(s) of the receive beam(s) to determine the angle(s) between the UE and the base station(s). Based on the determined angle(s) and the known location(s) of the base station(s), the positioning entity can then estimate the location of the UE.

[0113] Downlink- and Uplink-based positioning methods include Enhanced Cell-ID (E-CID) positioning and Multi-RTT positioning (also referred to as “multi-cell RTT” and “Multi-RTT”). In an RTT procedure, a first entity (e.g., a base station or a UE) transmits a first RTT-related signal (e.g., a PRS or an SRS) to a second entity (e.g., a UE or a base station), which transmits a second RTT-related signal (e.g., an SRS or a PRS) back to the first entity. Each entity measures the time difference between the ToA of the received RTT-related signal and the transmission time of the transmitted RTT-related signal. This time difference is referred to as the receive-to-transmit (Rx-Tx) time difference. The Rx-Tx time difference measurement can be made or adjusted to include only the time difference between the closest slot boundaries of the received and transmitted signals. The two entities can then transmit their Rx-Tx time difference measurements to a location server (e.g., LMF 270), which calculates the round-trip propagation time (i.e., RTT) between the two entities from the two Rx-Tx time difference measurements (e.g., as the sum of the two Rx-Tx time difference measurements). Alternatively, one entity can transmit its Rx-Tx time difference measurement to the other entity, which then calculates the RTT. The distance between the two entities can be determined from the RTT and the known speed of signal (e.g., the speed of light). For Multi-RTT positioning, a first entity (e.g., a UE or a base station) performs an RTT positioning procedure with multiple second entities (e.g., multiple base stations or UEs) to enable determination of the location of the first entity based on the distances to the second entities and the known locations of the second entities (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 location accuracy.

[0114] E-CID positioning methods are based on radio resource management (RRM) measurements. In E-CID, a UE reports the serving cell ID, timing advance (TA), and identifiers, estimated timing, and signal strength of detected neighbor base stations. The location of the UE is then estimated based on this information and the known locations of the base station(s).

[0115] To assist in positioning operations, a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) can provide assistance data to a UE. For example, the assistance data can include identifiers of base stations (or cells / TRPs of base stations) from which to measure reference signals, reference signal configuration parameters (e.g., including a number of consecutive time slots comprising a PRS, a periodicity of consecutive time slots comprising a PRS, a muting sequence, a frequency hopping sequence, a reference signal identifier, a reference signal bandwidth, etc.), and / or other parameters applicable to a particular positioning method. Alternatively, the assistance data can come directly from the base stations themselves (e.g., in periodically broadcasted overhead messages, etc.). In some cases, a UE can be able to detect neighboring network nodes themselves without using assistance data.

[0116] In the case of OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedures, the assistance data can also include an expected RSTD value and an associated uncertainty or search window around the expected RSTD. In some cases, the expected RSTD can have a value range of + / - 500 microseconds (ps). In some cases, the uncertainty of the expected RSTD can have a value range of + / - 32 ps when any resources used for positioning measurements are in FR1. In other cases, the uncertainty of the expected RSTD can have a value range of + / - 8 ps when all resources used for positioning measurement(s) are in FR2.

[0117] A location estimate can be referred to by other names, such as a position estimate, a location, a position, a position fix, a fix, etc. A location estimate can be geodetic and include coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude), or can be civic and include a street address, a postal address, or some other verbal description of a location. A location estimate can also be defined relative to some other known location or defined in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude). A location estimate can include an expected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volume within which the location is expected to be included with some specified or default level of confidence).

[0118] Figure 5 FIG. 5 is a diagram 500 illustrating a base station (BS) 502 (which can correspond to any of the BSs described herein) in communication with a UE 504 (which can correspond to any of the UEs described herein). Reference Figure 5, the base station 502 can transmit beamformed signals to the UE 504 on one or more transmit beams 502a, 502b, 502c, 502d, 502e, 502f, 502g, 502h, each having a beam identifier that can be used by the UE 504 to identify the respective beam. In cases where the base station 502 is beamforming with a single antenna array (e.g., a single TRP / cell) toward the UE 504, the base station 502 can perform a“beam sweep” by transmitting the first beam 502a, then the beam 502b, and so on until the last beam 502h. Alternatively, the base station 502 can transmit the beams 502a-502h in some pattern, such as the beam 502a, then the beam 502h, then the beam 502b, then the beam 502g, and so on. In cases where the base station 502 is beamforming with multiple antenna arrays (e.g., multiple TRPs / cells) toward the UE 504, each antenna array can perform a beam sweep of a subset of the beams 502a-502h. Alternatively, each of the beams 502a-502h can correspond to a single antenna or antenna array.

[0119] Figure 5 Paths 512c, 512d, 512e, 512f, and 512g are also shown, which the beamformed signals transmitted on beams 502c, 502d, 502e, 502f, and 502g, respectively, follow. Each path 512c, 512d, 512e, 512f, 512g can correspond to a single“multipath,” or can include multiple“multipaths” (clusters of“multipath”) due to the propagation characteristics of radio frequency (RF) signals through the environment. Note that although only paths for beams 502c-502g are shown, this is for simplicity and signals transmitted on each of beams 502a-502h will follow some path. In the example shown, paths 512c, 512d, 512e, and 512f are straight lines, while path 512g reflects off of an obstacle 520 (e.g., a building, a vehicle, a topographical feature, etc.).

[0120] The UE 504 can receive beamformed signals from the base station 502 on one or more receive beams 504a, 504b, 504c, 504d. Note that for simplicity, Figure 5The beams shown represent either a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on which of the base station 502 and the UE 504 is transmitting and which is receiving. Therefore, the UE 504 can also transmit beamforming signals to the base station 502 on one or more of beams 504a-504d, and the base station 502 can receive beamforming signals from the UE 504 on one or more of beams 502a-502h.

[0121] In one aspect, base station 502 and UE 504 can perform beam training to align their transmit and receive beams. For example, depending on environmental conditions and other factors, base station 502 and UE 504 can determine that the optimal transmit and receive beams are 502d and 504b, or 502e and 502c, respectively. The direction of the optimal transmit beam of base station 502 can be the same as or different from the direction of the optimal receive beam; similarly, the direction of the optimal receive beam of UE 504 can be the same as or different from the direction of the optimal transmit beam. However, it should be noted that aligning the transmit and receive beams is not necessary for performing downlink departure angle (DL-AoD) or uplink arrival angle (UL-AoA) positioning procedures.

[0122] To perform the DL-AoD positioning process, base station 502 can transmit reference signals (e.g., PRS, CRS, TRS, CSI-RS, PSS, SSS, etc.) to UE 504 on one or more of beams 502a-502h, each beam having a different transmission angle. The different transmission angles of the beams will result in different received signal strengths (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, etc.) at UE 504. Specifically, the received signal strength of the transmission beams 502a-502h that are farther from the line-of-sight (LOS) path 510 between base station 502 and UE 504 will be lower than that of the transmission beams 502a-502h that are closer to the LOS path 510.

[0123] exist Figure 5 In the example, if base station 502 transmits reference signals to UE 504 on beams 502c, 502d, 502e, 502f, and 502g, then transmit beam 502e is optimally aligned with LOS path 510, while transmit beams 502c, 502d, 502f, and 502g are not optimally aligned. Thus, beam 502e may have a higher received signal strength at UE 504 than beams 502c, 502d, 502f, and 502g. Note that reference signals transmitted on some beams (e.g., beams 502c and / or 502f) may not reach UE 504, or the energy reaching UE 504 from these beams may be so low that it may be undetectable or at least negligible.

[0124] The UE 504 can report to the base station 502 the received signal strength of each measured transmission beam 502c-502g, and alternatively, the associated measurement quality, or alternatively, the identity of the transmission beam with the highest received signal strength (beam 502e in the example of FIG. 5). Alternatively or additionally, if the UE 504 also participates in an RTT or TDOA positioning session with at least one base station 502 or multiple base stations 502, respectively, the UE 504 can report to the serving base station 502 or other positioning entity, respectively, a received-to-transmitted (Rx-Tx) time difference or RSTD measurement (and optionally the associated measurement quality). In any case, the positioning entity (e.g., base station 502, location server, third-party client, UE 504, etc.) can estimate the angle from the base station 502 to the UE 504 as the AoD of the transmission beam with the highest received signal strength at the UE 504 (here, transmission beam 502e). Figure 5

[0125] In one aspect of DL-AoD-based positioning, in the case of only one involved base station 502, the base station 502 and the UE 504 can perform an RTT procedure to determine the distance between the base station 502 and the UE 504. Thus, the positioning entity can determine both the direction to the UE 504 (using DL-AoD positioning) and the distance to the UE 504 (using RTT positioning) to estimate the location of the UE 504. Note that the AoD of the transmission beam with the highest received signal strength does not necessarily lie on the LOS path 510, as shown in FIG. 5. However, it is assumed to do so for DL-AoD-based positioning purposes. Figure 5

[0126] In another aspect of DL-AoD-based positioning, in the case of multiple involved base stations 502, each involved base station 502 can report to the serving base station 502 the determined AoD from the respective base station 502 to the UE 504, or the RSRP measurement. The serving base station 502 can then report to the positioning entity (e.g., the UE 504 for UE-based positioning or a location server for UE-assisted positioning) the AoDs or RSRP measurements from the other involved base station(s) 502. With this information and knowledge of the geographic locations of the base stations 502, the positioning entity can estimate the location of the UE 504 as the intersection of the determined AoDs. For a two-dimensional (2D) positioning solution, there should be at least two involved base stations 502, but it will be understood that the more base stations 502 involved in the positioning procedure, the more accurate the estimated location of the UE 504.

[0127] ​​To perform the UL-AoA positioning procedure, the UE 504 transmits uplink reference signals (e.g., UL-PRS, SRS, DMRS, etc.) on one or more of the uplink transmit beams 504a-504d to the base station 502. The base station 502 receives the uplink reference signals on one or more of the uplink receive beams 502a-502h. The base station 502 determines the angle of the best receive beam 502a-502h used to receive the one or more reference signals from the UE 504 as the AoA from the UE 504 to itself. Specifically, each receive beam 502a-502h will result in a different received signal strength (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, etc.) of the one or more reference signals at the base station 502. Moreover, for receive beams 502a-502h that are farther from the actual LOS path between the base station 502 and the UE 504, the channel impulse response of the one or more reference signals will be less than for receive beams 502a-502h that are closer to the LOS path. Likewise, for receive beams 502a-502h that are farther from the LOS path, the received signal strength will be lower than for receive beams 502a-502h that are closer to the LOS path. As such, the base station 502 identifies the receive beam 502a-502h that results in the highest received signal strength and, optionally, the strongest channel impulse response, and estimates the angle from itself to the UE 504 as the AoA of that receive beam 502a-502h. Note that, as with DL-AoD-based positioning, the AoA of the receive beam 502a-502h that results in the highest received signal strength (and strongest channel impulse response, if measured) is not necessarily along the LOS path 510. However, for UL-AoA-based positioning purposes in FR2, it can be assumed that it is.

[0128] Note that while the UE 504 is shown as capable of beamforming, this is not necessary for the DL-AoD and UL-AoA positioning procedures. Rather, the UE 504 can receive and transmit on an omnidirectional antenna.

[0129] In the case that the UE 504 is estimating its location (i.e., the UE is the positioning entity), it needs to obtain the geographic locations of the base stations 502. The UE 504 can obtain the locations from, for example, the base stations 502 themselves or a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272). Knowing the range to the base stations 502 (based on RTT or TA), the angle between the base stations 502 and the UE 504 (based on the UL-AoA of the best receive beam 502a-502h), and the known geographic locations of the base stations 502, the UE 504 can estimate its location.

[0130] Alternatively, in cases where a positioning entity (such as a base station 502 or a location server) is estimating the location of the UE 504, the base station 502 reports the AoA of the receive beams 502a-502h that result in the highest received signal strength (and optionally, the strongest channel impulse response) of the reference signal received from the UE 504, or all of the received signal strengths and channel impulse responses of all of the receive beams 502a-502h (which allows the positioning entity to determine the best receive beam 502a-502h). The base station 502 can additionally report the Rx-Tx time difference to the UE 504. The positioning entity can then estimate the location of the UE 504 based on the distance of the UE 504 to the base station 502, the AoA of the identified receive beam 502a-502h, and the known geographic location of the base station 502.

[0131] Figure 6 is a plot 600 representing a channel impulse response of a multipath channel between a receiver device (e.g., any of the UEs or base stations described herein) and a transmitter device (e.g., any of the other UEs or base stations described herein) according to aspects of the present disclosure. The channel impulse response represents the strength of an RF signal received through the multipath channel as a function of time delay. Thus, the horizontal axis is in units of time (e.g., milliseconds), and the vertical axis is in units of signal strength (e.g., decibels). Note that the multipath channel is the channel between the transmitter and receiver, and the RF signal follows multiple paths or multipaths on this channel due to transmission of the RF signal on multiple beams and / or propagation characteristics of the RF signal (e.g., reflections, refractions, etc.).

[0132] In the example of Figure 6 , the receiver detects / measures a cluster of multiple (four) channel taps. Each channel tap represents a multipath that the RF signal follows between the transmitter and receiver. That is, the channel tap represents an arrival of the RF signal on the multipath and / or from the attacker. Each cluster of channel taps indicates that the corresponding multipaths substantially follow the same path. There can be different clusters due to the RF signal being transmitted on different transmit beams (and thus different angles), or due to propagation characteristics of the RF signal (e.g., potentially following different paths due to reflections), or both.

[0133] All of the clusters of channel taps for a given RF signal represent the multipath channel (or simply channel) between the transmitter and receiver. In the example of Figure 6 , the receiver receives a first cluster of two RF signals on the channel taps at time T1, a second cluster of five RF signals on the channel taps at time T2, a third cluster of five RF signals on the channel taps at time T3, and a fourth cluster of four RF signals on the channel taps at time T4. In the example of Figure 6In the example of FIG. 6, because the first cluster of RF signals at time T1 arrives first, it is assumed to correspond to RF signals transmitted on a transmit beam aligned with the LOS or shortest path. The third cluster at time T3 is composed of the strongest RF signals and can correspond to, for example, RF signals transmitted on a transmit beam aligned with a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) path. Note that although Figure 6 Clusters of two to five channel taps are shown, but as will be appreciated, a cluster can have more or fewer channel taps than shown.

[0134] In some cases, both uplink-based positioning procedures (e.g., UL-AoA, UL-TDOA, etc.) and downlink-based positioning procedures (e.g., DL-AoD, DL-TDOA, etc.) can be used to determine the location of a UE. In such cases, the UE can transmit a report of uplink reference signals (for uplink-based positioning) and downlink channel characteristics (e.g., ToA, RSRP, channel impulse response, etc. for each measured transmit beam) that the UE estimates from downlink reference signals received from the base station (for downlink-based positioning). Regardless of whether a downlink-based positioning procedure, an uplink-based positioning procedure, or both are performed, the base station needs to report channel information to a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272, which can or can not be co-located with the base station) to enable the location server to estimate the location of the UE.

[0135] More specifically, the base station can estimate a channel profile of the channel between itself and the UE (e.g., the time and / or angular properties of the channel, referred to herein as a “time-angle channel profile”) and an associated quality metric, and then report this information to the location server. The time-angle channel profile can include the signal strength (e.g., RSRP) of the top N channel taps (i.e., the N channel taps with the highest signal strength) for each of the M beams, the time delay (e.g., ToA) of the top N channel taps for each of the M beams, the angular value for each of the M beams, the SINR of the channel, or any combination thereof. For downlink-based positioning, this information (except for the angular value for each of the M beams) would be reported by the UE for downlink reference signals received at the UE, while for uplink-based positioning, this information would be determined by the base station based on uplink reference signals received from the UE. If both downlink- and uplink-based positioning procedures are performed, the base station would report both the channel information received from the UE and the channel information determined from uplink reference signals received from the UE.

[0136] Based on the channel information received from the base stations, the location server can compute the location of the UE by deriving positioning metrics such as ToA, AoA, and / or AoD from the received channel profiles. It can also fuse information from multiple base stations, if any, to improve accuracy. Currently, however, it is expected that the base stations themselves derive this information and provide ToA, AoA, and / or AoD to the location server. However, if the location server has access to the time-angle channel profile, it can exploit the interdependence between time and angle (e.g., in NLOS scenarios) to improve positioning accuracy. Additionally, it would be beneficial if the base stations were able to signal the time-angle channel profile to the location server in a compressed manner to reduce signaling overhead.

[0137] Accordingly, the present disclosure provides various techniques to enable a base station to compress a time-angle channel profile for transmission to a location server. In a first implementation, the base station can compress the time-angle channel profile in the form of a truncated power-delay profile (TPDP) in one-dimensional (ID) or two-dimensional (2D) representation. The base station can then report the channel profile to the location server as a TPDP.

[0138] A power delay profile (PDP) indicates the strength of an RF signal received through a multipath channel as a function of time delay (e.g., as shown in Figure 6 The time delay is the difference in arrival time between the multipaths (e.g., the ToA of each channel tap, or the ToA of each cluster of channel taps, such as T1, T2, T3, etc. in Figure 6 If represented as a plot, the horizontal axis is in units of time (e.g., milliseconds), while the vertical axis is in units of signal strength (e.g., decibels). A TPDP is a PDP that is compressed to convey the same information as a PDP but using less signaling overhead.

[0139] In this disclosure, the 1D TPDP can include the signal strength (e.g., RSRP) of the first N channel taps of each of the M beams, the time delay of the first N channel taps of each of the M beams, an angle value associated with each of the M beams, the SINR of the multipath channel, or any combination thereof. The M beams can be the measured downlink transmit beams for a downlink-based positioning session or the uplink receive beams for an uplink-based positioning session. Alternatively, when both are performed, there can be one set of M beams for downlink-based positioning and another set of M beams for uplink-based positioning. As yet another alternative, there can be one set of M beams for both downlink-based and uplink-based positioning. The angle value associated with each of the M beams would be the transmit angle for the downlink transmit beams (for downlink-based positioning) and the receive angle for the uplink receive beams (for uplink-based positioning).

[0140] In one aspect, the beams (whether transmitted or received) can be uniformly or non-uniformly separated in angle. If they are non-uniformly separated, the angle value report would need to include the absolute angle value for each beam. But if they are uniformly separated, the angle value report can simply include the angle separation and the number of beams.

[0141] In one aspect, a beam-averaged version of the 1D TPDP can be reported. That is, instead of reporting the signal strength and time delay of the first N channel taps of each of the M beams, the base station can simply report the average signal strength and time delay for each of the M beams.

[0142] The 2D TPDP can include a table of beam indices for the delay values. For example, each row can represent a quantized beam index (e.g., 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.) or a channel tap for each beam index, and each column can represent a quantized delay value (e.g., 0 ms, 1 ms, 2 ms, 3 ms, etc.). The value of each cell would be the signal strength (e.g., in decibels) of that beam or channel tap at that time. In the case where the base station reports the signal strength for each beam instead of each channel tap, the signal strength can be the average signal strength of all channel taps or the first N channel taps for that beam. In the case where the base station reports the signal strength for each channel tap, the table can be truncated to the first N channel taps for each reported beam. For example, the base station can report four channel taps for each of three beams, which means that the table would have 12 (i.e., 4*3) rows, with groups of four rows corresponding to the same beam and having the same beam index. The base station can send this table, along with the set of quantized angle values for the beams and the SINR for the channels, as the TPDP report.

[0143] The quantization and delay of beams can be uniform or non-uniform. For example, the ToA of a channel tap can be the closest multiple of 1 ms or an absolute value. In the former case, the base station needs to report the absolute value of the ToA. In the latter case, the quantization information can include the number of quantized bins and the bin size. For example, each column header can be an integer number of milliseconds (e.g., 0 ms, 1 ms, 2 ms, 3 ms, etc.) and the channel taps can be assigned to the integer multiple of milliseconds that is closest to their actual time of detection. The base station would then report the number of columns, the uniform increment between columns (e.g., 1 ms), and then report which column a particular channel tap belongs to.

[0144] In another implementation, the time-angle channel profile can be in the form of a neural network whose weights are reported to the location server for machine learning purposes. Machine learning can be used to generate models that can be used to facilitate various aspects associated with data processing. Machine learning models are generally classified as supervised or unsupervised. Supervised models can be further sub-classified as regression or classification models. Supervised learning includes learning a function that maps input to output based on example input-output pairs. For example, given a training dataset with two variables, age (input) and height (output), a supervised learning model can be generated to predict a person’s height based on their age. In a regression model, the output is continuous. One example of a regression model is linear regression, which simply tries to find a line that best fits the data. Extensions of linear regression include multiple linear regression (e.g., finding a best fit plane) and polynomial regression (e.g., finding a best fit curve).

[0145] Another example of a machine learning model is a decision tree model. In a decision tree model, a tree structure is defined with multiple nodes. Decisions are used to move from a root node at the top of the decision tree to a leaf node (i.e., a node with no other child nodes) at the bottom of the decision tree. Generally, a higher number of nodes in a decision tree model is correlated with a higher decision accuracy.

[0146] Another example of a machine learning model is a decision forest. A random forest is an ensemble learning technique built on top of decision trees. A random forest involves creating multiple decision trees using bootstrapped datasets of the original data and randomly selecting a subset of variables at each step of the decision tree. The model then selects the mode of all the predictions of each decision tree. By relying on a “majority wins” model, the risk of a single tree making a mistake is reduced.

[0147] Another example of a machine learning model is a neural network (NN). A neural network is essentially a network of mathematical equations. A neural network takes one or more input variables and, through the network of equations, produces one or more output variables. In other words, a neural network takes an input vector and returns an output vector.

[0148] Figure 7 An example neural network 700 is shown in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The neural network 700 includes an input layer i that receives n input(s) (shown as "input 1," "input 2," and "input n"), one or more hidden layers (shown as hidden layers "hi," "h2," and "h3") to process the inputs from the input layer, and an output layer o that provides m output(s) (labeled "output 1" and "output m"). The number of inputs n, hidden layers h, and outputs m can be the same or different. In some designs, the hidden layers h can include linear function(s) and / or activation function(s), with the nodes (shown as circles) of each successive hidden layer processing these functions from the nodes of the previous hidden layer.

[0149] In a classification model, the output is discrete. One example of a classification model is logistic regression. Logistic regression is similar to linear regression, but is used to model the probability of a finite number of output results, typically two. In essence, the logistic equation is created in such a way that the output value can only be between "0" and "1." Another example of a classification model is a support vector machine. For example, for two classes of data, a support vector machine will find a hyperplane or boundary between the two classes of data to maximize the margin between the two classes. There are many planes that can separate the two classes, but only one plane that can maximize the margin or distance between the classes. Another example of a classification model is Naive Bayes (Bayes) based on Bayes' theorem. Other examples of classification models include decision trees, random forests, and neural networks, similar to the examples above, except that the output is discrete rather than continuous.

[0150] Unlike supervised learning, unsupervised learning is used to draw inferences and find patterns from input data without reference to labeled output results. Two examples of unsupervised learning models include clustering and dimensionality reduction.

[0151] ​Clustering is an unsupervised technique that involves grouping or clustering of data points. Clustering is often used for customer segmentation, fraud detection, and document classification. Common clustering techniques include k-means clustering, hierarchical clustering, mean shift clustering, and density-based clustering. Dimensionality reduction is the process of reducing the number of random variables under consideration by obtaining a set of principal variables. Simply put, dimensionality reduction is the process of reducing the dimensionality of a feature set (more simply, reducing the number of features). Most dimensionality reduction techniques can be classified as feature elimination or feature extraction. One example of dimensionality reduction is called principal component analysis (PCA). In the simplest sense, PCA involves projecting higher dimensional data (e.g., three-dimensional) into a smaller space (e.g., two-dimensional). This results in lower dimensional data (e.g., two-dimensional instead of three-dimensional) while preserving all of the original variables in the model.

[0152] Regardless of which machine learning model is used, at a high level, the machine learning module (e.g., implemented by a processing system such as one or more processors 332, 384, or 394) can be configured to iteratively analyze training input data (e.g., measurements of reference signals to / from various target UEs) and associate that training input data with an output data set (e.g., a set of possible or potential candidate locations for the various target UEs), enabling the same output data set to be later determined when presented with similar input data (e.g., from other target UEs at the same or similar locations).

[0153] In this disclosure, a base station can compress a channel profile and send the compressed representation along with the weights of a neural network that can be used to decompress the compressed representation. A location server can input the compressed version into a neural network of the same type, apply the received weights, and derive / decompress the channel profile.

[0154] For example, Figure 8 is a schematic diagram 800 illustrating an example in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, in which an encoder neural network is used to compress a time-angle channel profile and a decoder is used to decompress the time-angle channel profile. At the base station, the time-angle channel profile is input to an encoder neural network 810 (labeled “Encoder NN”). The encoder neural network 810 outputs a compressed representation of the time-angle channel profile, along with the weights needed to decompress the compressed representation. The base station then sends the compressed representation of the time-angle channel profile and the weights needed to decompress the compressed representation to a location server.

[0155] At the location server, the compressed representation of the time-angle channel profile and the weights needed to decompress the compressed representation are input to a decoder neural network 820 (labeled “Decoder NN”). The decoder neural network 820 applies the weights to the compressed representation and generates the original time-angle channel profile. The location server can then use the time-angle channel profile to determine, for example, the DL-AoD and / or UL-AoA between the positioned UE and the base station.

[0156] In both of the above implementations (i.e., the TPDP implementation and the neural network implementation), the signal strengths, time delays, and angles can be reported as absolute values or relative to a reference value. For example, the reference value can be a median signal strength across beams, a median time delay across beams, an estimated ToA, an estimated AoA, an estimated AoD, etc. Each reported value can also be truncated to a certain range, either in absolute terms (e.g., not more than three decimal points) or truncated to a range around the reference value (e.g., not more than 10 ms around the estimated ToA).

[0157] In one aspect, if the angle values are reported as absolute values, they can be reported in a local (to the base station) coordinate system or a global coordinate system. The angles can also be azimuth angles (measured along the horizontal or x-axis) or elevation angles (measured along the vertical or z-axis). If both azimuth and elevation angles are reported, the base station can report two sets of TPDPs or neural network reports, one set for azimuth and one set for elevation. In some cases, the base station can also report a three-dimensional (3D) TPDP with {time, azimuth, elevation} axes.

[0158] Figure 9 An example method 900 of wireless positioning is shown in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In one aspect, the method 900 can be performed by a base station (e.g., any of the base stations described herein).

[0159] At 910, the base station determines a channel profile (e.g., a time-angle channel profile) of a multipath channel between the base station and a UE (e.g., any of the UEs described herein) based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams. For example, in a case that the base station is conducting an uplink-based positioning procedure with the UE, the at least one positioning reference signal can be an uplink positioning reference signal and the one or more radio beams can be one or more uplink receive beams. In a case that the base station is conducting a downlink-based positioning procedure with the UE, the at least one positioning reference signal can be a downlink positioning reference signal and the one or more radio beams can be one or more downlink transmit beams. In one aspect, operation 910 can be performed by the one or more WWAN transceivers 350, the one or more network transceivers 380, the one or more processors 384, the memory 386, and / or the positioning component 388, any or all of which can be considered means for performing this operation.

[0160] At 920, the base station compresses the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile. For example, the compressed representation can be a 1D or 2D TPDP or neural network representation of the channel profile. In one aspect, operation 920 can be performed by the one or more WWAN transceivers 350, the one or more network transceivers 380, the one or more processors 384, the memory 386, and / or the positioning component 388, any or all of which can be considered means for performing this operation.

[0161] At 930, the base station transmits the compressed representation of the channel profile to a network entity (e.g., the location server 230, the LMF 270, the SLP 272) to enable the network entity to determine a location of the UE. In one aspect, operation 930 can be performed by the one or more WWAN transceivers 350, the one or more network transceivers 380, the one or more processors 384, the memory 386, and / or the positioning component 388, any or all of which can be considered means for performing this operation.

[0162] Figure 10 An example method 1000 of wireless positioning is shown in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In one aspect, the method 1000 can be performed by a network entity (e.g., the location server 230, the LMF 270, the SLP 272).

[0163] At 1010, the network entity receives, from a base station (e.g., any of the base stations described herein), a compressed representation of a channel profile (e.g., a time-angle channel profile) of a multipath channel between the base station and a UE (e.g., any of the UEs described herein), the channel profile based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to or received from the UE on one or more radio beams. For example, in a case that the base station is conducting an uplink-based positioning procedure with the UE, the at least one positioning reference signal can be an uplink positioning reference signal and the one or more radio beams can be one or more uplink receive beams. In a case that the base station is conducting a downlink-based positioning procedure with the UE, the at least one positioning reference signal can be a downlink positioning reference signal and the one or more radio beams can be one or more downlink transmit beams. In one aspect, the compressed representation can be a ID or 2D TPDP or neural network representation of the channel profile. In one aspect, operations 1010 can be performed by the one or more network transceivers 390, the one or more processors 394, the memory 396, and / or the positioning component 398, any or all of which can be considered means for performing the operations described herein.

[0164] At 1020, the network entity determines a location of the UE based on the channel profile. For example, the location server can use uplink-based or downlink-based positioning techniques based on the compressed representations of the channel profiles from the base station and possibly additional base stations to determine the location of the UE. In one aspect, operations 1030 can be performed by the one or more network transceivers 390, the one or more processors 394, the memory 396, and / or the positioning component 398, any or all of which can be considered means for performing the operations described herein.

[0165] As will be appreciated, the technical advantage of the method 900 and the method 1000 is that by reporting a time-angle channel profile, the base station enables the location server to use both time and angle information to exploit any interdependence between time and angle to obtain a more accurate positioning of the UE. Additionally, the location server is allowed to fuse channel information from multiple base stations to improve the positioning accuracy of the UE.

[0166] In the detailed description above, various features are grouped together in examples. This manner of disclosure should not be understood as an intention that the example clauses are to be taken exclusively, and that only a specific combination of features from a particular example clause can be present in a claim. Rather, each aspect of the disclosure can include fewer than all features of a disclosed example clause. Therefore, the following clauses should be construed in such manner: the description is to be taken in the specification as an entirety, with each clause in the specification capable of standing on its own as a separate example. While each dependent clause can refer to a particular combination of features in the subject matter of one of the other clauses, aspects of that dependent clause are not limited to that particular combination. It is to be understood that other example clauses can also include combinations of aspects of dependent clauses with the subject matter of any other dependent clause or independent clause, or combinations of aspects with any features of other dependent and independent clauses. The various aspects disclosed herein expressly include these combinations unless a particular combination is explicitly expressed to not be intended (e.g., contradictory aspects such as defining an element as both an insulator and a conductor). Further, it is also intended that aspects of one clause can be included in any other independent clause, even if the clause does not directly depend on the independent clause.

[0167] The following numbered clauses describe implementations of examples:

[0168] Clause 1. A method of wireless positioning performed by a base station, comprising: determining a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE) based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; compressing the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile; and transmitting the compressed representation of the channel profile to a network entity to enable the network entity to determine a location of the UE.

[0169] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams having a highest signal strength, a time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0170] Clause 3. The method of clause 2, wherein the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams comprises an absolute angle value based on an angular non-uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams.

[0171] Clause 4. The method of clause 2, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises an angular separation between each of the one or more radio beams and a number of the one or more radio beams based on an angular uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams.

[0172] Clause 5. The method of any of clauses 2-4, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises absolute values of the signal strengths, the time delays, the angle values, or any combination thereof.

[0173] Clause 6. The method of any of clauses 2-4, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises values of the signal strengths, the time delays, the angle values, or any combination thereof relative to corresponding reference values.

[0174] Clause 7. The method of clause 6, wherein: the reference values for the signal strengths comprise median signal strengths across the one or more radio beams, the reference values for the time delays comprise estimated times of arrival (ToAs) for the multipath channel, the reference values for the angle values comprise estimated angles of arrival (AoAs) for the multipath channel, or any combination thereof.

[0175] Clause 8. The method of any of clauses 2-7, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises the angle values in a local coordinate system for each of the one or more radio beams.

[0176] Clause 9. The method of any of clauses 2-7, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises the angle values in a global coordinate system for each of the one or more radio beams.

[0177] Clause 10. The method of any of clauses 2-9, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises an azimuth angle, an elevation angle, or both, of the angle values for each of the one or more radio beams.

[0178] Clause 11. The method of any of clauses 1-10, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an average signal strength of one or more channel taps for each of the one or more radio beams, an average time delay of one or more channel taps for each of the one or more radio beams, a SINR measurement for the multipath channel, an angle value for each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0179] Clause 12. The method of any of clauses 1-11, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more uplink receive beams, the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one uplink positioning reference signal, and determining the channel profile comprises: receiving the at least one uplink positioning reference signal from the UE on the one or more uplink receive beams; and determining the channel profile based on measurements of the at least one uplink positioning reference signal and angles of the one or more uplink receive beams.

[0180] Clause 13. The method of any of clauses 1-11, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more downlink transmit beams, the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one downlink positioning reference signal, and determining the channel profile comprises: transmitting the at least one downlink positioning reference signal to the UE on the one or more downlink transmit beams; and receiving a report from the UE indicating downlink channel characteristics of the multipath channel based on the at least one downlink positioning reference signal.

[0181] Clause 14. The method of clause 13, wherein the downlink channel characteristics comprise at least: a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more downlink transmit beams, a time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more downlink transmit beams, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, or any combination thereof.

[0182] Clause 15. The method of any of clauses 13-14, wherein determining the channel profile further comprises: determining an angular value for each of the one or more downlink transmit beams based on the report identifying the one or more downlink transmit beams.

[0183] Clause 16. The method of any of clauses 1-15, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a two-dimensional (2D) table having rows identified by beam indices and columns identified by time delay values, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of a beam index at a corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angular value for each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0184] Clause 17. The method of clause 16, wherein the 2D table includes only a threshold number of channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams having a highest signal strength, the 2D table includes only a threshold number of radio beams and corresponding angles, or any combination thereof.

[0185] Clause 18. The method of any of clauses 16-17, wherein the beam indices and time delay values of the 2D table are uniformly quantized.

[0186] Clause 19. The method of clause 18, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile includes a number and a size of the quantization of the beam indices and time delay values.

[0187] Clause 20. The method of any of clauses 1-19, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

[0188] Clause 21. The method of any of clauses 1-20, wherein compressing the channel configuration file comprises: inputting the channel configuration file to a neural network; and receiving, as output from the neural network, the compressed representation of the channel configuration file and one or more weights to enable the neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel configuration file, the method further comprising: transmitting the one or more weights to the network entity.

[0189] Clause 22. The method of any of clauses 1-21, wherein the network entity comprises a location server.

[0190] Clause 23. The method of any of clauses 1-22, wherein the base station participates in an uplink-based positioning procedure, a downlink-based positioning procedure, or both, with the UE.

[0191] Clause 24. A method of wireless positioning performed by a network entity, comprising: receiving, from a base station, a compressed representation of a channel configuration file of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE), the channel configuration file based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; and determining a location of the UE based on the compressed representation of the channel configuration file.

[0192] Clause 25. The method of clause 24, wherein the compressed representation of the channel configuration file comprises: a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of one or more radio beams having a highest signal strength, a time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0193] Clause 26. The method of clause 25, wherein the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams comprises an absolute angle value based on an angular non-uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams.

[0194] Clause 27. The method of clause 25, wherein the compressed representation of the channel configuration file comprises an angular separation between each of the one or more radio beams and a number of the one or more radio beams based on an angular uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams.

[0195] Clause 28. The method of any of clauses 25-27, wherein the compressed representation of the channel configuration file comprises absolute values of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value, or any combination thereof.

[0196] Clause 29. The method of any of clauses 25-27, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises values of signal strengths, time delays, angle values, or any combination thereof relative to corresponding reference values.

[0197] Clause 30. The method of clause 29, wherein: the reference values of signal strengths comprise median signal strengths across one or more radio beams, the reference values of time delays comprise estimated times of arrival (ToAs) of the multipath channel, the reference values of angle values comprise estimated angles of arrival (AoAs) of the multipath channel, or any combination thereof.

[0198] Clause 31. The method of any of clauses 25-30, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises angle values of each of the one or more radio beams in a local coordinate system.

[0199] Clause 32. The method of any of clauses 25-30, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises angle values of each of the one or more radio beams in a global coordinate system.

[0200] Clause 33. The method of any of clauses 25-32, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises azimuth, elevation, or both of the angle values of each of the one or more radio beams.

[0201] Clause 34. The method of any of clauses 24-33, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: average signal strengths of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, average time delays of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, angle values of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0202] Clause 35. The method of any of clauses 24-34, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more uplink receive beams, and the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one uplink positioning reference signal.

[0203] Clause 36. The method of any of clauses 24-34, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more downlink transmit beams, and the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one downlink positioning reference signal.

[0204] Clause 37. The method of any of clauses 24-36, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a two-dimensional (2D) table having rows identified by beam indices and columns identified by time delay values, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of the beam indices at the corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angular value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0205] Clause 38. The method of clause 37, wherein the 2D table includes only a threshold number of channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams having a highest signal strength, the 2D table includes only a threshold number of radio beams and corresponding angles, or any combination thereof.

[0206] Clause 39. The method of any of clauses 37-38, wherein the beam indices and time delay values of the 2D table are uniformly quantized.

[0207] Clause 40. The method of clause 39, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile includes a number and a size of the quantization of the beam indices and time delay values.

[0208] Clause 41. The method of any of clauses 24-40, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

[0209] Clause 42. The method of any of clauses 24-41, wherein: receiving the compressed representation of the channel profile further comprises receiving one or more weights to enable a decoder neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel profile, the method further comprising: inputting the compressed representation of the channel profile and the one or more weights into the decoder neural network; and receiving, as output from the decoder neural network, the channel profile.

[0210] Clause 43. The method of any of clauses 24-42, further comprising: configuring the base station to report the compressed representation of the channel profile of the multipath channel between the base station and the UE.

[0211] Clause 44. The method of clause 43, wherein the configuring further comprises: configuring the base station with a time range during which the base station is expected to provide the channel profile, configuring the base station with an angular range within which the base station is expected to provide the channel profile, or any combination thereof.

[0212] Clause 45. The method of any of clauses 43-44, wherein the configuring further comprises: configuring the base station with a format of the channel profile, a quantization of angular and delay bin numbers, a reference value of angular and delay bin numbers, or any combination thereof.

[0213] Clause 46. The method of any of clauses 24 to 45, wherein the network entity comprises a location server.

[0214] Clause 47. 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, at least one transceiver, and at least one processor configured to perform the method of any of clauses 1 to 46.

[0215] Clause 48. An apparatus comprising means for performing the method of any of clauses 1 to 46.

[0216] Clause 49. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising at least one instruction for causing a computer or processor to perform the method of any of clauses 1 to 46.

[0217] The following numbered clauses describe additional implementation examples:

[0218] Clause 1. A method of wireless positioning performed by a base station, comprising: determining a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE) based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; compressing the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile; and transmitting the compressed representation of the channel profile to a network entity to enable the network entity to determine a location of the UE.

[0219] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams having a highest signal strength, a time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0220] Clause 3. The method of clause 2, wherein: the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams comprises an absolute angle value based on an angular non-uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams, or the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises an angular spacing between each of the one or more radio beams and a number of the one or more radio beams based on an angular uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams.

[0221] Clause 4. The method of any of clauses 2-3, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: absolute values of signal strengths, time delays, angular values of one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, or relative values of signal strengths, time delays, angular values of one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, relative to corresponding reference values.

[0222] Clause 5. The method of clause 4, wherein: the reference values of signal strengths comprise median signal strengths across one or more radio beams, the reference values of time delays comprise estimated times of arrival (ToAs) of the multipath channel, the reference values of angular values comprise estimated angles of arrival (AoAs) of the multipath channel, or any combination thereof.

[0223] Clause 6. The method of any of clauses 2-5, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: angular values of each of the one or more radio beams in a local coordinate system, or angular values of each of the one or more radio beams in a global coordinate system.

[0224] Clause 7. The method of any of clauses 1-6, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: average signal strengths of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, average time delays of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, SINR measurements of the multipath channel, angular values of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0225] Clause 8. The method of any of clauses 1-7, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more uplink receive beams, the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one uplink positioning reference signal, and determining the channel profile comprises: receiving the at least one uplink positioning reference signal from the UE on the one or more uplink receive beams; and determining the channel profile based on measurements of the at least one uplink positioning reference signal and angles of the one or more uplink receive beams.

[0226] Clause 9. The method of any of clauses 1-8, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more downlink transmit beams, the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one downlink positioning reference signal, and determining the channel profile comprises: transmitting the at least one downlink positioning reference signal to the UE on the one or more downlink transmit beams; and receiving a report from the UE indicating downlink channel characteristics of the multipath channel based on the at least one downlink positioning reference signal.

[0227] Clause 10. The method of any of clauses 1-9, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a two-dimensional (2D) table having rows identified by beam indices and columns identified by time delay values, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of the beam indices at the corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0228] Clause 11. The method of clause 10, wherein the 2D table includes only a threshold number of channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams having a highest signal strength, the 2D table includes only a threshold number of radio beams and corresponding angles, or any combination thereof.

[0229] Clause 12. The method of any of clauses 10-11, wherein the beam indices and time delay values of the 2D table are uniformly quantized.

[0230] Clause 13. The method of clause 12, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile includes a number and a size of the quantization of the beam indices and time delay values.

[0231] Clause 14. The method of any of clauses 1-13, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

[0232] Clause 15. The method of any of clauses 1-14, wherein compressing the channel profile comprises: inputting the channel profile to a neural network; and receiving, as output from the neural network, the compressed representation of the channel profile and one or more weights to enable the neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel profile, and wherein the method further comprises: transmitting the one or more weights to a network entity.

[0233] Clause 16. A method of wireless positioning performed by a network entity, comprising: receiving, from a base station, a compressed representation of a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE), the channel profile based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted to the UE on one or more radio beams or received by the base station from the UE; and determining a location of the UE based on the compressed representation of the channel profile.

[0234] Clause 17. The method of clause 16, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams with the highest signal strength, a time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0235] Clause 18. The method of clause 17, wherein: the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams comprises an absolute angle value based on the angle being non-uniformly spaced of the one or more radio beams, or the angle of the one or more radio beams is based on being uniformly spaced, the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises an angle spacing between each of the one or more radio beams and a number of the one or more radio beams.

[0236] Clause 19. The method of any one of clauses 17 to 18, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an absolute value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, or a relative value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof relative to a corresponding reference value.

[0237] Clause 20. The method of any one of clauses 17 to 19, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a local coordinate system, or an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a global coordinate system.

[0238] Clause 21. The method of any one of clauses 16 to 20, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an average signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, an average time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0239] Clause 22. The method of any one of clauses 16 to 21, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a two-dimensional (2D) table with rows identified by a beam index and columns identified by a time delay value, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of the beam index at the corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0240] Clause 23. The method of clause 22, wherein the 2D table includes only a threshold number of channel taps for each of the one or more radio beams with the highest signal strength, the 2D table includes only the threshold number of radio beams and corresponding angles, or any combination thereof.

[0241] Clause 24. The method of any of clauses 16 to 23, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile includes a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

[0242] Clause 25. The method of any of clauses 16 to 24, wherein: receiving the compressed representation of the channel profile further includes receiving one or more weights to enable a decoder neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel profile, the method further comprising: inputting the compressed representation of the channel profile and the one or more weights into the decoder neural network; and receiving, as output from the decoder neural network, the channel profile.

[0243] Clause 26. The method of any of clauses 16 to 25, further comprising: configuring the base station to report the compressed representation of the channel profile of the multipath channel between the base station and the UE.

[0244] Clause 27. The method of clause 26, wherein the configuring further comprises: configuring the base station with a time range during which the base station is expected to provide the channel profile, configuring the base station with an angular range within which the base station is expected to provide the channel profile, or any combination thereof.

[0245] Clause 28. The method of any of clauses 26 or 27, wherein the configuring further comprises: configuring the base station with a format of the channel profile, a quantization of the angular and delay bin numbers, reference values for the angular and delay bin numbers, or any combination thereof.

[0246] Clause 29. A base station 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: determine a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE) based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; compress the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile; and transmit, via the at least one transceiver, the compressed representation of the channel profile to a network entity to enable the network entity to determine a position of the UE.

[0247] Clause 30. The base station of clause 29, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams with the highest signal strength, a time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0248] Clause 31. The base station of clause 30, wherein: the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams comprises an absolute angle value based on an angular non-uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams, or the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises an angular separation between each of the one or more radio beams and a number of the one or more radio beams based on an angular uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams.

[0249] Clause 32. The base station of any one of clauses 30 to 31, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an absolute value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, or a relative value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof relative to a corresponding reference value.

[0250] Clause 33. The base station of clause 32, wherein: the reference value of the signal strength comprises a median signal strength across the one or more radio beams, the reference value of the time delay comprises an estimated time of arrival (ToA) of the multipath channel, the reference value of the angle value comprises an estimated angle of arrival (AoA) of the multipath channel, or any combination thereof.

[0251] Clause 34. The base station of any one of clauses 30 to 33, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a local coordinate system, or an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a global coordinate system.

[0252] Clause 35. The base station of clause 29, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an average signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, an average time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0253] Clause 36. The base station of any of clauses 29-35, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more uplink receive beams, the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one uplink positioning reference signal, and the at least one processor configured to determine the channel profile comprises the at least one processor configured to: receive, via the at least one transceiver, the at least one uplink positioning reference signal from the UE on the one or more uplink receive beams; and determine the channel profile based on measurements of the at least one uplink positioning reference signal and angles of the one or more uplink receive beams.

[0254] Clause 37. The base station of any of clauses 29-36, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more downlink transmit beams, the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one downlink positioning reference signal, and the at least one processor configured to determine the channel profile comprises the at least one processor configured to: transmit, via the at least one transceiver, the at least one downlink positioning reference signal to the UE on the one or more downlink transmit beams; and receive, via the at least one transceiver, a report from the UE indicating downlink channel characteristics of a multipath channel based on the at least one downlink positioning reference signal.

[0255] Clause 38. The base station of clause 29, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a two-dimensional (2D) table having rows identified by beam indices and columns identified by time delay values, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of a beam index at a corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0256] Clause 39. The base station of clause 38, wherein the 2D table includes only a threshold number of channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams having a highest signal strength, the 2D table includes only a threshold number of radio beams and corresponding angles, or any combination thereof.

[0257] Clause 40. The base station of any of clauses 38-39, wherein the beam indices and the time delay values of the 2D table are uniformly quantized.

[0258] Clause 41. The base station of clause 40, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile includes a number and a size of the quantization of the beam indices and the time delay values.

[0259] Clause 42. The base station of clause 29, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

[0260] Clause 43. The base station of clause 29, wherein the at least one processor being configured to compress the channel profile comprises the at least one processor being configured to: input the channel profile to a neural network; and receive, via the at least one transceiver, as output from the neural network, a compressed representation of the channel profile and one or more weights to enable the neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel profile, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: transmit, via the at least one transceiver, the one or more weights to the network entity.

[0261] Clause 44. A network entity 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 being configured to: receive, via the at least one transceiver from a base station, a compressed representation of a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE), the channel profile being based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; and determine a location of the UE based on the compressed representation of the channel profile.

[0262] Clause 45. The network entity of clause 44, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams with the highest signal strength, a time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0263] Clause 46. The network entity of clause 45, wherein: the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams comprises an absolute angle value based on an angle non-uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams, or the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises an angle separation between each of the one or more radio beams and a number of the one or more radio beams based on an angle uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams.

[0264] Clause 47. The network entity of any one of clauses 45 to 46, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an absolute value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, or a relative value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof relative to a corresponding reference value.

[0265] Clause 48. The network entity of any of clauses 45-47, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a local coordinate system, or an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a global coordinate system.

[0266] Clause 49. The network entity of any of clauses 44-48, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an average signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, an average time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0267] Clause 50. The network entity of any of clauses 44-49, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a two-dimensional (2D) table having rows identified by a beam index and columns identified by a time delay value, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of the beam index at the corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0268] Clause 51. The network entity of clause 50, wherein the 2D table includes only a threshold number of channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams having a highest signal strength, the 2D table includes only a threshold number of radio beams and corresponding angles, or any combination thereof.

[0269] Clause 52. The network entity of any of clauses 44-51, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

[0270] Clause 53. The network entity of any of clauses 44-52, wherein: the at least one processor being configured to receive, via the at least one transceiver, the compressed representation of the channel profile further comprises the at least one processor being configured to receive, via the at least one transceiver, one or more weights to enable a decoder neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel profile, the at least one processor being further configured to: input the compressed representation of the channel profile and the one or more weights into the decoder neural network; and receive, via the at least one transceiver, the channel profile as output from the decoder neural network.

[0271] Clause 54. The network entity of any of clauses 44-53, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: configure the base station to report the compressed representation of the channel profile of the multipath channel between the base station and the UE.

[0272] Clause 55. The network entity of clause 54, wherein the at least one processor configured to configure further comprises the at least one processor configured to: configure the base station with a time range during which the base station is expected to provide the channel profile, configure the base station with an angular range within which the base station is expected to provide the channel profile, or any combination thereof.

[0273] Clause 56. The network entity of any of clauses 54 to 55, wherein the at least one processor configured to configure further comprises the at least one processor configured to: configure the base station with a format of the channel profile, a quantization of the angular and delay binary numbers, reference values for the angular and delay binary numbers, or any combination thereof.

[0274] Clause 57. A base station comprising: means for determining a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE) based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; means for compressing the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile; and means for transmitting the compressed representation of the channel profile to a network entity to enable the network entity to determine a position of the UE.

[0275] Clause 58. The base station of clause 57, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams with the highest signal strength, a time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement of the multipath channel, an angular value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0276] Clause 59. The base station of clause 58, wherein: the angular value of each of the one or more radio beams comprises an absolute angular value based on an angular non-uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams, or the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises an angular separation between each of the one or more radio beams and a number of the one or more radio beams based on an angular uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams.

[0277] Clause 60. The base station of any of clauses 58 to 59, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an absolute value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angular value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, or a relative value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angular value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof relative to a corresponding reference value.

[0278] Clause 61. The base station of clause 60, wherein: the reference value for signal strength comprises a median signal strength across the one or more radio beams, the reference value for time delay comprises an estimated time of arrival (ToA) of the multipath channel, the reference value for angle value comprises an estimated angle of arrival (AoA) of the multipath channel, or any combination thereof.

[0279] Clause 62. The base station of any one of clauses 58-61, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an angle value in a local coordinate system for each of the one or more radio beams, or an angle value in a global coordinate system for each of the one or more radio beams.

[0280] Clause 63. The base station of any one of clauses 57-62, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an average signal strength of one or more channel taps for each of the one or more radio beams, an average time delay of one or more channel taps for each of the one or more radio beams, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value for each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0281] Clause 64. The base station of any one of clauses 57-63, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more uplink receive beams, the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one uplink positioning reference signal, and the means for determining the channel profile comprises: means for receiving the at least one uplink positioning reference signal from the UE on the one or more uplink receive beams; and means for determining the channel profile based on measurements of the at least one uplink positioning reference signal and angles of the one or more uplink receive beams.

[0282] Clause 65. The base station of any one of clauses 57-64, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more downlink transmit beams, the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one downlink positioning reference signal, and the means for determining the channel profile comprises: means for transmitting the at least one downlink positioning reference signal to the UE on the one or more downlink transmit beams; and means for receiving a report from the UE indicating downlink channel characteristics of the multipath channel based on the at least one downlink positioning reference signal.

[0283] Clause 66. The base station of any of clauses 57-65, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a two-dimensional (2D) table having rows identified by beam indices and columns identified by time delay values, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of a beam index at a corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0284] Clause 67. The base station of clause 66, wherein the 2D table includes only a threshold number of channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams having a highest signal strength, the 2D table includes only a threshold number of radio beams and corresponding angles, or any combination thereof.

[0285] Clause 68. The base station of any of clauses 66-67, wherein the beam indices and time delay values of the 2D table are uniformly quantized.

[0286] Clause 69. The base station of clause 68, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile includes a number and a size of the quantization of the beam indices and time delay values.

[0287] Clause 70. The base station of any of clauses 57-69, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

[0288] Clause 71. The base station of any of clauses 57-70, wherein the means for compressing the channel profile comprises: means for inputting the channel profile to a neural network; and means for receiving, as output from the neural network, the compressed representation of the channel profile and one or more weights to enable the neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel profile, and wherein the base station further comprises: means for transmitting the one or more weights to a network entity.

[0289] Clause 72. A network entity comprising: means for receiving, from a base station, a compressed representation of a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE), the channel profile based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; and means for determining a location of the UE based on the compressed representation of the channel profile.

[0290] Clause 73. The network entity of clause 72, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams with the highest signal strength, a time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0291] Clause 74. The network entity of clause 73, wherein: the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams comprises an absolute angle value based on an angle non-uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams, or the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises an angle separation between each of the one or more radio beams and a number of the one or more radio beams based on an angle uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams.

[0292] Clause 75. The network entity of any of clauses 73-74, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an absolute value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, or a relative value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof relative to a corresponding reference value.

[0293] Clause 76. The network entity of any of clauses 73-75, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a local coordinate system, or an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a global coordinate system.

[0294] Clause 77. The network entity of any of clauses 72-76, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an average signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, an average time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0295] Clause 78. The network entity of any of clauses 72-77, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a two-dimensional (2D) table with rows identified by a beam index and columns identified by a time delay value, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of the beam index at the corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0296] Clause 79. The network entity of clause 78, wherein the 2D table includes only a threshold number of channel taps for each of the one or more radio beams with the highest signal strength, the 2D table includes only the threshold number of radio beams and corresponding angles, or any combination thereof.

[0297] Clause 80. The network entity of any of clauses 72-79, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile includes a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

[0298] Clause 81. The network entity of any of clauses 72-80, wherein: the means for receiving the compressed representation of the channel profile further comprises means for receiving one or more weights to enable a decoder neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel profile, the network entity further comprises: means for inputting the compressed representation of the channel profile and the one or more weights into the decoder neural network; and means for receiving the channel profile as output from the decoder neural network.

[0299] Clause 82. The network entity of any of clauses 72-81, further comprising: means for configuring the base station to report the compressed representation of the channel profile of the multipath channel between the base station and the UE.

[0300] Clause 83. The network entity of clause 82, wherein the configuring further comprises: means for configuring the base station with a time range during which the base station is expected to provide the channel profile, means for configuring the base station with an angular range within which the base station is expected to provide the channel profile, or any combination thereof.

[0301] Clause 84. The network entity of any of clauses 82-83, wherein the means for configuring further comprises: means for configuring the base station with a format of the channel profile, a quantization of the angular and delay bin numbers, a reference value for the angular and delay bin numbers, or any combination thereof.

[0302] Clause 85. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a base station, cause the base station to: determine a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE) based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the base station to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; compress the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile; and transmit the compressed representation of the channel profile to a network entity to enable the network entity to determine a position of the UE.

[0303] Clause 86. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 85, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams with the highest signal strength, a time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0304] Clause 87. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 86, wherein: the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams comprises an absolute angle value based on an angle non-uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams, or the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises an angle separation between each of the one or more radio beams and a number of the one or more radio beams based on an angle uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams.

[0305] Clause 88. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 86-87, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an absolute value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, or a relative value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof relative to a corresponding reference value.

[0306] Clause 89. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 88, wherein: the reference value of the signal strength comprises a median signal strength across the one or more radio beams, the reference value of the time delay comprises an estimated time of arrival (ToA) of the multipath channel, the reference value of the angle value comprises an estimated angle of arrival (AoA) of the multipath channel, or any combination thereof.

[0307] Clause 90. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 86-89, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a local coordinate system, or an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a global coordinate system.

[0308] Clause 91. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 85-90, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an average signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, an average time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0309] Clause 92. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 85-91, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more uplink receive beams, the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one uplink positioning reference signal, and the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the base station, cause the base station to determine the channel profile comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the base station, cause the base station to: receive, from the UE, the at least one uplink positioning reference signal on the one or more uplink receive beams; and determine the channel profile based on measurements of the at least one uplink positioning reference signal and angles of the one or more uplink receive beams.

[0310] Clause 93. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 85-92, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more downlink transmit beams, the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one downlink positioning reference signal, and the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the base station, cause the base station to determine the channel profile comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the base station, cause the base station to: transmit, to the UE, the at least one downlink positioning reference signal on the one or more downlink transmit beams; and receive, from the UE, a report indicating downlink channel characteristics of the multipath channel based on the at least one downlink positioning reference signal.

[0311] Clause 94. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 85-93, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a two-dimensional (2D) table having rows identified by beam indices and columns identified by time delay values, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of the beam indices at the corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0312] Clause 95. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 94, wherein the 2D table includes only a threshold number of channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams having a highest signal strength, the 2D table includes only a threshold number of radio beams and corresponding angles, or any combination thereof.

[0313] Clause 96. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 94-95, wherein the beam indices and the time delay values of the 2D table are uniformly quantized.

[0314] Clause 97. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 96, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile includes a number and a size of the quantization of the beam indices and the time delay values.

[0315] Clause 98. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 85 to 97, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

[0316] Clause 99. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 85 to 98, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the base station, cause the base station to compress the channel profile comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the base station, cause the base station to: input the channel profile to the neural network; and receive, as output from the neural network, the compressed representation of the channel profile and one or more weights to enable the neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel profile, and wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the base station, cause the base station to: transmit the one or more weights to the network entity.

[0317] Clause 100. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer- executable instructions that, when executed by a network entity, cause the network entity to: receive, from a base station, a compressed representation of a channel profile of a multipath channel between the base station and a user equipment (UE), the channel profile based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted to the UE on one or more radio beams or received by the base station from the UE; and determine a location of the UE based on the compressed representation of the channel profile.

[0318] Clause 101. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 100, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams with the highest signal strength, a time delay of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0319] Clause 102. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 101, wherein: the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams comprises an absolute angle value based on an angle non-uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams, or the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises an angle separation between each of the one or more radio beams and a number of the one or more radio beams based on an angle uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams.

[0320] Clause 103. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 101-102, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises absolute values of signal strengths, time delays, angle values of one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, or relative values of signal strengths, time delays, angle values of one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, relative to corresponding reference values.

[0321] Clause 104. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 101-103, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises angle values of each of the one or more radio beams in a local coordinate system, or angle values of each of the one or more radio beams in a global coordinate system.

[0322] Clause 105. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 100-104, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises average signal strengths of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, average time delays of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, SINR measurements of the multipath channel, angle values of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0323] Clause 106. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 100-105, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a two-dimensional (2D) table having rows identified by beam indices and columns identified by time delay values, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of a beam index at a corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

[0324] Clause 107. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 106, wherein the 2D table includes only a threshold number of channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams having highest signal strengths, the 2D table includes only a threshold number of radio beams and corresponding angles, or any combination thereof.

[0325] Clause 108. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 100-107, wherein the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

[0326] Clause 109. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 100 to 108, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the network entity, cause the network entity to receive the compressed representation of the channel configuration file further comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the network entity, cause the base station to receive one or more weights to enable a decoder neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel configuration file, the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the network entity, cause the base station to: input the compressed representation of the channel configuration file and the one or more weights into the decoder neural network; and receive, as output from the decoder neural network, the channel configuration file.

[0327] Clause 110. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 100 to 109, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the network entity, cause the network entity to: configure the base station to report a compressed representation of a channel configuration file of a multipath channel between the base station and the UE.

[0328] Clause 111. The network non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 110, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the network entity, cause the network entity to configure further comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the network entity, cause the network entity to: configure the base station with a time range during which the base station is expected to provide the channel configuration file, configure the base station with an angular range within which the base station is expected to provide the channel configuration file, or any combination thereof.

[0329] Clause 112. The network non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 110 to 111, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the network entity, cause the network entity to configure comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the network entity, cause the network entity to: configure the base station with a format of the channel configuration file, a quantization of the angular and delay bin numbers, reference values for the angular and delay bin numbers, or any combination thereof.

[0330] Those skilled in the art will understand that information and signals can be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that can be referenced throughout the above description can be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0331] Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the functions explained herein can be implemented using software functioning in connection with a programmable computer, a general -purpose computer, a dedicated computer, or a specified computing device. As used herein the term "computer" includes any processor-based or digitally operated device that processes data according to instructions. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans can implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0332] The hardware and data processing apparatuses of the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein can be implemented or performed 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 can be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor can be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor can also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0333] The methods, sequences, and / or algorithms described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein can be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module can reside in Random-Access Memory (RAM), flash memory, Read-Only Memory (ROM), Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), registers, 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 the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium can be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium can reside in an ASIC. The ASIC can reside in a user terminal (e.g., an UE). In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium can reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

[0334] In one or more example aspects, the functions described can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions can be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Also, any connection is properly termed 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 microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0335] While the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative aspects of the present disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications could be made herein without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps and / or actions of the methods described in accordance with the aspects of the disclosure outlined above need not be performed in any particular order. Furthermore, although elements of the present disclosure can be described or claimed in particular combinations, each combination should be considered as separate and standalone from any other combination.

Claims

1. A wireless positioning method performed by a network node, comprising: determining, based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the network node to or received from a user equipment, UE, over one or more radio beams, a channel profile of a multipath channel between the network node and the UE; compressing the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile; and transmitting, to a network entity, the compressed representation of the channel profile to enable the network entity to determine a position of the UE. the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of one or more radio beams with a highest signal strength, a time delay of the one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal to interference plus noise ratio, SINR, measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein: based on an angle non-uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams, the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams comprises an absolute angle value, or based on the angle uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams, the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises an angle separation between each of the one or more radio beams and a number of the one or more radio beams. the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises:

4. The method of claim 2, wherein, an absolute value of the signal strength, the time delay, an angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, or a relative value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, relative to a corresponding reference value.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein: a reference value of the signal strength comprises a median signal strength across the one or more radio beams, a reference value of the time delay comprises an estimated time of arrival, ToA, of the multipath channel, a reference value of the angle value comprises an estimated angle of arrival, AoA, of the multipath channel, or any combination thereof. the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises:

6. The method of claim 2, wherein, the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a local coordinate system, or the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a global coordinate system. the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises:

7. The method of claim 1, wherein, an average signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, an average time delay of the one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more uplink receive beams, the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one uplink positioning reference signal, and the one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, The determining the channel profile includes: receiving the at least one uplink positioning reference signal from the UE on the one or more uplink receive beams; and determining the channel profile based on measurements of the at least one uplink positioning reference signal and angles of the one or more uplink receive beams.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein: the one or more radio beams comprise one or more downlink transmit beams, the at least one positioning reference signal comprises at least one downlink positioning reference signal, and the determining the channel profile includes: transmitting the at least one downlink positioning reference signal to the UE on the one or more downlink transmit beams; and receiving, from the UE, a report indicating downlink channel characteristics of the multipath channel based on the at least one downlink positioning reference signal.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein, The compressed representation of the channel profile includes: a two-dimensional (2D) table with rows identified by beam indices and columns identified by time delay values, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of a beam index at a corresponding time delay value, SINR measurements of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein: the 2D table includes only a threshold number of channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams with highest signal strengths, the 2D table includes only a threshold number of radio beams and corresponding angles, or any combination thereof.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein, beam indices and time delay values of the 2D table are uniformly quantized.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein, The compressed representation of the channel profile includes a number and a size of quantization of the beam indices and the time delay values.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein, The compressed representation of the channel profile includes a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein, compressing the channel profile includes: inputting the channel profile to a neural network; and receiving, as output from the neural network, the compressed representation of the channel profile and one or more weights to enable the neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel profile, and wherein the method further includes: transmitting the one or more weights to the network entity.

16. A method of wireless positioning performed by a network entity, comprising: receiving, from a network node, a compressed representation of a channel profile of a multipath channel between the network node and a user equipment (UE), the channel profile based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the network node to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; and determining a position of the UE based on the compressed representation of the channel profile.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein, The compressed representation of the channel profile includes: a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of one or more radio beams with highest signal strengths, a time delay of the one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein: based on the angle non-uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams, the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams comprises an absolute angle value, or based on the angle uniform spacing of the one or more radio beams, the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises an angle separation between each of the one or more radio beams and a number of the one or more radio beams.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein, the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an absolute value of the signal strength, the time delay, an angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, or a relative value of the signal strength, the time delay, the angle value of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof, relative to a corresponding reference value.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein, the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a local coordinate system, or the angle value of each of the one or more radio beams in a global coordinate system.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein, the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an average signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, an average time delay of the one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein, the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a two-dimensional (2D) table with rows identified by beam indices and columns identified by time delay values, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of a beam index at a corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein: the 2D table includes only a threshold number of channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams with highest signal strengths, the 2D table includes only a threshold number of radio beams and corresponding angles, or any combination thereof.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein, the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein: receiving the compressed representation of the channel profile further comprises receiving one or more weights to enable a decoder neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel profile, the method further comprises: inputting the compressed representation of the channel profile and the one or more weights into the decoder neural network; and As output from the decoder neural network, the channel profile is received.

26. The method of claim 16, further comprising: configuring the network node to report the compressed representation of the channel profile of the multipath channel between the network node and the UE.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein, The configuration further comprises: configuring the network node for a time range during which the network node is expected to provide the channel profile, configuring the network node for an angular range within which the network node is expected to provide the channel profile, or any combination thereof.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein, The configuration further comprises: configuring the network node for a format of the channel profile, a quantization of angular and delay bins, a reference value for the angular and delay bins, or any combination thereof.

29. A network node, 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: determine, based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the network node to a user equipment, UE, or received from the UE, over one or more radio beams, a channel profile of a multipath channel between the network node and the UE; compress the channel profile into a compressed representation of the channel profile; and transmit, via the at least one transceiver, the compressed representation of the channel profile to a network entity to enable the network entity to determine a position of the UE.

30. The network node of claim 29, wherein, The compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of one or more radio beams having a highest signal strength, a time delay of the one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal to interference plus noise ratio, SINR, measurement of the multipath channel, an angular value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

31. The network node of claim 29, wherein, The compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an average signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, an average time delay of the one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angular value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

32. The network node of claim 29, wherein, The compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a two-dimensional, 2D, table having rows identified by beam indices and columns identified by time delay values, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of a beam index at a corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angular value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

33. The network node of claim 29, wherein, The compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a truncated power delay profile, TPDP, of the channel profile.

34. The network node of claim 29, wherein, The at least one processor being configured to compress the channel profile comprises the at least one processor being configured to: input the channel profile to a neural network; and as output from the neural network, receive the compressed representation of the channel profile and one or more weights to enable the neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel profile, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: transmit, via the at least one transceiver, the one or more weights to the network entity.

35. A network entity 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: receive, via the at least one transceiver from a network node, a compressed representation of a channel profile of a multipath channel between the network node and a user equipment (UE), the channel profile based on at least one positioning reference signal transmitted by the network node to the UE or received from the UE on one or more radio beams; and determine a location of the UE based on the compressed representation of the channel profile.

36. The network entity of claim 35, wherein, the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of one or more radio beams having a highest signal strength, a time delay of the one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

37. The network entity of claim 35, wherein, the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: an average signal strength of one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, an average time delay of the one or more channel taps of each of the one or more radio beams, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

38. The network entity of claim 35, wherein, the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises: a two-dimensional (2D) table having rows identified by beam index and columns identified by time delay value, wherein each cell of the 2D table indicates a signal strength of a channel tap of a beam index at a corresponding time delay value, a SINR measurement of the multipath channel, an angle value of each of the one or more radio beams, or any combination thereof.

39. The network entity of claim 35, wherein, the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises a truncated power delay profile (TPDP) of the channel profile.

40. The network entity of claim 35, wherein: the at least one processor being configured to receive the compressed representation of the channel profile comprises the at least one processor being further configured to receive one or more weights to enable a decoder neural network to decompress the compressed representation of the channel profile, and the at least one processor is further configured to: input the compressed representation of the channel profile and the one or more weights into the decoder neural network; and receive, as output from the decoder neural network, the channel profile.

41. A network node comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 1-15.

42. A network entity comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 16-28.

43. A computer readable medium having recorded thereon one or more computer instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a network node, cause the one or more processors to perform the method of any of claims 1-15.

44. A computer readable medium having recorded thereon one or more computer instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a network entity, cause the one or more processors to perform the method of any of claims 16-28.

45. A computer program product comprising one or more computer instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a network node, cause the one or more processors to perform the method of any of claims 1-15.

46. A computer program product comprising one or more computer instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a network entity, cause the one or more processors to perform the method of any of claims 16-28.

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